Political Science Commons^™

Covid-19 Isolation Mandates Decrease Out-Group Hostility In The Mena Region, Annie Gold

Sigma: Journal of Political and International Studies

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a devastating impact on the global economic landscape, leading to unprecedented unemployment spikes, supply chain standstills, and small business shutdowns. From a healthcare perspective, national governments have struggled to provide sufficient care and vaccination to citizens, often requiring strict curfews to remedy the lack of available healthcare provisions. The MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region has especially suffered during the pandemic. However, despite the challenging fiscal climate and underprovision of healthcare services, results from the 2021 Arab Barometer survey indicate that citizens’ tolerance of different ethnic and religious groups has increased since the onset …

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Sigma: Journal of Political and International Studies

No abstract provided.

Table Of Contents

Sigma: Journal of Political and International Studies

No abstract provided.

A Letter From The Editor, Zeke Peters, Editor-In-Chief

Sigma: Journal of Political and International Studies

This past year has proven to be different than expected. The COVID-19 pandemic still looms in the background of a domestic inflation crisis and international peace conflicts throughout EUrope and Asia. Uncertainty is high and the view of what tomorrow will bring consistently shifts, but there are some things that remain constant. Our interactions with one another—whether digitally or in person—matter. Our ability to sympathize and to come together in troubled times is what makes us human.

Harry Redner. Beyond Civilization: Society, Culture And The Individual In The Age Of Globalization. Routledge, 2014., Mariana Tepfenhart

Comparative Civilizations Review

Harry Redner was a reader at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, and a visiting professor at Yale University, University of California-Berkeley and Harvard University. His book has three parts: An Overview of History, The Present Predicament of History, and The Future Prospects of Civilization.

The book addresses two major issues affecting our society today. One of them is globalization and its effect on civilization. The topic is analyzed not only from a cultural perspective but also from a political and cognitive standpoint. The second issue is technology and its place in a global society. Redner argues Western civilization’s development of …

China Rising, 2000-2010, William A. Callahan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

No abstract provided.

Shifting Strategies: The Politics Of Radical Change In Provincial Development Policy In China, John A. Donaldson, Xiaotao Yang

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Why do provincial governments change policy, even when those policies have proven successful? This paper explores a debate regarding the determinants of provincial policy choice and the degree of discretion provinces are permitted in this area. It does so by scrutinizing the shift in Guizhou's development policy from a poverty reduction orientation to a wholehearted pursuit of economic growth, urbanization and industrialization. In contrast to those who argue that central experience, prospects for promotion or local conditions are key factors explaining policy choice, the paper concludes that Guizhou's shift in policy had more to do with the backgrounds and experiences …

Public Health And Civic Engagement, Bryan M. Bulger

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

The research seeks to answer the question does civic engagement affect public health outcomes. Scholars have been theorizing and testing various ideas in this field for some time. Yet, much of the work is general in nature and does not look into a specific argument regarding a causal relationship between civic engagement and public health. A Cost of Voting Index (COVI) with state specific values is used as a measure of civic engagement in this study. The thesis draws from individual level survey data from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) with respondents from all 50 American states. …

A Threat To Participate: The Impact Of Status Threat On Political Participation - Republicans In 2016, Cassandra Epping

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Social changes such as an expansion of minority rights, demographic shifts that effectively create a majority-minority nation, along with concerns related to America’s immigration practices and increasing globalization pose threats to the established status hierarchies in the United States, or, at least, some citizens perceive this to be the case. Status threat occurs when members of a dominant group believe their privilege, dominance, or way of life is under threat.

Perceived status threat has been shown to trigger conservative views and behaviors, including vote choice and policy preferences, especially among White Americans. However, much remains unknown regarding the influence of …

'Black Knight' Effect: The Role Of Russia In Countering Democratization In Montenegro And Serbia, Danilo Kalezic

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Russia’s growing presence in the Balkans represents a rising concern for the region’s democratic performance. Recent years witnessed series of events impeded by Kremlin to influence the political dynamics and internal affairs of Montenegro and Serbia. Thus, Russia exhibits all the features of ‘black knight’ for democracy in the region. The thesis looks at the impact on democracy performance of the Kremlin involvement within the two countries. It presents an analysis of the activities and strategies that are utilized to undermine democratization of the countries and how they relate to each other. Furthermore, the thesis argues that Kremlin influence in …

