Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Women And Peace Hypothesis In The Age Of Nancy Pelosi: Can Female Leaders Bring About World Peace?, Jeannette Haynie

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The women and peace hypothesis suggests that women are more likely than men to choose peace and compromise over violent conflict, whether as ordinary citizens or as government leaders. I test this concept by analyzing the percent of women in the parliaments and executive cabinets of 93 nations over a 31-year-period, comparing these figures to the presence of violent interstate conflicts for each country-year. Controlling for wealth, democratic status, national capabilities, military expenditures, and contiguity, I find moderate support for the women and peace hypothesis. This support continues when democratic system type is interacted with the measured office. While women …

Child Soldiers: Solutions From A Humanistic Lens, Ursula Wylan

Master's Theses

This paper examines the issue of Child Soldiers using case studies of three conflicts in which children were found fighting. The paper also looks at the CSPA and the Presidential waiver of four countries by President Obama.

Territoriality, Sovereignty And The Nation-State System In Israel-Palestine: The Creation Of The Palestinian Bantustan “State” And Shifting Palestinian Resistance Tactics, Sara Nichole Hughes

Master's Theses

The conflict in Israel-Palestine is over the sovereign control of territory and takes place within a global framework made up of clearly defined nation-states. It is within this framework that Israeli colonial expansion and construction of the separation barrier in the West Bank attempt to maximize Israeli annexation of the oPt while creating a Palestinian Bantustan “state” to contain and isolate the Palestinian people in non-sovereign territorial enclaves through the use of territoriality as a strategy for exercising sovereignty. In response to this obvious process of cantonization, Palestinians are resisting by supporting Israeli annexation – of the West Bank and …

Violence Against Women In Pakistan, Amina Bath

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

The Path To Peace: Conflict Theory And Northern Ireland’S Troubles (1968-1998), Ruairi Wiepking

Master's Theses

This paper is a qualitative historical analysis of Northern Ireland’s Troubles. Over a period of approximately thirty years, sectarian violence in Northern Ireland dominated the headlines of newspapers in both the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom. Despite this violent history, Northern Ireland has enjoyed relative peace and stability since the passage of the Belfast Agreement in 1998. This paper aims to better understand why and how Northern Ireland endured a generation of brutal sectarian violence and emerged into a new era of peace and mutual understanding. In doing so, this paper incorporates theories from peace and conflict studies …

Systems At Play: The Construction Of International Systems In Social Impact Games, Jorge Albor

Master's Theses

This thesis explores how game makers conceive of and navigate the intersection between digital systems and real world systems by asking, how can social impact game designers shape procedural rhetoric to effectively address complex real world systems with digital systems? By examining three game case studies, I reach four significant findings regarding player agency, subversive play, design approaches to scale, and game difficulty in regards to systems fluency.

Westernization And Muslims In Western Europe, Sean Manahan

Honors Theses

Many scholars argue that as a whole, Muslims in Europe are not successfully integrating into European society. The reasons why are debated and still far from understood. It is clear, however, that many Muslim communities are negatively affected by many socioeconomic factors, leaving them poor and viewed as outcasts. Given these circumstances, scholars have suggested that some individuals join radical Islamist groups to give meaning to their lives and secure a sense of inclusion because they do not feel a part of the country in which they live. However, this fails to explain the numerous cases of highly educated, middle …

The Effect Of State Capacity On Democratic Transition And The Survival Of New Democracies, Daniel W. Kuthy

Political Science Dissertations

This dissertation investigates the effect of state capacity on the probability for democratic transition and the survival of democracies. I seek to answer these quesitons through the use of both quantitative and qualitative analysis. In my statistical models, I make use of Cox Proportional Hazard Models. These are supplemented by two case studies involving South Korea and the Philippines. My expectation, which is supported by the results presented in this study, is that higher levels of state capacity will make authoritarian regimes more stable and thus make democratic transitions less likely, but if democratic transitions take place, higher levels of …

Midterm Elections Used To Gauge President's Reelection Chances, Desmond D. Wallace

