American Politics Commons^™

Who Votes For Mayor?, Jason R. Jurjevich, Phil Keisling, Kevin Rancik, Carson Gorecki, Stephanie Hawke

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

Voter turnout is shockingly low in elections for mayor and other local officials across the United States. For the most recent round of mayoral elections in America’s 30 largest cities, turnout of eligible citizens in 15 of them was less than 20%.

Legislative Veto, Gregory Neddenriep

Political Science Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

United States Immigration: What’S Wrong And How To Fix It, Scott A. Halliday

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The main objective of this thesis is to identify the most beneficial ways to reform the current immigration system of the United States of America. To do so, this paper first identifies and explains how the current immigration system works. The thesis then analyzes how the current system is broken, and how this broken system has lead to the undocumented immigrant population. It explains that how the system is structured, incentivizes immigrants to enter unauthorized. Next it identifies the benefits and costs of the undocumented immigrant population to the United States. This is done to better understand what should be …

The Local American Voter: Mayoral Election Turnout In Midsize American Cities, Austin Aldag

Students' Professional Presentations and Publications

This poster was created for a presentation at the annual meeting of the Midwestern Political Science Association (MPSA) in Chicago, Illinois. The paper this poster is presenting is Austin Aldag's honor thesis, which will be linked here after his defense.

Fact Sheet: Potential Transfer Of Garrison Dam/Lake Sakakawea Project Lands, United States Army Corps Of Engineers

US Government Documents Related to Indigenous Nations

This 2016 fact sheet released by the United States (US) Army Corps of Engineers, discusses the potential return of lands within the Fort Berthold Reservation to the Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Reservation. The lands in question are part of 153,000 acres that were taken for the construction and operation of the Garrison Dam. The authority of this return is granted by the Fort Berthold Mineral Restoration Act of 1984 (Public Law 98-602). The fact sheet includes a brief history of the lands in question, the process of the return, and the status of the return.

Leveraging Our Trust: Taking Action In Support Of Our Democracy, Lori Bowen Ayre

Collaborative Librarianship

Librarians need to build on their trusted status to be more actively engaged in activities that support our democratic system whose success relies on having an informed citizenry. These activities including teaching media literacy skills to patrons in the library as well as in the schools in partnership with teachers. In addition, libraries should be facilitating community conversations and promoting a wide variety of community collaborations that get people engaged and out of their isolated bubbles.

Is The First Amendment At Risk?, Devin Darrow

Nebraska College Preparatory Academy: Senior Capstone Projects

Since the establishment of the Bill of Rights on December 15th 1791, Freedom of Speech has been one of the more controversial topics found within the first ten amendments. The Supreme Court has changed their interpretation of the 1st Amendment, Freedom of Speech clause, due to the cultural shifts of each generation. Recent cases have made technology a major factor for laws needing to be changed in order to protect people’s rights.

In conclusion, the definition of freedom of speech will continuously change due to the progress in technology. The last 10 years have demonstrated the need for changes. There …

The Long Shadow Of Bush V. Gore: Judicial Partisanship In Election Cases, Michael S. Kang, Joanna M. Shepherd

Faculty Articles

Bush v. Gore decided a presidential election and is the most dramatic election case in our lifetime, but cases like it are decided every year at the state level. Ordinary state courts regularly decide questions of election rules and administration that effectively determine electoral outcomes hanging immediately in the balance. Election cases like Bush v. Gore embody a fundamental worry with judicial intervention into the political process: outcome-driven, partisan judicial decisionmaking. The Article investigates whether judges decide cases, particularly politically sensitive ones, based on their partisan loyalties more than the legal merits of the cases. It presents a novel method …

Death Of A Politician, Brian W. Sanders

Global Tides

This paper strives to explain the remarkable efficacy of brash rhetoric, specifically analyzed through the lens of Donald Trump’s sustained popularity in the 2016 Presidential Election. Examining Trump’s rhetorically generated relationships with the media, immigrants, politicians, and women, this paper explores the increasing importance of sophistic rhetoric and rhetorical ethos. Appeals to audience identification through in-groups and out-groups are explored, followed by an examination of the appeal of violent metaphors and sanctity considerations to Trump’s voter base. Trump’s successful self perpetuating cycle of shocking statements, followed by increased news coverage and political popularity is explained. Finally, this paper analyzes the …

The Rise Of The Unilateral Executive, Anna Kitsmarishvili

Global Tides

This paper addresses the impact of executive order issuance on the separation of powers among the executive and legislative branches—particularly in the realm of foreign affairs. It concludes that judicial vagueness and avoidance regarding presidential directives has resulted in increased Executive authority. The aggrandizement of presidential powers in foreign affairs is revealed through examples from both the Bush and the Obama Administrations. By reviewing landmark U.S. Supreme Court cases, such as United States v. Curtiss-Wright Corp. (1936) and Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer (1952), the paper examines the traditional framework of the Court regarding presidential direct action and …

