Political Science Commons^™

When Laws And Representation Are Not Enough: Enduring Impunity And Post-Conflict Sexual Violence In Liberia And Sierra Leone, Ashley D. Kitchen

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

Throughout the course of history, literature and examination on the impact of civil war has focused little on women, especially in the cases of wartime rape. While the factors which sustain wartime rape are examined with frequency, using gender as an analytical lens, the analysis regarding post-conflict sexual violence and rape is studied far less, leading to the question: what factors are correlated with the continuance of widespread acts of rape even after the cessation of official conflict? Liberia and Sierra Leone suffered high levels of both wartime rape and also post-conflict sexual violence. This comparative case study, using process …

Bankruptcy And Politics: A Framework For Bankruptcy Policymaking In The United States Congress And Courts, Kevin Mandell Ball

Wayne State University Dissertations

The Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 was enacted amid much controversy and was considered by many observers to mark a major change in the direction of U.S. bankruptcy policy. The dissertation uses the law's passage as a vehicle to develop an explicit model of the integrated role of Congress, issue networks, and the courts in making policy. Following Baumgartner and Jones (1993), Sabatier (1988), and others, the dissertation tracks bankruptcy policymaking and implementation over a seventy-five year period to demonstrate that policy is made in three distinct venues: Congress; a policy community made up of lawyers, …

Immigrant Integration Into Host Societies: The Case Of Yemeni Immigrant Communities In Metro Detroit, Samra Abdulla Nasser

Wayne State University Dissertations

This study is intended to extend our understanding of immigrant political integration by analyzing Yemeni immigrants' attitudes toward integration into North American society, exploring the case of Yemeni-Americans, a group reputedly resistant to integration, in both Dearborn and Hamtramck, Michigan, and comparatively assessing those data with already published data on Lebanese-Americans, retrieved from the U.S. Census Bureau and the Detroit Arab American Study (DAAS). Relying on an existing theoretical framework on immigrant integration based on sociological and cognitive approaches and my own theoretical model on transnational dimensions related to political, economic, and cultural integration, I will examine a series of …

Prudence And Decorum And The Invention Of American Democracy: An Examination Of The Ratification Debates For The Federal Constitution In 1787-88, Robert Bryan Brito

Wayne State University Dissertations

Abstract

This dissertation examines the ratification debates for the federal constitution in 1787-88. The goal of this project has been to examine the use of the rhetorical strategies of prudence and decorum as they are employed within the debates in Massachusetts, Virginia and New York.

In Massachusetts, classical notions of representation are challenged by the use of binding instructions given to delegates sent to the ratification debates. In addition, Massachusetts federalists had to overcome objections to the proposed constitution based on the system of representation, as well as the absence of a Bill of Rights. Federalists Challenged these views, and …

Epistemic Communities And Regional Governance: Policy Development In Municipal Finance Reform, Shanthi Karuppusamy

Wayne State University Dissertations

In recent times, the US has undergone significant changes in how regional governance is conceptualized and the focus has shifted from government to governance and from governmental consolidation to problem solving (Barnes and Foster, 2011). Policy makers' quest for interjurisdictional responses to the financial crisis and the recession has rekindled interest in the topic of regional governance. However, the economic, social and technical changes of the recent decades, which have now assimilated in US urban regions, fundamentally challenge existing dominant ways of thinking about regional governance and call for more useful analytic frameworks (Bollens, 1997; Barnes and Foster, 2011). This …

Queering Anarchism : Addressing And Undressing Power And Desire: Preface, Martha A. Ackelsberg

Government: Faculty Publications

Queering anarchism? What would that mean? Isn’t “anarchism” enough of a bogeyman in this country that any effort to “queer” it would only make it appear even more alien and irrelevant to mainstream culture than it already is? Why do it? And why now?

Because-- as this excellent anthology makes evident in its multifaceted exploration of the many dimensions of both anarchism and queer—we have only just begun to understand the many possibilities offered by a queered anarchism, both with respect to critiques of existing institutions and practices and with respect to imagining alternatives to them.

René Girard: The Goodness Of Mimetic Desire Study Guide, 2012, Steven A. Samson

Faculty Publications and Presentations

No abstract provided.

Michael Oakeshott: Lectures In The History Of Political Thought Study Guide, 2012, Steven A. Samson

Faculty Publications and Presentations

No abstract provided.

Ernest Barker: Social Contract Introduction, Section Iii, On Rousseau Study Guide, 2012, Steven Alan Samson

Faculty Publications and Presentations

No abstract provided.

