Political Theory Commons^™

Social Pathologies As Educational Injustices, Esther Neuhann

Emancipations: A Journal of Critical Social Analysis

For Axel Honneth, not all social problems can be understood as injustices. Therefore, he introduces the additional diagnostic concept of social pathology. In his book Freedom’s Right (FR), it is defined as an accumulation of persons’ inability to adequately participate in social institutions due to misunderstanding them. In contrast, injustices consist in the denial of access to social institutions for certain groups. According to the aim of presenting an ‘extended’ theory of justice in FR, Honneth intends to reconstruct all institutions necessary for realizing individual freedom in a liberal-democratic society. Like in the historical model of his project (Hegel’s Elements …

Predicting Our Own Demise: How Media Has Played Nostradamus To The Future Of Artificial Intelligence, Connor Denny-Lybbert

Honors Theses

In this paper, I argue that we should be hesitant and skeptical of the applications of AI technology in government due to the possibility of, and ongoing abuses of this technology by political actors. I do this by first analyzing various pieces of sci-fi media in three parts: how this media approaches crime and punishment, personhood, and human happiness. Then, I explain how these themes intersect with the above framework and how we can use the themes to guide future policy. This is followed by an analysis of what these pieces of media tell us regarding artificial intelligence and how …

Climate Change Skepticism: Who And Why?, Mia Huyen Truong

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Despite persistent scientific consensus urging immediate action, political polarization, and skepticism have hindered effective climate change mitigation, especially in the United States. This paper explores the factors influencing climate change attitudes among different groups, focusing on right-wing affiliates and Christian believers. Drawing on the Anti-Reflexivity Thesis (McCright and Dunlap, 2001-2010) and Information Processing Theory (Wood & Vedlitz, 2007), we investigate the effects of individual characteristics, including partisan ideology, party identification, educational attainment, and Christian faith. Using Wave 7 (2021) of the Chapman Survey of American Fears Survey, a nationwide sample of different fears among U.S. adults, this study aims to …

Political Theory, Activism, And Visual Media: The Ideology Of Protest Symbols, Jilly E. Crane-Mauzy Mx.

Whittier Scholars Program

Art changes culture while policy codifies it. Radical revolutionary movements are often accompanied by equally radical shifts in art and design. I cataloged, compared, and contrasted the semiotic power of three specific symbols and their most significant historical moments in the United States. Through the examination of; Stonewall, The Equality March March Against Death, The Day The World Said No To War, The 1968 Summer Olympics, and The 2020 Black Lives Matter, the shifting of each ideologies symbol from inflammation in the media to recognition showcases the clarifying function along with creating unity and pride in community that is integral …

The Eagle’S Eye On The Rising Dragon: Why The United States Has Shifted Its View Of China, Jackson Craig Scott

Baker Scholar Projects

Since 1978, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has long been viewed as an economic trading partner of the United States of America (US). The PRC has grown to be an economic powerhouse, and the US directly helped with that process and still benefits from it. However, during the mid-2010’s, US rhetoric began to turn sour against the PRC. The American government rhetoric toward the PRC, beginning with the Obama administration, switched. As Trump’s administration came along, they bolstered this rhetoric from non-friendly to more or less hostile. Then, Biden’s administration strengthened Trump’s rhetoric. Over the past ten years or …

An Emergentist Critique Of The Contract Theory Of The State Of Nature, With A Consideration On Two Types Of Polity And Their Origins., Ryan A. Apperson

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Honors Theses

The theories of the state of nature provided by the political philosophers Thomas Hobbes and John Locke have made a significant impact in the general conceptions of the origin of states. Though there are many critical differences in the conceptions of the state of nature between each in their seminal works, they both possess of a view of states that is rational and constructivist.

