Digital Commons Network^™

Public Policy Design In Georgia Child Support And Fatherhood, Troy Gathers

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Child support policy in the United States has been widely studied as a method to ensure financial responsibility; however, existing research has identified concerns regarding enforcement practices and their disproportionate impact on African American noncustodial fathers in Georgia. Limited qualitative research examined how Georgia fathers experience and interprets these policies, creating a gap in understanding how policy implementation influences paternal engagement. The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine how African American noncustodial fathers in Georgia perceived the child support process and to explore how modernization of enforcement policies might improve paternal engagement. Guided by policy feedback theory, this …

Hb 1938: Ending Prison Privatization In Tennessee, Skyler J. Duplessis, Xavier Tharpe-Patton, Josie Lerer, Carley Wood

SPARK Symposium Presentations

The term recidivism refers to the tendency of an individual convicted of a crime to reoffend after release. A growing body of research has found that individuals incarcerated in privately operated correctional facilities often demonstrate higher rates of recidivism compared to those held in publicly managed prisons. Scholars suggest that differences in access to rehabilitative programming, staffing patterns, and institutional resources may contribute to these disparities. Critics argue that cost-containment priorities unique to for-profit correction can conflict with investment in education, treatment, and reentry preparation -factors consistently linked in the literature to reduced reoffending and improved community reintegration. This is …

Exploring School Administrators' Perceptions Of Zero Tolerance Policies For African American Female Students, Keysha D. Knight

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Zero tolerance policies disproportionately affect African American female students and contribute to their accelerated entry into the school-to-prison pipeline. Existing literature indicated that these policies subject African American female students to harsher disciplinary practices and that their behaviors were often misunderstood by school administrators. However, there is limited research on how school administrators’ discretionary implementation of zero-tolerance policies contributes to these disparities. The purpose of this general qualitative study was to explore how school administrators interpret and exercise discretion when implementing zero tolerance policies affecting African American female students through the lens of Lipsky’s street-level bureaucracy theory. Four themes were …

Perceptions And Experiences Of Federal Employees Following The Dissolution Of Deia Initiatives, Angela Silva

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The federal government faces the ongoing challenge of sustaining a workforce that represents the diversity of the American public while navigating through policy changes that eliminated diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility initiatives. The federal government is public serving and is one of the largest employers in the United States. The purpose of this generic qualitative study was to explore the perceptions and experiences of government employees navigating the termination of all diversity and inclusion programs through the lens of the antecedents and outcomes of inclusions model, which showed that inclusive leadership, climate and practices contribute to positive employee and organizational …

Florida Police Officers’ Reflections On Faith And Spirituality Through Lived Experiences, Steven Vose Mcgillicuddy

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

This qualitative phenomenological study examined how Florida police officers perceived changes in their spiritual and religious beliefs following prolonged exposure to critical incidents. The research question asked how officers interpreted, adapted, and transformed their spiritual or religious beliefs in response to repeated critical incident exposure. Nine sworn frontline officers participated and were interviewed using a semi structured protocol. Transcripts were analyzed inductively using thematic analysis. Three primary findings emerged: (1) Career and Impact captured cumulative occupational exposure that prompted moral appraisal and coping, and participants did not report uniform loss of faith; (2) Spiritual Belief followed three common trajectories—stability, strengthening/reaffirmation, …

Book Review: Training For Victory: U.S. Special Forces Advisory Operations From El Salvador To Afghanistan, Joshua O. Lehman

Parameters Bookshelf – Online Book Reviews

Author: Frank K. Sobchak

Reviewed by: Lieutenant Colonel Joshua O. Lehman, academy professor, United States Military Academy

What makes some US Special Forces advisory missions succeed while others fail? In Training for Victory, Frank K. Sobchak examines five decades of elite Green Beret operations—from El Salvador to Afghanistan—to uncover the critical factors behind building effective partner forces. Challenging conventional wisdom, this book reveals surprising truths about language, culture, and combat advising in America’s most complex wars.

