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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons

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Articles 1 - 12 of 12

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Weather And The Salem Witch Trials, Franklin G. Mixon Dec 2005

Weather And The Salem Witch Trials, Franklin G. Mixon

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.


Economic Globalization And Civil War, Katherine Barbieri, Rafael Reuveny Nov 2005

Economic Globalization And Civil War, Katherine Barbieri, Rafael Reuveny

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.


Piacular Subjectivity And Contested Narrative In The Imre Nagy Memorials, Karl P. Benziger, Richard R. Weiner Sep 2005

Piacular Subjectivity And Contested Narrative In The Imre Nagy Memorials, Karl P. Benziger, Richard R. Weiner

Faculty Publications

The funeral of Imre Nagy on June 16, 1989 can be seen as a critical moment in the Hungarian transition to a democratic republic as it explicitly undermined the moral and political authority of the communist government then in power. This Nagy memorial signified a longing for a national identity tied to the spirit of republicanism that had been thwarted in 1956 and had roots going back to 1848. The unity of purpose displayed by the Hungarian people at the funeral brings to mind Emile Durkheim_s analysis of piaculum and the conscience collective. This is what the sociologist, Robert Bellah …


Creating An Interactive Classroom: Enhancing Student Engagement And Learning In Political Science Courses, Jonathan D. Mott, Danny Damron Jul 2005

Creating An Interactive Classroom: Enhancing Student Engagement And Learning In Political Science Courses, Jonathan D. Mott, Danny Damron

Faculty Publications

Students of the pedagogy of teaching have found that cooperative/problem-based learning activities engage the learner, promote ownership of the material, advance the development of higher-level cognitive skills and increase retention better than more passive learning activities. Despite broad recognition within the political science discipline that classroom activities can and should facilitate better student learning outcomes, political science classes (both large and small) frequently have characteristics that make cooperative/problem-based learning activities more difficult to employ and less likely to succeed. Anonymity in large sections, a steep learning curve of complex concepts, and students who see passivity as the least costly approach …


Civil-Military Relations In A Civilized State: Panama, Ronald D. Sylvia, Constantine P. Danopoulos Jul 2005

Civil-Military Relations In A Civilized State: Panama, Ronald D. Sylvia, Constantine P. Danopoulos

Faculty Publications

This article traces and analyzes civil-military relations in Panama. After a brief overview of the role of the National Guard in the country politics, the article concentrates on political developments since the 1989 U.S. invasion to overthrow the Noriega regime and the subsequent elimination of the Panamanian military. The study seeks to shed light on political life in an armyless and politically and socially fractionalized country occupying a sensitive strategic location. The concluding part of the study speculates on the possibility that terrorism, domestic security concerns, and regional considerations may prompt Washington and Panamanian leaders to reverse the decision to …


Book Review: The Logic Of Political Survival, By Bruce Bueno De Mesquita, Alastair Smith, Randolph M. Siverson, And James D. Morrow, Harvey Starr May 2005

Book Review: The Logic Of Political Survival, By Bruce Bueno De Mesquita, Alastair Smith, Randolph M. Siverson, And James D. Morrow, Harvey Starr

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.


Moderating Politics In Post-Conflict States: An Examination Of Bosnia And Herzegovina, Angela M. Banks Apr 2005

Moderating Politics In Post-Conflict States: An Examination Of Bosnia And Herzegovina, Angela M. Banks

Faculty Publications

The individuals who negotiated the peace agreement that ended the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina considered ethnicity to be the most salient division within Bosnian society. Consequently they organized Bosnia's political structure around ethnic representation. While it is doubtful that peace in Bosnia would have been possible without guarantees for ethnic-based political representation, such guarantees have proven insufficient for building a functioning, stable, and cohesive state. This article analyzes the role that Bosnia's political framework, which focuses exclusively on ethnic representation, has played in impeding the development of a significant cadre of moderate political actors and in hindering the success …


Are The States Sovereign?, Timothy Zick Apr 2005

Are The States Sovereign?, Timothy Zick

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.


Assessment Governance, Richard R. Weiner, Karl P. Benziger Feb 2005

Assessment Governance, Richard R. Weiner, Karl P. Benziger

Faculty Publications

There has emerged a web of exogenous forces emanating from national and regional accreditation associations, particularly a satellite professional association involved in teacher preparation called the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS). The reality of this web contradicts the implicit idealist sentiment in John Ishiyama’s report on the “Assessment of Student Outcomes’ meetings at the 2004 TLC where he describes “assessment as a voluntarist/bootstrapping “bottom up” effort of individual faculty members. [PS.27: 3, July 2004, 483-85.] Faculty are increasingly bombarded by outside agencies for standards inventory matrices, evaluation rubrics, and course maps.


Racial And Ethnic Attitudes And Individual Relatedness Among Greek-Americans, Constantine P. Danopoulos, Anna Karpathakis Jan 2005

Racial And Ethnic Attitudes And Individual Relatedness Among Greek-Americans, Constantine P. Danopoulos, Anna Karpathakis

Faculty Publications

The article looks at the self-identity of Greek immigrants in the U.S. and incorporation of American racial ideologies into their racial repertoires. It recognizes Greek Americans for creating a national and racial framework that blends elements of both home and host society institutions and ideologies. It recalls the arrival of thousands of Greek immigrants in the U.S. in the 20th century. The increasing inter-marriage rates between Greek immigrants and Greek Americans are also noted.


Rock The Vote, Molly Kerby Jan 2005

Rock The Vote, Molly Kerby

Faculty Publications

Rock the Vote (sponsored by MTV) is designed to engage and mobilize young people in the political process by incorporating the entertainment community and youth culture into pre-election activities. The university’s event attracted approximately 1,500 students in fall 2004.


Elicited Priors For Bayesian Model Specifications In Political Science Research, Jeff Gill, Lee D. Walker Jan 2005

Elicited Priors For Bayesian Model Specifications In Political Science Research, Jeff Gill, Lee D. Walker

Faculty Publications

We explain how to use elicited priors in Bayesian political science research. These are a form of prior information produced by previous knowledge from structured interviews with subjective area experts who have little or no concern for the statistical aspects of the project. The purpose is to introduce qualitative and area-specific information into an empirical model in a systematic and organized manner in order to produce parsimonious yet realistic implications. Currently, there is no work in political science that articulates elicited priors in a Bayesian specification. We demonstrate the value of the approach by applying elicited priors to a problem …