Political Science Commons^™

We Care About Children, Alexandre Couture Gagnon

Political Science Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Defence In Depth: An Anatomy Of Containment From Quarantine To Resilience, Jessica West

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This dissertation investigates the logic of resilience as a prevailing mode of national security. Struck more by its familiarity than its novelty, I turn my attention to public health as a way of better understanding what resilience does and how it works. Using interpretive methods to read resilience theoretically as a function of complex systems and concretely as a set of homeland security policy practices in the United States, I situate the emergence and implementation of resilience as a redeployment of long-standing motifs and modes of “containment,” recast as an immune system. Specifically, I claim: 1) containment is a spatial …

A Theory Of Cultural Tolerance For Preventing Ethnic Conflict: Evidence From Former Soviet States, Ajara Boulibekova

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The prevention of ethnic conflict has been examined and debated upon within the Political Science community; studies involving economic standing, government structure, and historical background have been credited with reducing or preventing ethnic conflict. In the years leading up to the demise of the Soviet Union ethnic conflict was felt heavily throughout the Socialist Republics. After the fall of the U.S.S.R. scholars were certain that ethnic conflict would arise in Kazakhstan but alas it did not, while other post-Soviet states, such as Moldova and Russia, had experienced ethnic conflict. What prevents ethnic conflict from occurring in one state but not …

Black Detroit: The Worst Nightmare Of The American Establishment: Interview With Dan Georgakas, Despina Lalaki

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Enzo Traverso: Neoliberalism Is The Totalitarianism Of Our Times, Despina Lalaki

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Not Waiting For Washington: Climate Policy Adoption In California And New York, Roger Karapin

Publications and Research

In the absence of strong U.S. national climate change policy, California and New York, among other states, adopted relatively comprehensive and ambitious policies to cut greenhouse gas emissions during the 2000s. They adopted these policies despite political-institutional and other structural barriers similar to those found nationally, which shows that political actors have significant scope for taking effective action even under structural constraints. This article explains the adoption of climate policies in these two leading states by using a windows of opportunity approach, which analyzes how the convergence of problem and political events produces policy windows and hence opportunities for advocacy …

Efficacy And Political Participation: How Can I Make A Difference?, Shadrick M. Mead

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

While there have been numerous empirical studies of the causal determinants of political participation, few have examined how separate efficacious attitudes affect the way in which an individual chooses to participate in the political system. This research examines the relationship between political participation and the efficacious attitudes of individuals in the US electorate. Specifically, it breaks down political efficacy into two forms, internal and external efficacy, as well as, placing various forms of political participation into a typology of direct and indirect participation, to determine the interplay of efficacious attitudes and the likelihood an individual participates in one form of …

Exploring Announcement Dynamics In Select Republican Primary Elections, Mitchell Redd

Honors Theses

This thesis is a reflection of my general interests in intra-partisan electoral conflict. Empirically, my study is motivated by Aaron King's (2017) theory about the relationship between announcement timing in U.S. Senate primary contests and experience in the arena of federal elections. I develop a measure that credits candidates with the highest score if they are an incumbent Senator, then three lower scores ranging from higher office to no experience. I then examine how this measure relates to the timing of candidacy announcements inside nine upcoming Republican primary contests for U.S. Senate nominations. I test two, tentative hypotheses about how …

Abortion Access And Child Maltreatment: A Cross-National Analysis, Alexandra Gersdorf

Honors Theses

This thesis has examined the impact of restricted abortion access on different indicators of child maltreatment. Drawing from literature linking unwanted pregnancies to child maltreatment, I posited that given the proposed relationship between unintended pregnancies and child maltreatment, we should expect to see increased instances of maltreatment within countries that allow less of forbid women from accessing abortions. For this purpose, I created an index of abortion access to numerically rate a country's level of liberality or restrictiveness. Then, using data from 49 countries, this thesis examined the potential linkage across a variety of measures that indicate child maltreatment while …

Midterm 2018 And Targeting Latino Community Through Misinformation And Disinformation Online, Manjul Shrestha

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

How has the Latino community been targeted by digital propaganda during the 2018 midterm elections in the US? How might this affect their involvement in and around the election? This thesis starts to answer these questions through a data analysis on two of the most prominent and popular social media platforms for political discussion: Twitter and Reddit. This study analyzed people’s posting patterns over time, the digital traces of the individuals pushing the majority and most popular content, and Latino candidates’ interaction on Twitter. This research provides evidence that on Twitter there are two main actors discussing Latinos and politics: …

Unequal Influence: The Impact Of Inequality On Trade Policy, Brian William Fitzpatrick

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Trade was a central issue in the 2016 US presidential election, with both major party candidates debating how trade impacts American workers. However, the current literature on trade policy outcomes and inequality has insufficient measures of public opinion on trade. I examine the varying roles the public and interest groups play in the trade policy formation process as inequality changes in democratic societies. I expect, as inequality increases, the public and mass based interest groups will have less resources to expend on influencing policymakers. Also, as inequality increases economic elites’ and business interest groups’ resources will increase, and they will …