When Sanctions Can Benefit The Target: State Strategic Adjustment To Multilateral Sanctions In Russia And Beyond, Anna Marie Zapolska

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

The study analyzes how external threats in the face of multilateral sanctions can contribute to the sanctioned (target) state’s strategic adjustment in Russia and beyond. In 2014, the United States and the European Union, along with other Western allies, imposed severe economic sanctions in response to Russia’s military intrusion into Ukraine. In the Russian case, the sanctions failed to achieve their objectives and change the target state’s behavior. As a result, the country could strategically adjust its domestic and foreign policies to mitigate the damage. The key mechanisms that help explain Russia’s strategic adjustment to sanctions are an elite coalition, …

Educating The Policy-Makers: Analyzing The Effectiveness Of State-Level Discipline Policy In K-12, Alexandria Valkner

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

School discipline practices are an often debated topic in the field of education. In recent years, zero-tolerance policies and the use of consequences such as out-of-school suspensions have been routinely criticized. It is argued that those practices limit in-school instructional time and, therefore, directly affect student performance and achievement. Moreover, such discipline policies have also been known to disproportionately affect students from racial and/or ethnic backgrounds, students with disabilities, and students from low-income families compared to their peers. As a result, other disciplinary practices that focus more on restorative communication have been pursued. But little work has been done to …

Cambodian Government’S Responses To The Covid-19 Pandemic: A Success Story, Sopheachanboramey Tuon

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

This thesis addresses why the Cambodian government could handle the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. It investigates the factors that contribute to the government’s success. I argue that Cambodia’s success in tackling the COVID-19 crisis depends on the state’s possession of infrastructural power, which effectively enabled the government to mobilize resources, surveil people, disseminate information, and roll out vaccination across the country. Furthermore, I argue that Cambodia’s success in handling the COVID-19 pandemic also links to the government’s longing to enhance its legitimacy. These arguments are supported by the empirical findings from the interview of 25 respondents and the review …

Marx, Critical Theory, And The Treadmill Of Production Of Value: Why Environmental Sociology Needs A Critique Of Capital, Alex Stoner

Journal Articles

This chapter explores the domestication of Marx’s critique of political economy within Marxist-oriented environmental sociology, and treadmill of production (ToP) theory, in particular. The aim is to explicate the theoretical resources for a rigorous critique of capital-induced planetary degradation. Shortcomings of ToP theory pertaining to the conceptualization of capital and value are identified. The reasons for these shortcomings, including how they might be addressed, are elaborated by reconsidering key aspects of Marx’s critical theory of modern capitalist society. The chapter contributes to current discussions in both critical theory and environmental sociology by demonstrating the continued relevance of Marx’s critical theory …

An Appeal Of Covenant, Mustafa Ceric

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

Mustafa Ceric, Grand Mufti Emeritus of Bosnia, calls on Jewish, Christian, and Muslim religious leaders in Russia to oppose the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Ukrainian Clergy From The Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Uoc) Want Patriarch Kirill To Appear Before An Ecclesiastical Court

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

"More than 400 clergy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), who belong to the Moscow Patriarchate, have signed a call, to put Patriarch Kirill before an Ecclesiastical Court. What they have in mind is a gathering of the leaders of the ancient eastern churches, also the heads of the Orthodox churches of Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem. The heads of the ancient Patriarchates, during church history had exercised numerous times the function of a supreme ecclesiastical court for Orthodoxy."

Translated by Walter Sawatsky

Best Practices In Protestant Aid For Ukrainian Refugees: 2022, Mark R. Elliott

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

Excerpt: "Russia’s all-out invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, dramatically accelerated Moscow’s military campaign against its southwestern neighbor which had begun in 2014. This unprovoked invasion managed to generate an equally dramatic displacement of Ukrainian civilians, some 13.5 million and counting.

