Political Theory Commons^™

Does Fear Of Government Corruption Affect Voter Turnout?, Ryan Nahmias

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

According to the Survey of American Fears (2020-2021) fear of corrupt government officials is the number one thing Americans fear: 79.6 % of them in fact. In addition, voter turnout is one of the quintessential pillars that allows a democracy to function properly. In this paper I will examine the extent to which fear of government officials’ corruption affects voter turnout. Using the data from the Chapman Survey of American Fears and variables from the American National Election Study between 2020 and 2021, I expect to find a moderately strong relationship between fear of government corruption and voter turnout. Moreover, …

How Has Cultural Marxism Been Used As A Political Tactic In Order To Decrease Trust In Higher Education?, Drew Havnaer

University Honors Theses

This thesis will address the rise in popularity of the political notion of the 'Culture War.' It will trace this theory from its origins in the mid-20th century, through the landmark 1993 Buchanan Culture War speech, and to a modern version, often referred to as the theory of Cultural Marxism. The first part of the argument identifies employment of this theory by modern conservatives, and analyzes how many of us encounter it in our daily life, most prominently in reference to higher education. The second part of the argument targets the effect in colleges and universities specifically. It identifies how …

Citizens’ Democratic Attitudes: Winning The Constituency Offsets The Negative Effect Of Electoral Defeat At The National Level, Hannah Ridge

Political Science Faculty Articles and Research

Hannah Ridge examines the effect of constituency election victories and defeats on citizens’ democratic opinions in three majoritarian democracies: Australia, Canada, and Great Britain. She finds that winning in the constituency offsets the negative effect of electoral defeat at the national level; among national winners, however, the district result has limited impact on democratic attitudes. Constituency-level victories are less effective at mitigating the effect of national defeat on more diffuse democracy support.

One-Way Routes Complicate Cooperation In Migrant Crises, Alessandro Del Ponte, Peter Discioli, Aidas Masiliunas, Noah Lim

Political Science Faculty Articles and Research

How can countries cooperate to shelter migrants? We use experimental economics to study the distinct challenges of cooperation in migrant crises. We designed an economic game, pass the buck, where participants are leaders of countries who decide whether to shelter migrants or pass them to the next country. We examine the difficulties posed by one‑way migration and differences in wealth. We find that leaders sheltered migrants less often when they received them first on a one‑way route, compared to when everyone received migrants at the same time. Moreover, the first leader became more likely to shelter migrants when the last …

Electoral Outcomes And Support For Westminster Democracy, Hannah M. Ridge

Political Science Faculty Articles and Research

It is well established that those who supported the winning side in elections report greater specific democratic support – they are more satisfied with the functioning of their democracy – than those who supported the losing side. This literature, however, has focused almost exclusively on winning the presidency or premiership. This project extends that literature to incorporate the effect of district election victories and defeats on citizens’ democratic opinions using post-election surveys in three Westminster-style democracies: Australia, Canada, and Great Britain. It also includes two indicators of democratic institutional support: believing it matters for whom people vote and believing it …

The Role Of Nations-State In Protecting And Supporting Internally Displaced Persons, Daisy Byers

Master's Theses

The rising increase of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) has become a global problem. There are over 40 million internally displaced people globally, and 15.9 million are displaced in Africa. These displacements come into place due to war/conflict, corruption, massive human rights violations, natural disasters, urban renewal projects (at the hands of powerful nations such as America, China, France, UK, etc.), and large-scale development projects. According to UNHCR, refugees are people who have international cross-border. In contrast, internally displaced persons must stay within their own country and stay under the protection of their government, even if the government is the reason …

Explaining Reproductive Health Disparities: Violence In The “Colorblind” Institution Of Medicine, Chineze Osakwe

Honors Scholar Theses

Medical policies have resulted in violence that has a formal role in regulating the reproductive rights of women of African descent in the United States from the Jim Crow era (circa 1965) to present day (2021), resulting in significantly racialized reproductive health disparities regardless of social or economic influences. This thesis explores why reproductive violence against African-American women persists, regardless of women’s own class and educational background. I have focused on the potential impact of two structural components that I hypothesized contributed to the perpetuation of reproductive violence against Black women and persistent health disparities. The two factors explored in …

Ghost Of Populism: Haunting The Demos In Democracy, Chloe A. Bidne

Honors Scholars Collaborative Projects

Several recent elections demonstrate voters across advanced industrial economies support candidates with a populist agenda. We observe this phenomenon, for example, in the election of Donald J. Trump as president of the United States as well as across the Atlantic through the majority of voters in the UK favoring the UK Independence Party’s call to leave the European Union and return to a nationally focused agenda through Brexit. Europe allows us to be vividly aware of voter support for populist agendas through their multi-party systems, which include political parties who openly and explicitly claim a populist agenda, such as the …

