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Articles 181 - 210 of 704

Full-Text Articles in Political Science

Their Brothers' Keepers? Ethnicity, Rebel Diplomacy, And State Support For Insurgency, Connor Somgynari Jan 2016

Their Brothers' Keepers? Ethnicity, Rebel Diplomacy, And State Support For Insurgency, Connor Somgynari

Honors Theses

This thesis aims to contribute to the filling of a theoretical lacuna by asking: what role do ethnic ties play in rebel groups' efforts to lobby for state support? Researchers have examined many facets of state support for armed rebel groups. Most literature on this topic has been dedicated to decision calculi of states choosing to support rebel groups. However, comparatively little has been said about the other side of this relationship: the demand for these goods and services by rebel groups themselves. Salehyan, Gleditsch, and Cunningham (2011) introduce the concept of the demand side into the literature, maintaining that …


Motivated Reasoning, Ambivalence, And The Local Economy: Asymmetric Biases In The Formation Of Economic Perceptions, Bradley Dickerson Jan 2016

Motivated Reasoning, Ambivalence, And The Local Economy: Asymmetric Biases In The Formation Of Economic Perceptions, Bradley Dickerson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Through motivated reasoning, citizens tend to process information in ways that confirm their prior beliefs. This motivation is seen perhaps most clearly in how voters view the economy -- citizens identifying with the incumbent party view the economy favorably, while those opposed to the incumbent party view the economy unfavorably. Thus, while all citizens exist within the same national economy at a given point in time, they also display wide variations in how they perceive that same economy. This study investigates the role the direction of partisan attachments, levels of political knowledge, and the local economic environment play in the …


An International Crossover: Comparing The Chinese Basketball Association With The National Basketball Association, Allison J. Slusher Jan 2016

An International Crossover: Comparing The Chinese Basketball Association With The National Basketball Association, Allison J. Slusher

Honors Theses

This thesis compares the Chinese Basketball Association with the National Basketball Association in an in-depth comparison of how these organizations approach seven key aspects of sports management including commercialization, regular and post season scheduling, training, player acquisitions, players' and coaches' salaries, and players' and coaches' unions. This thesis also compares the histories of the CBA and NBA. The histories of these organizations serve to set the background information needed to understand how the CBA and NBA administer these seven aspects of sports management. Comparing these two organizations serves to prove that the CBA is run as a government bureaucracy used …


Exogenous Barriers To The Incorporation Of The Second Generation North Africans In France, Amber Malone Jan 2016

Exogenous Barriers To The Incorporation Of The Second Generation North Africans In France, Amber Malone

Honors Theses

Immigration is a polemic subject in French society today. The 2005 riots in the banlieue and the government's response to the outraged and discontented immigrant populations brought forth a topic left out of public discourse for years before the heavily televised protests. At the forefront of this public debate surrounding identity and incorporation was one of France's largest immigrant populations, North Africans. Marginalization of a particular group often appears in the terms of social and cultural conflict. While this is true, incorporation of the culture of migrants and their representation in French society are not the only exogenous factors that …


Trade Policy Formation In Europe: Disparities Between The Eu-15 States And The Cee New Member States, Beau Bettiga Jan 2016

Trade Policy Formation In Europe: Disparities Between The Eu-15 States And The Cee New Member States, Beau Bettiga

Honors Theses

Trade preference formation has been the deciding factor in the process of creating and reforming the Common Agricultural Policy. The process of reforming the policy created a discrepancy between the benefits received by the original European Union-15 member states and the late accession central and eastern European new member states. This paper analyses how trade preferences have shaped the reforms of the CAP and how the CAP has been poorly implemented in the late accession states. Poland will be used a case study to analyze how the CAP has been poorly formed in regards to late accession states' needs because …


Political Underrepresentation And Domestic Terrorism: The Deficiency Of Minority Descriptive Representation As A Causal Factor Of Violent Radicalization In Western European Democracies, Erica Shannon Mcgraw Jan 2016

Political Underrepresentation And Domestic Terrorism: The Deficiency Of Minority Descriptive Representation As A Causal Factor Of Violent Radicalization In Western European Democracies, Erica Shannon Mcgraw

Honors Theses

Electoral systems are vital in controlling the levels of minority descriptive representation in a government because each system contains characteristics that make it easier or more difficult for a member of a minority group to be elected to office. Because of this power, I focus on the role of electoral systems in Western European democracies as a possible, causal factor of domestic terrorism by way of their effect on the level of a country's minority descriptive representation, and therefore, levels of minority inclusion. To test my hypotheses, I use both quantitative and qualitative data in linear regression models, and a …


