Models and Methods Commons^™

The Invisible Hand Of Networked Repression, Thuy Anh Tran

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

U.S. history is awash with contentious episodes involving a legion of governmental and non-governmental actors operating through an array of means and arenas to destroy the political opposition. Yet, there has been little systematic examination in the repression literature of how and why repressive efforts proliferate so far beyond the police, military, and intelligence agencies tasked and equipped to preserve the existing order. This dissertation presents a novel framework for studying the relational basis of repression—particularly as it is organized, mobilized, and extended through a networked social structure. Social network analysis and interpretive case studies are conducted on two historical …

Social Media News Consumption & Alternative Für Deutschland Support Among Voters In Germany, Jackson Pace Campbell

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

This study investigates the relationship between social media news consumption and support for the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party among male voters in Germany. Utilizing logistic regression analysis, the research explores how exposure to news content on social media platforms influences political attitudes and voting behavior. Drawing on survey data from German male voters, the study examines the extent to which social media news consumption correlates with AfD support. Preliminary findings suggest a significant positive association between frequent social media news consumption and increased likelihood of supporting AfD, particularly among male and less educated voters. These results highlight the …

Comparative Trends In Campaign Finance For United States Senate Elections After Citizens United, Jackson P. Terrell

Political Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

While experts and laymen alike have agreed that United States politics have become more polarized over the last few decades, there are few answers about what has driven that polarization, as well as how that polarization has affected the campaign system. In addition, changes to campaign finance as a result of Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission, 558 US 310 (2010) altered the ways that money could be raised and spent to support or oppose candidates. The effects of these changes in presidential election campaigns have been well documented. This research will investigate changing trends in campaign finance in United …

Comparative Trends In Campaign Fundraising For United States Democratic Senatorial Candidates After Citizens United, Averi E. Foster

Political Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

Political polarization has grown more prevalent in the United States political atmosphere in recent years (Pew Research Center 2017). While political polarization is a prevalent topic of discussion, there is a limited understanding of exactly how polarization affects various aspects of political elections, such as the financing of campaigns. This research aims to explore the relationships between the ideological scores of U.S. Senate candidates and the varying types of campaign funding that they received, such as individual contributions, independent expenditures, PAC contributions, and party contributions. A data analysis was conducted utilizing Stanford University’s Database on Ideology, Money in Politics, and …

Political Nonverbal Dynamics: An Analysis Of Smiles In Contentious Political Events, Megan Zingerman

Political Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

This study analyzes smiles during the 2024 U.S. Presidential Debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, revealing how nonverbal cues act as emotional signals and social tools. Findings indicate Harris displayed a significantly higher percentage of smiles than Trump. Limitations include potential human error in coding and influences of facial cosmetic procedures. The analysis underscores the importance of nonverbal communication in political settings and suggests future research on specific types of smiles, such as fear smiles, which are less understood in the context of political interactions.

Misinformation—How It Plays A Role In Our Perceptions Of The Political Realm, Olivia Murray

Research & Creative Achievement Day

If survey recipients are presented with negative misinformation, then they will be unsatisfied with the president elects time in office. If survey recipients are presented with positive misinformation, then they will be unsatisfied with the president elects time in office. This research takes the form of a survey which will be sent Winona State students to record their responses. I will test my hypothesis with one survey, which will include several demographic questions. These questions will be paired with questions that present “fake news” or misinformation about president elect Donald Trump. The misinformation will present him in a negative light. …

Votes In The Balance: A Statistical Analysis Of Voting Behavior In The 2016 Presidential Election, Evan M. Carter

Harding Undergraduate Research Conference

The 2016 Presidential Election was unprecedented in its results. The predicted winner, Hillary Clinton, ended up winning the popular vote, but lost in the Electoral College count to Donald Trump. I examine voting for the winner, Donald Trump, and what factors caused people to vote for him or for another candidate. Although there are several factors that go into how people vote, I analyze demographic, geographic, and ideological predictors for why people voted the way they did. To do this, I will run a regression model on my dataset. Since my dependent variable is dichotomous, meaning there are only two …

Compromised Communication: The Threat Of Disinformation To Rational Bargaining, Marydalia Jimenez

Binghamton University Undergraduate Journal

This paper integrates theories of disinformation with the “Bargaining Model,” a theory in political science that explains why actors choose to go to war even though they might achieve their aims more efficiently through bargaining. As a case study, the paper takes a disinformation campaign during the Cold War and Russia’s war in Ukraine (2014-present) to provide evidence for the way that disinformation undermines international dialogue and bases the status quo in unreal conditions, thereby making the bargaining process irrational and diminishing the opportunity for resolution.

