Political Science Commons^™

Political Applications Of The Geoweb: Citizen Redistricting, Jeremy W. Crampton

Geography Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Sectarianism And External Intervention: The Us Occupation Of Iraq And The Rise Of Political Sectarianism In The Arab World, Gamal M. Selim, Dalia Rushdy

Political Science

منذ أن تبلورت في البلاد العربية ظاهرة الهوية، لم تكن تلك الهوية تمثل أي تعارض مع الدين أو المذهب. كما أن التعدد الثقافي العربي وبما تضمنه من تنوع طائفي وإثني ظل سمة أصيلة من سمات المجتمعات العربية لعقود طويلة، وكان مصدرا مهما من مصادر الثراء والتنوع الثقافي والحضاري. لكن هذا التعدد تحول منذ الغزو الأمريكي للعراق عام 2003 من مصدر لإثراء المجتمع إلى سبب لهدمه وتفكيكه، حيث برزت مسألة الطائفية السياسية بقوة، وأصبحت إحدى أكثر المشكلات التي يعاني الوطن العربي من ويلاتها. ورغم أننا لا يمكن أن ننكر أن ظهور الطائفية في الدول العربية سابق على الغزو الأمريكي للعراق، إلا …

Donor States And Donee States: Investigating Geographic Redistribution Of The Us Federal-Aid Highway Program 1974-2008, Pengyu Zhu, Jeffrey R. Brown

Urban Studies and Community Development Faculty Publications and Presentations

In 2009, the US government spent more than $42 billion on the federal-aid highway program. Most of this money was raised from motor vehicle taxes, whose proceeds are deposited in the highway trust fund. Federal motor vehicle user taxes flow into the fund and aid expenditures flow out from it to build and maintain highways and other transportation infrastructure. With so much money at stake it should be no surprise that expenditure decisions are the subject of intense political debate. Chief among these debates is the conflict between donor states, whose residents pay more in highway user taxes than the …

Introduction To The Naked Communist: Cold War Modernism And The Politics Of Popular Culture, Roland K. Végső

Department of English: Faculty Publications

The first half of The Naked Communist is devoted to the theoretical and historical foundations of my reading of anti-Communist fictions. After the theoretical introduction, I examine anti-Communist aesthetic ideology by first analyzing its political and then its aesthetic components.

In the second half, I examine the way the culture of anti-Communism defined the “world” as the ultimate horizon of political imagination. Included is a brief overview of some of the most popular texts of the given genre.

Finally, I conclude these chapters with a reading of particular authors.

January Roundtable: Responding To The Syrian Crisis, Introduction, Claudia Fuentes Julio

Human Rights & Human Welfare

An annotation of:

“The World Next Genocide” by Simon Adams. New York Times, November 2012.

and

“Syria is Central to Holding Together the Mideast” by Condoleezza Rice. Washington Post, November 2012.

Syrians Crushed Between Humanitarianism And Realism, Philip Cunliffe

Human Rights & Human Welfare

With the UN High Commissioner for Refugees announcing early this year that the war in Syria may have claimed as many as 60,000 lives, two op-eds published late in 2012 usefully exemplify two contrasting frames that have thus far dominated international responses to the conflict—namely, the humanitarian frame and the geopolitical frame. Yet despite the apparent contrasts between these two frameworks, both reflect a similar contempt for the Syrian people and their right to self-determination. The humanitarian framing of the conflict emphasizes the scale of human suffering and the need to alleviate it, while the geopolitical frame accentuates political interests …

Syria: Not Libya, But Let’S Treat It Like It Is Anyway, Eric A. Heinze

Human Rights & Human Welfare

The articles by Condoleezza Rice and Simon Adams advance a series of disquieting possibilities for the future of Syria if the US and other states fail to act. While I am sympathetic to the urgency with which both writers advance their claims, there is much strained and stretched logic—as well as outright naiveté—in both authors' arguments, especially Rice's.

