Other Political Science Commons^™

Streetfilms As A Public Resource On Public Space, Clarence Eckerson Jr.

Local Government Reconsidered

"As a livable streets filmmaker for the past twenty years, it’s been both my primary responsibility and passion to document cities around the world, and much of that has revolved around public spaces and the what goes on in them.

The bulk of my work has been done via the website Streetfilms, a non-profit resource promoting “transportation best practices” through short films, where I’ve been the Director for over ten years. In that time, I’ve produced, shot or edited over 700 shorts on the topics of transportation, walking, biking, public plazas, street interventions and open streets public events - where …

Connecting Community By Advocacy And Design, Mia Lehrer

Local Government Reconsidered

"The way we plan our cities and communicate to the public can build a sense of connection to public places. The Trust for Public Land estimates Los Angeles has just nine acres of parkland for every 1,000 residents, and that 52% of Los Angeles residents live within a ½ mile of that parklandi. While this falls between Washington D.C.’s 13.5 park acres and New York’s 4.6, many of Los Angeles’ park acres lie in large regional parks such as Griffith Park and Runyon Canyon Park, leaving much of the city park-poor. Recent research points to the importance of human connection …

Voteria And Democratic Engagement Strategies, Antonio Gonzalez

Local Government Reconsidered

"The Question: Improving Democratic Engagement: How Do You Create The Right Environment for Local Democracy? This panel will discuss ways local institutions (e.g., service clubs, business, family, religious communities, media and entertainment institutions) can strengthen civil society and foster democracy, especially in contexts where there is low voter turnout and disengagement with local government decision-making."

Vienna 2025 - Growing Through More Sustainability, More Open-Mindedness And Participation, Maria Vassilakou

Local Government Reconsidered

"Heading towards the 2 million mark Vienna, a green and social city with a high quality of life, has embarked upon a joint venture between administration, politics and citizens. Numerous programmes, initiatives and projects are supporting this development, making Vienna more sustainable, open and participatory step by step."

California's Local Elections, Joe Mathews

Local Government Reconsidered

"When it comes to understanding the problem of low turnout in California’s local elections, we are overlooking a fundamental cause: Californians are not nearly divided enough."

Democratic Innovations And Local Governance: An International Perspective, Daniel Schugurensky

Local Government Reconsidered

"In the last two decades, two parallel developments could be observed in many countries around the world. One is a so-called ‘democratic deficit’; the other is the proliferation of participatory democracy experiments. The democratic deficit refers to a general dissatisfaction with the institutions of representative democracy. This is expressed in low voter turnouts, low confidence in government and politicians, low levels of political engagement, and a general weakening of the social contract between citizens and their representatives. For instance, in one of the largest polls on this topic, Gallup and BBC (2005) surveyed 50,000 people in 68 countries, and found …

Kindness Initiative, Tom Tait

Local Government Reconsidered

"Five years ago, when Tom Tait began his first term as the Mayor of the Great City of Anaheim, he took the reins of a complex set of challenges.

To most of the world, Anaheim is known as the home of world-class sports teams, internationally renowned attractions, and of course - a very famous mouse. Yet in stark parallel, the city also faced some of the most challenging issues to confront a mayor; homelessness, drug abuse, gang violence and human trafficking.

However Tom had a plan. A single strategy to bring together the polar opposites; to empower law enforcement, community …

Los Angeles County: A Global Metropolis With A Rancho-Era Governing Body, Peter Hong

Local Government Reconsidered

"I open with this tale mainly to give context to a remarkable fact of Los Angeles County government: Ten million people, spread over 4,000 square miles, are governed today by a Board of Supervisors with five members, just as it was during the earliest years of statehood in the Wild West. We can now fly across the country faster than it would have taken Vasquez’s band to go from Monterey Park to San Fernando through the Arroyo Seco, yet we maintain a government structure configured in the horse and telegraph days."

Making Cities And Counties Work In The 21st Century, William Fulton

Local Government Reconsidered

"Most American cities are either too big or too small to serve the people who live in them in a cost-effective manner. The system that created them has ossified over time, making change difficult if not impossible. But short of wholesale change, there are some ways cities large and small can become both more responsive and most cost-effective."

Metropolitan Governance Reform, Myron Orfield, Baris Dawes

Local Government Reconsidered

"The highly fragmented nature of the political systems that govern America’s metropolitan areas contributes mightily to all of these problems. The harms of political fragmentation are many and tightly interrelated. The excessive competition triggered by political fragmentation encourages local jurisdictions to pursue socially and economically undesirable policies. Cities steal malls and office parks from each other, fight tax incentive wars for auto malls, and zone out the poor for fiscal advantage in a process rife with haphazard planning and NIMBY biases. This disjointed status quo scatters new jobs like grapeshot at the furthest edge of development and in so doing …

Next Stop City Hall: Towards A World League Of Participatory Cities And Regions, Bruno Kaufman

Local Government Reconsidered

"Fortunately, there is another side to the backlash against democracy at the national and transnational levels. That side is the subnational one. With urban settlements becoming the preferred place of living, acting and producing across the globe, cities and regions are now quickly evolving into our centers of democracy, the true beacons of people power"

People With Disabilities, Public Spaces, And Democracy, Art Blaser

Local Government Reconsidered

I explore accessible environments by examining the nexus between people with disabilities (PWDs), public spaces, and democracy. Understanding this nexus is essential in local governance.

