Political Science Commons^™

Reflections From A First Time Voter, Carlye Tazelaar

Student Work

"In a campaign fueled by hate, let’s slam on the brakes with love."

Posting about treating political candidates with grace from In All Things - an online hub committed to the claim that the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ has implications for the entire world.

http://inallthings.org/reflections-from-a-first-time-voter/

Jd, Businessman, Doctor? The Influence Of Educational And Occupational Backgrounds On Legislative Effectiveness, Michael Sean Covey, Michael Barber

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Every two years, voters across the country send dozens of newly elected U.S. representatives to Congress, and these freshmen come from all educational backgrounds and professions. There are MBAs, JDs, and PhDs, as well as former doctors, entrepreneurs, professors, attorneys, military leaders, state legislators and corporate executives. And during campaign season, it is common for congressional candidates to tout their pre-political backgrounds as evidence that they will be successful in Congress (see Figure 1). Candidate Stephen Tryon, for example, ran against incumbent Jason Chaffetz in Utah’s third congressional district in 2014 and advertised that he was a “proven soldier and …

Legislating Women: The Relationship Between Women In Parliament And Trafficking Of Women, Caroline Black, Donna Lee Bowen

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Pervasive, complex, and often little-­‐understood, trafficking of women is a worldwide epidemic. Although many acknowledge the problem that trafficking of women, hereafter known simply as trafficking, is, the large dark numbers associated with it make trafficking hard to fully track. Many studies have previously focused on trafficking victims and their experiences with the intent of understanding what demographic factors influence the likelihood of someone becoming a trafficking victim. However, there is little to no research on the macro causes of trafficking. This paper will focus on those macro causes, which are the percentage of women in parliament and women’s political …

Who Deserves Coverage? Determining Utahns’ Ideal Medicaid Recipient, John Griffith, Chris Karpowitz

Journal of Undergraduate Research

With the passage of the Affordable Care Act, health care policy became one of the most talked about issues in the United States. As a result, many states have been grappling with the question of whether to expand Medicaid. Utah is a particularly good place to study this salient issue because it is in the midst of deciding whether and how much to expand the Medicaid program. In this study I used a novel method of analysis to identify which attributes of Medicaid recipients or potential recipients were most influential in the minds of Utah voters as they determined who …

A Functional Analysis Of French And South Korean Political Leaders' Debates, Yun Son Choi, William L. Benoit

Speaker & Gavel

This study reports two replications of research employing the Functional Theory of Political Campaign Discourse, analyzing political leaders‘ debates from one European and one Asian country. French political debates from 1988 and 1995 and South Korean debates from 1997 and 2002 were content analyzed using the Functional Theory of Political Campaign Discourse. Acclaims were the most common function, followed by attacks and then defenses, in both French and South Korean debates. Policy was discussed more often than character in French and South Korean debates. In France, but not in South Korea, incumbent party candidates acclaimed significantly more and attacked less …

Foundations Of U.S. Stature And Security In The World, Winston Langley

New England Journal of Public Policy

How may the stature and security of the United States, so passionately a concern for many and so profoundly important to the character and direction of our emerging global society, be pursued responsibly? This question is the burden of this article, in which the author examines and rejects a number of policy options to the challenges he sees Washington now facing. He rejects these policy options because he finds them miscast, incomplete, counterproductive, or representative of symptoms rather than causes. He suggests, instead, how the United States might advance its interests and the global interests and predicts a rather unwelcoming …

The Ombatse Crisis In Nigeria: Background, Recent Developments And Possible Solutions, Simeon Onyemachi Hilary Alozieuwa Ph.D.

