Political Science Commons^™

Women Representatives In The Japanese Parliament: Bumps And Scrapes Along The Road To Equality, J. Paul Mitchell, Dr. Ray Christensen

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Women account for an alarmingly low proportion of political representatives in Japan. Japan tends to elect fewer women to political office than nearly all other industrialized democracies.1 Despite popular support for a more balanced parliament, women accounted for only 15% of the winners in the recent Upper House elections.2 The struggle for gender equality in Japan’s parliament continues to encounter daunting resistance.

Applying Ecological Inference To The 2000 Mexican Elections, Matthew M. Singer, Dr. Jay Goodliffe

Journal of Undergraduate Research

In the 2000 Mexican Election, the PRI party lost a presidential election for the first time in Mexico’s history to Vincente Fox of the PAN party. There has been a great deal of recent scholarship examining voting behavior in Mexico. Most of it has focused on the calculation that risk-averse voters make in deciding whether to defect from the PRI i. There has been, however, little scholarship on why voters then choose a party other than the PRI. Individuals don’t just all defect; they need someone to defect to. Previous studies have not found evidence of social determinants, such as …

Fa’Asamoa And Western Institutions: A Comparative Study Between American Samoa And (Western) Samoa, Henrietta P. Emerson, Dr. Ray C. Christensen

Journal of Undergraduate Research

In most literature on the political systems of American Samoa and (Western) Samoa, the two countries are rarely grouped in the same study despite their shared cultural identity. An unincorporated territory of the United States, American Samoa tends to be classified with other U.S. territories which include Guam, the Northern Marianas, and the Virgin Islands (Cook 1995; Van Cleve 1993). Meanwhile, Samoa, an independent state since 1962, is more commonly compared to other independent Pacific island states (Lawson 1996; White and Linstrom 1997). While different colonial experiences clearly point out the reason for this separation, the inherent pervasiveness of Samoan …

Collective Begging At Its Best: Labor-Management Relations In South Dakota, Gary Aguiar

Journal of Collective Bargaining in the Academy

Public employee labor unions in South Dakota possess a feeble set of bargaining rights, so weak it should be considered “collective begging.” However, our recent contract contains significant victories despite decades of playing defense. What lessons can be learned from this experience that might help other similarly situated faculty unions? What does this case study teach us about the disparity of power, especially where labor has fewer legal and political tools than management? I apply DiGiovanni’s (2011) typology of “intangible influences” on collective bargaining to explain our success. As DiGiovanni predicts, history and timing played a large role in influencing …

Developing A Theory Of Transnational Actor Salience, Christopher O'Keefe, Dr. Daniel Nielson

Journal of Undergraduate Research

My study focused on exploring the conditions under which non-state actors (NSAs) play important roles in international relations (IR). This field is known as transnational relations, the study of interactions between non-governmental organizations or individuals that influence world affairs as they act across national borders and states or other transnational actors (TNAs). Counted among these actors are multinational corporations (MNCs), international activist groups, terrorist organizations and drug cartels. Although two of the three central schools of international relations theory agree that states are the primary actors in IR (Baldwin 1993, 9), these organizations obviously play important roles in international politics. …

Psychological, Political, And Economic Factors Resulting In Romania’S Tragic Alliances During The Second World War, Matthew J. Thorne, Dr. Valerie Hudson

Journal of Undergraduate Research

If the purpose of science is to better understand our world, eliminate suffering, and generally make it a more inhabitable place, then lessons on how to avoid war, entangling alliances, and unwanted political ideologies may make Political Science the most important of all the sub sciences. Political Science is difficult because it presents limited possibilities for empirical testing and proofs; political scientists are left to do case studies instead of regressions, and psychological profiles instead of experiments. The importance of such work though can be easily seen when looking at the tragic tears of war, conquest, and subjugation in histories …

Base Crimes And Voting Patterns In Okinawa: Are There Any Links?, Ryan M. Scoville, Dr. Ray Christensen

