American Politics Commons^™

Army Corps Of Engineers, U.S., Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

Provides an overview of how the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has influenced historical and contemporary economic, environmental, and political developments in the American West.

Aridity, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

Provides an overview of how aridity in the American West has influenced that region's economic, environmental, and political development and U.S. Government policies in this region.

Conservatism, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

Provides an overview of late 20th and early 21st century conservatism and its impact on western U.S. politics and national politics. Stresses the roles played by individuals such as Barry Goldwater, Ronald Reagan,and George W. Bush and their influence on western conservatism. Analyzes how conservatism has been influenced by policy research institutions and advocacy groups such as the Claremont Institute and Focus on the Family. Reviews areas of collaboration and contention in western conservatism between economic, national security, and social conservatives and more libertarian elements. Examines the rise of the Tea Party movement in response to Obama Administration policies and …

Agriculture, U.S. Department Of, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

Provides a succinct organizational history of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and its impact on the American West.

Colorado River Compact (1922), Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

Provides an overview of the 1922 Colorado River Compact seeking to fairly distribute Colorado River water to Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming and their increasing populations.

Hydroelectric Power, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

Provides a historical overview and contemporary analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of federal government support for hydroelectric power in the American West.

Oil Industry, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

Provides an overview of the historical and contemporary development of the American oil industry and how it has impacted U.S. natural resources policies in the American west.

Kyl, Jon, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

Provides an summary of the political career of Arizona Senator John Kyl who served in the Senate from 1995-2013 and as a congressional representative from 1987-1994.

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, U.S., Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

Provides a historical overview and contemporary analysis of the energy policymaking role played by the Energy Department's Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). FERC responsibilities include regulating the prices and interstate transmission of electricity, natural gas, and oil. Its responsibilities also include reviewing proposals to build and locate natural gas terminals, interstate natural gas pipelines, licensing hydropower projects, and regulating relevant mergers and securities acquisitions in these areas.

Mining, Uranium, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

Provides an overview of uranium mining's role and influence in the American West with comparative information on uranium mining in foreign countries.

Subsidies, Agricultural, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

Provides historical and contemporary information on U.S. Government agricultural subsidies and how they affect agricultural policy in the Western U.S.

Specialists, Generalists, And Policy Advocacy By Charitable Nonprofit Organizations, Heather Macindoe, Ryan Whalen

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Previous research finds modest levels of engagement in policy advocacy by charitable nonprofits, despite legal regulations permitting nonprofit advocacy and the significance of public policy to nonprofit constituencies. This paper examines nonprofit involvement in policy advocacy using survey data from Boston, Massachusetts. Nonprofit participation in policy advocacy is associated with professionalization, resource dependence, features of the institutional environment, and organizational characteristics such as size and mission. Drawing from population ecology theory, we examine an additional aspect of organizational mission: whether a nonprofit serves a specialized or general population. We find that nonprofits serving specialized populations are more likely to participate …

Department Of Defense Resource Allocations And Progress Toward U.S. Foreign Policy Objectives In Latin America, Melissa Rene Rodriguez

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

This research addresses the issue of insufficient or stagnated progress toward U.S. foreign policy objectives for Latin America through an analysis of Department of Defense resource allocations toward the region. These resources are critical to achieving progress toward U.S. foreign policy objectives because the relationships and engagements the DOD establish with Latin American partner nations largely precede and characterize the role of the U.S. in the region.

First 'efficiency' is defined, and then U.S. foreign policy objectives for the region and the regional issues are outlined. Next, Department of Defense resources are characterized and their posture and allocations in the …

Presidential War Powers, Matt Scott Formisano

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Even before the framing of the Constitution, the Framers feared an executive power that would grow too strong. This fear was reflected throughout debates held before, during, and after the American Revolution. Even today, debate still continues as to what the executive power entails when it comes to acts of war and treaties. The United States Constitution was framed with the purpose of dividing power between the branches of government in order to avoid abuse and tyranny. “The Constitution bestows enormous power and responsibility on the President to protect the nation’s security and safeguard the people’s liberty” (Matheson 1). Throughout …

The Cost Of Primacy: The Potential Impacts On American Domestic Health, Peter James Crosby

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

While scholars, soldiers and politicians have argued about the international consequences of American grand strategy, relatively little attention has been paid to the potential domestic consequences of American hegemony versus isolationism. This paper is an effort to start the process of understanding the relationship between American primacy (the current strategy) and its domestic impact. It looks at general areas of measurement, economic and social indicators, to determine if primacy has a positive or negative impact on the American people. Though additional research is necessary, this paper suggests primacy has not had the negative consequences suggested by proponents of isolationism.

