Political Science Commons^™

Kony2012: The New Face Of Citizen Engagement, Nicole Audette

Exchange: The Journal of Public Diplomacy

This paper breaks down the nongovernmental components of public diplomacy and examines the evolution of new public diplomacy. It discusses the rise of nonstate actors and the importance they play in changing international diplomatic engagements. It explores the rising prominence of both soft power and public relations on the global stage, highlighting the importance of strategic relationships and effective communications. The case study, used to exemplify the power of new public diplomacy, examines how Invisible Children’s KONY2012 campaign used public diplomacy to harness successfully the power of the American people to influence governmental foreign policy. The author shows that Invisible …

Rebranding Greece: Why Nation Branding Matters, Sofia Bisa

Exchange: The Journal of Public Diplomacy

Nation branding is an emerging concept with increased practical activity but fairly limited theory. Politicians engage actively in branding practices for their countries. Why do governments utilize certain branding strategies and ignore others? How have politicians come to perceive nation branding as a successful foreign policy strategy? This article seeks to examine the political aspect of nation branding and clarify the concept as a subset of international relations, and more specifically, its connection to public diplomacy. Finally, the article analyzes the case of Greece and the current branding campaign pursued by its government. What has Greece done in the past …

Social Media And Public Diplomacy: Foreign To China's Environmental Movements, Licheng Zhu

Exchange: The Journal of Public Diplomacy

The looming environmental crisis in China not only brings obstacles and pain to society, but also creates a great opportunity for international cooperation. This paper critically assesses the pitfalls of China’s current environmental protection regime and the difficulties that Chinese environmental NGOs are facing. It argues that social media web sites and international environmental NGOs are able to help Chinese environmental NGOs confront their problems through tactics such as public diplomacy.

The Filibuster And Reconciliation: The Future Of Majoritarian Lawmaking In The U.S. Senate, Tonja Jacobi, Jeff Vandam

Faculty Articles

Passing legislation in the United States Senate has become a de facto super-majoritarian undertaking, due to the gradual institutionalization of the filibuster — the practice of unending debate in the Senate. The filibuster is responsible for stymieing many legislative policies, and was the cause of decades of delay in the development of civil rights protection. Attempts at reforming the filibuster have only exacerbated the problem. However, reconciliation, a once obscure budgetary procedure, has created a mechanism of avoiding filibusters. Consequently, reconciliation is one of the primary means by which significant controversial legislation has been passed in recent years — including …

League Structure & Stadium Rent Seeking - The Role Of Antitrust Revisited, David Haddock, Tonja Jacobi, Matthew Sag

Faculty Articles

Professional North American sporting teams receive enormous pub for new and renovated stadiums after threatening to depart their hometowns, or by actually moving elsewhere. In contrast, English sporting teams neither receive much public money for such projects, nor move towns. This Article argues that no inherent cultural or political transatlantic variations cause the differences; rather, it is the industrial organization of sports in the two countries-the structure of league control-that enables rent-seeking by American teams but not by their English counterparts. Cross-country time series data contrasting American professional football and baseball stadiums with English soccer grounds support our claim, as …

Traditionalism, Institutions, And Rational Bargaining In Sub-Saharan African Civil Conflict, Joseph Anthony Jastrzembski

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

When many speak of Africa, they convey a narrative that portrays a continent haunted by ethnic conflict. However many countries are both highly diverse and relatively stable, such as Botswana or Tanzania, and we find that inter-ethnic cooperation is far more common place than conflict. In this thesis I argue that cultural differences between ethnic groups are not the cause of ethnic civil war, rather, the mechanisms find their root in economics. To explain ethnic conflict on the continent, I examine the self-interested behavior of bargaining groups in society, where ethnic communities act more as an interest group and less …

Tea Party Movement Mobilization: Examining The Role Of Emotive Cues And Strategic Appeals, Rebeca Beatriz Puentes

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Campaign messages used by political parties have given scholars a rich opportunity to analyze the impact that such cues may have on voters. While voter mobilization and participation is a necessity for a democracy's survival, certain messages used by very conservative movements and conservative parties may encourage intolerance towards minorities. This study examines the racial cues and appeals used by the Tea Party movement in the United States and the influence that such emotionally-charged appeals have on citizen support for very conservative political parties, movements, and policies. As my main theoretical framework, I merge political opportunity theory and intergroup emotions …

The Impact Of Gold Mining On Local Farming Communities In Ghana, Emmanuel Yamoah Tenkorang, Patrick Osei-Kufuor

Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective

The increase in leases for surface gold mining in Ghana between 1983 and 1998 has had drastic consequences for sustainable land use and management in the country. Most of these leases were for surface mining displacing the original owners from large arable land needed for their livelihoods. This situation makes the local people vulnerable to econom-ic uncertainties. The real benefits accruing to the ordinary Ghanaian in these mining communities is simply taken, for granted as monetary compensation is paid to affected community members. Such palliative payments to people displaced by mining activities do not address the existing vulnerabilities of these …

Sharing What Works Through South-South Cooperation: The Case Of The Risk Reduction Management Centre Replication Project, Rachel M. Cohn

Capstone Collection

The Risk Reduction Management Centre (RRMC) Replication Project, an initiative of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), aims to take a Cuban best practice in disaster risk reduction and adapt it to the local context of five other Caribbean countries. This project differs from most development projects in that the individuals and institutions providing the assistance (in this case technical training and know-how) are themselves from a developing country (Cuba). This model, wherein developing countries provide resources, information, and training to other developing countries, is known as South-South Cooperation (SSC).

This capstone uses the case of the RRMC Replication Project …

Sanctions Without Humanitarian Implications - An Impossible Feat, Sangitha Palaniappa

HIM 1990-2015

This thesis focuses on the humanitarian implications of economic sanctions. States are increasingly using sanctions as a foreign policy tool, but the ramifications for the citizens of the country have yet to be analyzed in depth. Although sanctions are an extremely powerful foreign policy tool, the humanitarian implications are too drastic. There are two main outcomes of sanctions that states seek: the pressure of the sanctions forces the government to change their policy or the humanitarian implications force the citizens to revolt against the government. These outcomes rarely occur as we can see clearly in cases such as Cuba or …

Regional Organizations And The Durability Of Peace, Juliana Velasco

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigates the role of regional organizations in peacemaking and peacekeeping, particularly on the effects of peace agreement duration. This is important because the United Nations has been traditionally seen as the default international peacekeeping force but recently, more responsibility is being given to regional organizations. This study hypothesizes that regional organizations’ ability to clear commitment problems, create specific agreements, and willingness to enforce agreements make them the most effective third parties to deal with many conflicts. However, the study also hypothesizes that regional organizations are less fit to mediate conflicts based around ethnicity, identity, or religious disparities. By …

The Perception Of Turkey In The Middle East In The Last Decade: The Cases Of Egypt And Tunisia, Mesud Hasgur

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the factors affecting the perception of Turkey in the Middle East from 2002 onwards by analyzing the combination of media, political elite discourse and people's political predispositions in the cases of Egypt and Tunisia. The research is separated into two parts. In the first part of 2002-2010, the factors of democratization, economic development, foreign policy activism, Islamic Oriented Government as well as Turkish TV series were found to be critical in the explanation of Turkey's popularity. In the second part of 2010-2013, democratization and foreign policy activism were the most effective factors while the other variables still …

United States Export Policy Of Fighter Jets To East Asia, Andrew Derewiany

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

What explains fighter jet export policy to East Asia? The decision to export fighter jets from the United States (U.S.) to foreign countries is an important part of domestic and foreign policy. James Rosenau’s theory of linkage politics suggests that domestic and international variables may work together in complex ways to develop U.S. export policy of fighter jets. This thesis uses a comparative case study approach to examine the domestic and international factors that are influential in determining U.S. export policy of fighter jets to Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. The political actors involved in making U.S. fighter jet export …

Becoming A Food Citizen, Nicole Hornung

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Environmental citizenship is positioned as a platform where the rights of social and environmental justice converge with civic engagement and responsibility. As industrialized economies continue to exhaust the limits of finite natural resources and exacerbate conditions of global climate change, scholars have questioned if environmental citizenship models offer a method for deepening obligations to a sustainable movement. In the material culture enjoyed by Western civilizations, existing research supports that an individual’s purchases are seen as an indicator of their values and identities. Consequently the commitment to responsible buying behavior or sustainable consumption is in a sense an expression of eco-citizenship. …

Playing Politics With Rape: Republican Apologia In The 2012 Violence Against Women Act Reauthorization, Kelsey Deforest

