Political Science Commons^™

“Man Camps”: Temporary Housing Facilities Or Sites Of Permanent Devastation? The Cases Of British Columbia, Manitoba, And Nunavut, Jasmine Tordimah

MA Major Research Papers

Violence, harassment, and sexual abuse against Indigenous women, girls, and Two-Spirit people is an issue that currently plagues our nation. There is a disproportionately high number of incidents occurring at Canadian resource extraction sites, both on “work camps,” colloquially referred to as “man camps,” and within nearby communities. While arguably the most salient consideration in the assessment process, it often does not receive the attention it requires. Consequently, this issue not only adds to the wider systemic imbalances that reproduce racist, sexist, and colonial patterns, but it further contributes to the Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) national …

From Classroom To Polling Station: A Cross-Canada Analysis Of High School Civics Curricula, Elizabeth Kozak

MA Major Research Papers

Public engagement, specifically in the form of voter turnout, has been a topic of discussion in political science since its inception. With recent declines in voter turnout, especially amongst young voters, some experts have begun to fear a generational shift towards political apathy; a shift that could lead to a heavily apolitical society as the generations who value politics are replaced by those who do not. With this context in mind, scholars have been trying to understand what drives turnout, why participation matters, and predict the attitude and behaviours of the Canadian electorate. Through these queries, it has been found …

Public Health Concerns Of Cannabis In Canada: Trends In Public Opinion Before And After Legalization, Cameron O'Dette

MA Major Research Papers

With the legalization and regulation of recreational cannabis in Canada coming into effect on October 17th, 2018, Canada became just the second country in the world to legalize the longstanding prohibited substance after first being outlawed in 1923. While public opinion throughout the country had favoured the adoption of drug-law reformation for some time, limited data existed on the health-related implications and public perceptions of cannabis use before the legislation was introduced. With little to no well-documented evidence available to base their own public policy decisions on, the federal government under newly elected Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the Liberal …

Decolonizing ‘Femicide’ In International Frameworks: A Decolonial Feminist Approach, Hannah Diebold

MA Major Research Papers

Indigenous women are significantly overrepresented in homocide statistics in colonial states around the world. The term femicide is currently defined in international legal and political frameworks as ‘the killing of women and girls because of their gender.’ This definition, while seemingly straightforward, is limited by its racelessness and by the way colonial logic constructs gender. By deconstructing colonial logic, it becomes evident that the gender binary itself, is a colonial attempt to dehumanize the group which it terms ‘Indigenous women.’ My research evaluates solutions to decolonizing ‘femicide’ in international frameworks through an extensive literature review of decolonial feminist scholarship. The …

Local Government Response To Housing Unaffordability In Three Major Canadian Cities: A Study Of Vancouver, Calgary, And Toronto, Charlotte Kurs

MA Major Research Papers

In major cities globally, including those in Canada, many residents struggle to find affordable housing. Canadian municipalities have a growing role in responding to this issue. The objective of this paper is to investigate the municipal-level response to issues of housing affordability in three major Canadian cities: Vancouver, Calgary, and Toronto. Specifically, each city has committed to increasing the supply of affordable housing as one of its primary methods of responding to this issue. This paper provides an analysis and comparison of the goals set by each of the three case study municipalities and the real increases in affordable housing …

Transnational Surfistas And The Development Of Nicaragua’S Emerald Coast, Jason R. Old

Selected Faculty Publications

This article weaves together data from the Nicaraguan Institute of Tourism (INTUR), online mainstream media sources, and surfing magazines, to tell the story of the development of the Emerald Coast, a historically overlooked periphery in southwestern Nicaragua that evolved into one of the country’s most high-profile and sought-after tourism destinations. The argument is that it is impossible to effectively explain the development of the Emerald Coast without first understanding the role surfing played in this phenomenon. This also serves to contextualize these foreign surfers as part of another wave of transnational engagement with Nicaragua, a country that has long been …

U.S. Foreign Policy For The Middle Class: Perspectives From Nebraska, Salman Ahmed, Allison Gelman

Yeutter Institute Publications

U.S. foreign policy has not come up often in the 2020 presidential campaign. But when it has, candidates on both sides of the aisle frequently have stressed that U.S. foreign policy should not only keep the American people safe but also deliver more tangible economic benefits for the country’s middle class. The debate among the presidential contenders is not if that should happen but how to make it happen. All too often, this debate takes place within relatively small circles within Washington, DC, without the benefit of input from state and local officials, small business owners, community leaders, local labor …

Front Matter

Comparative Civilizations Review

No abstract provided.

