Political Science Commons^™

Bringing The Economy Back In: Hannah Arendt, Karl Marx, And The Politics Of Capitalism, Onur Ulas Ince

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This article engages with the question of how to construct modern economic relations as an object of political theorizing by placing Hannah Arendt's and Karl Marx's writings in critical conversation. I contend that the political aspect of capitalism comes into sharpest relief less in relations of economic exploitation than in moments of expropriation that produce and reproduce the conditions of capitalist accumulation. To develop a theoretical handle on expropriation and thereby on the politics of capitalism, I syncretically draw on Marxian and Arendtian concepts by first examining expropriation through the Marxian analytic of "primitive accumulation of capital" and second delineating …

The Effects Of Using Natural Gas In Light-Duty Vehicle Fleet Of The United States On Its Energy Dependency And Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Nurullah Ayyilmaz

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

Shale boom has changed the track of discussions on the future of the U.S. energy politics. A new opportunity emerged to meet domestic demand of the U.S. by using secure sources. Transportation accounts for a quarter of energy consumption in the U.S. Increasing the share of natural gas in the transport sector bolsters the U.S. energy security because of shifting from insecure sources (imported oil) to secure sources (shale gas reserves). Using natural gas instead of oil in light-duty vehicles (LDVs) contributes to the efforts of decreasing dependence on insecure sources and also decreases anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions caused …

Culture And Military Effectiveness: How Societal Traits Influence Battle Outcomes, Eric Stephen Fowler

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

What must states do to ensure victory on the field of battle? Conventional scholarship claims that a number of material and institutional factors significantly affect a nation’s ability to generate military power. Recent studies suggest that other factors, including levels of education, civil-military relations, and western culture also play an important role. This new line of logic is important because these factors tend to be glaringly absent from rigorous concepts of military power. The principle finding of this study is that culture matters and that it matters more than originally thought. Culture is admittedly complex, intangible, and difficult to count, …

Juridical, Religious And Globalization Perspectives On The Constitutions Of Egypt And Tunisia After The Arab Spring, Lora Hadzhidimova

Institute for the Humanities Theses

This work examines the juridical aspects of the current Egyptian and Tunisian Constitutions adopted after the Arab Spring. Along with the legal analysis of these two manifestations one more element is also a subject of this commentary – possible political issues that can surface from the interpretation of some controversial articles. The second part of this study focuses on the compatibility between the premises of the Islamic Sharia, the Islamic culture and tradition, and the core values of the contemporary modern democratic states. Moreover, it addresses some of the problematic moments within the discourse whether or not the Quran evokes …

De Facto Sovereignty And Population Displacement As Tools Of Conflict, Hilmi Ulas

Peace Studies Faculty Articles and Research

Two largely debated questions in the realm of international relations are the roles of post-Cold War Russia and China within the current global context. However, the debates in the literature fails to take into account the fact that both superpowers employ the same tactic: the asymmetrical conquest of new territory as promoted by historical claims, retroactively justified through population displacement. Subsequently, debates on the topic mistakenly focus on elite motivations rather than what can be controlled: the responses of the international community to the abovementioned tactics. I will document why mainly Russia but also China have opted to use the …

Border Issues Demand Empathy: Speakers At Colby's Walker Symposium Consider Ways To Consider La Frontera, Charlie Eichacker

Colby Magazine

Mexican-American fiction writer Helena Maria Viramontes strives to help her readers understand the harder parts of the Chicano experience. Her first novel, Under the Feet of Jesus, for example, is about the dangerous lives of migrant farm workers in California.