Book Review: Ransom War: How Cyber Crime Became A Threat To National Security, James P. Farwell

Parameters Bookshelf – Online Book Reviews

Author: Max Smeets

Reviewed by: James P. Farwell, CEO, The Farwell Group

In Ransom War, Max Smeets breaks down how criminal organizations use cyber technologies for ransoms. He explains the way ransomware organizations operate and how they have evolved with the rise of technology. The reviewer sees this book as well written, with relevant examples and concrete arguments.

Building A Coordinated Care Network For New Mexico Veterans: A Roadmap For Statewide Implementation, Nosa Akol, Zachary M. Bridgewater, Vincent R. Delsignore, Emily Graham, Mary Rachel Keville

Institute for Veterans and Military Families

With the support of the New Mexico State Legislature, the D’Aniello Institute for Veterans and Military Families (IVMF) is leading a multi-phase project to design a coordinated care system for New Mexican service members, veterans, and their families. In the project’s first phase, the IVMF conducted a landscape assessment to understand the needs of the military-connected community and examined the viability of a coordinated care system for the state. We found that veteran-serving organizations that participated felt that a coordinated care network would be of value to New Mexico veterans, but questions on how best to implement such a network …

Competition As A Solution To High Prices And Low Capacity In U.S. Healthcare: A Synthetic Control Analysis Of Certificate Of Need Repeal As A Lever For Hospital Market Reform, Eve Velasquez, Wyatt Greco

School of Public Policy Capstones

The U.S. healthcare system faces dual challenges: rising hospital prices and declining capacity. Between 2000 and 2024, average hospital expenses per adjusted inpatient day increased from approximately $1,000 to over $3,000, while hospital beds per capita declined from 3.11 to 2.45. This capstone evaluates three policy alternatives to address affordability and accessibility: restrictions on most-favored nation clauses in insurance-provider contracts, elimination of federal tax exemptions on employer-sponsored health insurance, and repeal of certificate of need (CON) laws. Through a comprehensive literature review and a synthetic control analysis of Indiana's 2019 nursing home CON reinstatement, we assess the empirical effects on …

The Future Of Dual Immersion In California: Analyzing California’S Global 2030 Goals, Jonathan Tejeda, Kamila Campos, Robert Emmans

School of Public Policy Capstones

California's Global 2030 initiative set an ambitious target: half of all K-12 students to achieve bilingual proficiency by 2030. This qualitative study examines whether Dual Language programs (DLPs) in California's major metropolitan areas are positioned to meet that goal. Drawing on ten semi-structured expert interviews with researchers, administrators, teachers, and nonprofit advocates, the study identifies four central challenges: inadequate student preparedness, chronic underfunding, insufficient teacher training, and a failure to connect students to their cultural heritage. The findings reveal that California lacks the infrastructure, data systems, and financial commitment necessary to achieve the 2030 goals. The authors recommend establishing a …

Narrative Strategies In Presidential Environmental Policymaking: An Examination Of The Executive Impacts Of Presidential Narratives, Gorgin Mansourian

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2020 - Present

In this dissertation, I examine how U.S. presidents employ narrative strategies to shape environmental policymaking through both rhetorical and institutional mechanisms. Specifically, I investigate how Presidents Donald J. Trump and Joseph R. Biden constructed, communicated, and institutionalized environmental narratives during their first terms, highlighting the relationship between presidential narratives and executive orders. Using the Narrative Policy Framework (NPF) and Richard Neustadt’s Presidential Power Theory (PPT), this study conceptualizes presidential narratives as both rhetorical tools and instruments of persuasion within institutional contexts. This synthesis advances the NPF by highlighting the role of institutional positions on narrative credibility, by emphasizing the roles …

Street-Level Bureaucrats In Public Higher Education: The Ethical Obligations To Support Psychologically At-Risk Students, Michael Turtz

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2020 - Present

To fill the gap in the current literature, the purpose of this dissertation was to explain how and why Street-Level Bureaucrats (SLBs) in public higher education helped psychologically at-risk students during the pandemic. This qualitative study was intended to examine the role of SLBs in public higher education as it relates to their utilization of administrative discretion when advising psychologically at-risk students. In addition to administrative discretion, this dissertation also explored the role of ethical obligations and the use of a therapeutic lens when SLBs are faced with some of the most difficult situations for which they were not equipped …

