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Winners And Losers: Emotional Shifts Across Elections Are Conveyed By A Politician’S Smile, Carl Senior, Patrick A. Stewart, Erik Bucy, Nick Lee

Political Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

The human smile can convey both rewarding and affiliative social intent and thus has significant utility in politics, where the ability to bond with and reassure voters is vital to electoral success. We examine experimental evidence from the 2019 UK general election to investigate the influence of a politician’s reward or affiliative smile on voter emotions. It was hypothesised that the winner’s affiliative smile would engender positive affect across all partisan groups compared to the winner’s reward smile display. Participants from a nationally representative sample were shown campaign footage containing both types of smiles from the leaders of the main …

Russia In A Changing Climate, Debra Javeline, Robert Orttung, Graeme Robertson, Richard Arnold, Andrew Barnes, Laura Henry, Edward Holland, Mariya Omelicheva, Peter Rutland, Edward Schatz, Caress Schenk, Andrei Semenov, Valerie Sperling, Lisa Mcintosh Sundstrom, Mikhail Troitskiy, Judith Twigg, Susanne Wengle

Political Science

Climate change will shape the future of Russia, and vice versa, regardless of who rules in the Kremlin. The world's largest country is warming faster than Earth as a whole, occupies more than half the Arctic Ocean coastline, and is waging a carbon-intensive war while increasingly isolated from the international community and its efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Officially, the Russian government argues that, as a major exporter of hydrocarbons, Russia benefits from maintaining global reliance on fossil fuels and from climate change itself, because warming may increase the extent and quality of its arable land, open a new …

Refugees And The Eu: A Study Of The Preferential Treatment Of Ukrainian Refugees, Madelyn Cooper

Richard T. Schellhase Essay Prize in Ethics

The war in Ukraine created one of the largest refugee crises in the world today, and the European Union has played a significant role in accepting these individuals into various Member States. The protection of Ukrainian refugees, or any refugee for the record, is important. However, the European Union has been more accepting and welcoming to Ukrainian refugees compared to refugees coming from other places, indicating potential biases of European Union policies and the othering of non-Ukrainian refugees. To study this, this paper will utilize a comparative case study of Ukrainian and Syrian refugees. The paper will compare these two …

Plath Fostered It, Women Are Nurturing It: Cycles Of Existential And Confessional Women's Writing In The Mid-20th Century And Beyond, Sophie Elisabeth Conrad

Senior Theses

During the mid-20th century, a wide-ranging yet topically focused genre of women’s writing began to emerge in earnest, currently categorized as existential and confessional. Works like Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex (1949) and Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique (1963) offer explanations of why an ineffable feeling of malaise permeated the lives of 20th-century women and led them to adopt these methods of writing and thinking. However, existential feelings akin to that of the 20th-century female malaise have returned to stake their claim on the minds of 21st-century women, evidenced in popular contemporary works such as Otessa Moshfegh’s My Year …

Experimental Evidence On Leadership Experience And Women’S Political Participation In Malaysia, Grace Burns

Sigma: Journal of Political and International Studies

Across the globe, there is a lack of gender parity in the political realm (Darcy, Welch, and Clark 1994). Solving this important issue will ensure increased representation for women’s issues (Bratton 2005), greater diversity and effectiveness in leadership styles (Kathlene 1994), and better outcomes for countries as a whole (Cole et al. 2017; Garikipati and Kambhampati 2020). In Malaysia, women rank highly on many indicators such as literacy and labor force participation (“World Bank Open Data” n.d.), but lowly in political polarization, due to cultural and religious factors (Ariffin 1992). Women are not socialized to view themselves as leaders and …

The United Kingdom And Brexit: A Case Study In Affective Polarization, Tannah Carter

Sigma: Journal of Political and International Studies

Political polarization has become an increasingly hot topic in recent years as countries around the world have seen a greater divide in their national politics. In general, polarization refers to the process whereby people become increasingly sorted into separate camps that hold distinct and opposing identities and interests (McCoy, Rahman, and Somer 2018). However, this divide is not limited to ideology: countries have also seen an increase in affective polarization. Affective polarization occurs when individuals move beyond simple policy disagreements into seeing themselves as belonging to an “in-group” while those who oppose them belong to the “out-group” (Iyengar, Sood, and …

