Political Science Commons^™

Spreadsheets And Spaceships: How The Outer Worlds Critiques Corporatocracy, Colonialism And Revolution, Trevor R. Mcnally

Political Science Student Papers and Posters

With limitations of reality it is difficult for a Political Scientist to explore theoretical government establishments. Multi-media publications allow for the exploration of such governments which may never come to be. The video game “The Outer Worlds” by developer Obsidian Games does just that. Throughout the game the philosophy of Corporatocracy, colonialism and revolution is displayed in an explorative format allowing for a deeper insight into this governmental system. This paper provides an in-depth analysis of the fictional government “Halcyon Holdings Corporation” and their control over the colonial planetary system of Halcyon.

Raj Karega Khalsa! - The Evolution Of The Sikh Identity, Vineet Mehmi

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Generally, religion has served as a method of creating a unique identity and history for many groups across history. This concept is especially true for the Sikh community, to the point that they have carved their own niche across the different places they inhabit in the world, whether that be their homeland of Panjab or their extensive population in places like Canada or the United Kingdom. However, this expansion and development of their culture did not come without a cost, formed through countless battles, martyrdom, and revolutions. Chardi Kala, a foundational idea in Sikhi that refers to eternal optimism even …

Southeast Asia & The Hidden Green Revolution: A Study On Foreign Direct Investment In Eco-Investments In Asean, Ravi Chailertborisuth

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This paper aims to find: To what extent foreign direct investment is fueling the renewable energy transition in ASEAN. The year 1966 saw the founding of ASEAN, the Association for Southeast Asian Nations. The five founding member nations were: Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand. Over time, this group of nations grew to include nations such as: Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Brunei, and Myanmar. The IGO (inter-governmental organization) aims to foster “economic, social, cultural, technical, educational and other fields” (ASEAN). The IGO is successful, allowing capital to flow cross-borders with more ease, and encourage economic corporation across all nations. Since …

Press Freedom Under Threat In Europe: A Case Study Analysis Of The Increasing Threat To Press Freedom In Greece, Italy, And Hungary, Maya O'Leary-Cyr

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This research critically examines the legal systems of European countries and their relationship to press freedom. This research focuses on the vexatious legal threats used by government officials and corporations to silence journalists. These legal threats are known as SLAPPs (strategic lawsuits against public participation) and their use has increased exponentially in the last decade. Considering the scope of the problem, this research analyzes the issue through the lens of European countries Greece, Italy, and Hungary. Being members of the European Union, each of these countries have an obligation to uphold the democratic standards put forth by the EU as …

Recommendations For Sustainable Tourism In Patagonia: An Exploratory Analysis Of Sustainable Tourism In Costa Rica, The Nordic Region, And Thailand’S Communities, Julia K. Lowery

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis explores different levels of governance and its role towards actualizing sustainable tourism in Patagonia. With the growing threat of climate change, international destinations such as Patagonia are looking to continue building their tourism industries in a sustainable way. Through analyzing case studies of national governance in Costa Rica, multi-national governance in the Nordic region, and community-based tourism in Thailand, we can better understand how each form of governance has the potential to create a sustainable tourism industry. With this understanding of successful governance in my case studies, as well as understanding the historical and political forces that have …

Political Rhetoric And The Media: The Year In C-Span Research, Volume 8, Robert X. Browning

The Year in C-SPAN Archives Research

This volume of The Year in C-SPAN Archives Research features analyses of the C-SPAN Video Library, a digital collection of 275,000 hours of indexed videos, texts, and spoken words. Included in this volume are papers on Rev. Jesse Jackson’s presidential campaign, rhetorical analysis of agriculture policy, and an examination of Senator Edward Kennedy’s positions on health care. The text also contains analysis of the “spectacle of committee hearings” and a look at the visuals used in the second Trump impeachment trial.

A Summer Of Mass Murder: 1941 Rehearsal For The Hungarian Holocaust, George Eisen

Purdue University Press Books

Most accounts of the Holocaust focus on trainloads of prisoners speeding toward Auschwitz, with its chimneys belching smoke and flames, in the summer of 1944. This book provides a hitherto untold chapter of the Holocaust by exploring a prequel to the gas chambers: the face-to-face mass murder of Jews in Galicia by bullets.

