Political Science Commons^™

Class Based Contestations In Neoliberal France, Sam Goodson

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis documents the patterns of resistance taken up by the far left in France from the late 1980s through the early 2000s. Responding directly to the neoliberal reshaping of the French economy the groups that composed the far left diverged on terms of strategy, some holding fast to the class based contention of the previous decades, some jettisoning the language of class for one of identity and democratic inclusion. This project documents these changes and takes up the theoretical debates surrounding them, primarily the debates surrounding “post-Marxism.” It is an intervention on the enduring necessity of class struggle for …

Ascriptive Nationalism, Demagoguery, And The Modern Presidency: A Case Study In Constitutional Decay, Christopher J. Putney

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study is an account of the modern presidency as a source––and under Donald Trump, an accelerant––of systemic problems in American politics. Against the prevailing scholarly view of the Trump presidency as an unqualified aberration, I argue that the signal features of his efforts at governance are actually the product of converging patterns of political and institutional order. Building on seminal (but previously disjointed) work on ascriptive Americanism and the rhetorical presidency, I show that Trump represents the political synthesis of America’s ascriptive tradition and a form of presidential leadership inaugurated more than a century ago by Woodrow Wilson. Moreover, …

The Indivisibility Of Peace And The Role Of South Africa As A Regional Power, Solomon Hailu

College of Arts and Cultural Studies Faculty Research and Scholarship

Solomon Hailu, "The Indivisibility of Peace and the Role of South Africa as a Regional Power," International Journal on World Peace, 37, no. 2 (June 2020), pp. 1-23.

Collective security can work only if all members are dedicated to the national interest within the context of maintaining international peace and the indivisibility of peace. The UN needs to leverage the resources that express the member’s international dimension of security interests that contributing to the idea of the indivisibility of peace. Necessary requirements include states having to develop common values around common security issues irrespective of their vital interests at …

The Guinea-Bissau Constitutional Reform Debate, Watson Aila Gomes

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The enactment of law is not to be confused with the rule of law, and simply having a constitution does not guarantee political order. In Guinea-Bissau there have been calls to write a new constitution, but whether that helps Guinea-Bissau become a more stable country is questionable. Currently, there is a gap in the research of social science, history and political science examining how the processes of instability have unfolded in Guinea-Bissau. Few studies attempt to examine the correlation between a country’s stability and its constitution. A paradoxical situation exists in many countries in Africa where the political system is …

Repairing The U.S.–South Korea Alliance: Thaad As An Appeasement Measure, Jane Lee

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

On July 8, 2016, the South Korean government announced its decision to deploy the first stages of the U.S.-operated Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) technology in South Korea. Both countries stated that the reason for deployment was to enhance the security of South Korea, the U.S. and their allies in the Asia Pacific region against North Korea’s nuclear and missile provocations. However, a closer look at the timing and events surrounding the deployment poses significant questions over the South Korean government’s decision to deploy a highly controversial and expensive U.S.-operated military technology that had little military and strategic benefit …

Building For Culture: How Municipal Ownership Of Cultural Facilities Influences Annual Arts Funding In American Cities, Adam M. Sachs

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis explores how local government support for arts and culture varies across 24 American cities. It has proven to be challenging for researchers to accurately measure municipal arts support. Research on cultural policy has also often focused on the federal level, despite total city expenditures far exceeding national or state government support. This thesis attempts to take an accurate pulse of city expenditures in 2017 and correlates those spending levels to the variation in city ownership of arts facilities. Rooted in the historical perspectives of the ‘new institutionalism’ and path-dependency, this paper argues that past decisions about taking ownership …

Internet Voting And The Equity Of Participatory Budgeting Outcomes: A Study Of New York City’S Participatory Budgeting Initiative, Rodrigo Saad

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In recent decades, political science scholarship—once dominated by elitist conceptions of democracy—has increasingly focused on participatory models which emphasize the normative and instrumental value of enhanced political participation. The emergence of these theories in the latter half of 20th century coincided with the development of innovative institutions of democratic practice. Among these democratic innovations, participatory budgeting is the most widespread mechanism used in contemporary politics. Launched in 2011, participatory budgeting in New York City (PBNYC) seeks to expand civic engagement and make public spending more equitable. As scholars point out, these objectives are not always synergetic, particularly in the presence …

