Political Science Commons^™

Radicalization Through The Internet: How Isis Became So Successful And Why The United States Needs To Catch Up, Ana Sofia Florez

Senior Theses

It is no secret the Islamic State of Syria, otherwise known as ISIS, has become one of the most dangerous and brutal terrorist organizations in recent history. In recent years the Islamic State has been gaining strength and followers from around the world. Individuals from other countries will leave their homes and families after contact through social media to travel to Syria and fight alongside the organization. This thesis provides insight on the dangerous implications ISIS’s perfection on online recruitment and their successful radicalization tactics has. It will also provide an explanation as to why nations, specifically the United States …

Ignoring The Learning Curve: The Failure Of U.S. Foreign Intervention In Chile And Afghanistan, Leanna Shea Nichols

Senior Theses

There are several identifiable and ubiquitous reasons why U.S. democracy building interventions fail abroad. The literature has shown that the principal reason that U.S. democracy building efforts fail is that they prioritize seeking immediate stability over creating long-lasting support for liberal democratic institutions. Additionally, contributing factors are also: lack of knowledge of the political history of a nation, lack of knowledge of the complexities within the domestic politics of each nation, lack of local and grassroots inclusion in planning processes, and the use of destabilizing covert and overt operations in an attempt at immediate results, with little force put behind …

The Caged Bird Still Sings: The Poetics Of Peace, Sofia Diane Skavdahl

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Although poetry has been used as a method of peacemaking since Homer’s Iliad, little research, theory, or analysis has been done evaluating precisely what role poetry holds in the realms of peacemaking and conflict resolution. Poetry, along with other arts-based practices of peacemaking, is beneficial because of its ability to encourage personal autonomy and emotional communication, while offering an open and creative space to heal from violent conflict. In terms of the arts, poetry is especially unique because it holds the ability to transform relationships between adversaries and the relationship with the self. This paper seeks to analyze both the …

“Equal Dignity”: Comparing The Campaigns To Legalize Same-Sex Marriage And Their Outcomes In Italy And The United States, Kyle James Kilkenny

Senior Theses

The issue of marriage equality has encouraged many queer groups to mobilize over the past half-century. Two states where this trend has clearly been illustrated are Italy and the United States of America. While the United States has a widely studied history of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) rights movements, the presence of such political activity in Italy has been less known on the world stage. With this in mind, this thesis studies how similar efforts to pass same-sex marriage legislation resulted in different outcomes, which are measured by whether same-sex marriage has been codified on the national …

"The Chinese Animation Industry: From The Mao Era To The Digital Age", Stephanie Jones

Master's Projects and Capstones

Since the 1950’s the Chinese Animation industry has been trying to create a unique national style for China. The national style of the 1950’s and early 1960’s was one of freedom, fantasy, and creativity. With the success of “Heroic Little Sisters of the Grassland”/草原英雄小姐妹(1965), the government administration, namely Jiang Qing of the “Gang of Four”, demanded that all animation should follow specific guidelines based on Social Realism guidelines. This in turn, ushered in a new national style of animation during the Cultural Revolution(1966-1976). During this ten-year period government policies imposed strict restrictions on animators and cause a drain of creative …

Aggression, Information, And Economics: Reinterpreting The Hermit Kingdom In The Era Of Kim Jong-Un, Margaret Pence

Master's Projects and Capstones

North Korea has been the most isolated country on the planet for the past sixty years. Due to its isolation, the Hermit Kingdom has naturally become mysterious, resulting in a common narrative that describes Pyongyang as aggressive and driven by nuclear weapons. Missing from this narrative is what motivates North Korea and its young leader, Kim Jong-un: survival. However, Kim Jong-un has a lot more than the outside world to contend with, as the North Korea he has inherited is much different than that of his predecessors. In response, Kim Jong-un has subtly shifted away from the state ideology of …

Findings From Surveys On Adventism, Politics And Social Issues, John T. Gavin, Wiliam W. Ellis, Curtis J. Vanderwaal

Adventist Human-Subject Researchers Association

AHSRA Presentation Proposal

Abstract: The relationships between Adventism and the social political world has implications for the mission of the church and its involvement in the social issues of our time. Researches present an analysis of research conducted over several decades which explore the relationship of Adventism, politics and social issues.

