Political Science Commons^™

How To Eliminate Corruption In Africa?, Sofia Graça

Global Studies Student Scholarship

Corruption is generally defined as the misuse of power for personal gain. The initial aim of this paper was to find a way to eliminate corruption. Even though corruption is a global problem, the research of this project is focused on African nations, particularly on the country of Angola.
The review of the literature consists of an analysis of the main causes and effects of corruption and of how they have a correlation to poverty and underdevelopment. I found that the specific case of Angola fits perfectly into all of the causes and effects of corruption that are mentioned in …

Of Books, Bloggers, And The Buddha

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

With the anniversaries of the 1959 (and 2008) Tibetan Uprisings just past, Tibet and Tibetan Buddhism has been much in the news in the past few months. But Buddhism more generally has been popping up in world news. A few readings on the topic…

1) “Six episodes” are distilled from Donald Lopez’s new book Buddhism and Science: A Guide for the Perplexed at University of Chicago Press’s website. Here’s one:

Although hailed in Victorian Europe for its rejection of the Indian caste system and its championing of the spiritual potential of all social classes, Buddhism also played a role in …

Naccs 36th Annual Conference, National Association For Chicana And Chicano Studies

NACCS Conference Programs

¡El Movimiento Sigue!
April 8-11, 2009
Hyatt Regency Hotel

Cultural Culinary Wisdom: Combating The Nutrition Transition, Alanna O'Neil

Global Studies Student Scholarship

The nutrition transition is a rapidly developing global problem. The disparity between the rates of global obesity and malnutrition is diminishing. Westernization and industrialization are serious factors contributing to the global food and dietary epidemic. As a result, food cultures are threatened by dietary changes inflicted by Westernization. Moreover, rates of diet related non-communicable diseases are on the rise as never seen before. This study examines the problem of the nutrition transition through the context of the prevalence of food cultures, case studies, culinary recipes, dietary habits, and cultural transitions. Supporting this research is a dietary survey of study abroad …

Growing Gardens And Nurturing Community In The Urban Environment, Katie Shaw

Global Studies Student Scholarship

The following literature will analyze how urban agriculture (UA), and more specifically community gardens, address the rising global pressures on urban areas by rebuilding local networks. First, it will present community gardening as a solution to the global food crisis. Second, five case studies will compare cities’ community garden projects throughout the world: Accra, Shanghai, St. Petersburg, Havana, and Philadelphia. The next section will study the demographics of community gardeners, especially its impacts on marginalized members of society: children, women, elderly, immigrants and ethnic minorities, and physical and mentally challenged. And finally, the issues of city planning and green design …

Interview With Bo Caldwell—Author Of "The Distant Land Of My Father," A Shanghai Novel, Jeff Wasserstrom

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Preface to the Interview (by Jeff Wasserstrom): When I was working on Global Shanghai, 1850-2010, I thought I was keeping up with the fiction as well as non-fiction that was being published about the city—at least things coming out in English and Chinese. Somehow, though, Bo Caldwell’s excellent 2001 Shanghai novel, The Distant Land of My Father, passed me by initially. I didn’t learn of it until the Pasadena Public Library invited me to give a public lecture on Shanghai’s past to provide background for an upcoming author’s visit. This would be part of their “One City, One Story” program, …

China In 2008 Price Drop

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Last Wednesday, Amazon dropped the price of China in 2008 to its lowest yet–just over $20 (the price has been fluctuating over the past couple weeks). And the site has also bundled China in 2008 with Peter Hessler’s Oracle Bones for about $30, so if any River Town fans never got around to ordering the second book by one of our contributors, now would be a great time to do so.

