Political Science Commons^™

Party Line Newsletter Fall 2011, Hollins University

Party Line - Political Science Department Newsletters

No abstract provided.

Political Satire And Political News: Entertaining, Accidentally Reporting Or Both? The Case Of The Daily Show With Jon Stewart (Tds), Dana Neacsu

Law Faculty Publications

For the last decade, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart (TDS), a (Comedy Central) cable comedy show, has been increasingly seen as an informative, new, even revolutionary, form of journalism. A substantial body of literature appeared, adopting this view. On closer inspection, it became clear that this view was tenable only in specific circumstances. It assumed that the comedic structure of the show, TDS' primary text, promoted cognitive polysemy, a textual ambiguity which encouraged critical inquiry, and that TDS' audiences perceived it accordingly. As a result I analyzed, through a dual - encoding/decoding - analytical approach, whether TDS' comedic discourse …

The Ronald Reagan Paradigm, Taylor Evenson

Whittier Scholars Program

This project is centered on the Ronald Reagan Paradigm, a pervasive ideology that has dominated politics and the U.S. Government for approximately the last 30 years. The pervasive ideology is a neoliberal agenda aimed at increasing the power of corporations within the United States. The ideology is legitimized by Ronald Reagan's Presidency. Furthermore, the ideology is legitimized by think-tanks and few educational institutions. The ideas are disseminated through publications and media outlets. This paper highlights the author’s understanding of this ideology and its creation.

The Impact Of Development On Terrorist Activity: Does Development Decrease Terrorism?, Mark Daube

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This study examines the relationship between the level of development in a country and the likelihood of terrorism incidents occurring in that country. The central argument of this paper is that the level of development of a country has a curvilinear impact in the shape of an inverted-U on the likelihood of terrorist activity. This paper used a negative binomial regression in order to analyze 119 countries from 1675 to 2000. The empirical results indicate that there is support for the hypotheses of this thesis and that there is a statistically significant relationship in the shape of an inverted-U between …

Party Line Newsletter Fall 2010, Hollins University

Party Line - Political Science Department Newsletters

No abstract provided.

Chosen Nation: Biblical Theopolitics And The Problem Of American Christian Nationalism, Braden P. Anderson

Dissertations (1934 -)

Christian theopolitics presupposes that every salvation narrative entails a politics, and that every politics presumes a story of salvation. This means that the church faces a host of theopolitical structures contending with the Christian story for the allegiance, formation, and identity of Christians. However, theopolitical scholarship has largely overlooked or misunderstood one of the church's major challenges today: nationalism. Moreover, this scholarship is unable to properly address the challenge of nationalism due to an inadequate engagement with biblical theopolitics--particularly that of Old Testament Israel--which, in distorted form, is central to nationalism emanating from within the church.

In order to supplement …

Is Hong Kong Democratizing, Dexter S. Boniface, Ilan Alon

Faculty Publications

We argue that the transition to Chinese authority has not undermined democratic governance in Hong Kong and that voice and accountability have improved since the handover. We seek to explain this surprising result and conclude with a discussion of the implications of our findings for China, Taiwan, and cross-strait relations.

The Mirage Of Non-State Governance, Ralf Michaels

Faculty Scholarship

In this Essay, I offer three theses, all of which are critical. First, non‑state governance is conceptually unattractive; it is a concept that makes little sense. Second, non‑state governance is empirically unattractive; meaningful non‑state governance rarely exists. Third, meaningful non‑state governance is normatively unattractive; we would rarely want it, and people postulating it usually expect the state to play an important role. However, I also have something constructive: a proposed trajectory. Talk about the state and the non‑state can only be an intermediary stage in a trajectory of a theory of governance that might lead to a new paradigm of …

The Myth Of Fragmentation : Assessing Political Information Online, Alexis Marie Wichowski

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Internet technology has provided people with unprecedented abilities to filter the information they encounter, leading many scholars to fear that people will be exposed to less diversity of perspectives and fragment into homogeneous interest groups. Exposure to a wide range of topics and perspectives about political information in particular is considered necessary by many scholars in order for citizens to be informed participants in democratic life. However, fears that the Internet leads to fragmentation rest on three assumptions: 1. online, opportunities for unintended encounters with a diversity of information are limited, 2. people primarily pursue narrow interests when consuming online …

The Rule Of Law Unplugged, Daniel B. Rodriguez, Mathew D. Mccubbins, Barry R. Weingast

Faculty Scholarship

The "Rule of Law" is a venerable concept, but, on closer inspection, it is a complex admixture of positive assumptions, inchoate political and legal theory, and occasionally wishful thinking. Although enormous investments have been made in rule of law reformism throughout the world, advocates of transplanting American-style legal and political institutions to developed and developing countries are often unclear about what they are transplanting and why they are doing so. The concept of rule of law has become unplugged from theories of law. Scholars clearly have more work to do in understanding the rule of law and designing institutions to …

