Political Science Commons^™

Contextualizing Trump: Education For Communism, Curry Stephenson Malott

Educational Foundations & Policy Studies Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Undergraduate Research Needs: Faculty-Librarian Collaboration To Improve Information Literacy In Policy Papers, Michelle C. Pautz, Heidi Gauder

Political Science Faculty Publications

To improve the quality of semester-long policy projects of upper-division political science students, a faculty member and research librarian collaborated to reframe the assignment in hopes of improving students’ research skills and information literacy, revising the traditional one-way model of faculty sending students to the library to get information. The outcomes over the course of two semesters have been promising. Citations in two sets of student papers showed a remarkable increase in the number and quality of sources used. This suggests that when faculty work with librarians throughout the semester, such collaboration can improve students’ information literacy and thus their …

Improving Student Assessments Of Elections: The Use Of Information Literacy And A Course-Embedded Librarian, Todd J. Wiebe, Paula Booke

Faculty Publications

The study of U.S. elections as a part of introductory political science courses has become an increasingly difficult endeavour as students encounter the ever-changing landscape of electoral politics. Instructors seeking to equip students with the skills needed to navigate this complex terrain may look for partnerships with library faculty and staff as a means of bridging the research gap faced by students in these courses. This article examines the efficacy of a course-embedded librarian and information literacy training as a means of increasing student research confidence and competence. The findings of our quasi-experiment suggest that students participating in a course …

Kennan And The Neglected Variable In Post-Socialist Societies: The Loss Of Honest Dialogue And The Need For Empathy, Joan Davison

Faculty Publications

This paper analyzes the symbolism of George Kennan’s famous “X” article relative to the challenges of contemporary post transitions. It unpacks recent political discourse, discussing the critical application of practices such as thinking with your heart, parrhesis of the significance of uncertainty and reflection for question is: What would Kennan write in an X Article to states in transition paper employs both the definition suggested by Michel Foucault who understood it as “fearless speech” and Eric Voegelin who closely follows Plato’s meaning linking it with “heart” (dis)order of representatives of a society.

Teaching Across Cultures: Student-Led Modules In A Human Rights Course, Rebecca Mcbride

University Faculty Publications and Creative Works

Human rights, ethnic conflict, democratization, colonialism, and development - many upper-level political science courses contain content that is understood differently across cultural contexts. Equipping students to appreciate diverse perspectives on these issues is a challenge that requires creative pedagogical strategies, regardless of whether all students come from the same region of the United States or the class has more than half international students. Professors in both environments have the complex task of guiding students to navigate disparate viewpoints. This article demonstrates the pedagogical potential of an integrated approach to student-led class modules based on a two-semester experiment using a Global …

Green In Your Wallet Or A Green Planet: Views On Government Spending And Climate Change, Lincoln M. Butcher

Student Publications

The scientific community is a near consensus that climate change is not only anthropogenic but is also a major threat to people around the world. Despite the alarm bells from the scientific community many people in the United States simply deny the science of climate change. Many studies have targeted level of education, party membership, and gender in their role in influencing how individuals perceive climate change. This study showed that views on government spending plays a very important role in the importance of the environment. Individuals who supported decreased government spending tend to view jobs as more important than …

Global Warming: Why Is There Debate?, Mackenzie E. Smith

Student Publications

Previous studies have produced conflicting results for the determining factors of acceptance or rejection of the science behind the global warming phenomenon; some cite religion as a hindrance to the acceptance of this scientific theory [Kilburn 2008], some conclude lack of education is the driving force [Brechin 2003], and some deduce that party affiliation plays the most significant role in determining belief in global warming. In this study, the National Election Survey of 2012 dataset, consisting of 5,916 individual data points from the United States of America, is analyzed to determine the effects of party affiliation on one’s belief in …

Toward A Buddhist Theory Of Conflict Transformation: From Simple Actor-Oriented Conflict To Complex Structural Conflict, Tatsushi Arai

Peace and Conflict Studies

This paper presents a working theory of conflict transformation informed by Buddhist teachings. It argues that a Buddhist approach to conflict transformation consists of an integrated process of self-reflection on the roots and transformation of suffering (dukkha), on the one hand, and active relationship-building between parties, on the other. To overcome a deeply structural conflict in which parties are unaware of the very existence of the conflict-generating system in which they are embedded, however, Buddhist-inspired practice of conflict transformation requires building structural awareness, which is defined as educated consciousness capable of perceiving a complex web of cause and effect relationships …

