Political Science Commons^™

Congressional Hearings: Immigration Frames In Expert Testimonies, Joshua Woods, C. Damien Arthur Phd

C. Damien Arthur

This book offers a broad interdisciplinary approach to the changes in the U.S. immigration debate before and after 9/11. A nation’s reaction to foreigners has as much to do with sociology as it does with political science, economics and psychology. Without drawing on this knowledge, our understanding of the immigration debate remains mundane, partial, and imperfect. Therefore, our story accounts for multiple factors, including culture and politics, power, organizations, social psychological processes, and political change. Examining this relationship in the contemporary context requires a lengthy voyage across academic disciplines, a synthesis of seemingly contradictory assumptions, and a grasp of research …

Negating The Gender Citation Advantage In Political Science, Amy Atchison

Amy Atchison

Open-access (OA) advocates have long promoted OA as an egalitarian alternative to traditional subscription-based academic publishing. The argument is simple: OA gives everyone access to high-quality research at no cost. In turn, this should benefit individual researchers by increasing the number of people reading and citing academic articles. As the OA movement gains traction in the academy, scholars are investing considerable research energy to determine whether there is an OA citation advantage—that is, does OA increase an article’s citation counts? Research indicates that it does. Scholars also explored patterns of gender bias in academic publishing and found that women are …

Vaclav Havel, Jan Patocka: The Powerless And The Shaken, Daniel Brennan

Daniel Brennan

This article makes a case for considering Vaclav Havel's political theory of the nature of dissent as more politically grounded than that of his mentor fan Patoka. Against the criticism of Havel, which describes him as a less rigorous repeater of Patocka's ideas, this paper demonstrates how Havel appropriated Patocka's idea that the dissident is, similarly to a World War I trench soldier, fighting in a contemporary front in a demobilized war. However I argue that in Havel's thought, the understanding of dissent takes on a more practical and useful complexion than that of Patocka. This paper will explain and …

Contra Politanism: Against The Moral Teleology Of Political Forms, Jacob T. Levy, Stefan Sciaraffa, François Tanguay-Renaud

François Tanguay-Renaud

Jacob T. Levy, Tomlinson Professor of Political Theory Professor of Political Science Associate member, Department of Philosophy, McGill University, talks about forms of political organization, moral purposes, and the influence of social technologies.

Respondent: Stefan Sciaraffa, McMaster University

Interning In Disaster, Erika Simpson

Erika Simpson

No abstract provided.

Will Open Access Get Me Cited? An Analysis Of The Efficacy Of Open Access Publishing In Political Science, Amy Atchison, Jonathan Bull

Amy Atchison

The digital revolution has made it easier for Political Scientists to share and access high-quality research online. However, many of these articles are stored in proprietary databases that some institutions cannot afford. High-quality, peer reviewed, top-tier journal articles that have been made open access (freely available online) should theoretically be more easily accessed and cited than articles of similar quality that are only available to paying customers. Research into the efficacy of Open Access (OA) publishing has thus far focused mainly on the natural sciences, and the results have been mixed. Because OA has not been as widely adopted in …

Will Open Access Get Me Cited? An Analysis Of The Efficacy Of Open Access Publishing In Political Science, Amy Atchison, Jonathan Bull

Jonathan Bull

The digital revolution has made it easier for Political Scientists to share and access high-quality research online. However, many of these articles are stored in proprietary databases that some institutions cannot afford. High-quality, peer reviewed, top-tier journal articles that have been made open access (freely available online) should theoretically be more easily accessed and cited than articles of similar quality that are only available to paying customers. Research into the efficacy of Open Access (OA) publishing has thus far focused mainly on the natural sciences, and the results have been mixed. Because OA has not been as widely adopted in …

Reluctance Or Power Hunger: Whom Do Voters Prefer? A Test Of The Wary Cooperator Theory And Evolutionary Political Behavior, Timothy Collins