Towards A Requirement Framework For Online Participation Platforms, Astrid Hellsmanns, Claudia Niemeyer, Margeret A. Hall, Tom Zentek, Christof Weinhardt

Interdisciplinary Informatics Faculty Proceedings & Presentations

Online participation platforms (OPPs) are frequently used by public institutions to involve citizens in political opinion forming and decision making. A literature re-view reveals different approaches to evaluate these OPPs. These approaches focus only on partial requirements of participation processes. In this research in progress, we develop and pretest an interdisciplinary literature-based requirement frame-work. It includes the categories usability, security, information, transparency, inte-gration, and mobilisation. Our aim is to close the research gap of a context-specific analysis and evaluation of OPPs.

The Vp Advantage: How Running Mates Influence Home State Voting In Presidential Elections, Christopher J. Devine, Kyle C. Kopko

Political Science Faculty Publications

A widespread perception exists among political commentators, campaign operatives and presidential candidates that vice presidential running mates can deliver their home state's electoral votes in a presidential election. In recent elections, presidential campaigns have even changed their strategy in response to the perceived VP home state advantage. But is the advantage real? And could it decide a presidential election? In the most comprehensive analysis to date, Devine and Kopko demonstrate that the VP home state advantage is actually highly conditional and rarely decisive in the Electoral College. However, it could change the outcome of a presidential election under narrow but …

Review Of 'Republican Theology: The Civil Religion Of American Evangelicals', John Compton

Political Science Faculty Articles and Research

"Although I find Lynerd’s characterization of the Christian Right unpersuasive (for reasons explained below), Republican Theology nonetheless performs a valuable service in highlighting the reciprocal influence of religious and political ideas, particularly in the early years of the republic... Lynerd makes a strong case that American evangelicals, while aware of the potential for tension, viewed each commitment as indispensable to the formation of a Godly republic."

Is Bipartisanship Dead? Policy Agreement And Agenda-Setting In The House Of Representatives, Jesse Richman

Political Science & Geography Faculty Publications

The title of Laurel Harbridge’s book Is Bipartisanship Dead? poses an important question, even if the answer is ultimately ambiguous. Although Harbridge persuasively concludes that “bipartisanship is not dead” (170), this book provides plenty of reason to worry about its health.

Trump As A Chicken, Students Of Risd, Risd Archives

Politics

Political protest poster. Anti-Trump poster caricature of Trump as a chicken.

Exposed, Students Of Risd, Risd Archives

Politics

Political protest poster. Anti-Trump, anti-Ted Cruz, anti-Republican poster. Test reads: "You're not homophobic. You're just a republican. Exposed. The political use of homophobia has become a ubiquitous part of the contemporary political landscape and political gain."

Know Your Rights, Students Of Risd, Risd Archives

Politics

The National Lawyers Guild RI and Providence iww General Defense Committee poster advertising a "Know Your Rights Training" free, public informational event "..to learn the basics of asserting your rights when dealing with the police".

The Emerge Difference: Effects Of Encouragement By Political Organizations On Women's Political Ambition, Ashleigh Hayes

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

Substantive representation of women in elected positions is an area where The United States is lacking. Within the United States Congress, women are disproportionately less likely to be elected to office and it is much of the same at the state level. Nationally, women hold only 104 (19.4%) of the 535 seats in the United States Congress as of 2015 (8). At the state level, women fare somewhat better. Women comprise 24.2 percent of state legislatures nationwide (9). In the state of Kentucky, women hold 25 seats in the state legislature or 18.1 percent. This is far from equal or …

Treading The Path Of Least Resistance: Fda's Regulation Of The Subtherapeutic Use Of Antibiotics In Animal Agriculture, 1970-2015, Colleen Flynn

Harvey M. Applebaum ’59 Award

No abstract provided.

Christians Under Covers: Evangelicals And Sexual Pleasure On The Internet, Kelsy Burke

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

American evangelicals have a rich history when it comes to promoting sexual pleasure within marriage, having drawn upon multiple mediumslike books, workshops, and radio shows-since the 1970s.4 Today, evangelicals encourage sexual expression through all of these channels, as well as through a wide range of digital media, including online sex toy stores, online message boards, blogs, podcasts, and virtual Bible studies that discuss a plethora of topics related to marital sex. The content of these digital resources reflects the ideas presented in print literature written by well-established and respected evangelical authorities, but unlike a book that is already written, the …