Acquiring The Tools Of Grand Strategy: The Us Navy's Lcs As A Case Study, Sean P. Murphy

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

Grand strategy is about how states allocate resources and employ these resources to achieve desired political conditions. In examining the match between desired ends and available ways and means, an often-overlooked subject is how the specific tools of grand strategy are forged. One of these tools is the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS), a Major Defense Acquisition Program (MDAP) that started in 2000. LCS remains a controversial and often unpopular program with many stakeholders to this day. This study examines how the means of grand strategy, in this case a new ship class, are acquired. It also looks at how these …

Who Can Deviate From The Party Line? Political Ideology Moderates Evaluation Of Incongruent Policy Positions In Insula And Anterior Cingulate Cortex, Ingrid J. Haas, Melissa N. Baker, Frank J. Gonzalez

Department of Political Science: Faculty Publications

Political polarization at the elite level is a major concern in many contemporary democracies, which is argued to alienate large swaths of the electorate and prevent meaningful social change from occurring, yet little is known about how individuals respond to political candidates who deviate from the party line and express policy positions incongruent with their party affiliations. This experiment examines the neural underpinnings of such evaluations using functional MRI (fMRI). During fMRI, participants completed an experimental task where they evaluated policy positions attributed to hypothetical political candidates. Each block of trials focused on one candidate (Democrat or Republican), but all …

Oral History Of Migrants, Shira Klein

History Teaching Resources

This is a collection of collections of oral histories by migrants that can be used both for teaching and for research purposes.

Scriptural Justification For The American Revolution, Samuel Ewing

Senior Honors Theses

This thesis will seek to examine the intention of the Founding Fathers regarding their decision to break from England in what became the American Revolution. On July 4^th, 1776, fifty-five men gathered to sign the defining document of their cause – the Declaration of Independence. As the document presents the climactic argument against the English crown, this thesis will seek to analyze its writers’ intentions, presuppositions, and rationalizations. Ultimately, this thesis will demonstrate that the Founders not only sought biblical justification for their actions and opinions, but followed the letter of biblical and common law in order to …

Understanding The Right To Education In The Early 21st Century South African Context, Robert T. Zipp , '18

Senior Theses, Projects, and Awards

Evaluating the implementation of human rights norms as broad as the right to education at the domestic level requires the use of supplemental analytical frameworks. In this project, I discuss the implementation of the core norm of the right to education as it manifests in the prescriptive norms guided by the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Using the framework set forth by Betts and Orchard, I find that the current structural and ideational factors influencing access to primary education in South Africa are impacted by the country's historical legacy of racial inequality and the economic decisions of the post-apartheid government in …

Predicting The Brexit Vote By Tracking And Classifying Public Opinion Using Twitter Data, Julio C. Amador Diaz Lopez, Sofia Collignon-Delmar, Kenneth Benoit, Akitaka Matsuo

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

We use 23M Tweets related to the EU referendum in the UK to predict the Brexit vote. In particular, we use user-generated labels known as hashtags to build training sets related to the Leave/Remain campaign. Next, we train SVMs in order to classify Tweets. Finally, we compare our results to Internet and telephone polls. This approach not only allows to reduce the time of hand-coding data to create a training set, but also achieves high level of correlations with Internet polls. Our results suggest that Twitter data may be a suitable substitute for Internet polls and may be a useful …

Language, Race, And Integration: A Comparative Exploration Of The Sub-Saharan Migrant Experience In Morocco, Madeline Davison

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This paper uses a qualitative approach to explain the divide between local and migrant populations in the Moroccan context. This divide is primarily influenced by “feelings of otherness” and is triggered first and foremost by differences in physical appearance—easily identifiable differences upon first impression. Though inspired by a nearly instantaneous arrangement, this divide is fueled further by an inconsistency of language usage between groups. Because there is a wide variety of migrant experiences in this context, it is important to identify some of the differences between these lived experiences. Upon observation, the question, “What are the fundamental differences between migrants’ …

Asean And The South China Sea: Approaches To Resolving The Conflict, Jennifer Jie Li

