Political Theory Commons^™

Closing The Chasm: Al-Fārābī On Islam And Politics, Onur F. Muftugil

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Much Islamic history evinces a separation between religious and political registers of thought and action. To be sure, these two registers always remained, to some extent, mutually intertwined since the origins of Islam. However, in about two hundred years into Islamic history, or, in other words, in the 9th century, the political register based on coercion began to mark itself off from the moral concerns associated with the religious register. Political authority acquired an increasingly absolute character. It focused more on ensuring the obedience of its subjects than the moral/religious purpose of creating a just society where even the weakest …

Social Contract Theory And Transitional Justice: A Philosophical Approach To A Problem Of Global Importance, Brendan Moriarty

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In this thesis, I seek to bring together two areas of scholarly work to see how each can inform the other: social contract theory and transitional justice. The social contract, as it exists and as it was theorized about by Rousseau, was born from the world-historic forces that spread capitalism across the globe, stirring up nationalism everywhere it went. In its wake, there was vast inequality and new legal regimes which protected the hoarded wealth of the capitalist class by enshrining the right of private property along with life and liberty. To examine the intricacies of transitional justice and its …

In Search Of Trojan Horses: The United Nations Culture War, Patricia Ackerman

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation examines the expanding influence of the religious Right at the UN, building on extant scholarship on the role of the culture war at the UN. This scholarship has tracked the increasing presence of the religious Right following the Beijing World Conference on Women and the Cairo Conference of Population and Development. Since that time, there has been a systematic and strategic movement against LGBT human rights and sexual and reproductive health and rights. The religious Right influence UN discourse, documents, and global policy in favor of their agenda. This conflict manifests in a frenzied media and policy battle …

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 …

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, …

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 …

Sanctuary Cities And Their Respective Effect On Crime Rates, Adam R. Schutt

Undergraduate Economic Review

According to the U.S. Center for Immigration Studies (2017), cities or counties in twenty-four states declare themselves as a place of “sanctuary” for illegal immigrants. This study addresses the following question: Do sanctuary cities experience higher crime rates than those cities that are not? Using publicly available data, this regression analysis investigates the relationship between crime rates in selected cities and independent variables which the research literature or the media has linked to criminal activity. Results of this research reveal that sanctuary cities do not experience higher violent or property crime rates than those cities that are not sanctuary cities.

Early Voting Versus Election Day Voting: Identifying Individual Indicators Of Election Stage Participation In Louisiana Elections, 2015-2016, Anthony Licciardi Jr.

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

Does early voting advance the democratic process in achieving political equality? Does it create more equity in the representativeness of an electorate? According to rational choice and economic theory, the expanded opportunity to vote should reduce an individual’s cost to vote, thus resulting in higher voter turnouts where traditionally marginalized voters will take advantage of early voting opportunities.

This research conducts an individual-level analysis of more than five-million voter cases over four consecutive Louisiana statewide elections of all individuals who voted in each of the elections from 2015 to 2016. These elections include the 2016 U.S. presidential election, a …

Troublemaker: An Exploration Of Praxis In Leftist Political Theory, Emerson Hamlin

University Honors Theses

This project seeks to make recommendations on praxis, or the actions that embody theory, to present and future leftist organizers. I will do so by completing a literature review: in this case, reading and analyzing works of some of the foundational thinkers in leftism, and by reading the works of the leftist thinkers of today. By doing this review, I seek to find my own, and other activists’ answers to Lenin's eternal question: What is to be done?

Theory Of Black Racial Forgiveness: The Expectation Of Black Sacrifice, Kayla Weston

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Forgiveness is traditionally seen as an inherently virtuous act, but contemporary anti-racist activists have pointed to repeated high-profile examples of Black people forgiving white people for unspeakably violent and racist actions to call into question our normative understanding of forgiveness’s meaning, and implications. For this reason, this project critically analyzes the political implications of interracial Black forgiveness, to understand how its significance goes beyond merely being an expression of grace, and instead helps to define, and re-substantiate current and future race relations. The goal of this thesis is to conceptualize the ways in which acts of Black racial forgiveness function …

Education As Commons, Children As Commoners: The Case Study Of The Little Tree Community, Yannis Pechtelidis, Alexandros Kioupkiolis

Democracy & Education

This paper presents the emergent paradigm of the "commons" as an alternative value and action system in the field of education, and it critically draws out the implications of the commons for refiguring education and its potential contribution to democratic transformation. The paper delves into an independent pedagogical community, Little Tree, which is active in early childhood education and care, aiming to explore the ways in which children conduct themselves in accordance with the ethics and the logics of the commons and to show how they thereby unsettle the conventional meaning of citizenship. Proceeding from an enlarged notion of the …

The Function Of The Hukou System In Post-Revolutionary China & Its Autonomous Regions, Joseph Kramer

Master's Theses

Over the course of more than two millennia the Hukou System has shifted in scope and purpose. In dynastic times it served as a mechanism of tax acquisition. In more recent years it has functioned as a method of census and land distribution. Today it holds a duplicitous function serving as both an economic and social control mechanism. The Hukou achieves this through controlling movement through a passport like system of internal registration. In simpler terms, think of the Hukou as an internal passport regulating movement while simultaneously holding all of your biometric data which is surveilled and controlled by …

