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Articles 91 - 120 of 306

Full-Text Articles in Political Science

Editor's Introduction, Megan Baker, Oscar Romero Jan 2020

Editor's Introduction, Megan Baker, Oscar Romero

Res Publica - Journal of Undergraduate Research

No abstract provided.


Author Biographies Jan 2020

Author Biographies

Res Publica - Journal of Undergraduate Research

No abstract provided.


Antonin Scalia, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, And The Supreme Court, Graham Dano Jan 2020

Antonin Scalia, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, And The Supreme Court, Graham Dano

Res Publica - Journal of Undergraduate Research

This article breaks down the implications of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's health problems-all the more relevant due to her recent hospitalization in May 2020-and shows how the Democratic Party has been outmaneuvered by the Republicans in terms of SCOTUS control. The path to reestablishing a Democratic Supreme Court, as formerly seen from the 1940s-1970s, depends on the defeat of President Donald Trump in the 2020 general election.


Damn All The Eggs That Ever Was: Meritocracy And Its Failures On The Younger Family, Graham Dano Jan 2020

Damn All The Eggs That Ever Was: Meritocracy And Its Failures On The Younger Family, Graham Dano

Res Publica - Journal of Undergraduate Research

In this article, Lorraine Hansberry's magnum opus book about structural racism in 1950s America, "A Raisin in the Sun", is discussed in detail, and how the book itself is a rebuke to those Americans who insist that our country is a meritocracy for all races and ethnicities. The lived experiences of the Younger Family, the African-American protagonists of the book, are filled with not only elements of structural racism, but the reactions of their neighbors and acquaintances to this racism as well.


Pro-Slavery Rhetoric In The Constitution, Jonathan Panton Jan 2020

Pro-Slavery Rhetoric In The Constitution, Jonathan Panton

Res Publica - Journal of Undergraduate Research

Prior to the Thirteenth Amendment, the United States Constitution did not merely allow slavery: the document protected slavery. At the time of the Declaration of Independence in 1776, the Continental Congress vigorously debated the “peculiar institution” of slavery. The lofty ideals of the Declaration proclaimed the “inalienable rights, including life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” By the time the Constitution was adopted in 1789, the delegates all but abandoned such lofty goals to set forth an administrative guide for government. The Constitution was a pro-slavery document because of the ⅗ clause and it enabled slavery.


Public V. Private Organizations, Oscar Romero Jan 2020

Public V. Private Organizations, Oscar Romero

Res Publica - Journal of Undergraduate Research

People always hear on the news politicians arguing with each other on the effectiveness of government. They both agree that government agencies can do a lot better than what they are doing right now, but disagree on how to resolve it. The left argues for providing more funding to these public agencies to have better performance; however, that will require an increase in taxes which most Americans do not want. The right argues for privatizing these public agencies so that there is no bureaucratic involvement in the procedure, as well as this, will determine which agencies succeed and which ones …


Vox Populi Non Est Vox Dei, Oscar Romero Jan 2020

Vox Populi Non Est Vox Dei, Oscar Romero

Res Publica - Journal of Undergraduate Research

When determining where the meaning of truth lies in this world, the first question to ask is this: what truth is the world looking for? For medical scientists, they look for the truth to longevity. For philosophers, they look for moral truths. For political scientists, they look for the truth of power. What does power do, and how is it used are questions to ponder when investigating this truth; however, one must first answer the question of where does power lie. Some political scientists, such as Francis Lieber, reminds us how history relates the concept of power with God, the …


Framing Economic Populist Rhetoric: The Economically Aggrieved Find A Voice, Jordan Baker Jan 2020

Framing Economic Populist Rhetoric: The Economically Aggrieved Find A Voice, Jordan Baker

Res Publica - Journal of Undergraduate Research

The use of economic populist rhetoric seems to be a growing trend in America. Current literature situates a positive relationship between economic insecurity and support of populism, however the strength between the two is debated. Furthermore, much is focused on individual or country level economic insecurities as it relates to populist support, but little is focused on economic insecurities at levels in between the individual and countries. Even less is written on how often populists employ economic populist messaging, as it relates to the economic insecurities in which they are speaking. In order to determine if a relationship between the …


Beyond The Year Of The Woman, Pooja Patil Jan 2020

Beyond The Year Of The Woman, Pooja Patil

Res Publica - Journal of Undergraduate Research

Women make up about 50% of the American population but currently only 24% of Congress. This persistent underrepresentation is a matter of concern because Congress often votes on issues that disproportionately affect women. Prior research has established a consistent set of variables that factor into the supply of and demand for women in elected offices, namely incumbency, party, district characteristics, candidate characteristics and voter stereotypes. In 1992, deemed the “Year of the Woman” where a record number of women won seats in Congress, an increased number of those candidates embraced stereotypically female strengths and employed those in their campaign strategies. …


Socioeconomic Declinism And Right-Wing Populist Support, Kayley Rettberg Jan 2020