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

In recent years, tensions have escalated between actors in the South China Sea, one of which is the Association for Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the region’s primary intergovernmental organization. The purpose of this report is to determine the effectiveness of ASEAN in resolving the South China Sea disputes and to clarify how geopolitical factors have impacted the organization’s actions. Through an analysis of evolving maritime claims and the current state of affairs, this paper suggests that ASEAN must be involved in any attempt to resolve the conflict peacefully. Acknowledging the importance of the diplomatic channels that ASEAN has created to …

An Abbreviated Leap: The Geopolitical And Geoeconomic Significance Of The China – Pakistan Economic Corridor To The New Silk Road, Emma Nichols

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The objective of this analysis is to reveal the geopolitical and geoeconomic significance of the China – Pakistan Economic Corridor of the Belt and Road Initiative to its major stakeholders; Pakistan and China. In 2013, Chinese President Xi Jinping unveiled one of the most ambitious international infrastructure plans in modern history. The plan, in its earliest stages, is currently underway with its first portion, the China – Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). Through careful preliminary analysis of the greater Belt and Road Initiative, the China – Pakistan Economic Corridor, and history of Sino-Pak relations, the motivations of the collaborating nations are …

Russia's Northern Rook: Nord Stream 2 On The European Energy Chessboard, David E. Wilson

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The Nord Stream 2 pipeline proposes to connect Germany to the world’s largest natural gas reserves in Russia, allowing the state-owned Russian energy behemoth Gazprom to double its export capacity through the ‘Northern Corridor’ transit route to Europe. This project has been the subject of sharp disapproval from Central and Eastern European countries, as well as the United States, which fear the prospect of increasing dependence on gas imports from a Russia perceived as politically aggressive and unreliable. This paper will identify the geopolitical and geoeconomic implications involved in the construction of Nord Stream 2 by adopting a geostrategic worldview …

Evaluating Frameworks For Multilateral Investor-State Dispute Settlement, Danielle Rosenthal

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Utilizing both empirical studies of investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) regimes and the accounts of both public and private practitioners of these processes, this study aims to inform public policymakers, multinational corporation leadership, and academic researchers on some of the key issues to consider when developing a multilateral friendly ISDS regime. By analyzing the procedural and functional details of both traditional arbitration (via the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes and the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law) and investment dispute courts (via those proposed in the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership and the EU Canada Comprehensive Economic and …

A Cross-Disciplinary Approach To The Maritime Security Risk Of Piracy And Lessons Learned From Agent-Based Modeling, Joanne Marie Fish

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation takes a cross-disciplinary approach to understanding pirate activity. Maritime piracy presents a dynamic ever-evolving problem. In today’s globalized world, contemporary maritime piracy presents a transnational threat. It is a complex socio-economic and political problem which the modern world considers to be criminal activity. Like all complex problems it must be deconstructed to fully comprehend it.

All criminal activity, maritime piracy included, has certain elements of supply and demand. For the activity to occur there must be a certain level, or supply, of targets. At the same time, we can posit that there must be a lack of other …

Dangerous Crossings: Voices From The African Migration To Italy/Europe, Robert M. Press

Faculty Publications

Africans continue to migrate across the Sahara and the Mediterranean Sea, where tens of thousands have drowned. In Libya, many suffer enslavement and other harsh treatment as they flee persecution or poverty, or both. Yet there have been few studies of their journey. This study, based primarily on some sixty interviews by the author in 2014–2016 with African migrants in Italy and France, provides a portrait of resilience, courage, and strategic decisions that differs sharply from media images of helplessness. It suggests reconsidering migrant networks and typologies in view of the breakdown and attempted repair of networks on these journeys, …

Dinosaurs For The Digital Age: Democratic Party Organization In The Twenty-First Century, Aaron B. Shapiro

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation traces Democratic Party organization roughly over the Obama era. It conceptualizes the party at the national, state, and local level, with a particular focus on Ohio. This project seeks to reconcile changes in the political environment that incentivize strengthening party structures, with American electoral institutions that complicate party organizational development. I suggest that while demographic change, polarization, and big data are powerful incentives to focus Democratic electoral strategy on an Obama-like organizational model and campaign strategy, institutionalization remains hampered by significant structural impediments. These are institutional as well as coalitional. While party integration has been uneven, I find …

Kekuasaan Presiden, Institusi Informal, Dan Pengesahan Ruu Tentang Badan Pengelola Jaminan Sosial (Bpjs), Haryo Ksatrio Utomo

