Political Theory Commons^™

天壤之别: Biden’S 2020 Campaign Appeal To Trump Supporters Via His China Foreign Policy Rhetoric, Angelica Navarro

Scripps Senior Theses

Foreign policy rhetoric as a campaign strategy is limited in the current literature. The U.S.’ polarized political climate has divided voters along domestic issues. Therefore, foreign policy may be one of the few remaining “common ground” issues upon which U.S. presidential candidates can secure a broad, national coalition across the political spectrum. Pulling from Joe Biden’s speeches during his 2020 presidential campaign from C-SPAN’s coverage, I analyze his rhetoric in relation to China in a possible attempt to appeal to 2016 blue-collar Trump supporters. My results reflect Biden’s use of four major frames in his China foreign policy rhetoric relating …

A Hot Conflict Growing Ever Hotter: How Climate Change Provokes Instances Of Violence In South Sudan, Madison Menard

CMC Senior Theses

In South Sudan, people are not engaging in violent altercations because of climate change. People are not deciding to kill other people because the average temperature of the world has risen 1 degree celsius, or harming their neighbor because of irregular rain patterns. Alas the link from climate change to violence is not as direct as that. Rather, climate change has played a non-direct role in the South Sudanese conflict. Within the political marketplace it has subtly altered conditions which later spark or intensify outbreaks of violence. Climate change in this sense should be viewed as a stressor of sorts …

America After Trump: The Rise Of National Conservatism In The United States, Its Potential For Electoral Success, And The Future Of The Republican Party, Jensen Steady

CMC Senior Theses

Since Donald Trump’s loss in the 2020 presidential election, numerous conservative factions have attempted to fill the void and become dominant within the Republican Party. One of the most visible factions vying for power are the National Conservatives, but this movement has received little examination in academic literature due to its recent formation in 2019. Animated by a vision of nationalism based on historical tradition and the power of the state to push socially conservative goals, National Conservatism represents a distinct political movement that draws on various strands of existing conservative thought, although it does not clearly resemble any of …

Economic Propaganda In The United States, Brooklyn Montgomery

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis aims to identify and analyze three different forms of economic propaganda: cultural, structural, and political. I first examine ‘Do What You Love’ culture and its impact on the labor force. Chapter Two explores the propagation of neoliberal economics as an objective study, and the final chapter analyzes the use of Black capitalism as a political mechanism to quell Black radical sentiment. In detailing these phenomenons, I investigate the implementation, normalization, and effects, as well as the material repercussions of these ideas and structures.

Mixing Sports And Politics: How Totalitarian Regimes Used Sports To Achieve The Goals Of The State, Caroline Phillips

CMC Senior Theses

This paper explores how sports were used by totalitarian regimes to achieve the goals of the state. The three case studies involve the totalitarian governments of interwar Europe: Italian Fascism, German Nazism, and Spanish Francoism. Three main trends were identified. Sports were used to improve their nation’s health and fitness for military preparation, construct a national identity, and as a diplomatic tool to improve their international reputation. I also explore what ideological themes lent themselves to construction of these three specific goals.

Disembedded Liberalism: The Global Pressure On Democracy, Hallie Spear

CMC Senior Theses

The international political order is at a crossroads with divergent paths. Liberal democracy is once again threatened on the international stage. What's more troubling is that the most stable and influential democracies, the United States, those in Europe and India, seem to be vulnerable to the autocratic wave sweeping through the world. This thesis completes a critical analysis to understand the root causes of the recent disruption to democracy the world has observed. Focusing on three established, diverse, and populous democracies, this thesis investigates the economic conditions at play that made each nation vulnerable to populism. Neoliberal economic policies implemented …

Divide And Slaughter: Bridging The Gap Between Animal Rights And Racial Justice Through An Analysis Of The Link Between Slaughterhouses And Domestic Violence, Kailey Mcneal

Pitzer Senior Theses

This thesis concerns the injustices present in industrial animal agriculture in the United States, domestic violence, and their disproportionate impact on marginalized communities. Despite the work of social movements centered around domestic violence and the slaughterhouse, the state of both continues to worsen, particularly for communities of color. My research seeks to uncover what factors preclude the efficacy of these movements. A qualitative analysis of the labor advocacy and animal rights movements in the slaughterhouse and the domestic violence advocacy movement suggests that the current disparate framings of these injustices and a lack of attention to race contribute to the …

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 …

Stronger As One? Examining Us-Saudi Relations Since 9/11, Caroline Jenkins

CMC Senior Theses

In the first several years following the attacks on September 11, 2001, many in both the American political elite and general public questioned the merits of the US’s strong alliance with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, as fifteen of the nineteen hijackers, as well as Osama bin Laden, were Saudi citizens. The Kingdom was known for its lax regulations surrounding terrorist financing, which played a role in al Qaeda’s ability to carry out the 9/11 attacks. Due to this, many called for the US to end its historic partnership with the Saudis.