Undergraduate Research Awards

"During the second half of 2012, heightened scrutiny was applied to Republican politicians’ discussion of sexual assault. This wave of interrogation, though, began too late to affect the debates over the 2012 Violence Against Women Act Reauthorization. This paper will problematize these debates by analyzing the rhetoric of self-defense used by Republican legislators in the House of Representatives to defend their VAWA Reauthorization bill. By applying a feminist critical discourse analysis to the final VAWA Reauthorization debate held on May 16, 2012, this paper shows that the actions of the Republican legislators are rooted in a desire to protect the …

Democratic Peace Theory As Applied To Europe And The Middle East, Patrick G. Rear

Global Tides

Peace has been the goal of many leaders throughout history, and recent democratic movements in the Middle East have made the first steps toward a democratic peace in the region. This paper compares the European experience of Germany and France in the transition to democracy with the recent developments in the Middle East through November 2012. The impact of democratic revolution in Egypt is compared with the government established in Iraq following the U.S. invasion. Already, notable changes can be seen in the bilateral relations between Egypt and Israel, and between Iraq and Iran, which this paper attempts to evaluate …

Sex Trafficking: The Influence Of Cultures, Socio-Economic Structures And Law & Order On Sex Trade In Asia, Saanya Dua

Political Science Theses and Capstones

Sex trafficking and prostitution are both matters of concern in today’s world. Trafficking of human beings is a global phenomenon and has been a topic of increased discussion and attention. It is believed that the sex trade industry is considered to be the fastest growing criminal industry in the world, currently it is second to drug trafficking in terms of profits through an illegal industry. Several initiatives have been made to prevent trafficking, through significant legislative and other actions provided to aid victims and those vulnerable in the world. However, the lack of systematic research is a big issue. Asia …

Hunting For Huntington’S Evidence: An Empirical Reassessment Of The Clash Of Civilizations Theory, John Daniel Shindelar

Political Science Theses and Capstones

I inquire into Samuel P. Huntington’s clash of civilizations theory as outlined in his landmark The Clash of Civilizations. I explore conflicts starting at the end of the Cold War to 2007 in order to examine whether Huntington’s theory has been materializing (there is a marked increase in conflicts between Civilizations, and they have become more intense) or if the face of conflicts has stayed relatively similar to Cold War era clashes. I use International Crisis Behavior data on conflicts since the fall of the U.S.S.R. which Huntington cites as the end of a bipolar world and the beginning of …

Peacekeeping And Peace Kept: Third Party Interventions And Recurrences Of Civil War, Barrett J. Osborn

Theses and Dissertations--Political Science

Civil wars have become more prevalent in modern times and present unique challenges to conflict resolution. Third parties often intervene in civil wars attempting to insure that peace is imposed and will persist. However, the impact of third parties on intrastate conflicts remains incomplete. The civil conflict literature does not sufficiently distinguish how third parties promote peaceful outcomes during a peacekeeping operation and why a state remains stable after the peacekeepers leave. By examining data on third party interventions from 1946-2006 and individually examining the case of Sierra Leone, this research concludes that peacekeeping missions promoting transparency, credible information sharing, …

Ethics In Public Management, H. George Frederickson, Richard K. Ghere

Political Science Faculty Publications

This volume follows two earlier projects undertaken by Frederickson (1993) and Frederickson and Ghere (2005) to present collections of theoretical essays and empirical analyses on administrative ethics. Three years before the publication of the first volume —Frederickson's Ethics and Public Administration — the National Commission on the Public Service released Leadership for America (also known as the Volcker Commission Report) that attested to "the quiet crisis" in government whereby "too many of the best of the nation's senior executives are ready to leave government, and not enough of its most talented young people are willing to join. This erosion in …

Ngo Leadership And Human Rights, Richard K. Ghere

Political Science Faculty Publications

This book provides preliminary understanding of what the term NGO means; explains how "human rights" affect NGO missions; and focuses on the meaning of "leadership" in NGOs in comparison to private sector and government agency leadership. It also encourages readers with vocational aspirations in human rights work to think strategically in preparing for their professional futures.

Creating Political Leaders: Lawyer Stories About Transitioning Into Political Office In Canada, Ralph A. Chatoor

Dissertations

Problem. Sustaining healthy democracies requires citizens to successfully transition from civilian life into political leadership positions. Despite the need for this transition to take place, little is known about the transition. Globally, lawyers are the most represented professional group inpolitics, therefore, a study of their transition acts as a good starting point in understanding the process. This study used the Nicholson Transition Cycle (NTC) to explore the transition of 65 lawyers into Canadian politics.

