Political Science Commons^™

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Comparative Civilizations Review

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Comparative Civilizations Review

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Living Through The Chilean Coup D’Etat: The Second-Generation’S Reflection On Their Sense Of Agency, Civic Engagement And Democracy, Denise Tala Diaz

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This dissertation illuminates how the experience of growing up during the Chilean dictatorship (1973–1990) affected the individual's sense of self as citizen and the impact on their sense of democratic agency, civic-mindedness, and political engagement in their country's current democracy. To understand that impact, the researcher chose to study her own generation, the “Pinochet-era” generation (Cummings, 2015) and interviewed those who were part of the Chilean middle class, who despite not being explicit victims of perpetrators, were raised in dictatorship and surrounded by abuse of state power including repression, disappearance, and imprisonment. The theoretical frame of the Socio-Political Development Theory …

Informed Consent And Participant Outcomes, Matthew Arp

Laurier Institute for the Study of Public Opinion and Policy

Informed Consent Forms (ICFs) are an essential component of survey research used to provide participants with necessary information and the impact of participating in the study. With increased legal and ethical liability to participants, the length of ICFs has increased over recent decades. This methods note explores the impact of ICF length on participant outcomes and participant preferences.

The Politics Of Decentralizing Criminal Justice Systems In Postconflict Societies: Insights From Liberia (2011-2017), Samuel Opoku-Agyakwa

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

After the end of Liberia’s brutal 14 year civil war, the process of rebuilding Liberia has focused on a number of interventions including reforming the criminal justice system. In the current study, institutional, policy, legal reform, and infrastructure development were the approaches used to decentralize Liberia’s Criminal Justice System. Thirty experts were interviewed, and their responses coded using NVivo 12.0. Seven themes and 25 subthemes emerged from the data. It was that found that a top down internationally led approach with minimal involvement of local communities and the neglect of the traditional justice system characterized the decentralization process. Results also …

"Corporate Power, Class Conflict, And The Crisis Of The New Globalization" By Ronald W. Cox, (Lexington Books, 2019) A Review Essay, Daniel Skidmore-Hess

Political Science & International Studies: Faculty Publications

A review of Ronald W. Cox's "Corporate Power, Class Conflict, and the Crisis of the New Globalization" published by Lexington Books, 2019.

How The Academy Looks At Marx Is All Wrong, The Point However Is To Change It, Daniel Skidmore-Hess

Political Science & International Studies: Faculty Publications

In what follows, I note how two standard contemporary reference works describe Marx and then contrast those to Marx’s “auto-bibliography” which presents a different set of texts as important to the author’s self-conception. I then focus on one of the latter set of texts and suggest an approach to understanding Marx that emphasizes his identity as a revolutionary theorist and which, perhaps helps us better understand why he did not give priority to working out a theory of the state in a traditional theoretical manner. At the very least, I hope that this discussion will draw attention to the priority …

Attitudes Towards Immigration-Relevant Decision-Making: The Roles Of Fairness Judgements And National Identity, Tessa Phipps

Theses : Honours

The worldwide movement of migrants has increased rapidly in recent years and the resulting increase in cultural diversity can lead to tensions in receiving societies. In the Australian context, while negative attitudes towards Australia’s immigration intake remain the minority, such attitudes have increased over the past two years. Concepts of fairness, both procedural and distributive, have been shown to be important factors in attitudes towards immigrants and the very nature of the immigration context brings to the fore concepts of in- and out-group dynamics and national identity. This study created a reliable procedural fairness scale for utilisation in the immigration …

A Legacy Cut Short The Impact Of Pepperdine University On African Americans And South Los Angeles From 1937 – 1981, Elizabeth Craigg

CGU Theses & Dissertations

Due to the California gold rush in the 1800s, White Southerners seeking quick wealth flocked to the “free-state” of California. These new settlers included enslaved Africans, religion, and Southern attitudes that set the foundation for California to be a Southern-attitude state, which eventually attracted generations of free African Americans and a large White Southern population. White Southerners shaped California through passing discriminatory housing, education, banking, and employment policies against African Americans with the intention of marginalizing African Americans' existence and limiting their economic opportunity. The Church of Christ was largely a Southern and Midwestern religion that was one of the …

