Political Science Commons^™

The Unsovereign Citizen: The Reconfiguration Of Rights And Belonging In Fascist Italy, Roberta Pergher

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

Modern political thought tends to associate citizenship with democracy, equality, and political participation. This article demonstrates that citizenship can be profoundly important also for authoritarian rule. In Fascist Italy, citizenship remained central to political life, not as a vehicle of democratic participation, to be sure, but as a category through which the regime redefined belonging, hierarchy, and sovereignty. Drawing on citizenship legislation, imperial ordinances, racial laws, police reports, and ministerial commentary between 1912 and 1943, this article shows how the dictatorship hollowed out liberal citizenship within the peninsula, stratified it across imperial territories, consolidated it across diasporic populations, and ultimately …

The Courts Closest To The People: The Battle Between Populism And Democracy In The U.S. District Courts, Shruti Rana

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

The U.S. district courts have emerged as a critical site of contested terrain amid the chaos and controversies consuming American law and politics since the start of the second Trump administration. This article examines these frontline courts through the theoretical lens of populism, arguing that they have become a critical institutional flashpoint in the populist assault on constitutional democracy in the United States. As the courts closest to the people, the district courts occupy a unique structural position: They are the fact-finding courts, the most geographically dispersed and professionally diverse tier of the federal judiciary, and often the first institutional …

Volume 28, Issue 2 Full Contents

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

No abstract provided.

Call For Papers: 97th Annual Conference Of The Indiana Academy Of The Social Sciences

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

No abstract provided.

Reviewers And Referees

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

No abstract provided.

George C. Roberts Award Recipients

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

No abstract provided.

Why Publish With Mssj?

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

No abstract provided.

Submission Guidelines

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

No abstract provided.

Res Historica, Volume 5, Alpha Rho Epsilon Phi Alpha Theta, Lindsay Rae Smith Privette Phd

Res Historica

The 2026 journal of historical research by Anderson University students, Res Historica.

The editorial team for this edition of Res Historica was Dr. Lindsay Rae Smith Privette, Julia Ackerman, Callyn Wright, Logan Davis, and John Hinton. Cover art by Mary Beth Lee.

Book Bans In U.S. Prisons: A Legacy Of The Prisoners' Rights Movement, Allison Jansen

Honors Projects

The 1950s-1970s saw an unprecedented spike in organized resistance by American prisoners. This long era of rebellion, along with thousands of judicial appeals, made up the “prisoners’ rights movement”-- a political, legal, and social struggle that challenged the conditions of American incarceration and its penological paradigm. The timeline of the movement is abstract and difficult to measure. Nonetheless, what is certain is that it lost its momentum by the 1980s due to overhauling policy changes that quelled prisoner activism without achieving meaningful progress. This research examines the evolution of prison censorship policies within that paradigm shift and how they sought …

How Did We Get Here? The Rise Of Anti-Immigrant Rhetoric As A Sociopolitical Force In U.S. Immigration Discourse And Enforcement Policy Through A Latino Lens, Andrea Maldonado

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

Next-Generation Democratic Cyber Statecraft - Balancing The Signal: Shutdown Shocks And Democratic Digital Governance, Scott M. Di Panni