Congressional Preferences And The Advancement Of American Nuclear Waste Policy, Rhoel Gonzales Ternate

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The problem of nuclear waste disposal has existed since the time of the Manhattan Project in World War II. Although there exist a number of technological hurdles, the main cause that has consistently plagued a solution to nuclear waste has been the politics behind it. This thesis attempts to add to the political literature behind nuclear waste disposal by examining the nuclear waste disposal preferences of members of the United States House and Senate. It then compares and contrasts those preferences with a report by President Obama's Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future. The hope was to determine if …

Feet In The South, Eyes To The West: Fort Smith Enters The Sunbelt, Adam Morrison Carson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This paper examines the political realignment of Fort Smith, Arkansas and argues that the standard historiographical argument about the process of realignment does not explain what occurred in this city. Much of the historiography of political realignment currently revolves around the belief in a white backlash against the federal government and the national Democratic Party for their support of African American civil rights. Though historians have moved toward a "suburban synthesis" that downplays the backlash thesis, historians still argues that many white southerners moved to the suburbs to avoid integration.

I argue that this process did not occur in the …

Political Twittoric : The Rhetorical Use Of Twitter By The Obama 2012 Presidential Campaign, Kainat Najmi Abidi

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

With the entrance of the digital age, the Presidential campaign has begun accommodating the growing trend of new technologies. A campaign can reach an audience in person, on the radio, through the newspaper, on television, and on the Internet. In 2008, President Barack Obama broke the limitations of campaigning by going social, which he continued in his run for reelection in 2012. Obama tapped into the popular social network of Twitter to run a portion his 2012 campaign. By utilizing this new network, Obama’s campaign accessed the multimodal quality of Twitter to benefit their goal of winning the 2012 election …

Death By Bullet, Fire, Or Vapor: Examining The Decision To Use The Atomic Bomb To End World War Ii In The Pacific Theatre, Jonathan Keenan

The Exposition

The atomic bomb is one of the most destructive devices man has created for warfare. Able to wipe out entire city blocks and dissolve a person’s body leaving only a shadow behind. How can any good be found in such a weapon? The paper will evaluate the process Americans went through to create this weapon and then use it. It will convey how different key players felt about the Bomb, such as politicians, scientists, and military figures. Both sides of the argument will be looked at whether the Bombs should have been dropped or if there was a way around …

A Style Of His Own: A Rhetorical Analysis Of Barack Obama, Victoria West

Hollins Student Conference (2012-2016)

This paper analyzes President Obama’s rhetoric in his two inaugural addresses in order to determine how his presidential rhetoric conforms to and violates current rhetorical traditions in inaugural addresses. For this paper a rhetorical analysis of Obama’s addresses was performed using a form of genre criticism. The components for this genre criticism were drawn from Vanessa B. Beasley’s work on presidential rhetoric in her book You, the People: American National Identity in Presidential Rhetoric. Anticipated results of this analysis will show that President Obama’s presidential rhetoric is more secular than previous presidents. The results will also illustrate that President Obama’s …

Parks, Sherman, B. 1890? (Sc 1006), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and full-text scan (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 1006. Letters, 1933 (2), written by Sherman Parks, Madisonville, Kentucky, to Joseph F. Garnett, Hopkinsville, Kentucky. Parks, as an officer in the Hopkins County and Kentucky Colored Independent Voters Leagues, requests assistance, including monetary aid to promote the recruitment of African- Americans to Kentucky’s Democratic Party.