Who Governs The Sea? An Analysis Of The Regime Complex In International Shipping, Brent Landon

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In many respects, international shipping represents the physical embodiment of globalization. It ties states together via the exchange of raw materials and finished goods in ways that inspire important questions about power distributions, trade, growth, global governance, jurisdiction, policy coordination, sovereignty, and regimes. Although shipping is a space that can be used to illustrate many International Relations ideas, it has been understudied in International Relations. This thesis argues that the international shipping regime complex produces suboptimal outcomes because it has inefficient and peculiar design features. Specifically, it locates the responsibility to enforce rules in states that lack the ability to …

An Analysis Of Women And Terrorism: Perpetrators, Victims, Both?, Elizabeth Lauren Miller

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This paper will analyze women’s participation in terrorism under groups like al-Qaeda and the Islamic State. It will research the use of violence within terrorist organizations, perpetrated by female participants. What leads women to join groups like the Islamic State? There will be an analysis of the factors that attract women to joining terrorist organizations, in addition to the practices of recruitment that aid in their radicalization. There is a misconception that women who join the Islamic State lack education, which is seen as the sole reasoning for their radicalization or involvement. In reality, several reasons exist leading to their …

Aesthetic Redemption: Psychedelia, Film, And Walter Benjamin’S Sensory Revolution, Alexander C. Redlins

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This inquiry examines the ways in which the psychedelic nature of film, as posited by Walter Benjamin, has the potential to precipitate class consciousness and lead to humanity’s emancipation from anaesthetizing capitalist forces. We first explore Benjamin’s relationship to, and understanding of, Marxist thought with a particular focus on György Lukács’ theory of reification and Marx’s fetish character of the commodity which Benjamin ultimately believes lead to an erosion of the human sensorium and the destruction of human nature. As such, we explore Benjamin’s revolutionary aesthetic theory which seeks the reversal of these erosive capitalist forces and the redemption of …

Un Trust Funds As Agent To Fulfill The Norm Adapting And Diffusing Functions, Mikiko Sawanishi

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis focuses on existing large-scale general trust funds at the United Nations (UN) Secretariat, as one example of the important transformations of the UN. They were created around the 1990s amid a paradigm shift in international relations after the end of the Cold War. They function as autonomous entities to carry out specific mandates to tackle emerging global issues in responding to the requests of a limited number of UN member states that provide voluntary contributions of significant sum. The thesis explores answers to the questions of why such general trust funds were created within the UN Secretariat, and …

A Transnational Network For Public Sector Innovation: The Impact Of A Global Digital Government Reform Network On Public Administration At The Domestic Level, Beomgeun Cho, R. Karl Rethemeyer

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This study investigates the impact of a global E-government reform network on an individual country's E-government performance. As keeping pace with changing environments becomes one of the essential tasks for governments to retain problem-solving capacity, scholars have paid a lot of attention to the determinants of public sector innovation. However, how the ideas of reform and innovation have been communicated at the international or intergovernmental level has been paid less attention. To fill the gap in the literature, we have constructed a social network dataset covering 179 countries for the period 2010 to 2013. This dataset records whether countries sent …

The Governance Divide In Global Corporate Responsibility: The Global Structuration Of Reporting And Certification Frameworks, 1998-2017, Shawn Pope, Alwyn Lim

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

In recent decades, as worldwide attention to corporate responsibility increased, the global corporate responsibility (GCR) movement did not converge on a singular governance model nor hybridize into myriad country-specific models. The movement, rather, bifurcated into onerous certification frameworks and more lax reporting frameworks. We examine this ‘governance divide’ in the GCR movement by investigating the cross-national diffusion of seven core GCR frameworks. We adopt a glocalization perspective that conceptualizes a vertical nesting of local and global contexts. Our cross-national quantitative analyses suggest that, while linkages to global culture have encouraged business participation in all GCR frameworks, power dependencies related to …

Paper House: The Revolution, The Disappeared, And The Historicity Of Lebanon, Elsa Saade