Exploring The Medicalization Of Menstruation: Analyzing Menstrual Hygiene Initiatives By Igos, Non-Profits And National Government In Switzerland, Victoria Wright

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Menstrual health serves as a critical indicator of reproductive health. It is pivotal in achieving various Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) related to women's and girls' comfort, agency, participation, safety, well-being, and dignity (Loughnan et al., 2020). This research investigates the medicalization of menstruation in Switzerland through a mixed-methods approach examining the strategies and roles of key stakeholders such as the WHO, local government initiatives, and NGOs in shaping the landscape of menstrual medicalization.

The findings reveal that while medicalization has brought about progressive changes, including the introduction of menstrual leave policies, it has resulted in a complex regulatory landscape, increased …

Latest Research (Summaries) On Charitable Giving, Angie Holzer

Journal of Nonprofit Innovation

No abstract provided.

Charitable Giving: Full Issue, Angie Holzer

Journal of Nonprofit Innovation

No abstract provided.

Nonprofits Should Adopt A User-Centric Change Model To Scale Corporate Environmental Action Faster, Doug Miller

Journal of Nonprofit Innovation

Pollution levels and ecosystem degradation continue to worsen, suggesting the insufficiency of current approaches to reverse these problematic trends. For environmental nonprofits, the current theory of change revolves around developing techno-economic analysis about environmental problems and available solutions, building public awareness around this analysis, and motivating decision makers to set goals. Given present environmental realities and the limited success of their current theory of change, environmental nonprofits should transform how they execute their work, what they produce, and how they coordinate with each other. Instead, nonprofits should begin putting the user—business decision makers as well as policymakers—front and center as …

Russia: Increased Corruption And Deterioration Of Freedom, Is There Hope?, Angie Holzer

Journal of Nonprofit Innovation

Since Vladimir Putin came to power in 2000, Russia has been plagued by widespread political corruption (Warren, 2023; Vasilev & Felton, 2024). This corruption has been characterized by the misuse of public funds, bribery, and extortion. It has also involved the suppression of political dissent and the erosion of democratic institutions. As corruption runs rampant within the Russian government, neighboring countries are also recipients of corrupt efforts to destabilize their governments, erode their democracy and jeopardize the support these neighboring countries can give to the security of Euruope as a whole (Stănescu, 2023). There is an increasing need for the …

Iran's Nuclear Program: A Struggle For Security And Modernity, Sina Azodi

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores the historical evolution of Iran's nuclear program from its inception in the 1950s to the signing of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in 2015. It examines how threat perceptions have, over the decades, influenced Iran's nuclear posture, leading the Iranian political leadership to adopt a hedging strategy that extends beyond changes in ruling regimes. This study employs the Proliferation Strategy Theory (PST) as its theoretical foundation. This framework helps in dissecting the dynamics between threat perceptions and the candidate state's adopted nuclear posture. The principal findings of this dissertation highlight the direct impact of regional …

Implications And Recommendations For U.S. Security Alliances: South Korea's Anticipated Nuclear Proliferation, Ethan Czapla

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

In 2023, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol suggested South Korea should consider pursuing a sovereign nuclear weapon arsenal, a striking departure from the history of South Korea’s non-proliferation posture. The pursuit of a nuclear capability or redeployment of nuclear weapons has gained traction among the South Korean public, as over 70% supported acquiring a sovereign nuclear capability in 2021. In this paper, I argue nuclear proliferation in South Korea would (1) destabilize regional security, (2) diminish U.S. security alliances, and (3) undermine the international rules-based order regarding non-proliferation and offer policy recommendations for U.S. defense practitioners in order to boost …

Examining Active News Avoidance Across Countries: A Multilevel Moderation Analysis Of News Interests, News Trust, And Press Freedom, Gabriel Miao Li, Fan Liang, Qinfeng Zhu

Communication Faculty Articles and Research

Previous studies have identified various individual factors explaining news avoidance, but the understanding of how these factors function within the broader political information environment is limited. This study, leveraging a large-scale cross-national survey, reveals that the relationships between individual news interests, news trust, and news avoidance differ across countries with varying levels of press freedom. In nations where the press is strong and free, personal preferences minimally influence individuals’ active avoidance of hard news. News avoidance is not solely a product of individual-level attributes. Rather, the impact of these individual factors is significantly shaped by the overarching political information environment.

