Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Is Faith The Ultimate Divider?: The Intersections Between Religion And Political Behavior In The United States, Ryan Supple

Honors Projects

This thesis examines the complex relationship between religiosity and voting behavior in the United States. In a country where religion has diminished in importance over time, it seems rather fascinating that it still plays such a large role in the inner-workings of American politics. Chapter One analyzes the varying ways in which scholars have approached emergent political trends between religious groups, particularly with regards to political parties, voting behavior, and government representation. Chapter Two extends this analysis to the American National Election Studies (ANES), a national survey distributed to random samples of Americans during election seasons. The information from the …

For Our Future: Why Suffrage Must Be Extended To Disenfranchised Youth, Nolan Mchugh

Honors Projects

Is our democracy truly representative if large portions of our population consistently fail to make their voices heard at the polls? 18-24 year olds consistently turn out to vote at the lowest levels of any age group, and yet these are the voters who will live the longest with the policy decisions being made today: how can we improve voter turnout and civic engagement in the next generation to ensure our democracy is truly "by the people and for the people?" To answer this question, we must turn to another group whose voices are not heard at the ballot box, …

The Life Of An Apology, Lilah M. Parker

Honors Projects

Apologies, the development of and the aftermath from, are present in almost all of society. For that reason, they are arguably one of the most interesting forms of human interaction. This paper will review various sources of literature in an attempt to understand what kind of power an apology holds, as well as where it comes from. This will be done, first by developing a familiarity with the psychology behind certain emotions that influence apology making behaviors. Focus will be placed specifically on the developmental psychology of self-conscious emotions and the idea of self-esteem. These ideas of self awareness and …

Can Small Donations Have Big Consequences? Candidate Ideology, Small Donations, And Election Results In The 2016 And 2018 Congressional Cycles, Michael Borecki

Honors Projects

Small donors have provided an increased share of total campaign contributions in the 2016, 2018, and 2020 U.S. federal election cycles, including about $3 billion of the $14.4 billion raised in 2020. Campaign funding is still dominated by an influential set of large donors, but small donations may be the basis for an effective response to the disproportionate amount of “big money” in politics. This study investigates whether candidates who are more extreme perform better with small donors, and then examines the impact of small donations and overall funding on election results. These analyses were performed using linear sum-of-squares regression …

Chambers Of Reflection: Rousseau, Tocqueville, And Self-Government In The Digital Age, John Sweeney

Honors Projects

Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Alexis de Tocqueville each warn that the dominant cultures of their days may hinder the project of self-government. Against the backdrop of advancing Enlightenment philosophy, Rousseau writes that as social visibility increases relative to intimate connection, the drive for recognition corrupts self-love. Following the American and French revolutions, Tocqueville explores the democratic erosion of social hierarchies. He writes that a rise in individualism may obscure “self-interest well-understood”—the perspective gained through collaboration with others, thoughtful reflection, and reverence for truths that lie beyond the dictates of cursory instincts.

In this project, I apply these political theories to the …

Presidential Power And Its Expanding Influence: Suggestions On How To Strengthen Checks And Balances., Jesse Hooker

Honors Projects

The purpose of this essay is to recommend to Congress actions that can be taken to retake power from the Executive Branch without violating the norms of institutional forbearance and mutual toleration. In doing this, the essay first looks at the rise of the Executive Branch and the contributing factors in part two. Part three examines the benefits of checks and balances as well as the founders intent. In part Four, the essay examines congressional actions taken in the past to curb the accumulation of power as well as making suggestions for how Congress and the Supreme Court should act …

Synthesizing The Small Town: Why Conservatism?, Jeffrey W. Lueders

Honors Projects

The small town has often been a romanticized topic for the public at large. Often it is discussed in terms of quaintness and nostalgia for an older time; meanwhile, the effects of the small town in the here-and-now are glossed over and not given sufficient attention to fill in the finer details (Bellah et al. 1985). Prominent sociologists cite the small town and rural society as a source of conservative ideology (Wuthnow, 2014; Smith & Krannich 2000), however, they fail to show how conservative ideology is supposedly created in the small town. Instead, sociologists and the public at large blindly …

Politics, Technology, And Libertarianism, Thomas J. Perry

Honors Projects

In recent years, technology has started to play a major role in the U.S. political climate. Specifically, it has created a platform for outside groups, such as libertarians, to have their voices heard. This brought forward an important research question: How has technology helped or hindered the ability of individually focused libertarians to organize for collective action? Through the exploration of previous research, two major findings are discovered: 1) technology and the growth of individualism in politics are intertwined and 2) technology and individualism both have ties to libertarianism. The implications of libertarianism are analyzed further through the study of …

Amidst The Varieties Of Populism: The Case Of The Recurrent Pattern Of Nativism And Authoritarian Populism In The Politics Of U.S. Immigration Policy, Michelle C. Arias Santabay

Honors Projects

This project started as a comparison of varieties of populism emergent in the past two decades, which grew into discerning how authoritarian populism is rooted in nativism as a recurrent concept throughout immigration policy in the U.S. This is demonstrated historically by reviewing the different types of nativist movements in different epochs of controversial immigration policy. The project’s methodology derives from the usage of political sociology conceptualizing populism as a discursive register or rhetorical style as argued by Ernesto Laclau (2005; 2011) or as a structure of feeling (as argued by Raymond Williams 1977). Therefore, populism is seen as a …

Height In Politics: The Role Of Height In Electoral Success In The State Of Washington, Joseph Wayne Rebbe

Honors Projects

Throughout the history of American presidential elections, the height of candidates has proven to be a statistically significant factor relative to success. This analysis examines whether the same trend applied to Washington State elections over the period 1994-2014. Ultimately, the data shows that Washington electoral results are not subject to change on the basis of candidate height – Washington elections do not reflect the presidential election trend.

Congress, Interest Groups, And The Strategic Use Of Judicial Review, Gary S. Pascoa

Honors Projects

Prior research suggests that political actors use judicial review for politically strategic purposes in order to achieve policy goals. Depending upon institutional considerations, members of Congress and interest groups will either seek to allow or preclude judicial review of agency actions. This study seeks to test these claims using the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 and focuses on the creation of the Independent Payment Advisory Board. The findings provide some support for the claims, but show less than expected concern over judicial review, particularly among interest groups. The study then provides four explanations for these findings.

Thoroughly Under The Skin, Patrick Pride

Honors Projects

This honors project examines the connections between literature and political theory. Specifically I will follow the journey of the British literary critic Raymond Williams. Williams had a very interesting life. He grew up in the Black Mountains of Wales as the son of a railroad worker: a life he memorialized in his autobiographical novel Border Country (1960). In his obituary of Williams in The New Statesman in 1988, Stuart Hall reminds us how Williams’s deep sense of attachment to the Welsh working class border community of inhabited shared commitments in which he grew up. This community of shared commitments was …