Digital Commons Network^™

Engineering A New Form Of Enclosure: International Convergence In Gmo Regulation, Jessica Altif

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As society begins to recognize its impact on ecological systems, the belief that modern political institutions can offer a sense of control and certainty, as well as protect the health of its citizens, is increasingly questioned. In an era of uncertainty, faith in science and technology to alleviate industrial impacts on the environment is often embraced by policymakers yet questioned by the public who see the authoritative role of the sciences in the political sphere as contributing to global risk. The development of biotechnology, specifically genetically modified food, places an anthropocentric focus on resolving and/or adapting to environmental degradation, further …

Have Nominating Conventions Lost Power?, Tyler Branz

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Do conventions still have relevance in the modern political world? Some call them glorified television infomercials for presidential candidates while others refer to them as admired pillars of American political history. Whichever viewpoints one identifies with, presidential conventions are interesting to study historically, and can be studied analytically. The following case studies examine the institution of the nominating convention: what they do, how they form, what they have accomplished and how they affect the voters. This study finds that conventions are still meaningful in American politics, particularly for affecting party unity, candidate image and, to a lesser degree, party platform.

Understanding Terrorism: Religious & Political Dimensions, Christopher Cusano

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Terrorism in the twenty-first century has had one of greatest effects on the status quo of international relations, peace and war. It has become the 'specter' of our era and in many instances, it has been referred to as the predominant threat of modern civilization. Furthermore, it has the potential to drastically change the world we live in. For these reasons it has rightfully earned our attention and focus. Many efforts to understand terrorism have fallen short of recognizing the underlying causes. In many cases, acts of terror have either been of purely political motivation or have had socioeconomic conditions …

Fragmented Authoritarianism And Politics Of Hydropower In China : Case Studies Of Tgp & Nrp, Miu Fai, Tommy Wong

Lingnan Theses

Thanks for economic improvements since the ‘open-door policy’ in 1978; China’s international status has been improving economically and even politically. For instance, she has become a major contributor of BRIC which is a group of four most rapidly developing countries in the world, i.e. Brazil, Russia, India and China, and the largest buyer of U.S. treasury bonds in the world. Nevertheless, a number of intellectuals like Liu and Shirk pointed out that there are still a number of difficulties – both exogenous and endogenous – underneath.1 This research would like to concentrate on one of the aspects which Chinese investigators …

Rights & Interests: Trade & Disputes, Howard Guille

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

Trade Imbalance: The Struggle to Weight Human Rights Concerns in Trade Policy-Making. By Susan Ariel Aaronson & Jamie M. Zimmerman. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008. 337pp.

and

Public Values & Public Interest: Counterbalancing Economic Individualism. By Barry Bozeman. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2007. 219pp.

and

The Impact of the WTO: The Environment, Public Health & Sovereignty. By Trish Kelly. Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar, 2007. 220pp.

Rights And Rebuilding In El Salvador: A Case Study In Two Parts, Elaine K. Denny, Susan Waltz

Human Rights & Human Welfare

In January 2007, on the 15th anniversary of the signing of the peace accords that ended 12 years of civil war and grave human rights violations in El Salvador, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon praised El Salvador as a model for other countries emerging from conflict: “The groundbreaking accords signed in Mexico City in January 1992 not only set El Salvador on a new course. They also provided precedents and experiences that continue to inspire others who are striving to rebuild their societies following conflict. And they continue to be a point of reference for the United Nations, as we …

January Roundtable: Introduction

Human Rights & Human Welfare

An annotation of:

“My compatriots' vote to ban minarets is fuelled by fear” by Tariq Ramadan. The Guardian. November 29, 2009.

