Political Theory Commons^™

Jison Jiei: Offensive Realism And Imperial Japan's Spiral Toward Regional Hegemony, John William Dodd

War, Diplomacy, and Society (MA) Theses

This thesis examines Imperial Japan’s march from the Mukden Incident of 1931 to the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 through the lens of offensive realism. It asks to what extent Japan’s prewar grand strategy can be understood as a bid for regional hegemony, and what that interpretation reveals about the relationship between power politics, international law, and future great-power crises. Rather than treating Japanese expansion as irrational madness or reducing it only to ideology or militarism, this thesis argues that Japanese leaders acted according to a recognizable strategic logic.

Proceeding from theory to historical analysis, this project first situates …

Do Voters Understand The Benefits Of Taxes?, Benjamin Carter, Alessandro Del Ponte, Peter Discioli

Political Science Faculty Articles and Research

We use economic experiments to study a fundamental question in political economy: Do voters understand the benefits of taxes? Participants play an economic game as members of a virtual society composed of computer players. In each round, the players earn low or high income, see the distribution of income, and then vote for low or high taxes. We test whether participants vote rationally for high taxes when poor and low taxes when rich, following a classic model in political economy, or whether they focus on the burden of taxes more than the benefits. Across three experiments, poor players voted against …

Alone And Radicalized: The Hidden Link Between Isolationism And Political Violence, Zaina Siddiqui

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

As some socially isolated individuals come to view political violence as legitimate, what exactly draws the line towards political extremism? My findings examine the relationship between loneliness, social marginalization, and support for political violence through psychological theories on radicalization. Using Chapman University’s American Fear Survey Wave 11, I examined the correlation between isolationism and a sense of belonging, with the latter leading to support for political violence and extremism. The project contributes to research on political extremism by focusing on loneliness as a loss of belonging and personal significance rather than on ideology or pathology alone. In my research, I …

Education’S Role In Indian Democracy, Kiranjot K. Atwal

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

What impact do higher levels of education have on support for democracy in India? Existing research has largely demonstrated that education can foster democratic values through increased political awareness and civic involvement; however, researchers have only just begun to explore how education contributes to developing democracies, where social and political contexts may influence the formation of attitudes in distinct ways. This gap creates a question as to whether or not the positive impacts of education on democratic support hold true across diverse populations. I argue education promotes democratic governance by serving as a catalyst for increased engagement and interaction between …

"Silent Or Seen: How Trust Influences Protest Engagement", Adam M. Erdkamp

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

The research question I have chosen for my project is, “In what ways do levels of trust impact whether someone chooses to participate in an in-person protest?” A current problem within this field from previous findings is that research claims there is no consensus on whether trust encourages participation or if distrust drives it. Therefore, while some believe that a minimum level of trust is necessary to participate in politics, others argue that distrust drives citizens to partake in non-institutionalized, radicalized, or in-person protests. My answer to this question is that I believe if people were to have high levels …

Where Do Policy Demanders Come From? Protestants And Party Formation In The Antebellum Period, John W. Compton

Political Science Faculty Articles and Research

The early 1830s were years of intense religious fervor, when well-organized moral reform movements seemed destined to remake the political landscape. Curiously, however, the party system that emerged from this period was premised on the exclusion of moral issues from party politics. How did the early Jacksonian Democrats and Whigs manage to construct an essentially amoral party system during a decade marked by large-scale moral reform movements? And why did the resulting system unravel in the mid-1850s? Answering these questions requires shifting the focus from party activists and elected officials to organized religion. Specifically, I show that the nation's largest …

3rd Place Contest Entry: "More Money, More Votes? Not Always", Levi Ramirez Garcia

Kevin and Tam Ross Undergraduate Research Prize

This is Levi Ramirez Garcia's submission for the 2026 Kevin and Tam Ross Undergraduate Research Prize, which won third place. It contains their essay on using library resources, and a summary of their research project on the relationship between money and elections, and their bibliography.

Levi is a fourth-year student at Chapman University, majoring in Political Science and Strategic Corporate Communication. Their faculty mentor is Dr. Ann Gordon.

