Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Comparing Single Member District Plurality And Proportional Representation In The Next Eleven Countries, Maggie Mcmahon Stehn

Honors Program Theses

Two of the most popular electoral systems in the world are proportional representation (PR) and single member district plurality (SMDP). While both are employed worldwide, it is unclear which is the most beneficial to constituents. The "Next Eleven" countries (NI I) as defined by Goldman Sachs are the countries of focus, which are predicted to be emerging countries in terms of growing population and percent increase in gross domestic product (GDP). Furthermore, there is a fairly even distribution of PR and SMDP systems among the NI I countries, as well as two single-party dominant countries. The following compares the two …

Indigent Defense In America: Racially Or Geographically Unjust?, Lisa Karen Akre

Honors Program Theses

The purpose of my research is to investigate the link between indigent defense funding and race. First, I explain the various approaches that states have implemented to deliver legal defense to the indigent. Second, I describe the current lack of funding and its consequences. Third, I examine what effect race has on the indigent defense system. Finally, based on the conclusions drawn from examining both race and funding for indigent defense, I evaluate the effectiveness of the delivery of indigent defense to individual states and regions within the United States.

Impact Of A Proposed Federal Shield Law, Lisa Dahlke

Honors Program Theses

This study will examine how current proposals for a federal shield law compare to protections offered by state legislatures and state courts. My research will address the effectiveness of current state-level protections for journalists' use of confidential sources using analysis of data from a national survey of news outlets. By determining how different aspects of state protections influence subpoena frequency and compliance, I attempt to evaluate the key aspects of legislation currently being considered in Congress, the Free Flow of Information Act of 2009. I find clear evidence that the presence of a statute and a number of its provisions …

Administration Oversight: An Analysis Of The Effectiveness Of The U.S. House Committee On Oversight And Government Reform During Recent Presidential Administrations, Chantel Witt

Honors Program Theses

The purpose of this essay is to examine more specifically the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, one committee that holds some responsibility for monitoring executive branch abuses of power. The thesis that emerges from this study is that there are numerous internal and external factors causing this committee to fail in providing effective oversight. While this one congressional committee can not be held accountable for allowing executive branch abuses to occur, it is perhaps a place to begin assessing where the blame belongs.

Punching A Ticket To The Big Dance: A Critical Analysis Of At-Large Selection Into The Ncaa Division I Men's Basketball Tournament, Stephen L. Shapiro, Joris Drayer, Brendan Dwyer, Alan L. Morse

Human Movement Studies & Special Education Faculty Publications

The NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament at-large selection process is a highly scrutinized system. A selection committee made up of ten members is asked to select teams based on guidelines set forth by the NCAA. However, committee members indicate that other factors are also considered. Due to the financial benefits associated with a tournament appearance, it is important to closely examine the committee’s decision making process in order to identify possible sources of bias, which may put some teams at a competitive disadvantage. The purpose of this study was to examine direct and indirect attributes of teams that finished …

The Civil Market: Medieval Franciscan Ideas To Solve 21st Century Economic Problems, Stefano Zamagni

Clemens Lecture Series

No abstract provided.

The Unique Silencer, Christofer Ditscheit

Honors Program Theses

For decades people have been puzzled by the sudden drop in voter turnout that occurred in the 1970's and continued through the 1980's and 1990's. The demographics of those voting and not voting have been analyzed repeatedly for some clue as to why people were not turning out in the same numbers. Repeatedly, different factors have been addressed as contributors to the reduction of voter turnout. Studies have found that the United States has a unique factor contributing to the low voter turnout. Even after controlling for socioeconomic and institutional factors, there is something about the United States that has …

Rivers Institute History, University Of Dayton. Fitz Center For Leadership In Community

Rivers Institute Publications

The Rivers Institute at the University of Dayton began as an initiative of students, faculty and staff challenged by the concept of engaging the University of Dayton with the Great Miami River which runs through the city and the campus. The University, a major Catholic institution, has a legacy of connecting with the surrounding community dating back to the disastrous flood of the Great Miami River in 1913 and has received recent recognition for its extraordinary contribution to the Dayton area from the Saviors of Our Cities ranking in 2006 and 2009.