The Hypocrisy Of The Wizards—A Proposal To Correct Incentives In Higher Education Loan Financing, Caden Benedict

School of Public Policy Capstones

This paper explores the origins of the student loan debt crisis and proposes tying university incentives to graduates' repayment plans and disclosing median earnings for degrees before students apply. Specifically, while there are numerous factors explaining why the price of education has increased dramatically since the 1970s, this paper proposes solutions that will specifically target university moral hazards by requiring universities fund: (1) the current subsidies to federal student loan repayments under income-driven plans as the House of Representatives intended before the Senate removed "risk-sharing," and (2) bankruptcy law discharge amounts. Moreover, requiring universities to disclose the median earnings of …

Ai Exposure And The Future Of Work: Tasks, Skill Demand, And Education, Erik Vasilauskas, Michael Horrigan

External Papers and Reports

No abstract provided.

Ethical Artificial Intelligence In Public Administration: Public Perception And Challenges In Implementation, Jacob V. Rogers

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Integrating artificial intelligence (AI) into public administration offers opportunities to improve efficiency and decision-making. However, it also poses significant ethical challenges, such as bias, transparency, and accountability, which directly affect public trust. While previous studies have examined the technical and ethical aspects of AI, there is still a gap in understanding how these issues impact public perception and the effectiveness of AI-driven government services. This dissertation addresses this gap by exploring public perceptions of AI use in government, focusing on ethical concerns and their link to trust. It uses a quantitative survey to analyze participant responses, identifying patterns and trends …

Goals And Budgets: An Exploratory Study Of Sequencing In Budget Simulation Engagement, Frankline Muthomi

Public Administration Faculty Publications and Presentations

Purpose:

The purpose of this study is to examine how the sequencing of budget simulations influences the alignment between priority goals and budgetary decisions. Drawing on behavioral perspectives, the study posits that two simulation sequences—goal setting to budgeting (default) and budgeting to goal setting (alternative)—shape individuals' budgetary responses, particularly the proximity between a program's total cost and the corresponding budgetary allocations. Design/methodology/approach This study employs a quasi-experimental research design using Balancing Act modules that enable participants to articulate their priority goals and corresponding resource allocations. Adult Americans (aged 18 and above) were recruited through an online crowdsourcing platform and randomly …

Regulating Dogs Or Protecting Industry? A Critical Analysis On The Animal Welfare Act And The Federal Oversight Of Commercial Dog Breeding In The United States, Ava Knight '26

Honor Scholar Theses

To evaluate whether existing federal laws adequately protect the welfare of dogs, this research relies on publicly available inspection records and enforcement data from the United States Department of Agriculture and Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (USDA, APHIS), federal oversight reports from the United States Department of Agriculture and Office of Inspector General (USDA, OIG), and data collected by animal welfare organizations including Humane World for Animals and the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA). These sources expose how current regulations function in practice and reveal gaps in oversight that allow harmful breeding conditions to …

Gender-Based Violence And Botswana's Constitutional Failure To Protect Women's Rights, Cameron Mcdonald

Immigration and Human Rights Law Review

Gender-based violence (“GBV”) remains a pervasive human rights issue throughout Botswana. When it comes to gender equality, Botswana’s dual constitutional and customary legal system is a paradox. Despite its commitment to equality and nondiscrimination, Botswana’s Constitution allows customary courts to discriminate freely to preserve traditional practices that disadvantage women. These traditional practices affect women’s right to property, inheritance, marriage, legal representation, and personal safety. Customary law continues to constrain women’s right to economic autonomy and access to justice, leaving many women dependent on the men who abuse them. As a result, many Batswana women experience structural discrimination in both their …

The Myth Of The Immigrant As A Criminal: Rhetoric, Otherness, And The Legal Construction Of Danger, Katerina Fernandez

