Political Science Commons^™

Politics Of Successful Development: Women And Panchayats In India, Anne Clayton, Dr. Donna Lee Bowen

Journal of Undergraduate Research

All over the world women tend to suffer disproportionately in terms of poverty and the lack of access to education in comparison to men.1 Extensive development efforts have been put forth throughout the world to eradicate these problems. Some of them have been successful, while many have not. Identifying the factors that lead to successful development is crucial, so that those methods which are effective may be replicated in other areas. In recent years, women=s role in development has increasingly become recognized as vital to successful development.2 Focusing resources on women for development often yields greater levels of success due …

The Modern Relevance Of Natural Law Considered From An Epistemological Perspective: Taking Up The Challenge Of Foucault And The Poststructuralists, Robert David Hunter Floyd, Dr. Kelly D. Patterson

Journal of Undergraduate Research

This two-year project, undertaken with the aid of ORCA funding, is preceding both on schedule and in many ways better than expected. The support provided in the grant has allowed me to dedicate considerable time and energy to a topic which requires me to draw upon philosophical insights from a variety of disciplines and authors. While an honors thesis will ultimately result from the work begun with the grant, already this research experience is opening new horizons of scholarship which I had not heretofore considered.

A Two-Pronged Strategy For Brazilian Domestic Violence Legislation: The Effectiveness Of Autonomous Women’S Groups And Feminists In Government, Jason M. Johnson, Dr. Darren G. Hawkins

Journal of Undergraduate Research

During the 1980s Brazil made unprecedented advancements in the area of domestic violence. It was the first country to open women’s police stations staffed by female police officers and established an executive council where feminists could discuss policies for problems like violence against women. Yet, despite these early achievements which sprang from a strong women’s movement, Brazil remains one of only three countries in Latin America without a law prohibiting violence against women. The purpose of the ORCA research was to determine the effectiveness of the two-pronged strategy for domestic violence legislation, characterized by women simultaneously pressuring inside and outside …

The Ira: Terrorists?; A Study Of The Northern Irish Conflict Through Writing, Interviews And Audio Documentary, Arielle Badger, Clifford Newman, Dr. Michael Findley

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The Easter Rising of 1916 began the end of British rule in Ireland. While the Republic of Ireland gained full independence in 1922, Northern Ireland remained under British control. Many Irish nationalists continued to fight for a fully united, independent Ireland. Small-scale attacks were continued by the Irish Republican Army (IRA), which eventually escalated into the “Troubles” from roughly 1969-1994. The “Troubles” were not simply about territorial integrity through uniting the Irish island. The conflict was between races, religion and in protest of centuries of occupation and discrimination.

Winning The Waiting Game: Senatorial Delay In Executive Nominations, Ian Ostrander

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Presidents have a strong incentive to control executive agencies through the nomination of like-minded and responsive individuals to leadership posts. The Senate, however, must provide its advice and consent for appointments to these key positions. While most nominees are successfully confirmed, this success rate tends to mask wide variation in the length of time it takes the Senate to make a decision. Delay of critical nominees can influence the character of an agency while hampering the policy ambitions of a president. In this way the power to delay can be as important as the power to reject a nominee. Building …

Everybody’S Talkin’ At Me: Analyzing The Effect Of Multi-Source Television News Content On Civic Learning, David Lassen, Dr. Christopher Karpowitz

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Consumers of media during the past ten years have seen a dramatic shift in the way information is presented to the American public. With technical innovations associated with the Internet and the cultural adaptations that have accompanied them, modern American media has become increasingly interactive. Responding to these changes, many television networks such as CNN and MSNBC have begun to alter the visual format of their content to more closely resemble online sources of information. It is not uncommon, for example, for a modern news broadcast to include information on multiple stories simultaneously, including some information that may even be …

Ethnicity And Public Goods Provision In An Indian City, Michael Davidson, Dr. Joel Selway

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The provision of public goods is, on average, significantly poorer in ethnically-diverse communities (Banerjee et al. 2005). Three potential mechanisms have been put forward to explain this phenomenon: preferences, technology and strategy selection (Habyarimana et al. 2007). While the landmark experiment on this topic concluded that strategy selection best explained poor public goods provision, we posit that the role of preferences is significant (ibid.). The lab experiments we conducted tested for differences in preference between ethnic groups in the Southeast Indian city of Chennai.

