Political Science Commons^™

Leaders, Ideas, National Interests, And Economic Strategies: Explaining The Regional Integration Decisions Of Mexico And Brazil, Roberto Genoves

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Regional integration agreements (RIAs) facilitate economic integration by allowing member countries access to each other's markets and by removing or reducing trade and investment barriers. Their increasing influence on international patterns of trade and investment flows has stimulated substantial academic work. Yet, scholars note that we lack an adequate comprehension of the factors that cause governments to seek RIAs, and why they prefer a particular type of integration arrangement. These are important questions because they speak to the forces that shape cooperation among states, a vital issue in international relations with implications for global governance.

Using an eclectic analytical approach, …

Occupy Mall Street? How The Court Conditioned Public Space Where People Go, Anthony Maniscalco

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis explores the tension between practicable space and property rights. That tension has frequently animated legal contests over political expression in privately owned, publicly accessible marketplaces in the United States. Do American marketplaces function as marketplaces of ideas? Should they? In order to examine those questions, I survey the Supreme Court's considerations of expressive activity on public and commercial property, in particular, shopping centers. I begin by developing indications of public space, as well as noting the challenges for civic inclusion within the modern political sphere. Next, I survey historical practices of public space within (Western) marketplaces. Those practices …

Engaging Bad Governments: Resource Groups And Patterns Of Engagement In Bangladesh, Nayma Qayum

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Bangladesh's governments have pursued an aid-based neoliberal development agenda since the 1980s, which has allowed new resources and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to permeate rural society. These NGOs operate programs through resource groups, small groups of impoverished women who gather at the village or ward levels. This dissertation argues that resource groups have built new citizen-state relationships and enabled new forms of engagement between citizens and their governments. These new transactional relationships are governed simultaneously by informal institutions of accountability and informal institutions of exchange; the former allow actors to reinforce formal rules when badly-performing institutions deviate from them, and the …

Becoming Transnational Citizens: The Liberian Diaspora's Civic Engagement In The United States And In Homeland Peacebuilding, Janet Elizabeth Reilly

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study examines the relationship between civic participation in homeland peacebuilding and immigrants' political incorporation and integration in their local communities in the United States. It explores the impact of state (U.S. and Liberia) policies and local context on individuals' civic participation locally and in transnational activities. The study demonstrates the mechanisms through which state policies and local context influence Liberians' political participation in the United States and their transnational citizenship, defined as full legal membership and civic participation. The relationship between civic engagement in the United States and in transnational activities is not an adversarial one. Engagement with the …

Albert Camus' Political Thought: From Passion To Compassion, Angel López-Santiago

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The present work analyzes the political thought of Albert Camus, specifically the challenges of the justice ideal, and Camus' prioritization of the concepts of limits and compassion. Although Camus is not usually considered part of the traditional canon of political philosophy, I organized his thought into three major areas: a sub-theory of the human being, a sub-theory of institutions, and a sub-theory of political change. This method, I demonstrate, is ideal for extracting and organizing the political ideas of non-traditional political writers. In the case of Camus, he advocates for an international and democratic `civilization of dialogue' as part of …

Accounting For Accountability, Celina Su

Publications and Research

Review of the book Open Budgets: The Political Economy of Transparency, Participation, and Accountability, edited by Sanjeev Khagram, Archon Fung, and Paolo de Renzio.

Regional Integration And People-Centeredness; An Assessment Of The Mechanisms For Popular Involvement In The Decision-Making Of The East African Community, Louise M. Mdachi

Dissertations and Theses

No abstract provided.

A Cultural And Macroeconomic Perspective On Mate Selection, Samantha Kanouse Bissell

Dissertations and Theses

No abstract provided.

What Changes With Cuba Could Mean, Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Young Voter Participation Dependent On Many Issues, Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Shrinking Cities, Growing Adversaries: The Politics Of Territory For Community Nonprofits In 'Shrinking City' Planning Processes, Janice Bockmeyer

Publications and Research

Political institutions in ‘shrinking cities’ undergo transformative restructuring when depopulation and disinvestment threaten public capacity. Using a New Institutionalism approach, this chapter explores historical impacts of changing institutions on community nonprofit organization (CNPO) behaviors, and highlights applications to Detroit’s current ‘right-sizing’ planning processes. It explores influences of foundations, intermediaries and anchor institutions on CNPO roles in decision making and concludes that Detroit illustrates governance without government, challenging CNPOs to impact deliberations increasingly led by the independent sector, where communities and CNPOs lack formal access. The chapter presents one case of counter-institutional response, that of LEAP, an innovative alternative CNPO plan.