An Examination Of The Potential Threat Of A State-Sponsored Biological Attack Against The United States: A Study Of Policy Implications, Courtney Anne Pfluke

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

In 2002, US Navy Seals found a list of pathogens in an Afghanistan cave that Al Qaeda had planned to use in a series of biological attacks. Unique about the discovery was that the pathogens were not limited to human ones. Six pathogens targeted livestock and four targeted crops. Despite this discovery, limited attention has been given to the possibility of a state-sponsored terrorist attack utilizing biological agents against the US population, food source, or water supply. Throughout history, biological agents have been developed for use as an offensive weapon for both states and terrorist groups. The United States may …

Utilizing Strategic Culture As A Tool To Tailor U.S. Deterrence Policy Towards Iran, Ryan P. Taylor

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

The geostrategic environment since the end of the Cold War has drastically changed the way United States (U.S.) policymakers develop strategies to combat a wide range of hostile threats facing the country, especially in the field of the deterrence of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs). Iran is such an actor, who poses one of the greater proliferation threats in the world and continues to commit hostile actions in the Middle East. In this post-Cold War environment, it is imperative that the United States develop a tailored deterrence strategy to meet this challenge. Past deterrence strategies popular during the bipolar era …

A Critique Of Bruce Gilley's "The Case For Colonialism", Ernest M. Oleksy

The Downtown Review: An Interdisciplinary Journal Written and Peer-Reviewed by Mandel Honors College Students at Cleveland State University

Bruce Gilley's article defending colonialism created quite a stir amongst global development's academia. This article esponds to Gilley's article, primarily as an antithesis. Through a recount of historical examples across the globe, this article points out Gilley's weaker arguments for colonialism.

A Review Of Modern Development, Ernest M. Oleksy

The Downtown Review: An Interdisciplinary Journal Written and Peer-Reviewed by Mandel Honors College Students at Cleveland State University

To better understand the historical and sociological impact of modern development, I conducted a literature review to compare and contrast varying viewpoints on development’s legacy. The official start of the modern era of development begins with President Truman’s 1949 speech that declared global poverty a threat to all nations since it could lead to communism. WWII resulted in social problems unresolvable for any one nation: Europe was war-torn, the aftereffects of the Great Depression were significant, and multiple Asian nations grappled with humanitarian tragedies. WWII fomented nationalism in many countries worldwide, resulting in wars of liberation. In response, the First …

Does Money Indeed Buy Happiness? “The Forms Of Capital” In Fitzgerald’S Gatsby And Watts’ No One Is Coming To Save Us, Allie Harrison Vernon

English (MA) Theses

Looking primarily at two critically acclaimed texts that concern themselves with American citizenship—F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and Stephanie Powell Watts’ No One is Coming to Save Us—I analyze the claims made about citizenship identities, rights, and consequential access to said rights. I ask, how do these narratives about citizenship sustain, create, or re-envision American myth? Similarly, how do the narratives interact with the dominant culture at large? Do any of these texts achieve oppositional value, and/or modify the complex hegemonic structure? I use Pierre Bourdieu’s “The Forms of Capital” to investigate the ways in which economic, cultural, …

Power Sharing And The Rule Of Law In The Aftermath Of Civil War, Caroline A. Hartzell, Matthew Hoddie

Political Science Faculty Publications

What effect do power-sharing institutions agreed to as part of civil war settlements have on the development of the rule of law in post–civil war states? We contend that power-sharing measures facilitate the emergence of the rule of law in two ways. First, they establish a form of institutional constraint that promotes judicial autonomy and independence. Second, they foster a sense of security among judges and other political actors that bolsters commitment to the law. We demonstrate the plausibility of a positive relationship between power sharing and the rule of law through an analysis of post–civil war states between the …

Typed Document: Course Description, Edna Louise Saffy

Saffy Collection - All Textual Materials

Graduate Speech course description and brief biography for Dr. Saffy, Ph.D. No date given.

Typed Document: Introduction Outline, Edna Louise Saffy

Saffy Collection - All Textual Materials

Introduction to Dr. Saffy and the course including outline, defined terms and a brief history of early rhetoric. No date given.

Typed Document: The Objective Of Ancient Athenian Rhetoric, Edna Louise Saffy

Saffy Collection - All Textual Materials

The objective of Ancient Athenian Rhetoric and notes for the first lecture. No date given.

Typed Document: Second Class Meeting Assignments, Edna Louise Saffy

Saffy Collection - All Textual Materials

Assignment outline for the second class meeting. No date given.

Typed Document: Third Class Meeting, Edna Louise Saffy

Saffy Collection - All Textual Materials

Outline for the third meeting class. No date given.

Politics And Society After Violent Conflict, Dino Hadzic

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation, I examine how elite rhetoric about past inter-group violence affects citizens’ post-conflict social and political attitudes. To do so, I conducted a survey experiment in the post-conflict country of Bosnia. In the first substantive chapter, I find that when individuals are reminded of the violence that was committed against their co-ethnics, they adopt negative views of out-group members. However, in the subsequent chapter, I find little evidence that this rhetoric induces individuals to ostracize co-ethnics who socially engage with out-groups. Combined, these findings indicate that (1) rhetoric about past violence makes reconciliation less likely by engendering negative …

Three Essays On Separation Of Powers And Competitive Elections, Myunghoon Kang

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines how separation of powers and competitive elections affect the policymaking process at its various stages. First, I explore how the super-majoritarian rule in the legislature, which is the consequence of separation of powers, affects votersˆa electoral decisions, which in turn indirectly affects the policy outcome. I demonstrate that the super-majoritarian rule of the legislative policymaking process creates not only a legislative gridlock but also incentives that lead some districts to strategically elect more ideologically extreme delegates in certain circumstances, which expands the legislative gridlock region. Second, I examine when competitive elections can restrain the president’s unilateral policymaking …