Constructed Global Space, Constructed Citizenship, Micky Lee

College of Arts & Sciences Faculty Works

This article examines the relation between global space and citizenship by examining the cases of WTO meeting and Hong Kong Disneyland. Scholars assert that global space can unsettle naturalised social relations. Yet, an ambiguous and vague sense of citizenship and a neoliberal spatiotemporal frame constrain how the state, the media, and the locals interpret the meanings of space, and how citizenship is manifested in space. In the global space of the WTO meeting and the Hong Kong Disneyland, the Hong Kong Chinese identity is reinforced by demonising South Korean farmers and mainland Chinese.

Faith-Based Assumptions About Performance: Does Church Affiliation Matter For Service Quality And Access?, Anna A. Amirkhanyan, Hyun Joon Kim, Kristina T. Lambright

Public Administration Faculty Scholarship

To date, the common rhetoric and assumptions on the performance of faith-based organizations (FBOs), ironically, appear to be faith based rather than empirically supported: There is a paucity of research evaluating the effectiveness of FBOs that uses sufficiently rigorous methods and multiple measures of organizational performance. This study seeks to inform the debate on the relative effectiveness of FBOs by comparing religiously affiliated and secular nonprofit nursing homes using two distinct but complementary measures of organizational performance: service quality and access for impoverished clients. Using nationally representative panel data on 11,877 church-affiliated and secular nonprofit nursing homes, this study examines …

Global Freud (Fall 2009), Robert D. Tobin

Syllabi

This course provides an introduction to Freud’s thinking, especially on literary and cultural topics. Reading his writing in conjunction with literary texts from a variety of cultural backgrounds, we will focus on the ways in which authors, artists, musicians and film makers from around the world have used Freud’s insights and try to determine in what ways his thoughts translate globally.

Libel, Chad Raphael

Communication

Defamatory statements are those which harm an individual’s reputation in the eyes of the community. The law distinguishes between slander (spoken defamation) and libel (written or broadcast defamation). Libel law attempts to balance the interests of journalists and others with the rights of individuals and organizations to protect themselves against false and injurious attacks. American libel law has changed significantly since the 1960s, offering greater freedom to journalists to criticize public figures. At the same time, libel law has also become more complex, creating ongoing uncertainty about when journalists are on safe ground. Libel lawsuits are still the most common …

Broadcast Network Documentaries, Chad Raphael

Communication

Documentaries are nonfiction programs that convey experience, provide information, and offer analysis. Many memorable and respected programs in American television journalism were documentaries. In part this is because documentaries offer journalists the luxury of more airtime to explore a single topic in greater depth than the shorter-format evening news or newsmagazine programs. In addition, documentarians are often freer to express their own conclusions on controversial issues than beat reporters, who are more constrained by the demands of objectivity and balance.

Although the line between documentary and docudrama is often blurry, documentaries are less likely to dramatize or re-enact events. In …

The Poetic Is Political….And Other Notes On Engaged Scholarship, Lynn M. Harter, Laura L. Ellingson, Mohan J. Dutta, S. Norander

Communication

Instrumental and objectivist logics maintain a hegemonic place in Western scholarship, reasoning skills powerfully equipped to address certain dilemmas even as they may obscure other ways of knowing. In this chapter, we enlarge dominant notions of rationality by offering an aesthetic view of knowledge as vital for engaged communication scholarship. Our interest in aesthetic logics parallels concerns that have led scholars to develop feminist practices of inquiry (e.g., Harding, 1998; Hesse-Biber, 2007), interrogate the aesthetics of representations in West-centric knowledge structures from postcolonial and Subaltern Studies standpoints (e.g., Broadfoot & Munshi, 2007; Dutta, 2007, 2008), focus on autoethnographic and poetic …

