Comparative Politics Commons^™

Shifting Sustainable Mobility Agendas In Graz (Austria) And Hangzhou (China): The Multi-Level Process From Livable To Smart Cities, Outi Luova

CSID Journal of Infrastructure Development

Several studies on various urban sustainability projects have observed their conceptual and technological similarity throughout the world but, at the same time, identified significant divergences in their actual local framing and implementation. By analysing sustainable mobility policies in Hangzhou (China) and Graz (Austria) and changes in their agendas during a period of thirty years, this article contributes to that discussion with new empirical insights. The development trajectories in Hangzhou and Graz will be compared to identify similarities and divergences and to suggest future paths for comparative studies in sustainable urban mobility. The study draws inspiration from multi-level governance theory and …

Institutional Legacies And The Decision To Commit Genocide, Stacey M. Mitchell

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

Despite their striking similarities, which include population demographics, size, and a legacy of inter-group conflict, the collapse of democratization in Rwanda and Burundi in the early 1990s led to genocide in Rwanda and a different type of violence in Burundi. This study suggests that to better comprehend why risk factors lead to genocide in some cases and not others, focus must be placed on how these factors are perceived by those in power of the state experiencing them. This study introduces a model that uses Comparative Historical Analysis (CHA), process tracing, and the inclusion of a decision model built on …

Dialoguing Narratives Of Social Movement Theories And Subjectivities, Sarra Moneir

Future Journal of Social Science

This paper serves as a theoretical study for displaying a sample of the prime literature on social movement theories in comparison with one another, shedding light on the gaps and fundamental contributions. This will be carried out in comparison to the scholarship on subjectivity. Social movement and social movement theories have been inevitable tools of analysis since primarily the 1980s, serving as replacements for modes of apprehending popular mobilization. Since then, theoretical contributions in this field have grown and shown a multitude of orientations and focal strategies on how to focus and study social movements in their various forms and …

Good State, Bad State: Gender, Multiculturalism And Religious Law In India, Rina V. Williams

Future Journal of Social Science

What role(s) can the state play when cultural rights come into conflict with women’s rights? This article compares conceptions of the state in the normative literature against two empirical cases of multicultural debate in modern India: Islamic law in the 1980s and Hindu law in the 1950s. I find that three conceptions of the state found in the normative literature—oppressive, facilitative, and vacated states—are only partially supported in the empirical cases, which proffer some support for the state as oppressive, but little or none for the state as facilitative or vacated. They also indicate a fourth model …

The Punitive Laboratory Of Neoliberalism: A Cross-National Examination, Beth A. Fera

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

A large body of research has been produced to explain global punitive trends in recent decades. Neoliberalism, an economic philosophy expressed by market deregulation, privatization, and the retrenchment of social supports, has been offered as an explanation for increases in cross-national punitiveness. According to neoliberal penality theory, neoliberalism has shifted principles guiding punishment practices and the treatment of offenders, which has resulted in harsher national responses to crime. However, many tenets of this theory have not yet been tested empirically. Drawing heavily on propositions from neoliberal penality, group-threat, and penal populism literature, this dissertation examines the relationship between economic shifts, …

The Collapse Of The Afghan State And Its Relation To Us Policy, Omar Saradi

University Honors Theses

The main inspiration for this has been down to my curiosity of my heritage. The events described, particularly in the 1970's, were things that were contemporary to my family, and the escape from Afghanistan as refugee was an experience that was firsthand for my dad--who escaped in 1979 to Pakistan to claim refugee status in the US. One of the things that struck me the most in his story of escaping on foot with a group of villagers, was that the centers for refugees in Pakistan were not the cleanest and housed a crowded room of people who were stuck …

Political Extremism In A Global Perspective, Francesco Rigoli

Journal of Global Awareness

Examining data from the World Value Survey about left-right political orientation, the paper explores political extremism among common people worldwide. Our analysis reveals (i) a positive correlation between left-wing and right-wing extremism across countries, (ii) an average rise in political extremism globally in the last decade, (iii) greater political extremism in less developed countries, (iv) and a surge, during the last decade, in political extremism for less developed countries and for countries where development has not met expectations. Besides offering a picture of how successful political extremism is globally, our investigation provides insight into the driving forces behind this phenomenon.