"Paradoxically, the humanitarian response has been both phenomenal and inadequate. It has been phenomenal in its prodigious marshalling of resources and in its determination to alleviate enormous human suffering, calling forth impulses of generosity on a massive scale on the part of the UN, the EU, numerous individual European and North American governments, businesses, foundations, relief and development …

Reconciliation Attempts And The Return To Conflict In The Balkans, 2010-2022 (And Parallels To The Russian War On Ukraine), Vjekoslav Perica

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

"Hopefully there will be soon peace in Ukraine, and another attempt at reconciliation in Western Balkans. Even as mostly symbolic and commemorative practices, these endeavors proved that they improve social trust and reduce interethnic tensions. There still remains the question about the purpose and long-term goals of such reconciliation efforts. In my 2021 book, Reconciliation and Last Days, published in Belgrade, Serbia, I argue that postwar reconciliation projects make sense, provided there is a new beginning for wartime enemies, that is, the peoples, faiths, and states in the region. In other words, the purpose of a longer period of peace …

Successful Strategies To Drive Change Management Initiatives Within Global Organizations, Vickey John-Joseph

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

AbstractIneffective change management initiatives can negatively impact organizational performance and profitability, leading to a lack of adaptation and business collapse. Business leaders are concerned with formulating and implementing strategies needed to drive successful change management initiatives for improving organizational performance. Grounded in Lewin's theory of change, the purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore strategies that some business leaders used to successfully implement change management initiatives for improving organizational performance. The participants included four business leaders from four organizations in St. Lucia, Caribbean, with at least five years of experience in leadership who successfully implemented organizational change …

Abstract Immigration Policies Of The Obama And Trump Administrations Focused On Alien Arrests, Levino Lorenzo Johnson

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

AbstractImmigration policy has been a growing concern for the United States, but it was unknown what differences had been experienced between President Trump and President Obama’s implemented immigration policies. Therefore, the purpose of this quantitative descriptive study was to determine if any statistically significant differences existed between the number of “criminal aliens” arrested for removal versus non-criminal aliens arrested with victimless crimes during the Obama and Trump administration. This cross-sectional study was guided by punctuated equilibrium theory and data were gathered by available public, archival data. The total number of documented/undocumented non-criminal alien arrests during the Obama Administration from January …

Public Trust And Citizen Engagement As Tools Of Democrcay For Good Governance In Nigeria, Olukayode Gilbert Ojo

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

AbstractSince Nigeria gained independence in 1960, political leaders' and elected officials' behavior and actions have contributed to a decline in public trust and people's engagement with the democratic system. It is currently unknown whether the concepts of public trust and citizen engagement can be democratic tools for good governance in Nigeria, with its diverse religions, ethnicities, and cultural values. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore the Yoruba people’s perceptions of the barriers to and facilitators of public trust and citizen engagement in the Nigerian democratic system. The theoretical framework was polarities of democracy theory, espoused by …

Cross-Cultural Strategies For Leaders To Improve Organizational Performance, Dianna Olsen

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

AbstractSome nonprofit leaders lack strategies to develop cross-cultural competency for improving organizations’ performance. Cross-cultural competencies are needed to manage culturally diverse work teams effectively. Grounded in cultural competency theory, the purpose of this qualitative multiple-case study was to explore the strategies nonprofit leaders use to develop cross-cultural competency for improving organizations’ performance. The participants were seven nonprofit leaders who successfully led teams cross-culturally in Mexico and the United States. Data were collected from semistructured interviews, direct observations, and organizational records. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the data. Five themes were identified: collective alliance strategy, co-decision-making strategy, cooperative goal focus …

Fire Safety Education And Increasing Functioning Smoke Detectors In Residential Apartments, Enrique Fernandez Robinson

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The lack of functioning smoke detectors poses significant life safety risks to people in low-income residential communities. In 2019, a fire incident occurred in an urban Maryland community due to the lack of a functioning smoke detector. Although no deaths or injuries resulted, there was significant property damage and resident displacement. The purpose of this study was to assist a local fire department in an urban area of the state of Maryland with developing and implementing a fire safety community outreach program designed to reduce the percentage of residential homes in a low-income community without functioning smoke detectors. A qualitative …

An Exploration Of Medical Residency Program Managers Resolving International Medical Graduate Acculturation Challenges, Candice Melissa Love

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

AbstractInternational medical graduates (IMGs) undergo rigorous training and certification requirements for entry into medical residency programs in the United States. Despite having professional expertise and academic training, some IMGs experience acculturation challenges that negatively impact engagement and professional relationships during medical residency. Grounded in Berry’s Acculturation model and Portes and Zhou’s segmented assimilation model, the purpose of this qualitative narrative inquiry was to explore the best practices medical residency program managers developed while leading IMGs. The participants consisted of 22 U.S. medical residency program managers, directors, and coordinators who had at least 3 years of experience managing IMGs. Participants responded …