The Security Of Women’S Property Rights: A Cross-National Survey, Aimee Farnsworth, Dr. Valerie Hudson

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The main goal of this research was to complete a cross-national survey of women’s property rights in law and in practice. Surprisingly, such a global survey has never before been undertaken. This is a large gap in the existing knowledge base. My goal in this research was to be able to point out similarities, differences and anomalies throughout diverse regions and identify areas for future reform. Specifically, I wished to address the range of legal systems and cultural practices regarding women and property throughout the international system. Are there regional variations? What anomalies are present in the data? In which …

“We Don’T Need No Education” Aid: The Effects Of Education-Specific Foreign Aid On School Enrollment In Low-Income Countries, Dustin Homer, Dr. Daniel Nielson

Journal of Undergraduate Research

We use AidData to assess the effectiveness of education aid. Focusing on the subset of the world’s poorest nations, we empirically evaluate the effects of educational foreign aid on primary school enrollment rates over the period 1975-2005. While past literature suggests that aid has had positive effects on education, this new and more comprehensive database allows a broader evaluation of aid’s impact in poor countries. Our findings – subjected to a variety of robustness tests – indicate that education aid dollars have, at best, mixed effects and, at worst, no significant impact, on school enrollments in less-developed nations.

Decision-Making Process Of Elected Officials, Bradley Masters

Journal of Undergraduate Research

John Kingdon, in his famous book, Congressman’s Voting Decisions, said, “Because congressmen rely most heavily on colleagues within the house and on constituents for guidance as they vote, other actors in the system such as lobbyists and administration policy makers tend to work through these two gatekeeper sources” (Kingdon 1989, My work with this ORCA grant has helped to shed light on an important distinction that is not explored by Kingdon: some congressman will rely more heavily on colleagues within the house and some will rely more heavily on constituents.

Evaluating The Relationship Between Middle Eastern Governments And Political Opposition Groups, Estee Ward, Dr. Donna Lee Bowen

Journal of Undergraduate Research

There is a growing consensus among scholars that “social science research on the Middle East has, as of yet, scarcely dealt with political opposition as an independent subject of analysis.” Most scholars consider the role of opposition as one way to facilitate the growth of democracy in developing states. They find a good starting point with the concept of alternance, which is defined as the expectation that in a democracy government and opposition compete to gain public support to form a government. In liberal democracies, alternance allows various parties the opportunity to become the higher authority through free and fair …

Economy, Democracy And Its Reflection On Presidential Rhetoric, Damian Rosas, Dr. Darren Hawkins

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Political rhetoric in Latin America has reflected the trends that different countries in the region have experienced during their democratic history. There are several factors that may influence the contents and attitudes towards democracy of presidential speeches. The most influential factor is likely to be the economic situation of the country. In an effort to integrate the economic and political knowledge that I acquired as an International Relations major I developed my research project in an interaction of these two disciplines.

Security In South Africa: The Perceptions Of Women, B. Macrae Mcdermott, Dr. Valerie Hudson

Journal of Undergraduate Research

I recently completed the data collection portion of the research project entitled “Security in South Africa: The Perceptions of Women.” With the aid of my faculty mentor, I developed a mixed method, ethnographic field study in order to gain a greater understanding of women’s perceptions of safety and security in South Africa. From May through November 2010, I lived in East London, Eastern Cape, South Africa in order to conduct this study.