Life In Hampton Roads Survey Press Release #4: Politics & Ethics In Government, Social Science Research Center, Old Dominion University

Life in Hampton Roads Survey Report

Life in Hampton Roads 2021 - Politics & Ethics in Government

The Life in Hampton Roads survey typically includes a few questions about political attitudes. In 2021, the questions asked included party affiliation, job approval of President Biden and preferences for the 2021 gubernatorial election. The survey also included a set of questions about ethics in local government that have been asked in previous surveys.

Voter Rationality In The United States, Asael Marvel

Honors Program Theses

The decade preceding 2020 has brought into question the political rationality of the average American voter, as it seems many individuals may vote against what is best for themselves. This begs a simple question, are American voters voting in their won rational self-interest, this project looks into a myriad of theories on voter rationality and the processes behind how voters may calculate or come to their voter decisions in an election in order to answer these questions. Then using the 2012 Cooperative Congressional Election Survey creates a method to analyze whether a specific group within the US is voting rationally, …

In The Aftermath Of A Racialized Incident: Exploring International Students Of Color’S Perceptions Of Campus Racial Climate, Christina W. Yao, Kaleb L. Briscoe, Jennifer N. Rutt

UNL Office of Research and Innovation, Social/Behavioral Sciences Research Consortium

The purpose of this study is to illuminate international students of Color’s experiences with a campus racial incident at a predominantly White institution (PWI). This study emerged after the release of a YouTube video from a self-proclaimed White supremacist at the participants’ institution, who made comments such as “I am the most active white nationalist in [the state].” In this study, we seek to answer the question: How does a campus racialized incident affect international students of Color’s experience and perceptions of the campus climate at a PWI? The experiences of this population must be considered, especially because of the …

Debating Political Ideologies, Carlo Invernizzi Accetti

Open Educational Resources

This course aims to provide an introduction to the main ideologies that structure contemporary political conflict and debate. It is divided in two parts. After an introductory session on the definition of the concept of ideology, the first part is devoted to some of the ‘classical’ political ideologies that emerged over the course of the 18^th and 19^th centuries and still play a very prominent role in contemporary political conflicts and debates: liberalism, republicanism, socialism, conservatism and anarchism. The second part considers ideological currents that emerged most prominently over the course of the 20^th century such as …

Review Your Buddy's Paper, Andrés S. Besserer Rayas

Open Educational Resources

This is an assignment I gave undergraduate students. I split the class into pairs or groups of three and each had to review one of their "buddy's" paper. I think this exercise was successful becuase student improved their own writing through revising their peer's written work.

Financial Institution And The Inclusion Of Youths Through Entrepreneurship In Kenya, Fred Ernest Nasubo

Young African Leaders Journal of Development

Kenya is home to 10.1 million youths, which corresponds to almost 20.3 per cent of the country's population aged 15-24 years. According to the World Bank report released in 2017, Kenya tops in the East Africa region in youth unemployment at 17.3 per cent in comparison to Uganda and Tanzania, at 6 per cent. The majority of youths considered to have attained working age are either unemployed or engaged in low paid employment. Promoting youth entrepreneurship is one way of empowering young people to respond innovatively to the needs of society; this would consequently lead to the generation of more …

Testing The Rambo Effect Theory: A Comparative Analysis Of Economic Integration In Mercosur And Sadc, Sarvesh Lutchmun

Young African Leaders Journal of Development

This paper attempts to conduct a comparative analysis between the integration processes of two regional blocs of the Global South, one in Latin America, namely the 1991-founded Common Market of South America (MERCOSUR) and the other in the southern part of Africa, namely the 1992-founded Southern African Development Community (SADC). In particular, this paper will seek to compare the economic integration process between MERCOSUR and SADC using insights of international political economy and regional cooperation. In doing so, the paper will test the 'Rambo effect' theory which claims that the dominant power of Brazil and South Africa has led to …

Mobilization Of Women In Africa: The 2019 Sudanese Uprising, Mahder Habtemariam Serekberhan