The summer of 1941 ushered in a chain of events that had no precedent in the rapidly unfolding history of World War II and the Holocaust. In six weeks, more than twenty thousand Hungarian Jews were forcefully deported to Galicia and summarily executed. In exploring the fate …

The United States Military’S Role In Maintaining National Security During The Height Of The “War On Drugs”, Sara Terrien

Washington Semester Program

This paper will seek to answer the question: What understanding of national security justified the use of the United States military in the “War on Drugs,” launched by the Reagan administration in 1982? A secondary question that this paper will investigate is whether the definition of “national security” that was used contributed to the protection of American lives and interests. The approach that this paper will take is that the understanding of national security as “defense of the homeland” justified the use of the United States military in the “War on Drugs.” Moreover, the involvement of the United States military …

Countering Terrorism On Tomorrow’S Battlefield: Critical Infrastructure Security And Resiliency (Nato Coe-Dat Handbook 2), Sarah J. Lohmann, Lucas M. Cox, Denise Feldner, Trevor P. Helmy, Frank J. Kuzminski, Marcus Mohlin, Aleksander Olech, Wuraola Oyewusi, Gabriel T. Raicu, Silke Ruhl, Sabrina Schulz, Máté Tóth, Megan A. Ward

Books, Monographs & Collaborative Studies

Every day, malicious actors target emerging technologies and medical resilience or seek to wreak havoc in the wake of disasters brought on by climate change, energy insecurity, and supply-chain disruptions. Countering Terrorism on Tomorrow’s Battlefield is a handbook on how to strengthen critical infrastructure resilience in an era of emerging threats. The counterterrorism research produced for this volume is in alignment with NATO’s Warfighting Capstone Concept, which details how NATO Allies can transform and maintain their advantage despite new threats for the next two decades. The topics are rooted in NATO’s Seven Baseline requirements, which set the standard for enhancing …

Politics During And After Democratic Backsliding, Benjamin Rieth Schneider

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Why do voters support backsliding incumbents? Under what conditions are voters more permissive to backsliding? In recent years, scholars have been interested in what leads to voters to support backsliding incumbents where we should expect them to be sanctioned and generally these answers have been focused on partisanship and polarization. I build on this literature by arguing that societal threat reduces the negative evaluation of backsliding actions and highlights the need for competent leaders to protect against future crisis. I develop an original formal model that considers the different strategies available to backsliding incumbents and shows that societal threat benefits …

Feminism And Women's Representation In Argentina, Devyn Murphy

Honors Theses

The theory of feminism has proved essential in the transformation of the patriarchal society in Argentina. Feminism paved the way for the emergence of various women’s movements, such as the Encuentros and Movimiento Nacional de Mujeres. These movements redefined the roles that women could play in society. It was because of this theory, and the movements, which made the theories a practice that advanced the political rights of Argentine women.

Man In The Arena: The Evolution Of The Executive Office, Jack Sandone

Honors Theses

Through an historical case study, this paper will answer the question: just how powerful has the presidency become? Has it really, through various tangible tools and the evolution of institutions, become a king-like figure, rising above the vaunted Legislative and Judicial Branches? The conclusion is this: based on the precedent of “prerogative,” a term to be explained and analyzed, presidents have been granted access to extraconstitutional actions that were not outside of the purview of the founding fathers. The usage of unilateral legislation, like the executive order, creates a surgeon’s knife of a political tool, allowing presidents to force legislation …

American Political Polarization, Kristin Leonard

Honors Theses

The United States has become politically polarized. Our political ideas have moved away from the political center and trend towards ends. Our high levels of party loyalty have opened the doors for extreme polarization. The push for party differentiation has seen the political elite widen the gap between their party ideas. The polarization of the elite has moved the parties and their voters further from the center. Television news promotes our political issues as partisan problems that villainize the other party. This leads viewers to push for further extreme ideas and to move away from the other side. The two-party …

The Future Of Universal Basic Income: The Impact Of Organizational Strategies On Alleviating Poverty And Maximizing Outcomes, Anna Mathews

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Universal basic income is gaining traction, with pilot programs being conducted all over the world. These programs are all organized differently, from their sources of funding to their eligibility criteria. This research draws correlations between organizational strategies of UBI programs and the outcomes their recipients experience. Specifically, it analyzes three contemporary UBI programs within the United States: the Stockton Economic Empowerment Demonstration (SEED), Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend (APFD), and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians per capita payments (EBCI). The research assesses the physical health, mental health, and economic outcomes of the participants in each case study, in order to …

Minority Rights, Governing Regimes, Or Secular Elites: Who Benefits From The Protection Of Religious And Anti-Religious Speech By The U.S. Supreme Court And European Court Of Human Rights?, Thomas Keck, Nathan T. Carrington, Claire Sigsworth

Political Science - All Scholarship

This paper draws on new data regarding judicial decisions involving religious and anti-religious expression to map the political beneficiaries of judicial empowerment. In particular, the paper assesses the extent to which free expression decisions issued by the U.S. Supreme Court and European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) have favored claimants who are religious majorities, religious minorities, or secular elites. We find the U.S. doctrine relatively more libertarian and the ECtHR doctrine relatively more secularist, but that both bodies of case law extend regular and substantial rights protection to religious minorities.

