Political Science Commons^™

Genocide In The Classroom: How Transitional Societies Are Affected By The Quality Of Genocide Education, Leah Oppenheimer

Honors Scholar Theses

Recognized as a legal term since 1944, genocides have been an unfortunate occurrence since the beginning of world history. However, many countries have failed to properly educate students about genocides that have taken place in their own countries by either not providing accurate or consistent information about what took place or denying the genocide outright. Additionally, in many countries, relations between formerly warring ethnic groups have not improved, despite the often large amount of time that has passed since the end of the genocide. This study examines how history education, both accurate and inaccurate, has affected the current social situation …

Pope John Paul Ii’S Role In The Collapse Of Poland’S Communist Regime: Examining A Religious Leader’S Impact On International Relations, Arragon Perrone

Honors Scholar Theses

The international relations field knows Pope John Paul II for his temporal leadership in the Roman Catholic Church, but less is known about his pivotal role in the rise of Poland’s independent trade movement, Solidarity, and the collapse of that nation’s Communist government. This study analyzes current scholarship in order to establish the importance that an individual actor can have within political science, and in doing so, outlines the criteria for effective leadership. Major texts include Max Weber’s seminal Economy and Society, James MacGregor Burns’ Leadership, which explores the concept of “transforming leadership,” Fred Greenstein’s “The Impact of Personality on …

Environmental Justice & Sociology, Brenna E. Regan

Honors Scholar Theses

This thesis compared the patterns influencing the creation of Native American reservations and the prison industrial complex in the United States. I argue that the country is controlled by people who create a physical and socio-political environment that caters to their certain positionality, adversely effecting and pushing marginalized groups into confined, controlled spaces in their own home. Ultimately, environmental justice, or equal control of people over their environment, is a vital factor in ending structural and physical violence against marginalized groups in the United States.

Civil War And Globalization: The Effect Of Colonialism On Political Globalization, Luke O. Feltz

Celebration

The purpose of this paper to determine why civil war onset reduces political globalization in former British colonies. Through linear regression and logistic regression analyses, I test the affect of civil war onset and the presence of civil war on political globalization, controlling for former British colonies, French colonies, and other factors. More important, however, is the history behind British colonialism. Through setting up a unique institutional system and maintaining ties to its former colonies, the British have created an atmosphere conducive to international political engagement after the onset of civil war. This study shows that while civil war onset …

Book Review: Dream Of Ding Village By Yan Lianke, Mike Frick

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Unsurprisingly, the Chinese government levied a “three nos” ban—no sales, no distribution, and no promotion—against Dream of Ding Village after its publication in 2005. Though the storytelling relies heavily on dream sequences, Yan takes little poetic license when exposing the depth of the state’s culpability in spreading HIV among poor, medically-naïve farmers. He is just as uncompromising when detailing how officials denied responsibility for the ensuing AIDS epidemic, even as they profited from its human tragedy. No one in Ding Village receives medical care, mental health counseling, food assistance, or a chance to hold the blood heads legally accountable. Cast …

Exclusion Vs. Inclusion: American And Turkish Foreign Policy In The Middle East., Marshall Collins

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Why do countries engage in democracy promotion around the world? Why is the principle component of U.S. foreign policy abroad assistance with democratization? One answer is the Democratic Peace Theory (DPT) (also known as “Liberal Peace”). Accordingly, DPT states, as its basic tenant, democracies behave differently with one another than they do non-democracies, especially in relation to military altercations.

Why are some countries more successful than others in promoting democratic ideals around the world? In order to partly explain this question, I examine American and Turkish foreign policy initiatives in the Middle East from a comparative perspective. The United States …

The United States Military Realignment On Okinawa, Kevin M. Evringham

Master's Theses

The United States maintains military bases in foreign countries in efforts to protect American overseas interests, whether they are economic, diplomatic or for geostrategic purposes. In Japan, where the United States has maintained military installations since the end of World War II, debate over the realignment of forces on Okinawa has caused minor, yet growing, rifts in the stable United States-Japanese alliance. Current plans to shift American military forces from Okinawa to locations throughout the Pacific do not take into account the historical or geostrategic factors for their stationing in Japan. This thesis identifies the geostrategic challenges to the current …