Does Deference To Religious Authority Predict Support For Political Violence?, John W. Compton, Ann Gordon

Political Science Faculty Articles and Research

Does deference to religious authority undermine support for democratic norms, including those forbidding the use of violence for political ends? Scholars have struggled to answer this question, in part, we believe, because they have typically employed proxies for religious deference (e.g. Biblical literalism, worship attendance, and self-reported religiosity) instead of measuring it directly. We develop a new measure of deference to religious authority in politics (DRAP), using the 2024 Chapman Survey of American Fears. We find that (1) DRAP is strongly correlated with support for political violence; (2) other common measures of religiosity (e.g. Biblical literalism and self-reported religiosity) are …

The Cult Of Clean Hands: Why No One’S Innocent In America’S War On Corruption, Elizabeth Doan

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

This study examines how fear of corruption functions as both a political weapon and a national ritual of moral reassurance. The focus lies in understanding why Americans across party lines express deep mistrust in political institutions while simultaneously seeking purity through accusation. Drawing on a nationally representative survey of U.S. voters, the research examines how partisan identity, media narratives, and generational memory influence the emotional economy of corruption—what citizens fear, whom they blame, and why those fears persist. Testing the initial expectation that Republicans would express greater concern about corruption revealed that such fear is shared widely across parties, reflecting …

Illiberalism In Israeli Public Opinion, Hannah M. Ridge

Political Science Faculty Articles and Research

Israel has long identified as a democracy. However, scholars have expressed concerns that it is engaged in democratic backsliding (Kremnitzer and Shany 2020; Oren and Waxman 2022). Despite holding repeated elections, its liberal credentials are weakening, as the rule of law and judicial independence are threatened. Institutionally, then, it is fulfilling Dahl’s (1971) contestation requirement for democracy but not the inclusiveness requirement. At the citizen level, there is questionable democratic culture (Inglehart and Welzel 2003). If the public supports electoral institutions but not liberal values, then the democracy’s foundation is weak (Mounk 2018). This article analyzes recent Israeli public opinion …

Property Rights In The Face Of Historic Injustice, Bas Van Der Vossen, Fabian Wendt

Philosophy Faculty Articles and Research

It seems natural to adopt a historical approach when it comes to property titles: When property titles have a clean history, they are to be respected as a matter of justice; when they do not have a clean history, for example, in cases of prior theft, they must be returned to the original owners or their descendants. But the historical approach has serious drawbacks. This paper presents an alternative. Starting from the idea that property rights must be stable, we offer an account of why historic injustices sometimes do, but sometimes do not, undermine current titles. This account offers a …

Does Choice Of Media Amplify Support For Political Violence?, Nathan Palomares

Political Science Student Papers and Posters

Acts of political violence have increased in frequency and exposure to American society via news media. Violent rhetoric is a common theme among many forms of media Americans consume, including social media, which has become an essential platform where Americans increasingly get political news information. The events of the January 6 Capitol Riots and the attempted assassination of President Donald Trump in late 2024 show how urgent the rise of political violence is and its destabilization of American Democracy. In this paper, I examine the relationship between the types of news media people consume and their potential to increase people’s …

Does Choice Of Media Amplify Support For Political Violence?, Nathan Palomares

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Acts of political violence have increased in frequency and exposure to American society via news media. Violent rhetoric is a common theme among many forms of media Americans consume, including social media, which has become an essential platform where Americans increasingly get political news information. The events of the January 6 Capitol Riots and the attempted assassination of President Donald Trump in late 2024 show how urgent the rise of political violence is and its destabilization of American Democracy. In this paper, I examine the relationship between the types of news media people consume and their potential to increase people’s …

Government Trust And Its Influence On Voter Turnout During Wartime, Samantha Claire Richard

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

What impact does the public's level of trust in government during wartime have on voter turnout in US elections? Previous research focuses primarily on the impact public trust has on political parties and tends to neglect the impact wartimes may have on these factors. I will argue that during wartime, there is a negative relationship between public trust and voter turnout. Oftentimes, those who find themselves not trusting the government have a stronger desire to vote in hopes of changing the system; in comparison to those who have a high level of government trust, they feel a weaker desire to …

Holy Day Surveys And Political Attitudes In Israel, Hannah M. Ridge

Political Science Faculty Articles and Research

Researchers regularly use large survey studies to examine public political opinion. Surveys running over days and months will necessarily incorporate religious occasions that can introduce variation in public opinion. Using recent survey data from Israel, this study demonstrates that giving surveys on religious occasions (e.g., the Sabbath, Hannukah, Sukkot) can elicit different opinion responses. These effects are found among both religious and non-religious respondents. While incorporating these fluctuations is realistic in longer-term surveys, surveys fielded in a short window inadvertently drawing heavily on a holiday or holy day sample may bias their findings. This study thus urges researchers to be …

Bottom-Up Global Change: Stealth Action In A Decentralized World, Art Blaser, Trinity Huynh

Political Science Faculty Articles and Research

The climate justice and disability rights movements reflect a paradigm shift from a top-down approach to policy-making to one that emphasizes local efforts by non-state actors.

