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Hope And Pessimism In ‘Classical’ 20th Century Civilizational Theory, David J. Rosner

Comparative Civilizations Review

This paper will involve an analysis of the relation between optimism, pessimism, and realism in 20th century classical civilizational theory, through the perspective offered specifically in Ernst Bloch’s magnum opus The Principle of Hope. Bloch, a German Jew and unorthodox Marxist, wrote The Principle of Hope during 1938–1947 in exile fleeing the Nazi holocaust. Today, humanity in its entirety now faces another set of crises — pandemic, overpopulation, climate change, political impasse, economic inequality, social unrest, growing lawlessness and nuclear threat. One can easily be tempted to give up on the future of our increasingly fragile and endangered world. …

End Matter

Comparative Civilizations Review

No abstract provided.

The Psychology Of Fascism: Wilhelm Reich Et Al, Kenneth Feigenbaum

Comparative Civilizations Review

There are innumerable definitions and explanations of fascism in the literature of the social and behavioral sciences. This paper only explicates one: the concept of a fascist personality. It focuses on the early work by scholars in this area, beginning with the writings of the 20th century psychiatrist and student of Sigmund Freud, Austrian and American intellectual, Dr. Wilhelm Reich.

In the short story/essay that follows this article, allusion is made by the author — the late writer and United Nations staff member Shawna V. Tropp — to the circle which grew up around Wilhelm Reich. This was a significant …

Small Claims, Shawna V. Tropp

Comparative Civilizations Review

Had Laura Davidov not been a heavy woman in her late fifties, she would have thought that she had made a conquest. A golden young man appeared to have been following her through the Musée Rodin for over an hour; his eyes were turquoise, and he was quite old enough to be her son. There was also something disturbingly familiar about him. She therefore beamed her most maternal smile upon him and took a hesitant step in his direction.

Full Issue

Comparative Civilizations Review

No abstract provided.

Front Matter

Comparative Civilizations Review

No abstract provided.

Black Trust In Us Legislatures, Ernest Dupree Iii, John R. Hibbing

Department of Political Science: Faculty Publications

Trust is a key part of any political system. Given the very different experiences of Black people and White people in the United States, it is likely that the nature and contours of political trust varies widely from one racial group to the other. In this article, we take advantage of a specially commissioned 2018 survey to compare Black and White trust in American legislative institutions (Congress and the state legislatures). Thanks to an oversample, we also are able to zero in on variations across Black respondents, making it possible to identify the variables that push legislative trust up or …

Case Study 7: Effects Of Tai Chi On Patients With Mild Cognitive Impairment

Journal of Nonprofit Innovation

“Background and Purpose. Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is a common condition, which threatens the quality of life of older adults. Tai Chi (TC) is growing in popularity among patients with MCI. This study is aimed at evaluating the effectiveness and safety of TC in older adults with MCI.”

Visualizing Politics In Indonesia: The Design And Distribution Of Election Posters, Colm A. Fox

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Where studies have shown that visuals are the primary means of political communication, research continues to focus largely on text-based information. To add to our understanding of visual-political communications, this article analyses Indonesian election posters since the 1950s. Drawing on historical materials and on a content analysis of 4,000 election posters, it asks why election posters have been designed and distributed in particular ways. Findings indicate that in the past, posters used singular, though powerful, social symbols to mobilize demographic groups behind political parties. However, contemporary posters are more visually complex and more candidate-centered, making arguments as to what the …

Past Actions And Expertise: How States Infer Enemy Intentions, Yu Aoki

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Whether and how a state’s past military (in)actions affect perceptions of its resolve and intentions has been disputed. This dissertation argues that non-experts and experts in governments use enemy past actions differently to infer enemy resolve and intentions. Experts are those who have rich knowledge about enemies (e.g., country specialists and intelligence analysts), whereas non-experts are those who do not (e.g., top policymakers). The theory argues that non-experts are influenced by what psychologists call the “negativity bias,” which compels them to pay more attention to negative information than positive information concerning enemies. On the other hand, building on experimental findings …

The Politics Of Media Freedom, Kyong Mazzaro

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Democratization theories assume that democracy and media freedom go hand in hand. However, in democracies, politicians and individuals who have a stake in political battles often attack journalists. How can political and electoral incentives that are at the heart of democracy create a minefield for journalists? Examining cross-national patterns of censorship and the experiences of journalists in Venezuela, Mexico, and Brazil captured in over 4,600 case narratives, 30 field interviews, and historical documents, I study the circumstances under which political rivalries result in anti-media violence. I show that state and non-state actors are more likely to target journalists as a …

Drag, Drugs, And Demonstrations: Cultural Subversion Under Capitalism, Nicholas Kade Edwards

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In this essay, I will define cultural institutionalization and articulate the ways in which the phenomenon modulates subversive countercultural movements and integrates them into Western, capitalist cultural structures. I will then illustrate my theory of cultural institutionalization by analyzing three historical case studies of subversive countercultural movements in the United States. The first of which will be the drag queen phenomenon, which provides the most convincing case for the theory in the artistic sphere. Secondly, I will address a more explicitly political movement, the black liberation movement and its various permutations: the civil rights movement, the black power movement and …

The Rise Of A New Machine: Dominican Political Mobilization And Incorporation In New York City From 1991 To The Present, Fernando Aquino

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This research project analyzes the factors that influenced the pace of political progress and incorporation of Dominican ancestry candidates in New York City from 1991 to the present. Despite this immigrant group’s relatively recent arrival, as of August 2022, thirteen Dominican-American New York City residents currently hold seats in the city council, state legislature, and the U.S. Congress.

