American Politics Commons^™

Nepa And The Dynamics Of Public Participation In The Environmental Review Process: An Analysis Of The Northmet (Polymet) Mining Project Near Hoyt Lakes Minnesota, Amber Neumann

Political Science Theses and Capstones

Hypothesis: That comments collected from agency “experts” during the scoping phase of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process would be disproportionately represented as changes in subsequent drafts of NorthMet’s Environmental Impact Statement (EIS).

Methods: Tabular analysis of data collected from the Minnesota DNR publication of Response to the Public Scoping Projects PolyMet Mining Inc.; NorthMet Project. 2005

Results: There is an excellent cross section of comment sources represented in changes to subsequent drafts of NorthMet’s EIS. A lot of overlap exists between various types of participants and their concerns, resulting in many of the successful comments stemming from …

The Politic 2009 Winter, The Politic, Inc.

The Politic

No abstract provided.

Religion, Rhetoric, And Running For Office: Public Reason On The Us Campaign Trail, Brian Stiltner, Steven Michels

Political Science & Global Affairs Faculty Publications

It is common, almost expected, for candidates for office in the United States to affirm their religious identity and to employ broad religious themes in support of their political agendas. It is the rare candidate, especially for the Senate or the presidency, who completely eschews religious language due to the pressure and scrutiny of church leaders and advocacy groups with religous and moral agendas.

The Declining Significance Of Presidential Races?, Angela Onwuachi-Willig, Osamudia R. James

Articles

No abstract provided.

Cuba, U.S. Naval Blockade Of, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

Provides an overview and analysis of the U.S. naval blockade of Cuba during this conflict.

The More Things Change, The More They Stay The Same, Neal Devins

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Community, Conversation, And Conflict: A Study Of Deliberation And Moderation In A Collaborative Political Weblog, Samantha Isabella Soma

Dissertations and Theses

Concerns about the feasibility of the Internet as an appropriate venue for deliberation have emerged based on the adverse effects of depersonalization, anonymity, and lack of accountability on the part of online discussants. As in face-to-face communication, participants in online conversations are best situated to determine for themselves what type of communication is appropriate. Earlier research on Usenet groups was not optimistic, but community-administered moderation may provide a valuable tool for online political discussion groups who wish to support and enforce deliberative communication among a diverse or disagreeing membership.

This research examines individual comments and their rating and moderation within …

The American Empire: Grotesque Inequity Is Corrosive To Democracy, Gil Villagran

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

The initial inconsistency is that our nation was founded upon pre-existing nations of native peoples, robbed of their land by our founding fathers, sometimes enslaved, eventually forced off their lands, millions killed by war.  

Great Power Politics And The Structure Of Foreign Relations Law, Daniel Abebe

Faculty Scholarship

Foreign relations law serves as an internal constraint on the unilateral exercise of foreign relations powers through the distribution of authority within the national government. Given the predominance of the executive branch in foreign affairs, courts routinely resolve questions regarding the breadth of the executive's authority by reference to the Constitution, legal precedent, historical practice, and functional considerations. Though courts generally focus on these domestic factors, they have been historically quite sensitive to the international political implications of their decisions. But we don't have a clear understanding of how or when courts consider international politics in resolving foreign relations law …

A Plea For Reality, Roy A. Schotland

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Legend has it that a long-ago Chief Justice of Texas said, “No judicial selection system is worth a damn.” This view has been all but proven by American experience; nothing else in American law matches this subject in terms of the volume of written debate and endless sweat spent working for change. The selection system for federal judges is unchanged but far from untroubled, and

the States have never used a common method . . . . [O]ne can identify almost as many different methods . . . as there are States in the Union . . . . Moreover, …

Next Door They Have Regulation, But Not Here …: Assessing The Opinions Of Actors In The Opaque World Of Unregulated Lobbying, John Hogan

Articles

The lobbying of government by various interests is regarded as central to the democratic process. Deliberative democratic theorists tell us that the regulation of lobbying has a positive effect on political systems, and the behaviour of those within them. Yet, only a small number of democracies have implemented legislation regulating lobbyists’ activities. Even within these countries, certain jurisdictions still have not enacted lobbying regulations. Here we examine the attitudes of actors in these unregulated provinces, states and institutions towards the idea of lobbying legislation. This ensures that in the broader context the actors we deal with have knowledge of lobbying …

The Federal Courts And Constitutional Interpretation: A Second Amendment Case Study, Mark Kemper

Bridgewater Review

No abstract provided.

