Political Science Commons^™

Spies And The Virus: The Covid-19 Pandemic And Intelligence Communication In The United States, Ana Maria Lankford, Derrick Storzieri, Joseph Fitsanakis

Intelligence and Security Studies

This paper introduces a crucial parameter to the novel coronavirus response in the United States, by shedding light on the early-warning role of intelligence agencies. It argues that the intelligence components of the federal government's Biological Defense Program offered actionable forewarning about an impending pandemic in the years leading to the COVID-19 outbreak. Yet, almost from the opening stages of the pandemic, senior US government officials, including President Donald Trump, have repeatedly claimed that the virus "came out of nowhere"and that "nobody saw it coming."We show that these assertions contradict more than 15 years of pandemic preparedness warnings by intelligence …

Labor Union Members' Stance On Major Social Issues In The 2016 General Election, Matthew Sauser

Political Science Theses and Capstones

In 2016, Democratic Candidate for President Hillary Clinton faced off against Republican Candidate Donald Trump in what was expected to be a lopsided victory for the Democrats. As the campaigns and researchers did a post-mortem on the results, they saw that white voters in key states of Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan weren’t as motivated to get to the polls for Candidate Hillary Clinton versus her opponent Donald Trump. I took a deep dive into trying try to find the reason that why labor union members could have broken from their traditional ranks of Democrats to vote for Donald Trump by …

The Gender Citation Gap In Undergraduate Student Research: Evidence From The Political Science Classroom, Li-Yin Liu, Christopher J. Devine, Heidi Gauder

Political Science Faculty Publications

Previous studies have documented a “gender citation gap” in political science, whereby women are less likely to be cited in published research and course syllabi, especially by male scholars. However, no previous study has examined citation patterns among students in political science courses to determine if similar patterns are evident in their research. This article analyzes an original database of individual, as well as group, research assignments from an undergraduate research methods course. Our analysis indicates that male students are significantly less likely than female students to cite research published by women – whether as first authors, any of the …

The Trump Administration: Government Secrecy, Bureaucracy, And Democracy, Logan J. Santel

Graduate Research Papers

Like most Americans I spent the evening of November 8th, 2016 tuned into the election night news. I was attending Kansas State University at the time, a predominantly conservative school in a predominantly conservative state. In the weeks leading up to election night, students, faculty, and staff at the University lived with strong feelings of anticipation. The two candidates stood in stark contrast to one another. Hillary Clinton stood as a franchisee candidate with political experience and an establishment feel. Donald Trump was the businessman out to drain the political “swamp” of Washington. Their divisive nature and heated political debates …

Right To Counsel: Improving Access To Justice In Us Indigent Defense Systems, Travis Hartman

Capstone Showcase

The Sixth Amendment guarantees the right to counsel for indigent defendants. Even though a constitutional right, indigent defense in the US suffers from significant problems. While scholars have attempted to provide solutions to the problems, a question persists, How are Indigent Defense Systems impacting how Access to Justice is being provided in the United States? To answer this question, a structured, focused comparison method was utilized to evaluate US indigent defense systems. Case studies were chosen based upon the delivery and majority of funding for indigent defense coming from counties. Right to counsel for Access to Justice was defined by …

The Economic Impact Of Access To Reproductive Healthcare: A New Constitutional Argument, Niyati Narang

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis attempts to offer an alternative constitutional argument to Roe v Wade by focusing on the economic liberties granted by the 14th Amendment. By highlighting the connection between reproductive healthcare (abortion access, the pill) and women's economic development, this thesis presents an alternative argument to Roe.

On The Permissibility Of Homicidal Violence: Perspectives From Former U.S. White Supremacists, Steven Windisch, Peter Simi, Kathleen M. Blee, Matthew Demichele

Sociology Faculty Articles and Research

Drawing upon in-depth life-history interviews with 91 North American-based former white supremacists, we examine how participants perceive homicidal violence as either an appropriate or inappropriate political strategy. Based on the current findings, participants considered homicidal violence as largely inappropriate due to moral concerns and its politically ineffective nature but also discussed how homicidal violence could be an appropriate defensive measure in RAHOWA (Racial Holy War) or through divine mandate. Capturing how white supremacists frame the permissibility of homicidal violence is a step toward better understanding the “upper limit” or thresholds for violence among members who are trying to construct and …

A Relentless War: America, Israel, And The Fight Against Terrorism, Elyse Keener

Senior Honors Theses

For Israel, terrorism has plagued the nation since its beginning. Terrorism rears its ugly head in a variety of ways and for a variety of reasons; however, in both the United States and Israel, Islamic extremism has presented itself as the largest threat. Since its birth as a nation, the United States has been involved in numerous conflicts, from the Revolutionary War to World War II and beyond. These wars were fought between nation-states and traditional powers, but since the attacks on 9/11, the United States finds itself in a new kind of conflict against a different kind of enemy. …

From The Legal Literature: Criminalizing Propaganda: J. Remy Green’S Argument To Digitize Brandenburg, Francesca Laguardia

Department of Justice Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

No abstract provided.