The Effect Of State Capacity On Civil Conflict In India, Rimen Brar Singh Jan 2016

The Effect Of State Capacity On Civil Conflict In India, Rimen Brar Singh

Honors Theses

This thesis seeks to study the relationship between state capacity and civil conflict in India. This thesis provides insight on concepts such as state capacity, intrastate rebellious conflict, and greed and grievance, but the main focus of this thesis is on sub-national differences. The thesis attempts to demonstrate how sub-national differences may affect state capacity and influence intrastate conflict. Two aspects of sub-national differences are investigated: topography and roads. Specifically, data for topography and roads are confined within India. India is chosen to be a case study due to its diverseness in people and geography. The methods used to record …


Fourth Amendment Search Incident To Arrest In The Home: Why Gant's New Vehicular Rules Should Supersede Chimel, Sidney Lampton Jan 2016

Fourth Amendment Search Incident To Arrest In The Home: Why Gant's New Vehicular Rules Should Supersede Chimel, Sidney Lampton

Honors Theses

The purpose of this article is to reveal and propose a solution for the current misguided search incident to arrest doctrine in homes and vehicles. As a result from modern Supreme Court cases, the rules controlling searches incident to arrest are inverted for homes and vehicles. Homes possess a higher expectation of privacy, but currently have less protection from invasive police searches than vehicles. This constitutionally incorrect doctrine is a consequence of Arizona v Gant's decision to return vehicular searches to the original intent of Chimel v California. However, interpretations of Gant failed to make the same adjustment in home …


Millennials' Civics Inclinations: A Study Of Civics Education's Impact On Millennials' Political Knowledge And Political Participation, Hannah Haley Jan 2016

Millennials' Civics Inclinations: A Study Of Civics Education's Impact On Millennials' Political Knowledge And Political Participation, Hannah Haley

Honors Theses

This thesis researches the impact civics education has on Millennials' political participation and political knowledge levels. The focus is on civics education's impact on Millennials' political participation and political knowledge because civics education to the American governing system. Two political socialization agents, parents and teachers, represented the actors teaching civics education. Thus, this thesis provides insight into the role of civics education, as taught by parents and schools, on the newest generation of American voters. In order to understand civics education's impact on this new generation, prior background research on Millennials, importance of civics education, parents, and schools is included. …


Opportunities And Challenges For Socially Responsible Business In China, Liana Tai Jan 2016

Opportunities And Challenges For Socially Responsible Business In China, Liana Tai

Honors Theses

This thesis aims to demonstrate the unique circumstances that China poses for the development of socially responsible business in China. Socially responsible business is a concept that has emerged in Western nations in recent years, due to the growing environmental and social consciousness of consumers and their increasing demands for companies to meet higher standards in this regard. Socially responsible business refers to those corporate entities that use the market to stimulate change in peoples' awareness of and attitudes toward a certain social issue and, ultimately, consumer behavior and habits. China's irresponsible corporate environment has resulted in harmful and threatening …


A Comprehensive Study Of Voter Identification Laws And The Discriminatory Effect They Have On Voting Rights, Christine Sim Jan 2016

A Comprehensive Study Of Voter Identification Laws And The Discriminatory Effect They Have On Voting Rights, Christine Sim

Honors Theses

One of the most primary and essential rights of every American is equal opportunity to access the polls. Voting rights have been tirelessly fought for by people from many demographic backgrounds throughout the history of the United States. Now, due to the weakening of the Voting Rights Act, it is now easier for states across the nation to place voting identification legislation on the books that may change not only voter turnout at the polls, but also the ability of all Americans to exercise their fundamental right to vote. This thesis covers all aspects of the controversy over voter identification …


Providing A Prescription Of School Choice To Improve Mississippi's K-12 Educational System: A Dose Of Education Savings Accounts Mixed With Charter Schools And Private School Vouchers, Eric Bennett Jan 2016

Providing A Prescription Of School Choice To Improve Mississippi's K-12 Educational System: A Dose Of Education Savings Accounts Mixed With Charter Schools And Private School Vouchers, Eric Bennett

Honors Theses

This thesis investigates the research surrounding school choice programs, such as charter schools, private school vouchers, and education savings accounts (ESAs). My research investigates academic effects, fiscal effects, impact upon low-income and minority students, parental involvement and satisfaction, and public opinion of school choice programs. The ultimate goal of this thesis is to answer my central research question of, What is the ideal school choice picture for Mississippi, with two goals in mind: 1.) To rescue children currently trapped within underperforming schools without the means to transfer to a higher quality school. 2.) To reform the K-12 educational system in …