Political Globalization And Civil War In Former British Colonies, Luke O. Feltz

Student Publications

The purpose of this paper to determine why civil war onset reduces political globalization in former British colonies. I set out by testing the relationship between being a former British colony and civil war presence, demonstrating a positive, though not statistically significant, relationship. I also examine the history of British colonialism. Through setting up specific system of indirect rule, British colonizers created conditions that contributed to intra-state conflict. Furthermore, through constructing a unique institutional system and maintaining ties to its former colonies, the British have created an atmosphere conducive to international political engagement after the onset of civil war. Yet, …

Adaptability In Socio-Political Contexts: Moving Beyond Ability And Intelligence, Singapore Management University

Perspectives@SMU

The ability to adapt in an ever-changing environment is critical for success, if not, survival. Most people would acknowledge that change management can sometimes be a discomforting and bumpy process. This applies not just with individuals and organisations, but also with governments. While the former two may adapt privately, governments, represented by politicians and public officers, often have the unenviable task of demonstrating adaptability under the watchful eyes of their public. Slip-ups, trips and falls thus come at greater costs, which go well beyond mere embarrassment.

Barriers To Latina Access Of Higher Education, Marissa Montalban

Senior Honors Projects

Patterns of attendance in higher education in America as a whole have increased. Increasingly, people are finding that they need a college or technical degree to achieve financial stability and success. This holds true for subsets of the population who were traditionally excluded from higher education, such as females and minorities. However, though the population as a whole is increasing their patterns of attendance in higher education, there is one group notably left behind. Patterns of higher education for female Hispanics or Latinas are the exception to the rule that attendance is improving for the entire population. Latinas are affected …

The Judicial System In Venezuela & The Lack Of Checks And Balances, Jessica Gicherman

HIM 1990-2015

Although the wave of democratization already took place in Latin America, Venezuela has experienced a reversal in the past decade. In earlier years, the higher courts (although independent) had no impact on society; the justice members only assumed a symbolic role with no real importance, but with time, this characteristic started to interchange and the Judicial branch began to get involved in issues regarding its civil society. Consequently, the elected President Hugo Chavez decided to neutralize the power of all branches of government, including the judiciary, by enacting a set of rules not commonly seen in a democratic country, which …

The Cupboard Is Full: Public Finances For Public Services In The Global South, Sarah T. Romano, Ronnie Lipschutz

All Faculty Work

No abstract provided.

Immigration Crackdown In The American Workplace: Explaining Variation In E-Verify Policy Adoption Across The U.S. States, Benjamin Newman, Christopher Johnston, April Johnson (Strickland)

Faculty Articles

Immigration remains a powerful and recurrent feature of American politics. Of the issues related to immigration, controversy over government policy for controlling illegal immigration occupies a central position in the debate. One increasingly important and prevalent type of control policy that has received little scholarly attention is worksite employment eligibility enforcement, otherwise known as E-Verify Laws. In the present article, we analyze variation in E-Verify policy adoption across the U.S. states, approaching the topic from multiple theoretical perspectives and testing several hypotheses pertaining to policy enactment. Our analysis points to the critical role of proportionate change in a state’s immigrant …

Deciphering A Duality: Understanding Conflicting Standards In Sex & Violence Censorship In U.S. Obscenity Law, Rushabh P. Bhakta

Political Science Honors Projects

This research examines the division in US obscenity law that enables strict sex censorship while overlooking violence. By investigating the social and legal development of obscenity in US culture, I argue that the contemporary duality in obscenity censorship standards arose from a family of forces consisting of faith, economy, and identity in early American history. While sexuality ingrained itself in American culture as a commodity in need of regulation, violence was decentralized from the state and proliferated. This phenomenon led to a prioritization of suppressing sexual speech over violent speech. This paper traces the emergence this duality and its source.

Hierarchical Structural Organizations Of State Political Parties, Isaac Mckay Higham

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

From August through November of 2011 I worked as an intern for the Utah Democratic state party at their state party headquarters. I started my internship around the same time as the newly elected chair of the state party, Jim Dabakis, assumed his new role as head of the party. Dabakis did not have the traditional resume of a party chair but rather had his background as an international art dealer and businessman. He had always been politically minded and involved in political causes, but he did not have the extensive partisan politics background that previous chairs had. In anticipation …

It Takes The Whole Village: Assisting Socially And Economically Marginalized Women In African Refugee Camps And Post-Displacement Venues, Patricia Fabbri Forbes