Immigration and Human Rights Law Review

The figure of the “criminal immigrant” occupies a central place in contemporary U.S. immigration discourse, shaping public perception, enforcement priorities, and legal doctrine. Yet a substantial body of empirical research consistently demonstrates that immigrants—both documented and undocumented—commit crimes at lower rates than native-born citizens. This Note examines why the narrative of immigrant criminality persists despite this evidence and how it influences the development and operation of immigration law. It argues that “immigrant” functions not only as a legal category but also as a socially constructed marker of Otherness, encompassing perceived differences in race, language, culture, and religion. Through this lens, …

The Expanding Digital Border: Ai, Surveillance, And The Fight For Justice, James Chesser

Immigration and Human Rights Law Review

As artificial intelligence transforms the mechanisms of immigration control, the modern border has become a digital filter—one governed less by geography and more by code. This Article examines the legal, technical, and ethical implications of AI-driven systems now central to global border enforcement, including biometric surveillance, algorithmic risk scoring, and predictive profiling. It explores how states use these technologies not only to manage irregular migration, but to compete for global talent—constructing migration regimes that reward capital and compliance while eroding transparency, due process, and equality.

Through an international and comparative lens, the piece highlights the expansion of algorithmic decision-making across …

Exploring The Ethical And Practical Considerations Of Artificial Intelligence In Real-World Health Care Settings: Stakeholder Focus Group Study, Carmen Wendy Ulizio, Devika Dua, Naya Meenkashi Mukul, Santosh Areti, Kristin Kostick-Quenet, Vasiliki Nataly Rahimzadeh

Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy Staff Publications

Background: Artificial intelligence (AI) technologies continue to transform how we research human disease, diagnose and treat patients, and operate hospitals. However, emerging ethical dilemmas surrounding their design, use, and oversight demand both policy attention and empirical research.

Objective: This study aims to explore current AI development, integration, and use activities across the Texas Medical Center (TMC), the largest medical center in the world, and identify emerging ethical priorities.

Methods: We conducted a total of 3 qualitative focus groups via Zoom (Zoom Video Communications, Inc) between May and June 2025 to gauge the perspectives of 19 clinicians, developers, administrators, and patient …

Why Capitalism Needs Democracy And Democracy Needs Capitalism, Luigi Zingales

Fordham Law Review

No abstract provided.

Are Missourians Voting For Conservative Candidates And Liberal Policies? A Case For Ballot Measure Ticket Splitting, Kimberly L. Casey, Andrew Strunc

Missouri Policy Journal

Missouri voters have recently been observed engaging in a form of ticket splitting in which support for Republican candidates is accompanied by approval of liberal ballot measures. This study examines that phenomenon using data from the Northwest Policy and Civic Engagement Center’s exit poll of the 2024 general election, conducted in Maryville, Missouri. The data reveal a strong tendency among voters to support candidates from a single party, Democratic or Republican, yet split their votes on ballot measures aligned with opposing ideological positions. We define this behavior as Ballot Measure Ticket Splitting (BMTS): the act of casting a straight-ticket …

Missouri Policy Journal -Volume 2, Issue 3 (2026) -Full Issue

Missouri Policy Journal

No abstract provided.

The Last Human Question: Generative Ai's Existential Threat To Consensus And Law, Joshua Fairfield

West Virginia Law Review

The true risk of artificial intelligence (“AI”) is not that the toasters will rise up. It is that AI will be competent to perform human tasks and indifferent to human welfare. The risk is that we will be outcompeted by generative automated processes that create output similar to ours (although never the same, as this Article explains), but which need none of the outputs of the economy for food, shelter, or human flourishing. Further, a more precise and existential description of the threat is that generative AI will disrupt and crowd out humanity’s evolutionary superpower, our ability to generate agreement …

Ai And Law Milestones: From Top-Down To Bottom-Up Computational Models Of Legal Reasoning (And Back), Kevin Ashley