What Does It Mean, "Promoting Democratization"?, Sheila Carapico

Political Science Faculty Publications

Political speeches and even policy analysis from Washington, Ottawa, and the capitals of Europe in the past two decades about promoting democratization tend towards generalities and platitudes. This research asks what Western and international agencies actually do, on the ground in the Middle East, by way of fomenting democracy. Taking my inspiration from the sociologist Albert Hirschman who decades ago observed that projects are “privileged particles”[i] of socio-economic development assistance, I’ve collected well over twelve hundred examples.[ii] This summary table illustrates the aggregate finding that most projects cluster around electoral representation, legal or judicial development, and support for …

Putting Ideas To Work: A Practical Introduction To Political Thought (Book Review), Steven Michels

Political Science & Global Affairs Faculty Publications

Book review by Steven Michels.

Mattern, M. (2006). Putting ideas to work: A practical introduction to political thought. Rowman and Littlefield.

ISBN 9780742548893 (hardcover); 9780742548909 (pbk.)

Administrative Law Agonistes, Mathew D. Mccubbins, Roger Noll, Barry R. Weingast, Daniel B. Rodriguez

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Ayse Betul Celik On The Age Of Apology: Facing Up To The Past Edited By Mark Gibney, Rhoda E. Howard-Hassmann, Jean-Marc Coicaud, And Niklaus Steiner. Philadelphia: University Of Pennsylvania Press, 2008. 333 Pages., Ayse Betul Celik

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

The Age of Apology: Facing Up to the Past edited by Mark Gibney, Rhoda E. Howard-Hassmann, Jean-Marc Coicaud, and Niklaus Steiner. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008. 333 pages.

Power, Liberalism, And Political Science: Some Christian Reflections, Daniel E. Young

Faculty Tenure Papers

No abstract provided.

Mandatory Constitutions, Paul D. Carrington

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

There's No "I" In Team: Individualism, Private Property, And Propriety In Cicero's De Officiis, Alex C. Parrish

Honors Capstones

Capstone submitted as a graduation requirement for the BSU Honors Program.

Presidential Influences On Civil Rights Visits To The Presidential Libraries, Willie E. Fowler

Sabbaticals

I propose a one semester (Fall 2007) sabbatical study which will be conducted during the academic year of 2007. Though I know most sabbatical leaves are granted for the spring semester of the academic year, I ask for Fall consideration so that I can take advantage of the extra collections that are only made available at the libraries during the Fall Holiday Season. By granting the sabbatical in the Fall of 2007, you would also afford me the ability to experience the oral arguments of the US Supreme Court in October.

Indeed, this sabbatical study will allow me to continue …

Agenda Control In The Bundestag, 1980-2002, William M. Chandler, Gary W. Cox, Mathew D. Mccubbins

Faculty Scholarship

We find strong evidence of monopoly legislative agenda control by government parties in the Bundestag. First, the government parties have near-zero roll rates, while the opposition parties are often rolled over half the time. Second, only opposition parties’ (and not government parties’) roll rates increase with the distances of each party from the floor median. Third, almost all policy moves are towards the government coalition (the only exceptions occur during periods of divided government). Fourth, roll rates for government parties sky- rocket when they fall into the opposition and roll rates for opposition parties plummet when they enter government, while …

Does The U.S. Constitution Need An Equal Rights Amendment?, Lisa Baldez, Lee Epstein, Andrew D. Martin

Dartmouth Scholarship

For over 3 decades, those engaged in the battle over the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), along with many scholarly commentators, have argued that ratification of the amendment will lead U.S. courts (1) to elevate the standard of law they now use to adjudicate claims of sex discrimination, which, in turn, could lead them (2) to find in favor of parties claiming a denial of their rights. We investigate both possibilities via an examination of constitutional sex discrimination litigation in the 50 states—over a third of which have adopted ERAs. Employing methods especially developed for this investigation, we find no direct …

The Ideology Of Free Trade And The Cuba Exception, Michael C. Schena

LSU Master's Theses

This paper examines ideology and congressional roll call voting in the post-Cold War period (1991-2005) on free trade and trade policy with Cuba. While members with a more conservative ideology are found, as expected, to be supporters of free trade generally, there remains a curious disconnect between this general support for free trade and the opposition to liberalization of trade with Cuba. Yet despite this perceived inconsistency, ideology remains consistent on both, thus we seek to test this exception to conservative support for liberalization. A combination of factors is at play to which make Cuba a special case in the …

The Role Of The United Nations In A Unipolar World, Brian Urquart, Michael Glennon

New England Journal of Public Policy

Presents comments on issues concerning the role of the United Nations in a unipolar world system. Discussion on the issue concerning the failure of the Security Council to reach unanimity on the occupation of Iraq and the regime change; Views on preventive war; Information on several problems encountered by the UN wherein their actions are considered irrelevant. From the EPIIC Symposium at Tufts University, February 2004.

