Political Science Commons^™

Criminals In Action: The Cia And The Crack Epidemic, Krystine O'Connor

Capstone Showcase

The Crack Epidemic hit the United States in the early years of the 1980’s. Crack was cheaper to produce and therefore cheaper to distribute. The Crack Epidemic disproportionately affected black communities and created long lasting issues that crippled many communities for decades to come. Incarceration rates, death rates, gang violence, fetal death rates and long term health effects rose dramatically between 1980- 1995. With the epidemic reaching its peak and its effects becoming unavoidable, communities struggled to find a reason as to how crack had gotten into the country and into their cities. In 1996 a small town journalist from …

Foster Rhodes Jackson And The Visual Conquest Of The West, Eve Kaufman

Scripps Senior Theses

Colonizers settled the Los Angeles and the Southern California region in part by using Modernism’s visual rhetoric and propagandic implications during the time of suburban sprawl. Suburban sprawl refers to the mass single family home development which took place from the 1920^[1]s until now but peaked from the 1970s to the 1990s. Los Angeles sprawl grew particularly in the 1950^[2]s as soldiers returned from WWII. It was a way for middle class white families to accrue generational wealth and follow through on the American Dream^[3].

The primary result however disenfranchised already marginalized groups. This …

Stationary Distribution Of Recombination On 4x4 Grid Graph As It Relates To Gerrymandering, Camryn Hollarsmith

Scripps Senior Theses

A gerrymandered political districting plan is used to benefit a group seeking to elect more of their own officials into office. This practice happens at the city, county and state level. A gerrymandered plan can be strategically designed based on partisanship, race, and other factors. Gerrymandering poses a contradiction to the idea of “one person, one vote” ruled by the United States Supreme Court case Reynolds v. Sims (1964) because it values one demographic’s votes more than another’s, thus creating an unfair advantage and compromising American democracy. To prevent the practice of gerrymandering, we must know how to detect a …

Reimagining Theories Of Nationalism: A Critical Examiniation Of Prevailing Nationalist Theories, Sarah Sanchez

Scripps Senior Theses

Traditional theories of nationalism tend to fall in one of two categories: 1) top-down, or official nationalism, which holds that nationalist sentiments are created by state actors, or 2) bottom-up, or popular, nationalism, which holds that nationalist sentiments originate with the people. However, there are major flaws in both of those theories, as well as a decent amount of overlap between them. This paper dismantles the supposed binary between these two theories, and looks for a way to view the theories in combination with one another. Looking at the places of overlap, as well as the elements of each theory …

Anti-Party, Pro-Politics: The Gilets Jaunes’ Challenge To French Representative Democracy, Anna Liss-Roy

Scripps Senior Theses

This paper aims to evaluate the implications of France’s Gilets Jaunes movement for French representative democracy. The Gilets Jaunes movement is unprecedented due to its durability and its resistance to institutional support, including political parties, labor unions and civil society organizations. This paper contextualizes the movement’s demands and particularities through a demographical analysis of its participants and an investigation of its characterization as “anti-system” to understand what changes in partisan identification foreshadow for French democracy.

The Impact Of California Senate Bill 826 On Employee Perspectives And Stock Performance On California Tech Firms, Kimberly M. Kaneshina

Scripps Senior Theses

On September 30, 2018, California Senate Bill 826 (CA SB 826) was passed. This Bill requires a quota for women to serve on California headquartered and public corporate boards. This study focuses on California tech firms, which I define as firms that are reliant on technology to create their main product or platform; but, are not aerospace or telecommunication firms. My thesis is a two-part analysis: exploring employees’, who worked at companies that were impacted by this Bill, perspectives, as well as, discovering if there is a relationship between percentage of female directors and stock price performance. Most employees were …

Rural Prison Politics: The Impact Of Correctional Facilities On Community Voting Behavior In California, Corey Smith

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis explores how the building of a prison impacts local political behaviors and public opinion. Economic development during the late 20th century left agricultural and manufacturing based regions of the United States struggling to maintain a reliable sense of financial prosperity, thereby propelling rural regions into the prison-building business. In this thesis, I analyze the voting data of five rural Californian towns concerning Proposition 7 (1978) and Proposition 47 (2014). Through this data analysis and a synthesis of the literature on prison host communities, this thesis investigates whether the construction of a prison has influenced political action regarding prison …