This achievement is remarkable in comparison to the much slower historical political progress for Puerto Ricans and other Latino/a communities in New York City. This dissertation uses the variation in the composition, relative position, and political contexts facing Dominican communities across four …

Reproducing The Orient: A Critical Examination Of Western Media Representations Of China’S Uyghur Policies Between 2014 And 2021, R. Tiger Li

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study examines the convergence of US state media and US-based mass media in news coverage of China’s policies in Xinjiang. Analysis of a sample of articles published by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and CNN between 2014 and 2021 found that stories citing US state media, Uyghur exile advocacy groups, or non-government organizations receiving US funding were significantly more negative in tone than articles using other sources. Articles citing state media and exile advocacy groups tended to frame China’s policies as an ideological challenge while other articles were more likely …

Three Essays On Nuclear Operations, Capabilities, And International Conflict, Kyungwon Suh

Dissertations - ALL

What is the effect of military operations of nuclear weapons, defined broadly as the management of nuclear weapons and the implementation of doctrinal concepts by which the military uses nuclear weapons in peacetime and combat, on international conflict outcomes? This dissertation explores how employment dimensions of military nuclear operations influence patterns of interstate military conflicts. The existing quantitative literature on nuclear weapons and international conflict mainly explores the impact of nuclear weapons possession on patterns of interstate conflict by using crude metrics of nuclear capabilities, such as binary measures of nuclear proliferation and a simple warhead count. These research practices …

Social Pressure & Accuracy Motivations- Strategies To Address Problems Of Directionally Motivated Reasoning In Political Information Processing, Colin French

Dissertations - ALL

How effective can social pressure be when encouraging accuracy motivations amongst the public? In politics, directionally motivated reasoning is a powerful force that can shape the way people access, process, and remember political information, which can often lead to inaccurate viewpoints, or opinions backed up by erroneous or unsupported information. These inaccuracies can be problematic for Democratic accountability. Accuracy motivations, or seeking the most accurate answer possible, are preferable for a public’s political knowledge and information processing. Using three novel survey experiments on the American public, I test whether inducing accuracy motivations via types of social pressure- in-group conformity, out-group …

Professionalizing Special Operations Forces, C. Anthony Pfaff

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

No abstract provided.

Scrutinizing Precarity: In Search Of Emancipatory Potential, Jaime Aznar Erasun

Emancipations: A Journal of Critical Social Analysis

This paper provides a review and discussion on the emancipatory potential of the notion of ‘precarity’. Since the 1980s, the notion of ‘precarity’ has been used increasingly by scholars and activists to account for variegated grievances. Specifically, it has been used to address issues related to the transformations of labour in the XXIst century: neoliberal reorganization of labour markets, increasing unavailability of stable jobs, increased personal debts, debilitating labour unions or the lack of accessible housing among other issues. However, beyond structural grievances voiced by everyday workers, precarity can also serve as an analytical tool to pin down socially induced …

Introduction: On The Timeliness Of Precarity-Critique Today, Paul Apostolidis

Emancipations: A Journal of Critical Social Analysis

Now is a propitious time to re-examine the present forms and political implications of precarity. As my colleagues and I write the essays for this special issue of Emancipations, questions abound regarding the manifestations of precarity that have appeared since popular movements in France first adopted the slogan of ‘the precariat’ in the early 2000s. Then, ‘precarity’ fit as an intuitive name for people’s negatively altered living and working conditions as national governments, corporations and supra-national institutions consolidated neoliberal transformations as, indisputably, the new norm. Two decades hence, should this situation simply be reaffirmed as the not-so new normal?

Objectified And Dehumanized: Does Objectification Impact Perceptions Of Women Political Candidates?, Claire M. Gothreau, Amanda Milena Alvarez, Amanda Friesen

Political Science Publications

Objectification and dehumanization are topics often discussed within the social psychology and feminist theory literature. Research on objectification has largely focused on the sexual objectification of women’s bodies, whereas the dehumanization literature has focused on dehumanization in the context of racial and ethnic groups. Extant political science research has only recently begun to engage with these concepts. In this manuscript, we build upon these literatures and apply these insights to questions relevant to politics. In particular, we argue that objectifying and dehumanizing portrayals of women impact how voters evaluate women politicians and how much they support gender parity in politics. …

Mitchell's "American Awakening: Identity Politics And Other Afflictions Of Our Time" (Book Review), Jaclyn Lee Parrott

The Christian Librarian

No abstract provided.