Cultural Commentary: Race And The Race, William C. Levin

Bridgewater Review

No abstract provided.

Can Public Debt Enhance Democracy?, Clayton P. Gillette

William & Mary Law Review

This Essay draws on historical and current examples to examine the extent to which public creditors can enhance democracy by monitoring public officials in a manner that compensates for the failures of the government debtor's constituents to monitor public officials. Creditors and constituents may share significant interests, depending on the structure of security arrangements for public debt and the identity of the debtors. Where interests overlap, the capacity of creditors to overcome collective action problems suffered by constituents may transform creditors into surrogates for constituents. Whether creditors are willing to play this role, however, may depend on the existence of …

Latinos And The 2008 Presidential Elections: A Visual Data Base, Laura Limonic

Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies

Introduction: This report examines the impact of Latino voters on the 2008 presidential election at both the national and state levels.

Methods: All data in this report were derived from the exit polls from Edison Media Research as published by CNN and Pew Hispanic Center’s analysis of the exit polls from Edison Media Research as published by CNN.

Results: Nationwide, Latinos voted overwhelmingly for Barack Obama over John McCain. Obama received 67% of the Latino vote, compared to 31% for McCain. Obama also received the majority of votes from other minority groups. Latinos increased their share of the national vote …

Perpetual Conflict Or Compromise? The Cost Of Domestic Legitimacy In The Realm Of Women's Human Rights: A Case Study On The Right To An Abortion, Kim Andrea Kelly

Honors Scholar Theses

With its turbulent and volatile legal evolution, the right to an abortion in the United States still remains a highly contested issue and has developed into one of the most divisive topics within modern legal discourse. By deconstructing the political underpinnings and legal rationale of the right to an abortion through a systematic case law analysis, I will demonstrate that this right has been incrementally destabilized. This instability embedded in abortion jurisprudence has been primarily produced by a combination of textual ambiguity in the case law and judicial ambivalence regarding this complex area of law. In addition, I argue that …

President Obama And Bretton Woods, Luke A. Nichter

Presidential Studies Faculty Articles and Research

"On the occasion of this weekend's G-20 meeting in Washington, the global economic crisis seems more entrenched than ever. Calls for the return to a Bretton Woods-like system can be heard around the world. The Washington Post has said that a new Bretton Woods 'could reform the IMF' (October 20). The Times of London has reported Prime Minister Brown's call for a new international financial architecture (November 14). Le Monde has printed favorable coverage for a 'Bretton Woods acte II' (November 14). Before getting caught up in the momentum of 'reform', the incoming administration of President-elect Obama should carefully heed …

Presidents, Politics And Primaries, Emory University

Elections/Voting

Photographs of a display of government documents from Emory University, Georgia.

Myths, Reasonable Disagreement, And A League Of Democracies, James Pattison

Human Rights & Human Welfare

The United States ' election in 2004 was based on a number of foreign policy myths. Three of the most obvious were:

• The war in Iraq was necessary as a response to the threat of international terrorism. As a result, the world is now a safer place;
• The institutions of the UN are corrupt and do nothing but restrict American power;
• Al Qaeda and international terrorism more generally are extremely significant threats to American national security