Urbanization And Exclusion: Examining The Wages Of Migrant Workers In The Chinese Urban Labor Market, Evan Heitzmann Jan 2016

Urbanization And Exclusion: Examining The Wages Of Migrant Workers In The Chinese Urban Labor Market, Evan Heitzmann

Honors Theses

This work is primarily an examination of the economic effects of the Hukou system on migrant workers who live in cities. By endeavoring to control for any differences in background and human capital, I will attempt to isolate any premium attached the possession of urban Hukou. What, if any, benefit or advantage do urban citizens have over rural migrant in cities? Will they be favorably treated and will migrants be discriminated against? These are all questions that my project seeks to answer through the construction of a linear regression model that estimates the wages of both urban and migrant workers. …


Stuck In Traffic: The Effects Of Regional Trade On Human Trafficking, Jacob Smith Jan 2016

Stuck In Traffic: The Effects Of Regional Trade On Human Trafficking, Jacob Smith

Honors Theses

Human trafficking represents one negative side affect of an increasingly interconnected, globalized world. What characteristics of regional trade drive bilateral human trafficking flows? Resource dependent states, or states with an economy established primarily through resource exports, interact with more industrialized states to push and pull populations into human trafficking schemes as a byproduct of economic and political linkages. The adverse conditions of resource dependence push populations into trafficking networks while traffickers and trafficking victims are drawn to economic opportunity in more stable regional trade partners. This theory is tested using ordinal logistic and OLS regression, utilizing cross sectional and time …


Barriers To Access Under The Affordable Care Act: An Analysis Of Marketplace Enrollment, Jessica Ann Johnson Jan 2016

Barriers To Access Under The Affordable Care Act: An Analysis Of Marketplace Enrollment, Jessica Ann Johnson

Honors Theses

This thesis seeks to understand how the Affordable Care Act impacted certain groups who had faced barriers to accessing health insurance prior to the passage of the act. It provides a fundamental understanding of the major provisions of the Affordable Care Act and discusses dis- parities amongst, and challenges incurred, by different groups in the current health insurance sys- tem, Research focused specifically on demographic factors of income, gender, primary language spoken, ethnicity, education and age as Ill as looked at the effect that urban setting and sufficient internet access had on enrollment rates. In order to understand the impact …


Understanding Effective Venues Of Women Representation In Latin America: An Empirical Study Of Millennium Development Goals 3 And 5, Sheila Arun Kumar Jan 2016

Understanding Effective Venues Of Women Representation In Latin America: An Empirical Study Of Millennium Development Goals 3 And 5, Sheila Arun Kumar

Honors Theses

Recent research concerning women and politics focuses on identifying what factors cause and stimulate women participation in politics. This thesis uses the indicators for Millennium Development Goals 3 and 5 as a measurement basis for an empirical study to determine if certain factors effect women participation in Latin American politics. Data for these goals, to Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women and Improve Maternal Health, were collected for various Latin American countries across a 2000-2015 time series. Along with this data collection, this thesis focuses on testing two specific factors to determine their effectiveness on women representation in Latin America. …


Chief Justice Roberts And The Salience Of Issues Before The Modern Supreme Court, Anna Whisenant Jan 2016

Chief Justice Roberts And The Salience Of Issues Before The Modern Supreme Court, Anna Whisenant

Honors Theses

This thesis studies whether the Roberts Court has been hearing more important issues than the Warren, Burger or Rehnquist Courts. I operationalize important issues as pre-decision salience and measure mentions of cases in the first section of two newspapers. The research shows that the Roberts Court has been hearing more important issues than the other modern Courts. I reason that the Roberts Court has been hearing more important issues because interest groups and individuals are turning to the Court to make policy. Because the Court is becoming a more important policymaking institution, scrutiny of the Supreme Court will increase.