Amazon’s book bundling can be a little hit or miss, so we were wondering who Amazon would pair China in 2008 with, and were hoping it wasn’t a book …

The Effects Of Climate Change On Food Security, Nicolas Trilla

Global Studies Student Scholarship

Global hunger has become one of the most pressing issues our planet faces. The need to research the causes of this food shortage are more urgent than ever, and if we fail to act, the situation will only grow direr. Climate change and food shortage are both highly intricate, but their common ground is the area that is of greatest importance. Climate change has proven too much for global food production systems to bear, and as a result, climate-stressed regions are now experiencing food insecurity as well. Climate change has shaken the three pillars of food security—availability, access, and utilization—and …

Francophone African Immigration To The United States: Causes And Implications For American Social Work Practice, Whitney Henderson

Global Studies Student Scholarship

Francophone West Africans are a special population within whole African immigration to the US. Due to the political instability in the West African region, it is understandable why West Africans would seek immigration to more stable environment. What is not understood is why Francophone immigrants are immigrating to an English-speaking country such as the United States instead of France, where there is an official language commonality in addition to cultural similarities. In terms of social work practice, this is of great importance, as social workers will be aiding this group in resettling in the United States. This paper explores why …

This American Suburb: Fossil Fuels, Personal Misconceptions, And Loss Of Community, Stephan Mirando

Global Studies Student Scholarship

How did we come to live this way? The modern suburb has become synonymous with the American dream and yet its inception is still rather new. This work examines the creation of this way of life thanks to the ready availability of cheap fuels and questionable modes of thinking. In light of the energy crisis these vast expanses of homes may not be able to sustain themselves after the peak consumption of oil. In light of this possibility, the author questions what these people will be missing since the sense of community has all but been lost in these areas …

The Ngo Sector In Community Development: Emerging Roles, Strategies And Identities, Victoria Neff

Global Studies Student Scholarship

This community engaged thesis will articulate some of the identities, patterns, and dominant practices of NGOs related to community development in the hope of uncovering emerging trends. The literature review of this thesis will have a slight focus on NGO’s working in direct conjunction with the HIV/AIDS epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa. In addition, it will manifest the promise of social capital as necessary to an organization’s success. Civic participation remains critical in enabling an NGO to be politically active, to continue building networks, and instilling positive social attitudes. After expounding on these issues, this thesis will then propose a solution- …

Commemoration In 2009

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Readers may be interested to know that the new issue of China Heritage Quarterlyis out, and it examines the issue of commemoration (a relevant issue at the moment as, having just passed one sensitive set of dates, we are now into the spring–months strewn with anniversaries). As Editor Geremie Barmé writes in theMarch issue’s editorial:

The year 2009 also marks other significant anniversaries. Some of these will be commemorated with due pomp and circumstance in the official media and dissected at length by learned gatherings. Others—those events best thought of as ‘dark anniversaries’—will pass by in an atmosphere of heightened …

A Reader On Tibet

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Tibet has been much in the news the past few weeks, as China attempted to divert attention from the anniversary of last year’s riots and protests and reports leaked out of arrests and crackdowns in Tibet. Here are a few of the pieces from this week that we recommend.

In the current issue of The New York Review of Books, Pico Iyer writes about the Dalai Lama’s sinking faith in the Chinese leadership’s desire to resolve the situation in Tibet. Iyer points to the current situation in Tibet as the reason why—the title of his piece is “A Hell on …

Identifying Critical Junctures In Macroeconomic Policy - The Cases Of Mexico And Sweden In The Early 1980s, Ana Haro Maza, John Hogan

Articles

Abstract: This paper utilizes a new critical junctures framework to help understand the nature of the changes in macroeconomic policy. The framework consists of three elements which must be identified in sequence to be able to declare, with some certainty, if an event was a critical juncture. These are crisis, ideational change, and radical policy change. Utilizing the critical juncture framework, we will determine whether changes to Mexican and Swedish macroeconomic policy in the early 1980s constituted clean breaks with the past, or were continuations of previously established policy pathways, and why that was.

China’S Way Forward?, Mark Selden

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

2008—Annus Horribilis for the world economy—produced successive food, energy and financial crises, initially devastating particularly the global poor, but quickly extending to the commanding heights of the US and core economies and ushering in the sharpest downturn since the 1930s depression.