However, under further examination, it becomes clear that …

Let's Get Free: Family Policing, Prison Industrial Complex Abolition, And Transcendent Love, Emma Li

Scripps Senior Theses

My objective is to illuminate the painful, discriminatory, and avoidable effects of family separation underneath the American child welfare system and tradition of family policing. In this bureaucratically sprawling and interconnected system comprising of prisons, courts, social workers, and doctors, individual blame is assigned to parents, families, and communities facing long-running systemic problems. Family policing and the child welfare system have long been excluded from conventional discussions surrounding the harms of police and prisons. The everyday violence Black, Latinx, and low-income families face at the threat of/implementation of family separation - an immensely traumatic and agonizing process - must be …

Black Maoism, But Make It Fashion: How The Black Panther Party Utilized Mao Zedong’S Marxist Interpretations In Conjunction With Fashion To Redefine Us Militarism, Chiugo Akujuobi

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis explores the intersections present between the multifaceted, sociopolitical institutions of Marxism and communism with a highlight on their seedling Maoism; the revolutionary organization that is the Black Panther Party; and the art of fashion and processes that create modes of dress, that emblazon dress with identity, meaning, and purpose. The lenses with which these complex topics will showcase themselves and intersect are through militarism and militarization. These lenses and topics of intersection work in tandem to produce an examination of the Black Panther Party’s subversion and redefinition of the practices of militarism and militarization. Specifically, the main point …

Dropping The Ball: A Political And Economic Analysis Of Public Subsidization For Stadium Construction Projects, Max Fisher

CMC Senior Theses

The results generated by this research argue that the high cost of public subsidization does not outweigh the benefits associated with new stadiums. By using several cost-benefit analyses, my research adds to the current literature that these projects, while seemingly beneficial for communities, induces negligible or even negative outcomes. In particular, this study details the Las Vegas Raiders and the New York Yankees, explaining how these teams were able to achieve a new stadium. To understand why politicians continually support stadium construction despite extensive literature showing its harms, this research includes explanations based on the political theory from authors such …

‘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 …

Discourse Analysis Of Nyt’S Headlines On Terrorism And Climate Change: How Media Reflects Our Conceptualization Of Security, Helena Gabrielle Ong

Pomona Senior Theses

Although climate change and terrorism are both considered national security threats by U.S. military experts, the American public views these threats differ- ently, with climate change at lower risk and priority in comparison to terror- ism. This reflects a difference in how the public conceptualizes security threats. This paper aims to address that gap through media coverage. This study ex- amines the language of newspaper headlines for terrorism and climate change in order to identify the dominant representations of these issues in the media. I analyze the discourse of two security issues—terrorism and climate change– by comparing news headlines from …

Reimagining Theories Of Nationalism: A Critical Examiniation Of Prevailing Nationalist Theories, Sarah Sanchez

Scripps Senior Theses

Traditional theories of nationalism tend to fall in one of two categories: 1) top-down, or official nationalism, which holds that nationalist sentiments are created by state actors, or 2) bottom-up, or popular, nationalism, which holds that nationalist sentiments originate with the people. However, there are major flaws in both of those theories, as well as a decent amount of overlap between them. This paper dismantles the supposed binary between these two theories, and looks for a way to view the theories in combination with one another. Looking at the places of overlap, as well as the elements of each theory …

Republicanism’S Globalist Problem: How The Inevitability Of International Engagement Undermines States’ Capacity For Self-Governance, Andrew R. Ciacci

