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Full-Text Articles in Models and Methods

Unmaking Egalitarianism: Comparing Sources Of Political Change In An Amazonian Society, Christopher Von Rueden Nov 2023

Unmaking Egalitarianism: Comparing Sources Of Political Change In An Amazonian Society, Christopher Von Rueden

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

Politically egalitarian societies were likely more common in pre-history than in recent millenia. Why did societies become more hierarchical? Answers to this question remain debated, based on evidence largely drawn from archaeological case studies or comparison of societies from the ethnographic record. I suggest that modern small-scale societies transitioning to market economies can provide complementary tests of the sources of political inequality. I first describe moderate variation in men's influence during community meetings (i.e. political inequality) across four relatively egalitarian Tsimane villages in the Bolivian Amazon, as well as within one of these villages over twelve years. I then assess …


Policy Design And The Lived Experience Of The Poor: A Test Of Policy Feedback Effects And Efficacy, Ava Gural Apr 2023

Policy Design And The Lived Experience Of The Poor: A Test Of Policy Feedback Effects And Efficacy, Ava Gural

Honors Theses

As American political actors have framed poverty as a choice made by the unambitious, it has become clear that our society has a pervasive misunderstanding of poverty. Policy Feedback Theorists assert that the design of our welfare policies contributes to this fallacy, raising the question of whether there is a relationship between policy design and the way citizens act and feel. This thesis uses quantitative data from the American Citizen Participation Study and qualitative data from two original interviews to test the existence of “policy feedback effects” on program participants’ feelings of efficacy. Quantitative evidence suggests limited evidence of policy …


Facing Famine: Justice And The Case Of Unilateral Intervention, Tanner R. Brooks Apr 2023

Facing Famine: Justice And The Case Of Unilateral Intervention, Tanner R. Brooks

Honors Theses

Through the course of this year, 900 thousand people will have to struggle through conditions of famine, and a total of 345.2 million will experience food insecurity of some kind. These concerning figures represent an over twofold increase since 2020.1 This presents a serious problem, as access to food is so plainly vital to every aspect of an individual’s existence. It should therefore be uncontroversial to assert the grave nature of the occurrence of famine and other food emergencies faced by so many today. Food emergencies are not merely a result of insufficient food, but rather the institutional policies enacted …


Magic As Political Might: Harry Potter, Authoritarianism, And Youth Political Behavior, Alexis Cobbs Apr 2023

Magic As Political Might: Harry Potter, Authoritarianism, And Youth Political Behavior, Alexis Cobbs

Honors Theses

This thesis examines how authoritarian structures found in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series affect the political thoughts and behaviors of its readers, particularly those who read them at young ages. By examining how Rowling depicts authoritarianism and its opposition in the books, I hypothesized that increased exposure would correlate to an increased impact on readers’ political opinions. To test this hypothesis, I created an original survey designed to measure levels of exposure and participation in the Harry Potter fandom as well as respondents’ political opinions. I asked respondents to provide different examples of authoritarianism and its opposition in the books …


Designing Democracy: A Normative And Empirical Analysis Of Redistricting Reform, Morgan Deckert Apr 2022

Designing Democracy: A Normative And Empirical Analysis Of Redistricting Reform, Morgan Deckert

Honors Theses

A democracy is more than just an empirically observable mode of governance; it is an actively adopted ideal, an inherently value-laden concept that affects and permeates throughout all dimensions of society. It encompasses corresponding rights held by all democratic citizens, and various state obligations that arise directly from this unique status. As political institutions and practices are given tangible form in a democracy, these moral principles provide both a mandatory set of requirements and an ideal to be oriented towards in their construction. In majoritarian systems with single-member districts, the establishment of electoral boundaries through redistricting is one such process. …


Economic Predictors Of Democratic Backsliding: A Comparison Of Populist And Non-Populist Leaders, Jacob Winter Apr 2022

Economic Predictors Of Democratic Backsliding: A Comparison Of Populist And Non-Populist Leaders, Jacob Winter