Political Communication Channels Of The Aceh Woman Legislative Member In Conveying Information To The Community, Ainol Mardhiah, Cindenia Puspasari, Maisura Maisura, Nanda Ameliany

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

This research investigates the political communication channel of the Aceh’s woman legislators to the community. After the period of political conflict in Aceh, women participation in the public sphere as a legislator is shown to be increasing in quantity. However, their coverage on the media regarding their performance and activity as Aceh’s women’s legislators is still lacking. These women representatives have not been received enough recognition within the community. This study aims to reveal the political communication channel of these women’s legislator to the constituents. This study was conducted in the Aceh Legislative Body using a descriptive qualitative method. The …

Nationalism, Patriotism, And Support For The European Union, Leonie Huddy, Alessandro Del Ponte, Caitlin Davies

Political Science Faculty Articles and Research

Does attachment to a nation enhance or dampen support for the European Union (EU)? Using the 2003 and 2013 ISSP national-identity modules, we isolate and provide multi-item measures of two distinct types of national attachment—nationalism and patriotism. We find that they are positively related yet have divergent effects. We validate the measures showing that nationalism increases, and patriotism decreases, support for nationalistic policies (anti-immigration and protectionism) as expected. We then test the effects of nationalism and patriotism on EU attitudes and find that nationalism increases, and patriotism decreases, opposition to the EU. The presence of a neo-nationalist political party enhanced …

The Rise Of Populism In The Usa: Nationalism, Race, And American Party Politics, Leonie Huddy, Alessandro Del Ponte

Political Science Faculty Books and Book Chapters

Many populist parties promote nationalistic country-first policy platforms. In the United States, the Republican Party has increasingly adopted nationalistic policies such as opposition to immigration and multilateralism, culminating in the election of Donald Trump in 2016. The increasing salience of nationalism in American politics raises three important questions. First, has nationalism increased over time? Second, has the rhetoric of leaders within the Republican Party increased the political relevance of nationalism? Third, are White and Black Americans equally susceptible to the Republican Party’s nationalistic appeals or is its appeal limited to Whites? We examine the prevalence and political effects of nationalism …

Military Service And Offending Behaviors Of Emerging Adults: A Conceptual Review, Christopher Salvatore, Travis Taniguchi

Department of Justice Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Focusing on the United States, this paper examines the impact of military service for the cohort of individuals that have experienced the social factors that characterize emerging adulthood as a unique stage in the life course. We argue that military service, as a turning point, may act differently in contemporary times compared to findings from past research. This difference is driven by changes in military service, the draft versus volunteer military service, and the prevalence of emerging adulthood. As a background, we describe emerging adulthood, examine how emerging adulthood relates to crime and deviance, explore the impact of military life …

Just Like The Others: Party Differences, Perception, And Satisfaction With Democracy, Hannah M. Ridge

Political Science Faculty Articles and Research

A robust literature on citizens’ satisfaction with democracy argues that system satisfaction is based on the policy outcomes that citizens anticipate from electoral results. A tacit assumption in this research is that there are differences between the parties and that citizens are aware of the ideological and preference diversity in their political environment. Some citizens, however, fail to perceive these differences. Using a multi-national set of post-election surveys, regression analysis, and propensity score matching, perceived party difference is shown to substantially impact citizens’ systemic satisfaction. Those who believe all parties are the same are substantially less satisfied with the functioning …

Evolutionary Possibilities Of Democratization And Atavistic Nationalism: A Comparative Study Of Unrecognized States, Hilmi Ulas

Peace Studies Faculty Articles and Research

The question of how rising atavistic nationalism will affect democracies worldwide is an essential one of our time. In this paper, I focus instead on conducting a comparative historical analysis of atavistic nationalism in two unrecognized states: North Cyprus and Taiwan. I argue that the democratic crisis of our times is, in its essence, economic and has been precipitated by the failure of democracies to build domestic capacities to support democratic values. Furthermore, I posit that engaging populaces at the local political level will prove essential to preserving democracies around the world. I conclude by underlining that atavistic nationalism is …

Voter Rationality In The United States, Asael Marvel

Honors Program Theses

The decade preceding 2020 has brought into question the political rationality of the average American voter, as it seems many individuals may vote against what is best for themselves. This begs a simple question, are American voters voting in their won rational self-interest, this project looks into a myriad of theories on voter rationality and the processes behind how voters may calculate or come to their voter decisions in an election in order to answer these questions. Then using the 2012 Cooperative Congressional Election Survey creates a method to analyze whether a specific group within the US is voting rationally, …