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis examines the difficulties philosophical theories have in adapting to international issues. This work primarily focuses on the philosophical theory of government known as “Republicanism”. According to republicanism, the government’s overarching goal is to promote freedom, which republicans understand as the ability to pursue choices without being under the arbitrary power of others. After establishing its merits, I lay out the core principles of republicanism as are most clearly articulated in Phillip Pettit’s work, Republicanism: A Theory of Freedom and Government. The second chapter then examines how Pettit applies his own view to analyze the state of Republican freedom …

Humanization Is Liberation: ‘Emorational Morality’ In The Mitigation Of Inequitable, Dehumanizing, Domestic Educational Policies, Nirel Jonesmitchell

CMC Senior Theses

Top researchers in the field of critical pedagogy signify that humanization--the process of understanding and connecting with the humanity of another individual—literally liberates the brain from fear. This allows for student creativity and higher-order thinking; without cultural awareness and empathy, researchers claim, educational apartheid will persist. American notions of both teacher and student intelligences as well as ideas of ‘proper’ teacher-student relationships are contextualized by the political philosopher John Locke who delineated a capitalistic political framework based on his interpretation of human motivations: reason and the pursuit of happiness. The corresponding narrow conceptions of intellect, educational success, morality, and emotionality …

Hong Kong Identity On The Rise: Understanding The Role Of Subnational Identity In The 2019-2020 Hong Kong Protests, Gemma Sykes

CMC Senior Theses

In 2019, Hong Kong erupted in mass protests demonstrating the city’s desire to be recognized as having a distinct peripheral identity with separate political expectations. What began as demonstrations against the proposed Extradition Bill quickly became a mass display of the differences between Hong Kong’s peripheral nationalism and the national Chinese identity. Since 2008, the subnational ‘Hongkonger’ identity has seen a dramatic rise in self-identification polls from only 18 percent in 2008 to 52.9 percent in 2019. Moreover, in 2019, 92.5 percent of 18 to 29 year olds in Hong Kong identified solely with the ‘Hongkonger’ identity. This thesis seeks …

The Finch Effect: Evolutionary Metaphors And Illiberal Democracy In Central And Eastern Europe, Abigail Woodfield

Claremont-UC Undergraduate Research Conference on the European Union

In recent years, several states in Central and Eastern Europe have seen democratic digression. Such illiberal resurgences came as a surprise to the many political scientists who assumed that the future of these states was democratic. Indeed, after the fall of the Soviet Union, the world largely regarded liberal democracy as the predominant system of government. The future seemed bright, and it was tempting to understand that future in evolutionary terms—just as humans evolved under natural selection to become the dominant species, democracy had survived a similar competition and defeated all other systems of government to become the dominant regime. …

La Modernité Tunisienne Dévoilée : Une Étude Autour De La Femme Célibataire, Madison Wagner

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis explains recent accounts of discrimination and cutbacks in reproductive health spaces in Tunisia. Complicating dominant analyses, which attribute these events to the post-revolution political atmosphere which has allowed the proliferation of islamic extremism, I interpret these instances as a manifestation of a deeply rooted stigma against sexually active single women. I trace this stigma’s inception to the contradictory way that Habib Bourguiba conceptualized modernity after independence, and the responsibility he assigned to Tunisian women to embody that modernity. This responsibility remains salient today, and is putting Tunisian women in an increasingly untenable and vulnerable position.

After independence, Bourguiba …

(Un)Safe Zones: Good Intentions, Bad Logic, Emma Henson

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis aims to explore the disconnect between calls for safe zones as a tool of humanitarian intervention, and the dark history of safe zone failure. This thesis begins with a brief discussion of current calls for safe zones in Syria, and how a proper theoretical framework and historical understanding are needed to discuss whether or not safe zones can be successfully implemented in Syria. The following literature review discusses not only prominent academic arguments and the history of humanitarian intervention, but it suggests a framework for deconstructing case studies. This framework looks first at the interests of an intervening …

Catching Congress Up: Restoring The Office Of Technology Assessment, Bruno Youn

CMC Senior Theses

Congress has become infamous for its lack of understanding of technology, particularly with the Facebook and Google hearings in 2018. To improve this understanding, this thesis argues for the return of the Office of Technology Assessment (OTA), a congressional support agency created in 1972 that provided science and technology expertise to Congress until its termination in 1995. It also considers potential changes that might be made to the old OTA model and the political environment in which a new OTA would need to survive.