Boise State Graduate Student Projects

The purpose of this project is to lay the foundations for the launching of a non-government organization (NGO) focused upon providing marginalized Sudanese women and their children with means whereby to reintegrate into their communities following long-term residence in refugee camps. The guiding premise is that the determination of those needs must arise out of the experiences they have had in the process of their displacement to camps, in the camps themselves, and in the communities to which they have returned. Consequently, this study entails visits to Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya and South Sudan, the prospective venues for such …

The Politics Of Economics: A Study On The Effect Of Political Affiliation On Economic Aptitude, Anthony Nader

Honors Projects in Economics

This research is based on a June 2010 Wall Street Journal article outlining a study conducted on the economic literacy of adults versus their political affiliation (Klein, 2010). Adults were surveyed on eight questions regarding simple economic knowledge and then asked their political affiliation. The study found that people who consider themselves very conservative on average answered 1.3 questions wrong, versus an average of 5.26 questions wrong for people who consider themselves very liberal. This same effect was to be measured in the classroom as to whether or not conservatives tended to fare better in economics classes than liberals. The …

Breaking Free Of Managed Democracy In The United States, Sean Cunningham

Senior Honors Projects

Breaking Free of Managed Democracy in the United States Sean Cunningham Sponsor: Eske Møllgaard, Philosophy

In the last four years I have had a number of opportunities to write about democracy in the United States and around the world. In this four year period there have been major democratic movements in North Africa, the Middle East, the United States, and elsewhere. Whether or not these democratic growths can remain is an important political and philosophical question that needs addressing. So it is only fitting that I dedicate my Honors Project to collecting my previous work on democracy in my philosophy …

The Rise Of Asia's Democratic Space Powers How Japan And India Became The Next Space Powers In The Twenty-First Century, Shane Kunze

HIM 1990-2015

Since the end of World War II the world has seen several nations expand into the space age. Also after the Second World War, the Cold War began and many nations found themselves allying themselves with either the hegemony of the West or the Communists. Space was no exception in this dilemma, as weaker nations began to develop their own indigenous space programs and had technological diffusion from one of the hegemonies. Japan and India are two democracies that both sought support for their indigenous space programs from the west, particularly from the U.S. These two nations emerged from poverty …

Causes And Effects: An Examination Of Legislative Professionalism As An Independent And Dependent Variable In State Legislatures, Alexandra Edelstein

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Professionalism’s dual role as an independent and dependent variable makes the impact of its institutional characteristics on legislator attitudes and behavior important to understand. Professionalism affects the behavior and attitudes of the same legislators who control the strength of its characteristics through the policies they create. In this two-part study, I measure the influence of personal and contextual factors on legislator attitudes towards the adequacy of legislative professionalism in state legislatures. I then identify the effects of legislative professionalism on legislator allocation of time. I find that political (party) and personal (ambition) factors play the primary roles in shaping how …

The Growing Use Of Social Media In Political Campaigns: How To Use Facebook, Twitter And Youtube To Create An Effective Social Media Campaign, Kaitlin Vonderschmitt

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

A political campaign is carefully crafted for each candidate, to address their constituency and present the candidate and party in the best possible way. After the creation of the United States suffrage was limited to land owning white men, these men were involved in politics by reading local newspapers and visiting the politicians face to face. However as we fast forward to the 1930’s President Franklin D. Roosevelt used the radio to connect with the American public, and then in 1960’s Nixon and Kennedy’s debate introduced the mass-produced version of face-to-face politics through televisions all over the country we begin …

The Influence Of European Union Policy On Capital Punishment In The United States Judicial System, Jennifer Thomas

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Capital punishment has been present for the entirety of American history. Despite this, there have been active supporters for the abolition of the death penalty in the United States since the early 1960’s. Considering the growing importance of the individual state’s participation on the global stage, including the effects of globalization, international law, and human rights standards, the European Union’s capital punishment policy may have an increasing influence over Supreme Court’s interpretations of the constitutionality of capital punishment. This research intends to evaluate the factors that indicate a nation’s likelihood to abolish the death penalty. It will then explore the …

A Comparison Of Institutional Climates In Higher Education In The United States And South Africa, Juanyce Deanna Taylor

Dissertations

Increasing opportunities and access of historically underrepresented populations to higher education in both the United States and South Africa have proved challenging due to institutional climates that are perceived as unwelcoming and unsupportive. The purpose of this study was to investigate factors relating to institutional climates to uncover social constructs that positively and negatively impact the institutional environment. Transformational leadership serves as the theoretical framework for this study.

