Political Science Commons^™

Massachusetts County Government: A Viable Institution?, Brendan Concannon

Undergraduate Review

County government has had an impact on the lives of the people of Massachusetts since 1643, predating the American federal system by well over a century. The various services that county government provides, and has provided in the past, are essential to the residents of those counties. Despite such an extensive history, counties in Massachusetts, and New England as a whole, are distinct from other counties throughout the nation. Deviating from many states, the functions and duties typically performed by a county are performed by the state government or by cities in Massachusetts. In an era where we continually seek …

Review Of Federal Dynamics: Continuity, Change, And The Varieties Of Federalism, Arthur Benz And Jorg Broscheck, Eds. (2013), James A. Gardner

Book Reviews

No abstract provided.

Balancing Preservation And Promotion Of Natural Resources: A Case Study Of Newaygo County, Michigan, Jeffrey Koch

Student Research – Stevenson Center

Natural resource management (NRM) involves a multitude of levels and interests. Options for sustainable management must involve all stakeholders and balance levels of decision-makers, whether local, regional, or national. No one-size-fits-all approach applies to NRM; instead, co-management of resources and multi-stakeholder collaborations assist in achieving sustainable solutions, given the multiple interest groups involved in the commons. Through good governance, flexibility to change, and community engagement efforts, NRM has a better chance for success and sustainability.

Clearly, natural resources cross governmental boundaries and jurisdictions, and NRM strategies must compensate for this dynamic. The region of West Michigan contains a wealth of …

The Divergence Of Modern Jurisprudence From The Original Intent For Federalist And Tenth Amendment Limitations On The Treaty Power, Steven T. Voigt

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

[Excerpt] “That the federal treaty-making authority is constrained by the other parts of the Constitution does not sound like the stuff of law journals. It seems like common sense. After all, we would not expect someone to argue that the ability to “regulate Commerce” entitles Congress to disregard the Third Amendment and quarter soldiers in our houses. We would not expect to see an argument that the power to “establish Post Offices” enables Congress to disregard the freedom of the press in the First Amendment. So, why is the Tenth Amendment so fully disregarded with respect to treaties?”

Where’S The Consultation? The War Powers Resolution And Libya, Eileen Burgin

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

[Excerpt] “President Barack Obama triggered a War Powers Resolution (WPR) controversy with his military response to the anti-government rebellion and civil war in Libya in 2011. Members of Congress seized upon the WPR, questioning whether the Obama administration had complied with the WPR’s requirements when the United States launched the initial Libyan Operation Odyssey Dawn (OOD) and subsequently participated in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Operation Unified Protector (OUP). Many legislators charged that President Obama had violated the WPR. Concerns centered on such issues as presidential reliance on the United Nations (U.N.) Security Council—rather than Congress—for authorization to act, …

Un Peacekeeping Impacts On Human Rights, Elise Durant

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This paper seeks to explore the impacts of peacekeeping operations by the United Nations on the human rights abuses associated with civil wars. Previous research has consistently found evidence that civil wars increase human rights abuses; however, the literature has not adequately analyzed possible factors that could decrease this violence or the affects peacekeeping could have on human rights performances. The UN has four types of peacekeeping operations: observer, traditional, multidimensional, and enforcement. The results of a Heckman selection model for 57 countries that have experienced a civil war between 1976 and 2012 suggest peacekeeping does impact human rights performances, …

German Foreign Policy In The Cyber Age, Patrick Schmitz 14

Honor Scholar Theses

None

War Powers In The American Constitutional Scheme: A Legal-Historical Inquiry, Max Guirguis

Commonwealth Review of Political Science

Since World War II, there has been a significant shift in the balance of war­ making power between the executive and legislative branches. Although the Constitution reserves the formal power of declaring war exclusively for Congress, modern presidents have increasingly mm·ginalized Congress in times of international tension or conflict by acting unilaterally without congressional authorization. Congress has lent impetus to this problematic trend by failing to take decisive action whenever its war-making power is usurped by the executive. The War Powers Act of 1973 has not been successful in curbing the exercise and expansion of executive war- making power because …

Power, Interdependence And Conflict: What Ir Theories Tell Us About China's Rise, Dr. James R. Masterson

Commonwealth Review of Political Science

This study examines the effects that economic interdependence (EI) hason political relations between China and its main trading partners. Five EI theories derived from the international relations literature are tested using data from King's 10 Million Dyad collection of political interaction along with economic data from the IMF and control variable data from Polity IV, COW CINC, among other sources.

Though a significant amount of literature addresses the effects trade has on conflict at the systemic level, few address it at the dyadic level and even fewer test the pacification of trade on non-Western states. This research examines economic, political, …

Federalism And Administrative Law: Regulatory Power And The U.S. Constitution, Ashley Ruggiero

Commonwealth Review of Political Science

This paper examines the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) and its impact on state authority and regulatory federalism. It contends that the Administrative Procedure Act of 1946 transformed traditional ideals of federalism and paved the way for the more centralized administrative process we know today. The paper begins by providing a brief history and breakdown of the act and proceeds to consider key Supreme Court cases. It concludes with an assessment of the Administrative Procedure Act's impact on the American political system, especially as it pertains to federalism, checks and balances, and the potential for fraud and corruption in vast federal …

Roger Sherman And Federalism: The Transition From The Articles Of Confederation To The U.S. Constitution, Autumn Baker

Commonwealth Review of Political Science

This study examines the religiosity, political career, and political thought of Roger Sherman. Sherman had a profound impact on the American Republic and American Federalism. The study concludes that as a Puritan descendant and devout Congregationalist, Roger Sherman's religious convictions explain his political principles.

