Oppression Or Occupation: An International Analysis Of Sex Work And Sex Trafficking, Carver Wolfe

International Relations Summer Fellows

Although there is some debate over the exact number of victims of sex trafficking, it is agreed that it is an issue that affects primarily women and girls around the world. This paper will examine modern-day slavery and the unresolved, century-old debate surrounding sex trafficking and sex work. While abolitionists advocate for the total eradication of all sex work, whether it is consensual or not, libertarians support the right to voluntary sex work while condemning the coercion and exploitation that surrounds all forms of trafficking. I will use an analysis of international conventions and will begin a comparative analysis by …

Rancière’S Equality And James’S Pragmatism: Renewing Our Democratic Republic Through A Revised View Of Intelligence, Matthew Schmitz

Educational Studies Summer Fellows

The prevailing theory of intelligence in American society encourages restrictive treatment of others and endorses a dull impression of human capabilities. In the process of poking at their domestic opponents, modern Democrats and Republicans combine to expose our collective shortcomings on this front. Our discourse too often focuses on jockeying for position and too rarely focuses on the rich intellectual community we inhabit. Through an analysis of William James’s Pragmatism and Jacques Rancière’s The Ignorant Schoolmaster, I look to recapture a liberating view of intelligence that enables us to revise our interpretation of citizenship in an American democratic republic. …

Oppression Or Occupation: Conflicting Views On The Nature Of Sex Work In France And Under International Law, Carver Wolfe

Politics and International Relations Presentations

Although there is some debate over the exact number of victims of sex trafficking, it is agreed upon that it is an issue that affect primarily women and girls around the world. This paper will examine modern day slavery and the unresolved, century-old debate surrounding sex trafficking and sex work. While abolitionists advocate for total eradication of all sex work, whether it is consensual or not, libertarians support the right to voluntary sex work while condemning the coercion and exploitation that surrounds all forms of trafficking. I will use an analysis of international conventions and will begin a comparative analysis …

Mainero And Smoller: The Gop Is Self-Destructing, Mario Maneiro, Fred Smoller

Political Science Faculty Articles and Research

"The Republican Party is self destructing. Donald Trump is proudly marching the national and local GOP off a cliff by exploiting America’s racial divide and by rejecting science. The failure of virtually all GOP office holders–Mitt Romney is a notable exception–to challenge the president, emboldens him and deprives the country of needed true two-party balance.

We come to this conclusion from much different political perspectives: one of us (Mainero) is a conservative law professor who was Chief of Staff for Senator John Moorlach (R) when Moorlach was a County Supervisor and the other (Smoller) is a progressive political science professor. …

Role Of Municipal Governance In Stabilizing Mature Inner Suburbs: A Study Of Five St. Louis Municipalities 1970-2015, Napoleon Williams Iii

Dissertations

This study explores the role of municipal governance in municipal-level stabilization of inner suburbs in St. Louis County, Missouri. The data, from 1970 to 2015, include a robust collection of official government archives collected from five municipalities in St. Louis County, historical documents, city-state-national statistical data, and related materials. Interviews of 25 stakeholders were conducted and data were analyzed based on the community power structure framework.

I outline five mature St. Louis inner suburbs’ evolution in municipal-level conditions from 1970 to 2015, and I detail the role each suburbs’ municipal governance played in the evolution of municipal-level conditions. I conclude, …

Addressing New Forms Of Racism Part Ii: Preventing Microaggressions, Victoria Peña-Parr

Black History at UNM

Sonia Gipson Rankin, Assistant Professor at The University of New Mexico’s School of Law, offers advice on preventing and handling microagressions. This article is the second of two parts. The first article: Addressing New Forms of Racism: Part I: Defining Microagressions, can be found in The Black Lives Matter Collection. Both articles are a part of Racism: An Educational Series, produced by the UNM Newsroom.

