Political Science Commons^™

Growing Change: Local Foods Movements And The Emergence Of Global Social Change, Annie S. Virnig

Political Science Honors Projects

Local foods movements increasingly emerge as social movements with the power to challenge global norms. This paper develops around the question: can local foods movements create holistic sustainability at the global level? I begin by analyzing impetuses behind contemporary local foods movements. I then evaluate sustainability in three case studies – Auroville, India; the Twin Cities, United States; and Southern Africa. I ultimately argue that local foods movements can create sustainable change if they: (1) develop organically within their locale, (2) account for ecological, social, and economic implications of their actions, and (3) build translocal connections across multiple geographic scales.

Private Warfare: History Of The Increasing Dependency On Private Military Corporations And Implications, Erika Morris

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

A history of the private military industry, how and why it emerged, and why nations around the globe are becoming increasingly dependent on them. Investigates limitations and implications of these corporations and possible policy prescriptions to correct many of the imperfections currently found in the system.

“Our Sweat, Our Struggle, Our Success”: The Women Of The Comamnuvi Cooperative, Tabitha Lazenby

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

On October 30, 1998 Hurricane Mitch swept across the shores of Nicaragua leaving countless Nicaraguans homeless, hungry, and unemployed. 14,000 of these refugees were relocated to a municipality in Cuidad Sandino called Nueva Vida (New Lift). In the year 2000 a small group of women began working with Jubilee House Community's Center for Development in Central America project and Maggie's Organics to initiate the industrial sewing project of the Cooperativa Maquiladora Mujeres de Nueva Vida Internacional (Comamnuvz). The project started with 50 women and men, but due to harsh economic conditions and the necessity for workers to find paying jobs, …

An Obscene Gesture: A Civil Approach To Interpreting Community Standards, Nathan B. Laursen

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Since the 1970's, obscenity cases in the US legal system have long been detennined by the three-part Miller test. Criminal convictions for obscenity have frequently been disputed due to the ambiguous nature contained within the three-part test, especially having the trier of fact apply "contemporary community standards." Technological advances and increasing homogeneity has added to the dubious nature of the test and some feel obscenity laws need revised, ifnot eliminated. Numerous suggestions have been made to improve the "intractable problem" ofdetennining what is obscene speech. This paper considers some of those possibilities and suggests commentary on others. One way of …

May Roundtable: Introduction

Human Rights & Human Welfare

An annotation of:

“Case Closed: A Prosecutor Without Borders” by Julie Flint and Alex de Waal. World Affairs. Spring 2009.

The International Criminal Court, Mark Gibney

Human Rights & Human Welfare

I believe I speak for many when I say that the International Criminal Court (ICC) has not been anywhere near the institution that it was anticipated as being, and the latest manifestation of the ICC’s shortcomings is the humanitarian disaster that has ensued after the Court issued an arrest warrant against Sudanese President Bashir. Since no other UN action is anticipated, all that remains is to count the ever-growing number of Sudanese deaths that will result from what now appears to be a purely symbolic act that was all-too predictable.

Adjudication For The Adjudicators?, Rebecca Otis

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Coming from the perspective of one who roundly agrees with Kofi Annan that the creation of the International Criminal Court was “a gift of hope to future generations, and a giant step forward in the march towards universal human rights and the rule of law,” it is deeply troubling to read reports of corruption within the body of the UN. Julie Flint and Alex de Waal’s piece this month judiciously exposes yet another facet of questionable activities, namely at the heart of the ICC. Flint and de Waal’s piece quickly deepens into a long list of allegations against the personal …

Character Assassination In The Court Of Public Opinion, Tyler Moselle

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Alex de Waal and Julie Flint employ character assassination on Luis Moreno Ocampo in their World Affairs article “Case Closed: A Prosecutor Without Borders.” Ironically, they are guilty of the same crime they accuse Ocampo of: being overly occupied with the court of public opinion. Or perhaps, that is the only court they as Sudan specialists, and Ocampo as the ICC’s first Prosecutor, have recourse to when attempting to right the wrongs of injustice.

On The Development Of Democracy In Japan: From Samurai To Civil Society, Hamilton Tyler D’Aquilla

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

A Political Construct Of Empathy: From Evolutionary Origins To Political Manifestations, John Westly Risher

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

The Effect Of The Political Process On Education: Political Corruption And Education In Paterson, New Jersey, Curtis Martell Eatman

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Paterson, New Jersey Public school system has continued to produce low-graduation rates, high drop-out rates, and low test scores despite being taken over by the state of New Jersey. In this qualitative paper, I see to place the blame for Paterson’s failing schools not on the teachers, parents and students—which other scholars have done—but on the politicians (namely the Board of Education) for their failures in leadership, being inept, and all out corruption. I propose solid solutions to the problem of Paterson failing schools. This study builds off of the scholarship of Lydia Segal, who worte Battling Corruption in America’s …