Minarets Vote Compromises Human Rights For Everyone, Anna Talbot

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Minarets, like church steeples, are a physical manifestation of religion. There is little doubt, then, that their recent banning in Switzerland following a referendum constitutes a breach of the right to freedom of religion, with respect to the right to manifest ones religion. This right is protected under a number of instruments, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Article 18), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) (Article 18), and the European Convention on Human Rights (Article 9). Under these instruments, the right to manifest ones religion can only be limited if such a limitation is necessary …

Affection, Anger, Or Ambivalence? An Examination Of Tunisian And Two Groups Of American Students' Attitudes Toward American Politics And Popular Culture, Jonya Leverett

Master's Theses

Attitude ambivalence is the attitude actor's simultaneous possession of both negative and positive affect toward an attitude object. The competing affect produces tension, creating attitude ambivalence. In the present project, the attitude object is the United States of America. Students in Tunisia (a predominately Muslim nation) were asked specific questions about American foreign policy and American popular culture (n = 17). These two aspects of the `America' attitude object are expected to produce attitude ambivalence as the Tunisian students should express positive affect toward American popular culture and negative affect toward American foreign policy. A pencil and paper survey featuring …

Ethnic Composition And The Dynamics Of Civil War: A Subnational Analysis Of India And Pakistan, Caroline Lee Payne

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Scholars, policymakers, and the media present a conflicting picture of the relationship between ethnicity and civil conflict. In order to clear up the confusion and better establish this relationship, I argue that it is necessary to: (1) distinguish between different types of ethnic composition; (2) conceptualize and measure ethnic composition as not only a static phenomenon but a dynamic one in which population changes alter group security calculations and therefore their decision making; (3) consider the unique mobilization capacity of ethnic groups; and (4) examine the effect of ethnic composition at the subnational level of analysis. In doing so, this …

Anti-Regulatory Absolutism In The Campaign Arena: Citizens United And The Implied Slippery Slope, James A. Gardner

Journal Articles

Perhaps the most striking feature of the Supreme Court’s constitutional campaign jurisprudence is its longstanding, profound hostility to virtually any government regulation whatsoever of campaign speech and spending. Such an approach is highly unusual in constitutional law, which typically tolerates at least some level of regulatory intervention even with respect to strongly protected rights. The Court’s behavior in this respect is consistent with – and, I argue, is best understood as – the kind of behavior in which a court engages when it fears a slide down a slippery slope. But what lies at the bottom of the slope? And …

American First Ladies As Goodwill Ambassadors, Wendy W. Tan

Publications and Research

Quite a few First Ladies took very active moves regarding international interests, and they often weighed in their opinions on their husbands’ decisions on related issues. My research was mainly conducted in five Presidential Libraries associated with five well-traveled First Ladies. After studying hundreds of journeys they made, my descriptions were focused on five, one for each lady, of them only. All of these trips shared a common trait, which was under the calling of humanitarian cause.

Arab/American Relations And Human Security, Post-9/11: A Political Narrative Inquiry, Charlotte Moats-Gallagher

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This study explored eighteen women's views and experiences in the arena of Arab/American relations, post-9/11. The study engaged three groups of women: Arab women in Qatar, Arab American women in the U.S., and non-Arab women in the U.S. Qualitative narrative inquiry methodology was used complemented by an innovative use of freewriting to help prepare participants for interviews. Clarke’s (2005a) situational analysis was used to open up and analyze the data. Findings surfaced around the interconnected themes of identity, racism, discrimination and Othering, the role of the media, and how these ultimately influence a collective sense of and experience of human …

Citizenship In The Humanities And Social Sciences: A Selective Bibliography, 2000-2009, Wayne State University School Of Library And Information Science, Winter 2010 Lis 7160, James E. Van Loon, H.G.B. Anghelescu

School of Information Sciences Faculty Research Publications

Citizenship in the Humanities and Social Sciences is a selective bibliography consisting of citations to works published during the years 2000-2009 on citizenship-related topics in the humanities and social sciences. Primarily consisting of books/chapters and scholarly journal articles, the bibliography also includes other materials (case studies, reports, dissertations, and working papers) for which scholarship, authority and relevance have been established. Most cited works are published in the English language, although articles published in other languages using a Latin alphabet are also included. Citations were retrieved during January-March 2010 from a variety of aggregated databases accessed through the Wayne State University …

Framing Hamas: A Case Study Of U.S. Foreign Policy And Media Coverage, Jessica Hoffman

Archived Theses and Dissertations

Officials of the United States government have, at least rhetorically, made peace in the Middle East a priority in every administration for the six decades. However, despite the premium being placed on peace agreements, foreign policy enacted by the United States often seems to be focused on more short-sighted goals, often at the expense of long-term peace. In no case is this truer than with standing policies regarding Hamas. These policies have failed to bring the Palestinians and Israelis any closer to a peace agreement. If policies fail to achieve their stated goals, one must ask why they remain in …