Home Rule And Environmentalism: The Adoption Of Green Initiatives In U.S. Municipalities, Luke Eastin

2013 Awards for Excellence in Student Research & Creative Activity - Documents

In recent years there has been a movement in academia from studying environmental policy on the national level to a much narrower examination of local municipalities and their respective green initiatives. The implications of this research reach well beyond the borders of academics and hit squarely municipalities and their corresponding local policy makers. We, as political scientists, must ask what particular characteristics of municipalities play the most significant role in green initiative adoption. Recent urban scholarship has suggested several variables that influence the adoption of environmental policies, but one specific variable, municipality home rule status, has had little to no …

Report On The Media’S Affect In Relation To The Creation Of Optimism Or Pessimism About The United States, Spencer Brown

College of Social Sciences and Public Affairs Poster Presentations

In recent years, the United States news media has grown more partisan and thus more biased. This has led some people not to trust the United States news media. Others have embraced the new partisan United States news media. However, by embracing a United States news media that is more partisan and in a way commercial has this led the American public to be exposed to more negative stories about the United States and thus to become more pessimistic about the United States? The United States media’s impact as a source of information has an important affect on how United …

Carter, Chillon Conway, 1830-1891 (Mss 112), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and typescripts of selected material for Manuscripts Collection 112. Correspondence, chiefly written by Monroe County, Kentucky native Chillon Conway Carter, to his wife, Lucinda E. and his two daughters Nancy G. and Louisa A., during the Civil War. Also includes letters written to Carter by his brother, John B. Carter, who lived in White County, Illinois.

How To Know If You're An Extremist, Katherine M. White

SURGE

I’m a serious West Wing fan. I love it because it not only gives me a little insight into what is obviously a totally accurate depiction of what life is like working in the White House (right?) but it also makes me think. Take this scene from season 3 as an example:

Josh Lyman, the Deputy White House Chief, is stuck in the White House cafeteria with a group of high school students while the White House is under emergency lockdown. Since the students have been promised the opportunity to speak to influential people in D.C. during their visit, Lyman …

Explaining Political Activeness And Attitudes Toward Unionization Among Nurses In The United States., Crystal L. Lesmeister

Political Science Theses and Capstones

There is no question; nurses play a key role in healthcare. Nurses provide direct care, coordinate health promotion activities, educate, and provide support and advocacy to patients. Today, there are over two million registered nurses in the United States. My research aims to determine the variables that influence some nurses to be more politically active and more engaged in unionization than their counterparts. I analyze The National Sample Survey of Registered Nurses 2004 looking at a variety of potential explanations for union participation. Findings show a strong regional variation in the percentage of unionization, however, some of the conventional explanations …

Underwood, Henry Lewis, 1848-1925 - Collector (Sc 936), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scans (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 936. Letters kept by Henry Lewis Underwood, 1848-1925, a Bowling Green, Kentucky native, which include an 1800 letter of Henry Clay written to Robert Craddock; an 1875 letter of Jefferson Davis addressed to Underwood; an 1894 letter of Theodore Roosevelt addressed to C.R. Breckinridge; letters, 1885 (15), pertaining to a National Soldiers Reunion and Encampment; and miscellaneous items.

Natcher, William Huston, 1909-1994 (Sc 938), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 938. Letters, 1986, 1987 (2), written by William Huston Natcher, Washington D.C., to Dr. and Mrs. William R. McCormack, Bowling Green, Kentucky; photocopy of letter from Ann Landers to Natcher, 1988; photocopies of letters Natcher wrote to his grandsons 1985-1987; and newspaper clippings, 1987-1988.

The Effectiveness Of Targeted Political Advertisements, Vincent P. Malainy

Senior Honors Theses and Projects - Political Science

Political campaigns are increasingly turning to Internet advertisements to reach potential voters. These advertisements are designed to target a person's specific policy preferences. A series of three surveys were administered to students at EMU. The purpose was to determine the effects of targeted Internet-style advertisements on a person's perception of a candidate, their motivation to vote, and their knowledge of the candidate's platform. The results show that targeted advertisements tend to be more effective than non-targeted advertisements in improving a voter's perception of a candidate and increasing their motivation to vote. The results also shed light on the inferences that …

Anachronistic Policies In The United States: What All Policymakers Need To Know About Marijuana, Alex Riggs '13

Honor Scholar Theses

The following paper contains vital information for policymakers in the United States who wish to take first steps to challenge antiquated laws surrounding marijuana. It includes essential information concerning the history of the drug, the drug’s biology, the potential medical and nonmedical uses of the drug, genuine health concerns associated with its use, marijuana myths, and the many costs to society as a result of its prohibition. Ultimately, this paper argues why a United States without a federal ban on marijuana would improve economic conditions and personal liberty for its citizens, governs itself more transparently, and abides more closely to …