Scallywag Pedagogy, Peter Mclaren, Petar Jandrić

Education Faculty Books and Book Chapters

This chapter explores the dynamic between truth and deceit in twenty-first-century transnational capitalism, emerging neo-fascist movements, and post-truth media landscapes marked by the Covid-19 pandemic and the anthropogenic bioinformational challenge. It establishes the centrality of the concept of truth in revolutionary critical pedagogy and underscores the importance of linking true words with true actions in the formation of critical praxis. Revolutionary praxis consists of the dialectical process of self and social formation, while critical educators are situated as protagonistic agents who work in and through history. Truth is therefore not about a timeless or objective state we name history. Action …

Neither “Post-War” Nor Post-Pregnancy Paranoia: How America’S War On Drugs Continues To Perpetuate Disparate Incarceration Outcomes For Pregnant, Substance-Involved Offenders, Becca S. Zimmerman

Pitzer Senior Theses

This thesis investigates the unique interactions between pregnancy, substance involvement, and race as they relate to the War on Drugs and the hyper-incarceration of women. Using ordinary least square regression analyses and data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics’ 2016 Survey of Prison Inmates, I examine if (and how) pregnancy status, drug use, race, and their interactions influence two length of incarceration outcomes: sentence length and amount of time spent in jail between arrest and imprisonment. The results collectively indicate that pregnancy decreases length of incarceration outcomes for those offenders who are not substance-involved but not evenhandedly -- benefitting white …

America’S Presidential Crisis Of Legitimacy: How The Electoral College Became Obsolete And How We Can Fix It, Julia Rose Foodman

Scripps Senior Theses

The goal of this thesis is to critique the current American Presidential electoral system, the Electoral College, and to show what an alternative could potentially mean for the American people. This paper seeks to answer the following questions: What are the main arguments for the Electoral College, why are they troubling, and how can we mend American Presidential elections for the greater purposes of political equality, democracy, and freedom? To do so, core arguments made by conservative pundits in favor of the Electoral College are outlined in order to bring attention to their logical, political, and moral inconsistencies. The inequalities …

How Sociological Factors Influence Political Party Affiliation In The U.S., Christa Mcdowell

Capstone Showcase

There are several factors that contribute to political party affiliation in the United States, but it is not clear precisely to what extent. Two theories in particular, Social Force Theory & Parental Value Transmission Theory, argue that identity politics, a child’s perception of the parent, and shared racial struggles are all factors which contribute directly to political party affiliation. Using pattern matching, I operationalize several concepts or factors such as race, gender, and religion as indicators. Compiling data from the Pew Research Center, Gallup, and case studies, I found that most of these factors are intersectional and that intersectionality is …

Backfire: How The Rise Of Neoliberalism Facilitated The Rise Of The Far Right, Jacob Fuller

Capstone Showcase

The U.S. far right has become increasingly mainstream in contemporary American politics. In this paper, I analyze the theory that the far right has gained ground due to a backlash from neoliberal policies beginning in the 1980s under Ronald Reagan. Using Process tracing, I operationalize claims made by those arguing that the white working class has moved towards the far right due to their loss of status, as well as the theory that specific wealthy actors have mobilized these groups and altered the movement against neoliberalism to suit their interests. I find that these arguments have merit, and further the …

Democracy In The Mena, Alexandria Petrof

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

There is not sufficient evidence that the Middle East will be able to democratize effectively. First and foremost, most attempts of implementing democracy have failed. The landscape and lack of industrialization also plays a role in the inability to apply democratic systems into this area. Lastly, the educational system, or lack thereof, struggles to educate their children and citizens as a whole and education is one of the biggest factors in the success of democracy.

The Political Imagination: Introduction To American Government, Peter Kolozi, James E. Freeman

Open Educational Resources

The Political Imagination: Introduction to American Government provides realistic, critical analysis as well as a hopeful, engagement-oriented narrative that encourages students to understand the important role they can play in the political system and in crafting a society in which they want to live. The Political Imagination draws on social and political theory and history offering an analytical as well as normative framework to think about the substance of politics, the procedures and institutions of government, and a dynamic, socially contingent definition of political power.

‘It’S Like Baking A Cake’: An Analysis Of Conscience Voting In The New Zealand House Of Representatives Since The Introduction Of The Mixed-Member Proportional System In 1996, Harrison Hosking

CMC Senior Theses

Conscience voting in the New Zealand House of Representatives offers a unique opportunity to assess Sam Peltzman’s ‘Principal-Agent Theory’ as outlined in his 1984 paper, Constituent Interest and Congressional Voting.