Timothy Collins

Do voters prefer political candidates who express reluctance to seek office, or do voters prefer candidates who express great ambition and an implicit hunger for power? This study uses an experimental design to test overall support of reluctant or power-hungry candidates, and discusses which people would select which candidate and why. While limited by the survey design, the evidence suggests that there is no significant overall mean difference for overall support of either candidate. However, personality traits and the degree to which participants perceived certain descriptive attributes of the candidates both play a role in vote likelihood and candidate favorability …

Creatures Of Incoherence: Dissecting The Drivers, History, And Cognition Of Attitudinal Incongruence In The American Body Politic, Timothy Collins

Timothy Collins

Most American conservatives and liberals wield contradictory political attitudes. This dissertation explores what drives this “attitudinal incongruence.” First, I define and operationalize my terminology and situate the topic within social and political psychology to formulate my central model and theory of ideologically asymmetrical application of (1) individuals’ psychological and cognitive traits, and (2) individuals’ social identity and environmental traits. This leads to the overarching hypothesis that conservatives’ incongruities are more strongly driven by internal forces, and liberals’ by external forces. The central model is then demonstrated in a broad historical overview of attitudinal incongruence in America. The central tenets of …

Seeking Security In An Insecure World, Dan Caldwell, Robert Williams

Dan Caldwell

This comprehensive yet concise introduction to international security explores the constantly changing conditions that lead to an insecure world. During the Cold War, the Soviet-American nuclear rivalry generated insecurity. Since then, state-based nuclear threats have diminished while the threat of non-state actors wielding weapons of mass destruction has increased. A global surge in mass-casualty terrorism, persistent and costly intrastate wars, and environmental threats have reshaped our thinking about security threats and how best to respond to them. Now in a thoroughly updated edition, the text considers today's security agenda, including the threat posed by the spread of infectious disease, drug …

A New Introduction To American Constitutionalism, Mark Graber

Mark Graber

A New Introduction to American Constitutionalism is the first text to study the entirety of American constitutionalism, not just the traces that appear in Supreme Court decisions. Mark A. Graber both explores and offers original answers to such central questions as: What is a Constitution? What are fundamental constitutional purposes? How are constitutions interpreted? How is constitutional authority allocated? How do constitutions change? How is the Constitution of the United States influenced by international and comparative law? and, most important, How does the Constitution work? Relying on an historical/institutional perspective, the book illustrates how American constitutionalism is a distinct form …

El Movimiento Ocupa Wall Street: Lecciones De Movimientos Latinoamericanos Y De Derechos De Los Inmigrantes En Eeuu, Clara Irazabal, Gabriel Fumero

Clara Irazabal

This essay shows the importance of placing Occupy Wall Street (OWS) in a global context of preceding social movements protesting against oppressive conditions from certain social groups. In particular, it suggests the opportunity that OWS has for thinking on and learning from Latin-American contestation and political projects against neoliberalism and in struggle for the rights of latina/os and immigrants in the United States. While in some Latin-American cases public protests, and in particular the occupation of public spaces, have helped in the election of political representatives who support popular agendas, in the case of recent pro-immigrant struggles in the United …

Preaching What We Practice: Bringing Scope And Methods “Back In”, Miguel Centellas

Miguel Centellas

Recent discussions of teaching research methods have focused on understand- ing the relationship between methods courses and the broader discipline, including the need to integrate qualitative methods and other approaches beyond the traditional statis- tical approaches still common in the majority of undergraduate research methods courses. This article contributes to this conversation by arguing that the basic elements of research design and qualitative techniques should be integrated into substantive (or “non-methods”) courses across the discipline. To accomplish this aim, I offer a brief outline of methodolog- ical benchmark skills—drawn from the pool of skills necessary for a successful thesis—that can …

The Chimera Of Europe’S Normative Power In East Asia: A Constructivist Analysis, Salvador Santino F. Regilme Jr.