Game Of Survival: External Actors' Support For Separatists, Joshua C. Underwood

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

This research develops a novel model for external actors’ support for separatists.Three variables measuring external actors’ support are identified through two case studies, Kosovo Liberation Army and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, with an emphasis on Military Aid’s impact. The variables are then applied to a quantitative analysis of external actors’ support in a dataset of 75 observations during the years 1991-2020, utilizing the Uppsala Conflict Data Program External Support Dataset. The findings for this research show that Military Aid and Moral Support improve the probability of survival for a separatist group. A deeper analysis reveals that military aid among …

Piecing Together Coalition War: Threat, Politics, And Coalition Structure, Stephen Joiner

Theses and Dissertations--Political Science

Military coalitions are both a common feature of interstate warfare and an example of the highest level of cooperation between states. Despite their tremendous importance in international relations, military coalitions remain poorly understood. This project investigates critical questions related to coalition structures, and uses quantitative and qualitative methods to show that both the threat and political opportunity facing coalitions helps to determine the shape of their structures. This project utilizes a dataset of all coalition wars since 1816, as well as case studies of six coalitions to investigate these relationships. Key contributions include novel theoretical arguments and the findings that …

Representaciones De La Identidad Neoleonesa En Los Spots De Las Campañas A La Gubernatura De Nuevo León De 2015representations Of Nuevo León’S Identity Within The Campaign Spots For The 2015 State Election, Xavier Moyssén Álvarez

Publications and Research

This article parts from the sociological model of voting behavior, according to which social characteristics deter-mine political preferences. It is proposed that regional identity, because of its socialized nature, might’ve had effects on the voting behavior of the 2015 Nuevo León election. This work isn’t focused on the result of the election, it rather intends to verify, through content analysis, the presence of elements belonging to Nuevo Leon’s identity within the campaign spots for the main candidates:Felipe de Jesús Cantú (PAN), Ivonne Álvarez García (PRI), and Jaime Heliodoro Rodríguez Calderón (independ-ent). Furthermore, we propose a theoretical explanation of the possible …

Modern Artificial Intelligence: Philosophical Context And Future Consequences, Mark Kumleben

CGU Theses & Dissertations

This paper analyzes the state of modern artificial intelligence research from a philosophical perspective, in order to argue for interdisciplinary cooperation in building an effective AI research paradigm. I assess four different aspects of AI: its ability to perceive the world through pattern recognition, its ability to act in the world through reinforcement learning, its role in technological society as predicted by Heidegger’s theory of technology, and its future development into potential superintelligence. By connecting these to an unexamined theory of the human mind underpinning AI research, I seek to show the relationship between our understanding of natural minds and …

Latino Evangelicals: How Their Multiple Identity Influences Their Political Preferences, Noemi Hernandez Alexander

CGU Theses & Dissertations

The pews of the American Evangelical church are browning, and so is the Evangelical voting bloc. Latino immigrants are fueling the growth of the Evangelical church in America and Latinos have the potential to influence the Evangelical voting bloc writ large. However, we have a limited understanding of the political needs of the Latino Evangelical who identifies as an ethnic person and a religious person. As the discipline of political science attempts to predict, describe, or explain the political attitudes of Latinos, understanding the political preferences of the Latino Evangelical is essential. This study seeks to understand how race and …

The 2020 U.S. Presidential Race: Mobilize The Base Or Persuade Swing Voters?, Jonathan Miller

Pomona Senior Theses

This thesis will attempt to determine the optimal election strategy for the Democratic nominee in the upcoming presidential election. As it currently stands, there are two primary schools of thought about the Democratic election strategy among political scientists and strategists, both of which are often framed as mutually exclusive. According to one theory, the Democratic candidate/campaign should prioritize persuasion and target undecided voters to garner their support. Policies such as the expansion of the Affordable Care Act and modest income tax increases on the wealthy are examples of policies that are often designed to garner support among undecided voters. The …

Discourse Analysis Of Nyt’S Headlines On Terrorism And Climate Change: How Media Reflects Our Conceptualization Of Security, Helena Gabrielle Ong

