Digital Commons Network^™

The Tea Party Versus Planning: A Study Of Tea Party Activism And Its Impact On Local Government Planning, Spencer A. Norman

Theses and Dissertations

The Tea Party movement’s effect on local and regional planning in Virginia has received little study. This work identifies how conservative political activism has impacted planning in the Commonwealth and how planners have responded. The study relies on a qualitative approach involving 22 semi-structured interviews with activists, planners, and citizens, as well as textual analyses of planning documents, local and regional news reports, and Tea Party social media. The resultant findings show that Tea Party activism is rooted in deep seated ideals about private property rights and individualism. It also reveals that planning processes that increased the amount of public …

The Effect Of Making Election Day A Holiday: An Original Survey And A Case Study Of French Presidential Elections Applied To The U.S. Voting System, Caitlyn Bradfield, Paul Johnson

Sigma: Journal of Political and International Studies

Voter turnout in the U.S. has lagged behind other developed democracies for decades. Exactly what causes this discrepancy has been an issue of debate. Ironically, "voters [in the United States] are more politically aware and involved than citizens in any other democracy, yet the levels of voter turnout are consistently far below the democratic average" (Powell 1986, 17).

Latin America In Theories Of Territorial Rights / América Latina En Las Teorías De Los Derechos Territoriales, Avery Kolers

Faculty and Staff Scholarship

“Who owns it?” is a surprisingly confusing question when applied to territory. Each word opens up puzzles: who can “own” territory? What is “ownership” in this context? How can it be justified in a way that could convince an outsider? These questions are particularly salient in the Latin American context, where multiple distinct kinds of land disputes converge. This paper canvasses two familiar approaches to these questions: the Kantian autochthony view, and the Lockean efficiency view. Neither view answers the question as to “who owns it” in all its complexity. The paper then defends an alternative approach grounded in recognition …

Happiness In Communities: How Neighborhoods, Cities And States Use Subjective Well-Being Metrics, Laura Musikanski, Carl Polley, Scott Cloutier, Erica Berejnoi, Julia Colbert

Journal of Sustainable Social Impact

This essay, the fourth and last of a series published by the Journal of Social Change, is intended as a tool for community organizers, local policy makers, researchers, students and others to incorporate subjective well-being indicators into their measurements and management of happiness and well-being in their communities, for policy purposes, for research and for other purposes. It provides case studies of community-based efforts in five different regions (São Paulo, Brazil; Bristol, United Kingdom; Melbourne, Australia; Creston, British Columbia, Canada; and Vermont, United States) that either developed their own subjective well-being index or used the Happiness Alliance’s survey instrument …

Savannah's Ethnic Irish Neighborhoods In The Nineteenth Century: A Historical Multimethod Examination, Sarah A. Ryniker

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this thesis is to identify residency patterns and neighborhoods for Savannah-Irish immigrants in the mid-nineteenth century. Using a multimethod approach, this thesis explores historical, social, and economic factors that influenced settlement patterns and cultivated the conditions for an Irish-American identity, particularly in two neighborhoods, Old Fort and Yamacraw. Guided by Yancey et al.’s (1976) emergent ethnicity theory, this study uses archival materials, as well as chi-square tests for association, and the 1860 Federal Census of Chatham County, Georgia, to geolocate Irish immigrants. With an emphasis on County Wexford, Ireland, the results suggest residency was associated with Irish …

The Bald Eagle Nests: The United States Role In State-Building: Germany, Kosovo, And Iraq, Visar Xhambazi

Political Science & Geography Faculty Publications

(First paragraph) This paper aims to explain and analyze the role and the commitment of the United States in state-building, looking at three case studies coming from different regions and periods of time – from Germany to Iraq and Kosovo. The objective is to answer some critical questions such as how successful was the transition of state-building when it comes to security, economy, and institutions; what was the U.S. commitment; what happened for the better and for the worse; why in some countries was the state-building successful and in some countries not; and last but not least, how important is …