A Concomitant Of Conflict And Consensus: Case Of A Chieftaincy Succession In Ghana, Kaderi Noagah Bukari

Peace and Conflict Studies

Ghana is often seen as peaceful, but is faced with many chieftaincy conflicts that result mainly from succession to the throne (skin or stool) for traditional political power. Ghana has more than 230 chieftaincy disputes dotted across many parts of the country. However, the Bulsa Traditional Area (Buluk) of Ghana has had a stable and resilient chieftaincy succession despite conflicts arising out of the selection of chiefs. In the selection of chiefs, the adoption of a voting system is said to lead to consensus based decision-making which is largely responsible for the non-violent nature of the Buluk chieftaincy …

Throwing (Sh)Aid: Optimizing Aid Conditionality For The Developing World, Timothy F. O'Shea

MAD-RUSH Undergraduate Research Conference

Aid conditionality has emerged as a dominant tool by donor countries in nation building efforts in the developing world. Unfortunately, this strategy has encountered obstacles in achieving substantive change. The purpose of this paper is to investigate possible modifications and augmentations to aid conditionality regimes that could more easily induce political development in recipient countries. To provide a background against which to plan changes, the paper documents important determinants of political change, including public opinion, donor self-interest, and unconscious biases. The paper also evaluates possible malleable policy factors, including adoption speed, proportionality, outcome-based provision, and donor co-ordination. While much of …

Active Shooter Security At The University Of Nebraska: The Case For Training And Door Locks, Randall Bowdish

Department of Political Science: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Active shooter security at the University of Nebraska is lax. Simple fixes in the way of training and the installation of classroom door locks can help provide a safer environment for students and faculty.

Race Representatives: Why Black Members Of Congress Matter, Shenika Mcdonald

Honors Theses

My research project consisted of examining 200 bills sponsored by six African American members of Congress during the Ninety-third Congress (1973-1975). These six members of Congress represented Chicago, Illinois; Detroit, Michigan; or New York, New York- three metropolitan cities with significant African American populations. This research emphasizes the importance of Black members of Congress to African Americans nationwide by highlighting the Congressional Black Caucus' formation and mission, examining the bills' key terms and public policy issues for racial implications, and consulting a variety of secondary source material that underscores the need for descriptive representation in the Black community. The primary …

Strategies For Publishing In Peer-Reviewed Journals In Political Science: Insights From The Editor Of Latin American Politics And Society, Dr. Alfred P. Montero

LAII Events

In this presentation, Dr. Alfred P. Montero discusses insights as an author published in several scholarly journals and as the new senior editor of the refereed journal, Latin American Politics and Society.

Dr. Alfred P. Montero is the Frank B. Kellogg Chair of Political Science at Carleton College. His main research areas are the political economy of South American countries and the quality of democracy. He is the author of Brazil: Reversal of Fortune (Polity Press, 2014), Brazilian Politics: Reforming a Democratic State in a Changing World (Polity Press, 2006), Shifting States in Global Markets: Subnational Industrial Policy in Contemporary …

Application Of Spatial And Descriptive Analysis Methods To Determine Relationship Between Hardware Subsidies And The Sanitation Marketplace, Danielle Devuyst

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Sanitation marketing is an emerging approach of strengthening the local private sector to implement scalable and sustainable improved sanitation coverage in developing countries, specifically among the poor. It encourages the enhancement of sanitation market supply and demand by developing distribution infrastructure and stimulating consumer interest. Unlike interventions that provide hardware subsidies to initiate sanitation demand, financial support for sanitation marketing is used exclusively for the research and development of the market; this encourages the private sector to become independent and self-sufficient. Qualitative data suggests that while sanitation marketing projects have been successful at implementing replicable and sustainable sanitation coverage, they …

The Contact Hypothesis And The Diffusion Of Public Opinion Toward Undocumented Latino Immigrants In The United States, Sawyer Hackett

James Madison Undergraduate Research Journal (JMURJ)

Negative and positive attitudes between population in-groups and out-groups are matured through a variety of experiences, chief among them being the extent of interaction between the two groups. The contact hypothesis observes the extent of interaction between in-groups and out-groups—distinguished by a particular demographic descriptor—and asserts that the extent of the two groups’ interaction is positively correlated with favorable attitudes directed toward the out-group. This research analyzes the potential effect that the undocumented Latino immigrant population has on the sentiments of the established native population. In addition to attitudes toward the undocumented Latino population, the importance that U.S. residents place …

