Political Science Commons^™

Constrained Behavior: Understanding The Entrenchment Of Legislative Procedure In American State Constitutional Law, Nancy Martorano Miller, Keith E. Hamm, Ronald D. Hedlund

Political Science Faculty Publications

Political analysts have suggested that policy power will begin to shift from the federal government to state governments as gridlock in Congress persists. Therefore, understanding the policymaking process at the state level is more important than ever. Vitally missing from our understanding of policymaking in the states is the role of constitutional provisions. Many state constitutions contain directives that severely limit the ability of the legislature to act. Some of these directives are procedural while others are more substantive. This is relevant because constitutional rules are more difficult for members to alter than chamber rules. In this paper we present …

Pillars Of Power: An Anthropological Examination Of Social Control In The Democratic People's Republic Of Korea, Ryan Michael Walker

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

The goal of this thesis is to examine how the government of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea uses social control to enforce its will over its people. This examination will be based around social control mechanisms used in three separate areas of society. I referred to these three areas of social control as pillars of power. The first pillar of power is control over the economy and distribution of resources. The second pillar is control and influence over culture and the flow of information. The third pillar of power is the monopoly of force, both the ability to use …

Bolivia: Energy And Environment, Stefanie Wickstrom

Political Science Faculty Scholarship

This unpublished encyclopedia entry gives an overview of Bolivia's energy resources and mining, and describes the mining industry's impact on the environment.

Decisions Dictated By Perceptions: The Influences Of Society And Education In Scalia's Originalism, Nathan Mcnichols

Commonwealth Review of Political Science

Prior to this analysis of Justice Antonin Scalia's tendencies in Supreme Court (SCOTUS) adjudication, it is primarily necessary to elaborate upon the condition of the SCOTUS as an institution; secondarily, it is necessary to establish an intellectual foundation from which one may deduce objective observations regarding the quality of a decision rendered in comparison to the ideals of justice and equality. To establish this requires an existential analysis of the adjudication process, which will also take place during this phase of the discussion, and finally, the remainder of this analysis will focus on applying these objective observations to the decisions …

Do Coal Unions And Racial Diversity Affect Split Ticket Voting In Kentucky?, Kelli South, Chase Deppen, Mathew Gilbert, Ryan Mcdonald

Commonwealth Review of Political Science

This paper performs an in-depth historical analysis in order to attempt to discover why Kentucky voters often split ticket vote between the national and local levels. Two theories are analyzed for validity: the coal union influence school of thought and the racial diversity school of thought Both qualitative and quantitative analyses were performed. The coal union influence theory was p1·oved not to have significance; the coal unions have had little influence on Kentucky voting patterns throughout history and into the present day. The racial diversity school of thought was proven to have some significance; voters are influenced to a certain …

Complete Issue - Volume 3, Number 1 (2015)

Commonwealth Review of Political Science

Complete Issue

The Political Theology Of Dietrich Bonhoeffer And The Ethical Problem Of Tyrannicide, Brian Kendall Watson

LSU Master's Theses

In this thesis, I explore the relationship between political theology and the ethical problem of tyrannicide in the life and works of German pastor and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Beginning with an examination of his theological views, I argue that Bonhoeffer’s Christo-centric worldview forms the basis of his subsequent ethical and political beliefs, as well as his motivation for participating in an assassination plot against Adolph Hitler. Bonhoeffer’s desire to connect his understanding of Jesus Christ to the entirety of human life leads him to develop an unsystematic theological approach to ethics and the relationship between church and government. Concluding with …

Between Beauty And Duty: Ethics And Judgment In Camus And Kant, Alex Donovan Cole

LSU Master's Theses

The ideas of Albert Camus and Immanuel Kant are not often thought of as sharing pronounced similarities. However, both thinkers are deeply concerned with role of aesthetics in moral, and subsequently, political life. According to each, taste is a faculty whereby one is able to develop the “moral insight” needed for the flourishing of a robust, thoughtful, ethical individual. Yet, both Camus and Kant utilize highly divergent methodologies in going about this. Camus prefers the artistic form and poetic language offered by the novel and Kant prefers the logical rigor of critical philosophical arguments. This thesis hopes to reveal that …