School of Public Policy Capstones

This paper develops Next-Generation Democratic Cyber Statecraft (NG-DCS), a unified strategic doctrine for democratic governments to contest the cognitive domain against authoritarian adversaries. Drawing on twenty-six years of cross-national panel data (1999–2024) spanning 213 countries, game-theoretic modeling, and qualitative case analysis, the paper establishes three interconnected empirical and theoretical foundations. First, cross-national OLS regression across 160+ countries demonstrates that regime type is the dominant structural determinant of internet freedom (R²=0.615, β=2.513, p< 0.001), explaining more than twice the variance attributable to per-capita wealth (R²=0.268). Democratic governance, not economic development, produces open digital environments. Second, a two-way fixed effects (TWFE) difference-in-differences study exploiting government-ordered internet shutdowns as discrete policy interventions finds that digital restrictions causally degrade V-Dem governance quality by 0.21–0.38 standard deviations (p< 0.001 across all specifications). Treatment effects are immediate (β=−0.302 at k=0) and persist through five post-treatment years (β=−0.246 at k=+5), indicating structural rather than transitory governance damage. Parallel trends validation (p=0.352) and Callaway–Sant’Anna heterogeneity-robust estimation (ATT=−0.230, SE=0.077) support causal identification. Instrumental variable triangulation (2SLS β=−0.949, p=0.005) confirms that simultaneity was attenuating, not inflating, the primary estimates. Third, formal game-theoretic analysis reveals that the current U.S.–adversary equilibrium is (Restrain, Escalate)—the risk-dominant but Pareto-inferior outcome of a Stag Hunt structure. China, Russia, North Korea, and Venezuela each occupy structurally distinct positions (Stackelberg commitment, asymmetric two-level, autarky, and reactive trigger, respectively), requiring differentiated doctrinal responses rather than a uniform strategic playbook. Generative AI and algorithmic governance are shown to accelerate cognitive vulnerability by collapsing influence operation costs and exploiting engagement-optimized platform architectures that systematically degrade deliberative capacity in democratic populations.

U.S Sanctions In Venezuela: The Jeopardization Of International Human Security And Economic Stability, Nyleen Benavides

Posters - 2026

Enforced in 2005, the U.S sanctions in Venezuela were the first form of restrictive mechanisms for the perspective outcome of reducing human right abuses, antidemocratic action, and corruption. Since then, the United States has imposed several sanctions on the Venezuela government to which it has enforced the idea of whether it takes corruption to fight corruption. While imposed U.S sanctions on Venezuela were intended to pressure the Maduro government into democratic reform without corruption and human rights violation over the region, these sanctions have done more harm on Venezuelan citizens rather than help them. The initial purpose of sanctions are …

"P" Is For Protest: How San Antonio Students Are Showing The Rise In Young Justice Advocates, Eliana Salinas

Posters - 2026

- Recent 2025-2026 legislation under the Trump administration specifically targets immigration and militarize Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

- Such actions have instilled fear in the general population, and encourage anti-immigration and biased rhetoric towards many, no matter their citizenship status.

- Specifically, adolescents have responded by taking matters into their own hands by walking out of school as a form of protest; a demonstration unique to their age group demographic.

Divided We Stand: Exploring Public Perceptions Of Georgia’S Political System, Luka Lazishvili

Department of Sociology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Recent years have witnessed increasing concern about democratic backsliding across different regime types, raising important questions about how citizens perceive the legitimacy of political systems during periods of institutional decline. Since 2019, the Republic of Georgia has been experiencing a sustained period of political unrest, which has deepened political polarization and contributed to a decline in Georgia’s Democracy Index. This study examines how citizens perceived the legitimacy of their political system amid democratic backsliding between 2019-2024.

Drawing on legitimacy theory and social identity theory, this study analyzes three waves of cross-sectional data from the Caucasus Barometer survey (2019, 2021, and …

Rock On! Examining The Relationship Between Armed Conflict And Rock Protest Music, Dylan Conner Dunn

Senior Theses

This thesis explores the relationship between rock protest music and wars, armed conflicts, and other related events. The purpose of this research is to explore how such specific events, or war and conflict in general, influence rock songwriters. This paper examines a series of nine rock songs ranging across five decades, from the Vietnam War to the 2010s. A variety of artists wrote and recorded these songs, ranging from hard rock to classic rock, to folk rock and beyond. Some are more audially intense, lyrically visceral, and featuring explicit language, whereas others are much more stripped-back and “family-friendly.” Each of …

"Transgender Insanity" And Scapegoating: President Donald Trump's Political Rhetoric Regarding Transgender Americans, Savannah Torres

Presentations - 2026

The political rhetoric used by President Donald Trump to refer to transgender Americans results in their scapegoating.

Trust In The Supreme Court, Mia Isabella Ramirez

Posters - 2026

The central research question asks: What factors influence  individuals' approval or disapproval of the way the Supreme Court is handling its job?