Honors Theses

The initial motivation of this research was to develop a better understanding of the primary causes of democratic backsliding, and by extension, how pro-democratic governments, NGOs, and other institutions can most effectively combat democratic backsliding. Previous research has examined the effects of economic conditions (Waldner and Lust 2018) as well as populism (Kyle and Mounk 2018) on a country’s democracy, but to my knowledge, no study has examined whether the effect of economic conditions on a country’s democracy differs between populist and non-populist countries. My research attempts to provide an answer to this question by examining how personal wealth, price …


Bystanders Without An Excuse: On The Moral Duty To Revolt, Meghna Melkote Apr 2022

Bystanders Without An Excuse: On The Moral Duty To Revolt, Meghna Melkote

Honors Theses

Che Guevara, an Argentine revolutionary who served as a key player in the Cuban Revolution, was known for his forceful rhetoric calling people to action to engage in revolution. His language was the language of duty - when he called on people to act, he did so with moral force behind his words. In the face of nascent revolution and discontent, he called upon those aggrieved to “tremble with indignation every time that an injustice is committed in the world” and act accordingly1. Guevara is appealing to a common intuition many leaders in social justice seem to have; there is …


The Rawlsian Mirror Of Justice, Jessica Flanigan Jan 2020

The Rawlsian Mirror Of Justice, Jessica Flanigan

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

Libertarians(like me) generally disagree with orthodox Rawlsians (like Samuel Freeman) about whether Rawlsian principles of distributive justice are compatible with libertarianism.1In this essay, I set out to explain why. In section 1, I describe the problem, which is essentially that libertarians think the Rawlsian framework does not rule out anti-statist, capitalist, and broadly libertarian approaches to distributive justice and orthodox Rawlsians think that it does. I propose that this problem arises because the Rawlsian framework is underspecified in two ways. First, the Rawlsian framework has a lot of moving parts, so people with different pre-theoretical intuitions can use …


Slavery In Europe: Part 2, Testing A Predictive Model, Monti Narayan Datta, Kevin Bales May 2014

Slavery In Europe: Part 2, Testing A Predictive Model, Monti Narayan Datta, Kevin Bales

Political Science Faculty Publications

Since the passage of the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act and the United Nations Palermo Protocols of 2000, there has been an increased focus on the magnitude and complexity of modern day slavery. Yet, surprisingly, little empirical work exists. A comprehensive review of the literature by Elzbieta Gozdziak and Micah Bump in 2008 found that quantitative methodologies were noticeably scarce and that the dominant anti-trafficking discourse was not evidence based. One reason for this scarcity has been the difficulty in obtaining reliable representative data. In this paper, we utilize a novel measure of contemporary slavery in Europe that …


Using Big Data And Quantitative Methods To Estimate And Fight Modern Day Slavery, Monti Narayan Datta Jan 2014

Using Big Data And Quantitative Methods To Estimate And Fight Modern Day Slavery, Monti Narayan Datta

Political Science Faculty Publications

Given the hidden, criminal nature of contemporary slavery, empirically estimating the proportion of the population enslaved at the national and global level is a challenge. At the same time, little is understood about what happens to the lives of the survivors of slavery once they are free. I discuss some data collection methods from two nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) I have worked with that shed light on these issues. The first NGO, the Walk Free Foundation, estimates that there are about 30 million enslaved in the world today. The second NGO, Free the Slaves, employs a longitudinal analysis to chronicle the …


Slavery In Europe: Part 1, Estimating The Dark Figure, Monti Narayan Datta, Kevin Bales Nov 2013

Slavery In Europe: Part 1, Estimating The Dark Figure, Monti Narayan Datta, Kevin Bales

Political Science Faculty Publications

The estimation of the “dark figure” for any crime (the number of actual instances of a specific crime committed minus the reported cases of that crime within a population) has primarily rested on the ability to conduct random sample crime surveys. Such surveys are based on the assumption that victims experience crimes that are discrete, time-bound, and of relatively short duration. The crime of enslavement, however, presents a special challenge to estimation because it is of indeterminate duration. This challenge is compounded by the fact that victims of slavery are also often isolated by the stigma linked to sexual assault, …