This thesis begins with a brief assessment of the principal-agent model (and other literature regarding parliamentary representation) before looking at the New Zealand Parliamentary system and the phenomenon of private member’s bills and how they aid the legislative process. This is followed by an exploration of a constructed dataset of conscience votes that have occurred since the inception of the mixed-member proportional (MMP) electoral system in 1996. An analysis …

Pol 372: Politics And Human Survival, Joseph Mohorčich

Open Educational Resources

In this class, we’ll read contemporary political thought about what could happen in the future. We’ll pay special attention to the forces and feedback loops that threaten human life.

Altruism And Spite In Politics: How The Mind Makes Welfare Tradeoffs About Political Parties, Alessandro Del Ponte, Andrew W. Delton, Peter Descioli

Political Science Faculty Articles and Research

How much will people sacrifice to support or oppose political parties? Extending previous work on the psychology of interpersonal cooperation, we propose that people’s minds compute a distinct cost–benefit ratio—a welfare tradeoff ratio—that regulates their choices to help or hurt political parties. In two experiments, participants decide whether to financially help and hurt the inparty and outparty. The results show that participants were extremely consistent (> 90%) while making dozens of decisions in a randomized order, providing evidence for tradeoff ratios toward parties. Moreover, participants’ ratios correlated in the expected directions with partisanship, political ideology, and feelings of enthusiasm and …

The Influence Of Foreign Elite Rhetoric: National Identity, Emotions, And Attitudes Toward Austerity, Alessandro Del Ponte

Political Science Faculty Articles and Research

How does foreign elite rhetoric affect citizens’ emotions and attitudes about austerity? In a survey experiment conducted on the online blogs of the two major Italian newspapers, participants read a fictional news article where the German Chancellor addressed Italians. Across treatments, I varied whether the message blamed or praised Italians, and whether the message focused on economic or symbolic concerns. Praise generated enthusiasm whereas blame spurred anger and anxiety. Moreover, respondents with a strong national or European identity who read a message of praise were more enthusiastic, less angry, and less opposed to austerity. Finally, people who identify strongly with …

Enemy Mine: Negative Partisanship And Satisfaction With Democracy, Hannah M. Ridge

Political Science Faculty Articles and Research

Polarization has increased in recent decades, including emotional distance between partisans. While positive partisan identity has been linked to the absorption of democratic norms and democratic satisfaction, this article addresses the impact of negative partisanship on citizens’ satisfaction with the functioning of their democracies. Employing two measures of negative partisanship – dislike for a party and unwillingness to ever vote for a party – the article finds that negative partisanship is linked to lower satisfaction with democracy, particularly negative partisanship for major parties. It also finds that respondents’ sentiments towards other parties moderate the experience of electoral outcomes; the win/loss …

Muslims’ Religious Freedom And Religiosity: Measurement And Impact, Hannah M. Ridge

Political Science Faculty Books and Book Chapters

Multiple measures of religious freedom and states’ regulation of religion are at work in sociology of religion. These scales apply one score to a country or to a subset of its policies. A uniform state score conceals the internal religious diversity and the heterogeneous experiences of religious freedom that can result. These, in turn, encourage ecological fallacies and mask the disparate impact that religious freedom for one’s own community and for other groups can have on individuals’ preferences and decisions. To demonstrate the value of measuring and studying religious freedom at the individual level, this study applies individual-level assessments of …

State Regulation Of Religion: The Effect Of Religious Freedom On Muslims' Religiosity, Hannah M. Ridge

Political Science Faculty Articles and Research

Substantial scholarship argues that regulation of religion suppresses religiosity in a community by reducing individuals’ satisfaction with their religious experience. To date this research has assumed that regulations are enforced on and affect religious communities uniformly. It has also focused heavily on Western Christian populations and aggregated national data. We suggest that state regulation of religious communities and behaviours impacts citizens differently based on their affiliation. Using individual-level assessments of freedom and religiosity from Muslim-majority countries, we show that, at the individual level, restricting freedom suppresses religious belief and behaviour. Restrictions on religious minorities, however, can increase religiosity. As such, …

Mainero And Smoller: The Gop Is Self-Destructing, Mario Maneiro, Fred Smoller

Political Science Faculty Articles and Research

"The Republican Party is self destructing. Donald Trump is proudly marching the national and local GOP off a cliff by exploiting America’s racial divide and by rejecting science. The failure of virtually all GOP office holders–Mitt Romney is a notable exception–to challenge the president, emboldens him and deprives the country of needed true two-party balance.

We come to this conclusion from much different political perspectives: one of us (Mainero) is a conservative law professor who was Chief of Staff for Senator John Moorlach (R) when Moorlach was a County Supervisor and the other (Smoller) is a progressive political science professor. …