In this paper, I use the game theory concepts of the coordination game, collective action problem, and focal point to illustrate a lacuna in this rational and constructivist conception of the origin of states, as their …

A Lost Reference Point: How Placing Our Identities In The State Has Facilitated Social Polarization Among Americans, Dylan Evans

Honors Theses

We are living in a moment of societal breakdown, as America is increasingly plagued with fractious polarization along political and cultural lines. The potential causes of this are complex and exist within a broad spectrum of possibilities, with the potential solutions being even more contentious. However, it is my contention that identity is the central issue here. As people begin to place their identities in a religious devotion to the liberal state as opposed to a transcendent ideal, once simple, agreed-upon premises become harsh divides, and polarization ensues. To fully evaluate how this has happened, and thus how it may …

Political Religion: An Intellectual History Of Eric Voegelin And Defense Of His Thesis On Political Religion And Nazism, Stephen Gaines

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is an intellectual history of Eric Voegelin and the concept of “political religion”. Eric Voegelin was a German-Austrian political scientist whose work surrounding the field of political science has made him one of the most influential thinkers of the 20^th century. Voegelin saw the rise of Nazi Germany in 1932 and fled Austria during Anschluss in 1938 to escape Nazi persecution, coming to the United States. During this time, Voegelin published, The Political Religions (Die Politischen Religionen) in which he describes National Socialism as a “political religion”. This thesis will delve into the conceptualization of …

France's Compliance Of The International Convention On The Elimination Of All Forms Of Racial Discrimination: French Universalism Versus Group Rights, Alex Earls

Undergraduate Honors Theses

There exists a constant battle between universalism and anti-racism in France, where universalism is positioned as the predominant force of western values and anti-racism as a dog-whistle for ‘wokeness’. This thesis will position that France is predisposed to incomplete compliance with the International Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) in part due to its rooted concept of French universalism and the nationalistic undertones therein that do not tolerate intermediate identifications between the individual and the Republic. The purpose of this argument is to generate an interpretive tool to observe and analyze France’s relatively weak civil …

Policy Design And The Lived Experience Of The Poor: A Test Of Policy Feedback Effects And Efficacy, Ava Gural

Honors Theses

As American political actors have framed poverty as a choice made by the unambitious, it has become clear that our society has a pervasive misunderstanding of poverty. Policy Feedback Theorists assert that the design of our welfare policies contributes to this fallacy, raising the question of whether there is a relationship between policy design and the way citizens act and feel. This thesis uses quantitative data from the American Citizen Participation Study and qualitative data from two original interviews to test the existence of “policy feedback effects” on program participants’ feelings of efficacy. Quantitative evidence suggests limited evidence of policy …

"There Is No Emperor": Merlin And The Ideal State In That Hideous Strength, L. S.B. Maccoull

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

C. S. Lewis’ Merlin has been brought forward from the sixth century. In the world he knew, though there was no longer a Roman Emperor in the West, there certainly was an Emperor reigning in Constantinople who could be called upon for aid. A closer look at Lewis’ depiction of Byzantium reveals what role the positive qualities he attributed to the city played in the development of his own views regarding the nature of the realm (or world) we should strive to realize here on earth.

Contradiction And Juche, Philosophical Deviations From Traditional Dialectical Materialism By Kim Il Sung And Mao Zedong Necessitated By Socio-Political Conditions, Thomas Bidewell

Global Tides

This work will attempt to attribute the deviations from the traditional Marxist dialectic in the cases of Mao Zedong and Kim Il Sung to their necessitated governing philosophies, and thus their geopolitical conditions. In the case of Mao, this governing philosophy is ‘State-Building Socialism’, a hyper-materialist reappropriation of Marxist materialism crafted to raze internal cultural and economic hierarchy through isolating Contradictions, a rebranding of dialectics. In the case of Kim, a framework of ‘Ethnic Anti-Colonialism’ is adopted through the creation of Juche, an anti-materialist philosophy with references to Hegelianism to wrestle back the agency of ethnic Koreans against Imperialism.

Influencing Factors And Mechanism Of China’S Technology Supply Security, Jiasu Lei, Jie Jiao

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

At present, the economy in China is changing from high speed growth in the past few years to high quality development, which raises higher requirements for the security of technical supply. This study defines the concept and connotation of technology supply security, and analyzes the influencing factors of technology supply security as well as the formation mechanism of technology supply “insecurity”. In order to improve the security of technology supply, we must adhere to the basic idea of high level science and technology self-reliance, improve the system of relay research institutions and its cohesive mechanism, and clarify the ideas and …

Research On Risk Identification Framework Of Future Technology—Based On Perspective Of Techno-Economic Security, Jie Chen, Zhongqi Wu, Tao Dai