Socio-Economic Influences On The Party Affiliation Of Hispanic Voters, Angelo Montagner

HIM 1990-2015

Voting analysts in the United States have attempted to predict political orientation based on race, gender, occupation, educational achievement, and economic background. Yet, the substantial amount of research available on these factors has been directed toward the understanding of the white-majority vote. Now, as a result of the overwhelming growth of ethnic minority populations scholars are beginning to look at the potential decisive role of ethnic minority voters. Part of this newly formed voting bloc consists of Hispanics which are now one of the fastest and largest racial minority groups in the United States. This thesis aims to understand the …

Incumbent Violence And Insurgent Tactics: The Effects Of Incumbent Violence On Popular Support For Guerrilla Warfare And Terrorism, Jonathan Williams

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Insurgency has two main strategies, guerrilla warfare and terrorism, which should be treated as linked, but distinct, strategies. This thesis examines the role of incumbent violence in leading insurgents to select one, or both, of these strategies. It argues that incumbent violence can create support for insurgency by causing fear and a desire for revenge and reshaping the social structures of a community. It also argues that incumbent violence increases popular support for terrorism in particular by creating outbidding incentives and desires to respond in kind to civilian deaths and as a way of punishing norm violations against attacking civilians …

Behavioral Economics And Childhood Health: Applications And Implications, Katie Reynolds

Whittier Scholars Program

The selections of food is affecting the health of Americans and numerous fields are attempting to answer this issue that Americans face. Behavioral economics accounts for human behavior not represented in the theoretical framework of classical economic models. Although behavioral economics was established before 2002 it became popular when Daniel Kahneman won the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for connecting psychological research into economic science. After Kaufman won the award, behavioral economics began to grow rapidly in both private and public sector applications and has continued to develop into a larger field. The purpose of this study is to address …

Jeffersonian Ideals: Practical In The United States Of The 21st Century?, Charles William Gustafson Ii

Honors Program Theses

Thomas Jefferson was President of the United States, a statesman, lawyer, scientist, author of the Declaration of Independence, and a proponent of education in the United States of America. Understandably, his educational philosophy is inextricably linked to his political philosophy, as Gordon C. Lee puts it, " ... liberty without enlightenment seemed to Jefferson a contradiction in concepts, an anomaly," (Lee 1961, 2-3). Thomas Jefferson emphasized the importance of education in the United States, as Roy J. Honeywell puts it, "His educational plans were a very necessary part of his political and social reforms, and his educational ideas were as …

Good Publicity: The Legitimacy Of Public Communication Of Deliberation, Chad Raphael, Christopher F. Karpowitz

Communication

Although deliberative democratic theory values the principle of publicity, few empirical studies systematically assess the public communication of civic groups that deliberate over policy. The proliferation of such groups in contemporary politics, and of uncertainty about their legitimacy, suggests the need for such study. Drawing on contemporary deliberative theory, we derive a set of legitimate publicity indicators for assessing how well groups report their deliberative processes and policy conclusions. We demonstrate the reliability and utility of these measures in a comparative content analysis of the final reports of three common kinds of deliberative bodies: a governmentstakeholder task force, an activist …

Unraveling The "Gypsy Question": The Tale Of The Romanian Roma And Solutions To Romani Integration, Thomas Biggs

Library Research Grants

The Roma are a misunderstood and often controversial minority in Europe and across the globe, even their name is a source of dispute; e.g., “Roma” versus “Gypsy.” Although difficult, Romani integration into Romanian society is possible; however, this integration requires an informed approach in policy and public attitude. Often times, local governmental focus centers not on what can be done for the Roma, but what can be done about them. This approach lacks understanding, although its sentiment is the basis of the “Gypsy Question,” both in Romania and in Europe. Integration of the Roma, at its foundation, requires an understanding …

Do Bills Of Rights Matter? An Examination Of Court Change, Judicial Ideology, And The Support Structure For Rights In Canada, Donald R. Songer, Susan W. Johnson, Jennifer Barnes Bowie

Political Science Faculty Publications

Competing theories regarding the development of a "rights revolution" in Canada have appeared in the judicial and constitutional literature in recent years. On the one hand, scholars argue that the profound effects often attributed to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms are substantially overstated, and conventional analyses have overlooked the more important role of changes in what is called the "support structure" for rights. Others have advanced a competing theory that the Charter created an expansion of civil liberties. We take advantage of an extensive dataset on the decisions of the Supreme Court of Canada to provide a more systematic …