Jewish Nationalism In Israel: A Measurement, Hannah M. Ridge

Political Science Faculty Articles and Research

Since Israel’s founding, being a “Jewish state” has been central to its self-representation. However, Israel has struggled to identify what that means. This article examines the strength of Jewish nationalism in Jewish Israeli public opinion. It draws on a recent survey of 200 Jewish Israelis for a qualitative and quantitative investigation of public responses to religious nationalist statements. These findings offer a utilizable survey short scale for measuring Jewish nationalism and to understand how Jewish Israelis are interpreting these statements. This study is a necessary step to empirically evaluating religious nationalism in the “Jewish state”.

Intersectional Marxism And The Dialectic: Interpreting Marx For Our Times, Lilia Monzó, Cristal B. Flores

Education Faculty Articles and Research

"Many on the radical left are increasingly seeking a humanist alternative to the white supremacist capitalist patriarchy that has produced immeasurable suffering and destruction. Amidst the fascism ignited within this era’s supra-conservatism, many of us turned to the Democratic Party to ensure Trump’s defeat only to be reminded that both major political parties in the United States have always moved to the tune of capitalist interests.¹ Thus, at this time, especially, we must remain hopeful in order to continue our struggle to develop a viable alternative to the current system.

This new PM Press edition of Karl Marx’s Critique …

An Educated Guess: The Impact Of Education On Conspiracy Theories And Voting, Ellie Bickelhaupt

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

How strongly does education impact one's perception and opinion of conspiracy theories and voting? Throughout the years, conspiracy theories have been a rising trend in recent years that many people find entertaining, but many believe to be actual facts. The impact of one's education level can substantially change a person's beliefs in conspiracy theories and overall trust in the government. This trend has been shown by analyzing media consumption, education status, and the American National Election survey. This research will compare the trends between education level and conspiracy theory beliefs and how both affect a person's voting behavior. This research …

The Contemporary Causes Of Americans' Fear Of Illegal Immigration, Amilie Cai

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Annually, the U.S. aspires to extend its liberality by opening its border to more than ten thousand refugees. In this paper, I examine how political party identification, census region, and internet usage influence U.S. adults' fear of illegal immigration. Relying on the 2023 Chapman Survey of American Fears, a representative national sample of U.S. adults, I find that political party has remained a consistent predictor for an American’s fear of illegal immigration, with people who align themselves with the Republican Party in 2022 being more afraid of illegal immigration compared to other political parties, such as the Democrat Party. In …

Fair Elections, Representation, And The Win-Loss Satisfaction With Democracy Gap, Hannah M. Ridge

Political Science Faculty Articles and Research

A substantial literature on public democratic satisfaction argues that system satisfaction is based on how the election transpires and the policy outcomes citizens anticipate from the electoral results. In a functioning democracy, citizens elect a government in fair elections and the election outcomes reflect the electorate’s views. Winners of both national and regional elections are regularly found to be more satisfied with their democracy than losers. This study shows that the perceived fairness and representativeness of the electoral results moderate this disparity by narrowing the satisfaction gap between electoral winners and electoral losers; this effect is concentrated in the evaluation …

Crossing The Line: Evidence For The Categorization Theory Of Spatial Voting, Mark Pickup, Erik O. Kimbrough, Eline A. De Rooij

Economics Faculty Articles and Research

Bølstad and Dinas (2017) propose a model of spatial voting, based on social identity theory, that suggests supporting a candidate/policy on the other side of the ideological spectrum has a disutility that is not accounted for by common spatial models. Unfortunately, the data they use cannot speak directly to whether the disutility arises because individuals perceive their ideology as a social identity. We present the results of an experimental study that measures the norm against crossing the ideological spectrum; tests the cost of doing so, controlling for spatial effects; and demonstrates that this cost increases with the salience and strength …

Always Silent? Exploring Contextual Conditions For Nonresponses To Vote Intention Questions At The 2020 Us Presidential Election, Stefano Camatarri, Lewis Luartz, Marta Gallina