Jurnal Politik

This article examines the power exercise of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY) in the discussion of the Social Security Administering Body Bill (BPJS Bill) when the president intervenes the process of deliberating the bill in parliament. In the middle of the process, the President intervened the House through a joint forum of political parties that support the government in the House of Representatives or known as the Joint Secretariat (Setgab) by asking them, which have no official position in the state president’s intervention has limited the power of the House of Representatives that should work independently and be free from …

Masalah Regulasi Dan Pengawasan Dalam Praktik Korupsi Haji Tahun 2010-2013, Bayu Firdaus

Jurnal Politik

The problem of corruption has occurred in many government institutions. Corruption is not only occurred in legislative institutions such as DPR, DPD, or DPRD, but also in executive institutions, such as ministries. Corruption in the Ministry of Religious Affairs is chosen to be explored in this paper because of its supposedly commitment and tightly intricate with moral and religious values to oppose any practices of corruption. This paper argues that the practice of corruption in pilgrim seasons of 2010-2013 occurred due to opportunity made available by problematic regulation and abused of supervision by members of DPR. Previous research found that …

Key Dynamics Of Internationalization Of Public Policy In The Context Of Policy Transfer, Alexander Hamonangan Nainggolan

Jurnal Politik

The article aims at examining how policy could be transferred as a complex and dynamic process in terms of internationalization and globalization. In addition, it will explore significant channels for the international movement of ideas, policies, and practices through an international policy learning process formed in policy transfer, lesson drawing, policy diffusion, and policy convergence. Further, it is argued that policy transfer literature is increasingly central, leading to the development of related topics in comparative politics and public policy. This article investigates the involvement of non-government organizations, civil society and political issues in driving the learning process about what government …

Dimensi Politik Dalam Polemik Vonis Mati, Fikri Disyacitta

Jurnal Politik

No abstract provided.

Pembangunan Negara, Hukum Pertanahan Indonesia, Dan Kembalinya Tanah Kasultanan Di Yogyakarta, Carolus Bregas Pranoto

Jurnal Politik

The Basic Agrarian Law No. 30 Year 1960 stipulates that the Indonesian state (both the central and regional governments) is the sole authority on land that may control and give out land rights to its citizens. However, the implementation of Yogyakarta Special Region Law No. 13 Year 2012 (UUK) did not only give the Sultanate of Yogyakarta a definite status as a legal entity, but also its claims on and authority over its owned land, the Sultanaat Grond (SG). A formal law approach views such arrangement as a result of the pluralism of law and suggests the unification of law …

Keberhasilan Kelompok Tani Sekar Mulyo Dalam Memengaruhi Kebijakan Pemerintah Kota Batu Tahun 2009-2016, Hisab Akbar Regaty

Jurnal Politik

This article will outline the factors that can drive the success of a civil society orga¬nization at the village level in influencing decisions by local governments, with case study of the Sekar Mulyo farmer group in Batu City. The question raised is why the Sekar Mulyo farmer group influences the local agriculture and infrastructure policy more successfully in Batu City in 2009-2016. This article uses qualitative approach by using primary and secondary data. The research found that there are determinants of success are collaborative strategies of civil society organizations, social capital, and clientelistic relation.

“The Island Of Thieves”: Rethinking Empire And The United States In Micronesia, Dominic Alessio, Wesley B. Renfro

Political Science Faculty/Staff Publications

This piece examines empire by purchase and lease in the Pacific and the manner by which the United States gained control over a series of strategically valuable islands in the region. Because Washington obtained its possessions partly through purchase and lease, and not via invasion, it argues that the United States can hide its standing as an empire. Therefore, this research suggests that the literature on empire, order, and hierarchy in international relations needs to allow for a more expansive definition of empire to better understand this important but understudied concept.

Using Free Speech To Stifle Free Speech, David Moshman

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

People often use their freedom of speech to disrupt the speech of others, especially on college campuses in recent years. Of course people have a right to protest, provided they are sufficiently quiet, brief, or distant so as not to prevent the speaker from being heard. On August 25, University of Nebraska–Lincoln sophomore Kaitlyn Mullen set up a literature table outside the student union to promote Turning Point USA, a libertarian/conservative campus-based organization. TPUSA proclaims its support for free speech but maintains Professor Watchlist, a blacklist of professors who have expressed leftist ideas, in or out of class. Before long, …