From The Legal Literature: Automating Police, Francesca Laguardia

Department of Justice Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

No abstract provided.

The Effects Of Punctuation Events On The Oil Policy Network: A Network Analysis Of Rulemaking Outputs, Fadi M. Mugheirbi

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

In this dissertation, I display the effect of punctuating events on the oil policy subsystem and network and, in turn, on the rulemaking process. Here I examine whether, and to what extent, the changes in the dynamics of the policy network and the composition of the subsystem caused by the punctuation could alter rulemaking outputs and whether these changes occur simultaneously or sequentially across the policy subsystem and network.

Building upon Punctuation-Equilibrium Theory (PET), Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF), and the Policy Network Approach (PNA) alongside the political control literature, I provide explanations for the routines and outputs of rulemaking. Accordingly, …

Attitudes Towards Immigration-Relevant Decision-Making: The Roles Of Fairness Judgements And National Identity, Tessa Phipps

Theses : Honours

The worldwide movement of migrants has increased rapidly in recent years and the resulting increase in cultural diversity can lead to tensions in receiving societies. In the Australian context, while negative attitudes towards Australia’s immigration intake remain the minority, such attitudes have increased over the past two years. Concepts of fairness, both procedural and distributive, have been shown to be important factors in attitudes towards immigrants and the very nature of the immigration context brings to the fore concepts of in- and out-group dynamics and national identity. This study created a reliable procedural fairness scale for utilisation in the immigration …

Factors Influencing The Likelihood Of Women Winning Elections, Natalie Browning

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This study analyzes variables that increase the likelihood of women winning an election for the United States Congress spanning from 1970 to 2020. This study analyzes the relationship between how liberal the United States is and the likelihood of women winning elections. A dependent relationship was found between the level of liberalism rising in the US and women winning elections. Some of this study is also used to analyze a possible relationship between women being more likely to win open seats or those with incumbents seeking reelection. A possible relationship was found between those two variables, but it was decided …

The Political Viability Of Carbon Pricing: Policy Design And Framing In British Columbia And California, Roger Karapin

Publications and Research

The adoption of climate policies with visible, substantial costs for households is uncommon because of expected political backlash, but British Columbia's carbon tax and California's cap-and-trade program imposed such costs and still survived vigorous opposition. To explain these outcomes, this paper tests hypotheses concerning policy design, framing, energy prices, and elections. It conducts universalizing and variation-finding comparisons across three subcases in the two jurisdictions and uses primary sources to carry out process tracing involving mechanisms of public opinion and elite position taking. The paper finds strong support for the timing of independent energy price changes, exogenous causes of election results, …

Federalism As A Double-Edged Sword: The Slow Energy Transition In The United States, Roger Karapin

Publications and Research

Much literature on federalism and multi-level governance argues that federalist institutional arrangements promote renewable-energy policies. However, the U.S. case supports a different view, that federalism has ambivalent effects. Policy innovation has occurred at the state level and to some extent has led to policy adoption by other states and the federal government, but the extent is limited by the veto power of fossil-fuel interests that are rooted in many state governments and in Congress, buttressed by increasing Republican Party hostility to environmental and climate policy. This argument is supported by a detailed analysis of five periods of federal and state …

Gun Control In The United States, Oliver Lake

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This paper focuses on a critical issue that has plagued our nation for many years. It has been one of the most divisive issues outside of abortion. The topic of gun control and how to approach it brings out two highly emotional and passionate sides. Despite the emotions that may flare up, it is important to remain objective on the facts. By taking into full consideration the arguments and research provided by gun control activists and gun rights activists, a silver lining is found that provides the answers the country has been looking for years. I do this by seeking …

Conflict Resolution: A Critical Analysis Of The Challenges Of The Government Amnesty Program In The Niger Delta And The Way Forward, Sarah Emmanuel Isong