The Role Of Guanxi Network In The Corruption-Efficiency Relationship, Shaomin Li

Management Faculty Publications

Why do some countries like China thrive economically despite of corruption? The effect of corruption on economic efficiency is moderated by whether a society has an extensive informal social network such as the guanxi network in China. In societies with a thick, extensive informal social network, bribery- corruption relationship can be easily established and the risk of being reported is low. This relation-based trust makes the dissemination of corruption goods--the sale of government goods for private gains--more market-based. The competition among potential bribers increases the efficiency of corruption (or making corruption less wasteful). In societies that lack such strong informal …

Campaigning In Judicial Elections: The Effects Of Candidate Status, Katelyn Marie Bries

Honors Program Theses

While campaigns for judicial elections in general have received more attention, relatively little research has been done regarding the differences in campaigning for open-seat and incumbent-challenger elections. Because they are the most common type of judicial election, incumbent-challenger races have been the focus of most research conducted thus far. Yet, open seat competitions are important as well. With the incumbent advantage absent in these elections, factors that would otherwise play only a minor role in determining who will be elected have the potential to be much more exaggerated than they do in incumbent-challenger races; consequently, it will be easier to …

Probing The Finance Gap Theory: Does Gender Affect Campaign Contributions?, Rhonda Wrzenski

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In our field, scholarly literature contends that women win a similar percentage of the vote and raise a similar amount of money as their male opponents when they campaign (Newman 1994; Burrell 1994; Seltzer et al. 1997; Dolan 2006; Darcy et al. 1994; Wilhite and Theilmann 1986; Burrell 1985; Uhlaner and Schlozman 1986; Welch et al. 1985). However, women are still underrepresented at all levels of government and this may be a function of biases in the campaign finance network that have gone largely undetected. Differences may be more readily apparent at the sub-national level and among particular classes of …

Timeless Strategy Meets New Medium: Going Negative On Congressional Campaign Web Sites, 2002-2006, James N. Druckman, Martin J. Kifer, Michael Parkin

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

In a few short years, the World Wide Web has become a standard part of candidates' campaign tool kits. Virtually all candidates have their own sites, and voters, journalists, and activists visit the sites with increasing frequency. In this article, we study what candidates do on these sites in terms of the information they present by exploring one of the most enduring and widely debated campaign strategies: going negative. Comparing data from over 700 congressional candidate web sites, over three election cycles (2002, 2004, and 2006), with television advertising data, we show that candidates go negative with similar likelihoods across …

The Mirage Of Non-State Governance, Ralf Michaels

Faculty Scholarship

In this Essay, I offer three theses, all of which are critical. First, non‑state governance is conceptually unattractive; it is a concept that makes little sense. Second, non‑state governance is empirically unattractive; meaningful non‑state governance rarely exists. Third, meaningful non‑state governance is normatively unattractive; we would rarely want it, and people postulating it usually expect the state to play an important role. However, I also have something constructive: a proposed trajectory. Talk about the state and the non‑state can only be an intermediary stage in a trajectory of a theory of governance that might lead to a new paradigm of …

The Blind Leading The Blind: Who Gets Polling Information And Does It Improve Decisions?, Cheryl Boudreau, Mathew D. Mccubbins

Faculty Scholarship

We analyze whether and when polls help citizens to improve their decisions. Specifically, we use experiments to investigate 1) whether and when citizens are willing to obtain polls and 2) whether and when polls help citizens to make better choices than they would have made on their own. We find that citizens are more likely to obtain polls when the decisions they must make are difficult and when they are unsophisticated. Ironically, when the decisions are difficult, the pollees are also uninformed and, therefore, do not provide useful information. We also find that when polls indicate the welfare-improving choice, citizens …

Introduction To America's Four Gods: What We Say About God And What That Says About Us, Paul Froese, Christoper Bader

Sociology Faculty Books and Book Chapters

Despite all the hype surrounding the "New Atheism," the United States remains one of the most religious nations on Earth. In fact, 95% of Americans believe in God--a level of agreement rarely seen in American life. The greatest divisions in America are not between atheists and believers, or even between people of different faiths. What divides us, this groundbreaking book shows, is how we conceive of God and the role He plays in our daily lives.