People’S Perception Of Free Trade And Economic Sophistication, Igor Kuznetsov

LSU Master's Theses

The question of which factors form people’s attitudes toward free trade has occupied scholars’ minds for no less than two decades. Many theories were suggested in an attempt to explain why some individuals strongly support protectionist policies while others prefer trade liberalization. These explanations range from classical economic models of factors of production to nationalism, the fear of foreign cultures, and gender differences. The contribution of this paper is that I combine economic and non-economic approaches, introducing the possibility that individuals may think from an economic perspective or draw on other considerations depending on what they know about economics. That …

Love Thy Neighbor? Trust In Foreigners And Support For Transnational Policies, Sergio Wals, Elizabeth Theiss-Morse, Frank J. Gonzalez, Tess Gosda

Department of Political Science: Faculty Publications

This study assesses the extent to which individual levels of trust in foreigners relate to preferences about regional transnational policies. We use a nationally representative survey from Mexico (2003), an emerging democracy with relatively high levels of nationalism and several multinational trade agreements. We argue that clarifying the target of social trust is essential for understanding the attitudes of citizens of less powerful countries toward the international policy realm. Statistical analysis strongly suggests that in fact trust in foreigners, above generalized trust, is key to understanding such attitudes. Our results indicate that trust in foreigners among Mexican respondents is positively …

Her Ladyship Chief Justice: The Rise Of Female Leaders In The Judiciary In Africa, Josephine Dawuni, Alice J. Kang

Department of Political Science: Faculty Publications

In recent years, women have been selected as leaders of African judiciaries. This article identifies where and when women have become chief justices and presidents of constitutional courts from 1990 to 2014. We profile women from three civil-law and three common-law countries and find that the women selected meet or exceed the requirements for holding the highest position in the judiciary. We then explore why some African countries, but not others, have had female judicial leaders. We initially find that the selection method may be less important than the type of legal system, the commitment of gatekeepers, the end of …

The Electoral Influence Of Teachers’ Unions On Democratic Education Policy Priorities, Molly Ziek Brand

Honors Papers

This thesis examines how teachers unions choose to endorse political candidates in a Democratic primary. I will argue that teachers unions are powerful enough that they are able to choose between Democrats based on their education policy positions, rather than making endorsement decisions based on candidates’ positions on general labor policy. Although teachers unions act with the ultimate goal of promoting their members’ interests as employees, the distinction between acting with a primary interest in education policy instead of a primary interest in labor policy is an important one. The distinction is significant because disagreement about education policy currently represents …

Early Voting Methods And The Impact On Voter Turnout, Courtney Harris

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

In 2004, over 27 million Americans voted prior to Election Day through early voting policies that exist in the United States. One of the most discussed questions is whether early voting has an effect on voter turnout.

In this analysis, I will review the voter turnout of states during the 2008 and 2010 election years. By executing this analysis, I hope to determine if these policies affect voter turnout. The implications of this analysis are useful for informing state decisions regarding voting procedures and can assist the other states in determining if these polices, and similar methods in the future, …

Resigning Their Rights? Impediments To Women's Property Ownership In Kosovo, Sandra F. Joireman

Political Science Faculty Publications

Kosovo is one of the newest countries in the world. It achieved independence in 2008 and emerged from international supervision in 2012. As a new country, it has faced the challenge of establishing the appropriate foundations for a flourishing economy through the creation and enforcement of property rights. With the incentive of potential European Union membership in the future, Kosovo has shown significant progress in developing laws that are EU compliant. However, the enforcement of these laws often falls short. One of the areas in which there is an identifiable gap between law and practice is in the area of …

A Quantum Congress, Jorge R. Roig

Scholarly Works

This article tries to address the problem of a corrupt and broken electoral system that has been captured by special interests through big money spending in political campaigns, while at the same time preserving the spirit of the Free Speech Clause of our Constitution. In doing so, this article first reviews and summarizes the different alternatives proposed as potential fixes for the campaign finance problem. It then explains why none of the proposed alternatives can accomplish the dual goals set out above. Finally, the article briefly sketches a proposal for a fundamental reworking of our representative democracy by substituting legislative …

Se Habla Español: The Health Disparity Among The Latino Population, Karen Paz

The Corinthian

Latinos are considered the fastest growing and the largest ethnic minority group in the United States. It is estimated that by 2050, 24% of the U.S. population will be Latino. According to Census data, approximately 18% of the U.S. population age five or older speaks a language other than English at home, and current projections continue to show increases in U.S. immigrant and second-language groups nationwide. About half of that population self-reported that they speak English less than “very well.” Members of this population are referred to as individuals with limited English proficiency (LEP). As the largest ethnic minority, 28 …