Evolving Conceptions Of Sovereignty As Applied To Membership In International Organizations, Luke C. Radice

CMC Senior Theses

In the current international climate, both nations and individuals increasingly question both the validity and necessity of international organizations. This paper seeks to answer some of those questions, and to determine why countries choose to surrender significant portions of the national power that they are afforded under traditional perceptions of “Westphalian sovereignty”. This question is answered through an analysis of historical political thought on the concept of Sovereignty, then is applied to two case studies: the United Nations and the European Union, in which the benefits and downsides of surrendering sovereignty are discussed. Ultimately, this thesis concludes that the concept …

Fdr And Economic Rights In The American Tradition, Charles Harris

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis examines the idea of economic rights and their place in American political history. The American constitutional understanding of rights has historically not included positive economic rights and has focused on negative political liberties. Chapter One is a discussion of what economic rights are in a broad sense. Then in Chapter Two I focus on Roosevelt. In his 1944 State of the Union Address, he proposed a “Second Bill of Rights” for America that was a list of economic rights. I use that speech and some of FDR’s other writings to understand economic rights as they were seen at …

“Of Every Sort”: Conceptions Of Property Rights At The Time Of The American Founding, Zachary Wong

CMC Senior Theses

The most contentious issues of our day often have to do with political and social rights as opposed to economic rights. Through the lens of property rights I investigate whether this dichotomy existed at the time of the American founding. First, I examine the state constitutions and identify three clauses, common to the documents, which protect property rights. I examine their historical basis and reveal their connection to English common law and Locke, primarily. Then, I discuss the personal views of Madison and Jefferson to gain insight into the personal thoughts of two of the most influential Founders. Finally, I …

Defining 'Good': Exploring The Meaning Of Politics And Its Relation To The Personal, Tarai Zemba

Scripps Senior Theses

The US is currently experiencing a confusing and problematic shift in politics under Donald Trump, who continues to disrupt the status quo of American democracy. Such a reality begs us to ask the question of what politics means, and what it should mean for the future. Throughout history, many philosophers and theorists, such as Thomas Hobbes and Max Weber, have identified the meaning of politics as obedience and domination over others. However, such an interpretation is incredibly dangerous, closely aligning with the historical values of authoritarian and totalitarian governments.

Political theorist Hannah Arendt provides a solution to this dilemma, exposing …

California As A “Blue-Print’ For Progressive Immigration Reform?: Uncovering Racial Liberalism To Expose Reconfigured Anti-Migrant Hegemony, Edith Jaicel Ortega

Scripps Senior Theses

Using the frames of analysis and language of political whiteness and anti-migrant hegemony, this paper examines the narrative of liberal immigration reformers transforming California’s political landscape within the period of 1994 to 2017. Taken as case studies the following articles of legislation are analyzed: Proposition 187 in 1994, the California Dream Act in 2010, the Trust Act in 2014, up to the present Senate Bill 54 in 2017. The paper finds that while California has experienced a recognizable shift in racial liberalism in rhetoric and legislation, its overall policy continues to work within the framework of anti-migrant hegemony that functions …

Applying Psychological Theories Of Personality, Identity, And Intergroup Conflict To Radical Violence: A Case Study Of Extremist Behavior, Sydney Flynn

CMC Senior Theses

This paper aims to address possible psychoanalytical explanations for the heinous acts in which terrorists, particularly ISIS, engage. It focuses on Harold D. Lasswell’s principles of the id, ego, and superego as well as Tajfel and Turner’s social identity theory. Within the framework of these two theories, relevant psychological and social psychological theories are discussed in order to explore a possible connection between the psyche of violent perpetrators and their actions. By exploring these connections, I find that there may be more nuanced psychological explanations for these violent acts, which could lead to new methods of weakening perceived biases, intergroup …

Aversive Visions Of Unanimity: Political Sectarianism In Lebanon, Loulwa Murtada

CMC Senior Theses

Sectarianism has shaped Lebanese culture since the establishment of the National Pact in 1943, and continues to be a pervasive roadblock to Lebanon’s path to development. This thesis explores the role of religion, politics, and Lebanon’s illegitimate government institutions in accentuating identity-based divisions, and fostering an environment for sectarianism to emerge. In order to do this, I begin by providing an analysis of Lebanon’s history and the rise and fall of major religious confessions as a means to explore the relationship between power-sharing arrangements and sectarianism, and to portray that sectarian identities are subject to change based on shifting …