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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

An Analysis Of The Nature And Tactics Of Demagogues In Ancient Athens And Modern America, Thomas Francis Lawton Jun 2017

An Analysis Of The Nature And Tactics Of Demagogues In Ancient Athens And Modern America, Thomas Francis Lawton

Honors Theses

In its original usage, "demagogue" did not carry any pejorative meaning. It was a term used to describe the tactics of a leader, not his character. The original definition was corrupted by Plutarch who, in his Athenian lives, created a distinction between demagogues (bad leaders), and statesmen (good leaders). But Plutarch’s distinction was not based on the actions or character of the leader, but simply on whether the historian Thucydides portrayed the politician in a positive or negative light. This creates a problem for modern analysis of demagogues since it is difficult to define the characteristics of a demagogue. The …


An Evaluation Of Reforms That Aim To Address Political Polarization, Alexander Spyropoulos Jun 2017

An Evaluation Of Reforms That Aim To Address Political Polarization, Alexander Spyropoulos

Honors Theses

The topic of political polarization in America is one that has increasingly become of interest to scholars and political pundits alike, particularly as the American political system has begun to feel the effects of higher levels of polarization in government. These affects include, but are not limited to, a state of gridlock in Congress, increased hostility between the two parties both in and out of government, and an erosion of bipartisanship. The focus of my research was to evaluate some of the main proposed reforms that aim to address political polarization to determine which single reform was most worthwhile of …


Breaking Down Breaking News: Television's Institutional Failures And Today's Ramifications, Emma Stein Jun 2017

Breaking Down Breaking News: Television's Institutional Failures And Today's Ramifications, Emma Stein

Honors Theses

Media coverage of the 2016 campaign has been widely condemned for being horserace focused and light on issues. The media narrative, it can be argued, helped propel Donald Trump — a non-politician, celebrity candidate — to the White House. And scholars and citizens have been very critical of this role. Today, pundits, networks and CEO’s need to take time to look at what went wrong and decide how best to move forward. However, Trump’s attacks on the media, his allegations of mainstream media bias against his campaign, and his obsession with labeling legitimate news sources as fake news has the …


The Effects Of Oil Price Shocks On The Stock Market Returns In Developed Economies, Ian Zangrillo Jun 2017

The Effects Of Oil Price Shocks On The Stock Market Returns In Developed Economies, Ian Zangrillo

Honors Theses

This paper examines the effects of oil price shocks on stock returns in OECD countries specifically Canada France Germany Japan United Kingdom United States and Norway. The empirical method used is the vector autoregression (VAR) model where a generalized impulse response function is applied to the results of the VAR to determine how stock prices respond to a shock in oil prices. The VAR model uses quarterly data for the period 1994 to 2016 for the following variables: interest rates real GDP real stock returns real UK Brent crude oil and APSP crude oil index. To take into account structural …


Friend Or Foe: The United States Military Bases In Okinawa South Korea And The Philippines, Caochong Zeng Jun 2017

Friend Or Foe: The United States Military Bases In Okinawa South Korea And The Philippines, Caochong Zeng

Honors Theses

Pax Americana has been not only established by the policy-makers in Washington but also sustained by the global presence of G.l.s. Until 2015, 150,560 U.S. military personnel were stationed in over 150 countries with Japan the Middle East and Germany hosting the most American soldiers. To accommodate American troops overseas, U.S. military installations have also been constructed on foreign lands to achieve regional stability and to implement the U.S. grand strategy. The co-existence of the American military and the local society however has been problematic - social economic and environmental conflicts between bases and locals have plagued the relationship. Criminal …


Pesadillsen El Mar: Retorno A Hansala Y La Inmigración Marroquí En España, Kent Curran Jun 2017

Pesadillsen El Mar: Retorno A Hansala Y La Inmigración Marroquí En España, Kent Curran

Honors Theses

This thesis explores the underlying themes and motives of Retorno a Hansala a 2008 Spanish film directed by Chus Gutierrez. Political and economic instability have contributed to migration across the world making the topic relevant and important. In the film Gutierrez focuses on migration from Morocco to Spain. Although only 14 kilometers separate the two countries thousands of migrants die every year attempting to reach Europe. In Spain many citizens feel as though they do not have a lot in common with their southern neighbors. Even though the country is now mainly Catholic Spain has a rich Islamic history that …


American Patent Law: Liberal And Republican Theories Of Governance, Benjamin A. Fay Jun 2017

American Patent Law: Liberal And Republican Theories Of Governance, Benjamin A. Fay

Honors Theses

This paper explores the history of American patent law in relation to classical liberalism and classical republicanism. In a basic sense liberalism emphasizes the importance of individuals, while republicanism underscores individual sacrifice for the good of the community. A patent creates a temporary monopoly privilege for an individual to encourage disclosure of his invention to the public. On the one hand, patent law exists to protect an individual's claim to his invention. On the other hand, patent law exists to facilitate the transfer of ideas into the common knowledge pool. In this way, a patent balances an individual's property right …


Monstrous Mothers: The Politics Of Forced Mothering, Gillian Henry Jun 2017

Monstrous Mothers: The Politics Of Forced Mothering, Gillian Henry

Honors Theses

Can a woman be a woman without being a mother? By studying the control of women's bodies around reproduction, my work elucidates the insistence on women becoming "good mothers" for society. Is the childless woman a monster? Analysis of the Medea trope identifies that the most monstrous woman of all is thought to be the woman who kills her children. And while white women fight for reproductive choice, women of color fight for reproductive freedom, as coercive policies such as forced sterilization deprive women of color as even being considered as potential mothers. Society's insistence on women fulfilling their destiny …


Evolving Perspectives Of Women In Intelligence: Can Women Have It All?, Alyssa Bonesteel Jun 2017

Evolving Perspectives Of Women In Intelligence: Can Women Have It All?, Alyssa Bonesteel

Honors Theses

This thesis serves to analyze the evolution of women in the intelligence community arguing that the role of women has transformed from one of a sexual nature into one of strong leadership. Early sources portray the female spy as a sexual object using her body to covertly gather intelligence through the disguise of a stereotypical woman. Women hid behind their socially accepted roles as housewives or nurses. Using a mix of primary and secondary sources including the declassified CIA Typist to Trailblazer document collection as well as sources of spy fiction this thesis identifies the factors that inhibited the advancement …


When Personal Becomes Profitable: Data Collection And The Complex Link Between Corporate And Government Surveillance And The Risk To Civil Liberties, Justin Gump Jun 2017

When Personal Becomes Profitable: Data Collection And The Complex Link Between Corporate And Government Surveillance And The Risk To Civil Liberties, Justin Gump

Honors Theses

Personal data represents a commodity of increasing interest to both the United States government and large corporations. While their reasons differ, the two powerful entities have worked together to radically expand the domestic surveillance activities in the U.S. As the government surreptitiously expanded its domestic surveillance under the guise of its “war on terror,” it quickly realized that the advanced technology and access to personal data held by many large corporations presented a valuable source of surveillance information. These companies, in turn, similarly saw an opportunity for revenue in both the sale of the data and large governmental contracts to …