Slavery Is Bad For Business: Analyzing The Impact Of Slavery On National Economies, Monti Narayan Datta, Kevin Bales Apr 2013

Slavery Is Bad For Business: Analyzing The Impact Of Slavery On National Economies, Monti Narayan Datta, Kevin Bales

Political Science Faculty Publications

This article, using a novel dataset, demonstrates that slavery is empirically bad for business. Building upon the work of Robert Smith, the authors analysis examines the relationship between the prevalence of slavery in a country (in terms of the proportion of the population enslaved) and several economic measures (the United Nations Human Development Index, growth domestic product in terms of purchasing power parity, access to financial services, and the Gini coefficient). In each instance, controlling for alternative explanations, greater levels of slavery are associated with a decline in economic growth and human development. The findings imply that beyond the morality …


Do Bills Of Rights Matter? An Examination Of Court Change, Judicial Ideology, And The Support Structure For Rights In Canada, Donald R. Songer, Susan W. Johnson, Jennifer Barnes Bowie Jan 2013

Do Bills Of Rights Matter? An Examination Of Court Change, Judicial Ideology, And The Support Structure For Rights In Canada, Donald R. Songer, Susan W. Johnson, Jennifer Barnes Bowie

Political Science Faculty Publications

Competing theories regarding the development of a "rights revolution" in Canada have appeared in the judicial and constitutional literature in recent years. On the one hand, scholars argue that the profound effects often attributed to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms are substantially overstated, and conventional analyses have overlooked the more important role of changes in what is called the "support structure" for rights. Others have advanced a competing theory that the Charter created an expansion of civil liberties. We take advantage of an extensive dataset on the decisions of the Supreme Court of Canada to provide a more systematic …


Political Participation Over The Life Cycle, Jennifer L. Erkulwater Jan 2012

Political Participation Over The Life Cycle, Jennifer L. Erkulwater

Political Science Faculty Publications

Although we have paid attention to group differences in political activity on the basis of race or ethnicity, gender, and especially socio-economic status (SES), we have so far ignored such disparities among age groups, disparities that will become especially important in Chapter 16 when we consider inequalities in Internet-based political participation. The participatory deficit of citizens who have recently entered the electorate raises the same kinds of questions we have been bringing to inequalities of political voice on the basis of socio-economic status: How do we account for disparities in political activity on the basis of age? What are their …


The Chilean Left In Power: Achievements, Failures, And Omissions, Evelyne Huber, Jennifer Pribble, John D. Stephens Jul 2010

The Chilean Left In Power: Achievements, Failures, And Omissions, Evelyne Huber, Jennifer Pribble, John D. Stephens

Political Science Faculty Publications

In his introduction to this volume, Weyland locates the administrations of Socialist Presidents Ricardo Lagos (2000-06) and Michelle Bachelet (2006- 2010) closest to the moderate pole among current leftist governments in Latin America. We concur and hope to contribute to the discussion by elucidating the sources of this moderation and examining the performance of these governments in the areas of political management, economic policies, and social policies and labor market reforms. The Lagos and Bachelet governments have pursued similar market-friendly economic policies to their predecessors. Although both presidents have made important progress in overcoming the political institutionallegacies of Augusto Pinochet's …


Politics, Policies, And Poverty In Latin America, Jennifer Pribble, Evelyne Huber, John D. Stephens Jul 2009

Politics, Policies, And Poverty In Latin America, Jennifer Pribble, Evelyne Huber, John D. Stephens

Political Science Faculty Publications

Why do Latin American countries exhibit stark differences in their ability to protect citizens from falling into poverty? Analysis of poverty levels measured by ECLAC in eighteen countries shows that political factors-including the democratic record, long-term weight of left-of-center parties in the legislature, and investment in human capital-are significant and substantively important determinants of poverty. These findings contribute to the growing literature that emphasizes the importance of regime form, parties, and policies for a variety of outcomes in Latin America, despite the weaknesses of democracy and the pathologies of some parties and party systems in the region.