As all nations strive to respond to the financial gridlock that began in the United States and quickly sent world industrial production and trade plummeting, there has been much discussion of the ability of the high-flying Chinese economy to weather the storm, of the prospects for the intertwined US and Chinese economies, even of the potential for China to …

The Dalai Lama And The Nobel Prize: Correcting A Misunderstanding, A. Tom Grunfeld

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

As many readers of this blog doubtless realize, everything having to do with Tibet is subject to mythologizing. That the Dalai Lama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts on behalf of Tibetan independence is one of these myths. This notion gets mentioned in the Western press routinely, and it sometimes even shows up in comments by academic specialists. In fact, the prize was awarded to him more because of the events in Tiananmen Square that had happened just a few months before the award than for anything related to the Tibet struggle per se.

Indeed, it appears …

'Conflict Analysis:' Exploring The Role Of Kuwait In Mediation In The Middle East, Abdullah R. Al Saleh

Dissertations and Theses

The Middle East is a large geographical area, and while people think of it as a homogeneous area in terms of language and culture, the region IS actually more of a melting pot of ethnic, religious, racial and linguistic groups. Understanding the distinctions between these groups is of paramount importance to understanding the region. Historical rivalries between some groups, for example, Sunni and Shia Muslims, go back hundreds, perhaps thousands, of years. Yet, people continue with life. How do countries continue to deal with each other when there are open, unsettled questions, such as boundaries or control of islands? Is …

Following In The Footsteps Of Policy Entrepreneurs: Policy Advocates And Pro Forma Adopters, Brian Wampler

Political Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

The third wave of democratization has been accompanied by the spread of new institutions that allow citizens to directly participate in shaping policy outcomes. Leading international organizations, such as the World Bank and UN Habitat, have disseminated “best practice” programs identified with “good government” policy reform efforts. One of the most well-known programs, Participatory Budgeting (PB), was first adopted by an entrepreneurial government in 1989 as a means to promote social justice, accountability, and transparency. Yet, when these programs are copied by policy advocates and pro forma adopters the political pay-offs for government officials are smaller, which leads them to …

Research As A Learning Experience: Investigating Media Influence On Voters’ Opinions, Bridget Farmer

Inquiry Journal 2009

No abstract provided.

Negotiating With Separatist Terrorists, Dottie Bond

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

It is in the interest of this thesis to investigate why governments negotiate with separatist terrorists, and why those negotiations succeed or fail. The four cases analyzed in this thesis include: Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, (1983-2009); Russia and the Chechen Republic, (1994-2009); Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization, (1993-1994); and Great Britain and the Irish Republican Army, (1985-2009). In this study, four basic questions are addressed: When and why do governments agree to negotiate with separatist terrorists? Is negotiation a viable solution to ending historic ethnic conflicts? Are certain peace agreements and negotiation strategies more …

The Impact Of The Summer Olympics On Its Host City: The Costs Outweigh The Tangible Benefits, Steven Rosenblum

Honors Projects in History and Social Sciences

In the eyes of a host city, the reason to host the Summer Olympic Games has evolved from shining glory on athletic feats to receiving the perceived benefits from the opportunity. In the current times, there are a record number of Olympic events generating a demand for the construction of a larger amount of Games facilities than ever before. However, nations still vie for the winning bid to host the Olympics in one of their cities. This paper seeks to show that the costs of hosting the Games outweigh its tangible benefits. In detail, it will look at the financial, …

Interview With Basil Clunie, Juston Ori

Chicago Anti-Apartheid Movement

Length: 73 minutes

Oral history interview of Basil Clunie by Juston Ori

Basil Clunie recalls growing up in New York, attending cricket games, and following the Dodgers baseball team, especially Jackie Robinson. Education was an important part of his family, as his parents came to New York to for education, with his mother earning a degree in math and his father a pharmacy degree. He mentions describes about the organizations he worked with during his time in the anti-apartheid movement and recalls the sparked his activism in 1961. He discusses the 1964 race riots in Harlem, Marcus Garvey, Malcolm X, …