Department of Conflict Resolution Studies Theses and Dissertations

This is a qualitative research study that used a narrative approach to explore the perspectives of the research participants (indigenes of the oil communities) on the challenges of the government amnesty program in the Niger Delta. Cyril Obi (2014) argues that the program is an unsustainable state-imposed peacebuilding project that only brought about a “graveyard peace” that enabled continued access to oil by the state and the oil companies operating in the region. Like other analysts and scholars, he explained that for peace to be sustained in the region, the underlying issues such as oil revenue allocation, environmental damage, poverty, …

Why Would I Want To Talk To Them? An Exploration Of Perceptions Of Talking Across Political Divides, Melinda Burrell

Department of Conflict Resolution Studies Theses and Dissertations

Americans are increasingly reluctant to talk across the political divide, a problematic situation for a system predicated on a citizenry exploring a marketplace of ideas and arriving at policy consensus. This study seeks to illuminate this problem through a qualitative, exploratory study around the research question of how conservatives and liberals experience communicating across the political divide. Results are examined through a research framework that first posits the benefit of deliberative democracy (Habermas, 1996), then identifies two major challenges to such – the tendency to avoid uncomfortable political discussions (Eliasoph, 1998) and the emotional, identity-driven process of polarization (Iyengar and …

Territorial Threat And Women’S Legislative Representation, Alice J. Kang, Nam Kyu Kim

Department of Political Science: Faculty Publications

Why do some countries have fewer women in parliament than do others? Recent studies find that women have less access to positions of political power in countries facing external threats. Exist-ing studies, however, do not differentiate between types of threat. We theorize that territorial threats are a particular driver of gender inequality in national parliaments. When a country’s land is under threat, people prefer having “tough” representatives in the national legislature who are competent on the military and defense moreso than when a country faces other threats. Moreo-ver, when countries face territorial threats, they build larger standing armies and adopt …

The Political Viability Of Carbon Pricing: Policy Design And Framing In British Columbia And California, Roger Karapin

Publications and Research

The adoption of climate policies with visible, substantial costs for households is uncommon because of expected political backlash, but British Columbia's carbon tax and California's cap-and-trade program imposed such costs and still survived vigorous opposition. To explain these outcomes, this paper tests hypotheses concerning policy design, framing, energy prices, and elections. It conducts universalizing and variation-finding comparisons across three subcases in the two jurisdictions and uses primary sources to carry out process tracing involving mechanisms of public opinion and elite position taking. The paper finds strong support for the timing of independent energy price changes, exogenous causes of election results, …

Emergent Women's Global Political Leadership: Progress Despite Constraints, Aoife Meehan

Dissertations and Theses

“Emergent Women’s Global Political Leadership: Progress Despite Constraints” seeks to trace why and how female political leaders emerge at the global level. Evidence points to certain cultural factors, often expressed by laws, constraining or supporting women as they seek political advancement. Data shows women leaders are emerging more and more, though slowly, as political leaders around the world. Reviewing women’s participation and representation regionally and nationally in parliaments, as ministers, and as heads of governments and states confirms that women can and do emerge as political leaders. Finally, learning about and examining women leaders themselves, their style and substance, proves …

Political Representation For Indigenous Peoples In The Andes, Jessica Yepez

Dissertations and Theses

For years, there has been a lack of representation for indigenous peoples in communities, and most importantly in parliament. This is a very common trait in the South American Andes, which houses the largest number of indigenous groups in the continent. This thesis focuses on Ecuador and Bolivia due to their indigenous population and their history, or lack thereof, with indigenous people in parliament. For my hypothesis, I argue that parliamentary representation of indigenous peoples, can help ensure that their rights are protected, and their unique interests are heard and translated into relevant policies, while at the same time preventing …

Healthy And Unhealthy Responses To American Democratic Institutional Failure, Thomas D'Anieri

CMC Senior Theses

I have set out on the hunch that politics in America “feels different,” that we are frustrated both with our institutions as well as with one another. First, I will seek to empirically verify this claim beyond mere “feelings.” If it can be shown that these kinds of discontent genuinely exist to the extent that I believe they do, I will then explain why people feel this way and why things are different this time from the economic, political, and social points of view. Next, I will examine two potential responses, what I will call the populist and the institutional …

Humanization Is Liberation: ‘Emorational Morality’ In The Mitigation Of Inequitable, Dehumanizing, Domestic Educational Policies, Nirel Jonesmitchell