The Paradox Of Power-Sharing: Stability And Fragility In Postwar Lebanon, Amanda Rizkallah

All Faculty Open Access Publications

This article examines the consequences of civil war and power-sharing settlements for the development of sectarian networks of mobilization. While power-sharing presents a viable mechanism for ending civil war, it allows the participating militias-turned-parties access to state resources and leaves their population networks and organizations intact. This continuity reduces the militias-turned-parties’ start-up costs for violent mobilization in the future, enabling them to mobilize more effectively than new parties with no combat experience. I exploit rich variation in the wartime legacies and settlement status of the major postwar parties in Lebanon to explain whether and how parties mobilized during the clashes …

Youth Activism, Art And Transitional Justice: Emerging Spaces Of Memory After The Jasmine Revolution, Arnaud Kurze

Department of Justice Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

This chapter explores the creation of alternative transitional justice spaces in post-conflict contexts, particularly concentrating on the role of art and the impact of social movements to address human rights abuses. Drawing from post-authoritarian Tunisia, it scrutinizes the work of contemporary youth activists and artists to deal with the past and foster sociopolitical change. Although these vanguard protesters provoked the overthrow of President Zine El Abdine Ben Ali in 2011, the power vacuum was quickly filled by old elites. The exclusion of young revolutionaries from political decision-making led to unprecedented forms of mobilization to account for repression and injustice under …

Catalunya No Es Espanya?: Examining Catalan Nationalism, Shiloh Jaggers Jones

Honors Theses

Catalonia is one of a few European separatist movements that have real significance in the European political sphere. Separatism is new to Catalonia, however Catalan nationalism is not. Through the analysis of primary and secondary sources, this thesis explains that the reason the Catalan nationalist movement is so strong and demands the attention it is receiving in the Spanish national and international communities is the long-standing political, economic, and cultural foundations that have been building even before Catalonia was formed. Likewise, these foundations combined with the triggering events of the recession of the late 2000s and the Spanish constitutional court …

Fueling The Dragon's Fire: China's Coal Policy, Taylor Malcolm

Honors Theses

The last few decades in China have seen unprecedented economic growth. This growth, though good for the economy, has had extreme consequences on the health of Chinese citizens as well as the environment as a whole. A major factor of this increased pollution is the country's high consumption of coal, which has rarely comprised less than 70 percent of the country's energy during the past 50 years. Though the media portrays a China which is making enormous strides in the field of environmental protection, the energy and environmental policies of the country suggest that it will continue using large amounts …

The Chinese Inquisition: Xi Jinping's War On Corruption, Harriet E. Fisher

Honors Theses

An integral part of Chinese political life is the rampant corruption that infests every level of Chinese government. China's current leader, Xi Jinping, has initiated a hardline anti-corruption campaign that, for the first time in history, has targeted both low-level officials (small flies) and high-level officials (big tigers). This thesis is concerned with the factors that have motivated Xi to initiate these unprecedented reforms. I have identified three potential motivations: office, policy, and legitimacy. The office motivation refers to Xi's attempt to consolidate his own power as leader of China, as well as the power of his political faction, represented …

Public Corruption In Liberian Government, Stephen H. Gobewole

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

There is a widespread public perception of corruption in Liberia's election process, yet there is little documentation on the characteristics of voters and their perceptions of electoral corruption. The purpose of this correlational study was to explore the relationship between gender, ethnicity, physical location, and perceptions about political activity during the 2005 national election. Roderick Chisolm's conceptualization of the internalist view of justification served as the theoretical construct. Data were acquired from the Afrobarometer survey (n = 1,200), which used a representative cross-sectional sample design, and were subjected to cross-tabulation analysis, a chi-square test, and a correlation analysis. The results …

Beyond Elections: Ghana's Democracy From The Perspective Of The Citizenry, Ransford Osafo-Danso

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Ghana's democracy has been hailed by scholars, practitioners, and the international community in recent years as a shining example in the West African subregion as a result of the country's record of organizing successive elections with minimal or no violence. However, the evaluation of Ghana's democracy has predominantly focused on the elections and disproportionately captures the views of the political elite; conspicuously missing is the perspective of the ordinary Ghanaian. This presents an incomplete picture of Ghana's democracy, given the relevance of citizens' participation in democratic societies. To address this gap in knowledge, this qualitative case study explored the practice …

