Digital Commons Network^™

Grassroots Vs. Big Oil: Measure P And The Fight To Ban Fracking In Santa Barbara County, California, Corrie Grosse

Environmental Studies Faculty Publications

In 2014, volunteers in Santa Barbara County, California, collected over 20,000 signatures in three weeks to qualify an anti-fracking initiative for the November election. The initiative, Measure P, met over six million dollars in opposition from oil corporations. Despite mobilizing 1,000 volunteers, the proponents of the measure failed to garner enough votes for success. Drawing on 43 in-depth interviews and participant observation with environmental groups before, during, and after the campaign, this article examines the strengths and weaknesses of grassroots organizing behind Measure P. Organizers, especially during the signature drive, successfully garnered broad-based support in the southern part of the …

What Congress's Repeal Efforts Can Teach Us About Regulatory Reform, Cary Coglianese, Gabriel Scheffler

All Faculty Scholarship

Major legislative actions during the early part of the 115th Congress have undermined the central argument for regulatory reform measures such as the REINS Act, a bill that would require congressional approval of all new major regulations. Proponents of the REINS Act argue that it would make the federal regulatory system more democratic by shifting responsibility for regulatory decisions away from unelected bureaucrats and toward the people’s representatives in Congress. But separate legislative actions in the opening of the 115th Congress only call this argument into question. Congress’s most significant initiatives during this period — its derailed attempts to repeal …

The Impacts Of Commercialization On Depth, Breadth, Scope, And Quality Of Outreach In Mozambique: A Case-Study, Courtney Johnson

Stevenson Center for Community and Economic Development—Student Research

In today’s microfinance, scholars and policy-makers across the world have emphasized the importance of financial sustainability, or the ability of a microfinance institution (MFI) to finance its operations. In order to reach financial sustainability, MFIs embrace commercialization, a process where an MFI undergoes restructuring in order to open up avenues to capital. Yet, scholars are concerned that this emphasizes on financial sustainability will cause the social good objective to suffer, a phenomenon known as “trade-off.” Indeed, studies have found that commercialization impacts MFI outreach in various ways. To my knowledge, no research has attempted to understand the impacts of commercialization …

Constitutional Barriers To Congressional Reform, John M. Greabe

Law Faculty Scholarship

Americans celebrate our Constitution as a beacon that can guide us through difficult situations. And justly so. But at times, the Constitution also has stood as a barrier to necessary reform.

Populist Economic Charade Ends – Plutocracy Wins, Evan Barrett

Highlands College

A newspaper column 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:

Harve Daily News, December 22, 2017

Daily Interlake, December 24, 2017

Montana Standard, December 26, 2017

Helena Independent Record, December 27, 2017

Missoulian, December 27, 2017

Applying John Kingdon’S Three Stream Model To The Policy Idea Of Universal Preschool, George Atupem

Honors Program Theses and Projects

Public education is no longer the great equalizer in the United States. The achievement gap is widening and in many areas education policies are perpetuating the problem. This phenomenon has created an education system built on inequality. The achievement gap in the United States has continued to widen because many children are missing out on the educational, economic, and social benefits of attending a high-quality preschool program. Access to quality preschool is an issue that briefly found its way onto the national agenda in 2013 but has since been edged out by broader national issues, such as healthcare and immigration. …

Refugee Policy & Social Integration In Jordan: Structural Barriers To Enclave Formation Among Forced Migrants To Jordan, David Nardelli

Honors Program Theses and Projects

The displacement of over five million Syrian refugees in the past six years has brought much needed attention to issues of forced migration. Today, the majority of the world’s refugees and internally displaced reside in urban areas of middle to low-income states, particularly in Asia and Africa. There is, however, a significant gap in research on self-settled refugees in the Middle East and their integration into host countries. In addition, much of the literature that does exist focuses on policies regarding labor policies yet ignores housing and settlement pattern issues and its impact on integration and community growth. This research …

When Does Sexuality-Based Discrimination Motivate Political Participation?, Douglas D. Page

Political Science Faculty Publications

The established consensus in political behavior research is that discrimination by political institutions motivates marginalized groups to vote and protest their conditions. However, existing studies miss a comparison between states with high and low levels of political discrimination, and they miss a comparison between states before and after the development of opportunities for groups to mobilize. In particular, a growing body of research shows that sexual-minority groups face discrimination to varying degrees across Europe. Sexual minorities in states with high levels of discrimination lack the support of other minority-group members, which encourages political participation. The analysis is based on surveys …

Uk Governance: From Overloading To Freeloading, Richard Woodward

Articles

The UK's ongoing political turbulence has prompted a reprise of debates from the 1970s when many concluded the country was ungovernable. Then, the most influential diagnosis conceptualised the UK's governance problem as one of ‘overloading’ caused by the electorate's excessive expectations. This article argues that these accounts overlooked another phenomenon besieging UK governance during this period. This phenomenon was freeloading: the withering of government capacity deriving from the ability of actors to enjoy the benefits of citizenship without altogether contributing to the cost. In the interim, these problems have become endemic, not least because of the unspoken but discernible policy …

Ermold Files Paperwork To Challenge Davis, The Morehead News

Media Collection

No abstract provided.