Interview With Carol Thompson, Marcia Monaco

Chicago Anti-Apartheid Movement

Length: 91 minutes

Oral history interview of Carol Thompson by Marcia Monaco

In this interview, Carol Thompson recalls her involvement and work in the anti-apartheid movement. She explains that her awareness of the anti-Apartheid movement began while at Northern Illinois University, but she first became involved after she moved to Chicago, when she met South African author, Donald Woods, which led to her involvement in the Dennis Brutus’ defense committee. She recalls that she initially worked with Clergy and Laity Concerned and later, alongside Prexy Nesbitt, became a founding member of CIDSA, which was committed to passing legislation in Chicago …

Interview With Mary Patten, Blair Allen Mishleau

Chicago Anti-Apartheid Movement

Length: 91 minutes

Oral history interview of Mary Patten by Blair Allen Mishleau

Mary Patten talks about her experiences during the 1960s and how the assassination of both Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy contributed to her consciousness. She describes wanting to be in the fight for equality at an early age by remembering her mother not letting go of her hand during to a protest during that time. Patten then describes the environment of her college education and its effect on her activism and her beliefs in equality. She mentions her role in Students for a Democratic …

Interview With Danny Rochman, Arturo Carillo

Chicago Anti-Apartheid Movement

Length: 159 minutes

Oral history interview of Danny Rochman by Arturo Carillo

Mr. Rochman begins by recounting the events of his first few years, he was born in Johannesburg in 1960 shortly after the Sharpeville Massacre, his family was forced to flee to England due to their involvement in the anti-Apartheid movement and aiding Mandela, eventually immigrating to Chicago. He then explains how he became involved in the anti-Apartheid movement himself as a student at Oberlin College, trying to push the school to divest from South African companies. He recalls his family’s deeper history, their immigration to South Africa, his …

Interview With Rachel Rubin, Brandi Schaeffer

Chicago Anti-Apartheid Movement

Length: 88 minutes

Oral history interview of Rachel Rubin by Brandi Schaeffer

Dr. Rubin begins by recalling her childhood in Chicago, raised with her twin brother and younger sister, in an ethnically diverse north side neighborhood. She explains how she became involved in activism work at the University of Illinois as part of a Campus program that helped her learn more about activism, discussing topics like Marxism and socialism. She mentions her involvement in the campus protests demanding the university divest from the South Africa. She describes joining CIDSA (Committee for Illinois Divestment in South Africa), later known as CCISSA …

Interview With Jeremiah Wright, Arlen Parsa

Chicago Anti-Apartheid Movement

Length: 175 minutes

Oral history interview of Jeremiah Wright by Arlen Parsa

Rev. Wright begins by describing his family, his “atypical” childhood, and his early aspirations to become a seminary professor. He explains the impact that the civil rights sit-ins had on his perspective and direction of his career path, attending college, joining the military, and entering the seminary. He explains how he became involved in the anti-Apartheid movement through his acquaintance with South African students in Chicago, his participation in TransAfrica and Commission for Racial Justice, and his involvement in divestment efforts within the churches. He reviews the history …

Latinos In New York State: Demographic Status And Political Representation, José Cruz

Policy Documents

This policy report provides data and brief analysis on demographic status and political representation of Latinos in New York State. Data (year 2000) is organized by county, state senate district, assembly district, congressional district -110th Congress, and councilmanic district. It also includes a directory of Latino elected officials and maps to visualize some of these data.

Changing The Culture Of Corruption - Do Small Steps Count?, Rhona Smith

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Corruption is endemic in modern society, but history attests this problem is as old as states themselves. No single solution to date has garnered sufficient political and/or popular support to effect change. Could education play a role in changing the culture?

Toward A New Era Of Russian–American Collaboration On Railroads, Andrew Langsner

Inquiry Journal 2009

No abstract provided.