A Visual Political World: Determinants And Effects Of Visual Content, Silvia Michelle Torres Pacheco

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Political communication is a central element of several political dynamics. Its visual component is crucial in understanding the origin, characteristics and consequences of the messages sent between political figures, media and citizens. However, visual features have been largely overlooked in Political Science. Thus, in this dissertation, I introduce, describe and apply computer vision techniques for the analysis and processing of visual material, in order to not only improve data collection and visual content extraction, but also the understanding of the effects that visual components have on relevant political variables. In the first main chapter of this project, I implement computer …

Conservatives In The Classroom: Targeted Or Apathetic?, Emma Nordmeyer

Sociology: Student Scholarship & Creative Works

In the 21st Century U.S., college and university classrooms have become a hotbed of political debate. Conservative students decry "liberal indoctrination" in the liberal arts setting. In this paper, I analyze attitudes towards classes across the political spectrum. I found that while liberals have more positive views of class, conservatives have a wider range of attitudes. This study points to divisions within the right wing.

Understanding Ngos And Their Effectiveness Through A Comparative Study Of Their Role In Redd+, Jessica Russo

Political Science Student Scholarship

This thesis explores the following question: what roles do NGOs play and how effective may they be in efforts at global governance? Through a comparative case study analysis of NGOs advocating for Reducing Emissions for Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+) and NGOs implementing REDD+ projects, specifically the Surui Forest Carbon Project located in the state of Rondônia, Brazil, I examine whether NGOs are more effective taking on the role as advocates or policy implementers. For this work, I will argue that independent of the multiplicity of roles that NGOs play, their effectiveness is a function of the level of their …

A Case For A Moral Theory Of Property: How Digital Copyright Reveals The Insufficiency Of Hume's Pragmatic Justification Of Ownership, Mattew Davis

Honors Theses

This paper addresses the following questions: Why does property exist? How does one come to own something? In it, the author attempts to answer these questions by comparing the property theories of political theorists John Locke and David Hume with modern U.S. copyright law, with a special focus on digital copyrights. The purpose of this comparison is to identify principles and explanations of property that are consistent between seventeenth- and eighteenth-century political theories and modern laws. The product of this comparison is the discovery that Locke, Hume, and U.S. Copyright Law either use labor as a metric for ownership or …

Environmental Racism: Nuclear Waste As An Agent Of Oppression?, Andrea Boeckers

Across the Bridge: The Merrimack Undergraduate Research Journal

This research seeks to analyze the decision-making processes of managing nuclear waste for countries dealing with this problem, as well as the interplay between national and local governments, private companies, the populace, and native nations. The long-term storage of nuclear waste is a serious global problem, and despite the millions of people enjoying the benefits of nuclear power, most refuse to accept the burdens associated with its waste. The driving question for this research largely ties to how governments attempt to designate who will bear the burden of these wastes. When a problem needs to be solved, yet there are …

Typed Document: The College And University Women’S Public Leadership Consortium

Saffy Collection - All Textual Materials

Outstanding Senior Women Leadership Award list. Typed on The College and University Women's Public Leadership Consortium letterhead. No date given.

Typed Document: The College And University Women’S Public Leadership Consortium Mentors

Saffy Collection - All Textual Materials

List of mentors for The College and University Women's Public Leadership Consortium. No date given Box: 7 Folder: 15

Printed Material: Women In American History

Saffy Collection - All Textual Materials

A list of descriptions of women in American history and a list of names, match the name to the correct description. Includes a key of correct answers. No. date given.

Testing Tocqueville: The Political Theory Of The “Mayflower Compact” And Its Legacy, Vanessa Sherman

Honors Program Theses and Projects

The question of religion’s place in American political thought and practice continues to be a divisive issue. Critics of religion’s importance (Pangle 1988; Zuckert 1996) point to the centrality of natural rights liberal thought in The Declaration of Independence while proponents of religion’s importance frequently employ Alexis de Tocqueville’s account of religion in America in support of their arguments (see Allen 1998; Kessler 1992; and Tessitore 2002). In Democracy in America, Tocqueville (2000, 35) identifies the date of America’s founding as 1620 and, in doing so, argues that “there is not one opinion, one habit, one law, I could say …

Equality In Education: Solutions Aimed At Closing The Achievement Gap In Mississippi Public Schools, Mallie E. Imbler

Honors Theses

This thesis attempts to examine solutions aimed at closing the achievement gap in Mississippi public schools. The research questions that are addressed in this thesis include: a) Why is the achievement gap part of policy debates in Mississippi and how have individ-ual school districts and policymakers responded to the gap? b) How is the gap measured and what are the trends since 2001 when the No Child Left Behind Act was adopted? c) How are achievement gap debates reflected in the current policy? d) Have any of the past national education policies been effective in decreasing the achievement gap? The …