À La Carte Cable: A Regulatory Solution To The Misinformation Subsidy, Christopher R. Terry, Eliezer J. Silberberg, Stephen Schmitz, John Stack, Eve Sando

Catholic University Journal of Law and Technology

Although “fake news” is as old as mass media itself, concerns over disinformation have reached a fever pitch in our current media environment. Online media outlets’ heavy reliance on user-generated content has altered the traditional gatekeeping functions and professional standards associated with traditional news organizations. The idea of objectivity-focused informational content has primarily been substituted for a realist acceptance of the power and popularity of opinion-driven “news.” This shift is starkly visible now: mainstream news media outlets knowingly spread hoaxes, conspiracy theories, and the like.

This current state of affairs is not some freak accident. The Supreme Court’s First Amendment …

Possibilidades De Uma História Pragmática Do Político, William J. Novak, Stephen W. Sawyer

Articles

This essay is an initial attempt to posit a method which has slowly taken shape through our individual and collaborative investigations into the history of democracy in the United States and France. Our overall approach builds on a number of diverse methodological influences, but in this particular essay we highlight just two of the most influential precedents for our work: first, the pragmatic-hermeneutical approach most explicitly outlined by James T. Kloppenberg in his “Thinking Historically : A Manifesto of Pragmatic Hermeneutics” and second, Pierre Rosanvallon's methodological essays on the theme of “Une histoire conceptuelle du politique,” ​​which he launched with …

The Impact Of Democratically Elected Islamist Governments On The Implementation Of Foreign Policy: Cases Of Egypt, Morocco, And Tunisia, Taghreed Alsabeh

Dissertations

This dissertation aims to examine the foreign policy of elected Islamist parties in Egypt, Morocco, and Tunisia while in power and compare their foreign policy with non-Islamist parties from their respective countries. It seeks to answer the following questions: What is the role of democratically elected Islamist parties on the implementation of foreign policy? Does the foreign policy of Islamist parties differ from that of non-Islamist parties? Do Islamist parties apply their Islamist ideology to foreign policy? Finally, do Islamist parties in Egypt, Morocco, and Tunisia share similar foreign policy approaches? The study concludes that the difference in foreign policy …

Facing The Mass Exodus: Reconsidering The Moral Responsibilities For And Obligations Toward Large Numbers Of Refugees In An Age Of Global Crises, Muhammet Ali Asil

Dissertations

The global refugee crisis has revealed an essential moral question regarding helping the forcibly displaced persons in protracted refugee crises: how do we determine if our community has done “enough” for a particular refugee group? Different answers have been provided to this question. This dissertation takes up this question from a normative standpoint. It develops an ethics-based burden-sharing model, that is, a “meaning-based model,” as a method to determine our political communities’ moral duties toward different refugee groups in various refugee crises. The model challenges the conventional wisdom by claiming that not every community has the same moral obligations toward …

Dynamic Modeling Of Inland Flooding And Storm Surge On Coastal Cities Under Climate Change Scenarios: Transportation Infrastructure Impacts In Norfolk, Virginia Usa As A Case Study, Yawen Shen, Navid Tahvildari, Mohamed M. Morsy, Chris Huxley, T. Donna Chen, Jonathan Lee Goodall

Civil & Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Low-lying coastal cities across the world are vulnerable to the combined impact of rainfall and storm tide. However, existing approaches lack the ability to model the combined effect of these flood mechanisms, especially under climate change and sea level rise (SLR). Thus, to increase flood resilience of coastal cities, modeling techniques to improve the understanding and prediction of the combined effect of these flood hazards are critical. To address this need, this study presents a modeling system for assessing the combined flood impact on coastal cities under selected future climate scenarios that leverages ocean modeling with land surface modeling capable …

The World Health Organization, The Trump Administration, American Public Opinion, And China: A Principal-Agent Problem, Megan Patrice Larson

Master's Theses

Why did the United States perceive the World Health Organization as ineffective during the COVID-19 pandemic? To answer this question, this research delves into current principal-agent model literature to reproduce mechanisms present by the WHO and the United States. Current research fails to explain the WHO's effectiveness. By borrowing from realist theory and political psychology and analyzing various declarations made by the United States, this analysis found preliminary evidence that the idea of WHO's ineffectiveness was primarily shaped by the Trump Administration and American public opinion. Moreover, because of the disinformation and misinformation spread by the Trump Administration, the WHO …