Socioeconomic Declinism And Right-Wing Populist Support, Kayley Rettberg

Res Publica - Journal of Undergraduate Research

This paper focuses on resolving the false dichotomy between the economic grievance and cultural backlash theses commonly presented in the literature on Right-Wing Populist attitude formation. It elaborates on Gidron and Hall’s social integration thesis by introducing the socioeconomic declinism thesis, which combines social, cultural, and economic factors when measuring Right-Wing populist attitudes. The interaction between the cultural backlash, social integration, and economic grievance theories provides a more holistic account of why right-wing populist attitudes form. This study pulls from the European Social Survey Round 8 to conduct a large-N statistical analysis of two compiled indices—the socioeconomic integration index and …


Recessions Or Partisanship: What Explains Climate Skepticism In The U.S.?, Abhishek S. Sambatur Dec 2019

Recessions Or Partisanship: What Explains Climate Skepticism In The U.S.?, Abhishek S. Sambatur

Undergraduate Economic Review

This paper investigates the variations in public mood pertaining to climate skepticism and attempts to empirically assess whether economic recessions or partisanship help explain aggregate-level trends and movements across a 16-year time horizon. Public survey data from the iPoll and Gallup Organization were used to construct the Climate Change Skeptic Index (CCSI) that served as a proxy to capture public opinion trends in skepticism across the U.S. A two-part vector autoregressive model suggests that while economic recessions might be causally linked to climate skepticism, partisanship plays a more influential role in explaining it over time. The key result is that …


Understanding The Characteristics Of Remittance Recipients In Venezuela: A Country In Economic Crisis, Nicole A. Degla Nov 2019

Understanding The Characteristics Of Remittance Recipients In Venezuela: A Country In Economic Crisis, Nicole A. Degla

Undergraduate Economic Review

This essay analyzes household surveys from the World Bank Global Financial Inclusion Database for the years 2011, 2014, and 2017, as a means to distinguish individual level characteristics of remittance recipients in Venezuela. Remittances are defined as “crossborder, person-to-person payments of relatively low value. The transfers are typically recurrent payments by migrant workers to their relatives in their home countries (World Bank, 2015). Through the use of a linear probability model and probit regressions, I examine the variables age, gender, education level, and income quintile. Results of the analysis find that age has a statistically significant negative effect on the …


Kathleen O'Gorman On The Conditions At Us Immigration Facilities, Ryan Denham Aug 2019

Kathleen O'Gorman On The Conditions At Us Immigration Facilities, Ryan Denham

Interviews for WGLT

IWU Professor of English Kathleen O'Gorman spent the summer of 2019 interviewing children being held at U.S. immigration facilities, as a volunteer on behalf of the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law. She spoke about this experience and the conditions of these detainment centers with WGLT's Ryan Denham.


Meghan Burke Discussing Her New Book "Colorblind Racism", January 24, 2019, Jon Norton Jan 2019

Meghan Burke Discussing Her New Book "Colorblind Racism", January 24, 2019, Jon Norton

Interviews for WGLT

Jon Norton, WGLT Radio, speaks to Professor Meghan Burke about her latest book Colorblind Racism.


Cover Art, Raya Hussein Jan 2019

Cover Art, Raya Hussein

Res Publica - Journal of Undergraduate Research

No abstract provided.


Authors' Biographies Jan 2019

Authors' Biographies

Res Publica - Journal of Undergraduate Research

No abstract provided.


Letter From The Department Chair, Greg M. Shaw Jan 2019

Letter From The Department Chair, Greg M. Shaw

Res Publica - Journal of Undergraduate Research

No abstract provided.


Title Page Jan 2019

Title Page

Res Publica - Journal of Undergraduate Research

No abstract provided.


Table Of Contents Jan 2019

Table Of Contents

Res Publica - Journal of Undergraduate Research

No abstract provided.


Editors' Introduction, Gaoming Zhu, Ben Nielsen, Ann Crumbaugh Jan 2019

Editors' Introduction, Gaoming Zhu, Ben Nielsen, Ann Crumbaugh

Res Publica - Journal of Undergraduate Research

No abstract provided.


Essays: Color-Blind Or Race-Conscious Policies, Gus Castro, Hannah Lyons, Anna Eager, Jonathan Panton Jan 2019

Essays: Color-Blind Or Race-Conscious Policies, Gus Castro, Hannah Lyons, Anna Eager, Jonathan Panton

Res Publica - Journal of Undergraduate Research

The debate between advocates color blind and race conscious policies has been perennial in the United States since Reconstruction and has recently been resuscitated in the popular press with the publication of Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Color Blindness (2010). Alexander’s book provided support for the race conscious side and students read Nathan Glazer’s Affirmative Discrimination: Ethnic Inequality and Public Policy (1975) for a defense of the color blind side. The debate was framed in an even-handed manner by a selection from Desmond King and Rogers M. Smith’s Still a House Divided: Race …


The Sizzle Or The Steak? How Individuals Process Political Cues, Ben Nielsen Jan 2019

The Sizzle Or The Steak? How Individuals Process Political Cues, Ben Nielsen

Res Publica - Journal of Undergraduate Research

The majority of the American electorate is uninformed with regards to politics, and to compensate for their lack of knowledge, they take political cues from perceived experts. This study examines the impact of political cues from various sources, and considers how individuals analyze source credibility and framing. The study was conducted on Illinois Wesleyan University’s campus, via survey collection. Post data analysis, the surveys proved cues given by perceived experts were more compelling than non-perceived experts, and emotional cues were more compelling than rational cues. These findings confirm individuals use peripheral route processing more frequently than central route processing , …