African American Studies - All Scholarship

In 2019 we witnessed the possibilities of a multi-ethnic, multi-religious, multi-racial, multi-cultural, and multi-gendered democracy and a bottom-up democratization process led by women. Sudanese youth and women led and participated in mobilization and demonstration that not only reflected the mass character of the social formation, but also managed to subvert the Islamist military dependent capitalist state (and its apparatus). Over the span of 30 years, the regime, under Omar al-Bashir, managed to entrench and escalate structures and systems of exploitation and oppression necessary for capital accumulation. The intensified neoliberalization and militarization, at the expense of women’s super-exploitation, was made possible …

Federalism, Federal Powers And The Politics Of Restructuring In Nigeria, Charles Ekpo, Stephen E. Magor University Of Calabar

Young African Leaders Journal of Development

The fact that Nigeria is a very wealthy country both in human and mineral resources could be debatable since wealth is relative. What is, however, incontrovertible is the growing disparity between the wealthy and the wretched, and the general unevenness in the spread of infrastructural and human capacity development across the country. While several reasons have been advanced for this anomaly, this paper toes the path of structural functionalism by ascribing this ill to the faulty nature of Nigeria's federalism which concentrates excessive power and resources in the hands of the federal ruling elite class, with a chronic history of …

Youth React Negatively To Food Insecurity Amid Climate Change In Chipinge District Of Zimbabwe, Sensewell Chingwaramusee

Young African Leaders Journal of Development

This study analyzes the response of youth in Chipinge in face of climate change's effect on food insecurity in the area. The qualitative research informed by desktop analysis provides empirical evidence that youth in Chipinge district have lost hope in their potential and district’s capacity to guarantee food security due to adverse changing weather patterns over the previous two decades namely, cyclone Eline and Idai. Chipinge’s climate is the key at changing the narrative at hand as it has proven to favor cash crop plantation and small grain production for example, tea, coffee macadamia nuts, sorghum and millet. The study …

Authoritarian Regime Resiliency In The Middle East: A Comparative Case Study Of Syria And Jordan, Mohammed Al Awwad

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Following the onset of the Arab Spring in 2011, the authoritarian regimes of the Middle East were expected to crumble while paving the pathway to democratization. Yet many of these regimes have remarkably survived. Even the regimes that had been toppled following popular protests were displaced by more repressive regimes characterized by the same form of rule as their predecessors. A prominent example of this pattern is Mubarak's regime that was initially displaced by Morsi's democratically elected government until it was overthrown by a coup spearheaded by General Sisi and replaced with a military dictatorship that persists today. The number …

Strategic Culture And Cyber Strategy, Andrew S. Olejarski

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The intent of this paper is to explore the relationship between strategic culture theory and how it interacts with war-parallel usage of cyber methods. Cyber methods, at times incorrectly classified as "cyberwarfare", as a means of statecraft are becoming increasingly prevalent, and developing an understanding of how states use them, particularly during conflicts, would be a great boon to the field of security studies. Strategic culture theory, an international relations theory focusing on the relationship between culture and strategy, may be an effective means to analyze conflict-parallel use of cyber methods. This paper will consider the relationship between strategic culture …

Influences Of Public Opinion Concerning Abortion, Enya A. Brackins

Honors Undergraduate Theses

This Honors Undergraduate Thesis seeks to examine the influences of public opinion on abortion policy. Race, Partisanship, and Gender are identified as driving forces which influences the public's opinion. As social and racial movements continue to progress so does the influence that it has on policy makers.

Why The Taliban Have Been Successful In Afghanistan, Donovan Fox

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The purpose of this study is to attempt to solve why the Taliban have been successful in Afghanistan. In an attempt to solve why, I develop and test a theory on the Taliban's success against the U.S. in Afghanistan. My theory claims that the Taliban have been successful due to U.S. forces committing wrongdoings towards Afghan civilians. These wrongdoings, in turn, pushed civilian support away from the U.S. and its allies in this war. Afghan civilians would side with the Taliban, as they sought protection from the invading forces in their country. As a result of this gain in support, …

A Woman Of Power: The Leadership Of Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Hannah F. Anton

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Nancy Pelosi (CA-12) was elected to the House of Representatives in 1987 and was the first female Speaker of the House, originally elected to the position in 2007. Despite the length and significance of her career in the House, there is very little academic literature devoted to the effectiveness of her leadership. In an attempt to fill this research gap, this thesis will raise the following questions; Is Nancy Pelosi an effective Speaker of the House, and has her effectiveness changed significantly over her term as Speaker? For purposes of this research, leadership effectiveness is defined as the Speaker's ability …

