Political Science Commons^™

The Palm Farm Next-Door: Land Concessions, Livelihoods, And Nutrition In Plantation-Adjacent Communities, Julia Entwistle

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Large-scale land concessions have reshaped agrarian landscapes globally, yet their implications for community land tenure, livelihoods, and nutrition remain unevenly understood. This dissertation examines how plantation agriculture and foreign investment have transformed land access, labor relations, and food systems in Liberia, a country with one of the highest proportions of land under concession globally. Guided by a political ecology framework, the study employs a mixed-methods design integrating policy analysis, in-depth interviews, and household surveys across two palm oil concession sites. The findings show that ambiguous land policies historically facilitated dispossession, while recent legal reforms have enabled communities to strategically mobilize …

Identity-Conditioned Rewards For Gender Quotas In Autocracies: A Cross-National Conjoint Experiment, Zixuan Diana Wang

Quantitative Social Science Undergraduate Senior Theses

Do gender quotas in autocracies increase international public support for providing foreign aid to those regimes, and are such rewards conditioned by identity? A recent study by Bush et al. (2024) finds that quotas increase public support for foreign aid to autocracies among the U.S. public. I replicate their study beyond the U.S. to test the generalizability of their findings. I also extend their study by examining how religious and racial identities condition the reputational benefits associated with quotas, as recent studies show that identity shapes foreign aid preferences and support for democracy. I fielded a harmonized conjoint experiment in …

"What About Me?": Explaining Voting Patterns Among Young Men In The 2024 Election, Camille Moore

University Honors Theses

This study analyzes the recent rightward shift in voting patterns among Gen Z men in the 2024 election cycle and beyond. Drawing on procedural justice theory, it argues that deterrence from the Democratic party, rather than appeals from the opposition, was the primary driver of the shift, and that this deterrence reflects perceptions of procedural unfairness and exclusion from Democratic party agendas and policymaking platforms. A qualitative empirical analysis, including interviews with a politically and demographically diverse sample of men aged 21-26 in Oregon, supports this argument. Participants felt unjustly excluded from the left based largely on identity-related concerns and …

Women And Wars: Understanding Women’S Political Empowerment Post- Conflict In France, Lebanon, And Sierra Leone, Alaa S. Sayed

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis attempts to discusses how conflict can be a time of change for women and how conflict can be a crucial aspect for change and improvement. Conflict provides a chance for the women to witness and experience the disruption of gender roles, which was a common practice during wartime, as women were placed in roles that were not officially theirs, according to what society adheres to or ascribes as acceptable roles for women. The conflict is presented as a “window” of opportunity. However, the reality of the situation of this “window” is not uniform across all post-conflict societies; the …

The Commons Of The Mind: Modeling Repeat-Player Behavior In Intellectual Property Infringement Disputes, Eliot Bridges Warner

University Honors Theses

This thesis investigates the applicability of Marc Galanter's 1974 model of repeat-player (RP) and one-shotter (OS) civil litigation to the domain of intellectual property (IP) infringement disputes. While Galanter's framework predicts that repeat players will enjoy structural advantages over one-shotters, this paper argues that IP deviates from that model in consequential ways. Unique features of IP infringement litigation, including the duty to enforce, the risk of invalidation at trial, the inverse relationship between firm size and infringement stakes, and compounding advantages accruing to large firms, produce a hierarchy of strategic advantage that is more steeply resource-dependent than Galanter anticipates.

Drawing …

They, The People, Ammel Sharon

Socio-Legal Review

This essay engages with Rohit De and Ornit Shani’s Assembling India’s Constitution by situating it within a broader conceptual history of “the people.” While the book offers a compelling account of participatory constitution-making, the essay suggests that it opens up further questions about the conceptual and historical conditions shaping the people as a political subject. Drawing on contemporary political theory on populism, the essay explores how politics invokes the people through affective and performative practices alongside constitutional forms.

Love Is In The Walls, Jonathan Champagne

CLAMANTIS: The MALS Journal

No abstract provided.

Vanishing Point, Michael Hoyt

CLAMANTIS: The MALS Journal

No abstract provided.

Fuck The Border Wall, Isdaly Reyes

CLAMANTIS: The MALS Journal

No abstract provided.

Three Nights, Andrew Moore

CLAMANTIS: The MALS Journal

No abstract provided.

Deer Velvet, Cosima Pellis

CLAMANTIS: The MALS Journal

No abstract provided.

Political Power In The Digital Shadows: The Surveillance State And Far-Right Party Strength In Central And Eastern Europe, Abby K. Finley

Political Science Honors Projects

The recent rise of far-right leaders, from Donald Trump challenging democratic institutions in the United States to Viktor Orbán's fifteen-year autocratic reign in Hungary, has led me to my main research question: Why are some far-right parties stronger than others? Conducting process tracing analysis of Hungarian, Polish, Slovak, and Czech far-right politics from 2005 to 2025, I argue that far-right parties are stronger when they utilize the surveillance state to limit democratic institutions and actors. My findings clarify how far-right parties use the surveillance state and other tactics to maintain power within their nation.

