Political Science Commons^™

Cracking The Tax Codes: How State Tax Laws Influence The Number Of Manufacturing Jobs Within Their Borders, Nick Lorenson

Political Science Theses and Capstones

With the recent economic downturn, jobs have been at the forefront of people’s concerns. Policy makers in every state have promised their constituents new jobs. Of particular importance are high paying jobs. Manufacturing jobs tend to be a well-paying and highly sought after form of employment. However, in recent decades, the percentage of manufacturing jobs has been declining in the United States. Also, manufacturing facilities have shown an increased likelihood of relocating to different states. I theorize that manufacturing facilities relocating and expanding in different states is primarily due to state tax policies. This phenomenon has increased within recent years …

An Analysis On The Effects Of Voter Id Laws And Minnesota’S Decision To Vote Against It, Amy Asell

Political Science Theses and Capstones

In recent years, the topic of voter identification has been a hotly contested issue in state legislatures around the country. Since 2003, nearly 1,000 bills concerning voter ID have been introduced in a total of forty-six states. In 2012 alone, voter ID legislation was pending in thirty-three states. On November 6, 2012, the citizens of the state of Minnesota voted on whether they supported an amendment to the state Constitution that would require all voters to present a valid photo ID in order to vote. Despite poll numbers indicating that a majority of Minnesotans supported the amendment the voter ID …

Marriage Equality: Media Coverage And Public Opinion, Amanda Studley

Senior Honors Projects

The struggle for equality is nothing new in this country. Every minority group has faced it’s own hardships when trying to advocate for the advancement of their people. One of the most recent struggles has involved the LGBT community and their pursuit of equal marriage laws nationally. Currently the campaign for marriage equality has had success in nine states and the District of Columbia, each of which now grant marriage licenses to same-sex couples. However, thirty states have enacted constitutional bans on same-sex marriage (NCLS 2013). Currently 49% of the population endorses full and equal marriage rights for same sex …

A Constructivist Approach To Post-Reunification German Military Interventions: Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, And Afghanistan, Nicholas Iaquinto

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Scholars and journalists have periodically referred to Germany and its military, the Bundeswehr, as normalizing. The trend, which is defined here as the increasing frequency and intensity of out-of-area military operations, is contested among international relations scholars, and this debate reaches the core of the three main theories outlining drivers of state behavior. This paper analyzes the underlying causation of normalization from these schools of thought by considering the decision-making process leading to Germany’s participation in multilateral military operations in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, and Afghanistan.

Including neorealism, neoliberalism, and constructivism, these theories are first divided into rationalist and constructivist classifications. …

State 194: Assessing The Institutional Capacity Of The Palestinian Authority As The Foundation For An Independent State, Amanda Lynna Claypool

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Mahmoud Abbas’s 2011 attempt to obtain Palestinian statehood through the United Nations challenged the status quo “Middle East peace process” by offering an alternative solution to the system of bilateral negotiations that has otherwise been stagnant for much of the last decade. Since Salam Fayyad became prime minister in 2007, the Palestinian Authority has been actively working towards building institutions that would serve as the foundation for the future State of Palestine. International accolades for Fayyad’s initiative garnered far-reaching support to facilitate the state-building program.

In the six years since then, the Palestinian Authority has developed the institutions that are …

Israel’S Newfound Petroleum Wealth: A Critique Of The “Resource Curse”, Lauren Meadors

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

In 1999, a company in Israel did what no one thought could be done – it struck natural gas and lots of it. Since then, two of the largest offshore natural gas fields have been found in Israel’s waters, disproving the belief that Moses led the Jews to the only Middle Eastern country to not have petroleum. In 2011, it found what is believed to hold 250 billion barrels of shale oil – an amount that rivals the 260 billion barrels of crude oil in Saudi Arabia. Most economists argue, however, that this is not good news for Israel due …