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Over the past few decades, U.S. soldiers stationed on the Japanese island of Okinawa have committed a large number of violent crimes against the native population. Even a terse glance at the news should reveal that these crimes—including rape and murder—do not go unnoticed by the Okinawan people. Protesters decried the frequency of base-related crimes at the 2000 G-8 Summit in Okinawa, and activists today continue to voice their outrage whenever an American serviceperson breaks local law. Noticing this opposition, I set out to determine whether or not Okinawan citizens take their outrage to the polls. Specifically, I wanted to …

The True Evolution Of Relations Between The United States And Europe, Marcus Ryan, Dr. David Bohn

Journal of Undergraduate Research

I have recently conducted a great deal of research suggesting that many nations are experiencing a period of decreased nationalism and that they are simultaneously moving toward greater acceptance of and perhaps imitation of the United States. The primary focus of my research was initially Argentina, and my study revealed that Argentine national sentiment is in fact less vibrant now than it has been in the past. After many days of content analysis of newspaper articles and political speeches I was able to demonstrate a definite trend away from anti- Americanism, Marxism, and the intellectual left. I am in the …

Perception And Reality In Japanese Politics: The Rural Vote’S New Relevance For The Ldp, J. Paul Mitchell, Dr. Ray Christensen

Journal of Undergraduate Research

An analysis of urban and rural electoral trends in Japan reveals the important role of perceptions in politics. While the story from articles and books on Japanese politics tends to paint a scene of LDP (Liberal Democratic Party, Japan’s dominant political party since 1955) dominance in rural districts contrasted by failings in urban ones, actual electoral data show large relative declines in the rural areas. I tried to discover the causes of this particular misperception and then apply those findings to politics in general.

Crittenden, John Jordan, 1787-1863 (Sc 1302), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and typescript for Manuscripts Small Collection 1302. Letter written by John Jordan Crittenden, U.S. Senate, to Hon. A. Beatty, evidently of Rhode Island, in response to Beatty's concern about the impeding tariff legislation.

Giants Among The People, Evan Barrett

Highlands College

A Montana Public Radio Commentary by Evan Barrett.

Published newspaper columns written by Evan Barrett on this topic, which vary somewhat in content from this commentary, appeared in the following publications:

Havre Daily News, January 31, 2014

Missoulian, February 7, 2014

Ravalli Republic, February 12, 2014

Montana Standard, February 15, 2014

Helena Independent Record, April 23, 2014

Putin Playing Olympic Games With Centuries-Old Ethnic Conflicts, Nicholas Hayes

University Chair in Critical Thinking Publications

No abstract provided.

Turkish Accession To The European Union: Shaped By Perception Or Reality?, Hannah Q. Young

Claremont-UC Undergraduate Research Conference on the European Union

Throughout the last fifty years, Turkish-EU relations have fluctuated between positive to completely suspended, though one factor has remained consistent: the European Union’s hesitation to grant Turkey full membership. While some EU member countries justify barring Turkey from their ranks for a multitude of institutional, economic, and security reasons, similar issues have been overlooked in the past when accepting the membership bids of countries such as Spain, Greece, Romania, and Bulgaria. Why has Turkey in particular faced such sustained opposition from EU citizens? Is this opposition based on misinformed perceptions or an actual “clash” of cultures between the EU and …

The Continental Approach To Climate Change: An Analysis Of The European Union’S Emissions Trading System, Jacob P. Wellman

Claremont-UC Undergraduate Research Conference on the European Union

The European Union’s Emissions Trading System (ETS) stands as a model for managing a changing climate in a complicated international environment. As it enters its Phase III period of auctioning emissions permits, an understanding of players and their performance is essential to evaluating the success of the emissions market. Concerns that wealthy countries will purchase permits, rather than reduce their real emissions, have led to skepticism about the system’s potential for success. In this study, I examine ambition exhibited by countries in using less than maximum allowable levels of offsets to achieve Phase II reduction requirements. Using fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative …

The External Action Service And Its Effect On The Cohesion Of Eu Foreign Policy, Timothy Stretton

Claremont-UC Undergraduate Research Conference on the European Union

This study is designed to evaluate the European External Action Service (EEAS) by analyzing its effectiveness in achieving a greater level of cohesion amongst European Union (EU) member states. The research examines voting patterns in the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) by EU member states between 2003 and 2012. This study uses each committee of the UNGA, as a variable to determine voting patterns on specific policy areas. This paper includes the enlargements of 2004 and 2007, while also extending the data collection up to the most recent completed session of the UNGA. The years 2009, 2011, and 2012 are …

The Hour Of The Regions: An Analysis Of The State Of Governance In The European Union, Shaniqua L. Singleton

Claremont-UC Undergraduate Research Conference on the European Union

As the European Union (EU) has expanded and delved into new policy areas, the need for cooperation among local, national, and supranational actors has become evident. Scholars have characterized this new wave of EU and regional cooperation as multilevel governance. However, the exact role of regional entities remains a hotly contested issue. This paper analyzes the current state of regional government participation in the EU. I argue that despite its initial fame in the late nineties, multilevel governance is not a viable description of the type of governance seen in today’s EU. Instead, I show that governance in the EU …

Transatlantic Cooperation In Financial Regulation Post-2008, Eytan Schindelhaim

Claremont-UC Undergraduate Research Conference on the European Union

This paper attempts to explain the international policy consequences of the 2008 global financial crisis by comparing the regulatory response in Europe to that in the United States. Specifically, it accounts for the level of cooperation between the two jurisdictions in their efforts to improve oversight of the financial system. The paper is concerned primarily with the regulatory laws, agreements, and frameworks enacted since 2008, as efforts to improve financial regulation are ongoing and only starting to reach the implementation phases. Still, implementation plays a meaningful role in the analysis, as variation in implementation capacity among jurisdictions often shapes the …

Market Integration, Soccer, And The Eu: Changes In The Game’S Core Territories, John Y. Ray

Claremont-UC Undergraduate Research Conference on the European Union

This paper uses soccer as a lens to look at governance structures and how they affect labor markets and economic outcomes in major European countries. It looks at three different models of soccer governance: “coordinated,” “liberal,” and “neutral,” found in the five major European soccer leagues (England, Germany, Spain, Italy, and France) and suggests that coordinated structures may have a comparative advantage over liberal structures.

The Eu And The Rights Of The Roma: How Could The Eu Have Changed The French Repatriation Program Of 2010?, Julia M. Markham-Cameron

Claremont-UC Undergraduate Research Conference on the European Union

In August of 2010, the French government began a program of deporting those Roma who lived within the country. Under European Union (EU) law, mass expulsions based on ethnicity are forbidden, as are mass examinations of peoples as opposed to individual assessments in the case of a crime. However, in the spirit of egalitarianism, France does not acknowledge the idea of racial or ethnic minorities. Instead, they have reframed the non- French Roma as a group engaged in criminal activity following Italy’s “security package” of 2008, which described ‘nomads’ as a national security threat and created legislation leading to expulsions …

Diverging Paths: Economic Integration In The Eu And Asean, Zoë Bollinger

Claremont-UC Undergraduate Research Conference on the European Union

The European Union (EU) represents a quintessential example of regional economic integration, but not the sole case meriting consideration. This paper uses a comparative regional approach to analyze economic integration in the EU and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Excluding colonialism’s role in Asian regionalism, the EU and ASEAN had similar roots and goals for economic integration including creating stability in a post war era, gaining a stronger collective voice, and fostering economic growth. However, despite similar foundations their trajectories towards integration diverged. This paper identifies key factors influencing how these polities have integrated markets including institutional structure …