Drivers And Barriers To Financial Transparency In Georgia’S Local Governments, Min S. Kim

The Guardianship Journal

This study investigates the determinants of financial transparency in local governments, specifically measured by the availability of financial documents on official websites. Hypotheses were developed to examine the relationships between financial transparency and three categories of influencing factors: community environmental characteristics, governance structures, and financial conditions. Using empirical analysis on a sample of 159 counties in Georgia, the findings reveal varying levels of support for the proposed hypotheses. Key determinants of financial transparency include population size, median household income, and the size of the board of commissioners. Conversely, financial condition factors were not found to significantly influence financial transparency. These …

Methodological And Data-Driven Approaches For Analyzing And Enhancing Campus Camera Coverage At The University Of Akron, Aj Stewart

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This Honors Project presents both a methodological and data-driven approach to analyzing, calculating, and enhancing the camera coverage on The University of Akron's (UA) campus using Geographic Information Systems (GIS). The project uses spatial crime mapping with camera coverage analysis to support The University of Akron Police Department (UAPD) in determining surveillance gaps and suggesting strategic improvements. The goal is to develop a replicable framework for evaluating and improving camera coverage in crime hotspots using spatial analysis and viewshed analysis. The findings in this project give a usable guide for using data to improve security camera placement according to maps …

Voter Apathy And Divided Government, Ty'hier Simon

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The proposed research project will pertain to the voter attitudes associated with our government. The association with our government is critical to document because it may reflect the outlook of how the seats are distributed between the two major parties in our system. Voter apathy is the lack of interest in elections of representative democracies. In this project, a correlation may be drawn between voter turnout and how the delegation of our representatives looks. For example, if there is a low voter turnout there may be a swift change in power in Congress or there might be total gridlock. Using …

Effects Of Actualized Language Policy On Ukrainian Stability, 1989-2022, Dawn Hersey

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

This dissertation seeks to generate a new perspective of the complicated relationship between actualized policy and stability through looking at Ukraine’s language policies and stability in a mixed manner approach that includes both primary and secondary sources. Russia justified its irridentist activities through claiming to protect Russian nationals within Ukraine’s borders: language policies within Ukraine appear to be a trigger for Russian antagonism. Neither Russian irridentism nor Ukrainian nationalism are being considered as right or wrong in this dissertation: the intent is to highlight trends, patterns, and perceptions in alignment with Ukrainian language policy. This dissertation does not present a …

The Position Of The United States Of America Vis-A-Vis The Question Of Western Sahara: Assessing The Role Of Think Tanks In The Conflict, Hamid Baadeche

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

ABSTRACT

The Position of the United States of America Vis-à-vis the Question of Western Sahara: Assessing the Role of Think Tanks in the Conflict

Hamid Baadeche

Think tank organizations, particularly in the United States, have become a prominent feature of the political landscape. They act as advocates for specific policies that they consider beneficial for the country or a particular societal group. They function as a primary source of information, which they then aim to transform into well-informed policies and sound decisions. They are referred to as "the revolving doors," "idea brokers," and "idea factory." As such, their foremost objective …

Analysis Of Women's Representation In Parliament In Indonesia Using Robust Regression Estimation-S, I Gede Dewangga Jati Suma, Titik Harsanti

Jurnal Politik

Women's representation in parliament is a very important issue to study because one of the SDGs goals is gender equality. Women's representation in parliament in Indonesia is still low, only reaching 21.74 percent in 2022. The low representation of women in parliament will certainly hinder the role of women in leading decision making in political life. Studies regarding women's representation in parliament are generally discussed qualitatively, so this article tries to examine this problem with a quantitative approach. The method used in this research is robust S-estimation regression which can form a better model by minimizing the influence of extreme …

Lasting Impact: Analyzing The Relationship Between Colonialism And Proxy War Onset, Sydney Rehm

Honors Theses

Proxy wars are a very specific subset of war that have increased in frequency. Researchers have studied why proxy wars occur, but there are less studies specifically on to what extent, if any, colonialism has on the onset of proxy wars. To fill this gap, I write a historical analysis of past proxy wars—specifically the Vietnam War (1955-1975), Lebanese Civil War (1975-1990), and Yemeni Civil War (2014-present)—to examine the effects of colonialism. Furthermore, I utilize my case studies to assess my argument’s limitations. I also utilize statistical analysis to determine the probability of proxy war if a country has a …