Two Awakenings, One Process: Implications From The Sunni Realignment In Iraq, 2006-2007, Diane Maye Zorri

Publications

There are several competing beliefs regarding how political factions at the sub-state level choose to align and realign during a state of armed conflict. This research draws upon current literature to provide a framework for comparing the Anbar and Baghdad Awakenings of 2006–2007. This research concludes that alignment and alliance building is a process based on structural constraints only at the point of institutional maturity, therefore the critical point in the realignment process for the U.S. military is at a point between an individual’s realignment and the wider community’s perception of their success.

Limits On The Application Of Motivational Homogeneity In The Work Of Buchanan And The Virginia School, David M. Levy, Sandra J. Peart

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

At its founding, the set of ideas that came to be known as Virginia Political Economy originated from the work of Rutledge Vining, James Buchanan, Warren Nutter, Ronald Coase, and Gordon Tullock. In terms of scholarly stature, that short list comprises two Nobel Prize winners (Buchanan and Coase) and a recipient of the American Economic Association Distinguished Fellow award (Tullock). It also includes an economist (Nutter) who, in the midst of the Cold War, described the Soviet economy more accurately than any of the major experts in that field. Virginia Political Economy was characterized by four foundational principles: the endogeneity …

Contested Commitment: Policing Black Female Juvenile Delinquency At Efland Home, 1919-1939, Lauren Nicole Henley

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

The North Carolina Industrial School for Negro Girls was established in 1925 by the local branch of the National Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs. Also known as Efland Home, this institution, like others across the South, was designed to rehabilitate young black women “destined for pregnancy, prostitution, or prison.” The quasi- private reformatory negotiated its relationship with the state, receiving inconsistent and nominal funding for roughly a decade. By the mid-to-late 1930s, Efland Home functioned as a penal institution as the ideals of its clubwomen founders crumbled under financial and logistical pressures. State-sanctioned investigations and inquiries wrought mixed messages concerning …

Anti-Capitalism In The Contemporary Age: The Case Of The United Socialist Party Of Venezuela, William Maddens

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the popularity of anti-capitalist parties around the world has fallen. However, there are still surviving anti-capitalist political parties that survived this fall. In examining these parties, it must be determined whether they have any fresh ideas to overcoming the challenges of transitioning to a socialist society, and if they have any answers to the problems that plagued past attempts at socialism. One such party that has enjoyed much electoral success is the United Socialist Party of Venezuela. When taking a look at party programs, platforms, and statements made by party leaders, …

Welcome To Europe? Consequences Of The Eu-Turkey Deal For Refugees Contained On Lesvos, Julia Endicott

Honors Theses

In 2015, the world experienced the greatest flow of migrations since World War II. During that year, more than one million people entered Europe, the majority of whom werefleeing civil war and political unrest in the countries of Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Eritrea, aswell as many other places. The quantity of refugees was unprecedented and challenged theexisting borders of Europe. Some countries on the continent were willing to accept newcomers,while others acted to keep them out. One tactic developed by European Union (EU) policymakers to manage the migration flows was the EU-Turkey Deal, which was implemented onMarch 20, 2016. Under …

Water Demand, Adaptive Capacity, And Drought: An Analysis Of The Upper Klamath Basin, Oregon And California, Patricia Snyder

All Master's Theses

Freshwater demand and scarcity issues are an issue of global concern, in particular for the American West as global climate models suggest precipitation regime changes and an increase of drought. This research conducts a case-study of the Upper Klamath Basin, located in south-central Oregon and northern California, a microcosm of the arid and semi-arid American West that experienced an economically, socially, and ecologically impactful drought in the early 2000s. Through a mixture of qualitative and quantitative methods this research: 1) identifies key stakeholders, their goals and key policies; 2) conducts an adaptive capacity assessment of water management within the basin; …

Making Brazil Work? Brazilian Coalitional Presidentialism At 30 And Its Post- Lava Jato Prospects, Andrea Scoseria Katz

Scholarship@WashULaw

In 1865, British constitutional theorist Walter Bagehot memorably explained that the success of British government lay in “the efficient secret” of its Constitution, which mandates “the nearly complete fusion” of the Government and a strong, programmatic, and productive Parliament. By this yardstick, it is not a terrible exaggeration to say that the Brazilian Constitution of 1988 harbors a very inefficient secret: a weak legislature, widely accused of opportunism and corruption coupled with a diffuse, weak party system that results in ad hoc, temporary, pork-driven legislative coalitions, and a president with ample powers and responsibility for public administrative outcomes.