Interest Groups, Think Tanks, And Health Care Policy (1960s-Present), Susan Giaimo

Political Science Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Juries And Social Media: Northwest Ohio's Response To This Phenomenon, Erica Lunderman

Honors Projects

The 21^st century is an era in which the dependence on technology is at an all-time high. The availability of information on social networking sites has recently sparked a debate in regards to jury impartiality. Over the last few years states such as Florida, Michigan, and New York have received scholastic attention for making changes to local jury instructions to ensure defendant’s rights of an impartial jury guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment. Federal national jury instructions addressing juror social media usage has also drawn attention. Little, however, scholastic attention has been directed towards Northwest Ohio. This project will look …

Building Rhizomatic Social Movements? Movement-Building Relays During The Current Epoch Of Contention, Peter N. Funke

Government and International Affairs Faculty Publications

This article investigates the movement building dynamics of contemporary social movement milieus (such as particular protests, social forums or occupations). It develops the concept of the “relay” to introduce four ideal-type movement building relays understood as distinct movement milieus: clustering relay, networking relay, organizing relay, and transforming relay. Each ideal-type captures different points on a continuum of increasing movement building and thus for generating commonalities, shared understandings and identities, mobilizations and strategies. Focusing on what I call the current “rhizomatic movement epoch,” which ranges from roughly the Zapatistas to the recent occupy-type protests, the relay framework can provide a larger …

Public Attitudes And Support For The Eu In The Wake Of The Financial Crisis, Jennifer R. Wozniak, Chris Hasselmann

Political Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

The economic and financial crisis has dominated the political agenda of both the European Union and its respective governments for the past several years. The economic effects, from rising unemployment to negligible growth rates, have been widely documented and explored. The political consequences likewise have been examined in terms of the impact on various national elections, especially in Greece and most recently in Germany. One area in need of attention, however, is the extent to which existing theories and models of support for integration are able to capture the public's changing perception of the EU. Drawing on a series of …

Grounded Labels From The Behavioral International Economic Development Growth Path Model On Economic Development Patterns From 2002-2012, Kenneth Thomas Davis

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Economic models generally fail to adequately measure positive and negative growth paths in development through agrarian, industry, and service economies. The purpose of this grounded theory study was to design a new model that could accommodate both directions of growth and better measure development paths with particular attention to labors contributions. The theoretical foundation for this study was Walt Whitman Rostow's 5 economic stages of growth classifications. This Study attempted to find the most common economic growth path. While most development models use three to five classifications, this study used nine new classifications giving it a unique and specific look …

Boycotts To Bombs: History, Causes, And Comparison Of The Palestinian Intifadas, Leah Wilson

Lewis Honors College Capstone Collection

One of the foremost geopolitical issues of the twenty first century, the conflict between Israel and Palestine has a complicated, ominous history, and limited signs of hope for resolution in the near future. Darkened by particularly bloody and significant events such as the 1948 Arab-Israel dispute, the 1967 Six Day War, and the continuously violent actions taken near the turn of the century, the conflict continues to detrimentally impact the security of the region, the socioeconomic livelihood of Palestinians, and the dwindling influence of international actors to curb recognizably illegal settlements and flagrant human rights violations. Particularly significant to the …

Database Of Secondary Schools Attended By Cabinet Ministers In The United Kingdom1937-2012, Brendan O'Rourke, John Hogan

Other

This excel file shows the computations of the authors of the influence, exclusiveness and eliteness of the IUK secondary school systems in the production of cabinet ministers. These computations are based on the influence, exclusiveness and eliteness indices that are developed in a paper that is forthcoming in the journal Politics.

Complexity In National Policy Implementation: A Top-Down Look At The Failure Of Healthcare.Gov, Samuel Fandrich

Master in Public Administration Theses

No abstract provided.