In-Group Bias—Coloring Public Opinion And Spurring Public Backlash: A Comparative Analysis Of Affirmative Action And Title Ix, Samuel Joseph Knehans

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

The Civil Rights and Women’s Rights Movements were two parallel rights revolutions in American history. Each spurred noteworthy social change for a disadvantaged group, through affirmative action for African Americans and through Title IX programs for women. However, when one looks at the college enrollment data, it becomes clear that these programs achieved success at different rates—at least in higher education. This thesis is an attempt to explain why these seemingly analogous programs produced such disparate results. It attempts to answer the question: Did in-group bias influence public opinion and public backlash in the form of Supreme Court litigation, impacting …

Education For All: An East African Example, Alyssa Ierardo

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

The Education for All (EFA) movement to end global educational disparity is a multilateral initiative led by the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Initiated in 2000, the EFA movement represents the commitment of 164 nations to the Dakar Framework for Action which outlines six goals that seek to redress issues of social disparity and to improve access to and quality of education worldwide by 2015. In this report, the progress of the EFA movement in the United Republic of Tanzania serves as a proxy for evaluating the global potential of EFA initiatives. Failed post-colonial education reform efforts …

Human Trafficking And Human Rights: The Movement Of Women From Nigeria To Europe, Chinenye Monde-Anumihe

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

The phenomenon of human trafficking, especially the trafficking of young women and girls into exploitative and commercial sex labor, has recently attracted considerable local, national and international attention. This sex trafficking phenomenon exists against the backdrop of poverty, unemployment, and social instability, signaling a correlation between these elements. This research paper will define the concept of human trafficking in comparison to human smuggling and migration and will discuss the complexity in applying the definition. The magnitude and scope of the problem of human trafficking will be examined as well as its causes.

Human trafficking will be analyzed by international standards …

Kemalism: A Revolutionary Ideology And Its Islamist Opposition, Juliann Merryman

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

“Kemalism: A Revolutionary Ideology and its Islamist Opposition” seeks to define the Kemalist reform period as a revolutionary movement. During the 1920s and 1930s, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and his authoritarian government undertook a series of sweeping social and political reforms. This paper seeks to establish these reforms and the underlying Kemalist ideology as a revolutionary ideology. Using a functionalist perspective, the essay illustrates the various crises that faced the Ottoman Empire in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. A number of reform efforts failed to effectively address the entirety of Ottoman societal ills.

The rise of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and the …

Why American Voters Decide To Vote For Third Parties In Presidential Elections, Harmen Rockler

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Not a single person representing a third party has ever been elected president. Yet, year after year, there are candidates and voters who support individuals who have no chance of winning. Being able to understand why people decide to vote for third party candidates helps us to be better able to predict presidential race outcomes and could also lead to more successful third party candidates.

I find that third party voters in presidential elections tend to be more independent voters who have not committed to one political party. Younger voters are often supporters of third parties. Because they have not …

Achieving Justice Through Public Participation: Measuring The Effectiveness Of New York's Enhanced Public Participation Plan For Environmental Justice Communities, Alma L. Lowry

Social Science - Dissertations

Public participation is at the heart of democracy and of the environmental justice movement. Most state-level environmental justice policies and regulations focus on improving public participation within administrative processes to ensure that communities have a voice in the environmental decisions that affect them. New York has adopted an environmental justice policy that follows this model and requires enhanced notice, accessible comment opportunities, and improved access to technical information for new major environmental permits issued to facilities proposed in low-income or minority communities. However, New York's policy, like other state participation-focused environmental justice policies, has yet to be evaluated.

To address …

A Comparative Analysis Of Drug-Trafficking Trends In The Middle East/Central Asia And East/Southeast Asia., Benjamin M. Weyman

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

No abstract provided.