America's Four Gods draws on the most wide-ranging, comprehensive, and illuminating survey of American's religious beliefs ever conducted to offer a systematic exploration of …

Othering Obama : How Whiteness Is Used To Undermine Authority, David S. Owen

Faculty and Staff Scholarship

In this paper, I argue that the sociocultural structuring property of whiteness has been utilized to marginalize President Obama and effectively undermine his presidential authority. Whiteness functions in a largely invisible and ostensibly deracialized way to normalize the interests, needs, and values of whites, while at the same time marginalizing and devaluing the voice of people of color. Analyzing the health care debate through this theoretical lens generates insights into how the debate reproduced the system of racial oppression, and how whiteness functions in political discourse.

Ni De Aquí Ni De Allá: Transnationalism And Political Participation In Latino/A Communities, Sergio I. Garcia-Rios

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

.

China-Related Talks Around The World

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

1. On December 14-15, the Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism at the University of Southern California will be holding a “Colloquium on China Media Studies” (RSVP required). For those not able to attend, the event will be live-streamed at the above link, beginning at noon PST on December 14.

2. Ken Pomeranz will be giving two talks in Japan next week:

December 16, 2009: Kyoto University. Participant in the “Changing Nature of ‘Nature’: New Perspectives in Transdisciplinary Field Science” conference sponsored by the Global Center of Excellence on a Sustainable Humanssphere.

December 18, 2009: Tokyo University. “Land rights and …

Who Was Fritz Kraemer? And Why We Should Care, Luke A. Nichter

Presidential Studies Faculty Articles and Research

"Whether Vietnam, Iraq, or now Afghanistan, wars come and go, but the real battle is a philosophic one between two sects of conservatives. In The Forty Years War: The Rise and Fall of the Neocons from Nixon to Obama, authors Len Colodny and Tom Shachtman challenge readers to examine the role of a little-known Pentagon figure named Fritz G.A. Kraemer. Colodny and Shachtman argue that Kraemer was the leading intellectual behind what became known as the neo-conservative movement, witnessed by the fact that Kraemer influenced so many high-ranking conservative figures over the course of six decades."

Reading Round-Up: December 3, 2009

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

1. We’ve discussed Lu Xun quite a lot lately, and more great Lu Xun-related stories keep coming our way. At Inside-Out China, Xujun Eberlein writes about her own memories of reading Lu Xun as a high-school student during the 1970s. Eberlein also comments on Lu Xun’s work as a translator, as well as the fact that “His scathing style was extensively mimicked by the Red Guards for faction fighting during the Cultural Revolution, a consequence he wouldn’t have dreamed of.”

A diary kept by Chinese writer Lin Yutang between 1929 and 1932 has just come to light, and provides insight …

Voting Behavior And Political Participation, James Lai

Ethnic Studies

Asian Americans have been labeled as the "next sleeping giant" in American politics in key geopolitical states such as California, Texas, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, and Washington. ¹ Much of this perception is fueled by the dramatic growth of Asian American communities in these and other states as a result of federal immigration reforms beginning in 1965. This section highlights the major areas of Asian American political participation and behavior that will likely determine whether Asian American politics will live up to this label. These include voter behavior and turnout in local, state, and federal elections as recently as …

Venture Philanthropy In 2009: Developments In The Field Since "Virtuous Capital", Annika Many

Master in Public Administration Theses

This study will examine the evolution of the field of venture philanthropy since the late 1990s and will provide an updated guide to the types of organizations utilizing venture philanthropy strategies across the United States and internationally. The purpose of this research is to investigate how the field has changed as it has matured, to identify the key players and learnings of organizations across the field, and to develop a framework for the types of organizations that have been the most successful in implementing the venture philanthropy model.

Media Gender Bias In The 1984 And 2008 Vice Presidential Elections, Katherine Shaunesi Reeves

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Media coverage in political campaigns helps shape public opinion and can be a factor in people determining how to vote. Thus, bias evident in the coverage of political candidates should be a concern for a society which values fair elections. In the 2008 general election, for the first time in 24 years, a woman was on a major party ticket. The treatment of female candidates historically has been sexist. To understand the media coverage of Sarah Palin I chose to look at editorials in The New York Times. I compared her editorial references to Joe Biden’s in The Times. Then, …