Political Science Commons^™

Sustainability Policy’S Inherent Dilemmas – Exemplified Via Critical Examination Of The Las Vegas Metropolitan Sustainability Campaign, Kathryn A. Zimmerman

All Master's Theses

In response to a dual problem of critical water scarcity and rapid population growth, leaders of metropolitan Las Vegas implemented a region-wide, internationally marketed sustainability campaign. Preliminary studies found that, while sustainability policy attains its rhetorical goals, solutions initiated not only perpetuate but also purposefully expand the original dual problem to justify continuous water resource acquisitions. To examine this sustainability conundrum constructed by leadership—problem-perpetuation rather than problem-resolution—a critical examination in resource management asked two basic questions: what is being sustained and by what means? Via this inquiry, specific processes by which leaders perpetuate problems can be identified; and, so-informed, new …

Memory, Truth And Justice: A Contextualisation Of The Uses Of Photographs Of The Victims Of State Terrorism In Argentina, 1972-2012: Communicating An Intersection Of Art, Politics And History, Richard Askam

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Photographs of the victims of Argentine state terrorism from 1972 to 1983, and most prominently those of the detained-disappeared victims of the Proceso de Reorganización Nacional dictatorship (1976-1983), have had a significant role in elucidating the demands of human rights activists since the aftermath of the Trelew Massacre in 1972. In this thesis I examine the role of photographs of victims of state terrorism in the construction of unofficial, or counter, narratives critical of those produced by two dictatorships and by elected democratic administrations in the demand for truth and justice, and in the construction of social memory. I discuss …

The American Socio-Political Spider Web And The Rise Of Global Christianity, Michael F. Younker

Journal of the Adventist Theological Society

No abstract provided.

The First Attempt At Federalizing Tort Law And Why It Failed.", Ian J. Drake

Department of Political Science and Law Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

In the 1970s, the US Congress meticulously considered the possibility of creating a federal law of torts. The federal effort began almost a decade after many state supreme courts had expanded manufacturer liability for defective products. The state-level expansion caused a reaction among state and federal legislatures. The initial federal presence took the form of investigatory efforts, but those were soon followed by legislative proposals. The federal legislative proposals occurred simultaneously with some states' efforts to enact their own products liability laws. Although the states' tort laws might present variations on a theme, the possibilities for federal intervention in the …

The Evolution Of A Social Movement: A Study Of The Madres De Plaza De Mayo, Grace Anne Boyd

Honors Theses

This thesis investigates the evolution of the Madres de Plaza de Mayo social movement in Argentina from 1979-2014. The Madres de Plaza de Mayo are a social movement that initiated protests against the military junta that controlled Argentina from 1976-1982. The Madres were the mothers of people the junta had disappeared during its regime, and the protests were a demand for information about the missing children. After the fall of the dictatorship, the movement continued its protest for information. During this time, the movement underwent a structural split that coincided with ideological structure. I analyzed both internal and external factors …

The Trajectory Of The Argentine Economy From 2001 To The Present: What Comes Next?, Mary Morgan Gladney

Honors Theses

This thesis looks at global economic factors and Argentina's internal economic policy and political conditions of the last decade to determine the near-term future of the economy. By analyzing the factors that previously influenced the trajectory of the economy of Argentina, I will try to answer this question: What is the trajectory of the Argentine economy in the current political climate? In 2001 after a ten-year period of economic policy reform, the Argentine economy collapsed. Over a decade has passed since the crash of 2001, and now Argentina is once again in a precarious position. The dependent variable of this …

Changes In United States Foreign Assistance Allocation And Its Effect On Terrorism, Mary Anna Smith

Honors Theses

The purpose of this thesis was to study what, if any, affect foreign assistance given by the United States had on terrorism around the world. In order to study this issue, the question, How have changes in United States foreign assistance allocation since the end of the Cold War affected observable terrorist activities?. To answer the research question, foreign assistance data from the United State Overseas Loans and Grants was compared to observable terrorist activities data from the Global Terrorism Database. This data was analyzed through statistical regression to find that there are fewer observable terrorist activities when more foreign …

What Changes With Cuba Could Mean, Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Young Voter Participation Dependent On Many Issues, Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

In The Name Of National Interest? Assessing The Shift Of Australian Foreign Policy Regarding West Papua During 2006, Jaymin Beck

Theses : Honours

The Australian government currently maintains a strong position against an independent West Papua. Despite claims of human rights abuses by the Indonesian Government in West Papua and the huge number of West Papuan refugees fleeing to Australian shores, the Australian Government continues to tighten foreign policy and migration laws to make it increasingly difficult for West Papuans to seek asylum in Australia and hope for an independent West Papua. When Australia’s humanitarian intervention in the Timor-Leste fight for independence in 1999 is considered, reasons why the Australian government maintains an anti-separatist position towards West Papua are unclear. Australia took a …

States And The State Of Nature: Understanding State Failure Through Evolutionary Theory, Shelby L. Beasley 14

Honor Scholar Theses

None.