National Contexts Matter: The Co-Evolution Of Sustainability Standards In Global Value Chains, Stephan Manning, Frank Boons, Oliver Von Hagen, Juliane Reinecke

Management and Marketing Faculty Publication Series

In this paper, we investigate the role of key industry and other stakeholders and their embeddedness in particular national contexts in driving the proliferation and co-evolution of sustainability standards, based on the case of the global coffee industry. We find that institutional conditions and market opportunity structures in consuming countries have been important sources of standards variation, for example in the cases of Fairtrade, UTZ Certified and the Common Code for the Coffee Community (4C). In turn, supplier structures in producing countries as well as their linkages with traders and buyers targeting particular consuming countries have been key mechanisms of …

Book Review: Governing At Home: The White House And Domestic Policymaking, By Michael Nelson And Russell L. Riley, Eds., Michael A. Genovese

Political Science and International Relations Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

Incurable Blackness: Criminal Disenfranchisement, Mental Disability, And The White Citizen, Andrew Dilts

Political Science and International Relations Faculty Works

The Maryland State Constitution states that its General Assembly may, "regulate or prohibit the right to vote of a person convicted of infamous or other serious crime or under care or guardianship for mental disability." In a single sentence, the link between criminality and mental disability is invoked in order to draw an internal boundary around those who can take part in the project of representative government. Through a close reading of one particular moment in the history of Maryland's disenfranchisement provisions, I show how these restrictions could buttress prevailing racial hierarchies. Delegates to Maryland's nineteenth century constitutional conventions explicitly …

From An Ethnic Island To A Transnational Bubble: A Reflection On Korean Americans In Los Angeles, Edward J.W. Park

Asian and Asian American Studies Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

Immigration And Belonging: Nation, Class, And Membership In New Migration Policies, Edward J.W. Park

Asian and Asian American Studies Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

Substituting The End For The Whole: Why Voters Respond Primarily To The Election-Year Economy, Andrew Healy, Gabriel S. Lenz

Economics Faculty Works

According to numerous studies, the election-year economy influences presidential election results far more than cumulative growth throughout the term. Here we describe a series of surveys and experiments that point to an intriguing explanation for voter behavior that runs contrary to the standard explanations political science has offered, but one that accords with a large psychological literature. Voters, we find, actually intend to judge presidents on cumulative growth. However, since that characteristic is not readily available to them, voters inadvertently substitute election-year performance because it is more easily accessible. This “end-heuristic” explanation for voters’ election-year emphasis reflects a general tendency …

E Pluribus Urbes: Interest Group Organization’S Effect On The Fragmentation And Governance Of American Urban Areas, Matthew L. Howell

Theses and Dissertations--Public Policy and Administration

American cities have proliferated in the post-War era. More than 2,000 new cities were founded between 1950 and 2000. While the history of the local government boom has been documented, research into urban fragmentation has explored why there is no consolidation of metropolitan areas rather than exploring why Americans chose fragmentation initially.

This dissertation proposes that individuals create new jurisdictions because individuals prefer to have governments which give them the services individuals desire, even if they could have similar (but not perfect) services cheaper in a larger jurisdiction. Individuals, however, must balance the benefit they get from better fitting cities …

Voter Ideology, Tax Exporting, And State And Local Tax Structure, John M. Foster

Theses and Dissertations--Public Policy and Administration

State and local governments play an important role in financing and delivering public services in the United States. In 2008, state and local governments collected 57 percent of total federal, state, and local revenue (Urban Institute and Brookings Institution, Tax Policy Center, 2009). The decentralization of fiscal responsibility has enabled a high degree of variation in state and local tax structures to emerge. This dissertation presents two empirical studies that extend the positive literature on state and local tax policy.

The extant literature contains evidence of a direct relationship between voter ideology and state and local tax progressivity. However, the …

The Effects Of Chinese Petroleum Diplomacy On Us Energy Policy Objectives In Nigeria (1993-2010), Jennifer Lynn Leapley

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The United States and China have turned to Africa as an additional source of oil to ensure reliable, secure access to oil supplies in the future. While China stresses noninterventionist foreign policies, the US, at least rhetorically, if not in practice, links its energy policy in Africa to its foreign policy goals. China's petroleum diplomacy in Africa has raised concern among some scholars and policymakers about the effect an increased Chinese economic presence will have on American foreign policy objectives.

The question arises: What impact has Chinese petroleum diplomacy had on US foreign policy objectives? More specifically, how strongly, if …

Social Movements' Emergence And Form: The Green Movement In Iran, Afsaneh J Haddadian

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Theories of social movements suggest that 'objective' changes in the structure of political opportunities and their interaction with mobilizing and framing mechanisms render a system vulnerable to mass protest. By examining the variables relevant to such interaction, this study seeks to account for the emergence and form of the 2009 Green Movement in Iran. This research uses the congruence method and process traces the movement adherents' activities, mainly their use of Information Communication Technologies, and investigates the so-called opposition leaders' activities and statements. The study argues that in accounting for emergence and form of the Green Movement, we need to …

'Counting Votes And Bodies,' Election-Related Conflicts In Africa: A Comparative Study Of Ghana And Kenya, Ibrahim Mahama Nambiema

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Since joining the 'third wave' of democracy in the 1990s, African countries have focused on elections. Some leaders conduct elections to legitimize their authoritarian rule. Many of Africa's transitional democracies are associated with flawed elections and violent conflicts. The literature on electoral conflict places little emphasis on election governance. It is my assumption that the high rate of non-credible elections in Africa can be associated with election management that has exacerbated societal cleavages. Is an effective and independent election management body a necessary prerequisite for election results to be credible? Are credible elections correlated with lower levels of conflicts? Kenya …