Factors Influencing The Likelihood Of Women Winning Elections, Natalie Browning

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This study analyzes variables that increase the likelihood of women winning an election for the United States Congress spanning from 1970 to 2020. This study analyzes the relationship between how liberal the United States is and the likelihood of women winning elections. A dependent relationship was found between the level of liberalism rising in the US and women winning elections. Some of this study is also used to analyze a possible relationship between women being more likely to win open seats or those with incumbents seeking reelection. A possible relationship was found between those two variables, but it was decided …

Mi Feria Es Su Feria: How Mexican Americans Created The 1968 San Antonio Hemisfair, Gene Thomas Morales

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

In 1968, HemisFair became the first world's fair to be held in San Antonio, the United States Southwest, and to be recognized by the Bureau of International Expositions. Countries from around the globe were brought together by a shared commitment to democratic unity, Pan-American friendship, and to celebrate San Antonio's 250th anniversary. San Antonio Fair Inc., the group in charge of the fairâ??s construction and production, worked closely with community leaders, the Texas state government, and the U.S. federal government to create the exposition. The fair's theme would be called Confluence of Civilizations in the Americas. Confluence for the fair …

Mother Nature, Lady Justice: Ecofeminism And Judicial Decision-Making, Jonathan Alexis Picado

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Ecofeminism offers a feminist perspective that links gender to how humans relate to the natural world. As such, this framework explores the connections between the oppression of nature and the oppression of women, such as widespread views that both women and nature are property, are to be dominated, and are most valuable when cultivated and curated by men. I apply this philosophical and sociological framework to judicial decision-making, where women judges should view environmental issues as women's issues and thus be more likely to vote in favor of the environmental protections relative to her male peers. I evaluate this theory …

Analyzing Voter Participation In El Paso County, Texas, Samantha Romero

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This Thesis seeks to analyze and understand voting patterns in El Paso County, Texas, based on a study of voter turnout in the November 2015 Uniform Election and three key research objectives. The first objective is to provide a systematic statistical evaluation of a local endeavor, the Student Voter Initiative (SVI), to increase voter turnout among youth, specifically 18-year-olds, in the November 2015 Uniform Election. The second objective is to estimate voter turnout by age group (generation) and investigate whether younger voters were underrepresented in the November 2015 Uniform Election compared to older generations, based on generational categories defined by …

"Review Of Stephen Huggins America's Use Of Terror: From Colonial Times To The A-Bomb," 2020. Journal Of Interdisciplinary History 51(2): 328--29., Zachary C. Shirkey

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

The Political Viability Of Carbon Pricing: Policy Design And Framing In British Columbia And California, Roger Karapin

Publications and Research

The adoption of climate policies with visible, substantial costs for households is uncommon because of expected political backlash, but British Columbia's carbon tax and California's cap-and-trade program imposed such costs and still survived vigorous opposition. To explain these outcomes, this paper tests hypotheses concerning policy design, framing, energy prices, and elections. It conducts universalizing and variation-finding comparisons across three subcases in the two jurisdictions and uses primary sources to carry out process tracing involving mechanisms of public opinion and elite position taking. The paper finds strong support for the timing of independent energy price changes, exogenous causes of election results, …

Federalism As A Double-Edged Sword: The Slow Energy Transition In The United States, Roger Karapin

Publications and Research

Much literature on federalism and multi-level governance argues that federalist institutional arrangements promote renewable-energy policies. However, the U.S. case supports a different view, that federalism has ambivalent effects. Policy innovation has occurred at the state level and to some extent has led to policy adoption by other states and the federal government, but the extent is limited by the veto power of fossil-fuel interests that are rooted in many state governments and in Congress, buttressed by increasing Republican Party hostility to environmental and climate policy. This argument is supported by a detailed analysis of five periods of federal and state …

Targeting The Minority: A New Theory Of Diversionary Violence, Nathaniel M. Arnold

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

This research develops a novel theory for domestic diversionary violence, contending that the main drivers for this type of conflict are the specific characteristics of state-targeted domestic minority groups. Seven new variables measuring minority group characteristics are identified through a case study of the Kurdish minority in the Turkish Republic, then applied to a quantitative analysis of domestic diversionary violence in a dataset of 284 observations across 117 countries during the years 2004-2005, utilizing data from the University of Maryland’s Minorities at Risk Project, the University of Illinois Cline Center SPEED Database, and World Bank. A proportional odds logistic regression …

How Does Relative Deprivation Cause People To Condone Political Violence? A Case Study Of Bangladesh, Md Mamunur Rashid