Rationalizing Voter Suppression: How North Carolina Justified The Nation's Strictest Voting Law, Megan C. Raymond

Scripps Senior Theses

In recent years, there has been a dramatic increase in instances of Republican-dominated state legislatures proposing changes to election law that some see as protecting electoral integrity and others understand as intended to suppress votes of traditionally Democratic constituencies. This thesis is a detailed collection of the rationales used to justify these changes, as examined through a case study of North Carolina’s enactment of the omnibus Voter Information Verification Act of 2013 (VIVA). By also including the arguments proffered during the legislative process by opponents of the law, and after evaluating the merits of the arguments on both sides, I …

The Discrimination Of The Ethnic Chinese In Indonesia And Perceptions Of Nationality, Amanda Walujono

Scripps Senior Theses

Since the established literature is mostly political, economic, and social histories of modern Indonesia, my thesis will establish motivations behind the context of the discrimination of the ethnic Chinese in Indonesia with particular attention on how it affects the perception of ethnic Chinese Indonesian’s nationality. Most of the times in the established literature, the history, motivations, and consequences behind the discrimination of the ethnic Chinese are briefly summarized or put in as an afterthought. Most of the present day established literature is focused on how the now-allowed Chinese imports are starting to influence Indonesian culture and how post-Suharto regimes have …

Sex, Slaves, And Saviors: Domestic And Global Agendas In U.S. Anti-Trafficking Policy, Chelsea L. Thompson

Scripps Senior Theses

In this thesis, I problematize the United States’ response to the global phenomenon characterized as human trafficking. The framing of trafficking as policy issue takes place in the context of politicized claims about the nature and prevalence of trafficking, its relation to the sex industry, and the kind of response that is required. U.S. anti-trafficking policy was built and shaped in the context of fears about immigration, global labor, and the sex industry. As a result, trafficking has been used to justify oppressive domestic reactions such as border crackdown, scrutiny of immigrant and sex worker communities, and victim “protection” that …

A Hope That’S Not So Hollow: How The Supreme Court’S Decisions In Windsor And Perry Alter The Political Environment In Which Marriage Equality Activism Operates, Emma Brillhart

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis looks at the state of marriage equality activism in the wake of the Supreme Court’s June 26, 2013 decisions in United States v. Windsor and Hollingsworth v. Perry. Some scholars, such as Gerald Rosenberg, argue that Supreme Court decisions can never affect “significant social change,” either directly or indirectly, while others argue that such decisions can be hugely important in directly affecting policy. My focus is on how activist organizations, which have a substantial track record of directly affecting policy, are influenced by changes to the political environment stemming from major Court decisions regarding social issues. After …

"Sea Water Fish In A Freshwater Pond:" An Institutional Approach To Understanding Cooperative Scarcity In The United States, Caroline E. Malone

Scripps Senior Theses

There is remarkable cooperative organization scarcity in the United States. Particularly in the credit union and worker cooperative sectors, this scarcity is not satisfactorily explained by neo-classical economic models that assume competitive conditions and profit-maximizing organizations. This paper supplements the conventional economic understandings of credit union and worker cooperative scarcity with an institutional analysis. Mechanisms of coercive, mimetic, and normative institutional isomorphism developed in DiMaggio and Powell’s theory of organizational isomorphism are applied to provide greater understanding of credit union and worker cooperative scarcity in the US. It appears that these forces of isomorphism work in conjunction with one another, …

An Intersectional Approach To Environmental Political Theory: A Case Study On Modern Andean Bolivian Indigenous Forms Of Resistance And Communal Democracy In Relation To Water Rights, Julia E. Seward

Scripps Senior Theses

Considers Bolivian Andean indigenous forms of democracy and resistance to neoliberal water privatization in Cochabamba. Incorporates environmental identity into the intersectional theoretical framework with principles rooted in Indigenous grass roots theory, Marxist critiques on capitalism, Latin American Neomarxist scholars, and Environmental Justice. Focuses on intersections of ethnicity, gender and class identities with environmental identity to understand the extent to which environmental injustices cannot be addressed in isolation from other sources of inequality.

