Political Science Commons^™

A Case For Cooperation: How A Binational Agreement Between The U.S. And Mexico Can Alleviate The Rapid Drawdown Of The Mesilla And The Hueco Aquifer, William Lynch Vallee

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This study examines ways to mitigate the depletion of the Hueco and the Mesilla aquifers in the Paso Del Norte region of the United States and Mexico through a binational legal agreement. By examining the history of cooperation and disagreement between the two nations and extrapolating from three case studies (The Nubian Sandstone Aquifer, The Mountain Aquifer, and The Guarani Aquifer) the research concludes that an agreement is indeed possible and lays out a plan to implement changes.

Bio-Politics Of State Repression: A Case Study Of The Indignados Social Movement In Ciudad Juárez, México, Igi G. Acosta

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Police repression has become one of the most widespread experiences of participating in social movements. This thesis provides a case study of how repression is experienced and how it affected the Indignados social movement in Ciudad Juárez, México. Specifically, it chronicles the circumstances around two separate repressive events that occurred on November 1, 2011. The thesis has two broad aims. First, it seeks to provide a sociological analysis of how state repression applied through structural and systematic use of police violence affected the political trajectory and lives of peaceful and non-violent activists from Ciudad Juárez. This highlights the violent reality …

Is Bipartisanship Dead? Policy Agreement And Agenda-Setting In The House Of Representatives, Jesse Richman

Political Science & Geography Faculty Publications

The title of Laurel Harbridge’s book Is Bipartisanship Dead? poses an important question, even if the answer is ultimately ambiguous. Although Harbridge persuasively concludes that “bipartisanship is not dead” (170), this book provides plenty of reason to worry about its health.

Early Prerogative And Administrative Power: A Response To Paul Craig, Philip A. Hamburger

Faculty Scholarship

What does English experience imply about American constitutional law? My book, Is Administrative Law Unlawful?, argues that federal administrative power generally is unconstitutional. In supporting this conclusion, the book observes that eighteenth-century Americans adopted their constitutions not only with their eyes on the future, but also looking over their shoulder at the past – especially the English past. This much should not be controversial. There remain, however, all sorts of questions about how to understand the English history and its relevance for early Americans.

In opposition to my claims about American law, Paul Craig lobs three critiques from across the …

Vermeule Unbound, Philip A. Hamburger

Faculty Scholarship

My book asks Is Administrative Law Unlawful? Adrian Vermeule answers “No.” In support of his position, he claims that my book does not really make arguments from the U.S. Constitution, that it foolishly denounces administrative power for lacking legislative authorization, that it grossly misunderstands this power and the underlying judicial doctrines, and ultimately that I argue “like a child.”

My book actually presents a new conception of administrative power, its history, and its unconstitutionality; as Vermeule has noted elsewhere, it offers a new paradigm. Readers therefore should take seriously the arguments against the book. They also, however, should recognize that …

Religious Priming And Moral Reasoning As A Manipulation For Supporting Violence, Brandt A. Smith

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The present research tests the effects of religious priming and cued moral reasoning on support for violence against others. Further, the present research examined the effects of two individual difference measures, Social Vigilantism and the degree to which people accept religion as a social force research demonstrates that religious priming elicits greater compliance by acting as a cognitive distraction. The data show that lower levels of moral reasoning and religious priming lead to higher activism, radicalism, and extremism scores as well as higher agreement with a recorded message. Implications and future directions are discussed.

Cyberwar, International Politics, And Institutional Design, Daniel Abebe

Faculty Scholarship

In the United States, the breadth of the president’s warmaking authority has been governed by the Constitution, the Supreme Court’s jurisprudence, and, over time, historical practice; in short, the president’s powers are constrained by a well-developed body of US foreign relations law. But the prospect of a new kind of conflict — cyberwar — potentially challenges the existing regulatory regime, which rests on assumptions that are common to traditional, conventional war. For some, the complexities of cyberwar generate new foreign relations–law questions about the president’s authority to engage in offensive cyberoperations, and they thus necessitate a new regulatory framework. For …

Bang For Our Buck: American Foreign Aid, Foreign Policy, And Democratic Diffusion, Ricardo A. Romero

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Many scholars have sought to investigate the impact foreign aid has on recipient states. Much of the literature suggests that the strategic linkages of the donor-recipient dyad are key in explaining outcome variance. This paper examines that assumption further by looking at the relationship between US aid outlays and their impact with respect to democracy. Because the diffusion of democratic values has been a pillar of American foreign policy dating back to the Wilson era, one might expect American aid to be linked to good governance. I argue, however, that the national security concerns at the time assistance is disbursed …

Executive Federalism Comes To America, Jessica Bulman-Pozen

Faculty Scholarship

This Article proposes a different way of thinking about contemporary American governance, looking to an established foreign practice. Executive federalism – “processes of intergovernmental negotiation that are dominated by the executives of the different governments within the federal system” – is pervasive in parliamentary federations, such as Canada, Australia, and the European Union. Given the American separation of powers arrangement, executive federalism has been thought absent, even “impossible,” in the United States. But the partisan dynamics that have gridlocked Congress and empowered both federal and state executives have generated a distinctive American variant.