Untold Narratives: Refugee Experiences From Laos To Richmond, California, Laiseng Saechao

Scripps Senior Theses

Untold Narratives: A Refugee Experience from Laos to Richmond, California is focused on the Mien refugee experience from Laos to Richmond, California. This thesis highlights the ways Cold War politics, the Secret War, and heavy industrialization have impacted Mien communities who have been displaced from their homelands into refugee camps, and again through sponsorship into the United States. This thesis looks at political theories that discuss inequalities that exist, particularly through environmental degradation and negative health impacts that Mien refugees are experiencing in their resettlement into Richmond, California. Due to the limited scholarly articles and documented narratives that are available …

Coming Out Of The Margins: Lgbti Activists In Costa Rica And Nicaragua, Samantha Abelove

Scripps Senior Theses

For decades LGBTQ rights have been approached purely by a legal strategy, in particular advocating for the legalization of same-sex marriage. However, discrimination and violence against the LGBTQ community continues to be a major issue in Latin America because of cultural values such as Catholicism and machismo that uphold a standard of and, in turn, have control over people’s sexuality. Using a human rights approach towards the politics of sexuality, LGBTI activists in Costa Rican and Nicaragua have been successful in transforming public opinion about sexuality and more importantly, sexual diversity. As a result of their egalitarian framework and efforts …

Structural Realism And The New Cold War, Ka Ho Wong

Bachelor of Social Sciences – Senior Theses

The Cold War mentality such as misperception which is deep-rooted in the American and Russian government has triggered the revival of U.S.-Russian conflicts. The new Cold War would be a continuation from the past that operates with an action-and-reactions model. However, with the change of geopolitical situation, the new Cold War would be conducted in different means.

The structural constraints suggested by the structural realist would be an explanation for the emergence of new Cold War. The structural realism makes contributions of the idea of misperception，over-exaggeration, and balance of power that is a product of an anarchic international system. The …

New Models Of The Unilateral Presidency, Yu Ouyang

Theses and Dissertations--Political Science

Though scholars have assessed the unilateral presidency with renewed interests, the literature remains weak in three important areas. What relation, if any, exists between the public and presidential unilateral actions? What impact does the judiciary have on unilateral presidential power? To what extent do presidents use the many tools in the unilateral policy toolchest? The three essays in this dissertation address each of these questions in term. Results have implications for both the unilateral presidency and broader works in executive decision-making and democratic governance.

When Security Dominates The Agenda: The Influence Of Interstate Rivalry On Women's Status, Theresa Schroeder

Theses and Dissertations--Political Science

The overarching theme of my dissertation is the effect of interstate rivalries on women’s status. Specifically, I investigate the influence of rivalries on the election of women, the adoption of a gender quota, and the overall level of gender equality. National security is a prime concern in states involved in an interstate rivalry, which can influence women’s lives in a number of key ways. Through the actions of individual voters and rational parties, I find that being in an interstate rivalry leads to lower levels of female representation. In addition, I theorize that rivalries lessen societal pressure to increase female …

Structure Matters: How Organizational Characteristics Affect Military Efforts, Michael A. Morgan

Theses and Dissertations--Political Science

Military organizations develop a unique set of practices and procedures in response to their particular political, economic, and social circumstances. The characteristics of these organizations shape standardized behaviors, methods of training personnel, and the degree of stratification within their bureaucratic hierarchies. This study examines how organizational characteristics influence battlefield effectiveness, patterns of alliance formation, and the security of United Nations peacekeepers.

Chapter 2 evaluates how differences in personnel sophistication and bureaucratic stratification influence battlefield efficacy. A military may devote substantial resources to develop war plans and procure advanced technology, but these assets are of limited consequence in the absence of …

The Effect Of The Oil Trade Network On Political Stability, Jungmoo Woo

Theses and Dissertations--Political Science

My dissertation focuses on the impact of oil trade ties and network on political instability: democratization, civil war onset, and coups. Oil is an important resource to most states, while a few states, especially autocratic states, can produce and export it. This implies that the break of oil trade ties may strategically or economically damage oil-importing states more than oil-exporting states. In the three essays of my dissertation, I argue that oil trade ties allow oil-exporting states to resist to external pressures and encourage oil-importing states to support important oil exporters in order to avoid losing access to a much-needed …