- Gender
- Education
- Political Party

Visible And Invisible Empires: The Revival Of The Ku Klux Klan 100 Years Ago, Christian Molina

Posters - 2026

Hatred and violence breed division, and that division breeds more hatred and violence. 1920s American politics was characterized by name-calling, finger-pointing, scapegoating, whataboutisms, and violence. The nation entered a self-perpetuating cycle. Groups keen for growth, power, and profit captured the angry, stressed, and less-informed with lies and misleading numbers. In particular, the Ku Klux Klan captured nearly 4 million Americans, roughly 1 in 12 men at the time. But the Klan, large as it was on a local level, was led and masked by a handful of national leaders. The Klan was not just bands of rogue vigilantes cruising the …

Faith In Action: How Liberation Theology Connected Communities Around The World, Jaizeth Andrea Munoz

Posters - 2026

The Liberation Theology movement started in Latin America as a response to poverty, inequality, and violence. It focuses on the idea that religion should not stay neutral, but instead help people who are suffering and facing injustice. It began with Gustavo Gutiérrez, who believed that faith should be connected to real-life struggles, especially for the poor. Even though it began in Catholic communities, its focus on justice and human dignity allowed other religious communities to relate to it and adapt it.

The research asks how Liberation Theology has connected religious communities around the world and examines how these ideas have …

American Death Penalty Opinion's Are Affected By Religion, Right?, Addysen Schniederjan

Posters - 2026

How does religion affect Death Penalty Public Opinion?

• align with doctrine?
• religious beliefs affect political beliefs?
• political ideology?

If public opinion is not affected by religion, what does this say about religious beliefs?

Editor’S Introduction, Michael D. Pante

Philippine Studies: Historical and Ethnographic Viewpoints

No abstract provided.

Analyzing Methods To Support Students Left Behind In Colorado Primary/Secondary Schools, Grace Hudson

Undergraduate Theses, Capstones, and Recitals

In the United States, there has been an increase of deportations, since 2024, of undocumented immigrants. This has disproportionally affected Mexicans and others from Latin American countries (Dreby 2012) due to them being the largest group of undocumented people in the United States. One effect of these deportations is an increase in children that are left in the United States while their parent(s) are in detention or have been deported. Some of these children are in mixed-status families, which means that the child has a different citizenship status than their parents or other members in their family, which allows for …

Call For Papers For The Journal Of Social Encounters’ Special Issue On Global And Regional Governance: The Past Present And Future

The Journal of Social Encounters

No abstract provided.

Review Of Climate Security, Elsa Barron

The Journal of Social Encounters

No abstract provided.

Review Of The Environment In Conflict: Implications And Pathways, Hogr Tarkhani

The Journal of Social Encounters

No abstract provided.

Review Of Ella Baker & The Black Freedom Movement: A Radical Vision, Danny Duncan Collum

The Journal of Social Encounters

No abstract provided.

Review Of Responses To Insecurity In Africa: The Challenge Of Peacebuilding, Peter J. Quaranto

The Journal of Social Encounters

No abstract provided.

The Relevance Of Fr. John A. Kaiser For Human Rights And Peace Advocacy Today, Otieno Ombok

The Journal of Social Encounters

This essay explores the relationship of the work of Fr. John Anthony Kaiser to Kenya’s 2010 Constitution. His life, work, and death embody the very principles and struggles that the new constitution was designed to address. The author also discusses how to continue the work for peace and justice in the spirit of Fr. Kaiser.

Dating Among University Undergraduates Living With Disability In South-Western Nigeria, Usman A. Ojedokun, Bukunmi I. Oluborode, Lateef J. Adeyemo

The Journal of Social Encounters

In many university campuses in Nigeria, undergraduates living with disability are visible and functionally involved in academic, political, social, and religious activities. However, the social life of these students is hardly the focus of scholarly research. Therefore, this study explored dating behaviours among undergraduates of selected public universities in south-western Nigeria living with disability. The social disability model was employed as the conceptual framework. Data were elicited through in-depth interview and focus group discussion methods.  Findings showed that the choice of partners among undergraduates living with disability was guided by trust, communication, emotional safety, shared values, and acceptance of disability …