La France Contemporaine Face Au Défi De La Créolisation, Nathalie Etoke

Publications and Research

Inspired by Jane Gordon's book, Creolizing Political Theory: Reading Rousseau through Fanon, this article examines the paradoxes of Creolization within the French context. How do post-colonial French identities of Maghrebi, Sub-Saharan African or Caribbean descent Creolize French society? Instead of being an opportunity that must be seized by the Nation, why is creolization perceived as an imminent threat to the Republic? How can one think of Creolizing politics in the former colonial power? How does Creolization compel us to rethink how we live together? And how does it require us to rethink freedom and equality for all? These are …

Listening To The Mattole: Lessons In Bioregionalism, Cannabis, And Capitalism From A Northern California Community, Nicola R. Walters

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

In the United States, from the 1960s through the 1970s, nearly a million Americans left urban areas to establish themselves in rural environments; this exodus is now known as the back-to-the-land movement. Nestled in the mountains of Northern California, along a capricious river, and surrounded by natural beauty, the Mattole Valley became home to many of these back-to-the-land immigrants. Seasoned in the social and cultural movements of Berkeley and San Francisco during the 1960s, the “new settlers” transformed the social and environmental landscape of southern Humboldt County as they integrated into rural communities. The Mattole Valley offers a unique look …

Marketing An End To War: Constructive Engagement, Community Wellbeing, And Sustainable Peace, Clifford J. Shultz

Markets, Globalization & Development Review

Markets and marketing are integral to human welfare and survival. When used however for the purposes of war and other systemically violent conflict, they can be devastating and pose an existential threat to humanity. Drawing on experience in war-ravaged and recovering economies, the author examines a stream of research on marketing systems disrupted or destroyed by war. Some underlying conditions and predictors of war and its peaceful resolution are introduced, including social traps and their mitigation or elimination. An argument is revisited for marketing as a form of constructive engagement, which must be implemented to affect and to develop equitable …

A New Pathway To Enhance The Nuclear Security Regime, Francesca Giovannini

International Journal of Nuclear Security

The paper investigates the approach used by a new set of regional institutions, the Disaster Preparedness and Risk Management Organizations (DPRMOs), in strengthening regional governance and cooperation. It also inquires in what ways these new institutions might indirectly contribute to the establishment of a more cohesive global nuclear security framework. More specifically, through the examination of the case of Southeast Asia, the paper argues that these institutions, albeit without a specific and direct mandate to operate in the nuclear security domain, are fundamentally strengthening states’ capacity to assess risks and threats and to map vulnerabilities in timely fashion. They are …

Some Remarks On Self-Defense And Intervention: A Reaction To Reading Law And Civil War In The Modern World, Josef Rohlik

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

The New Normal? Climate Variability And Ecoviolence In Sub-Saharan Africa, Alfonso Sanchez

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Climate change presents a wide range of concerns that can jeopardize international security. Among those concerns are neo-Malthusian worries of diminishing natural resources. Predictive models suggest that rainfall and temperature anomalies have the potential to reduce water basins, crop production, increase land degradation among other perils that threaten human security. This concern is particularly true in sub-Saharan Africa given the region’s strong dependence on rain-fed agriculture. Despite strong claims from various world leaders and scientists of a direct climate-conflict nexus, little empirical evidence has been devoted to find a systematic causal pathway of this kind. What is more, the literature …

The Electoral Success Of Communist-Successor Parties In The Czech Republic And Romania, Harley L. Roe

Master's Theses

Communist-successor parties are impacted by six social and political factors: party reimaging, coalition building, corruption and scandal, party leadership, EU accession, and social indicators. This project explores how the descendants of the totalitarian communist parties in the Czech Republic and Romania are influenced by each factor by analyzing election result data against these indicators. Party reimaging and coalition building are the most influential in determining voter turnout, while the other four work in conjunction to influence election results. This project contributes to the literature on electoral volatility, post-communist countries, voter behavior, and seeks to offer a model that can predict …

"Who Am I?": The Development Of A Male Palestinian Political Identity, Tala J. Dayyat

Master's Theses

The Palestinian people have lived under numerous imperial rulers; first, the Ottoman Empire, then later the British. Today they live under the military occupation of the state of Israel as second class citizen millions more living abroad as refugees. Young Palestinian men have become the leaders and the physical manifestation of the struggle against Israel, a political Goliath that has used tactics to repress the Palestinians such as, detentions, beatings, and land confiscation, which many outside of the Israeli state deem as illegal. Scholar Rashid Khalidi states that “the quintessential Palestinian experience, which illustrates some of the most basic issues …