Data results from institutional climate studies administered higher education institutions in the United States and South Africa were analyzed and compared. Collegiality and collaboration; communication; diversity and equity; governance and strategy; harassment …

The Effectiveness Of Campaign Contribution Limits In Judicial Elections, Camarie Tanesha Jones

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

State judicial elections are becoming increasingly more expensive in terms of overall spending. The growing visibilities of these elections are expectantly followed with the support of special interest groups as well as individual contributions. This article focuses on judicial campaign contribution limits and there effectiveness in accomplishing their original goals. My research will address a variety of state judicial elections as well as Supreme Court cases involving the effectiveness of judicial campaign contributions have in accomplishing there purpose of reducing overall spending and preventing corruption. My hypothesis states that judicial campaign contributions are not effective in limiting the overall spending …

A Multiple Streams Approach To Bioterrorism Policy, Craig Reeder

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Bioterrorism is not a new phenomenon and the issues that surround bioterrorism are complex. This paper focuses on the history of bioterrorism, its current threat in public view, and then applying a theory in which explains how those problems became issues in government. The paper starts by examining a historical account of bioterrorism. The history serves a purpose to discuss the ongoing developments and struggles of drafting legislation for an ongoing problem.

After a discussion of bioterrorism from a historical perspective, the paper examines the current threat or state of bioterrorism. This will lead into a discussion about John Kingdon’s …

New Media, New Politics: The Emergence Of The Internet In American Politics, Michael Robert Artime

Dissertations

The Internet is viewed by some as a great tool for democracy. Indeed, if we believe in the value of a marketplace of ideas, there is no greater forum through which individuals can express any and every opinion on a variety of issues than the Internet. However, it is unclear whether this free and unfettered expression of ideas has been helpful or harmful to American democracy. This dissertation demonstrates, through the use of National Election Studies (NES) data that those using the Internet tend to have more negative attitudes toward political leaders and institutions than their counterparts who either do …

The Starting Line: Examining Inequality In United States, Tristany Leikem

Senior Honors Projects

A quote from Irving Kristol states: “Democracy does not guarantee equality of conditions - only equality of opportunity.” If Kristol’s quote holds true, do all American citizens have an equal chance of succeeding? This is the question that my project attempts to answer. In studying political science and following current events, I found myself drawn toward the issue of equality in the United States. The idea for my project was sparked by my encounters with research regarding inequality in our nation. I first became aware of the issue after reading Jonathan Kozol’s, Savage Inequalities, in which the extreme differences …

Do The Social-Psychological Dimensions Of The Armenia-Azerbaijan Conflict Over Nagorno-Karabakh Justify The Use Of Interactive Conflict Resolution?, Isabella A. Missakyan

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Using Kelman’s framework of the nature of international intractable conflict, this thesis seeks to examine thoroughly the unrelenting hostilities between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the region of Nagorno-Karabakh. The analysis will include the history of the primary parties in context, the root causes, the key issues, the needs, fears and other social-psychological factors driving and perpetuating the conflict. Special attention will be given to the secondary actors of the dispute since they play important roles in the conflict and have their own agendas. The secondary actors include Turkey, Russia, the Armenian Diaspora, the United States, the European Union, Iran, and …

California's 2011 Realignment Legislation Addressing Public Safety And How It Will Impact Local Governments, John Mineau

Master's Theses or Doctor of Nursing Practice

California’s 2011 Realignment Legislation Addressing Public Safety is the most sweeping public safety reform package since shortly after California’s statehood in 1850. Traditionally, any person convicted and confined for a felony has been incarcerated and supervised by the state. Moving forward, realignment will put many convicted felons in local jails instead of state prisons. It will also place paroling offenders under local probation supervision rather than state parole. The change in parole supervision represents a monumental shift of responsibility from the state to local governments. Realignment will have major effects on local government operations and budgets. Realignment has been conceptualized …

Of/By/For: The Rhode Island Student Political Boot Camp, Scott Andrews

Senior Honors Projects

Of/By/For/RI: The Rhode Island Student Political Boot Camp

Scott Andrews

Sponsor: Maureen Moakley, Political Science

“Election? What Election?” The 2011 Princeton Review rankings selected the University of Rhode Island in this category as one of the 20 most apathetic colleges in the country. When I asked students on URI’s campus why they did not engage in activism, the most common answer was they felt they lacked the knowledge and skills to be effective. I wanted to create a community of youth activists at URI and other colleges and high schools throughout Rhode Island who feel empowered to take action on …