The Sustainable Autonomy Framework: Explaining Autonomy In Aceh And Southern Yemen, Abdulsalam Saad, Arie Kusuma Paksi

Jurnal Politik

This article examines why post-conflict autonomy consolidates into durable self-governance in some cases while remaining fragile and externally dependent in others. While Aceh has maintained stable self-governance since the 2005 Helsinki Agreement, Yemen’s Southern Transitional Council remains a fragmented authority sustained by external patronage. To explain this divergence, the article develops the Sustainable Autonomy Framework (SAF) and asks: under what conditions does post-conflict autonomy become viable and sustainable? The SAF argues that durability depends on the alignment of three mutually reinforcing pillars: elite legitimacy, resource sovereignty, and mediation credibility. Using a most-similar systems comparison of Aceh’s Free Aceh Movement and …

Ai, Sacred Violence, And War—The Case Of Gaza. By Chris Hables Gray., Yasin Çağlar Kaya

Peace and Conflict Studies

No abstract provided.

Social Innovation In The Peacebuilding Sector, Michelle Helman, Phd, Katherine Ronderos, Mariafernanda Burgos-Ariza

Peace and Conflict Studies

Social innovation is an expanding practice in the peacebuilding sector. In this article, three peace scholar-practitioners reflect on our experiences as peacebuilders and consider the utility, tensions, and possibilities for peace and social innovation in theory and in practice. We draw insights gleaned through a focus group workshop with peacebuilding colleagues and highlight three case study examples from Colombia, the Philippines, and Kenya, each demonstrating the challenges and opportunities of social innovation in the peace sector. In doing so, we offer a reimagining of- and recommended action steps to engage innovation through a collaborative, feminist design approach. This article contributes …

Closing Time?, Aziz Z. Huq

Michigan Law Review

A review of No Democracy Lasts Forever: How the Constitution Threatens the United States. By Erwin Chemerinsky.

Race And The Enduring Logic Of Exclusion In U.S. Immigration Policy, 1882–2025, Kejda Nikollaj

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis examines how immigration law in the United States has historically functioned as an instrument of racial exclusion and argues that this logic continues to shape contemporary policy and enforcement. Although overtly racist laws such as the Chinese Exclusion Act (1882) or the National Origins Act (1924) have long been repealed, their underlying rationales and structures continue to survive under the modern language of legality, security, and national interest. This study argues that restrictive immigration policies tend to emerge when racial and social insecurities intersect, allowing old hierarchies to be revived under new legal justifications. Through a comparative historical …

Clientelism And The Quality Of Democracy: A Comparative Analysis Of Rule Of Law And Public Goods Provision In Indonesia And Malaysia, Ahmad Mikail, Muhammad Arief Virgy, Mustabsyirotul Ummah Mustofa

Jurnal Wacana Politik

Clientelism remains common in Southeast Asian politics even though electoral democracy has expanded. This study examines how different forms of clientelism influence democratic quality, focusing on the rule of law and public goods provision in Indonesia and Malaysia. Building on the theories of clientelism, understood as the exchange of material benefits for political support. Such practices can weaken the fair enforcement of laws and shift public spending toward targeted groups instead of universal welfare programs. This study uses panel data from the Varieties of Democracy Institute and applies a comparative approach to analyze Indonesia and Malaysia. A multiple linear regression …

Forest Fire Governance And Regional Environmental Politics In Southeast Asia: A Bibliometric Analysis, Agung Wicaksono, Data Wardana, Hendry Andry, Rio Yusri Maulana

Jurnal Wacana Politik

Forest fires remain one of the most persistent environmental governance challenges in Southeast Asia, generating significant ecological, economic, social, and political consequences, including transboundary haze pollution. Despite the growing body of literature on forest fire management, a comprehensive understanding of the intellectual structure and development of forest fire governance research in the region remains limited. This study aims to map and analyze the evolution, thematic structure, collaboration patterns, and intellectual foundations of forest fire governance research in Southeast Asia using a bibliometric approach. Bibliographic data were collected from the Scopus database, resulting in a final dataset of 644 publications after …

International Students As Vectors Of Informal Diplomacy : Does Soft Power Matter More Than Dollars?, Alexis Carriere

Journal of Comparative & International Higher Education

This article examines the evolving rationales underlying government strategies to attract international students, with a particular focus on their role as vectors of informal diplomacy. While existing scholarship has largely analyzed international student mobility through individual motivations or institutional strategies, this study highlights the state-level logics that frame student mobility as a tool of soft power. Drawing on policy documents, political speeches, and scholarly literature, the article analyzes the approaches of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council—countries that remain among the world’s top destinations for international students—across three historical periods: 1945–1990s, 1990s–2010s, and 2010s–2025. Findings reveal …