Other Political Science Commons^™

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 …

The Wavering Future Of Democracy In Latin America, Brianna N. Bleeck

Political Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

The erosion of democratic governance in Latin America has emerged as a critical area of concern for political scientists, policymakers, and international organizations. Historically, the region has experienced fluctuating political landscapes marked by periods of democratic consolidation followed by authoritarian regression. Throughout the 20th century, countries such as Chile, Argentina, and Brazil witnessed military dictatorships resulting from socio-economic crises and political instability. Despite widespread democratic transitions throughout the 1980s and 1990s, contemporary Latin America faces new challenges that threaten its democratic integrity. The resurgence of authoritarian tendencies within the region coincides with escalating homicide and assault rates in many countries, …

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.

Latino Voter Turnout In The Nuevo South, Stephane C. Escobar-Velasco

Political Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

Latinos have had a growing presence in the South for years, leading it to be referred to as the “Nuevo South.” This thesis will examine Latino voter turnout in the South and the factors that influence them to show up at the polls. This study uses data from the Collaborative Multi-racial Post-Election Survey (CMPS) for 2016 and 2020. Through this data, I seek to understand why turnout is low and which factors impact turnout the most. I use rational choice theory to further understand how Latinos choose whether or not which considers the advantages and disadvantages of voting. Throughout this …

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 …

Evaluating Passive And Assertive Secularism: A Comparative Study Of France And Sweden, Odessa Clear

International and Global Studies Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis seeks to identify the reasoning behind different outcomes of secularism in both France and Sweden in the context of Ahmet Kuru's passive and assertive secularism model. While explaining the historical causes and evolution of secularist thought, it aims to effectively evaluate contrasting approaches to how secularism is applied. To address the current gap in studies intending to assess secularism, this argument identifies how various factors are impacted by secularist-state policies. Through this analysis, it reveals the determinants in secularist approaches and their consequences on religious tensions or tolerance. This assessment of similar European countries experiencing both immigration and …

Amendment 80 And The Effects On Arkansas Supreme Court Elections, Sydney Kincaid

Political Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

In 2001, Amendment 80 was implemented into the Arkansas Constitution. One part of this Amendment was changing statewide judicial elections from being partisan to nonpartisan. This research project seeks to analyze the impact of Amendment 80 on Arkansas Supreme Court elections. The research considers how three components of elections have been impacted by the Amendment which are diversity of candidates, level of competition, and voter turnout. Data collection was conducted for all Arkansas Supreme Court elections from 2002-2022. The information that was collected includes election records as well as descriptive characteristics of candidates including race, gender, raw vote, opposed versus …

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 …

Backlogged Or Logjammed? An Analysis Of The Patterns That Surround The Rape Kit Backlog Across Jurisdictions, Elizabeth Dowd

Political Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

Untested rape kits sit in crime labs, hospitals, evidence lockers, or storage facilities untouched. In the worst-case scenarios, rape kits have been thrown out of police storage before the statute of limitations had expired. A major public policy problem is developing as these kits stack up and create a backlog. The primary problem with the rape kit backlog is that all victims are not receiving justice. To solve the problem, the backlog of rape kits needs further exploration and analysis. If a pattern can be established about why the problem is occurring, then policies can be constructed and implemented to …

Female Integration In Terrorist Groups, Ayana Lilllian Gray

Political Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

his thesis examines levels of female integration in nine terrorist groups.

Muslim Women And The West: Faith, Feminism, And The Quest For Gender Equality, Kelly Haller

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

For centuries the West has seen the Muslim woman as an entire group of people in need of saving. Lacking a thorough understanding of Islam and an incredibly diverse Middle Eastern society, Western powers endeavored to shape women of the Middle East into secular, modern examples of "liberated" women. Completely unacknowledged in this pursuit are the grass roots movements that emerged out of nationalist movements in the early twentieth century. An attempt to understand why the West is so incredibly fascinated by Muslim is undertaken in this scholarly pursuit. Additionally, a case study on the nation of Egypt shows not …

Army Transformation: What Does It Mean?, David Jerome

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The way in which senior U.S. Army leaders such as the chiefs of staff define transformative change is important, especially if the meaning of that term is to be interpreted as originally intended by Army field grade officers. An Army chief of staff is responsible for creating a vision and establishing goals for the future, and field grade officers are responsible for pursuing that vision and those goals by implementing objectives that endeavor to arrive at the desired ends. By using both qualitative and quantitative methods, this research analyzes what each of the three chiefs of staff, who have served …

Satellite Televisions In Lebanon: Agents Of Change Or Reinforcing The Status Quo?, Yara Youssef

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

There has been a noted interest in the new technologies of the nineties, those that have expanded the realm of traditional mass media and the traditional means of communication that people were previously used to. With the start of globalization and the world becoming what some have called “global village,” the act of distributing information to the four comers of the world has become less complicated than it used to be, and boundaries are seen as constantly being eroded by the new pressures of modernization and liberalization. The internet and satellite televisions increased in importance in this realm, and so …

A Statistical Analysis Of U.S. Foreign Aid And Latin American Human Rights, 1977-1988, Quentin Kidd

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This paper is set in a time when, quite frankly, situations and events around the world are changing much faster than the perceptive abilities of the academic community. During the Cold War period it was relatively common to focus one's research toward a particular direction or specialty and feel safe that the rug would no be pulled out from under it. Many of this century's great political scientists carved their niches and made their names by studying and commenting on the status of the world as defined by the Cold War. Times have changed though. The Cold War has ended …

Collective Leadership In Contemporary Irish Nationalism: The Writing Of Gerry Adams, Kathryn Cantrell

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Tracing its origins to Theobald Wolfe Tone's United Irishmen, founded in Belfast on October 18, 1791, Irish Republicanism has evolved from its original anti-sectarian, Lockean principles as represented by Tone1 to a modern movement encompassing national self-determination, antisectarianism, cultural nationalism, radical social policies, the politics of electoralism, as well as support for the armed struggle dedicated to British withdrawal from Northern Ireland and a united Ireland. Today, the modern Irish Republican movement is best represented by the political party Sinn Fein. The party's present leadership, headed by its president Gerry Adams, has changed the politics and strategies of Sinn Fein …

Contributing Factors To The Existence Of Right-To-Work Laws In Two Southern States, Timothy A. Bledsoe

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Providing explanations of why governments or political systems adopt the public policies they do is and has been a goal of political science for some time. The purpose of this paper is to investigate one specific policy out-come -- so called "right-to- work" laws -- in the context of the political environment provided by two Southern states: Arkansas and Louisiana.1 Specifically, an effort will be made to determine what environmental factors have tended to encourage the adoption of right-to-work laws and how the proponents and opponents of such laws have attempted to influence their passage or repeal.