Cuban Embargo: An Insufficient Measure To Encourage Us Foreign Policy Interests, Esme Jm Prowse

Major Papers

This major paper examines the Cuban embargo as an ineffective hard power policy and explores the potential of soft, hard, and smart power as alternative approaches to resolve the failures of the 60-year-old blockade. The paper analyzes the historical context and rationale behind the embargo and assesses its impact on Cuban-American relations, regional stability, and U.S. national interests. The study argues that the embargo has failed to achieve its intended goals and has instead perpetuated a cycle of hostility, isolation, and human rights abuses. By drawing on the theoretical frameworks of soft, hard, and smart power, the paper presents policy …

Prostitution And Pornography: Reforming A Perspective, Mayce Combs

Helm's School of Government Conference

Happiness is a subjective emotion that can quickly be twisted by the depravity of humanity’s sinful nature. Human trafficking deprives an individual’s natural right to life, liberty, and their pursuit to happiness. Of the two divisions of human trafficking, sex trafficking, especially involving children, is the most despicable and most evolved. The United States and further the state of Virginia is a crucial player in combating human trafficking. While there are currently many successful tactics state governments and nonprofit groups are utilizing in order eliminate human trafficking there are further more intense strategies the Virginia State Government should implement. One …

Unequal Democracies: Economic Sanctions' Impact On Human Rights In Democratic Systems, Daniel Partin

Helm's School of Government Conference

In the past, research into the field of human rights has treated regime as a dichotomous variable and divided the type of governmental structure into either autocracies or democracies. By lumping all democracies into one category, all variation between different categories of governmental composition is discarded and it is difficult to examine the differences between types of democratic governments and their human rights capacities. Due to their tendency to accrete power centrally, presidential democracies are thought to repress the rights of citizens more often and severely than parliamentary systems. Further, an exogenous shock to the political system, such as the …

Tourism's Power To Promote Peacebuilding In Post-Conflict Societies - A Northern Ireland Case Study, Margaret Walker

Honors Theses

This thesis explores the capacity of tourism to promote peacebuilding in post-conflict societies, specifically focusing on Northern Ireland. This study assesses the current state of conflict tourism in Northern Ireland by analyzing two tourist sites and considering variables that may impact peacebuilding in the greater Northern Ireland community. It measures the success of the Northern Ireland approach by comparing the effects of tourism in other post-conflict and conflict societies. This study culminates with the presentation of certain strategies that Northern Ireland should implement to positively impact peacebuilding through tourism. Curators must portray history in a balanced, sensitive manner that avoids …

Does Electoral Proximity Influence Commitment To International Human Rights Law?, Nolan A. Ragland

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

A Leftist Political Surge: How An Authoritarian Past Helped Spawn A Modern Political Movement In Spain And Portugal, Jared Sykes

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

Since the 2008 financial crisis ravaged the EU, Spain and Portugal struggled economically to recover, especially as forces in the EU, the European Central Bank (ECB), and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) enforced bailout packages conditional on the implementation of austerity. Additionally, Spanish and Portuguese society have continuously struggled with a history of authoritarian legacies, of the Franco and Salazar dictatorships that ruled the Iberian Peninsula for nearly 50 years. As outrage continued, protest movements, most notably the Spanish 15-M Movement, fueled voter dissatisfaction. Eventually, many prominent figures from the protest movement founded or brough momentum to left-wing political forces, …

Women, Populism, Democracy: A Comparative Study Of Democracy And Populism In Turkey And The United States, Ashton Jolley

Honors Theses

The rise of populism is a global phenomenon, and its impact on democracy is a significant concern. Populist leaders typically portray themselves as outsiders and champions of the working class, often using emotive and divisive language to resonate with their supporters. These leaders frequently scapegoat marginalized groups and institutions, categorizing them as distant from the people. Right-wing populism, in particular, emphasizes nationalism, anti-immigrant sentiment, and a rejection of globalism. Leaders often target the perceived threats posed by globalization and the loss of jobs to foreign countries while emphasizing traditional values and gender roles. In Turkey and the United States, religion …