The Fall Of The Pakatan Harapan (Ph): Contesting Nationalism In Malaysia, Cheng Kidd Sun

Honors Theses

The collapse of the 22 months-old Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition-government in 2020 was the ultimate manifestation of contestations over nationalism that have continued in Malaysia since the nation’s inception more than six decades ago. The “middle ground” platform — a political moderation strategy to win across ethnic lines to obtain multiethnic support — that helped the PH coalition to win the 14th Malaysian General Election was shattered due to identity tensions. The current political discourse has persistently insisted that the betrayal of politicians and political parties, along with economic insecurity and media fragmentation, had contributed to the downfall of this …

An Event-Without-Witness: A Nietzschean Theory Of The Digital Will To Power As The Will To Temporalize, Talha Issevenler

Publications and Research

This article offers a Nietzschean theory of digital will to power to conceptualize the temporality of social media feeds run by algorithms. Stylistic and methodological temporalities of Nietzsche are discussed as well as their influence in subsequent social theory of political technologies. The paradox of heavy investment in both subjective expression and nonhuman temporalization in social media milieus is addressed with the concept of an event-without-witness drawn from Nietzsche’s account of himself as the solitary thinker of catastrophe of nihilism and psychoanalytical and deconstructive literatures on the catastrophes of the 20th century. Nietzsche’s fundamental resistance to and fascination with the …

Explaining Suharto's Rise And Fall: International And Domestic Variables, Julia Batanghari

Undergraduate Honors Theses

For three decades (1968-1998), Indonesia was led by President Suharto, whose authoritarian military regime is remembered for its corruption and brutality. This paper offers an analysis of Suharto’s rule through the lens of two events: his 1965 purge of local ‘communists’ and the riots of May 1998. Drawing comparisons between the two, I delve into systemic causes by considering the influence of domestic and international variables. Exploring links between intergroup accommodation and democracy reveals that Suharto’s lack of ethnic, socioeconomic, and religious inclusivity paved the way not only for the anti-Chinese sentiment which pervaded Indonesian society during his presidency, but …

Polarization, Media Bias, And General Opinion, Knole Ihle '25

Student Research

This article researches the relationship between three different spheres of influence: party identification, issue selection process in media, and the following changes in public opinion. This relationship was examined through a random sample of news organizations based on a specific issue. The number of articles was then documented for each newspaper and measured against the articles produced apropos to that issue in the previous year. The discrepancy in articles produced is then compared to the succeeding policy shift to determine whether or not there is a correlation between these two relationships. Regarding the relationship between Ukraine-Russia War media and proceeding …

Ideological Extremism, Conspiratorial Thought, And Support For Authoritarianism In The United States, Sophie N. Martino

Honors Theses

Since the nation’s founding, Americans have tended to take democracy for granted. People see democracy as a given, believing that adherence to democratic values will persist. However, in the past few election cycles, there has been a trend in support for authoritarianism in the United States – not just with political leaders and figures, but also with individuals susceptible to authoritarian values and signals. This thesis seeks to address this apparent threat of authoritarianism in the United States, delving into possible factors that play a role in the growing support for authoritarian attitudes among Americans. I believe that two phenomena …

United We Stand? Investigating The Impact Of Unified Dues Agreements Between State And National Career & Technical Education (Cte) Professional Organizations On Cte Funding In The Southern States, Justin Ryan Hall

Theses and Dissertations

Career and Technical Education (CTE) teachers have long been active in lobbying the federal and state governments in support of CTE through their professional organizations, but these are not traditionally considered interest groups. This study sought to determine if the formal relationships—dues agreements—between the two largest national professional organizations, and their state affiliates had an impact on state funding for CTE. The impacts of professional organization unity, membership rates, and lobbying expenses on state-level CTE funding were analyzed through the lens of interest group theory, a subfield of political science. Within this population (N = 13), 1) a link …

Terminally Ill Documents: The Lasting Impact Of Ephemera, Deama Khader

Proceedings from the Document Academy

Murals and portraits of cultural icons such as George Floyd and Ahed Tamimi are more than aesthetically engaging objects. They can inspire viewers to act, attend protests, and share their own feelings on an issue, whether that be in the form of more street art or something as simple as a social media post. This is often how social and political movements are made.