Reconciliation And The Rule Of Law: The Changing Role Of International War Crimes Tribunals, Oriana H D Lavilla

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis explores the relationship between international war crimes tribunals and peacebuilding in post-conflict societies. The aim of the present study was to examine how the role and function of international tribunals has changed since the establishment of the Nuremberg tribunal in the early years after World War II. Due to the evolving nature of international law and the international criminal legal system, international tribunals have become increasingly recognized as an integral component of peacebuilding processes in the aftermath of conflict. As the first international tribunal mandated to restore international peace and security, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former …

Provocation In The Political Theories Of Plato, Rousseau And Nietzsche, Aaron Martin

Wayne State University Dissertations

I devise a theoretical model that provides an interpretive framework to define and describe the concept of provocation as well as to analyze and explain the theoretical provocations in Plato, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Friedrich Nietzsche's works. I assess their works as well as a wide-ranging body of scholarship both on the concept and the theorists, to show that--despite Plato, Rousseau and Nietzsche's many peculiarities both in terms of their lives and works--the three separate theoretical projects similarly use the conceptual language of provocation as an integral part of an overall rhetorical strategy to articulate their philosophical systems as ones of …

Election Reform: Does Early Voting Impact Turnout In Municipal Elections?, Gayle Alberda

Wayne State University Dissertations

Turnout in the United States is low, especially in municipal elections. Early voting laws, which have been adopted by over half of the states within the United States, offer voters a chance to cast a ballot over a longer period of time thereby lowering the cost of voting. Early voting includes no excuse absentee voting, in person early voting, and/or vote by mail elections. Many of the previous studies on early voting have focused on national or statewide elections. What has been largely understudied is the impact of early voting laws on voter turnout in municipal elections, where voter turnout …

The Rise Of The Social And The Change In The Political: A Consideration Of Arendt, Habermas, And Foucault, George Tyler

Wayne State University Dissertations

I explore parallels within the work of Hannah Arendt, Jürgen Habermas, and Michel Foucault. I examine the unexamined connections and commonalities among the works of these three preeminent political theorists with the aim of understanding our common, contemporary construction of "the political." Specifically, I examine the way that each of these theorists describes a condition wherein the very concept of "the political" has undergone significant changes. I demonstrate how these thinkers converge around the notion that what was once understood as "the political," has come to include concerns, modes of thought, and forms of action that were previously considered unpolitical. …

Absentee Soldier Voting In Civil War Law And Politics, David A. Collins

Wayne State University Dissertations

During the Civil War, twenty northern states changed their laws to permit absent soldiers to vote. Before enactment of these statutes, state laws had tethered balloting to the voter's community and required in-person participation by voters. Under the new laws, eligible voters - as long as they were soldiers - could cast ballots in distant military encampments, far from their neighbors and community leaders. This dissertation examines the legal conflicts that arose from this phenomenon and the political causes underlying it.

Legally, the laws represented an abrupt change, contrary to earlier scholarship viewing them as culminating a gradual process of …

Robust Regression Methods For Massively Decayed Intelligence Data, Akiva Joachim Lorenz

Wayne State University Dissertations

Homeland Security, sponsored by governmental initiatives, has become a vibrant academic research field. However, most efforts were placed with the recognition of threats (e.g. theory) and response options. Less effort was placed in the analysis of the collected data through statistical modeling. In a field that collects more than 20 terabyte of information per minute though diverse overt and covert means and indexes it for future research, understanding how different statistical models behave when it comes to massively decayed data is of vital importance.

Using Monte Carlo methods, three regression techniques (ordinary least squares, least-trimmed, and maximum likelihood) were tested …

Truth And Reconciliation Commissions: The Road To Democracy And Rule Of Law?, Julie Ann Keil

Wayne State University Dissertations

TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION COMMISSIONS: THE ROAD TO DEMOCRACY AND RULE OF LAW?

by

JULIE A. KEIL

December 2014

Advisor: Dr. Sharon Lean

Major: Political Science

Degree: Doctor of Philosophy

Every year millions of dollars are spent on Truth and Reconciliation Commissions (TRC) designed to bring about post-conflict resolutions in states through a formal process. This paper explores the major TRCs comparatively to assess the relationship between TRCs and the growth of democracy and rule of law in post conflict societies and compares that performance to a control group of states that experienced a conflict but did not conduct a TRC. …

Ben Judah: Fragile Empire Study Guide, 2014, Steven Alan Samson

Faculty Publications and Presentations

No abstract provided.

Eva Brann: The Music Of The Republic Study Guide, 2011-2014, Steven Alan Samson

Faculty Publications and Presentations

No abstract provided.

Terry L. Anderson And Peter J. Hill: Birth Of A Transfer Society Study Guide, 2014, Steven Alan Samson

Faculty Publications and Presentations

No abstract provided.

Book Review: Duty: Memoirs Of A Secretary At War, By Robert M. Gates, Michael A. Genovese

Political Science and International Relations Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

Book Review: The Good Neighbor: Franklin D. Roosevelt And The Rehetoric Of American Power, Michael A. Genovese

Political Science and International Relations Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

Book Review: Eleventh Hour: The Politics Of Policy Initiatives In Presidential Transitions, By David M. Shafie, Michael A. Genovese

Political Science and International Relations Faculty Works

No abstract provided.