Changing Tides: The Impact Of Chinese Investment In Gambia’S Fishing Industry, Abdallah Alami

Master's Theses

This thesis analyzes the presence and impact of Chinese fishing companies in the West African country of The Gambia. The presence of the Chinese companies have resulted in drastic changes in the country’s fisheries industry where they have a comparative advantage due to their geographic location. Through interviews conducted with Gambian officials in the Ministry of Fisheries and Water Resources, and members of the fishing community (both fishermen and merchants), I conclude that the Chinese presence is a trade-off between the Gambian government and the Chinese investors. It is positive because they are engaged in a beneficial partnership with the …

Hinduism As A Political Weapon: Gender Socialization And Disempowerment Of Women In India, Aindrila Haldar

Master's Theses

There is a growing use of religion as a political tool to control Hindu women in India, contributing to a rise in gender inequality. Immediate authoritative patriarchal domains such as household and politics, continuously speak of “protecting” Hindu women by disregarding their voices and needs. Consequently, potentially creating a loss of agency among women. This research will use inductive reasoning to understand the position of Hindu women in modern Indian society. Particularly, through the understanding of the involvement of religion in the political and household sphere. Hindu women are highly influenced by the expectations of what being an ”ideal” woman …

Agreeing To Disagree: Diversity, Political Contractualism, And The Open Society, John Thrasher

Philosophy Faculty Articles and Research

Political contractualism is important in societies characterized by substantial moral and political disagreement and diversity. The very disagreement that makes the social contract necessary, however, also makes agreement difficult. Call this the paradox of diversity, which is the result of a tension between two necessary conditions of political contractualism: existence and stability. The first involves showing the possibility of some agreement, while the second involves showing that the agreement can persist. To solve both of these problems, I develop a multilevel contract theory that I call the “open society” model of political contractualism that incorporates diversity into the contractual model …

Can Cities Be Feminist? A Cross-National Analysis Of Factors Affecting Local Female Representation In Latin America, Katie Davis

Honors Theses

Women are underrepresented in mayor’s offices and on city councils across Latin America. In this paper, I examine gender-based differences in individual opinions toward running for office in Argentina and Uruguay, as well as conduct a twenty-six country analysis on factors related to female representation in municipal government. Based on these analyses, I make three main conclusions about female local representation in Latin America. The first conclusion is that women in Latin America are significantly less likely to want to run or feel qualified to run for office. The second conclusion is that cross-national variation in the percentage of female …

Mao Zedong And The Cultural Revolution: In Theory And Impact, Marissa Bryan

Honors Theses

Across the globe, the 20^th century witnessed several instances of tyrannical regimes and leaders; Chairman Mao Zedong was argued by many to have been one of the most merciless tyrants that this era witnessed. A founder of the Chinese Communist Party, Mao Zedong was one of the most significant and controversial political actors in the last century. Chairman Mao became the leader of the People’s Republic of China after declaring its existence in 1949, marking the beginning of both a communist regime in the East Asian territory and Mao’s tyrannical reign. Zedong can be remembered for several of his …

Anti-Semitism As A Political Tool Of Tyrannical Government, Bailey Gordon, Kimberly Hale

Honors Theses

Anti-Semitism has been a form of hatred and racism among movements and governmental organizations since Babylonian times. It was institutionalized however in the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries as a form of political tool to garner support for tyrannical establishments. Although anti-Semitism has been around for centuries, it has been used more recently to rally people in a tribal-nationalistic spirit. As the populace becomes normalized to anti-Semitic beliefs, they eventually become more accepting of a tyrannical government whose policies are rooted in anti-Semitism. To appease the masses, this tyrannical government must then stay in motion. This constant …

Tyranny Plagued The French Revolution, Christy Leigh Salinari

Honors Theses

Liberty, equality, and fraternity were the three original pillars of the French Revolution at the start in 1789. The slogan became the rallying cry for the embittered French people in their initial pursuit for political and social transformation. The French Revolution is perhaps the most prominent contemporary illustration of a violent revolution which ultimately was successful, resulting in a model of democratic government. The French Revolution reached a decade in length wherein there were countless demonstrations, massacres, wars, civil unrest, and political enlightenment. The disorganized nature of the revolution cultivated a vast array of political beliefs, which ranged from radical …

The Role Of Ideology Through The Lens Of Primary Elections, Mark P. Walsh

The Review: A Journal of Undergraduate Student Research

This paper serves as an in-depth look at the role ideology plays in modern America, and uses the primary electoral system as a mechanism through which one can examine ideological shifts in politicians and the electorate. The evidence gathered indicates that primary elections are breeding grounds for increased ideological extremism as a result of the more radical nature of politically engaged voters, the only group who on average take part in these elections. As a result, only the most ideologically dogmatic candidates move on to the general election and thus potentially into office. The effects this has upon policy and …