Doing A Bid: The Construction Of Time As Punishment, Keesha M. Middlemass, Calvinjohn Smiley

Political Science Faculty Research

Juxtaposing the sociology of time with the sociological study of punishment, we interviewed 34 former inmates to explore their memories of how they constructed time while “doing a bid.” Prison sentences convey macro-political and social messages, but time is experienced by individuals. Our qualitative data explore important theoretical connections between the sociology of time as a lived experience and the temporality of prison where time is punishment. The interview data explores the social construction of time, and our findings demonstrate participants’ use of the language of time in three distinct ways: (a) routine time, (b) marked time, and (c) lost …

Notes On People Of Dominican Ancestry In Canada, Ramona Hernandez, Sarah Marrara, Utku Sezgin

Publications and Research

A brief profile of the Latino population in Canada, with a particular focus on Dominicans, in an attempt to develop wider interest and more scholarly research on the subject.

State Judicial Selection Methods As Public Policy: The Missouri Plan, James A. Gleason

Open Access Dissertations

State judiciaries are foundational institutions of governance in the United States. They are coequal, policy-making branches of government whose members, along with the legislative and executive branches, are constitutionally authorized and empowered in all fifty American states. Extant research on judicial selection in the American states provides neither a comprehensive theory of why states choose their particular judicial selection method nor a comprehensive empirical assessment of this important question. This research seeks to fill this lacuna by increasing understanding of American state courts through the formulation of a theory of state judicial selection, a short but comprehensive history of state …

Place Matters? Place And Legislative Behavior In Nebraska, Melissa Lee Trueblood

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

The dissertation is a three-part analysis of the impact of place and place attachment on legislative behavior in the 2011-2012 session of the Nebraska Unicameral. The first analysis explores whether place or type of legislative district has an effect on roll-call voting. In the second analysis, the dissertation analyzes the relationship between place attachment (defined as the emotional bond between a person and a place) and roll-call voting. Finally, in the third analysis, the dissertation investigates through content analysis how often senators refer to their place attachment, and then, it examines the link between geographic scale of place attachment and …

Thematic Bibliography To New Work On Immigration And Identity In Contemporary France, Québec, And Ireland, Dervila Cooke

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

No abstract provided.

The Capacity-Building Support Activities Of The Integrated Support Center For Nuclear Nonproliferation And Nuclear Security Of The Japan Atomic Energy Agency, Yosuke Naoi, Kalman A. Robertson, Naoko Noro

International Journal of Nuclear Security

International cooperation is essential to support states in building the human resources necessary for maintaining and strengthening nuclear security. As the nation’s only comprehensive nuclear research and development institute, the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) has long-standing experience developing and operating nuclear technology in all steps of the fuel cycle. The Integrated Support Center for Nuclear Nonproliferation and Nuclear Security (ISCN) was established within the JAEA in December 2010 as Japan’s Center of Excellence for nuclear security. The ISCN provides assistance with capacity building to states throughout Asia and some other regions. The objective of this article is to describe …

Secrecy, Confidentiality And "Dirty Work": The Case Of Public Relations, Sue Curry Jansen

Secrecy and Society

No abstract provided.

The Conflict In Syria: Should The United States Get More Involved?, Jacob Peoples

Posters-at-the-Capitol

The purpose of this research is to explore the relations between Syria, Russia, and the United States in the Syrian civil war. The relationship has been in turmoil because of the complexities of the situation. Syria has been a designated state sponsor of terrorism since December 29, 1979, five years before the next designated state of Iran. Syria is a very important and strategic country and now more than ever has a large risk of being completely overrun by the newest terrorist group ISIS. The turmoil is possibly stemming initially from the result of a failed 1957 Central Intelligence Agency …

Getting Short‐Changed? The Impact Of Outside Money On District Representation, Anne E. Baker

Political Science

Objective
As incumbent House members increasingly recruit campaign contributions from individuals who reside outside of their districts, this raises the question of whether a dependency on outside money affects members’ responsiveness and ideological proximity to district constituents.

Method
Using data from the Cooperative Congressional Election Studies of 2006, 2008, and 2010 as well as individual contribution data corresponding to those years from the U.S. Federal Election Commission, I examine this relationship using responsiveness and proximity models of representation.