A Place Like This: An Environmental Justice History Of The Owens Valley - Water In Indigenous, Colonial, And Manzanar Stories, Monica Embrey

Pomona Senior Theses

This text provides an environmental justice analysis of the stories of the people who lived in the Owens Valley, who watered its land and cultivated its crops—pine trees, apple trees, and kabocha alike. Telling the personal stories of challenge and resistance that manifested alongside the oppressive forces of military and state domination provides the opportunity to align forcibly relocated, exploited and incarcerated people’s struggles throughout time. This text starts with The Nü’ma Peoples who were the first humans to live in the Owens Valley and continues with the struggle for empire between rival colonial empires of agriculture and distant urban …

The Political Application Of Humor, Matthew K. Harris

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

In the weeks preceding the 2008 US Presidential Election, both major party candidates and their running mates made appearances on several late night comedy programs. Candidates told jokes during campaign speeches. Advertisements from both sides featured humor. In examining the campaigns of candidates since the dawn of radio and television, humor is clearly a weapon politicians believe to be important when running for office. In my Capstone Project, I hoped to answer a very basic question: Why? Psychologically, what factors allow humor to be a valuable tool for politicians in appealing to voters?

For the following thesis, I examined research …

Native American Elementary Education In The Syracuse City School District: A Microcosm Of The Native American Struggle For Self-Determination And Tribal Sovereignty, Margaret Eleni Mcweeney

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

This intent of this paper is to research Native American education in theSyracuseCitySchool District. This paper examines the relationship of the Onondaga Nation and the New York State Department of Education. The Onondaga Nation is a Native American Nation that neighbors the City ofSyracuse. The Nation is one of a Confederacy of Six Native American Nations inNew YorkStatecalled the Haudenosaunee.

Native American students across theUnited Stateshave extremely low graduation rates in city public schools. The Onondaga Nation attributes this to policies of marginalization and insensitive curriculum materials in public school. Many theories have been proposed that minority students often suffer …

The Restriction Of Civil Liberties During Times Of Crisis: The Evolution Of America's Response To National Military Threats, Matthew D. Fairman

Government and International Relations Honors Papers

This treatise explores the nature and significance of the threat posed to civil liberties during times of major national military crisis and evaluates changes in the nature of wartime repression over the course of American history. It tests the thesis that the evolution in Americans’ response to such crises has not been a simple progression toward increasing restraint on the part of federal, state, and local policymakers, as is sometimes assumed. Rather, major twentieth and twenty-first century developments related to the nature of threats to American national security and government capabilities to covertly repress dissent have interacted with evolutionary changes …

Deliberative Constitutionalism, John J. Worley

BYU Law Review

No abstract provided.

International Criminal Justice Must Not Only Be Done, It Must Be Seen To Be Done, Rhona Smith

Human Rights & Human Welfare

“[U]ntil a time in which the global governance structure is not reliant on states, humanity will continue to fail in its attempt to protect global human rights” (Eric Leonard, June 2008 Roundtable). Discourse across a range of disciplines (e.g. Roundtable comments by Landman in October 2008, and Thomson-Jensen and co-panelists in May 2007), irrespective of the methods of evaluation, conclude that the existing system of “human rights protection” fails those whose rights are heinously violated: millions die annually as a direct result of violations of basic human rights (food, clean water, adequate health); gross and systematic violations of human rights …

The Prosecutor Of The Icc: Too Political, Not Political Enough, Or Both?, Chandra Lekha Sriram

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Much of the criticism of the behavior of the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, revolves around two apparently contradictory criticisms, although both may well be true: that he is too political, and that he is not political, or politically savvy, enough. Certainly, his rush to pursue high-profile indictments, contemporaneous with his pursuit of the “low-hanging fruit” (supposedly easy cases such as that of Thomas Lubanga Dyilo), suggest a prosecutor with sharp political instincts and a recognition of the need for a new institution to have a few “quick wins.” Yet, simultaneously, his blundering approach with respect to …

Analyzing Policy Issues In Presidential Speeches And The Media: An Agenda-Setting Study, Jessica L. Hughes

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

For decades, researchers have maintained that the president has a significant role in setting the policy-making agenda. In this study, a grounded theory approach was applied to determine President George W. Bush's success in focusing the media's attention toward policies mentioned in his State of the Union Addresses (2002-2008). Bush's issue priorities were determined by coding individual paragraphs as themes. To identify the frequency of these same themes in the media, the front pages of The L.A. Times, The New York Times, and The Washington Post were analyzed one week before and after each address. Coding was limited to every …

The Plunge Into Secession: The Presbyterian Schism Of The Reverends. Charles Hodge, James Henley Thornwell And Benjamin Morgan Palmer, Deborah Jane Rayner