Women And Welfare: The Politics Of Coping With New Social Risks In Chile And Uruguay, Jennifer Pribble Jun 2006

Women And Welfare: The Politics Of Coping With New Social Risks In Chile And Uruguay, Jennifer Pribble

Political Science Faculty Publications

Women make up a disproportionate share of the world’s poor, and Latin America is no exception to this trend. Nevertheless, very few studies of social policy in the region have investigated why the gendered character of welfare provision varies across countries. This article addresses that question through a comparative historical analysis of Chile and Uruguay and concludes that variation in the gendered nature of each state’s social policy regime resulted from a two-step process. In the first stage, female labor force participation, the mobilizing capacity of women, and policy legacies differentiated the two countries, placing Chile on a less equitable …


Autonomy, Domination, And The Republican Challenge To Liberalism, Richard Dagger Jan 2005

Autonomy, Domination, And The Republican Challenge To Liberalism, Richard Dagger

Political Science Faculty Publications

Like Sunstein and other advocates of 'republican' or 'civic' liberalism, I believe that it is historically unsound and politically unwise to insist on a sharp distinction between liberalism and republicanism. Others disagree, however, and there is much to be learned from their position even if, ultimately, we should not adopt it. Those who take this more radical neo-republican view advance two main lines of argument: first, that the liberal emphasis on neutrality and procedural fairness is fundamentally at odds with the republican commitment to promoting civic virtue; and, second, that republicans and liberals conceive of liberty or freedom in incompatible …


The Fight For Political Representation In A Southern Suburb: The Use Of The Voting Rights Act And The Federal Court System By Black Plaintiffs In Henrico County, Virginia, Thomas J. Shields Jun 2004

The Fight For Political Representation In A Southern Suburb: The Use Of The Voting Rights Act And The Federal Court System By Black Plaintiffs In Henrico County, Virginia, Thomas J. Shields

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

There has been an abundance of written work on the historic fight for black political equality in southern urban areas. However, almost no scholarly work exists on the fight for black political equality in the rapidly expanding southern suburbs. This article analyzes the rise of the black population and its fight for political representation on the local governing board in Henrico County, a large suburb of Richmond, Virginia. The article details the increase in the black population in Henrico County from 1950 to 2000 and provides a descriptive analysis how black plaintiffs used the Voting Rights Act in a redistricting …


Looking Under The Hood And Tinkering With Voter Cynicism: Ross Perot And “Perspective By Incongruity”, Mari Boor Tonn, Valerie A. Endress Jan 2001

Looking Under The Hood And Tinkering With Voter Cynicism: Ross Perot And “Perspective By Incongruity”, Mari Boor Tonn, Valerie A. Endress

Rhetoric and Communication Studies Faculty Publications

This essay examines Ross Perot’s 1992 presidential bid as a comic catalyst for a reinvigorated view of civic responsibility. Despite the Texas maverick’s political naiveté and penchant for miscalculation, his very presence in the campaign reanimated Americans’ conception of grassroots democracy. By examining important and previously unexplored distinctions between planned and unplanned incongruity, we probe the means by which Perot invited consideration of alternative political perspectives and offered an appealing glimpse into a dormant, more deeply held democratic ideal.


Research Methods, Daniel J. Palazzolo Jan 1997

Research Methods, Daniel J. Palazzolo

Political Science Faculty Publications

An undergraduate course on research methods and analysis is fertile ground for service-learning in political science. Research methods courses teach students a variety of data-collection and analysis methods, and many community service agencies and nonprofit organizations typically benefit from research on how their services are provided and how such services can be improved. This essay illustrates how undergraduate students can use survey design techniques to help community service organizations collect data on program effectiveness and program development.


Computers, Cables, And Citizenship: On The Desirability Of Instant Direct Democracy, Richard Dagger Jan 1983

Computers, Cables, And Citizenship: On The Desirability Of Instant Direct Democracy, Richard Dagger

Political Science Faculty Publications

Mulford Sibley is not the sort of scholar who makes a career of elaborating variations on a theme. There are recurring themes in his work, however, and I want to sound two of them, participatory democracy and technology, in this essay. These themes may be joined in a number of ways, but here I shall take up only one - the possibility that advances in communications technology may actually promote democracy by extending and enhancing opportunities for political participation.