Honors Theses

Conventional analysis of midterm elections is usually in relation to the previous presidential election, or the issues or events leading up towards a presidential election. Rarely is midterm elections considered in terms of whether the president, or his party in some cases, would retain the White House in the next presidential election. The focus of this research is to determine whether midterm elections can serve as a predictive indicator of the outcome in the following presidential election. For decades, scholars have speculated as to why the president's party suffers losses at the midterm election. An examination of these theories can …

Paradox Lost: Explaining Cross-National Variation In Case Volume At The European Court Of Human Rights, Veronica S. Armendariz

Political Science Theses

Existing research on states and human rights focuses primarily on international treaty ratification, post-treaty rating systems, and ad hoc reports on adherence in individual countries. Additionally, the literature is characterized by disproportionate attention to certain rights to the neglect of others, thereby painting an incomplete and potentially inaccurate picture of a state’s practice and implementation of human rights. Consequently, the extant literature too frequently disregards key domestic and international factors as determinants of cross-national variation in the implementation and protection of human rights, and it instead generates paradoxical claims about human rights and state behavior. With Europe as its empirical …

Fraudulent Elections, Political Protests, And Regime Transitions, Alla Manukyan

Political Science Dissertations

This research studies protests after fraudulent elections in a collective action framework, examining the impact of the potential cost, benefit and likelihood of success of protest on the occurrence and intensity of protests. Quantitative analysis of fraudulent elections in about 100 countries from 1990 to 2004 shows that the odds of protest after fraudulent elections are greater when the level of state repression is moderate with a possible backlash effect of high repression, when the opposition is united, and when international monitors denounce election results. The analysis only partially supports the benefit of protest argument. Also, the research uses case …

Explaining Investment Policies In Microstates: The Case Of The Fiji Islands, Sudarsan Kant

Dissertations

Prevailing theories have failed to take into account the development of policy and institutions in microstates that are engineered to attract investments in areas of comparative advantage as these small islands confront the challenges of globalization and instead have emphasized migration, remittances and foreign aid (MIRAB) as an explanation for the survival of microstates in the global economy. This dissertation challenges the MIRAB model as an adequate explanation of investment strategy in microstates and argues that comparative advantage is a better theory to explain policy behavior of microstates. These small economies can take advantage of their exotic locations and natural …

Security Cooperation Poorly Defined, Nathan L. Fenell

Master's Theses

Security cooperation is a vital component to the national security of the United States. Despite this fact, insufficient military or academic attention has been applied to the subject. The academic and professional void created by this inattention has led academic, journalistic, and military professionals to misuse the term security cooperation, and stray from its doctrinal description as defined by the Department of Defense Dictionary and Associated Military Terms. The academic rigor required to properly express the concept of security cooperation as a peace-time strategy has been absent from both the Department of Defense, and the Department of State, and …

The Influence Of Context On African American Political Participation And Partisanship, Andre L. Smith

Dissertations

What explains the intensity of African American partisan attraction to the Democratic Party? This dissertation investigates how environmental or contextually based theory informs our understanding of partisan affiliation and political mobilization in general and specifically for African Americans. The dissertation research focuses on the extent to which geographic context at the neighborhood level influences the strength of black partisan attachment. I hypothesize that interactions at the neighborhood level affect African American partisanship; specifically, the racial composition of neighborhoods affects the strength of Democratic affiliation. The data used in this study is based on survey data of individuals residing in concentrated …

A Reflexive Approach To Capability Valuation And Determination In Sustainable Human Development: The 2010 Hillsborough County Transit Referendum, Eric James Fiske

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Sustainable Human Development (SHD), rooted in Amartya Sen’s development theory on the capability approach, envisions achieving sustainable human capabilities at the local and global levels. One major area of contention within this field of research concerns determination and valuation of capabilities. How a community decides which capabilities should be developed is as important as the development itself. Some capability scholars argue that a small group of experts or “philosophers” should make this determination, while others argue that a deliberative democratic process needs to be followed. I seek to reconcile these two positions by introducing a third way of determining and …

Bringing The Outside In: An Examination Of Non-Governmental Aid Organizations In Buenos Aires, Elisabeth B. Tilstra

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

Comparing Newspaper Coverage Of Climate Change During Election Campaigns In The United States, Canada And Australia, Dan Rowe