Salvador Santino Jr. F Regilme

Utilising constructivism this work analyses the contemporary relational complexities of East Asia vis-à-vis the European Union (EU). Mindful of the social constructivist themes of identity and interests, it is argued that there are fundamental difficulties found in these interregional relations, which must be urgently addressed. The EU continues to be under-valued and misunderstood in the eyes of the East Asian public; despite the relatively strong economic and political engagement of the Union. With the emergence of China as a global actor, Europe must reinforce its political capital amidst the failures of the EU to reconcile its policy inconsistencies juxtaposed with …

Revolution In Political Affairs, Dylan Kissane

Dylan Kissane

Extract:

"Recognising the marked impact of the internet on both practical politics and the practices of political scientists, it is not too large a step to paraphrase the US Department of Defence and decree the internet a Revolution in Political Affairs. Akin to its military phrase mate, the internet is effecting all areas of political discourse, exchange and public policy while, at the same time, forcing those who study and theorise politics to change their existing ways of thinking, working and imagining their chosen field..."

Gypsies As Victims Of The Holocaust, James Lutz, Brenda Lutz

James M Lutz

No abstract provided.

Change And Continuity In The Irish Urban System: 1966-1981, James Lutz, David Huff

James M Lutz

No abstract provided.

To Import Or Protect: Industrialized Countries And Manufactured Products, James Lutz

James M Lutz

No abstract provided.

Emulation And Policy Adoptions In The Canadian Provinces, James Lutz

James M Lutz

No abstract provided.

Urban Spheres Of Influence In Ghana, David Huff, James Lutz

James M Lutz

No abstract provided.

Soviet Responses To Crises In Eastern Europe, James Lutz, Robert Evanson

James M Lutz

No abstract provided.

Perestroika In Central Europe, David Mason

David S. Mason

Syllabus for Political Science 380, "Perestroika in Central Europe".

The Intersection Of Judicial Attitudes And Litigant Selection Theories: Explaining U.S. Supreme Court Decision Making, Jeff L. Yates, Elizabeth Coggins

Jeff L Yates

Two prominent theories of legal decision making provide seemingly contradictory explanations for judicial outcomes. In political science, the Attitudinal Model suggests that judicial outcomes are driven by judges' sincere policy preferences -- judges bring their ideological inclinations to the decision making process and their case outcome choices largely reflect these policy preferences. In contrast, in the law and economics literature, Priest and Klein's well-known Selection Hypothesis posits that court outcomes are largely driven by the litigants' strategic choices in the selection of cases for formal dispute or adjudication -- forward thinking litigants settle cases where potential judicial outcomes are readily …

Thick And Thin: Interdisciplinary Conversations On Populism, Law, Political Science, And Constitutional Change, Mark A. Graber

Mark Graber

No abstract provided.

The Entrepreneurial Assumption: Thinking About Taxes In Contemporary Political Theory, Mindy Peden

Mindy Peden

This article argues that contemporary political theory often contains an obscured supposition that I call the entrepreneurial assumption. This assumption can be seen most clearly when political theorists who do not have economic expertise per se theorize the relationship between their political thought and taxation. In order to explicate the entrepreneurial assumption, the article engages in close readings of John Rawls, Robert Nozick, and Ronald Dworkin. By elaborating on each of these authors' views, the importance of preserving “talent” through a system of taxation, the centrality of the entrepreneurial assumption can be seen more clearly.

The Dual Approach To The Exportation Of European Governance, Linda Margaret Broughton

Linda Margaret Broughton

The paper argues that this is the effective process by which the EU successfully exports European governance to the CEEC without overtly pressuring states. First, this paper will discuss the type of organisation of sovereignty (the model of federalism) in the EU in order to outline the peculiar institutional elements that enable the EU to export its model of governance in its expansion. EU expansion enhances statehood (understood both in terms of policy autonomy and governance capacity) in the applicant countries at the same time that it exports its own substantive form of governance. The paper will then explore the …