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

Under the background of a new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation, the future technology represented by disruptive technology and emerging technology has become the focus of attention and game among countries. The future technology is not only related to taking the lead in future development, enhancing national strength and competitiveness, but also related to whether the economy and national security can be maintained. Based on the perspective of techno-economic security, this study analyzes the connotation and characteristics of future technology, puts forward the ‘three stages and three levels’ economic security influential mechanism of future technology, and …

Disciplinary System, Academic System And Discourse System Of Technological Sciences, Zhongkai Yang, Deming Lin, Yongxia Liang

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

In 1957, Tsien Hsue-shen published an article entitled “On the Technological Sciences” in Chinese Science Bulletin, which laid the foundation for the research of technological sciences in China. However, in the following 60 years, the thought of technological sciences failed to receive stable attention and support. It was not until 2021 when General Secretary Xi Jinping made another important statement at the 20th Academician Conference of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the 15th Academician Conference of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, and the 10th National Congress of the China Association for Science and Technology that technological sciences had entered into …

Techno-Economic Security: Key Issues, Evolution Mechanism And Evaluation Framework, Yanlin Cheng, Tao Dai, Yuye Ding, Danyang Zhao

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

In the context of the new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation, the related issues of techno-economic security have become the focus of major countries and regions. From the perspective of discipline construction, basic theory has been studied on key questions such as why, what, and how to evaluate. This study analyzes the importance and urgency, puts forward key issues of techno-economic security that should be paid attention to at different levels, such as technology, enterprise, industry, and country or region. A mechanism framework of the occurrence and evolution of techno-economic security is constructed, which is composed …

Understand Interactive Relationship Between S&T Security And Economic Security, Establish S&T Security Monitoring And Early Warning System, Qiuyi Guo, Guangrong You

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

The overall concept of national security is an open strategic thought system, which is constantly developing with the practice of national security. Science and technology (S&T) security and economic security are both important areas of national security. They are important components of national security to support and safeguard overall national security. This study analyzes the interactive relationship between S&T security and economic security, and puts forward some suggestions to accelerate the development of S&T security monitoring and early warning system in view of the risks and challenges to ensure S&T security in the process of realizing high-quality development.

Risks And Insights From Technological Friction Of The United States And China For Companies In China, Hongwei Wang, Duosi Chen, Huihui Zhang, Yuxuan Bai

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

In recent years, the United States has seriously hindered the development of science and technology in China by implementing a series of measures such as export controls, economic sanctions, and cooperation restrictions, and United States-China technological frictions have brought a series of major problems related to technological and economic security to Chinese industries and enterprises. Based on the existing research, the study analyzes the current situation of China’s science and technology security, the impact of technological friction on enterprises of China and the United States as well as enterprises of other countries, and puts forward policy recommendations in terms of …

Breakthrough Mechanism Of “Stuck Neck” Technology: “Situation-Strategy” Asymmetric Matching Perspective, Rongjian Yu, Yaping Wang, Yizhi Zhao, Wei Bai

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

Under the dual background of the impact of the epidemic and anti-globalization, the technical problem of “stuck neck” is a major practical problem that China urgently needs to solve. Existing researches lack a structured theoretical framework to solve the technical problem of “stuck neck”, and overlooked the analysis of the situation-dependent mechanism of “stuck neck” technologies. This study evaluates the technical situation from the two dimensions of the technical capability base and the dynamic of the technical paradigm, constructs a “stuck neck” technology cracking strategy matrix from the technical category and technology track, integrates the two categories of the technical …

The Violence Of Nostalgia: Conspiracy Theorism, White Nationalism, And Restoring American Exceptionalism, Candice K. Travis

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation serves three interconnected ends: (1) highlight the connections between nationalism, nostalgia, mythology, and conspiracy, (2) research and articulate the deeper story behind the resurgence of conspiracy fueled white nationalism, and (3) analyze increasing popular support for racialized hatred across the United States as coalesced through the nostalgic desire to restore “our lost great America.” I adapt John Dewey’s pragmatism to interpret how publics take political action in response to evolving technologies and cultural shifts, and accordingly develop a typology of groups on the right wing of American politics. The Proud Boys are chauvinist white nationalists, Patriot Prayer are …