Cruel Science: Cia Torture And U.S. Foreign Policy, Alfred W. Mccoy

New England Journal of Public Policy

The roots of the recent Abu Ghraib prisoner-abuse scandal lie in CIA torture techniques that have metastasized inside the U.S. intelligence community for the past fifty years. A contradictory U.S. foreign policy marked by both public opposition to torture and secret propagation of its practice has influenced American response to UN treaties, shaped federal anti-torture statutes, and produced a succession of domestic political scandals. After a crash research effort in the 1950s, the CIA developed a revolutionary new paradigm of psychological torture and then, for the next thirty years, disseminated it to allies worldwide. After September 11, the U.S. media …

Genocide: What Do We Want It To Be?, Alan A. Ryan Jr.

New England Journal of Public Policy

The definition of genocide in the Genocide Convention has been universally accepted, in the statutes of the ad hoc international tribunals and the International Criminal Court, but it conceals a host of ambiguities. Sociologists, political scientists, and others have not devised any legally adequate substitute. This article proposes a non-linear definition of genocide, that is, a definition that takes into account the presence or absence of several factors, rather than one that attempts to generalize the crime of genocide. It disregards the motives or objectives of the perpetrator, sheds the secondary phenomena that often accompany genocide (such as dehumanization of …

Formulas For Partition, Fragmented Maps, Yet No Solution, Mahdi Abdul Hadi

New England Journal of Public Policy

The author traces the history of the partition formula in Israel and Palestine, beginning with the 1937 British "Peel Commission" through the decades to the June War of 1967 and, almost a decade later, President Jimmy Carter's mention of a "Palestinian homeland." The Reagan Plan followed, and the 1980s witnessed a flood of political formulas that attempted to manage the conflict. In the 1990s, in the light of the post-Cold War era, a "culture of recognition and reconciliation" was introduced and with it, hopeful times. But the more recent efforts to bring the partition formula back, introduced against a background …

From Dictatorship And War To Democracy: Alternative Future For The Drc, Claude Kambuya Kabemba

New England Journal of Public Policy

With a transitional government in place, peace is now a possibility in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Policy options are being considered to sustain the peace and start the work of building a Congolese state that would not repeat the failings of the past. There is hope that the transitional period will produce democratic elections and subsequently a legitimate government, which would start to shake the view of the DRC as the "heart of darkness." There are two main obstacles to state-building in the DRC: lack of consensus on governance and illegal exploitation of resources. The two are …

Does French Matter? France And Francophonie In The Age Of Globalization, Jody L. Neathery-Castro, Mark O. Rousseau

Political Science Faculty Publications

THE ORGANISATION INTERNATIONALE DE LA FRANCOPHONIE (OIF) increasingly acts as a powerful French-speaking voice in defense of both French culture and language and in advancing French-speaking nations' multiple global, political and economic interests. While the OIF includes developed as well as developing¹ nations, its policies and financial resources come from its wealthier and more economically powerful members, fueling charges that it exists to represent those members' interests. The OIF is unique among international organizations in propounding economic policies based on assumptions different from those espoused by the World Trade Organization (WTO). These differences become most apparent in OIF's strong …

Canonical Construction And Statutory Revisionism: The Strange Case Of The Appropriations Canon, Mathew D. Mccubbins, Daniel B. Rodriguez

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

A Personal Exploration Of Complacency, And Awareness, Jason Darnell

Whittier Scholars Program

The questions in this paper are about issues that are very serious and affecting many people from day to day. Some of these issues include: Poverty, Healthcare, Medicare, civil rights, abortion, male violence, hate crimes, war on drugs, education, religion, consumerism, capitalism, terrorism, the slave industry, and news entertainment. This project addresses many college students who deal with these same issues, and is written from a college student’s perspective. The project includes conversations with peers, pressing issues raised in classes, and debates on historical and philosophical issues to examine the political and social environment of both the upper and lower …

War And State Formation: A Mennonite Critique, Sandra F. Joireman

Political Science Faculty Publications

This paper is an attempt to tackle the theory of war as a tool of state formation. Though I use the tools of my discipline to refute the theory in its contemporary manifestation, the paper is motivated by a theological belief regarding the sinfulness and depravity of war. I begin the paper by thoroughly exploring the benefits of strong states from a comparative historical perspective, since this has been critical to the theory's revival. Then I will discuss the theory that war makes strong states, looking first at the work of Charles Tilly, the best-known theorist in the area of …