The Role Of The Library Board Of Trustees In The Construction Of A Public Library, Kathryn S. Ames, Greg Heid

Georgia Library Quarterly

The article presents information on areas where the library board of trustees may have a direct role in the construction of a public library in the U.S. It notes that board members are as necessary to the design and construction of a library as are the library director, administration staff, the architect, interior design professional, general contractor and project manager of the construction project. The board is expected to conduct a Facilities Master Plan study for the library system before seeking funding for any project. It also enumerates the responsibilities the library board members must approve during the entire construction …

Women For A Peaceful Christmas: Wisconsin Homemakers Seek To Remake American Culture, Nancy Unger

History

In the autumn of 1971, sixteen Madison homemakers, including Nan Cheney and Sharon Stein, began "Women for a Peaceful Christmas" (WPC), a unique attempt to do nothing less than remake American culture. Under the slogan "No More Shopping Days 'Til Peace," WPC organized ostensibly powerless homemakers into a "quiet revolt against 'an economy which thrives on war and the destruction of our earth's resources.'' WPC urged the public (especially women, the sex that did the vast bulk of holiday shopping) to take economic, political, and environmental matters into their own hands. "If you don't want your Christmas celebrations to be …

Discovery: The Student Journal Of Dale Bumpers College Of Agricultural, Food And Life Sciences - Volume 10 2009, Several Authors

Discovery, The Student Journal of Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

No abstract provided.

Bush's Adventures In National Service Policy And Five Lessons For President Obama, Richard Holtzman

History and Social Sciences Faculty Journal Articles

As candidates, both Barack Obama and John McCain criticized George W. Bush’s failure to call for sacrifice and service from the American people in the wake of 9/11. However, criticizing the mistakes of a past president is not the same as learning from them. Obama has referred to service as the “cause of my presidency.” If Obama is indeed committed to following through on this campaign rhetoric, what lessons can he learn from Bush’s experiences? This essay offers an analysis of Bush’s adventures in national service policy and, in particular, his failures of presidential leadership in this arena. Its purpose …

School, Home, And Community: A Symbiosis For A Literacy Partnership, Karen C. Waters

Education Faculty Publications

With the belief that fertile ground for a literate environment is created through lots of oral language, ancestral anecdotes, and reading a variety of genre in fiction and nonfiction, it is possible to link home and school literacy communities. This chapter describes the connection between district literacy events and functional home activities as the basis for a partnership in developing higher level thinking that transcends the classroom. At monthly get-togethers, families were encouraged to participate in the very activities that were used in the classroom as part of the district's literacy block. In helping families acquire a few basic strategies …

“Good Politics Is Good Government”: The Troubling History Of Mayoral Control Of The Public Schools In Twentieth-Century Chicago, James C. Carl

Education Faculty Publications

This article looks at urban education through the vantage point of Chicago’s mayors. It begins with Carter H. Harrison II (who served from 1897 to 1905 and again from 1911 to 1915) and ends with Richard M. Daley (1989 to the present), with most of the focus on four long-serving mayors: William Hale Thompson (1915–23 and 1927–31), Edward Kelly (1933–47), Richard J. Daley (1955–76), and Harold Washington (1983–87). Mayors exercised significant leverage in the Chicago Public Schools throughout the twentieth century, making the history of Chicago mayors’ educational politics relevant to the contemporary trend in urban education to give more …

Tennessee Archivist 32, No. 1, Society Of Tennessee Archivists

Tennessee Archivist newsletters

Winter 2009 issue of the Tennessee Archivist, a newsletter produced by the Society of Tennessee Archivists.

Geography Newsletter, 1969-2009, University Of Northern Iowa. Department Of Geography.