Journal of Interdisciplinary Conflict Science

This paper focuses on the hegemonic politics between the Eggon and Hausa/Fulani ethnic groups in Nasarawa, North-Central Nigeria, which eventually erupted into the Ombatse crisis of May 2013- a precursor to the 2015 general elections. It addresses four research questions seeking to unravel whether or not: (1a) the crisis truly reflects a spiritual revivalist agenda as projected by the Ombatse promoters or merely espouses Eggon rejection of Muslim-Hausa/Fulani ethnic hegemony- mirroring broadly the identity, hegemonic and exclusionary politics in the area cum the larger Nigerian society;(b) the Eggon-Hausa-Fulani feud has the potential to exacerbate the sectarian strife in Nigeria’s northern …

China And The Eu: Development Competitors Or Partners?, Lukas K. Danner

Lukas K. Danner

.

Thailand’S Political Impasse, Singapore Management University

Perspectives@SMU

Thai farmers’ productivity – or the lack thereof – has left the country and its political future in limbo

Who’S In Charge: The 'People' Or The One Percent?, Evan Barrett

Highlands College

A Montana Public Radio Commentary by Evan Barrett.

Published newspaper columns written by Evan Barrett on this topic, which vary somewhat in content from this commentary, appeared in the following publications:

Montana Public Radio, February 29, 2016

Montana Standard, February 29, 2016

Missoulian, March 4, 2016

Evidence Of Heavy-Handed U.S. Diplomacy In Europe Affects Nato’S Intentions In Ukraine And Nato’S Strategic Concept, Erika Simpson

Political Science Publications

A renewed Cold War with a new Central Front in Europe threatens international security. NATO’s arc of crisis stretches from Ukraine in the northeast to Turkey and Syria in the south. The Warsaw Pact dissolved in 1991 but NATO’s nuclear posture continues to threaten Russians who fear NATO expansion. Evidence of heavy-handed U.S. diplomacy in Europe has raised concerns about American intentions in Ukraine. The failed 2015 negotiations surrounding the United Nations Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons Treaty indicate it is time the Nuclear Weapon States in the 29-member NATO alliance move NATO's posture away from the Strategic Concept toward nuclear …

Editor's Note, Padraig O’Malley

New England Journal of Public Policy

Along with two literary essays, the articles in this issue of the journal address local, national, and international public policy questions. On the literary level, one article discusses whether arguments from an older era over a white writer’s presumption that he can accurately articulate black voices and experiences, itself an unconscious bias, can throw light on racial issues roiling college campuses and other arenas of public discourse today; the second, more mellow and reflective, ponders the incongruities and congruities that surface when the author explores how the meaning of the word home depends on one’s personality as he prepares to …

Internal Displacement In Iraq: Internally Displaced Persons And Disputed Territory, Nancy Riordan

New England Journal of Public Policy

The protracted conflict in Iraq has led to one of the highest internal displacements of people worldwide. With data from the International Organization for Migration’s Displacement Tracking Matrix and other sources, geographic information system methods were applied to investigate the quantitative and spatial characteristics of Iraq’s internally displaced persons (IDPs). Based on this analysis, significant numbers of IDPs were found to be displaced among the disputed territories of northern Iraq. The findings of this analysis, when paired with additional research, poses serious complications not only for the security of Iraq’s IDPs but also for the country. The proliferation of militias …

Book Review: The Structural Prevention Of Mass Atrocities: Understanding Risk And Resilience, Rhiannon S. Neilsen

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

Scholarship on the structural prevention of genocide and mass atrocities is, for the most part, saturated with identifying the ‘root causes’ of deadly violence. Conversely, the causes of peace and the processes that de-escalate tensions – in effect, “what goes right” – remain comparatively under researched. In his book The Structural Prevention of Mass Atrocities, Stephen McLoughlin contends that positioning prevention simply on identifying and ameliorating risk factors erroneously assumes a linear inevitability between cause and outcome, and thus “fails to explain why some at-risk countries experience mass atrocities, yet others do not” (3). McLoughlin convincingly advocates an …

