Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Politics Stops At Nature's Edge: The Need For Bipartisanship In Environmental Policymaking, Allison Kustic Dec 2020

Politics Stops At Nature's Edge: The Need For Bipartisanship In Environmental Policymaking, Allison Kustic

Political Science & International Studies | Senior Theses

Climate change is an existential threat to humans and everyday life, yet in recent years Congress has been unable to pass comprehensive environmental policy that addresses climate change. Collaboration between both parties in Congress is often necessary for passing legislation. There was a time when bipartisanship was common, and Congress passed significant environmental legislation. In particular, this happened during the 1970s with the Clean Water Act in 1972, the Endangered Species Act in 1973, the Safe Drinking Water Act in 1974, and the Toxic Substances Control Act and Resource Conservation and Recovery Act in 1976. However, since 1994, increased polarization …


Ground To A Halt: A Mixed Methods Approach To Understanding U.S. Government Shutdowns, Ian R. Baum Jan 2020

Ground To A Halt: A Mixed Methods Approach To Understanding U.S. Government Shutdowns, Ian R. Baum

Honors Theses

Government shutdowns are a relatively frequent, yet understudied, phenomenon in American politics. To better understand these shutdowns, I present them as competitions between parties in two areas: First, the policy space, in which each party tries to end a shutdown with a policy that coincides with that party’s ideology and; second, the public opinion space, in which each party attempts to win support from the public. I use both qualitative (case studies), and quantitative (formal and statistical models) methods to evaluate shutdowns using this lens. Through my case studies, I found that parties which propose shutdown-ending policies that are close …