Interdisciplinary Perspectives On Corruption, David Jancsics

Publications and Research

Corruption has become one of the most popular topics in the social scientific disciplines. However, there is a lack of interdisciplinary communication about corruption. Models developed by different academic disciplines are often isolated from each other. The purpose of this paper is to review several major approaches to corruption and draw them closer to each other. Most studies of corruption fall into three major categories: (i) rational-actor models where corruption is viewed as resulting from cost/benefit analysis of individual actors; (ii) structural models that focus on external forces that determine corruption; and (iii) relational models that emphasize social interactions and …

Assessing The Impact Of International Human Rights Pressures: The Dominican Republic And China, Limer Batista

Dissertations and Theses

No abstract provided.

Responsibility To Protect: The Use And The Abuse, Marwan Hameed

Dissertations and Theses

This paper is an attempt to shed the light on the new emerging norm of the Responsibility to Protect, famously known as (R2P) and its use and abuse within international relations landscape. The norm meant to replace the widely argued and challenged principle of humanitarian intervention, and to put an end, once and for all, to the atrocities committed by sovereign states against their own people, providing protection to those civilians who get caught in armed conflicts, and held those responsible for such crimes accountable for it regardless of any impunity they might have. Despite it’s new emerging the norm …

Responsibility To Protect; A Questionable Norm, Albana Hykaj

Dissertations and Theses

No abstract provided.

The Effects Of Global Product Tradetrade On Transparency, Henry Jarrett Pezzo

Dissertations and Theses

No abstract provided.

The Influence Of The European Union Membership Requirements On The Development Of Two Western Balkan Countries, Albania And Macedonia, Bedrie Matoshi

Dissertations and Theses

No abstract provided.

The Effectiveness Of The International Criminal Court And The Impact Of The Initiating Entities, Magret Chingono

Dissertations and Theses

No abstract provided.

Racial Gap In Income, Wealth And Asset Allocation Between Ethnic Groups In America, Herby Brutus

Dissertations and Theses

No abstract provided.

Compliance With International Law On Idps, Refugee And Stateless Persons; A Case Study Of Burmese Refugees In Thailand, Johanna E. Urena

Dissertations and Theses

No abstract provided.

Effect Of Institutional Design Features On The Security In International River Basins, Jennifer Moore

Dissertations and Theses

No abstract provided.

Democratization; Does It Lead To Better Relations With The U.S.?, Brian Sterr

Dissertations and Theses

No abstract provided.

Confronting Transnational Threats; Strong State Strategies Of Cooperation With Weak States And Effectiveness, Christopher Hammond

Dissertations and Theses

No abstract provided.

Predicting North Korean Reform; Changing The North With A New Strategy, Won Ju Kim

Dissertations and Theses

No abstract provided.

Does Warlord Prosection/Arrest Help Deter Child Soldiering?, Olga Lyukina

Dissertations and Theses

No abstract provided.

The Pursuit Of Nuclear Weapons In The Middle East; Obstacles To A Nuclear-Weapons-Free Zone, Michael Chance

Dissertations and Theses

No abstract provided.

The Status Of Women Under Neoliberal Reform; A Test Of Two Theories, Donnett Lee

Dissertations and Theses

No abstract provided.

A Practical Alternative; Swiss And American Republicanism In The 'Age Of Revolution' And Beyond, Alexander Gambaccini

Dissertations and Theses

No abstract provided.

Self-Determination As A Human Right; On Identity Politics And The Changing Concept Of Sovereignty In International Law, Tina Magazzini

Dissertations and Theses

No abstract provided.

Beyond Bracing For The Next Wave; Toward A Global Prohibition Regime Against Terrorism, Robert Worth

Dissertations and Theses

No abstract provided.