Corporatizing Violence: Targeted Repression Of Indigenous Dissent In Democratic States, Laikaika Layne Rivera

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis explores state repression of disruptive protests against private development projects in democracies. Using a mixed methods approach, including logistic regression and case studies, the research identifies key factors influencing repression. Indigenous leadership, fragmented public opposition, and private elite influence increase the likelihood of violent repression. The findings suggest that when public resistance is insufficient against powerful private interests, coercive institutions resort to violent strategies to quell disruptions and signal increased costs for future dissent. State repression is more likely when the protest movement is comprised of Indigenous groups than compared to those of the general public. The study …

Strategy As Problem-Solving, Andrew Carr

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

This article proposes a new definition of strategy as problem-solving that challenges the focus on goals and assumptions of order within many post–Cold War approaches to strategy. It argues that the military needs strategy to diagnose the complex problems of the twenty-first century before they can be solved. Inspired by practitioners such as Andrew Marshall and George F. Kennan, this new definition clarifies what strategists do and offers a logic for distinguishing the use of the term strategy. Practitioners will also find problem-solving tools and pedagogies they can adopt today.

Rethinking The Relevance Of Self-Deterrence, Jeffrey H. Michaels

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

Self-deterrence is critically understudied in deterrence theory. Similarly, deterrence practitioners prefer to focus on adversaries’ threats rather than seeking to account for the full scope of fears influencing the decision calculus of policymakers. Through historical case studies, this article identifies where self-deterrence has occurred, highlights the benefits of incorporating the concept in future strategic planning and intelligence assessments, and recommends that policymakers, strategists, and analysts acknowledge self-deterrence as an important factor when preparing for future wars.

Review Of Poverty, By America, Linda Plitt Donaldson

The Journal of Social Encounters

No abstract provided.

Review Of After Genocide: Memory And Reconciliation In Rwanda, Selina Gallo-Cruz

The Journal of Social Encounters

No abstract provided.

Review Of My Soul’S Journey To Redefine Leadership, Patricia Mische

The Journal of Social Encounters

No abstract provided.

Review Essay: An Apostolate Of Friendship: Recent Publications On The Letters And Conferences Of Thomas Merton, Paul Pynkoski

The Journal of Social Encounters

No abstract provided.

Relational Leadership And Governing: Somali Clan Cultural Leadership, Farhia Abdi

The Journal of Social Encounters

This research is focused on exploring the distinction between theories of leadership and more contemporary visions of relational leading. In order to do so, the specific case of traditional clan structure seen in the Somali state will be examined, and parallels between the two will be drawn. This paper argues that the old Somali tradition shares much in common with current writing on relational leadership (Uhl-Bien, 2006) and, therefore, can expand our understanding and support for a form of leadership that transcends traditional, individualist, hierarchical leadership. This argument will be supported by a detailed investigation into clan politics, leadership, and …

Organising Civil Resistance - Understanding The Effects And Dynamics Of Organisational Structures On The Outcome Of Civil Resistance Campaigns, Lars Heuver

The Journal of Social Encounters

The use of nonviolent tactics has become the most common way to achieve change. The field of civil resistance has been predominantly focussed on the dynamics related to the outcome, however, surprisingly little or no attention has been given to organisational structures that shape these dynamics. This paper will try to fill this research gap by combining insights from organisational science, social movement studies, and civil resistance literature. The research question that is posed is: What is the effect of the organisational structure on the outcome of civil resistance campaigns? Research from organisational sciences argues that organisational structures, forms of …

Review Of Selected Essays On Peacebuilding And Reconciliation, Rita Merhej, Bashar Rahme