West Virginia Law Review

This Article introduces five research and development milestones in the field of Artificial Intelligence and Law and then discusses how large language models (“LLMs”) and generative AI (“GenAI”) are affecting each of them. The milestones include legal expert systems, lessons learned in computationally modeling legal rules and statutes, knowledge-based models of legal argument, machine learning models that classify case texts and predict outcomes, and the design and evaluation of legal applications of LLMs and GenAI. These milestones illustrate how top-down knowledge-based computational models of legal expertise have rapidly given way to bottom-up models based on machine learning. Knowledge-based models explicitly …

Training New Lawyers With And For Generative Ai: A Semester-Long Experiment Scaling Clinical Friction In The Doctrinal Classroom, Frank W. Volk

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Energy And Environmental Footprint Of Ai, Michael P. Vandenbergh, Ethan I. Thorpe, Jonathan M. Gilligan

Michigan Journal of Environmental & Administrative Law

Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to create major economic and social benefits, but also to rapidly escalate electricity demand and its associated environmental impacts. Information availability has been a cornerstone of environmental law for half a century, and this Article argues that providing information to individual, corporate, and other users about the electricity demand and environmental impacts of AI can reduce those impacts without delaying development of the technology. Little is known about how different large language models (LLMs) compare on these metrics, though. To address whether users have access to the information necessary to address this shortcoming, the …

A Comparative Analysis Of State Legislation Prohibiting Gender-Affirming Care For Missouri Minors: A Policy Review, Hayley Lange, Benjamin Grin, Kaitlyn Crosby

Missouri Policy Journal

The Save Adolescents from Experimentation (SAFE) Act is a law enacted in August 2023 that banned gender-affirming medical care for individuals under 18 in Missouri. It states that any medical provider who provides medical gender-affirming care to a minor will have their professional medical license revoked. The purpose of this policy review is to evaluate and compare the content of the Missouri SAFE Act with similar legislation enacted in other states to provide an evaluative model.        

This policy assessment used a modified assessment tool that was developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The assessment included a …

Next-Generation Democratic Cyber Statecraft - Balancing The Signal: Shutdown Shocks And Democratic Digital Governance, Scott M. Di Panni

School of Public Policy Capstones

This paper develops Next-Generation Democratic Cyber Statecraft (NG-DCS), a unified strategic doctrine for democratic governments to contest the cognitive domain against authoritarian adversaries. Drawing on twenty-six years of cross-national panel data (1999–2024) spanning 213 countries, game-theoretic modeling, and qualitative case analysis, the paper establishes three interconnected empirical and theoretical foundations. First, cross-national OLS regression across 160+ countries demonstrates that regime type is the dominant structural determinant of internet freedom (R²=0.615, β=2.513, p< 0.001), explaining more than twice the variance attributable to per-capita wealth (R²=0.268). Democratic governance, not economic development, produces open digital environments. Second, a two-way fixed effects (TWFE) difference-in-differences study exploiting government-ordered internet shutdowns as discrete policy interventions finds that digital restrictions causally degrade V-Dem governance quality by 0.21–0.38 standard deviations (p< 0.001 across all specifications). Treatment effects are immediate (β=−0.302 at k=0) and persist through five post-treatment years (β=−0.246 at k=+5), indicating structural rather than transitory governance damage. Parallel trends validation (p=0.352) and Callaway–Sant’Anna heterogeneity-robust estimation (ATT=−0.230, SE=0.077) support causal identification. Instrumental variable triangulation (2SLS β=−0.949, p=0.005) confirms that simultaneity was attenuating, not inflating, the primary estimates. Third, formal game-theoretic analysis reveals that the current U.S.–adversary equilibrium is (Restrain, Escalate)—the risk-dominant but Pareto-inferior outcome of a Stag Hunt structure. China, Russia, North Korea, and Venezuela each occupy structurally distinct positions (Stackelberg commitment, asymmetric two-level, autarky, and reactive trigger, respectively), requiring differentiated doctrinal responses rather than a uniform strategic playbook. Generative AI and algorithmic governance are shown to accelerate cognitive vulnerability by collapsing influence operation costs and exploiting engagement-optimized platform architectures that systematically degrade deliberative capacity in democratic populations.