In God We Trust, Andrew C. Nosti

SURGE

Almost everywhere I turn I can hear someone saying, “America is a Christian nation!” likely yelled or grumbled with impressive, and sometimes concerning, aggression. I can’t go through a week without this phrase popping up, usually closely accompanied by the notion that America’s founding has roots in Christian principles. [excerpt]

"Chinese Military Space Power: U.S. Department Of Defense Annual Reports, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

Following instructions received from the U.S. Congress in the 2000 National Defense Authorization Act, the Department of Defense prepared an annual report on Chinese military power. This report contains classified and unclassif ied editions. Documenting Chinese military space power developments was one of the provisions in this law’s authorizing language. This article will examine how Chinese military space power documents have been described by the Department of Defense during this report's existence through 2015 and detail how members of Congress and Congressional committee hearing witnesses reacted to these developments in Congressional hearing transcripts and in Congressional debate through Fall 2015.

Mapping Dissonance, Joshua Gulber

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Previous research highlights the importance of generating empathy for marginalized outgroups as a precursor to changing negative attitudes and behaviors towards them. Politicians and social activists often seek to generate this empathy by “humanizing” marginalized groups through positive media or interpersonal contact. We have previously shown that such attempts at humanization often fail to change the attitudes of those the humanizing message is designed to influence: those with the most negative attitudes towards the outgroup. We hypothesized that this failure could be attributed to cognitive dissonance, positing that individuals who feel a deep sense of dissonance from the positive information …

Substantive Representation By The Unelected: The Role Of Staff Gender On Mayoral Priorities In U.S. Cities, Sara M. Hottman

Dissertations and Theses

The literature on descriptive and substantive representation focuses on elected representatives, but overlooks the gender of those who play an integral role in policy process (agenda-setting) and outcomes (implementation): The elected’s chief of staff, senior policy advisors, and, in council-manager systems, the city manager. This thesis examines the role policy staff and city manager gender plays in substantive representation. After analyzing staff composition and agenda priorities — gleaned from State of the City addresses — for mayors of the 50 most-populous cities in the United States, I found substantial evidence to support my hypotheses that the chief of staff’s gender, …

A Preview Of The Ohio Primary: Part 1, A. Lee Hannah

Political Science Faculty Publications

Ohio voters will get the opportunity to weigh in on the 2016 presidential nominee tomorrow, Tuesday, March 15.

The value of winning Ohio carries symbolic importance for both parties. As a national bellwether, candidates can use a strong showing in the Buckeye State to assert that they are a national contender. Moreover, the winner-take-all rules in the Republican Party make Ohio one of the most valuable prizes in the primary to date, giving the winner 5 percent of the total delegates they need to get to the 1,237 delegates needed to win the election.

In The Shadow Of The Great Firewall: Censorship And Surveillance During Hong Kong's Umbrella Movement, Christine Andrelczyk

Theses and Dissertations

Through a case-study analysis, this project investigates why the People's Republic of China eschewed overtly repressive tactics and instead relied on subtle methods of coercion, such as surveillance and censorship, to mitigate activism during Hong Kong's pro-democracy Umbrella Movement. Drawing on historical evidence, reports, and quantitative data, this research explores the significance of subtle repression and coercion as it relates to the process of authoritarian consolidation in China and Hong Kong.

Points Of Stasis In The 1960 And 2000 Presidential Debates, Kevin Stein

Speaker & Gavel

The clash component of a presidential debate sets it apart from other types of campaign messages because the candidates are faced with a potential for “imminent rebuttal” not found in other types of messages, such as television spots or stump speeches. This study is a rhetorical analysis of the 1960 and 2000 presidential debates and attempts to identify the specific points of stasis (clash) where two arguments meet. These points of stasis are labeled in the classic rhetorical theory literature as conjectural, qualitative, definitional, and translative. The study tests the application of these categories as a precursor to future research …