Predicting Genocide And Mass Atrocities, Ernesto Verdeja

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

This article examines several current risk assessment and early warning models to predict genocide and mass atrocities. Risk assessment (RA) concerns a country’s long­-term structural conditions (regime type, state-led discrimination, etc.) that determine overall risk for atrocities. Early warning (EW) focuses on short/midterm dynamics that can serve as triggers. The article evaluates contemporary RA and EW forecast modeling, and asks: How well can we predict mass atrocities and genocide? What are the strengths and limitations to current predictive modeling? Part I examines several quantitative (statistical) RA models and identifies several strengths and limitations in current research. Part II investigates a …

Dangerous Speech And Dangerous Ideology: An Integrated Model For Monitoring And Prevention, Jonathan Leader Maynard, Susan Benesch

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

There is considerable agreement amongst scholars and international actors that ideologies and speech play a critical role in the path of escalation towards mass atrocity crimes. Speech features prominently in the jurisprudence of the U.N. war crimes tribunal for Rwanda, for example, and in historical accounts of the months and years preceding many other genocides. Nonetheless, this is one of the most underdeveloped components of genocide and atrocity prevention, in both theory and practice. This paper draws together the authors’ independent past work on dangerous speech and the ideological dynamics of mass atrocities by offering a new integrated model to …

Why The U.S. Government Failed To Anticipate The Rwandan Genocide Of 1994: Lessons For Early Warning And Prevention, Matthew Levinger

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

During the months leading up to the Rwandan genocide of 1994, cognitive biases obstructed the capacity of U.S. government analysts and policymakers to anticipate mass violence against the country’s Tutsi minority. Drawing on recently declassified U.S. government documents and on interviews with key current and former officials, this essay shows that most U.S. government reporting on Rwanda before April 1994 utilized a faulty cognitive frame that failed to differentiate between threats of civil war and genocide. Because U.S. officials framed the crisis in Rwanda as a potential civil war, they underestimated the virulence of the threat to Tutsi civilians and …

Turning Atrocity Prevention Inside-Out: Community-Based Approaches To Preventing, Protecting, And Recovering From Mass Violence, Bridget Moix

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

Abstract: This article reviews recent research and evolving practice of community-based approaches to preventing and mitigating mass violence. It considers growing evidence that externally driven international interventions in response to violence are failing due to a lack of recognition and support for local actors, and increasing research into locally-led efforts, such as community protection strategies, early warning and response systems, interreligious peacebuilding, and post-atrocity trauma healing. Drawing from examples from a wide range of cases, including Rwanda, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, Colombia, and Sri Lanka, the article identifies key lessons for improving atrocity prevention policy and …

The Impossibility To Protect? Media Narratives And The Responsibility To Protect, Kjell Føllingstad Anderson, Ingjerd Veiden Brakstad

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

The media plays an important role in communicating mass atrocities to audiences across the globe. This article critically examines how journalists’ framing of mass atrocities may contribute to public discourse on the responsibility to protect principle, in particular the perceived obligation to intervene in cases of mass atrocities. It will draw from a broader conceptual framework on bystander responses to mass atrocities and utilise evidence from the analysis of newspaper accounts of the Rwandan and Bosnian genocides. It will argue that, in some cases, media narratives may actually erode political will and encourage passivity in response to mass atrocities.

More Lessons Learned From The Holocaust - Towards A Complexity-Embracing Approach To Why Genocide Occurs, Timothy Williams

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

Why do genocides occur? This paper applies qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) to revisit this question, and analyses 139 cases of genocide and non-genocide. The paper demonstrates the importance of both priming, contextual conditions which provide a political opportunity structure conducive to genocide, as well as triggering, more proximate conditions which constitute immanent motivations. Most centrally, sufficiency is demonstrated for genocide occurrence when an autocratic regime and the salience of an elite's ethnicity are present, and are combined with either an exclusionary ideology or political upheaval. As such, the autocratic nature of the state provides an opportunity structure allowing genocide to …