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

How does relative deprivation cause people to condone political violence? This thesis investigates this question by utilizing survey data conducted in Bangladesh. Scarcity of public resources, lethal political confrontation and poor resource allocation make Bangladesh a fertile ground for violence. Although the survey suggests a relationship exists between relative deprivation and the public attitude toward condoning political violence, the regression analysis reveals that the relationship is imprecise. Small sample size, lack of technical capacity, and limited applicability of the foundational theory may have caused this imprecise outcome. The study concludes by providing recommendations for future research to undertake a mixed …

Gun Control In The United States, Oliver Lake

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This paper focuses on a critical issue that has plagued our nation for many years. It has been one of the most divisive issues outside of abortion. The topic of gun control and how to approach it brings out two highly emotional and passionate sides. Despite the emotions that may flare up, it is important to remain objective on the facts. By taking into full consideration the arguments and research provided by gun control activists and gun rights activists, a silver lining is found that provides the answers the country has been looking for years. I do this by seeking …

Immigration And Crime Across Southern Us Border: The Effect Of Latino Immigration On Violent Crime, Matthew Hohman

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

In the United States, most lay citizens could voice an opinion on the effect of immigration in the United States. However, these opinions are generally only focused on Latino immigration entering the country across its Southern border from Mexico and Caribbean countries, such as Cuba and Haiti. Increased media coverage on this topic in recent decades has fueled this debate and made it a center stage topic in political agendas. This study aims to shed light on this issue by researching the true effect of Latino immigration, as well as total immigration, across the United States’s Southern Border. To account …

What Factors Drove Voter Support For Donald Trump In The 2016 Presidential Election?, Kyle Hilles

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This research will closely examine the past election, the 2016 Presidential Election because of the strict divide it created for voters and the political parties in power. The main research will be done through polls and research done during the 2016 election. This project will build off other research projects and papers that relate to voter confidence in a candidate. The project will begin with extensive research of past projects relating to the recent presidential election. I will also view news sources during the election and their polling data. I will also be studying the effect social media had on …

The Economic Impact Of Illegal Immigration On The United States, Bryan Bixler

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This analysis looks specifically at the economic effect of illegal immigration on the United States. This review and comparison of multiple sources looks at the impact illegal immigration has on a small scale such as communities at the local level all the way up the large scale at the federal level. It assesses some of the contributing factors that play a role in the effect illegal immigration has on the economy such as healthcare and crime rate. This study also compares estimates of the illegal immigrant population in the country over the past few decades to determine how the number …

Mirroring Opposition Threats: The Logic Of State Mobilization In Bolivarian Venezuela, Samuel Handlin

Political Science Faculty Works

Hugo Chávez and his Bolivarian Movement came to power in 1999 promising to refound the Venezuelan state and restructure the polity in ways that would build “popular power” through the promotion of grassroots participation, organization, and mobilization. Once in office, the Bolivarian forces launched a series of initiatives to sponsor organization and mobilization among supporters, which ranged widely in their functions and strategic purpose. State-mobilized organizations can be seen as operating in three different arenas of politics: the local governance arena; the electoral arena; and the protest arena. From an ideological standpoint, the Bolivarian Movement was oriented toward sponsoring organizations …

The Impact Of Prescription Drug Prices On Voting Patterns, Brendan Mohan

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This project will focus on estimating the amount of voters that are affected by prescription drugs overpricing, as well as studying and analyzing the history of prescription drug pricing in the United States. This research project will also help predict how the overpricing of prescription drug prices impacted voting patterns in the previous election and how it will impact the future 2020 Election. Information in this study was gathered through a number of governmental documents and websites, non-partisan survey organizations, and previous studies conducted relating to this topic in order to formulate a model to show previous and possible future …

The Scramble For Texas: European Diplomacy And Imperial Contest In The Republic Of Texas, 1835-1846, Penelope Lea Jacobus

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The story that this Dissertation analyses is the attempted European penetration of the North American borderlands during the independence of the Texas Republic. It will analyse how the independence of Texas ties into new forms of imperialism exercised by Europeans and U.S.-Americans during the first half of the nineteenth century, a time when shifting ideas about freedom and coercion, international law and rights, civilisation, nationhood, and trade redefined imperial possibilities. Imperialism in the nineteenth century had to be increasingly compatible with ideas of freedom and justice, such as free trade, free labour and the use of fair legal tenets in …