Mass Communications - Dissertations

This study compares newspaper coverage of climate change and global warming during the national elections in Australia, Canada and the U.S. during 2007 and 2008. Using a census of newspaper coverage and in-depth interviews with reporters, editors and columnists in the three countries, the study confirmed the findings of earlier studies that the political agenda shapes the news agenda when it comes to climate change coverage. However, the study did find that coverage of general climate change stories continued during the election campaign periods in the three countries. Reporters who cover either politics or environmental issues or both found it …

Political Participation And E-Petitioning An Analysis Of The Policy-Making Impact Of The Scottish Parliament's E-Petition System, Ross D. Cotton

HIM 1990-2015

Worldwide, representative democracies have been experiencing declining levels of voter turnout, lower membership levels in political parties, and apathy towards their respective political systems and their ability to influence the political process. E-democracy, and specifically E-petitioning, have been touted as a possible solution to this problem by scholars of electoral systems. In 1999, the Scottish Parliament reconvened for the first time in nearly three hundred years, and quickly set out to change the way politics were handled in Scotland by launching the world's first online E-petition system. Analyzing the Scottish Parliament's E-petition system, and assessing the extent to which it …

What Is The Importance Of Age At Menarche On Adult Height Relative To Other Known Factors?, Pamela M. Kacerosky

HIM 1990-2015

Objectives: To analyze the association between age at menarche, as a measure of sexual maturation, and adult height from ten published studies. Methods: Compared published measurements of age at menarche, adult height, and within-sample relationships observed in ten studies, for women from several societies and socioeconomic backgrounds, living in the 20th century, Results: In these studies, early maturers were taller during pre-puberty, but had shorter adult height then later maturers. Late maturers experience a longer period of pre-pubertal growth and a delayed age of peak height velocity, leading to an extended overall time of growth, until adult stature was obtained. …

Rand Takes On The Constitution An Objectivist Perspective Of The United States Constitution, Farin C. Robinson

HIM 1990-2015

Author and philosopher Ayn Rand has gathered a cult like following thanks to her bestselling novels We the Living, Anthem, The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. Through Rand's fictional writings she illustrates the principles of her philosophy objectivism. Objectivism employs five principles; objective reality, reason, self -interest, capitalism and individualism as the truths that govern the philosophy. Objectivists believe that their self-reliant philosophy holds the key to all life's answers. This thesis examines the following question: what would the founder of objectivism Ayn Rand think about the U.S. Constitution? Sadly Ayn Rand passed away in 1982 and never expressed her full …

Explaining The Economic Control Of Iran By The Irgc, Matthew Douglas Robin

HIM 1990-2015

In 1979, Iran underwent the Islamic Revolution, which radically changed society. The Iranian Revolution Guard (IRGC) was born from the revolution and has witnessed its role in society changed over time. Many have said the IRGC has reached the apex of its power and is one of if not the dominating force in Iranian society. The most recent extension of the IRGC's control is in the economic realm. The purpose of this research is to explain the reasoning and mechanism behind this recent gain in power. The literature review demonstrates flaws by previous studies of Iran. Most used a singular …

Feminizing Presidents: Joseph Keppler And Gender In Gilded Age Political Cartoons, Jerome Gonzalez

American Studies Senior Theses

Amid the crowded newsstands of American cities in the late nineteenth century, the average reader flipping through a copy of Puck, a weekly humor magazine devoted to political and social issues, may have been surprised to see an unusual print: that of the President of the United States depicted in women’s clothing, with feminine features, performing a womanly task! These few drawings, alluding to both literary and social ideas, done by the Austrian immigrant artist Joseph Keppler, appeared in his Puck magazine in the years 1877, 1880, and 1884, coinciding around an election year. While Presidents Rutherford B. Hayes, James …

Peddlers Of Hate: The Existence Of Norm Entrepreneurs As A Necessary Precursor To Genocide, Lauren Elise Fairbanks

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Over the course of the 20th century genocide has been responsible for the murder of more than 170 million people; it is has proven to be four times deadlier than war (Voth, 2007). Although it often appears spontaneous, Genocide is instead a result of certain preconditions. Studies into the causes of genocide ought to aid in the formation of methods intended to keep violence from occurring. Unfortunately, seemingly different factors such as economic crisis, resource scarcity, institutional weakness, and ethnic resentment prove difficult to classify as the ultimate cause. Instead these conditions work collectively to create an atmosphere that is …