Street art poses a unique challenge to information professionals since the documents that are created with the intention or expectation of disappearance. They are documents suffering from terminal illness. Their ephemerality is their disease. Per the …

“Arsip Kacau”: How Messy Records Are Perceived By Indonesians In The Context Of Document Disease, Suprayitno Suprayitno, Rahmi Rahmi, Dian Novita Fitriani

Proceedings from the Document Academy

This paper examines how the Indonesian people perceive and construct arsip kacau (messy records). Messy records as documents seem to have the power to make humans psychologically ill by becoming uneasy, discomfort, stressed, burnout, and uncomfortable, all of which are diseases. This is similar to documentality introduced by Frohmann that documents can enable, produce, encourage, permit, and influence a person to experience document disease. This paper uses a qualitative approach with data collection in the form of literature and surveys from Indonesian people. The perception of archivists and the general public in Indonesia concerning the cause of the “messy records” …

Policy Implications Of Managing Biodiversity And Natural Resources Across International Boundaries, Dillon Brown

Dissertations

Fisheries Management under the best of scenarios is a complex action. It requires thoughtful consideration of resources that tend to be out of sight, widely distributed, highly variable both spatially and temporally, and present dramatic variation in life history and ecology. No one management approach has been developed which can effectively incorporate all these variables. Add to this the issue of transnational boundary movements of these resources, and one discovers that this complex issue needs to be addressed by multiple entities, agencies, and nations to have any chance of success.

This research set out to discover ways in which fisheries …

"Post Citizens United: Comparative Analysis Of Three State Legislatures And The Relationship Between Money In Politics And Political Polarization", Zeta M. Green

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Over the last decades, campaign finance has been the center of much political debate. The 2010 Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, which prohibited any limit to corporate campaign expenditures under the First Amendment, changed the political landscape by allowing more money in politics and elections than ever before. Along with money in politics, political polarization is on the rise across the United States. When recognizing an increase in both of these variables in politics today, it is difficult to deny the possibility of a connection between the two. By examining the patterns that exist in …

The Symbolic Politics Of Same-Sex Marriage Legalization, Kaden Sinning

Honors Projects

In the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s landmark decision Obergefell v. Hodges (2015), legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide, many commentators highlighted increasing resistance to the ruling. Some observed typical public backlash, but others noted targeted LGBTQ rights bills from state legislators. While much of the scholarly literature suggests that public backlash is short-lived and tends to resolve toward Supreme Court doctrine, less clear is the impact of state legislative efforts following judicial decisions. To help clarify this discrepancy, this research examines the effect of Obergefell on state bill proposals. I argue that Obergefell acts as a trigger for state legislators to …

Introduction To The Special Issue -- Science In Politics: Methodological Innovations And Political Issues, Amanda Friesen, Aleksander Ksiazkiewicz, Rose Mcdermott

Political Science Publications

We introduce the Special Issue on Life Science in Politics: Methodological Innovations and Political Issues. This issue of Politics and the Life Sciences is focused on the use of life science theory and methods to study political phenomena and the exploration of the intersection of science and political attitudes. This issue is the third in a series of special issues funded by the Association for Politics and the Life Sciences that adheres to the Open Science Framework for registered reports. Pre-analysis plans are peer reviewed and given in-principle acceptance before data are collected and/or analyzed, and the articles are published …

American Attitudes Toward Nuclear Energy, Eric J. Kirchman

Honors Capstones

Despite the mature underlying technology behind nuclear energy production, public support varies widely among the American public and has often changed over time. This paper seeks to analyze patterns in Americans’ attitudes towards nuclear energy using aggregate polling data from previously collected national public surveys. Standard demographics such as age, education, and political affiliation are utilized in cross-sectional comparisons against public opinion. Males, conservatives and Republicans were found to have strong positive responses towards nuclear energy. Furthermore, time-series data indicates nuclear energy fell out of favor in the early 1980s. It was later favored again in the early 2000s. This …

Abduction Threat Surviving Skills In Basic School Education Curriculum In Nigeria: Teachers' Views, Eke Ogbu Eke, Ibebuike Ursla Obiageri, Ngozi Enwereuzoh, Ijeoma Ubochi

Young African Leaders Journal of Development

This descriptive survey was on abduction threat surviving skills in basic school education curriculum in Nigeria: teachers' views. The purpose of the descriptive survey was to determine Lower and Middle Basic School teachers' views on infusing abduction threat surviving skills in Basic school curriculum for schoolchildren safety in school environment. The population comprises 209 public school primary teachers in Umuahia North L.G.A. of Abia State. The simple random sampling technique with non-replacement technique was used to select the sample of 143 primary school teachers (41 male and 102 female teachers). Researchers' made attitude questionnaire titled” Basic School Teachers Questionnaire on …

Impact Of The Russo-Ukraine War African Students And Families: Community-Based Approach To Humanitarian Mutual Aid, Macire Aribot, Nassim Ashford

Young African Leaders Journal of Development

Africans and African-descent refugees from Ukraine have faced racism and discrimination since the onset of the Russian-Ukraine war. When seeking refuge in neighboring countries, African people experienced differences in treatment when crossing the borders of European countries. Historically, European countries have enforced strict anti-immigration policies to deter Black and Brown people of color from migrating to their countries. This paper explores racism and discrimination experienced by African and African-descent refugees fleeing Ukraine and the inequity in the global humanitarian response for Africans and other people of color affected by the Russia-Ukraine war. As a result, this paper will highlight community-based, …