For the …

Chevron Patterns In The Circuit Courts, Christina L. Boyd, Kent Barnett, Christopher J. Walker

Scholarship@WashULaw

Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. NRDC required courts to defer to federal agencies reasonable interpretation of ambiguous statutes that are administered through the agency. However, recently this “Chevron deference” has been called into question by the judiciary, the legal academy, and Congress. In this essay we briefly describe and highlight three of the most noteworthy findings from our empirical study of over 1,300 decisions of agency statutory interpretation (based on articles published in Chevron in the Circuit Courts, 116 Mich. L. Rev. 1 (2017) (Barnett and Walker); Chevron Step Two’s Domain, 93 Notre Dame L. Rev. 1441 (2018) (Barnett and Walker); …

Liberty And The Challenge Of Diversity, Chandran Kukathas

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Those who favor liberty face a dilemma arising out of human diversity.While some groups of people will place a high value on liberty, others mayconsider it a lesser good or may value it scarcely at all. Preserving a free society by forcing everyone to value liberty runs against the spirit of freedom;but leaving those groups who do not care for liberty to live in that way alsodiminishes liberty, if in a different way. In the end the dilemma has to beresolved in favor of tolerating even those who do not care for liberty andthreaten to undermine it.

On The Uses Of Hume’S History, Chandran Kukathas

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Much of the conversation now coming to an end has centered on Hume's History of England and on his use of history to serve his political philosophical purposes. Dan Klein has appealed to the History by citing more and more chapters and verses to illustrate and reinforce his thesis that "mere liberty" was central to Hume's concerns. Nicholas Capaldi concurs (having originally advanced the claim that liberty was the default value for the pluralist Hume), suggesting that getting the historical narrative right was important for Hume, as it must be for all defenders of (mere) liberty. Capaldi's response to the …

Religion, Nationality, And Empathetic Responses To Refugees, Reed Rasband

Sigma: Journal of Political and International Studies

No abstract provided.

Inter-Female Hostility: Attractiveness And Femininity Vs. Likeability, Savanah Henshaw, Lydia Estes, Lauren Olsen

Sigma: Journal of Political and International Studies

No abstract provided.

Popular: The Monopoly Of Force And Iraq’S Popular Mobilization Units, Travis Birch

Sigma: Journal of Political and International Studies

No abstract provided.

Religious Targets: Where 2016 Presidential Candidates Used Religious Rhetoric, Rachel Day, Adam Johnson

Sigma: Journal of Political and International Studies

No abstract provided.

The Price Of Scottish Independence: Why Remaining A Part Of The Uk Still Makes Sense In The Wake Of Brexit, Lincoln Wilcox

Sigma: Journal of Political and International Studies

No abstract provided.

Is There “Hope For Every Addicted American”? The New U.S. War On Drugs, B Stone

Publications and Research

The U.S. has been waging a War on Drugs for the last forty years. But in the mid-2010s, a series of reforms have rejected this militant approach. How did these policies manage to break through a gridlocked Congress? What is the nature of these reforms, and what are their political implications? Using critical discourse analysis, I demonstrate that a new policy framework of “addiction recovery” defines the political crises of the opioid epidemic, the failure of the War on Drugs, and mass incarceration in terms of disease, attributing Drug War injustices to prejudice against “addiction,” rather than a constellation of …

Where Does Right-Wing Populism Succeed Sub-Nationally? Explaining Regional Variation Within France, Hamzah Bin Zaid, Devin K. Joshi

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

While many scholars have studied how right-wing populist parties (RWPP) have recently increased their vote shares in national elections in many countries, fewer studies have assessed why some sub-national regions favor RWPP more than others. Addressing this gap in the literature, we analyze regional variation in voter support for one of Europe’s most successful RWPP, the Front National (FN) Party of France which recently made it to the second round of France’s 2017 presidential elections. Our research design examines electoral results across French regions between 1992 and 2017 through the lens of four case studies analyzing regions where the FN …

Libertarian Paternalism Is Hard Paternalism, Shane Ryan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

I argue that libertarian paternalism is in fact paternalism, or hard paternalism, rather than a form of soft paternalism. I do so on the basis of an analysis of the paternalist act according to which the paternalist act needn’t violate the will of the agent who is the target of that act and the paternalist actor need only suspect that her action may improve the welfare of that target. The paper considers and rejects interpretations of libertarian paternalism as soft paternalism. I then provide an outline as to how libertarian paternalism may be reformed in light of the finding that …

Messing With Liberty, Chandran Kukathas

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Dan Klein asks: "If the signification [liberty] has no resemblance to others not messing with one's stuff, well, what is it?" In the history of the use of the term among philosophers and other writers, "liberty" has been held to mean many things: conceptions of liberty abound. For Locke it meant above all not being enslaved. For many republicans, past and present, it meant having a certain status: that of a free man, with certain rights and duties as a citizen—including political rights. For contemporary republicans, like Philip Pettit, it means not being dominated by others (which, in his account, …