Ermold Filed His Paperwork With Davis, Raycom Media, The Daily Independent

Media Collection

No abstract provided.

Who Is David Ermold? Gay Man Enters County Clerk Race After Discrimination, Preeti Maheshwari

Media Collection

No abstract provided.

Gay Man Denied A Marriage License By Kim Davis Wants To Run Against Her, Benjamin Butterworth

Media Collection

No abstract provided.

Kim Davis Denied Him A Marriage License. He’S Running To Replace Her., Niraj Chokshi

Media Collection

No abstract provided.

Gay Man Denied Marriage License Hopes To Unseat County Clerk, Adam Beam

Media Collection

No abstract provided.

Kim Davis Denied His Right To Marry Another Man. Now David Ermold Is Going To Run Against Her., Eli Rosenberg

Media Collection

No abstract provided.

Nineteenth-Century American Religion And Politics In The West: Doctrinal Shifts In Mormonism And The Creation Of Utah, Katherine Manning

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

American religion and politics have always been closely intertwined. Though America was founded on ideals of religious pluralism and tolerance, the actual landscape of American religion often resembled the opposite of these ideas. As a religious majority, Protestants in the nineteenth-century believed in a specific American identity—one which championed the “virtuous” family and a capitalist market system. Yet, some religious organizations challenged these norms, making them the object of intense persecution. One of the most famous of these examples is the Mormons. From their “peculiar” beliefs to their separatist goals, Mormons presented the American people with a religious group which …

Religion And Politics: How Eiu Students View Policy, Sam Gilbert

Student Honors Theses

Through this survey project, it is my intention to analyze the intersection of an individual’s religiosity and their tendency to support or oppose governmental programs and Trump’s political platform. From my personal experience and the information I have attained in my life, the more religious a person is, the more apt they are to hold conservative ideologies. Based on this information, it is safe to assume that the support for liberal-leaning programs would be considerably lower than their non-religious counterparts. However, based on my understanding of religion—specifically the Christian faith—an essential pillar is treating those around you with a love …

H-Diplo Roundtable Xix, 14 On Dynamic Détente: The United States And Europe, 1964-1975, Thomas Schwartz, Werner Lippert, Luke A. Nichter, Kenneth Weisbrode, Stephan Kieninger

Presidential Studies Faculty Articles and Research

A set of reviews of Stephan Kieninger's Dynamic Détente: The United States and Europe, 1964-1975, with a response from the author.

Gop Congress: Faith Over Facts; Politics Over Policy, Evan Barrett

Highlands College

A newspaper column 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:

Livingston Enterprise, December 4, 2017

Montana Standard, December 6, 2017

Havre Daily News, December 11, 2017

Helena Independent Record, December 13, 2017

The Missoulian, December 13, 2017

Putin And Trilateral Economic Cooperation Between Moscow, Seoul, And Pyongyang: Motivation, Feasibility, And Korean Peace Process, Seung-Ho Joo, Yune Lee

Political Science Publications

Since 2000, President Vladimir Putin of Russia has persistently pushed for trilateral economic projects involving Moscow, Seoul, and Pyongyang, especially in the fields of energy (oil, gas, and electricity) and transportation (railroad). The Kremlin has long maintained that its proposed trilateral projects would not only be economically beneficial to all but also pave the road to inter-Korean reconciliation and peaceful unification. This article addresses three questions regarding Putin’s trilateral economic projects. What motivates Russia to push for the projects? Would they bring benefits to the three countries? Would they facilitate Korean peace process? The authors argue that Putin’s trilateral economic …

An Examination Of Political Attitudes And Behavior Using Regulatory Focus Theory, Kristen D. Deppe

Department of Political Science: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Using Regulatory Focus Theory (RFT, Higgins 1997), I take a broad look at the manner in which political behaviors and attitudes are impacted by the promotion and prevention motivational systems. I first look at how behavior in life generally and political life specifically are similar in terms of regulatory focus. Second, I look at how RFT is related to political attitudes. Specifically, I look at whether there is a connection between regulatory focus and ideological attitudes, whether there is a relationship between policy context and motivational systems, and whether the status quo of a policy leads to a relationship between …

Municipal E-News: Issue 86: December 2017, Mtas

Municipal E-News

The "Municipal E-News" was created by MTAS in 2009 as part of our continuing efforts to meet our mission of providing timely, valuable information and assistance to Tennessee cities.