The Journal of Social Encounters

This paper is a review of selected essays on reconciliation and peacebuilding in conflict-affected and post-conflict societies delineating the fundamental key factors that promote peacebuilding, and the approaches to reconciliation which have proved to be effective over the past 20 years. Acknowledgement of wrongdoing, empathy and the promotion of open dialogue stand out as the factors common to all reconciliation initiatives. The paper examines five approaches to peacebuilding, namely contact theory, restorative justice, making apologies, sharing narratives and reconciliation through education, conceptualizing each in light of its benefits, as well as its challenges, with examples from the real world illustrating …

On Dialogue And Beyond: Positive Environmental Peacebuilding In Palestine, Elsa Barron

The Journal of Social Encounters

In Palestine, environmental management has been used as a tool of military occupation and oppression. Yet even within that context, many community-based organizations have established programs relating to environmental peacebuilding. Of these initiatives, environmental dialogue programs have received significant attention and resources, even more so since the war in Gaza began in October, 2023. However, a deeper interrogation of these programs reveals the danger that dialogue and collaboration devoid of a critical analysis of power and injustice further perpetuates systemic oppression. Moving these programs into the realm of positive environmental peacebuilding requires a willingness to engage in this structural analysis. …

Tunisian Democracy At A Crossroads: A Comparative Analysis Of Beji Caid Essebsi And Kais Saied Regimes, Nizar Lukman

Jurnal Politik

As a new democracy, Tunisia is quite vulnerable to democratic erosion. The implementation of democracy in the country was quite effective during the leadership of Beji Caid Essebsi, resulting in a high democracy index driven by various policies that supported the implementation of this system. However, Tunisia’s quality of democracy significantly declined since President Kais Saied took power in 2019. The dissolution of Parliament, the prime minister's dismissal, the introduction of freedom of expression for council members, and unilateral electoral reforms aimed at consolidating his power are some cases of proof. This pattern raises questions about the recurring nature of …

Apotheosis Of The State And The Decline Of Civilization: A Systems Approach, Robert Bedeski

Comparative Civilizations Review

Humanity is undergoing a second Axial Age. The first, as described by Karl Jaspers, brought transcendence into the vision and self-understanding of humans and the world. The rise of secularism and “Death of God” is dissolving and fragmenting that transcendence — a vital subsystem of the civilization system. Economy, knowledge and government comprise three additional subsystems and have coalesced to form the modern sovereign state, diminishing the traditional place of religion, art and philosophy in civilizations. An example of a state lacking common institutions of transcendence was the Mongol empire. Ruling Russia for a quarter millennium, its state form was …

Legislative Civility, Gridlock, Polarization, And Productivity, William D. Schreckhise, John C. Pierce, Francis A. Benjamin, Nicholas P. Lovrich, Eric D. Button

Political Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

This article examines the relationship between legislative civility and legislative productivity in US state legislatures. The research employs data from the National Survey of State Legislative Lobbyists and from the State Policy Innovation and Diffusion (SPID) database. The former dataset is used to generate an overall civility index for each state as developed by Kettler et al. The SPID database allows one to measure the legislative productivity of a state legislature. Employing these data, negative binomial and Poisson regression models reveal that state legislatures rated as more civil by their own lobbyists produced significantly more pieces of noteworthy legislation than …

President's Message, Lynn Rhodes

Comparative Civilizations Review

Throughout 2023 and into 2024, the International Society for the Comparative Study of Civilizations has been extremely busy in the furtherance of our vision. Here are some of the highlights.

The Rise Of China And The Concept Of Civilization: Constructing Conceptual Apparatus For Cross-Civilizational Comparisons, Liah Greenfeld

Comparative Civilizations Review

The paper argues that the rise of China to a position of prominence in the contemporary world offers Western scholars a greatly expanded comparative perspective and, thus, an opportunity to re-assess their fundamental view of social reality. This comparative perspective draws attention to supra-national cultural unities, “civilizations,” first suggested by both Durkheim and Weber.

There are deficiencies in the current understanding of “civilization” in the social science literature, among others exemplified by “civilizational analysis,” and so this paper proposes a new concept which adds to the conceptual apparatus of sociological theory a new — fully independent of others — variant …