Rethinking The Systems Of Public Engagement, Matt Leighninger

Local Government Reconsidered

"Over the last twenty years, local officials have pioneered many new engagement processes, tools, and techniques. Some of them are highly intensive, deliberative discussions with citizens. Others are fast, convenient, information-rich digital tools; still others are online networks that add technological dexterity to the power of face-to-face relationships.

Many of these innovations are not only satisfying citizens, they also demonstrate the potential of public engagement for helping officials make difficult decisions and solve formidable problems. But so far, these innovations have been pursued primarily on a temporary, ad hoc basis, and have not been incorporated into the way that governments …

Why Cities Need Strategic Plans By Former Portland, Oregon Mayor Sam Adams, Sam Adams

Local Government Reconsidered

"Will a given public project help a city? Hurt it? Make no difference? What appears to be good for a city might actually be bad. A project that helps out some residents may gentrify out many others. It is often hard to tweeze out the costs, benefits and unintended consequences of the projects and policies that cities take on. Although we will never have a perfect algorithm that weighs the costs and benefits of a given project or policy, we can improve upon relying too much on good intentions and political expedience."

The Ombatse Crisis In Nigeria: Background, Recent Developments And Possible Solutions, Simeon Onyemachi Hilary Alozieuwa Ph.D.

Journal of Interdisciplinary Conflict Science

This paper focuses on the hegemonic politics between the Eggon and Hausa/Fulani ethnic groups in Nasarawa, North-Central Nigeria, which eventually erupted into the Ombatse crisis of May 2013- a precursor to the 2015 general elections. It addresses four research questions seeking to unravel whether or not: (1a) the crisis truly reflects a spiritual revivalist agenda as projected by the Ombatse promoters or merely espouses Eggon rejection of Muslim-Hausa/Fulani ethnic hegemony- mirroring broadly the identity, hegemonic and exclusionary politics in the area cum the larger Nigerian society;(b) the Eggon-Hausa-Fulani feud has the potential to exacerbate the sectarian strife in Nigeria’s northern …

Political Psychology (Annotated Bibliography), Ingrid J. Haas

Department of Political Science: Faculty Publications

The field of political psychology explains political behavior as a function of both individual- and group-level psychological processes. While the field is interdisciplinary, political psychologists tend to work in either psychology or political science departments. Although the overall aim is often similar, researchers from each discipline approach the same questions in different ways, and interested scholars are encouraged to examine literatures from both fields. The general approach to research is to focus on individual political attitudes, emotion, beliefs, and behavior, and attempt to explain these phenomena using psychological research and theory. Historical approaches to research in this field often relied …

The Dream Defaulted: Foreclosure, Crisis, And Hope In Baltimore, Maryland, And Detroit, Michigan, Heidi M. Rafferty-Reijm

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In the United States, the late 2000s were a time of crisis that tested many urban decision-makers. The recession that started in 2007 was defined by a severe crash in the housing market and the proliferation of mortgage foreclosures across the country. Foreclosures occurred in urban, suburban, and rural communities, but had a particularly devastating impact on larger, older cities and their low and moderate-income neighborhoods. These cities had been dealing with economic and population decline for half a century. In many of their urban neighborhoods, foreclosures affected as many as one in four households and added yet another challenge …

The Prospect Of Democracy: China’S Possibility Of Political Reform, Chase Thomas

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

What factors help or hinder democratization in China? Democracy in China is not an unknown term, but the difficulty of making “democratic” reforms in China has raised the question of if China will democratize. This literature review and analysis will examine the factors, which help or hinder democratization in China through economic and cultural means. By using a literature review as well as reviewing the concepts of democracy and prerequisites thereof, three scenarios for democratization will be determined. Through the use of the information provided in the latter, I predict that while democracy is possible in China, the state will …

Globalization And The 'Fourth Wave': Contemporary International Terrorism In A Comparative-Historical Perspective, Erika M. Martinez

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Terrorist activity has come to the forefront of political thought in recent years, especially since the attacks on the World Trade Center and Washington D.C on September 11, 2001. President George W. Bush declared a “war on terror” and governments all around the world have taken steps to enhance national security in efforts to prevent terrorist activity. The steps taken are not unwarranted, and in some cases have been successful. The nature of terrorism modernizes just as the world around it does, and as the global community has benefited from globalization and modernization, so have terrorist organizations. This study analyzes …

Are Hispanics Discriminated Against In The Us Criminal Justice System?, Maria A. Eijo De Tezanos Pinto

Graduate Research Posters

Recent publications have contributed to increase the perception among Hispanics of an unfair and unequal treatment of this community by the US Criminal Justice System. One of the major concerns was the claim that Hispanics are incarcerated before conviction nearly twice as often as Whites. Unfair treatment perception by the population reduces legitimacy of police and government, and thus, it is imperative to analyze these uninvestigated allegations. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to address said allegations of discrimination against Hispanics and analyze with updated and reliable statistics whether Hispanics are incarcerated before conviction more often than Whites. There …