Politics And Philosophy In Aristotle's Critique Of Plato's Laws, Kevin M. Cherry

Political Science Faculty Publications

Whether on matters of politics or physics, Aristotle's criticism of his predecessors is not generally considered a model of charitable interpretation. He seems to prefer, as Christopher Rowe puts it, "polemic over accuracy" (2003, 90). His criticism of the Laws is particularly puzzling: It is much shorter than his discussion of the Republic and raises primarily technical objections of questionable validity. Indeed, some well-known commentators have concluded the criticisms, as we have them in the Politics, were made of an earlier draft of the Laws and that Plato, in light of these criticisms, revised the final version. I hope …

Property: Human Right Or Commodity?, Sandra F. Joireman, Jason Brown

Political Science Faculty Publications

There is currently in international law an overstatement of the tie between property and identity. International conventions have folded property into a set of immutable human rights. There needs to be greater flexibility and nuance in this perspective. In this paper we identify two approaches to property rights: the first, which argues that property and identity are necessarily bundled together and considers property to be a human right; and the second which understands them as explicitly separate and views property as a commodity. Empirically, we observe a transition between these two competing ideas. We posit that this transition happens voluntarily, …

Parties, Leaders, And The National Debt, Daniel Palazzolo

Political Science Faculty Publications

There is widespread agreement that the United States is headed for a train wreck of massive proportions if its leaders do not address the problem of the national debt. However, the nation's leaders appear unable to agree to terms about a potential solution, a dynamic that poses fundamental concerns about the capacity of the constitutional system and ability of citizens to self-govern. The conventional wisdom holds that politicians are chiefly concerned about reelection, so they refuse to make tough choices that might offend constituencies and powerful interest groups. Of particular consequence is the growing polarization of the parties and inability …

Spirits Of The Cold War: Contesting Worldviews In The Classical Age Of American Security Strategy. By Ned O’Gorman, Timothy Barney

Rhetoric and Communication Studies Faculty Publications

In February 1952, Congressman O. K. Armstrong of Missouri was invited to give a keynote speech at a convention called the Conference on Psychological Strategy in the Cold War, where he declared a maxim that, by that time, likely did not raise many eyebrows: “Our primary weapons will not be guns, but ideas . . . and truth itself.” Rep. Armstrong spoke from experience—a few months before, he had made national headlines at a peace treaty signing in San Francisco by blindsiding Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko with a map locating every secret Gulag prison camp. Calling the Soviet …

Gubernatorial Power And The Nationalization Of State Politics, Paul Nolette

Political Science Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Behind The Scenes Of The Patient Protection And Affordable Care Act: The Making Of A Health Care Co-Op, Susan Giaimo

Political Science Faculty Research and Publications

A primary goal of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) is to reduce the number of uninsured by making health insurance more affordable for small businesses and individuals. Toward that end, the PPACA encourages the creation of nonprofit, member-owned health insurance cooperatives to operate inside each state exchange. Co-ops face significant challenges in entering mature insurance markets, but they also possess unique characteristics that may help them survive and thrive. Using Common Ground Healthcare Cooperative in Wisconsin as a case study, this article traces the origins of co-ops in health care reform at national and state levels and …

Barack Obama And The Rhetoric Of Electoral Logic, Julia R. Azari, Justin S. Vaughn

Political Science Faculty Research and Publications

Objectives

This article examines Barack Obama's efforts to interpret and characterize the contrasting outcomes of the 2008 and 2010 elections, using an original data set of presidential communications.

Methods

We performed a content analysis of 241 presidential communications.

Results

Obama's post-2008 mandate claims alternated between claiming a mandate on a variety of policy issues and framing the election as a repudiation of Republican theories of governing. Post-2010, however, Obama framed the midterm results as evidence for electoral demand for bipartisan cooperation, rather than a repudiation of Democratic policies and ideas.

