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Essays On Population Aging And Social Security In The U.S., Shantanu Bagchi
Essays On Population Aging And Social Security In The U.S., Shantanu Bagchi
All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023
Over the past few decades, falling birth rates and increasing life expectancies have threatened the viability of social security programs all across the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). In this dissertation, I attempt to shed some light on the extent of the crisis that the social security program in the United States (U.S.) currently faces, and I also recommend one possible reform policy. In the first essay, I provide an alternative estimate of the impact of population aging on the future social security benefits in the U.S., while accounting for the household-level and macroeconomic adjustments to population aging. …
Majority Tyranny Or Minority Power? Impact Of Direct Democracy On Same-Sex Relationship Rights, Jylisa Renea Doney
Majority Tyranny Or Minority Power? Impact Of Direct Democracy On Same-Sex Relationship Rights, Jylisa Renea Doney
Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects
This research study examined the conditions under which direct democracy advanced versus impeded gay relationship rights. Many policy makers argue that direct democracy works to create a “tyranny of the majority” in which the majority impedes the rights of minority citizens. However, other researchers disagree and note that direct democracy contests advance gay rights as seen in Switzerland (Frey & Goette, 1998). I hypothesize that direct democracy advanced gay relationship rights legislation when influenced by non-traditional norms regarding family and gender, and/or the contests occurred in states or cantons that were heterogeneous in their values, while direct democracy hindered gay …
Private Or Public Insurance? The Institutional History Of Health Care In The United States And The United Kingdom, Karin M. Abel
Private Or Public Insurance? The Institutional History Of Health Care In The United States And The United Kingdom, Karin M. Abel
All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023
The primary question at issue in this paper is the following: given the similarities between the two countries with regard to welfare state institutions, why have the United States and the United Kingdom diverged on the issue of health care? Drawing on sociological institutionalism, a branch of the new institutionalist paradigm, this paper provides an answer to this question: during the formative years of the health care stories in the two countries, variations in institutional and cultural conditions produced contrasting policy outcomes. More specifically, this paper discusses how the combination of institutions (political, labor, and medical) and culture led to …