The Referendum For Independence In Catalonia And Newspaper Coverage: The Importance Of Regional And Political Factors, Sofia N. Julien

Honors Undergraduate Theses

This thesis analyzes the role of the news media in the Referendum for Independence in the Spanish autonomous region of Catalonia. More specifically, I seek to shed light on if a newspaper's geographical location or political views result in biased media coverage. Based on communications theory, I argue that news coverage can shape the public's political opinion and attitudes. My research analyzed the reporting of two core newspapers by sampling articles from a major newspaper based in Madrid, El País, and a newspaper based in Catalonia, La Vanguardia. My results suggest that the newspaper's location and distribution had …

Twitter News And The Uninformed Citizen, Will Harris

Res Publica - Journal of Undergraduate Research

This essay examines how social media as a source of news has severely impacted the political knowledge of the citizens of the United States. Research shows that while the media traditionally has been a moderator that sought to improve knowledge among voters and inspire them to determine their own beliefs, the rise of social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter have inspired a polarizing effect on those who use the platform. Thus, social media is driving both conservatives and liberals away from the middle without providing them the knowledge that they need to have informed opinions. This study sought …

The Downturn Of Representative Democracy: An Analysis Of How Strategic Voting Drives Political Polarization, Anna Eager

Res Publica - Journal of Undergraduate Research

Over the years, polarization in America has not only increased but also become more ideologically focused on in government. Furthermore, scholarship on polarization has ignored the payoffs that political actors seek while they pursue re-election. Elected representatives have numerous objectives to balance while in office. Not only do they need to manage the preferences of the people and the party, but re-election is at the centerfold of their decision-making process. To evaluate this decision-making process a difference is identified between actual vs. perceived polarization. By illustrating a gap between the constituents’ preferences and representatives’ voting choices via actual and perceived …

The Effect Of Deontic Anger On Political Attitudes Toward Immigration And Redistribution, Nichole Gligor

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Findings in political science suggest that negative emotions play a significant role in our understanding of 1) which factors affect our political attitudes (e.g. Brader 2006) and 2) which factors motivate our political behavior (e.g. Lamprianou and Ellinas 2019; Miller 2011). Further, anger has been established as a negative emotion that significantly affects both political attitudes (e.g. Brader 2006) and political behavior (e.g. Lamprianou and Ellinas 2019; Miller 2011). However, there is evidence to suggest that we are motivated differently by three established types of anger (i.e. personal, empathic, and deontic) (Batson et al. 2007), and so each type of …

From La Monjita To La Hormiga: Reflections On Gender, Body And Power In Fieldwork, Noelle K. Brigden

Political Science Faculty Research and Publications

Ethnography is widely accepted to be an embodied and experiential form of knowledge production. Gender, in particular, shapes fieldwork, influencing relationships between participants and researchers, access, and observation, and intersecting with race, class, nationality, sexuality, and other identity categories. Building on a rich tradition of reflexive feminist scholarship that explores this intersectionality, this article discusses how my own corporeal transformation to a muscular powerlifter changed both the nature of my fieldwork relationships and my research strategies over the course of a decade of local engagement in El Salvador. Ultimately, I argue that the embodied consequences of fieldwork and their challenge …

Statebuilding In The Peace Agreements Of Sudan And South Sudan, Gene Carolan

Articles

This article presents a retrospective analysis of the principal peace agreements to emanate from the North–South conflict in Sudan and the civil war in South Sudan. In doing so, it argues that statebuilding practices dating back to the inception of the Sudanese state continue to inform and undermine contemporary efforts to resolve the conflicts in both countries. The article makes a unique contribution by linking the legacy of peace agreements in Sudan and South Sudan to the crises of governance that plague both countries today. In doing so, it seeks to further the discussion on statebuilding as part of a …

Understanding Variation In Sexual Exploitation And Abuse In Un Pkos: The Role Of Military, Police, And Civilian Peacekeepers, Gabriella Cuber

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Apart from perpetuating human rights violations in fragile contexts, sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) in UN peacekeeping operations (PKOs) reduces the international community's ability to pursue peacebuilding missions, threatens the legitimacy of ongoing missions, and undermines gender equality efforts in the host country. While previous research has investigated patterns of SEA violations by peacekeepers, most studies limit their focus on abuses by military and police personnel. This study expands on these studies by examining SEA violations committed by civilian peacekeepers in addition to military and police personnel, as well as separately. I argue that several other determinants beyond military attributes …