Conclusions

Obama's choices in framing the 2008 election contributed to …

Economic Development And Gender Equality: Is There A Gender Kuznets Curve?, Joshua Eastin, Aseem Prakash

Political Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

This research note examines the relationship between economic development and gender equality. Drawing on the concept of the Kuznets curve, the authors hypothesize that the relationship between economic development and gender inequality is curvilinear (S shaped), with three distinct stages. In the first stage, economic development improves gender equality because it enables greater female labor-force participation. An independent income stream increases women's intrahousehold bargaining power. The opportunity to develop human capital confers greater political and social recognition. In the second stage, labor-force stratification and gender discrimination encourage divergent male/female income trajectories, which decrease the opportunity costs of female labor-force withdrawal …

Overcoming Coloniality: The Potential Of South-South Dialogue About Citizenship, Participatory Democracy, And Development Between Brazil And India, Bernd Reiter

Government and International Affairs Faculty Publications

This chapter argues that North-South dialogue is heavily influenced by the colonial past and burdened by extreme power inequalities. Former colonizing nations control many of the agendas of such dialogue, exposing it to the risks of paternalism, post-colonialism, and tutelage. As a result, coloniality is a condition difficult to escape in north-south dialogue. South-south dialogue, on the other hand, is less implicated by this burden, thus offering a platform for a potentially free - and freeing – critical interchange of ideas and empirical examples that reflect subaltern experiences and provide opportunities for mutual learning. One area where this dialogue is …

The Will To Adapt: The Post 2008 Us Economic Crisis And Its Impact On Refugee Resettlement In The United States, Meredith Byrne

Government and International Relations Honors Papers

No abstract provided.

Crises In European Integration: Challenges And Responses, 1945-2005, Simon Serfaty

Political Science & Geography Faculty Publications

The theme of this short collection of essays is stated early and plainly: “In the end, crises have strengthened European integration” (p. 3), and “There has never been more European integration than in the context or aftermath of crisis” (p. 6). These statements are true but are hardly new. The same point has been made by many in the past. This is perhaps why the process “causes both fascination and frustration” (p. 79), resulting in too much crisis talk that, Jurgen Elvert notes, is “inspired by staunch euro-skeptics to back up their respective points of view” (p. 53). “Of all …

Socrates In A Different Key: James Baldwin And Race In America, Joel Alden Schlosser

Political Science Faculty Research and Scholarship

This essay interprets Baldwin as continuing the Socratic practice of self-examination and social criticism while also shifting his Socratic undertaking by charting the limits of examination created by the harsh effects of race and slavery in the United States. I argue that Baldwin's Socratic practice inflects not only his essays – the center of previous analyses – but also his fictions. By transposing Socrates to issues of race in twentieth-century America and confronting the incoherent effects of a racialized society, James Baldwin thus carries forward and transforms a pivotal figure in the history of political thought.

"Hope, Danger's Comforter": Thucydides, Hope, Politics, Joel Alden Schlosser

Political Science Faculty Research and Scholarship

With its ascendancy in American political discourse during the past few years, hope has become a watchword of politics, yet the rhetoric has failed to inquire into the actual function of hope in political life. This essay examines elpis, the Greek word for ‘‘hope,’’ in Thucydides’ History and offers a theoretical account of this concept and its connection to successful political action. I suggest that a complex understanding of hope structures Thucydides’ narrative: Hope counts as among the most dangerous political delusions, yet it also offers the only possible response to despair. Thucydides’ text educates the judgment of his …

Aristotelian Phronêsis, The Discourse Of Human Rights, And Contemporary Global Practice, Stephen Salkever

Political Science Faculty Research and Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Parenting, Peregrination, And Politics: A Study Of Family Policy And Immigration In West European Welfare States, Jeremy Lee Jackson

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

The title of this thesis is "Parenting, Peregrination, and Politics: A Study of Family Policy and Immigration in West European Welfare States." The author's name is J.L. Jackson, a candidate for a Master of Science degree in cross-disciplinary studies (foci in sociology and political science) at Minnesota State University, Mankato, located in Mankato, Minnesota, United States. This thesis was published in 2013. This writing seeks to answer the question "does an increase in immigration cause family policy spending and coverage in advanced West European democracies to expand?" Qualitative methods, including content analysis, as well as quantitative analysis of existing data …

Evolution Of Film Trailers, Robert Llewellyn

Whittier Scholars Program

This project is a research paper on the history and evolution of film trailers beginning in the 1910s. The author mentions how trailers are directed towards different demographics. Different movie trailers such as King Kong, The Wizard of Oz, Citizen Kane, Casablanca, Psycho, and Easy Rider and many others are used as examples throughout the paper. The era from the 50’s to the 70’s is thoroughly discussed as being a transitional period. Additionally, the paper touches base on the political events that occurred and how they affected films topics. The project includes a journal of the author’s journey through the …