Pomona Senior Theses

Although climate change and terrorism are both considered national security threats by U.S. military experts, the American public views these threats differ- ently, with climate change at lower risk and priority in comparison to terror- ism. This reflects a difference in how the public conceptualizes security threats. This paper aims to address that gap through media coverage. This study ex- amines the language of newspaper headlines for terrorism and climate change in order to identify the dominant representations of these issues in the media. I analyze the discourse of two security issues—terrorism and climate change– by comparing news headlines from …

Design For Sustainment: Governance Engineering In Major Acquisition Programs, William Baker, Kaitlynn M. Castelle, Joseph M. Bradley, Lucas C. Marino

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

During acquisition for a sustainment-dominated, major capital asset, decision-making and action to develop the sustainment system must begin early in the acquisition process to sufficiently align the necessary integrated logistics support demanded by these systems. Effective governance improves the likelihood of success for delivery of the asset and accompanying sustainment system to ensure the asset meets expected performance and remains functional over its planned decades-long service life. The service life of a Navy vessel can range from 25 to 50 years. In this case study, we examine the operation of the governance system for major maritime acquisitions, wherein a fleet …

Racial Bias And The Death Penalty In Nebraska (2005-2019), Natalie Bielenberg

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Ample evidence exists to suggest that the death penalty in the United States is affected by racial bias. Nebraska has a complex history with the death penalty, and in this study I investigate whether or not that racial bias is present in Nebraska’s capital punishment. Using a list of every Nebraska Department of Correctional Services inmate since 1982, I test for a relationship between race of inmate and sentencing outcome and a relationship between race of victim and sentencing outcome. No significant relationship was found between either race of inmate and receiving the death penalty nor race of victim and …

The Codification Of American Federalism: An Analysis Of Events Preceding The Ratification Of The United States Constitution, Timothy Spangler

Capstone Showcase

The focus of my project is American Federalism, a cornerstone of American political thought for centuries. American Federalism is a political system where power is divided between federated states and a central government, and the federated states retain a large portion of their original independence and police powers. The question this project seeks to answer is: How and why did the idea of a federated system, where the states retain their own sphere of sovereignty, become codified in American political thought? Scholars have attempted to answer this question, but their arguments look at American Federalism in a vacuum and ignore …

Democratization In The Post Soviet Space: A Case Study Of The Republic Of Georgia And Ukraine, Serena Anton

Capstone Showcase

In the early 21^st century, public unrest grew in the post-Soviet spaces with many demanding better democracy for themselves. This period, known as the Color Revolutions, swept across the Post-Soviet space with democratic and anti-corruption reforms at the forefront of policy. Yet, almost two decades later, democratic consolidation has crawled to a standstill amongst the region with many states experiencing democratic backsliding. The Republic of Georgia and Ukraine represent an interesting paradox as both states seemed to have beat the impossible and have continued their journey of democracy despite the current atmosphere in the region. Through a controlled comparative …

International Policy And Climate Change-Induced Displacement Of South Pacific Island Nation Populations, Karissa Noragon

Capstone Showcase

Climate change has advanced significantly in the last few decades resulting in some of the predicted effects, such as sea level rise, to start to appear and to cause displacement, especially in more vulnerable, developing nations. Though current estimates have found that the majority of the displaced populations will be able to relocate within their country’s borders, there are some nations, such as many of the small island nations in the South Pacific, where internal relocation will not always be an option. The question that will be explored in this paper is, what are the limits to current international policy …

Murdoch Murdoch: A Case Study In Threats To Ontological Security In Far-Right Propaganda, Julian Morein

Capstone Showcase

Adapting the Ethnographic Discourse Analysis method developed by Stanton Wortham and Angela Reyes this thesis traces the language employed in the ethno-nationalist web series Murdoch Murdoch. While not as widely known as other examples of the burgeoning landscape of far-right internet content such as news sites like InfoWars or Brietbart, Murdoch Murdoch can still reveal crucial details about how far right propaganda seeks to radicalize its viewers. This thesis argues that Murdoch Murdoch uses its visual and discursive indexicals to present a near absolute dichotomy between a Positive Self that consists of white ethno-nationalism, and a Negative Other that …

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 …