Grandchildren Of Ottomans Vs. Children Of Atatürk: A Script On Turkey's Emerging Political Identities Towards 2023, İrem Taştan, Ezgi Karanfil

Markets, Globalization & Development Review

The aim of this script is to take the initiative to open an updated discussion of the ways in which the global ideological market is shaping the collective political identities in the context of contemporary Turkey. We craft two seemingly opposing yet deeply connected political identities, namely the "grandchildren of Ottomans" and the "children of Atatürk", to critically explore the future possibilities for Turkey's contested ideological market.

The Eastern Atomic Rise: Defining Nuclear Hegemony In A Multi-Lateral World, Eric Rodriguez

Capstone Collection

Most existing literature in the field of international relations on the hegemonic dimension of nuclear technology is written from a realist, western perspective within the context of the Cold War. It focuses on its military, defense, and security dimensions, non-proliferation and safety, and some analyses of hegemony from a cultural media perspective. This theory-building paper offers contrasting understanding of nuclear hegemony, which recognizes three recent developments: 1) diminished Western Hegemony in nuclear technology; 2) growing Chinese nuclear capacity in energy geopolitics; and 3) growing concerns about global energy security. This paper begins with an overview of these developments and a …

Stereotypic Beliefs Contribute To Gender Disparities In The Field Of Economics, Stefanie Simon, Crystal L. Hoyt, Stephanie Fattorusso

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

Why are women under-represented in the field of economics relative to men? We propose that stereotypes associated with economists contribute to women’s interest in the field. We test the predictions that economists are stereotypically associated with low levels of communion and high levels of agency and that this type of stereotype content is associated with women’s lower interest in the field. In Study 1 (N = 883), stereotypes associated with people in the field of economics were masculine, characterized with low levels of communion and high levels of agency. In Study 2 (N = 182), undergraduate women were …

Pro-Integration Policies And The Occupational Expectations Of Immigrant Youth, Volha Chykina

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

Europe is experiencing heightened public attention toward anti-immigration policy reforms and restrictions. Despite the potential importance of these policy changes, we do not know whether these policies influence how immigrant children perceive their futures in their host countries. Employing secondary data analysis of the Program for International Student Assessment and the Migrant Integration Policy Index data, I show that a decrease in policy support for immigrant integration is associated with a decrease in how good of a job immigrant children expect to have when they are adults. Since students’ occupational expectations influence their eventual status attainment, this article shows that …

Coercing Fluently: The Grammar Of Coercion In The Twenty-First Century, C. Anthony Pfaff

Books, Monographs & Collaborative Studies

To illustrate the logic and grammar of coercion, this analysis relies on decision-theory methods, such as game theory, that examine the strategic decision-making process in interactions with adversaries and partners. The intent here is not to offer predictive models of rational-actor behavior. Rather, the intent is to use game-theory and similar approaches to understand how coercion works better. This analysis considers competitive interactions between actors that have discrete and qualifiable, if not quantifiable, preferences and who behave rationally, though this analysis acknowledges the behavior that is considered rational is frequently informed by nonrational social, cultural, and psychological factors. Considering these …

Union County Solar Energy Awareness, Amanda Pennett

Student Project Reports

No abstract provided.

Media Portrayal Of Private Prisons And Inmates., Ladye Anna L. Adams

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Private prisons have existed in the United States since 1986, but research about prison privatization has been limited. To date, there have been two published studies examining how mainstream media sources frame prison privatization to their audiences. This thesis attempts to address this gap in the literature. Using content analysis, I evaluate how mainstream media frames prison privatization and inmates housed in private prisons. The analysis is conducted in two parts. The first tests if private prison reduction or expansion is the focus of the news story if framed using economic benefits, ethical concerns, or prisoner violence. The second tests …

Church, Country, Culture: How Three Aspects Of Authoritarianism Predict Support For Donald Trump, Trenton Leslie

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the American bipartisan system, ideologies and beliefs create political views that sort voters between two groups. Political sorting increases polarization based on cultural preferences for an in-group that become ethnocentric views, which develop into ethnocentric cultural politics. I present an augmented concept of authoritarianism in America that encompasses sorting based on aspects of political belief, encapsulating sources of polarization and cultural attachments to political associations.

I develop the argument that authoritarianism is the result of political attachment to identities that feed off one another as individuals identify with an in-group, such as a party platform. My central theory is …

Seeing Red, Seeing Blue? Exploring The Influence Of Political Signals On Investor Perceptions And Behavior, Sergei Kolomeitsev

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the current political climate, understanding political identity alignment or misalignment between stakeholders is critical. Indeed, today’s climate of political polarization likely not only affects political behavior or social interactions but is likely to spill over into resource allocation behavior by groups and individuals. The purpose of this dissertation is to explore the influence of political signals between the investor and the entrepreneur in shaping an investor’s funding decision. Further, while the funding outcomes relating to political signals are critical, it is likewise imperative to advance our understanding of the mechanisms shaping investor perceptions. Thus, this dissertation investigates key mechanisms …