Geography Newsletter

Inside this issue:

-- Alumni Newsletter 1969-2009
-- News From the Head
-- Departments Anniversary
-- Department News and Activities
-- Department Faculty
-- Student News
-- Alumni News

Csbs Statements, V11, Winter 2009, University Of Northern Iowa. College Of Social And Behavioral Sciences.

CSBS Statements

Contents:

-- From the desk of the (Interim) Dean...
-- Sabin Hall Renovation Set to Begin
-- 100th Anniversary Celebration
-- New Editorial Effort in CSBS
-- GeoTREE
-- College and Department Briefs
-- CSBS faculty take the lead on women's and gender Issues
-- Faculty Briefs
-- New Faculty
-- Faculty Awards
-- Digging In
-- Dressed for Success
-- Denmark's the Spot
-- Student Briefs
-- Field of Opportunities
-- Greetings from campus!
-- Donor Spotlight: Tim Hilby
-- The Gift of a Lifetime
-- CSBS Alumni Updates
-- In Memoriam
-- Stay United with UNI
-- We've …

William Weir, Danielle Hurd

Library Research Grants

No abstract provided.

Climate Change, Cities And The Poor, John Cleveland, Peter Plastrik

Social Space

Climate change on its own is an intractable issue. What if we look at climate change through a social equity lens? John Cleveland and Peter Plastrik analyse current climate adaption strategies and deliberate a more active role by ‘people on the ground’.

Conflict Transformation, Cultural Innovation, And Loyalist Identity In Northern Ireland, Lee A. Smithey

Sociology & Anthropology Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

Insecurity By Obscurity: A Review Of Soho Router Literature From A Network Security Perspective, Patryk Szewczyk, Craig Valli

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Because of prevalent threats to SoHo based ADSL Routers, many more devices are compromised. Whilst an end-user may be at fault for not applying the appropriate security mechanisms to counter these threats, vendors should equally share the blame. This paper reveals that the lack of security related content and poor overall design could impact on end-users’ interpretation and willingness to implement security controls on their ADSL router. It argues that whilst the number of threats circulating the Internet is increasing, vendors are not improving their product literature.

Anarchy, Groups, And Conflict: An Experiment On The Emergence Of Protective Associations, Adam Smith

Economics Department Faculty Publications & Research

In this paper, we investigate the implications of the philosophical considerations presented in Nozick‘s Anarchy, State, and Utopia, by examining group formation in a laboratory setting where subjects engage in both cooperative and conflictual interactions. We endow participants with a commodity used to generate earnings, plunder others, or protect against plunder. In our primary treatment, we allow participants to form groups to pool their resources. We conduct a baseline comparison treatment that does not allow group formation. We find that allowing subjects to organize themselves into groups does not lead to more cooperation and may in fact exacerbate tendencies towards …

Academic Libraries In Poland University Of Warsaw Library As An Example Of Library Transformation In Post-Communist Poland, Ewa Dzurak

Publications and Research

This article examines the complex changes that have occurred in Polish academic libraries, especially the University of Warsaw Library (UWL), after the fall of communism in 1989.Shortly afterwards, thanks to grants from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, an accelerated transformation in all library practices began. In preparation for automation, the authority file was created, introducing the process of applying international standards in bibliographic description in a new climate of interlibrary cooperation. The Library of Congress classification and access to open stacks were introduced for the first time in Poland in a newly constructed UWL building. A crowning achievement of the …

Better Living Through Reality Tv: Television And Post-Welfare Citizenship [Book Review], Marc A. Ouellette

English Faculty Publications

The very first thing I can say about Better Living Through Reality TV: Television and Post-Welfare Citizenship is that I cannot wait for the authors to consider adding a Canadian version – more on that later – since they include British reality shows. Admittedly, many of these last shows have been successful enough to lead to Americanized versions. In considering reality television, the Laurie Ouellette (no known relation) and James Hay seem to sacrifice one of the oldest, and currently largely underexamined as such, varieties of the reality television, the game show. This is not to say that "new" game …