Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Modern Politics And The Passions, David Bradshaw

Institute for the Study of Free Enterprise Working Papers

Why is our society today so sharply divided—politically, socially and morally?

Professor Bradshaw argues that the answer can be found in two of the foundational philosophers of the modern era, John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Although they are sharply opposed in many ways, they share some common features that set the pattern for modern politics.

Making Space For Women: Explaining Citizen Support For Legislative Gender Quotas In Latin America, Tiffany D. Barnes, Abby Córdova

Political Science Faculty Publications

Gender quotas have been adopted in over a hundred countries in an effort to address gender disparities in national legislatures. Yet the determinants of citizen support for gender quota policies remain largely understudied. We develop a theory that emphasizes the impact of institutional performance and political values to explain citizen support for gender quotas and how these two factors differentially influence men’s and women’s quota support. Based on data for 24 Latin American countries, we find that citizens in countries with relatively good governance quality who express a strong preference for government involvement to improve citizens’ well-being show the highest …

Beyond Metropolises: Hybridity In A Transnational Context, Raihan Sharif

disClosure: A Journal of Social Theory

Beyond metropolises and within transnational contexts, investigating hybridity discourses is long overdue. This article argues that the epistemic violence embedded in such discourse has grave implications for the very impoverished nations and peoples with whom it claims solidarity and that, because this discourse is trendy in academia, its service to neoliberal capitalism is both easy to miss and important to expose. Interstices of postcolonial hybridity discourses, development discourses, and environmental justice discourses—dominant versions of which are segregated from contextual issues—as produced in Western academia and exported to third world countries for appropriation as developmental efforts—reveal epistemic violence, the manipulation of …

2016 Constitution Day Essay Contest: Honorable Mention, Michael Morris

Constitution Day Essay Contest

No abstract provided.

2016 Constitution Day Essay Contest: Honorable Mention, Shawn Murphy

Constitution Day Essay Contest

No abstract provided.

2016 Constitution Day Essay Contest: 1st Place, Collin J. Laaker

Constitution Day Essay Contest

No abstract provided.

2016 Constitution Day Essay Contest: 3rd Place, James A. Burke

Constitution Day Essay Contest

No abstract provided.

Is There A Trade-Off? Infant Health Outcomes And Managed Care Competition, Shana L. Moore

Theses and Dissertations--Public Policy and Administration

This study offers insights into the impact of competition among Managed Care organizations (MCOs) on infant birthing charges and birth outcomes. Kentucky provides one of the nation’s first case studies to determine successes and failures of Medicaid MCOs, and by doing so, provides a prediction of the impact of Patient Protection Affordable Care Act (PPACA) competition on healthcare costs and birth outcomes. An analysis of a natural policy experiment in the state of Kentucky reveals that infants insured by a Medicaid MCO stay longer in hospitals, are less healthy, and cost more than those insured under Traditional Medicaid prior to …

Empirical Advances In The Study Of Revenue Diversification In The U.S. States, Cole E. Rakow

Theses and Dissertations--Public Policy and Administration

This dissertation seeks to make significant progress in the quantitative study of public revenue diversification. In the past, this phenomenon has been studied in various and disparate contexts, using a variety of empirical methods. In particular, two different hypotheses, from different subfields of public finance, have been advanced. One of these perspectives, coming from political economy, holds that revenue diversification is a tool for opportunistic policymakers to artificially expand public revenues (and thus expenditures) for electoral gain. The other, from a public financial management tradition, holds that revenue diversification is a constructive management tool which facilitates greater revenue stability for …

Mass Fears, Strong Leaders And The Risk Of Renewed Conflict: Three Essays On Post-Conflict Elections, Anup Phayal

Theses and Dissertations--Political Science

Countries emerging out of armed conflicts face immense challenges in their efforts to build electoral democracies. Contrary to our intuition that elections can transform violent competition to peaceful political contests, past research suggests that holding post-conflict elections only increases the chance of renewed violence. Why are elections unable to build sustainable democracies as expected? In this dissertation, I examine the question by focusing on two levels of analysis. First, I study the effects of violence on political behavior of mass publics at the individual level using the World Values survey Dataset. I argue that citizens are more inclined to support …

Three Essays On Interaction In Public Management, Seungjin Choi

Theses and Dissertations--Public Policy and Administration

Public management is one of the most important subfields in public administration and plays a role in explaining the variations of government performance. Encouraging public administrators to get motivated through enhancing public service motivation (PSM) and collaborating with each other to accomplish their jobs and organizational objectives are key strategies to enhance the government’s accountability to the public under scarce resources. This dissertation attempts to address these concerns.

First, it conducts a meta-analytical structural equation analysis with regard to the relationships among PSM, value congruence, individual work attitudes, and individual performance and finds that person-organization fit, job satisfaction, and organizational …

The Emerge Difference: Effects Of Encouragement By Political Organizations On Women's Political Ambition, Ashleigh Hayes

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

Substantive representation of women in elected positions is an area where The United States is lacking. Within the United States Congress, women are disproportionately less likely to be elected to office and it is much of the same at the state level. Nationally, women hold only 104 (19.4%) of the 535 seats in the United States Congress as of 2015 (8). At the state level, women fare somewhat better. Women comprise 24.2 percent of state legislatures nationwide (9). In the state of Kentucky, women hold 25 seats in the state legislature or 18.1 percent. This is far from equal or …

2016 Constitution Day Essay Contest: 2nd Place, Zoe Gabrielson

Constitution Day Essay Contest

No abstract provided.

2016 Constitution Day Essay Contest: Honorable Mention, Drew Brinkman

Constitution Day Essay Contest

No abstract provided.

Applying A Positive Theory Of Organizations: A Closer Examination Of State Environmental Protection Agencies, Emily Bedwell

Theses and Dissertations--Public Policy and Administration

Why do American states organize as they do for environmental protection? According to Moe (1990), “a positive theory of organizations has two goals: 1) explain where institutions come from and why they take the forms they do, and 2) understand their effects for political and social behavior.” This paper will examine Moe’s question in terms of state environmental agencies: What influences state adoption of a comprehensive environmental structure? To address this question, I develop a theory of state adoption of organizational structure drawing on organizational theories of public organizations. The latest comprehensive examination of state agency structure in the literature …

The Partisan Strategy Of Voter Identification Requirements: Barrier To The Ballot Or Mobilizer Of Minorities?, Ryan Voris

Theses and Dissertations--Political Science

The 2000 US Presidential Election brought the confusing array of electoral rules to the minds of many in the mass media and politics. One reform advocated to improve the integrity of elections was to require voters to present identification at the polls prior to receiving a ballot. This particular reform generated much controversy, as critics worried that millions of citizens would be denied a ballot because they lacked government-issued photo ID, a form of ID advocated by many Republican officials. The controversy extended to the courts, with photo ID requirements upheld by a 6-3 US Supreme Court decision in 2008 …