An Industry Giant's Struggles: Google's Relative Failure Within China, Zachary T. Cookston Jan 2016

An Industry Giant's Struggles: Google's Relative Failure Within China, Zachary T. Cookston

Honors Theses

This thesis aims to understand and further explain the reasons culminating in Google's relative failure in the Chinese search engine market. By examining Google's tenure in China, Google's fairings in other large East Asian markets, and other Western corporations' troubles adapting to the Chinese market, this paper works to exhibit the reasons for Google's failure in China. Many of Google's high-ranking officers have claimed censorship as the most important factor in forcing the industry giant to vacate one of the fastest growing and most populous search engine markets in the world, but this paper seeks to exemplify that Google's approach …


Strait Talk: United States Containment Of Communism In The Taiwan Strait, Elizabeth Leary Jan 2016

Strait Talk: United States Containment Of Communism In The Taiwan Strait, Elizabeth Leary

Honors Theses

Since the conclusion of the Chinese Civil War, the Republic of China (ROC) and the People's Republic of China (PRC) have maintained a complex relationship in which the PRC claims that the ROC is a PRC province, even though the ROC has its own two-party democratic system. The political separation of the ROC and the PRC is an exigent concern for the PRC, one that the PRC has threatened using military force to resolve. This thesis examines the military and political aspects of US involvement in the Asia Pacific during the Cold War, and how the United States used its …


The Political Power Of The Black Church, Chanse Jamal Travis Jan 2015

The Political Power Of The Black Church, Chanse Jamal Travis

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Black churches are more than spiritual gathering places, they are power centers within the black community. Dr. King and Malcolm X used churches as mobilization centers in their attempts to equip African Americans with political information and the frame of mind needed for political change. When combining the various roles of the black church, over time, the church has gained leverage within the community and this leverage has translated into the church having political power. How exactly does this political power translate? From the pulpit, to be exact, through the power of persuasion. The public face of any church, especially …


Divided Schools And Divided Societies: Ethnic Saliency, Socialization, And Attitudes Among High School Seniors In Bosnia And Herzegovina, Matthew Thomas Becker Jan 2015

Divided Schools And Divided Societies: Ethnic Saliency, Socialization, And Attitudes Among High School Seniors In Bosnia And Herzegovina, Matthew Thomas Becker

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores the role of schools, families, and other-group contact on ethnic saliency and student attitudes towards outside groups in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) via statistical analysis. It was found that families, via familial example, have a statistically significant (p < 0.001) effect on increasing tolerance towards outside groups, and schools tend to play a secondary role due to a high degree of ethnic homogeneity within secondary schools. Frequency of religious service attendance also plays a statistically significant role in increasing ethnic saliency. Another significant finding is that a majority of high school seniors are not opposed to socializing outside of their own respective ethno-national groups. This dissertation finds that a coupling and de-coupling of ethno-national identity and religion are currently taking place in BiH; among Bosniaks and Croats they are coupled, whereas among Serbs and self-identifying Bosnians they are de-coupled. Data was gathered via field surveys taken by high school seniors from 78 high schools in 53 cities and towns located across the country.


Catalunya No Es Espanya?: Examining Catalan Nationalism, Shiloh Jaggers Jones Jan 2015

Catalunya No Es Espanya?: Examining Catalan Nationalism, Shiloh Jaggers Jones

Honors Theses

Catalonia is one of a few European separatist movements that have real significance in the European political sphere. Separatism is new to Catalonia, however Catalan nationalism is not. Through the analysis of primary and secondary sources, this thesis explains that the reason the Catalan nationalist movement is so strong and demands the attention it is receiving in the Spanish national and international communities is the long-standing political, economic, and cultural foundations that have been building even before Catalonia was formed. Likewise, these foundations combined with the triggering events of the recession of the late 2000s and the Spanish constitutional court …


Fueling The Dragon's Fire: China's Coal Policy, Taylor Malcolm Jan 2015

Fueling The Dragon's Fire: China's Coal Policy, Taylor Malcolm

Honors Theses

The last few decades in China have seen unprecedented economic growth. This growth, though good for the economy, has had extreme consequences on the health of Chinese citizens as well as the environment as a whole. A major factor of this increased pollution is the country's high consumption of coal, which has rarely comprised less than 70 percent of the country's energy during the past 50 years. Though the media portrays a China which is making enormous strides in the field of environmental protection, the energy and environmental policies of the country suggest that it will continue using large amounts …


The Chinese Inquisition: Xi Jinping's War On Corruption, Harriet E. Fisher Jan 2015

The Chinese Inquisition: Xi Jinping's War On Corruption, Harriet E. Fisher

Honors Theses

An integral part of Chinese political life is the rampant corruption that infests every level of Chinese government. China's current leader, Xi Jinping, has initiated a hardline anti-corruption campaign that, for the first time in history, has targeted both low-level officials (small flies) and high-level officials (big tigers). This thesis is concerned with the factors that have motivated Xi to initiate these unprecedented reforms. I have identified three potential motivations: office, policy, and legitimacy. The office motivation refers to Xi's attempt to consolidate his own power as leader of China, as well as the power of his political faction, represented …