Interpreting The Relation Between Immigrant Hostility And The Extreme Far Right In England, Tyler Black

HIM 1990-2015

The study of race relations in England developed in the modern era amongst conflict between races, political parties and local communities. England, consisting of a predominantly white population, is an interesting case of race relations in that immigrants of color seem to be in the center of many of the most controversial conflicts of the past century. Existing research on race relations in England suggests that the region is largely racist due to the conflicts of the past and the current political success of the anti-immigrant extreme right-wing parties (ERPs). But the times at which these parties have been successful …

A Case Study Of National Identity: An Analysis Of The American Dream In Politics And Literature, Sarah Marie Horning

HIM 1990-2015

The American Dream has been the inspiration of many political speeches, political writings, and works of literature throughout American history. Most recently, it has inspired political groups like the Center for the New American Dream and academic groups like the Xavier University Center for the Study of the American Dream. As of late, the notion of the American Dream has begun to crop up more often than not in main stream political discourse, especially surrounding the topic of immigration with the aptly named Dream Act. Why has the American Dream drawn this new attention and inquiry? Why and how is …

Costa Rica, Panama, And Nicaragua: Explaining Economic Success Levels, Kevin Negy

HIM 1990-2015

Latin America is a region that has deep roots in Spanish colonialism. Since its independence, many countries in the region have heavily depended on agriculture exports to industrialized states to support their economies. This has led to political theorists to label Latin America as an area full of "periphery" countries that are exploited for resources by "core countries. Costa Rica, Panama, and Nicaragua were not the exception. In recent years, however, a noticeable difference between the economies of the countries has helped Costa Rica and Panama become more successful than Nicaragua, on the basis of GDP, GNI, and other similar …

Axis Of Identities: How Socially Constructed Perceptions Affect The Foreign Policy Of Nations, Roman Torres

HIM 1990-2015

Contrary to the assumptions of realist theory, this thesis suggests that reality is subjected to social constructions. The national discourse of one country constitutes the context from which societies will generate perceptions and ideas about another society. It is from these socially constructed ideas that states' interests are formed. States interests are what constitute the foreign policy of a country. Given that the United States is the world's hegemon, understanding the process by which countries' interests take shape and evolve will give the United States social awareness and strategic advantage to lead the world's current speedy integration with less volatile …

An Examination Of Interest Groups : Impact On Public Opinion., Olivia Feldkamp

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

No abstract provided.

Political Polarization : An Exploration Of Its Effects On Congressional Action And Public Opinion., Jennifer Henry

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

No abstract provided.

From Colonialism To Neoliberalism : Modernity And The State Production Of A Bedouin-Transjordanian National Identity., Amanda M. Yee

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

No abstract provided.

Assessing The Role Of Transnational Networks Of Support In Color Revolutions : Successes And Failures In Georgia, Ukraine, Belarus, And Russia., Michael C. Zeller

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

No abstract provided.

Identity Crisis : The Development Of Ethnic Identities In South Africa And Northern Ireland And Resolutions To Ethnic Violence., Erran Michael Huber

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

No abstract provided.

Militarized Justice In New Democracies: Explaining The Process Of Military Court Reform In Latin America, Brett J. Kyle, Andrew G. Reiter

Political Science Faculty Publications

While a large body of literature emphasizes the importance of judicial reform in new democracies, few scholars have examined the reform of military justice systems in these settings—despite the potential for these courts to compete directly with civilian courts and subvert the rule of law. This article focuses on Latin America to empirically examine how the process of reforming military courts has played out in each democracy following authoritarian rule. We outline two distinct pathways: (1) unilateral efforts on the part of civilian reformers, and (2) strategic bargains between civilian reformers and the military. Within the unilateral category, we further …

Cold War Battleground In Africa: American Foreign Policy And The Congo Crisis, January 1959 - January 1961, Souleyman Saleh Souleyman

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the late 1950s, the Cold War competition between the United States and the Soviet Union turned the Congo as one of the most volatile regions of the Third World. Because of Belgium's failure to effective decolonize the Congo, and because of the secession of two of the richest provinces of the Congo, the country would quickly fell into chaos and a civil war that would force its former colonial power to maintain its economic and military influence in the region. This neocolonial attitude induced Congo's Prime Minister, Patrice Lumumba, to request a military assistance from the Soviet Union. In …