The Effect Of Sex And Race On Letter Responses From The U.S. Congress And State Legislatures, Josephine Borich, Dr. Chris Karpowitz

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Because of changing demographics in the United States, the way legislators respond to minority constituents and to women is becoming more important. My ORCA grant focused on the relationship between constituents who ask immigration related questions to federal and state legislators through letters.

Does Donor Transparency Matter In Foreign Aid?, Zarchary Christensen, Dr. Daniel Nielson

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Development scholars are currently debating whether or not the trillions of dollars given as foreign aid to developing countries have done any good. Some donors have heeded the contested advice from some scholars to reduce the amounts of aid they give to poorly governed countries. Now, many development advocates have begun challenging the quality of governance in donor agencies themselves. One of the biggest complaints is that donors are not transparent enough about their activities. My research seeks to measure the effects of donor transparency on recipient countries.

The Absent God: Do Implicit Biases Influence Current Prayer Research?, Chase O'Gwin, Dr. Brent Slife

Journal of Undergraduate Research

In a recent article Dr. Slife and Reber (2009) make an argument that there is a pervasive bias against theism in psychological research. They state that in the effort to remain neutral towards religious thinking, including Christian theism, the science of psychology has become implicitly biased. This bias is masked by an attempt at neutrality; psychologists assume that God is not required in science, but if a theist wishes to insert a God, nothing is changed. The implicit bias against theism is made manifest because for the theist God is required in all things, and when science informs the theist …

A Dissatisfied Partner: A Conflict - Integration Analysis Of Britain's Membership In The European Union, Osman Goktug Tanrikulu

Dissertations and Theses

Since 2009, the European Union has faced the worst economic crisis of its history. Due to the devastating impact of the Eurozone crisis on their economies, European countries realized the need to deepen the integration. Without a fiscal union, the Monetary Union would always be prone to economic crises. However, the efforts to reinforce the Union’s economy have been hampered by the UK due to its obsession with national sovereignty and lack of European ideals. In opposing further integration, the UK officials have started to speak out about the probability of leaving the EU.

The purpose of this paper is …

Invisible Women: Examining The Political, Economic, Cultural, And Social Factors That Lead To Human Trafficking And Sex Slavery Of Young Girls And Women, Robyn L. White

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

This thesis employs the most recent and best available data on human trafficking, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime’s Trafficking in Persons Global Report 2006, as well as nine independent variables to determine what their effects are on countries’ volumes of human trafficking outflows. By completing a cross-sectional analysis via an OLS regression, I found statistically significant support for three factors that I hypothesize lead to greater outflows of human trafficking. My findings suggest that countries that are less corrupt, have more seats in parliament held by women, and score higher on Cho, Dreher, and Neumayer’s Anti-Trafficking Policy …

The American Ideal Of Representative Democracy: The Roles Of National Identity And Perceived Consensus And Homogeneity Among The American People, Frank John Gonzalez

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

A “true” American takes pride in the democratic processes that grant power to the people, right? Some literature has shown that “power to the people” is actually quite far from being uniformly endorsed by the American people, largely because of the inherent conflict and disagreement that comes with it (e.g., Hibbing & Theiss-Morse, 2002). So are people more positive toward democratic processes when they perceive consensus among citizens? I utilize survey data from a representative sample of the United States in order to show that perceptions of consensus are positively related to support for the political power of the American …

Reading The Tea Leaves: An Exploration Of The Origins, Composition, And Influence Of The Tea Party, Bryce Don Summary

Dissertations

The Tea Party has become a powerful force in American politics. Emerging in early 2009, the Tea Party has elicited mass support among the public with important implications for public policy and electoral politics. However, there remains significant debate over the political characteristics and motivations of Tea Party supporters. The emergence of the Tea Party has also led to speculation that supporters will form a third party. Using survey data collected in 2010 and 2011, this dissertation examines the relationship between Tea Party and third party supporters. Evidence is found that although Tea Party and third party supporters disapprove of …