Rebel Leaders And Conflict Processes: An Individual Level Analysis, Serhan Yalciner Jan 2015

Rebel Leaders And Conflict Processes: An Individual Level Analysis, Serhan Yalciner

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Civil conflict is a complex and ambiguous phenomenon that requires a multi-dimensional investigation. A concentration on rebel leaders in the study of conflict promises a good amount of potential for obtaining interesting findings. This dissertation examines rebel leader survival and rebel leaders’ influence on various conflict processes. It demonstrates that relative rebel strength, external support favoring the government, and oil production of the state have a significant impact on rebel leader tenure. To explain why we observe some considerable increases in the number of civilian killings in the course of conflict, the dissertation develops a theoretical model, putting the emphasis …


The Dynamics Of Compression On Presidential Nominations, Samuel Raymond Gedman Jan 2015

The Dynamics Of Compression On Presidential Nominations, Samuel Raymond Gedman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The way in which political parties in the United States choose to nominate presidential candidates is a dynamic process. States operate with a great deal of autonomy as to when and what type of contest to hold, strategic candidates seek to enter the race at an advantageous time, and voters adjust to the electoral environment presented to them. The movement of statewide contests earlier in the nomination calendar, the shortening time between subsequent contests, and the expedited conclusion that is often reached before the official nominating convention has led to a compression of the nomination contest. This compression of the …


Economic Vs. Ideological Interests: Examining Chinese Arms Exports And Aid, James Delton Rhodes Jan 2015

Economic Vs. Ideological Interests: Examining Chinese Arms Exports And Aid, James Delton Rhodes

Honors Theses

This thesis examines China's role in the world, specifically from 1990 to 2011. I discuss China's arms exports and outward direct investment (ODI) and how these relate with China's policy goals. Do Chinese leaders use these two methods as means of gaining long-term, international hegemonic/ strategic support, or are they related to gaining short-term, domestic economic-based support? In this thesis, I attempt to look into international political theory (constructivism and rationalism) and how this applies to China's current and future ambitions as a world power. I test this by looking at factors like UN voting, polity IV score, and natural …


Regime Type And Healthcare Systems: A Global Quantitative Analysis, R. L. Barr Jan 2015

Regime Type And Healthcare Systems: A Global Quantitative Analysis, R. L. Barr

Honors Theses

This thesis examines the link between regime type and healthcare systems. After reviewing literature that examines regime type, social spending, and healthcare, as well as a more specific example of regime change in Chile, it undertakes a multivariate regression analysis of 183 countries. It concludes that democracies have significantly better healthcare-system indicators, but that environmental variables, such as Latitude and Percentage of Rural Population, are more significant predictors of healthcare. It concludes that, while regime type is an important factor, dealing with ecological and locational problems of a country, such as combating tropical diseases and expanding access to infrastructure, are …


A Study Of Public Opinion On Sex Education In Mississippi, Karson Brandenburg Jan 2015

A Study Of Public Opinion On Sex Education In Mississippi, Karson Brandenburg

Honors Theses

In 2011, Mississippi, a state ranked fourth in the nation for high teen pregnancy rates, passed a law mandating sex education for all public school districts in the form of either the abstinence-only or the abstinence-plus method. This thesis describes the background of those two methods and how they are currently being implemented in Mississippi school districts. Additionally, it looks at how Mississippi parents and leaders feel about sex education in schools as a whole and then more specifically how they feel about the current options for sex education and the execution of sex education classes. This was done through …


Still Innocents Abroad: The Relationship Between Anti-Americanism And American Foreign Policy In The Middle East, Kelly Kennedy Jan 2015

Still Innocents Abroad: The Relationship Between Anti-Americanism And American Foreign Policy In The Middle East, Kelly Kennedy

Honors Theses

In this thesis, the author examined the relationship between anti-American sentiment and U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. The author first constructed a literature review on anti-Americanism, including sections discussing its definition, conceptualization, measurement techniques, and known sources. From this literature review, the author created her own definition of anti-Americanism and a hypothesis that anti-Americanism is endogenous to U.S. foreign policy—anti-Americanism may increase or decrease depending on changes to U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. The author then used a quantitative comparison of survey data and two qualitative case studies to test her hypothesis. The comparison of survey …