Student Movements, Politics, And Policy In Chile, 2001 – 2012, Leesa Rasp

Dissertations

Chile has frequently been touted as an economic miracle, the “Jaguar of Latin America”. Boasting the strongest economy in South America, due to severe neoliberal economic structural adjustments made under the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet, it has long been held up as the perfect exemplar of economic growth and stability, as well as the poster child for the effectiveness of neoliberal economics. After the re-establishment of democracy in 1990, political conditions improved as well; the country enjoyed a decade of stability and peace under its first two democratically-elected governments.

Yet, beginning approximately ten years after the transition to democracy, …

Contradiction And Juche, Philosophical Deviations From Traditional Dialectical Materialism By Kim Il Sung And Mao Zedong Necessitated By Socio-Political Conditions, Thomas Bidewell

Global Tides

This work will attempt to attribute the deviations from the traditional Marxist dialectic in the cases of Mao Zedong and Kim Il Sung to their necessitated governing philosophies, and thus their geopolitical conditions. In the case of Mao, this governing philosophy is ‘State-Building Socialism’, a hyper-materialist reappropriation of Marxist materialism crafted to raze internal cultural and economic hierarchy through isolating Contradictions, a rebranding of dialectics. In the case of Kim, a framework of ‘Ethnic Anti-Colonialism’ is adopted through the creation of Juche, an anti-materialist philosophy with references to Hegelianism to wrestle back the agency of ethnic Koreans against Imperialism.

Magic As Political Might: Harry Potter, Authoritarianism, And Youth Political Behavior, Alexis Cobbs

Honors Theses

This thesis examines how authoritarian structures found in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series affect the political thoughts and behaviors of its readers, particularly those who read them at young ages. By examining how Rowling depicts authoritarianism and its opposition in the books, I hypothesized that increased exposure would correlate to an increased impact on readers’ political opinions. To test this hypothesis, I created an original survey designed to measure levels of exposure and participation in the Harry Potter fandom as well as respondents’ political opinions. I asked respondents to provide different examples of authoritarianism and its opposition in the books …

What Doesn’T Kill You Makes You Stronger: The Shifting Strategies Of Japan’S Yakuza In Response To Economic Globalization And Securitization, Benjamin P. Murkison

Honors College Theses

The Yakuza in Japan is a deeply traditional and infamous ethnic mafia, which has historically based their profits off of the protection of gambling rings and street vendors, but have developed into one of the most sophisticated and wealthy criminal institutions in the world. Reaching their peak in the 1960’s with around 200,000 members, the Yakuza has been in a slow decline ever since. However, the past decade has seen the most dramatic drop in Yakuza numbers in recorded history, as a result of increasing securitization by the Japanese state. As their power has declined within Japan, they have only …

Gender And Contentious Politics: Women's Effect On The Success Of Maximalist Protests, Elizabeth Gaver

ASPIRE 2023

This research addresses the question, “Does gender affect the success of maximalist protest movements?” Using Erica Chenoweth’s Women in Resistance (WiRe) and Nonviolent and Violent Campaigns and Outcomes (NAVCO) datasets, this research analyzes 338 maximalist campaigns (protests with the goal of overthrowing a regime) in order to determine if women-led protests are more successful than other types of protests. This quantitative analysis is followed by a case study of the contemporary Iranian women’s movement to test Chenoweth’s theory on nonviolent protests, women, and success.

Fixing The System: A Comparative Review Of The United Kingdom, Germany, And United States’ Healthcare Systems And Lessons Learned For Potential Improvements In The United States, Jessica Goddard

Senior Theses

In an effort to provide recommendations to the United States’ considerations of a universal healthcare system, this thesis analyzes the United States healthcare system alongside the sophisticated systems of the United Kingdom and Germany. Literature review and an analysis of 10 health outcomes and indicators guided the framework for a set of interview questions to be asked of healthcare professionals in all three countries. The interview response data was then organized and used to guide the suggested recommendations to the United States in its path towards universal healthcare. While a limited number of solutions could be provided given the time …