Resource Wealth And Micro-Insurgency Duration, Michael Trevett

Dissertations

Why are some insurgencies small in scale but long-term in duration, particularly those involving natural resource wealth? This dissertation identifies and defines a specific type of intrastate conflict, the micro-insurgency. I then examine how and why micro-insurgencies fought over natural resources are almost always very long-term conflicts, often lasting decades. Two data sets from previous research, one by Michael Ross and the other by Paul Collier and Anke Hoeffler, are refined and then analyzed and tested using Fuzzy set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (FsQCA). Findings from the FsQCA testing and analysis reveal that ancestral lands and actual, or existing and exploitable, …

Is No News Good News?: Exploring The Impact Of Social Media Use On Misinformation Beliefs, Corbin Poyer

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

Does diminishing access to print news have an impact on people’s propensity to believe misinformation? What if this misinformation emanates from an online source as opposed to a print source? The focus of recent research on misinformation has been narrow: (1) recognizing its existence and acknowledging its potential impact, and (2) generating and categorizing potential analytical types of misinformation. However, the ramifications of vanishing print media have so far been overlooked. This paper asserts a connection between news sources and misinformation beliefs, further positing that the decline in the quality and availability of quality print journalism predicates an individual’s belief …

Under The Red Banner, Socialism, Physical Quality Of Life, And Development, Matthew H. Hill

[Archive] Belmont University Research Symposium (BURS)

Despite a steep decline since the Cold War, socialism still plays an important role on the world stage. Because of this, it is important to continue studying the effects of socialist governance. This study seeks to use multiple linear regression to determine the effect that socialism and economic development (as measured by GDP per capita) has on physical quality of life. Previous studies have examined the relationship between physical quality of life and socialism, but these were done in the 1980s. Much has changed since then, and updated information is required. Additionally, examining the impact of economic development’s impact on …

Recommendations For Generation Z Civic Engagement On College Campuses, Grace A. Edwards

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Because there is little existing research specifically about Generation Z civic engagement in higher education in the United States, comparisons must be made with research about different generations’ voting and civic engagement patterns, specifically Millennials, since they share many similarities with Gen Z, and Gen Z civic engagement in different countries. This, paired with survey data and statistics about Gen Z civic engagement, provide a strong foundation for this project. To supplement this literature review, interviews with industry professionals were held to learn more about the environment of Gen Z civic engagement on college campuses. From these different sources of …

Saudi Arabia's Nuclear Decision-Making In The Era Of Mohammad Bin Salman, Andrew Brown

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Strategic culture plays a crucial role in shaping countries’ decision-making in regard to security and foreign policy. In the context of nuclear proliferation, strategic culture can significantly impact a country’s willingness to pursue nuclear weapons and how it calculates the risks and benefits of such a decision. This thesis examines Saudi Arabia’s decision-making under the leadership of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), who has brought about significant changes in the country's strategic culture through aggressive top-down reform. While much of Saudi Arabia's traditional strategic culture has remained intact under MBS and his father, King Salman, some elements have shifted …

Understanding The Relationship Between Narcissism And Political Orientations In College-Aged Adults, Sabrina Richards

Undergraduate Honors Theses

When you try to guess someone’s political beliefs, you probably look towards the usual culprits: race, gender, education, religion, age, marital status, and more. Have you ever tried looking at their narcissistic tendencies? There are seven different types of narcissism, and in a study conducted by Peter K. Hatemi and Zoltan Fazekas in 2018, it was revealed that there is a relationship between an adult’s narcissistic personality traits and their political orientations. It was observed that entitlement narcissism is associated with more conservative political orientations, while exhibitionism narcissism is associated with more liberal political orientations. However, there is a lack …

Events To Record: An Examination Of Required Activation For Body-Worn Cameras, Allison Reed

Honors Theses

There has been a lot of research on the effectiveness of body-worn cameras in policing including the impacts that body-worn cameras have on police officers, individual citizens, and the community. Results from prior literature show that police body-worn cameras are only sometimes highly effective. This project investigates why police body-worn cameras may not be effective by examining the required activation policies. Data for this project derive from the 2016 Law Enforcement Management Administrative Statistics – Body-Worn Camera Supplement (LEMAS-BWCS) study conducted by the Bureau of Justice Statistics. The main components of these data are the required events officers are to …

America’S Fear Of Civil Unrest Through The Lens Of 2020 Blm Protests And January 6th, Morgan Romine

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Over the past five years, the United States of America (US) has experienced events which highlight societal weakness and faults in the foundations of the US system. This research paper focuses on the level of fear a participant has of civil unrest in the US, how that fear has evolved following the events of 2020, including the January 6th Insurrection and 2020’s summer of Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests. Factoring the age, political affiliation, and socio-economic status of the study’s participants into the findings, is a way to understand where the participant’s fear may be stemming from. My research uses …