Army Transformation: What Does It Mean?, David Jerome

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The way in which senior U.S. Army leaders such as the chiefs of staff define transformative change is important, especially if the meaning of that term is to be interpreted as originally intended by Army field grade officers. An Army chief of staff is responsible for creating a vision and establishing goals for the future, and field grade officers are responsible for pursuing that vision and those goals by implementing objectives that endeavor to arrive at the desired ends. By using both qualitative and quantitative methods, this research analyzes what each of the three chiefs of staff, who have served …

Evaluating The International Criminal Court: A Comparative Analysis Of Darfur, Sudan, And The Democratic Republic Of The Congo, Mirisa Hasfaria

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the effectiveness of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in holding individuals accountable for grave breaches of crimes against peace, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. I argue that if we measure effectiveness in terms of the ability to set agenda and to publicize, the ICC accomplishes much. My thesis to shows that, as a key part of the international agenda on human rights compliance, the ICC derives its effectiveness from the various naming and shaming campaigns by national governments and non-governmental actors (NGOs).

I draw on the cases of Darfur, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of …

Muslim Women And The West: Faith, Feminism, And The Quest For Gender Equality, Kelly Haller

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

For centuries the West has seen the Muslim woman as an entire group of people in need of saving. Lacking a thorough understanding of Islam and an incredibly diverse Middle Eastern society, Western powers endeavored to shape women of the Middle East into secular, modern examples of "liberated" women. Completely unacknowledged in this pursuit are the grass roots movements that emerged out of nationalist movements in the early twentieth century. An attempt to understand why the West is so incredibly fascinated by Muslim is undertaken in this scholarly pursuit. Additionally, a case study on the nation of Egypt shows not …

The Political Economy Of Agriculture And Food Policies In Argentina During The Xxi Century: An Empirical Estimation Of The Electoral Response At The National, Provincial, And Local Level, And Its Conceptual Relationship With Lobbying, Advocacy, And Demons, Matias Nardi

All Dissertations

The political economy of Argentina in the XX and early XXI century has been characterized by the difficulty of establishing a sustainable path of balanced and integrated development due to the social, economic, and political conflict between rural and urban, agriculture and industry, high class versus low class, Radical or Justicialist party supporters which generated stop and go cycles. This dissertation analyzes the political economy of agriculture and food policies in Argentina during the first decade of the XXI century through a conceptual framework that takes into account politics, policies, economics and social responses through voting, lobbying, advocacy and demonstrations …

The Impact Of Age, Education, Political Knowledge And Political Context On Voter Turnout, Roy Edward Snyder Iii

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The following study will present an examination of factors that impact levels of voting activity among American citizens from 1972 through 2004. The subject of voter turnout has been thoroughly examined by political scientists over the years, as have aspects of youth voting and the influence of education. Many of the same variables presented by scholars in recent years will be employed in this study. However, these earlier studies tend to look only at individual level variables in explaining voter turnout. This study will contribute to a more complete understanding of voting through the analysis of individual, regional, and temporal …

Rethinking Justice In Transitional Justice: An Examination Of The Mãori Conception And Customary Mechanism Of Justice, Stephanie Vieille

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

As a relatively young field of academic inquiry, the transitional justice scholarship presents some important difficulties, not least of which is its lack of critical evaluation of the approaches to justice it adopts and promotes. This research argues that the framework used in the transitional justice scholarship is ill-suited to account for, and to think about, the philosophy of justice embodied in customary mechanisms of justice. It explains that the type of “justice” embodied in customary mechanisms of justice is difficult to appreciate by using the retributive, reparative, and the restorative approaches. These Western, individualistic and legally based approaches are …

A Rawlsian Idea Of Deliberative Democracy, Angela D. White

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In my thesis, I develop a framework based on John Rawls's Political Liberalism that addresses the question: how is it possible for democratic institutions and their decisions to be legitimate, given that (i) they are supposed to be governed by the "will of the people", but (ii) the people will disagree with each other about what political institutions ought to do about any given issue? Amy Gutmann and Dennis Thompson advance a deliberative democratic response to this question, which has served as the basis of governments' attempts to "strengthen democracy". They argue that political decisions are justified insofar as they …