Between Equal Rights: Primitive Accumulation And Capital's Violence, Onur Ulas Ince

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This paper attempts to elaborate a political theory of capital’s violence. Recent analyses haveadopted Karl Marx’s notion of the “primitive accumulation of capital” for investigating theforcible methods by which the conditions of capital accumulation are reproduced in the present.I argue that the analytic function accorded to primitive accumulation can be better performedby a pair of new concepts: “capital-positing violence” and “capital-preserving violence.” Irefine the conceptual core primitive accumulation (coercive capitalization of social relations ofproduction) by focusing on the role of colonial violence in the history of capitalism, which Ithen elucidate with reference to Carl Schmitt’s account of European colonial expansion …

Distribution Of Pulmonary Tuberculosis In Rio De Janeiro (Brazil): A Spatial Analysis, Nadia Christina Rodrigues, Monica Kramer Andrade, Gisele O'Dwyer, Matthew B. Flynn, Jose Ueleres Braga, Andrea Sobral De Almeida, Leonardo Soares Bastos, Valeria Teresa Saraiva Lino

Department of Political Science and International Studies Faculty Publications

The aim of this study was to analyze the spatial distribution of the tuberculosis endemic in Rio de Janeiro State from 2002 to 2011. A retrospective study was conducted in the state of Rio de Janeiro from 2002 to 2011. Spatial analysis techniques were used to describe the distribution of tuberculosis incidence in the state. Multilevel Poisson regression model was used to access the relationship of tuberculosis and the following factors: “sex”, “age-group” and “diagnostic year” (individual-level factors). Demographic density and municipality were also included in the model as contextual-level factors. A reduction in endemic tuberculosis was observed over the …

Perspective: Arabia Infelix: The War Devouring Yemen, Sheila Carapico

Political Science Faculty Publications

For many centuries, European cartographers labeled the southwest corner of the otherwise mostly desert Arabian Peninsula as Arabia Felix, or “Happy Arabia.” It was a place where towering mountains trapped clouds blown in from the Indian Ocean so that twice-annual monsoon rains blessed terraced slopes and lowland wadis with plentiful crops. Sadly, since fighting engulfed the country in late March 2015, Yemen has never been less felix.

Shaping Health Policy For Low-Income Populations: An Assessment Of Public Comments In A New Medicaid Waiver Process, Marian Jarlenski, Philip Rocco, Renuka Tipimeni, Amy Jo Kennedy, Nivedita Gunturi, Julie Donohue

Political Science Faculty Research and Publications

Since the Supreme Court decided that the Affordable Care Act's (ACA) Medicaid expansion is optional for the states, several have obtained federal approval to use Section 1115 waivers to expand Medicaid while changing its coverage and benefits design. There has long been concern that policy making for Medicaid populations may lack meaningful engagement with low-income constituents, and therefore the ACA established a new process under which the public can submit comments on pending Medicaid waiver applications. We analyzed 291 comment letters submitted to federal regulators pertaining to Medicaid Section 1115 waiver applications in the first five states to seek such …

Socializing With The Out-Group: Testing The Contact Hypothesis Among School Students In Bosnia And Herzegovina, Matthew Thomas Becker

Faculty and Student Publications

The purpose of this article is to test the contact hypothesis among self-identifying Bosniak, Croat, Serb, and Bosnian high school seniors in Bosnia and Herzegovina, using the Other-Group Orientation Scale (Roberts et al., 1999). This article finds that attending a ‘non-appropriate’ ethnic school statistically increases tolerance of out-group members, which conforms to the predictions of the contact hypothesis, originally put forth by Allport (1958). This field research also found that secondary schools are largely homogenous in the country, thus preventing high levels of cross-ethnic contact in schools, which was expected. This article represents the first post-war, countrywide quantitative testing of …

Review Of Vaccine Court: The Law And Politics Of Injury By Anna Kirkland, Paul Nolette

Political Science Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Policy Implications: An Analysis Of Intercountry Adoption In Relation To Nationalism, Victoria Szczechowski

Honors Theses

This research seeks to answer the question: Does level of nationalist sentiment expressed within a country affect the restrictiveness of the country’s intercountry adoption policy? Current literature has examined the influence of the level of nationalism expressed in a country on adoptive parents in choosing from which country to adopt; however, no study has examined the link between nationalism and country-specific intercountry adoption policy. The variable of nationalist sentiment warrants study, for the Hague Convention posits that intercountry adoption is a valid option only if “a suitable family cannot be found in his or her [the adoptable child’s] State of …