Review Of Making Livable Worlds: Afro-Puerto Rican Women Building Environmental Justice, Ava L. Corey-Gruenes

Feminist Pedagogy

Making Livable Worlds: Afro-Puerto Rican Women Building Environmental Justice, by Hilda Lloréns, highlights Black Puerto Rican women’s efforts to create equitable futures for their communities in the face of capitalism, racism, colonization, and ecological collapse. This review covers key concepts in Making Livable Worlds, including matriarchal dispossession, decolonizing ethnography, the myth of a homogenous Puerto Rico, and myths of inherent economic self-interest. Analyses of these concepts through an absence lens are suggested to enrich formal and informal feminist learning spaces.

Learning The Legislative Process With A Board Game, Michael Posadny

Honors Projects

Standard methods of teaching classroom material can generally work effectively for educating the majority of a class’s students, but some students may still struggle to find the information to be comprehensive, enjoyable to learn, or even necessary. Alternative methods of instruction can be used to educate students in different ways, and this study looks into the educational merit that a board game can provide to learning new material. Previous research has shown the effectiveness of board games on various elements of education, and this project addresses the findings of previous works to predict the effects that a game will have …

A New World Order?: Considering Slaughter’S Notion Of The Disaggregated And Networked State, Darlene N. Moorman

The Downtown Review: An Interdisciplinary Journal Written and Peer-Reviewed by Mandel Honors College Students at Cleveland State University

This paper briefly explains Slaughter's (2004) argument for the emergence of a new world order defined by a disaggregated and networked state where the relevance of soft power has become all the more critical in conversations of politics and corresponding theory. This transformation (arising in the face of the so-called 'globalization paradox') is considered, exploring (a) what this means for the world system and (b) what concerns it may consequently bring.

Emotional Response To Uk Political Party Leader Facial Displays Of Affiliation, Reward, And Ambiguity During Brexit, Patrick A. Stewart, Nick Lee, Erik P. Bucy, Carl Senior

Political Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Objective

On December 12, 2019, the United Kingdom's ruling Conservative Party called an election that put the country's 2016 “Brexit” referendum on leaving the European Union to the test. The divisive campaign and a polarized electorate culminated in large losses by opposition Labour and Liberal Democratic parties. Amid a polarized electorate, lingering questions arise as to whether the election results reflect more upon partisan ties or the respective party leaders' ability to emotionally connect with followers through their nonverbal behavior.

Methods

Using a unique pre-registered design, this study considers the emotional response to leaders of the three major U.K. political …

Legislative Passage Of Marijuana And Pac Contributions: An Analysis Of Illinois And New York Political Donations, Luke Elliott

Political Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

The growing prominence of Political Action Committees (PACs) calls for the analysis of their impact on state legislatures and the passing of bills. This thesis sought to determine the relationship between PACs and the state legislatures of New York and Illinois as it relates to the passage of statutes that legalized recreational marijuana. This was done by collecting contribution disclosures from the individuals who voted on the bills and finding the aggregate amounts given to a candidate by in-state and out-of-state PACs and non-PACs. Then the data was subjected to a Pearson Correlation analysis. If the Pearson Correlation indicated a …

The Right To Bear: Measuring Gun Control Policies Against Violent Crime, Balazs Varga

[Archive] Belmont University Research Symposium (BURS)

Especially in United States politics, gun control legislation is a controversial topic, with much debate dedicated to which gun control policies are implementable as a countermeasure to violent crime rates, if any. In American public discourse on the topic, U.S. gun control doctrine, which is characterized by an individualistic gun culture engrained in the Second Amendment of the Constitution, is one which is described as lax in comparison to gun control measures implemented by other nations. These gun control policies include a wide array of measures, such as automatic firearms regulation, a state-mandated national firearms registry, and background checks, among …

Information About Historical Emissions Drives The Division Of Climate Change Mitigation Costs, Alessandro Del Ponte, Aidas Masiliūnas, Noah Lim

Political Science Faculty Articles and Research

Despite worsening climate change, the international community still disagrees on how to divide the costs of mitigation between developing countries and developed countries, which emitted the bulk of historical carbon emissions. We study this issue using an economic experiment. Specifically, we test how information about historical emissions influences how much participants pay for climate change mitigation. In a four-player game, participants are assigned to lead two fictional countries as members of either the first or the second generation. The first generation produces wealth at the expense of greater carbon emissions. The second generation inherits their predecessor’s wealth and negotiates how …