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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons™
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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
News Deserts And Voter Turnout: How Local News Shortages Decrease Voter Participation, Lauren Penington
News Deserts And Voter Turnout: How Local News Shortages Decrease Voter Participation, Lauren Penington
Honors Theses
How does local news impact a county’s registered voter population, associated voting patterns, and political participation? Electoral turnout is one of the most studied topics in political science, and substantial research exists into demographic factors — including race, age, and socioeconomic status — that influence an individual’s likelihood to vote. Recent studies have begun to examine the impact of societal factors — such as the internet, social media, and news — on an individual’s ability to and likelihood of fulfilling their civic obligation. This paper explores the relationship between expanding news deserts and decreasing voter turnout, proposing that as a …
An Examination Of Nebraska’S Law Setting The Age Of Majority At Nineteen, Lauren Mcneal
An Examination Of Nebraska’S Law Setting The Age Of Majority At Nineteen, Lauren Mcneal
Honors Theses
My proposed research covers the actions of the Nebraska legislature surrounding the age of majority. During the summer of 2019, I interned with Senator Adam Morfeld to draft a bill lowering the age of majority in Nebraska from nineteen to eighteen for healthcare services. Many eighteen-year-olds, especially students, face complications when they seek healthcare services but need parental consent. This is because young adults tend to move away from their homes at this age but are still not considered independent from their parents under Nebraska state law. In this thesis, I use the information I gathered from my interim research …
The Impact Of State Legislative Term Limits On Descriptive Representation, Matt Baldwin
The Impact Of State Legislative Term Limits On Descriptive Representation, Matt Baldwin
Honors Theses
Do term limits make state legislatures more descriptively representative of their population? If the composition of a state legislature is a function of its ruleset and design, then term limits—a major shift in the rules—would change who is running for office and who is getting elected. In order to explore this question, a dataset was created by contacting a number of states to solicit responses on the demographics of their state legislatures from 1990-2018. In addition, information regarding some control variables (partisanship, time, economy) was gathered. A gap variable was created to see what difference existed between the proportion of …
Medicaid Work Requirements: State-Based Innovation Or Punitive Policymaking?, Diane Sherwin
Medicaid Work Requirements: State-Based Innovation Or Punitive Policymaking?, Diane Sherwin
Honors Theses
In March 2017, officials appointed to the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services by President Donald Trump signaled to state governments their intent to support states who would choose to utilize Medicaid’s Section 1115 waiver provision to alter their state’s Medicaid program by introducing a work requirement. As of October 1, 2018, 13 states have heeded this signal and proposed a work requirement component for their Medicaid programs. The purpose of this paper is to determine if Medicaid work requirements are an innovative policy approach to improve independence among Medicaid enrollees, or if these requirements are a punitive, partisan approach …