Intra-Trade Among African Economic Bloc: A Comparative Study Of East African Community (Eac) And Southern African Development Community (Sadc) 2008 - 2018, Mustapha Abdullahi Maikudi

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

ABSTRACTSince the at middle of 20th century when most African states begin to gain political independence from colonialist, one phenomenon that was over warmly accepted is that of regional integration, both political, social, and economic. Regional integration was believed to pertinent for attaining desired goals and objectives set, thus its acceptance by both policymakers, academic, experts as well as ordinary citizens all over the continent. Despite acceptance and existence of regional economic blocs, as put by the United Nations Commission for Africa (2010) Report, intra-trading within African continent is the lowest World over when compared to other regions, say Asia, …

Homelessness Data Brief: 2020 Los Angeles Public Opinion Survey, Brianne Gilbert, Fernando J. Guerra, Max Dunsker, Mariya Vizireanu

StudyLA Data Briefs

Highlights

• Over half of residents believe existing funds are best spent on short-term shelters (58%).
• Over half of residents agree that most people who are experiencing homelessness are victims of a lack of economic, social, or medical infrastructures (57%).
• More African Americans (65%) believe people who are experiencing homelessness are victims of a lack of economic, social, or medical infrastructure compared to whites (61%), Latinas/os (54%), or Asians (51%).
• Three out of four residents (78%) agree that declaring a local homelessness state of emergency and giving the mayor full power to site homeless housing is necessary to solve the homelessness …

Census Awareness Data Brief: 2020 Los Angeles Public Opinion Survey Report, Fernando J. Guerra, Brianne Gilbert, Mariya Vizireanu

StudyLA Data Briefs

Research Question

Are you aware that the 2020 U.S. Census will take place this year starting on April 1st?

• Yes – I have been following the news about it
• Yes – I have heard about it but do not know the details
• No – I did not know about it

Highlights

• Knowledge of the census increases with education (51.6% of residents with less than a high school degree know about it compared to 83.7% of residents with a graduate degree)
• Liberal residents (78.2%) were more likely to know about it than conservative residents (68.7%)
• Residents from union households (78.9%) were …

Vote Center Experience Data Brief, Fernando J. Guerra, Brianne Gilbert, Mariya Vizireanu

StudyLA Data Briefs

The 2020 Presidential Primary Election Exit Poll asked LA County voters about whom they voted for in the Presidential and District Attorney Races, how they voted on various measures, and their overall voting experience at their respective vote centers. The following data brief reports on questions related to the vote center experience as well as knowledge about the switch from polling places for 409 respondents (preliminary data).

Race Relations Data Brief: 2020 Los Angeles Public Opinion Survey, Fernando J. Guerra, Brianne Gilbert, Max Dunsker, Mariya Vizireanu

StudyLA Data Briefs

The 2020 Presidential Primary Election Exit Poll asked LA County voters about whom they voted for in the Presidential and District Attorney Races, how they voted on various measures, their overall voting experience at their respective vote centers, and what their opinions were on a few questions. The following data brief reports on questions related to public opinion on changes in race relations over the past four years. The data brief consists of two sections: (1) toplines for the questions, and (2) crosstabs, or each question crossed by respondent demographics.

Vote Center Experience Data Brief – Final, Fernando J. Guerra, Brianne Gilbert, Mariya Vizireanu, Max Dunsker, Vishnu Akella

StudyLA Data Briefs

The 2020 Presidential Primary Election Exit Poll asked LA County voters for whom and for what they voted and their overall voting experience at their respective vote centers. The following data brief reports on questions related to the vote center experience as well as knowledge about the switch from polling places for 3,596 respondents. See Addendum for questions crossed by the time the respondent voted.

Police Transparency Data Brief: 2020 Los Angeles Public Opinion Survey, Fernando J. Guerra, Brianne Gilbert, Mariya Vizireanu

StudyLA Data Briefs

Research Question

Do you agree or disagree that your police department is doing enough to be transparent with the public?

• Strongly agree
• Somewhat agree
• Somewhat disagree
• Strongly disagree

Highlights

• City of LA residents are less likely to agree that the LAPD is doing enough to be transparent (66.5%) than the rest of LA County residents with respect to their own local departments – Sheriff’s Department (73.6%) or other (79.4%)
• By race, African Americans (57.7%) are less likely to agree that their local police department is doing enough to be transparent than Asians (80.5%), whites (74.2%), and Latinas/os (73.4%).
• By tenure, …