Viewing American law and politics through the …

Addressing Internalizing Problems In Middle School Youth With Check In/Check Out, Malgorzata Borawska-Popielarz

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

More than 20,000 primary- and secondary-level schools, which represent 20% of all schools in the United States, are implementing school-wide positive behavior supports (SWPBS) to enhance socially desirable behavior and promote a decline of problematic behavior among students. The overall efficacy of the 3-tier SWPBS framework is well documented. However, a paucity of empirical research addresses the use of check in/check out (CICO), a Tier 2 intervention, for youth who present as quiet and withdrawn, and who are at risk of academic and social disengagement. Accordingly, this quasi-experimental, nonequivalent groups study assessed the overall effectiveness of CICO and considered the …

How The European Union’S Criteria For Membership Move Public Opinion, Douglas Page

Theses and Dissertations

Existing studies suggest that normative commitments to the European Union’s human rights standards remain weak in states applying for EU membership, and that citizens are unresponsive to information the EU provides. This research does not gauge public support for human rights when they are framed as an EU issue. In an original experimental survey of Bosnia and Herzegovina, I examine the effect of EU framing on support for the equal treatment of gay people, equal pay between women and men, and blame assigned to the government for policy outcomes regarding these rights. I find that EU frames affect blame towards …

United States Foreign Policy Toward Hiv/Aids In Africa: The Role Of Pharmaceutical Companies In The Formulation And Implementation Of The President’S Emergency Plan For Aids Relief (Pepfar) 2003-2008, Toussaint Kafarhire Murhula

Dissertations

During his 2003 State of the Union Address, President Bush announced his Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and asked Congress, over the next five years, to authorize the appropriation of $15 billion to provide treatment, prevention and care to people infected and affected by HIV/AIDS, mostly in Sub-Saharan Africa. Given the existing pattern of neglect and indifference in U.S.-Africa relations and the Bush campaign’s statement in 2000 dismissing Africa from his foreign policy priorities, what then justifies his administration’s undertaking of this massive foreign policy change?

My dissertation offers insight into the role played by private US pharmaceutical companies …

Defect Or Defend? Explaining Military Responses During The Arab Uprisings, Timothy Hazen

Dissertations

The Arab uprisings demonstrated that a military's response to the domestic unrest had a significant impact on whether the protests were successful and triggered regime change. In Egypt and Tunisia, the militaries defected from the incumbent regimes, and as a result the ruling leaders were removed, whereas in Bahrain, the military defended the regime and used violence against protesters, which led to the continuation of the government's rule. Scholars identify numerous factors to explain Middle East and North African (MENA) military behavior during the Arab uprising but overall these arguments tend to overemphasize individual case studies and fail to provide …

Jeremiad Or Weapon Of Words?: The Power Of Emotive Language In Supreme Court Dissents, Amanda C. Bryan, Eve M. Ringsmuth

Political Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Unable to directly control the policy articulated by the Supreme Court, dissenting justices are faced with the challenge of finding alternative ways to pursue their policy goals. We argue that one strategy available to them is to use their power over the language of a dissenting opinion to increase the media attention paid to a case. Our results show that cases with negative dissents attract more media coverage, which creates a variety of mechanisms through which a dissenter’s policy preferences could be realized, such as inducing Congress to take action, influencing public debate on the issue, and provoking further litigation. …

Global Human Trafficking: New Insights On An Old Crime, Joanna Surma

Master's Theses

Thousands of men, women, and children become victims to human trafficking each year. Almost every country in the world is affected by this heinous crime. Human trafficking exists in many different forms including sexual exploitation, slavery, forced labor or servitude, the removal of organs, child soldiers, etc. Despite the age-old practice being traced back to the 13th century, it continues to exist and even grow today. Unfortunately, not much research is available on the topic. Combating human trafficking is a growing priority for many governments; however, certain obstacles to data collection and analysis continue to exist. Recently, a new study …

Interfering In A Non-Interference Policy: Defining Star Trek's Prime Directive, Andrew Steele

Master's Theses

The aim of this thesis is to provide a comprehensive definition of the Prime Directive, a concept that was developed in Star Trek: The Original Series, as well as provide a non-fictionalized version of the edict.

The Prime Directive is an edict that governs Starfleet not to interfere with a society’s development.

The first main section will discuss in further detail why The Original Series account of the Prime Directive was selected. Furthermore, it will discuss how members of academia interpret the Prime Directive.

The second main section will be an episode-by-episode analysis of each Prime Directive centered episode to …

Evolving Standards Of Decency: The Intersection Of Death Penalty Theory And Supreme Court Jurisprudence, Rachel S. Sullivan

Senior Independent Study Theses

The American death penalty must be abolished in order to establish a more just system of punishment. This thesis examines the arguments of eight political theorists and their connections with five essential Supreme Court cases on capital punishment in order to determine the Court's theoretical view of the American death penalty. This theoretical view is that justices who affirm the constitutionality of capital punishment use philosophical theories, while justices who critique capital punishment rely upon context-dependent analyses. If the Court ever rules that capital punishment is unconstitutional in all circumstances, these latter theories will be dispositive.

"Hello My Name Is Inigo Montoya, You Killed My Father, Prepare To Die!" Messaging Effects On Support For Violent Non-State Actors, Alexandra D. Haines

Senior Independent Study Theses

No abstract provided.

Custom Framing: An Analysis Of Camille Pissarro's "Les Turpitudes Sociales" Within A Base-Superstructure Model, Robin S. Klaus

Senior Independent Study Theses

No abstract provided.

The Puzzle Of Post-Conflict Justice: Identifying Factors That Influence State Selection Of Mechanisms, Taylor V. Knoop

Senior Independent Study Theses

The period of post-conflict is wrought with frustrations, broken trust and intense hurt as a state works to bring its society out of internal conflict. Post-conflict justice mechanisms are designed to provide tools to move a state towards stability. While scholars have evaluated the different post-conflict justice mechanisms in reaching their goals, there is limited research into understanding why a state may implement one post-conflict justice mechanism over another. Specifically, what factors impact the form of post-conflict justice mechanisms in states? This research presents six post-conflict justice mechanisms through three theoretical-derived categories, retributive justice, restorative justice and immunity measures, before …