Human Rights And The 2008 U.S. Presidential Election, Brent J. Steele

Human Rights & Human Welfare

There has been a vivid tendency this year by the conventional keepers of Washington wisdom to explicate the two presidential candidates' foreign policy views using old frameworks of "hawk" and "dove." Not only is this binary wrong, it fundamentally obscures some rather ironic potentials for how each candidate, if elected president, will focus upon human rights in their foreign policy. McCain's neoconservative view of the world is founded upon the Wilsonian call for democratization-culminating in what he terms a "League of Democracies." To use a concept that Arnold Wolfers first coined, and one which Joshua Muravchik has proffered as well, …

Speak Softly...With Everyone You Can, Todd Landman

Human Rights & Human Welfare

From the Monroe Doctrine to the Bush Doctrine, United States foreign policy has been predicated on the assumption that somehow it knows what is best for the rest of the world. Monroe feared a potential encroachment from Russia and meddling in the "American" Hemisphere by the European powers and issued what originally appeared as a modest statement about resistance to intervention by any other country than the United States . Ironically enforced by the British Navy at that time, the Monroe Doctrine went far beyond its modest beginnings to set a precedent for the development of U.S. foreign policy. The …

America As An Ordinary Nation, William F. Felice

Human Rights & Human Welfare

For decades, scholars of international relations have called attention to the limits of American power. For example, in 1976 Cornel University Press published America as an Ordinary Country: U.S. Foreign Policy and the Future , edited by Richard Rosecrance. As the title indicates, Rosecrance's book analyzed the impact of the economic, military, and foreign policy setbacks of the 1970s on U.S. power. Suddenly the U.S. seemed less the powerful, "indispensible" leader and more the vulnerable, "ordinary" country unable to control external forces lashing the society's economy and foreign policy. These insights led many scholars to call for a reassessment of …

November Roundtable: Introduction

Human Rights & Human Welfare

An annotation of:

“Foreign Policy Myths Debunked." The Nation. October 6, 2008.

Roosevelt, Franklin Delano, 1882-1945 (Sc 1786), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 1786. Signature of Franklin Delano Roosevelt as Governor of New York on unknown official document dated 18 June 1930. Collection contains lower portion of document only.

Ritter, George Kinslow, 1866-1947 (Sc 1782), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 1782. Certified tally of votes cast in the Sartain Precinct, Barren County, Kentucky for all the candidates running in the statewide election of November 1899. Signed by George K. Ritter, one of the election judges.

Sampson, Flemon Davis, 1875-1967 (Sc 1792), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scans (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 1792. Correspondence with family members of Flemon D. Sampson, former governor of Kentucky, and a deed for a large tract of land in eastern Kentucky.

Creel, Milton Pinckney, 1851-1913 (Sc 1793), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scans (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 1793. Two 1898 political letters from Dr. Milton P. Creel, Central City, Kentucky announcing his candidacy for the Republican nomination for the state's Third District U.S. Congressional seat.

Hunter, Whiteside Godfrey, 1841-1917 (Sc 1765), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scans (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 1765. Letters from Whiteside Godfrey Hunter, former state legislator and U.S. Congressman, to E. Scott Brown, attorney, Scottsville, Allen County, Kentucky, requesting his support for Republican candidates. He also indicates he has requested Sidney P. Hardcastle be appointed postmaster at Settle, Allen County, Kentucky.

Jackson, Andrew, 1767-1845 (Sc 1768), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 1768. Letter, 26 April 1825, from Andrew Jackson, Nashville, Tennessee to A. P. Maury, also of Nashville, in which he declines to act as guardian for the children of the late Major John Reid owing to ill health and increased responsibilities.

Looking Backward, Looking Forward: Puerto Ricans In The Quest For The New York City Mayoralty, José Cruz

Policy Documents

This paper examines the history of Puerto Rican efforts to win the mayoralty of the city of New York, highlighting the 2005 election. By doing so, it seeks to fill a gap in the history of Puerto Rican political participation in New York. The struggle of Puerto Rican elites to win representa- tion at the highest level of office in the city is long-standing. The paper chronicles the circumstances and terms according to which they sought political incorporation at that level. . The paper looks critically at the issue of runoff elections. The role of money is examined through the …