CMC Senior Theses

Top researchers in the field of critical pedagogy signify that humanization--the process of understanding and connecting with the humanity of another individual—literally liberates the brain from fear. This allows for student creativity and higher-order thinking; without cultural awareness and empathy, researchers claim, educational apartheid will persist. American notions of both teacher and student intelligences as well as ideas of ‘proper’ teacher-student relationships are contextualized by the political philosopher John Locke who delineated a capitalistic political framework based on his interpretation of human motivations: reason and the pursuit of happiness. The corresponding narrow conceptions of intellect, educational success, morality, and emotionality …

Industrial Policy For Regional Development In Lithuania, Guoda Terleckaite

CMC Senior Theses

Lithuania is internationally recognized as a high-income developed country, but the high standard of living is limited only to a small minority of citizens. While the capital is emerging as a financial center and a hub for information technology, cities in the Western and Central parts of Lithuania are rapidly declining. Formerly industrial regions, Šiauliai, Panevėžys, Alytus, Utena, Tauragė, Telšiai and Marijampolė, now suffer from massive emigration, brain drain, high unemployment rates, and an increased risk of poverty and social exclusion among residents. Unlike larger cities, poorer counties have not been magnets for foreign direct investment and have benefited little …

Pursuing Procedural Justice In Sustainability Policy: Assessing The Linkage Between Political Culture And Municipal Efforts, Meng Yuan

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

How does the political culture of local governments influence the type and extent of procedural justice in sustainability policy processes? Answering this question is important because political culture is potentially a significant influence on local governments that could be better conceptualized and theorized and because public participation in sustainability policy processes is central to the demands of procedural justice in environmental justice (EJ) movements. This dissertation seeks to bring a new conception and new measures of political culture to the study of policy making by local governments as well as to contribute to developing the conceptualization and measurement of public …

The Racist Impact Of Redistributive Public Policies: Handout Versus Hand-Up, Mittie Davis Jones

Cultural Encounters, Conflicts, and Resolutions

Federal government policies, while benefitting some urban areas, have historically been detrimental to African-American people. Years of welfare and housing policies have placed central city residents, especially African-Americans, at a disadvantage which they have not overcome. Policies that once denied benefits to Black people, such as public welfare and federally-insured mortgages, morphed into stigmatized policies which, when available to Blacks, became obstacles to their advancement. These same policies enabled the majority White population to do what they were initially designed to do – provide a toehold during a period of temporary economic decline after which personal advancement was possible.

The …

Gender And Millennial Support For Women Political Leaders, Delaina Lea Sawyers

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Despite comprising more than 50% of the population and voting in greater numbers than men, women are underrepresented in U.S. political leadership. Although research exists on the correlation between gender and politics, little literature addresses the influence of generation and gender on voting behavior. Using Jaggar's liberal feminist theory as a framework, the purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between female generational cohorts and their policy preferences and candidate support. Two research questions assessed the differences between female millennials and baby boomers regarding policy preferences in the areas of income equality, opportunity, representation, and candidate support. A …

Sculpting The Public Land Base Of Northern Minnesota: Past, Present And Future, Lori A. Dowling-Hanson Dr

School of Business Student Theses and Dissertations

Sculpting the Public Land Base in Northern Minnesota Counties: Past, Present and Future. This 3-article dissertation addresses the large public land base in the Arrowhead Region of Northern Minnesota. One fourth of all lands in the state are public lands, with the overwhelming majority located in the Arrowhead Region. These counties have anywhere from 30% to 92% public lands. The region relies heavily on a natural resource economy. Methodology for research includes secondary data analysis from several preexisting research projects and studies. Data was acquired from state auditor government costs of maintaining and managing public lands. Data was also collected …

Mother Nature And Menvironmental Politics: Analyzing How Gendered Frames Affect Support For The Clean Air Act, Grace Montgomery

Senior Independent Study Theses

While environmental issues are becoming more significant and frequent, concern for the environment varies. Research has shown a gender gap in environmental concern, particularly in that males see helping the environment as compromising their masculinity (Brough et al. 2016, 568). My I.S. examines whether and how gendered frames shape public support for the United States’ environmental air pollution policy, the Clean Air Act. In order to connect an issue to a frame, an individual will draw upon a relevant schema and apply elements from that schema in order to understand the issue. Gender is an accessible schema that strongly shapes …