Social Media Engagement In The 2018 Democratic Primaries, Laura Bullock Jan 2019

Social Media Engagement In The 2018 Democratic Primaries, Laura Bullock

Res Publica - Journal of Undergraduate Research

Social media’s role in American politics has exploded in importance over the past decade. The 2018 primary season saw a massive rise in the amount of progressive, female, and younger candidates across the United States, particularly within the Democratic Party. This paper examines the role of social media outreach within the context of three case studies, all of which featured an insurgent, female, progressive candidate defeating their older, establishment, male opponents within their respective Democratic primaries. All three insurgent candidates maintained a higher rate of both social media output, personalization, and interactivity with the user base, which creates more engagement …


The Role Of Citizenship Status And Its Impact On Latino’ Civic Engagement In The United States, Veronica Torres Luna Jan 2019

The Role Of Citizenship Status And Its Impact On Latino’ Civic Engagement In The United States, Veronica Torres Luna

Res Publica - Journal of Undergraduate Research

This paper discusses the way in which U.S. citizenship status and legal permanent resident status impacts the likelihood of involvement in civic engagement activities among Latinos in the United States. Past research has looked into various variables such as group consciousness, Spanish-media language, and importance of issues; however, specific research on citizenship status is limited. This paper analyzes data from the Pew Research Center and data obtained from individual interviews in the Midwest. The results show that citizens are more likely than residents to be involved in the community and politics. These findings have important implications in how policies are …


Polarized China: The Effect Of Media Censorship On People's Ideology, Gaoming Zhu Jan 2019

Polarized China: The Effect Of Media Censorship On People's Ideology, Gaoming Zhu

Res Publica - Journal of Undergraduate Research

Ideological polarization is not a unique product of western politics. A national survey (2007-2014)6 revealed that the overarching division in Chinese society is split between nationalism and cultural liberalism. Why does polarization happen in society where state ideology dominates the political apparatuses? This paper approaches this puzzle by examining the relationship between individuals’ media diet facilitated by media censorship policies and their ideology in China. The findings suggest that polarization as an outcome is caused by nationalists adhering to heavily state-controlled media, while liberals seek less censored resources. The findings also suggest that polarization as a process is due …


Jim Simeone And How Earley Settlement Patterns Helped Shape Illinois Politics, Charlie Schlenker Aug 2018

Jim Simeone And How Earley Settlement Patterns Helped Shape Illinois Politics, Charlie Schlenker

Interviews for WGLT

Illinois settlement patterns did a lot to shape the early politics of the state and remain a force today, according to Illinois Wesleyan University Political Scientist Jim Simeone. Simeone spoke with WGLT’s Charlie Schlenker before a presentation at the McLean County Museum of History.


Todd Fuist Discussing His Book, Religion And Progressive Activism, Eric Stock Jul 2018

Todd Fuist Discussing His Book, Religion And Progressive Activism, Eric Stock

Interviews for WGLT

Assistant Professor of Sociology Todd Fuist speaking with WGLT's Eric Stock about his book "Religion and Progressive Activism: New Stories about Faith and Politics."


Why The Right?: Evaluating Vote Choice In Rural America, Zoe Bouras Apr 2018

Why The Right?: Evaluating Vote Choice In Rural America, Zoe Bouras

Honors Projects

Why the Right? Evaluating Vote Choice in Rural America focuses on explaining the seemingly “counterintuitive” vote choices of many poor, white, rural Americans. Theoretically, one would anticipate that those with low incomes would have a vested interest in redistributive policies. In reality, however, many of these Americans do not vote for these policies or the political party that champions them, The Democrats. This idea that these residents vote against their interests is growing increasingly popular and it is often referenced in explanation of the results of the 2016 US Presidential Election. Using data from the American National Election Study and …


Analyzing The Non-Mainstream Left And Populist-Radical Right: Do Party Promises For Women Actually Translate Into More Women Leaders And Members?, Brianna Bacigalupo Jan 2018

Analyzing The Non-Mainstream Left And Populist-Radical Right: Do Party Promises For Women Actually Translate Into More Women Leaders And Members?, Brianna Bacigalupo

Res Publica - Journal of Undergraduate Research

Why are some parties referred to as “Männerparteien,” or men’s parties, while other parties are considered to be “female women-friendly”? This study incorporates a two-part model system to assess whether the ways in which party platforms exhibit gender ideology affects women’s leadership and membership in non-mainstream left (NML) parties and populist-radical right (PRR) parties. Using content analysis, this study analyzes election manifestos from a variety of parties within Europe in order to characterize the relative woman friendliness of the gender ideology. In turn, the study attempts to discover whether differences in gender ideology lead to differences in women’s access to …


Res Publica Cover 2018, Anneke Nilles Jan 2018

Res Publica Cover 2018, Anneke Nilles

Res Publica - Journal of Undergraduate Research

No abstract provided.