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis will be an attempt to reenact events in relation to the disappeared and the Lebanese civil war, with the help of newspaper cuts, oral history, theories on historical writing, memories, and books on Lebanon. As a prospective historian, the writer will be tapping into the internal event of thought processes and meaning of the past, as advised by R. G. Collingwood in The Idea of History. (Collingwood, 1946 ) That critical inquiry will only be at the service of understanding the present from the lens of a self-reflecting inquisitor that has faced many silences in a past …

Narratives Of Successful Refugee Resettlement In Houston, Ward Westray

Student Research – Stevenson Center

This research project examines the connotations of successful refugee resettlement and socio-economic integration through a series of first-person interviews focusing on the well-being of refugees in the Houston metropolitan area. The responses from interviewed persons are examined in the broader context of refugee resettlement regimes internationally, in the United States, and also in Houston. Key findings that emerge from this study’s literature review and primary data suggest that services from refugee resettlement agencies, while generally enough for a basic level of self-sufficiency, are not sufficient to provide the kind of long-term success as identified in this study’s interviews with refugees …

Skilful Reflection As A Master Virtue, Chienkuo Mi, Shane Ryan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This paper advances the claim that skilful reflection is a master virtue in that skilful reflection shapes and corrects the other epistemic and intellectual virtues. We make the case that skilful reflection does this with both competence-based epistemic virtues and character-based intellectual virtues. In making the case that skilful reflection is a master virtue, we identify the roots of ideas central to our thesis in Confucian philosophy. In particular, we discuss the Confucian conception of reflection, as well as different levels of epistemic virtue. Next we set out the Dual Process Hypothesis of Reflection, which provides an explanation of the …

Implementation Of Naptip Policy In Nigeria, Usman Usman Mika’Il

Student Works (2020-2029)

Human trafficking is a complex, clandestine and a global issue involving countries, as a source, transit or destination nations. Nigeria has been a severe source country. The exploitation of young females into sex trafficking in Nigeria is highly prevalent than other types of trafficking in the country. Fortunately, the government shows willingness and readiness to fight human trafficking. In this context, the passage of the first private bill saw the establishment of a National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) and other related matters in the year 2003. The NAPTIP Act is the primary policy document dealing …

Cultural Policy And The Rise Of Multiculturalism Study Of Fine Arts Exhibition In The 2000s, The National Gallery Of Indonesia, Citra Smara Dewi

International Review of Humanities Studies

This study focuses on the role of cultural policy in the rise of multiculturalism with a case study of the Indonesian Art Exhibition, Pameran Seni Rupa Nusantara (PSRN) 2000s, which was initiated by a cultural institution, the National Gallery of Indonesia (GNI). PSRN exhibition is one of the important programs of GNI because it gives space to the artists of the archipelago - not just Java and Bali - to present works of modern-contemporary art rooted in local wisdom. As a nation that has the characteristics of pluralism, the spirit of multiculturalism in art has become very significant, especially in …

On Guard For Thee: Global Citizenship And Canada-U.S. Relations, Erika Simpson

Political Science Publications

The article explores the evolving dynamics between Canada and the United States amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, highlighting divergent approaches and their implications for global perception. It contrasts Canada's cooperative, evidence-based response under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau with U.S. policies characterized by isolationism and "me first" strategies. Canada's proactive humanitarian aid efforts, international solidarity initiatives, and commitment to sustainable development goals are emphasized as core elements of its global identity. The piece underscores Canada's bid for a UN Security Council seat, framing it as an opportunity to advocate for multilateralism and solidarity on the world stage.

How The Coronavirus Increases Terrorism Threats In The Developing World, Nisha Bellinger, Kyle Kattelman

Political Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

As the coronavirus reaches developing countries in Africa and Asia, the pandemic will have effects beyond public health and economic activity. As the disease wreaks its havoc in areas poorly equipped to handle its spread, terrorism likely will increase there as well.

We are political scientists who study the developing world and political conflict. Our recently published research identifies a potential link between the pandemic and an uptick in violence. We find that food insecurity – the lack of both financial and physical access to nutritious food, which leads to malnutrition and undernourishment in a population – makes citizens angry …