Political Science Faculty Articles and Research

Nonresponses to vote intention questions notoriously impact the quality of electoral predictions. This issue has gained visibility in the US due to the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election. Indeed, the failure of many major pollsters in predicting election results in several key states stimulated a renewed attention for the so-called shy Trump supporter hypothesis, according to which Trump supporters would be more likely to hide their vote preference in electoral surveys due to social desirability bias. Interestingly, extant studies generally overlook the role that the socio-political environments could play in respondent decisions to disclose one’s own political preferences. In …

Democratic Commitment In The Middle East: A Conjoint Analysis, Hannah M. Ridge

Political Science Faculty Articles and Research

Polls from the Middle East/North Africa show high support for democracy. However, the veracity of this support has been called into question. This study uses a conjoint analysis to show that citizens support democratic institutions, as well as favoring an effective welfare state and a state religion. The results demonstrate that support for elected governance is not contingent on the state's providing economic benefits; citizens are more likely to favor participatory government at each level of economic outcome. Interest in incorporating religion in the state, however, is contingent on the political and economic profile described; the contingent effects suggest interest …

Climate Change Skepticism: Who And Why?, Mia Huyen Truong

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Despite persistent scientific consensus urging immediate action, political polarization, and skepticism have hindered effective climate change mitigation, especially in the United States. This paper explores the factors influencing climate change attitudes among different groups, focusing on right-wing affiliates and Christian believers. Drawing on the Anti-Reflexivity Thesis (McCright and Dunlap, 2001-2010) and Information Processing Theory (Wood & Vedlitz, 2007), we investigate the effects of individual characteristics, including partisan ideology, party identification, educational attainment, and Christian faith. Using Wave 7 (2021) of the Chapman Survey of American Fears Survey, a nationwide sample of different fears among U.S. adults, this study aims to …

Perceived Party Differences, Election Outcomes, And Satisfaction With Democracy, Hannah M. Ridge

Political Science Faculty Articles and Research

Multiple studies have identified a significant gap between electoral winners’ satisfaction with the functioning of their democracy and electoral losers’ satisfaction. This disparity is attributed to the diverging policies the parties would enact. For this to be true, citizens must perceive true differences among the parties. Using thirty-one post-election surveys from twenty-five countries, this study finds that the win-loss satisfaction gap is conditioned by the perceived differences among the political parties in the democracy. The effect of winning or losing on citizens’ satisfaction is significantly larger when citizens identify greater differences among the parties. This effect is driven by the …

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 …

Measuring Ethnodoxy In Egypt And Morocco, Hannah M. Ridge

Political Science Faculty Articles and Research

Ethnodoxy is the conceptual linkage of an ethnic group with a particular religion. It has been previously documented in Slavic Orthodox communities. This study uses Arabic-language surveys in Egypt and Morocco to measure this ethno-religious linkage among Arab Muslims. It develops a parsimonious survey scale for measuring ethnodoxy. It also demonstrates that ethnodox and non-ethnodox Egyptians and Moroccans have different political preferences, both for regime type and for the role of religion in politics.

A Theory Of The Covid-19 Pandemic’S Impact On The Government-Citizen Relationship / Teorija Vpliva Pandemije Covid-19 Na Odnos Med Vlado In Državljani, Lewis Luartz

Political Science Faculty Articles and Research

This paper explores how crises, such as the COVID- 19 pandemic, can impact political behavior amid restrictions. Specifically, this paper builds a theoretical model suggesting the pandemic promoted restriction-oriented policies from the government in response to the crisis while promoting populist tendencies among citizens who disagree with those policies. Moreover, through a formal two-player extensive form game, the model promoted in this paper suggests restrictions are unpopular enough that citizens may push back on such policies regardless of crisis severity. The theoretical outcomes here have significant implications on governance, given that politicians care about re-election.

Biopolitics And Belief: The Impacts Of Religious Attitudes On Reproductive Rights In The U.S., Katlyn Barbaccia

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

On June 24, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled to overturn Roe v. Wade (1973)—a groundbreaking case that legalized the right to have an abortion—which signified a deep rift in the nation between the opinions of its lawmakers and citizens in the wake of a widening partisan gap. Biopower, according to Foucault, can be defined as the governing of bodies wherein citizens are stripped of bodily autonomy and are closely regulated by the nation-state. Manifested in political consequences, this can be defined as biopolitics, or when the nation-state’s ideas are made into a reality in the political realm. …