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The Presbyterian Church had one of the largest pro-slavery clergy of any antebellum Protestant church. These men extracted verses and passages from the Bible to prove God sanctioned slavery. Many Southern Presbyterian ministers including Charles Hodge, James Henley Thornwell and Benjamin Morgan Palmer used the pulpit to defend slavery and advocate secession, collapsing political and religious boundaries. I focus on the 1855-1861 debates about slavery in the Presbyterian Church led by Charles Hodge, James Henley Thornwell, and Benjamin Morgan Palmer. I reorient the argument from the usual political and economic accounts of the antebellum secession discussions and build upon current …

The Undermining Of International Human Rights Law : The Clash Of Western And Non-Western Human Rights Ideologies, Anahita Agha-Ghassem

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

The notion of human rights is an undeniable, undisputable concept that has received universal validity. However, the history of human rights has shown the difficulty that exists in protecting and guaranteeing these rights, which in turn illustrates the difficulty in enforcing international human rights laws. In recent years, the legitimacy of international human rights law has become a highly debated topic. Events in the West and the East have cast a spotlight on its authority. The question of its universality has also surfaced as more human rights violations are taking place worldwide. Several human rights issues, in both Western and …

Protecting The Appropriations Power: Why Congress Should Care About Settlements At The Department Of Justice, Todd David Peterson

BYU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Theories Of Poverty/The Poverty Of Theory, Barbara Stark

BYU Law Review

No abstract provided.

May Fourth Movement: Top Five Readings, Rana Mitter

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

The May Fourth Movement – so famous in China it doesn’t need a year, although 1919 – the year it happened – has become legendary too. On that date, some three thousand students marched through Beijing demonstrating against Japanese imperialism and started a political movement that would become identified with Chinese demands for “science” and “democracy” through the next century. From the Cultural Revolution to Tian’anmen Square, May Fourth echoes through China’s modern history. The Chinese Communist Party still claims the movement as its point of origin. On May 4, 2009, the movement will be ninety years old. In some …

A Monster Mash(Up) With Chinese Characteristics: Breaking News From The Prc For Those Intrigued By The "Pride And Prejudice And Zombies" Phenomenon

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

By the end of this post, readers will have been able to click on a word to be introduced to the sounds of “Redgrass Music” (a genre that uses Chinese instruments in a novel manner), seen the special look of a curious vehicle recently displayed in Shanghai that one journalist has said should be called a “Lexiac” ( like a Pontiac from the front, like a Lexus from behind), and discovered something important that Zhang Yimou and Jane Austen have in common (hint: surprise appearances by the undead are involved in each case). First, though, some background about “mash-ups” (aka …

Digital Traces Of 1989

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

China Beat sent out a note to a few scholars and journalists who have carefully watched and written about the events of 1989, asking them to send in short commentaries detailing what they wish more people knew, associated with, or remembered about that spring. We ran the first piece in this limited series, by John Gittings, on April 23, the second, by Jonathan Unger, on April 26. This is the third piece.

Yang Guobin is an Associate Professor of Asian and Middle Eastern Cultures at Barnard College. He has written essays on many subjects, including the students protests of 1989, …

Reprint: Conflicts And Clashes Are The Social Norm, Sun Liping

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

China Beat checks in regularly with Xujun Eberlein at her blog Inside-Out China, and we’ve run pieces by Xujun in the past. In early April, she ran another in her series of translations of Chinese materials. We thought this continuation of her translation of Professor Sun Liping‘s works on social protest was interesting enough to reproduce in full (with Xujun’s permission).

Note: About a month ago I translated an essay from Prof. Sun titled “The Biggest Threat Is not Social Unrest but Societal Breakdown.” His rational and perceptive view attracted wide interest from readers, and that post was linked by …

Tiananmen Moon: Beida Summit, Philip J. Cunningham

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

For the second time in a day I’m on the run with Chai Ling. For the second time in a month I find myself in a beat-up jalopy racing towards the Beida student center at Sanjiaodi. Again I am huddled together with members of the vanguard, only this time it’s not musicians wanting to know what the students are up to but the student leadership itself.

The interior of a moving van is a reasonably good place to hide, assuming the driver is trustworthy and the vehicle not bugged. Chai Ling sits behind me in the third row, curled up …

Informal Institutions: Proportional Representation And Single Party Dominance In South Africa, Sebastian Watt

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

No abstract provided.

The Tiananmen Protestors, Then And Now, Jonathan Unger

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Looking back in time from a distance of two decades, we are apt to forget the economic circumstances in which the nationwide protests of 1989 arose, as well as the vantage points of the protests’ participants.

In the late 1980s, people across China felt frustrated and angered by inflation and mounting corruption. This dissatisfaction had been moving toward a crisis point over the previous couple of years despite the fact that urban living standards, on the whole, had been rising steadily throughout most of the Eighties. But expectations of a better life had been rising even faster, and when inflation …