The Role Of Digital Technology In Improving Electoral Integrity: Hope Or Just Hype?, Ziaul Haque

Doctor of International Conflict Management Dissertations

As elections are increasingly plagued by malpractice, violence, systemic manipulation, and corruption, electoral administrators worldwide view Information and Communication Technology (ICT)-based solutions as convenient and cost-effective in enhancing electoral integrity. ICT optimists contend that digitization enhances efficiency, speed, and detectability of fraud and manipulation, and thereby improves the quality of elections. ICT skeptics, however, argue that digitization reduces voters’ confidence in elections as these technologies are susceptible to new vulnerabilities such as hacking, breakdown, and programmatic manipulation. While arguments on both sides are appealing, there has been very little systematic effort to empirically test these assertations. This dissertation partially fills …

Addressing New Forms Of Racism Part I: Defining Microaggressions, Victoria Peña-Parr

Black History at UNM

Sonia Gipson Rankin, Assistant Professor at The University of New Mexico’s School of Law, defines microagressions, explains how they are normalized in society, and their impact on individuals. This article is the first of two.The second article: Addressing New Forms of Racism Part II: Preventing Microagressions, can be found in the Black Lives Matter Collection. Both articles are a part of the Racism: An Educational Series, produced by the UNM Newsroom.

Solvency As A Fundamental Constraint On Lolr Policy For Independent Central Banks: Principles, History, Law, Sir Paul M. W. Tucker

Journal of Financial Crises

This paper follows up earlier work advocating a principled modernization of doctrines for central bank lender-of-last-resort policies and operations. It argues for a new Fundamental Constraint on such authorities: namely, “the principle that central banks should not lend to firms that they know (or should know) to be fundamentally bust or broken.” Tucker supports this with commentary from various peers, a review of principles underlying bankruptcy law and resolution schemes, and by deconstructing other common counterarguments. Centrally, he argues that when central banks breach the Fundamental Constraint, they distribute resources to short-term creditors at the expense of longer-term creditors, …

Protestant Experience And Continuity Of Political Thought In Early America, 1630-1789, Stephen Michael Wolfe

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The debate on the continuity of American political thought from the 17^th century Puritan settlements to the 18^th century American founding assumes a bipolar spectrum, ranging from strong continuity to strong discontinuity. The degree that scholars recognize distinctively Christian, theological, or Protestant ideas operating in the founding era determines where they are placed on the spectrum. The most popular view today is the “amalgam” thesis, which is a moderate view, resulting from decades of debate. Amalgam theorists argue that the founders' political theory relied on a variety of sources, from classical to Protestant. The current debate centers on …

Understanding Attitudes Toward Healthcare Reform: The Roles Of Self-Interest, Group Identity And Racial Resentment, Maria Beatrice Livaudais

Political Science ETDs

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) cemented itself as one of the most controversial pieces of legislation of the decade. Public opinion polls find Americans are often evenly split in support of the ACA. This dissertation explores the roles of self-interest, group identity, and racial resentment on attitudes toward the ACA and healthcare reform. The dissertation centers our attention on variation by race and the impact racial tensions beyond the Black-White paradigm on these attitudes. I find group identity shapes attitudes Blacks’ and Latinos’ attitudes toward the ACA but not Whites’ and racial resentment, directed toward Blacks, Latinos …

Impact Of Political Action Committee On Government Contracts, Bibek Acharya

Economics ETDs

This research aims to determine whether politically active corporations are more likely to get government contracts or likely to get more massive deals than corporations that are not politically active. The research question is, to what extent is the increase in government contracts due to the presence of corporate PACs or the amount spent by corporate PACs? In sum, we expect that the existence of PACs and the higher the corporation contributions in support of candidates for federal offices, the higher their chances of getting a contract or a more massive contract. We find that corporations that have a PAC …

Profiteering Off Public Health Crises: The Viable Cure For Congressional Insider Trading, Charles L. Slamowitz

Washington and Lee Law Review Online

This article takes an approachable, forward-thinking, and academic dive into congressional insider trading in the wake of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. After a confidential briefing by the Senate Health Committee warned of COVID-19, massive stock sell-offs by members of Congress and their spouses suddenly ensued. Some senators even publicly disparaged COVID-19’s viral effects while their own shares were being offloaded. By the time the American people were made aware of its dangers, vast investment holdings by congressional insiders had already been sold. Shockingly, it is unclear if congressional insiders trading on confidential coronavirus information are actually breaking the law. Congress …