Method. An exploratory multiple case study approach was used to gather data from face-to-face interviews, phone interviews, public archives, email, and websites. Interviews were transcribed, coded, …

Go Fish: An Analysis Of Economic Rents In Panamanian Fisheries Against Ecosystem Service Values, David Glassner

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Global demand of fish for consumption in developing nations is expected to continue to rise in the near future, putting pressure on stocks that are already overexploited. In the territorial waters of Panama there is a constant struggle between commercial vessels with high yield, subsistence fishermen trying to feed a remote village, and ecosystem services struggling to sustain themselves. These services are the direct and indirect benefits received by the population in the form of food, raw materials, nutrient cycling, and disaster regulation. They are being degraded by illegal and unregulated fishing, bottom trawlers raking the benthos and destroying coral …

The Contentious Performances Of Culture Jamming : Art, Repertoires Of Contention, And Social Movement Theory, David M. Iles Iii

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Culture jamming is a form of contentious politics in which activists utilize ironic frames to challenge a dominant set of social relationships and institutions. Despite its contestational nature, scholars rarely apply the insights of social movement theory to explain this curious phenomenon. The main concerns of this project are to provide an empirical analysis of culture jamming organizations and to develop a theoretical approach to explaining repertoire change and tactical choice. The primary thesis mediating these empirical and theoretical concerns is that a close relation exists between the development of twentieth century art in advanced Western democracies and culture jamming. …

Alexis De Tocqueville’S Political Science Of Revolutions; Theory And Application, Michal Maciej Kuz

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation examines the theory of revolutions presented in the main writing of Alexis de Tocqueville and its importance in the field of political theory as well as its possible application in the field of comparative politics. Scholars specializing in the study of the writings of Alexis de Tocqueville have for many years debated on whether the works of this author offer a comprehensive political theory of regimes and political change. This work supports the idea that in all his major writings de Tocqueville works within the same theoretical framework and develops his own typology of modern regimes. At the …

“Damning The Dams”: A Study Of Cost Benefit Analysis In Large Dams Through The Lens Of India's Sardar Sarovar Project, Evelyn Wong

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis examines the evaluation of the economic, environmental and social effects of dams, and lessons learned from previous dams. It then focuses on cost benefit analysis as a decision-making tool pre-project for evaluating the potential gains and losses of building a dam; and as a framework for evaluating dams in operation. It reviews the basic assumptions required for a legitimate cost benefit analysis, and the inherent limitations of this method. It uses the Sardar Sarovar dam as a case study for the use and abuse of cost benefit analysis in decision-making, interstate politics, propaganda and activism. It also illustrates …

Comparing Redistricting Outcomes Across States: A Comparison Of Commission, Court, And Legislative Plans, Jonathan Winburn

Commonwealth Review of Political Science

The question of redistricting reform has become an important topic in many states throughout the country. At the heart of the matter is how to effectively deal with the perceived detrimental effects of allowing legislators control over selecting their own constituencies. The most common prescription is to remove legislative influence by handing over control to nonpolitical or bipartisan commissions. However, little empirical evidence exists comparing the outcomes of commission plans versus legislative plans. In this paper, I address this question by examining the role of commissions throughout the states. I argue an important aspect to limiting the problems of redistricting …

The Electoral College: A Critical Analysis, John Heyrman

Commonwealth Review of Political Science

This paper looks critically at several of the principal arguments employed for and against the continued use of the Electoral College, as opposed to a system of direct popular vote. The Electoral College does not merely diverge from our common American practices of direct popular vote, but it does so in ways that primarily benefit some states at the expense of others. While federalism clearly has desirable features for the United States, and a two­ party system may be desirable, neither is threatened by the removal of the Electoral College. Many of the defenses of the College appear to indicate …

Immigration In The E.U. And The U.K.: A Conflict Of Interests And Policy, Beth Coleman

Commonwealth Review of Political Science

Though contemporary society is becoming increasingly globalized, most of the developed world is looking towards immigration policies aimed at keeping other people and cultures out. This unfortunate trend is creating a society of protective multiculturalism-where one culture or state borrows desirable and beneficial characteristics and ideas from another culture, while isolating and at times even condemning that same group. Though the issue of border security remains a hotly debated topic in the United States, Europe is looking towards an era of border-free movement and renewed labor resources. However there are some major European powers, such as the United Kingdom, that …

Complete Issue - Volume 1, Number 1 (2013)

Commonwealth Review of Political Science

Complete Issue