Feet In The South, Eyes To The West: Fort Smith Enters The Sunbelt, Adam Morrison Carson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This paper examines the political realignment of Fort Smith, Arkansas and argues that the standard historiographical argument about the process of realignment does not explain what occurred in this city. Much of the historiography of political realignment currently revolves around the belief in a white backlash against the federal government and the national Democratic Party for their support of African American civil rights. Though historians have moved toward a "suburban synthesis" that downplays the backlash thesis, historians still argues that many white southerners moved to the suburbs to avoid integration.

I argue that this process did not occur in the …

Woes Of The Arkansas Internationalist: J. William Fulbright, The Middle East, And The Death Of American Liberalism, Mitchell Smith

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Contemporary scholarship has shown that J. William Fulbright's defeat in 1974 was due to a plethora of reasons including his opposition to America's involvement in Vietnam, lackadaisical attitude towards the monolithic threat of Communism, connection to the Washington establishment amidst the Watergate scandal, and old age. Scholars, however, have not paid enough attention to the role Fulbright's Middle Eastern stances played in his final election campaign. I seek to place the voice of Arkansans in the national and international political discussions and show that, despite their relatively unfocused interest in Middle Eastern affairs (and perhaps because of that lack of …

From Corporal To Corporate: Defining The Body Politic In The Twenty-First Century, Ashley Estelle Lord

Master's Theses

The following research project illustrates a transition of the body politic metaphor from the second century AD. to present day. From this historical perspective it can be shown that a new body politic exists within Western, capitalist systems with the corporation serving as the head of the body and its buyers, the appendages. This paper claims that as with the previously accepted analogies of the body politic ("The Lord's Two Bodies," "The King's Two Bodies," and the body politic composed by consent of the governed) this corporate driven body possesses four key features that define all three previous manifestations: a …

Modern Libertarian: Philosophy An Uncertain Lineage, Ian Ludd

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

This study examines the true nature of libertarian political philosophy, avoiding reductive arguments and attempting to present these positions in a holistic manner that cuts to the core of what distinguishes this philosophy as being unique. The study then challenges the libertarian claim that many highly praised and well-respected historic political and economic philosophers are their philosophical antecedents.

The study examines the political philosphies of Classical Liberal thinkers and well-respected economists, presenting their positions in the same holistic manner and avoiding any selective quoting that serves only to oversimply the complexity of their arguments. The challenge of the study will …

Private Soldiers In Africa: A Look At The Effects Of Private Military Contractors And Mercenaries On The Duration Of Civil Wars In Africa From 1960 To 2003, Seth H. Loven

Department of Political Science: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This thesis examines the effect of private soldiers, both Mercenaries and Private Military Contractors (PMC), on the duration of civil wars in Africa from 1960 to 2003. Linear regression is used to determine if private soldiers increase or decrease the duration of civil wars. Ultimately it is found they have little to no statistical impact. This is contrary to the expectations of the theoretical literature on private military contractors, some of which expects private soldiers to profit from war and seek to lengthen duration, and some of which expects the use of additional private soldiers to shorten the duration of …

Suicide Attacks In Afghanistan: Why Now?, Ghulam Farooq Mujaddidi

Department of Political Science: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Why, contrary to their predecessors, did the Taliban resort to use of suicide attacks in the 2000s in Afghanistan? By drawing from terrorist innovation literature and Michael Horowitz’s adoption capacity theory—a theory of diffusion of military innovation—the author argues that suicide attacks in Afghanistan is better understood as an innovation or emulation of a new technique to retaliate in asymmetric warfare when insurgents face arms embargo, military pressure, and have direct links to external terrorist groups. The findings of my in-depth case study of Afghanistan between 1978 and 2010 support the proposition and show that it was an …