Patriotism Among Muslim American Opinion Leaders, Reem Abou-Samra

Wayne State University Dissertations

A significant degree of public opinion research has been conducted on Muslim Americans, but very little has focused on their perceptions. This study explores how opinion leaders address the question of patriotism, Americanness, hyphenated identities, and the implications of such a discourse. The study is confined to Wayne County, MI, because of the significant role Muslim Americans have played in labor struggles, local culture, civil rights, and their visibility. This study is significant because ongoing issues have triggered media attention on Muslim Americans and questioned their patriotism and Americanness, such as the "Ground Zero Mosque" debate, the "anti-Sharia" bill proposals, …

Traditional, Democratic, Accountable? Navigating Citizen-Subjection In Rural South Africa, Robin L. Turner

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

Nearly two decades after South Africa’s democratization, questions of tradition and accountability continue to trouble the polity as more than 14 million black South Africans remain subject to state-recognized, so-called “traditional” leaders – kings, queens, chiefs and regents. This article deepens our understanding of contemporary governance by exploring the agency of these citizen-subjects through close examination of traditional leaders’ strategies and citizen-subjects’ mobilizations in four rural localities. These cases illustrate how citizen-subjects are working with, against and through traditional leaders and councils, hybrid organizations and independent groups to pursue community development and effective, accountable governance, and show how the present …

Happiness In Public Policy, Laura Musikanski

Journal of Sustainable Social Impact

The happiness movement represents a new paradigm where social, economic, and environmental systems are structured to encourage human well-being in a sustainable environment. Bhutan has adopted Gross National Happiness (GNH) as a way of determining its society’s success in contrast to purely economic goals and the singular use of the gross domestic product indicator. Bhutanese policy promulgation includes use of a GNH screening tool. In the United Kingdom, happiness indicators are being used to collect data and the government is starting to explore their application to policy. The Bhutanese GNH policy screening tool has been adapted for the grassroots activists, …

An Analysis Of The Extent Of Presidential Power In Regard To Drone Strikes, Kaitlyn Dugas

Senior Honors Theses and Projects

Considerable controversy exists regarding the use of drones by the United States of America in the targeted killings of individuals overseas, including American citizens. The constitutionality of such strikes comes into question as well as whether the President even possesses adequate power, whether unitary or granted, to order the strikes against not only American citizens, who are obviously protected by the Constitution, but also foreigners to whom the Constitution may or may not apply. This study will take a look at presidential power from the perspective of each of the three branches of government within the United States and from …

The Eurozone Economic Crisis And The Divergent Paths Of Unity, Kaitlyn Hill

Senior Honors Theses and Projects

The Eurozone economic crisis, which began in 2008, has had far reaching and destructive effects on the future of Europe, its trading partners and the global economic system as a whole. In order to begin to understand the implications it has had on the future of Europe as a whole it is important to look at why different member countries suffered such divergent repercussions. This research seeks to explain this divergence by focusing on the experiences of Germany and France and comparing them to one another. The question to be answered is why has there been such a difference in …

The Puzzling Persistence Of Dual Federalism, Ernest A. Young

Faculty Scholarship

This essay began life as a response to Sotirios Barber’s essay (soon to be a book) entitled “Defending Dual Federalism: A Self-Defeating Act.” Professor Barber’s essay reflects a widespread tendency to associate any judicially-enforceable principle of federalism with the “dual federalism” regime that dominated our jurisprudence from the Founding down to the New Deal. That regime divided the world into separate and exclusive spheres of federal and state regulatory authority, and it tasked courts with defining and policing the boundary between them. “Dual federalism” largely died, however, in the judicial revolution of 1937, and it generally has not been revived …

Advancing The Empirical Research On Lobbying, John M. De Figueiredo, Brian Kelleher Richter

Faculty Scholarship

This essay identifies the empirical facts about lobbying which are generally agreed upon in the literature. It then discusses challenges to empirical research in lobbying and provides examples of empirical methods that can be employed to overcome these challenges—with an emphasis on statistical measurement, identification, and casual inference. The essay then discusses the advantages, disadvantages, and effective use of the main types of data available for research in lobbying. It closes by discussing a number of open questions for researchers in the field and avenues for future work to advance the empirical research in lobbying.

None Of The Laws But One, Neil S. Siegel

Faculty Scholarship

This Symposium contribution explores differences in how congressional Republicans responded to Medicare and how they responded to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA). Given the narrowness of the constitutional challenges to the ACA that congressional Republicans promoted and the many federal taxes, expenditures, and regulations that they support, this Article rejects the suggestion that today's Republicans in Congress generally possess a narrow view of the constitutional scope of federal power. The Article instead argues that congressional Republicans then and now-and the two parties in Congress today-fracture less over the constitutional expanse of congressional authority and more over the …

No Witness, No Case: An Assessment Of The Conduct And Quality Of Icc Investigations, Dermot Groome

Faculty Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

When States Break The Rules: Membership Suspension In International Organizations, Heidi Hardt, Brent E. Sasley

Political Science Faculty Publications - Archive

This is a very rough draft. Please do not quote without permission from the authors.

Pursuing An Answer: Bureaucratic And Legal Accountability In Local Law Enforcement Pursuit Policies, Casey Lafrance

Ralph Bunche Journal of Public Affairs

Using qualitative and quantitative data obtained from 30 interviews with local law enforcement managers (12 county sheriffs and 18 municipal police chiefs), this study explores the decision-making processes used by these managers in the context of a pursuit-related accident involving an innocent third party. My findings suggest that: (1) managers most often conduct internal investigations to ensure that their officers’ behavior demonstrated adherence to the agency’s standard operating procedures; (2) managers use multiple mechanisms, including consultations with legal actors and professional peers, to keep their pursuit policies updated with regard to case law; (3) policy restrictiveness shares a positive, but …