Denying The Will Of The Armenian People: Populism, Democratic Backsliding And Polarization, Nerses Kopalyan

Political Science Faculty Research

Opponents and critics of Armenia’s post-Velvet Revolution political establishment have relied on three main arguments in their attempts to question the legitimacy and broad mandate of the Pashinyan Administration. The first argument is hinged on the populism narrative, the second argument promotes the “democratic backsliding” narrative, and the third argument advances the polarization narrative. The underlying presupposition of these arguments not only question the will and character of the Armenian people, but also suggests a condescending and dismissive attitude towards Armenian political society. Collectively, these arguments assume that the Armenian electorate is composed of a naive, ill-informed citizenry that was …

Addiction, Attrition, And Visualizations: An Exploration Of Online Survey Panels, Alex Adams

Political Science ETDs

Due to changes in technology and individual behavior, survey methods for obtaining nationally representative public opinion survey data have changed dramatically. Survey methodologists increasingly rely on online survey panels. The data obtained from these panels is increasingly accepted as reliable for cross-sectional research designs, in part because these online survey panel samples are demographically representative on observable variables. However, over time the experience of panelists approximates a panel survey design.

This dissertation explores two concerns related to online survey panel data, (1) panel conditioning and the advent of a professional class of survey takers I call professional respondents, and (2) …

The Impact Of Social Interactions On Resettled Refugee Health, Shahjadi Zaman

Political Science ETDs

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the effects of social interactions and other factors on the self-reported physical and mental health of former refugees in their host country. Social relationships and interactions consist of different layers extending from individual personal relations, to social networks, to collective activities. Using data from a public opinion survey of newly resettled Bhutanese and Rohingya refugees in Michigan, I find that along with their economic situations, like employment and income, social integration is an important determinant of physical and mental health among resettled refugees. In particular, resettled refugees tend to have better health …

Identifying, Understanding And Combating Complex Inequality: The Fight To Make The Invisible, Visible, Rachel Whitt

Black History at UNM

Dr. Nancy López, professor of sociology at UNM and director of the Institute for the Study of “Race” and Social Justice, explains the role of complex inequality in fueling social unrest. Complex inequality is rooted in decades of disparities towards minorities, particularly Blacks, Latinx, people of color and Native American communities. López outlines how invisible, deeply embedded injustices are common practice in the United States citing research that shows there are compounding challenges facing marginalized communities. These hurdles are multifaceted and cannot be distilled down to single data points. Recognizing the experience of marginality is layered and must be viewed …

The Future Of Nuclear Security In The Asia-Pacific: Expanding The Role Of Southeast Asia, Julius Cesar Trajano, Mely Caballero-Anthony

International Journal of Nuclear Security

The nature of regional cooperation on capacity building taking place in Southeast Asia certainly provides a good foundation to pursue a more robust collaborative framework for nuclear security in the wider Asia-Pacific region. A step in this regard is to have a regional action plan/roadmap for nuclear security in the Asia-Pacific that could institutionalize cooperation between Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and other countries in the wider region, fostering closer collaboration. The paper recommends three practical mechanisms to expand cooperation frameworks in Southeast Asia to the broader Asia-Pacific region: (1) strengthening regional capacity building in nuclear security; (2) establishing …

Insen As Part And Propellant Of The Nuclear Security Regime: An Insider’S View, Şebnem Udum

International Journal of Nuclear Security

This short piece presents an insider’s view of the International Nuclear Security Education Network (INSEN), and shows that the Network is not only a part of the evolving nuclear security regime, but also it drives the regime forward through academic research, teaching and cooperation which are facilitated by the meetings at the IAEA and social activities in extracurricular time in Vienna.

Political Violence In Bangladesh: Explaining The Role Of State, Zunaid Almamun

Theses and Dissertations

Violence has been an integral part of the politics of Bangladesh since after its independence. The government has used the coercive apparatus of the state in order to confront the political opponents and the dissenters. Irrespective of the type of regime and political parties in power, the state always perpetrated violence against its citizens. On the one hand, the government used the law enforcement agencies, and the specialists of violence relied on coercion against the citizens, on the other hand, various groups appeared as the affiliates of the government in perpetrating violence. However, the nature of violence changed over time, …