Results
I find a dependency on outside contributions decreases members’ responsiveness to their districts and increases the members’ ideological extremity. Moreover, within‐district …

Failure Of Multiculturalism? Immigration, Radical Islamism, And Identity Politics In Europe, Fatos Tarifa, Monica Di Monte

International Dialogue

This paper addresses the issue of how Europe’s ethnic and cultural mix is changing drastically by the large numbers of culturally diverse, especially Muslim immigrants, as well as problems that Western European governments face today as they try to deal with unintended consequences of their liberal policies of multiculturalism. In light of this discussion, radical Islamism and identity politics are seen as long-term challenges for all liberal democracies. We argue that extremist voices among the right-wing populist parties in many Western European countries opposed to immigration and increasingly mobilized around the issue of Muslim minorities, may spur resentment and political …

The Challenges Of Gaming For Democratic Education: The Case Of Icivics, Jeremy D. Stoddard, Angela M. Banks, Christine L. Nemacheck, Elizabeth Wenska

Faculty Publications

Video games are the most recent technological advancement to be viewed as an educational panacea and a force for democracy. However, this medium has particular affordances and constraints as a tool for democratic education in educational environments. This paper presents results from a study of the design and content of four iCivics games and their potential to meet the goals of democratic education. Specifically, we focus on the games as designed experiences, the nature and accuracy of the content, and the nature of intellectual engagement in the games. We find that the games, while easily accessible and aligned with standardized …

What Do Chinese Really Think About Democracy And India?, Devin K. Joshi, Yizhe Xu

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

There has been much speculation about whether China will democratize and avoid conflict with India in the twenty-first century. Yet, few studies have investigated how contemporary Chinese view India and its democracy. Addressing this gap in the literature, the authors examined Chinese media coverage of India’s two-month long April–May 2014 parliamentary election, the largest election in world history, through systematic analysis of over 500 articles from ten major mass media outlets and over 27,000 messages transmitted on Sina Weibo social media. As might be expected, Chinese mass media generally portrayed India and its elections in a condescending fashion while avoiding …

Challenges To The Governance Of Water Security In The Uae, Shaikha Saif Mohamed Alghafli

Theses

In the recent past, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has seen tremendous economic growth, which has put pressure on its existing natural resources. Hence, the government of the UAE is working extensively on developing a strategic framework for sustainable water management. This study is aimed at analyzing the challenges to the governance of water security in the UAE. Evidence was collected from nine semi-structured interviews with senior officials and academics from different government agencies in the UAE. Quantitative data was collected on water consumption in the UAE in various sectors from a range of authorities (FCSA, DSC, MOENR, ADWEA, DEWA, …

Geopolitical Implications Of The Sino-Japanese East China Sea Dispute For The U.S., Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

This presentation updates the article "Geopolitical Implications of the Sino-East China Sea Dispute for the U.S." published in Geopolitics, History, and International Relations which is already available in epubs.

When Your Teachers Fail You: The Necessity Of Improving Teachers Training For Quality Education In Cameroon, Monique Kwachou

Young African Leaders Journal of Development

With the underlying hypothesis that the quality of a teachers’ training is directly proportional to the quality of education pupils eventually receive, this essay explores and critiques the basic education teacher training process in Cameroon, using two notable educational theories to assess the possibility of quality education resulting from Cameroonian government-trained basic education teachers. It was found that there is dire need to improve the quality of teachers we train to ensure that they can deliver the quality of education we seek. A brief outline of suggestions is made towards improving the flawed training system.

Social Innovation And Social Enterprise: Integrating Mental Health Interventions, Jacob Waisawa Buganga, Dembe Annet

Young African Leaders Journal of Development

An estimated 450 million people suffer from a mental or behavioural disorder. According to WHO’s Global Burden of Disease 2001, 3% of the years lived with disability (YLD) are due to neuropsychiatric disorders, a further 2.1% to intentional injuries (WHO, 2013). Only 1% of the medical doctors and 4% of the nurses were specialized in psychiatry. The last revision of the mental health legislation was in 1964. The legislation basically focused on the custodial care of the mentally ill persons and is an antiquated kind of law that has been overtaken by events. One percent (1%) of health care expenditures …