Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2006, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects:

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2008, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects:

Bachelor of Arts, Ashland University, 2020, History/Political Science

Arguments about what makes a republic last have existed since the Ancient Greeks. While moderns often deride presidential systems as being short-lived, the largest republic with the longest-lasting written constitution is still the United States. How the American Founders answered the question, and the debates they had amongst themselves, should be understood by anyone who wants to create a successful and long-lasting republican government. Meanwhile, a modern thinker without any political science credentials, George Lucas, created the world of Star Wars in part to display his own theories of government – including a long-lived republic which falls in the course of his films. Since Star Wars is one of the most expansive franchises in history, well-known to a large portion of the population, I contend that the Galactic Republic in Star Wars serves as an example of the same questions asked and answered by the American Founding. I argue that the proper structure of government as laid out by the American Founders is a key part of ensuring the longevity of republics, but must be joined by the people's dedication to making that form of government last.

Committee: John Moser Dr. (Advisor); Jason Stevens Dr. (Committee Member); Cara Rogers Dr. (Committee Member) Subjects: History; Philosophy; Political Science

Doctor of Philosophy, University of Akron, 2020, Integrated Bioscience

The Laurentian Great Lakes system holds approximately 20% of the world's available surface freshwater while being an immense economic engine for the region. Lake Erie, one of the five North American Great Lakes is classified as highly stressed and deteriorating. Flooding and erosion issues stemming from record-high water levels, as well as excessive nutrients causing harmful algal blooms which compounds the problems. This work investigates novel ways to approach, solve, and manage some of Lake Erie's most pressing problems. First, a historical political ecology approach was used to trace the history of land use practices that transformed the Great Black Swamp into the industrialized agricultural system that the Maumee River Watershed (MRW) is today. The analysis chronicles transformations in structure and function of the MRW implicating diverse drivers such as agricultural practices, legacy nutrient reservoirs, altered landscape hydrology, and energy policy while making policy recommendations at various scales. Second, a low-cost, open-source DIY spectrophotometer was developed in order to obtain crowd-sourced data to understand nutrient loading trends throughout the watershed, particularly the MRW. Tests of this device indicate that the typically expensive hardware is not the limitation. Rather, reagent performance is the leading cause of uncertainty. Third, a social-ecological risk and vulnerability model to flooding and erosion was created for the Ohio Lake Erie shoreline by adapting established maritime coastal indices to the limnological system. The result is both a foundation for Ohio's Department of Natural Resources, Office of Coastal Management to identify scientifically-informed, place-based priority management areas for erosion and flooding, as well as a methodological roadmap to adapt the Coastal and Place Vulnerability Indices to the other Great Lakes' states and provincial shorelines.

Committee: Peter Niewiarowski (Advisor); Hunter King (Committee Member); John Huss (Committee Member); Robin Kundis Craig (Committee Member); Lance Gunderson (Committee Member) Subjects: Biochemistry; Biology; Ecology; Environmental Management; Environmental Science; Geographic Information Science; Public Policy; Sustainability; Water Resource Management

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2013, Political Science

Theories and models of political behavior, while sometimes predicated on methodological individualism, routinely fail to consider the possibility and potential impacts of human free will—or the implications if humans lack free will. I argue that all models of social behavior, whether individualistic or holistic, must take at least an implicit position on whether individuals can make free (i.e., autonomous) cognitive and behavioral choices. However, social scientists' everyday agnosticism on the question of free will threatens theoretical falsehood and practical irrelevance. I discuss the consequences for political science—focusing on international relations—of the existence or absence of free will. I use metapreferences as a modeling technique to help us conceptualize how free will and causation interrelate, and from this develop the argument that free will elevates the importance that natural science and technology play in creating preferred social outcomes. I close by applying the preceding arguments to the study of war.

Committee: Randall Schweller (Advisor); Alexander Wendt (Committee Member) Subjects: International Relations; Philosophy; Philosophy of Science; Political Science

Bachelor of Arts, Ashland University, 2011, History/Political Science

This study is an exploratory analysis of the belief in free will within the social sciences. While free will is a common topic in many fields, currently, very little research has investigated this topic. As such, this study was based on the assumption that no statistical difference would be found between the social sciences on belief in free will. To investigate this hypothesis, a historical case study was used to analyze belief in free will among professionals in the social science fields. Three general problems were addressed. First, this study examined the consistency of the belief in free will or determinism across the major divisions of the soft sciences. Second, this investigation highlighted the differences found within anthropology and political science. Lastly, consistency and inconsistency in the belief of free will and determinism within the social sciences was discussed. Significance was found in political science and anthropology. Two potential implications are addressed for these findings. Firstly, anthropology and political science may not accurately be classified as social sciences. Secondly, a mobius model was introduced to explain the natural flow of quantitative and qualitative methods that define the social sciences. These results provide an understanding of the social sciences beliefs concerning free-will. As no research has investigated belief in this way before, this research provides a basis for further research. Further research should be pursued addressing the role of religion, time, sub-fields, and work in multiple fields. The proposed mobius-model should also be further analyzed.

Committee: Oscar McKnight PhD (Committee Chair); Brent Mattingly PhD (Committee Member); Justin Lyons PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Philosophy

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 1962, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects:

PHD, Kent State University, 2024, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Political Science

The gender gap in American politics, where women increasingly identify as Democrats and vote more than men, has been researched for the last several decades. While a variety of reasons have been put forth, this dissertation suggests a new and additional understanding for why the gender gap persists by examining the way fear and anger mediate the relationship between gender and party affect and voter turnout. Using the ANES 1980-2016 Time Series Dataset and ANES 2020 Dataset, this dissertation finds gender has an indirect effect on party affect and voting behavior through fear and anger, and this effect is a new and growing phenomenon over the last ten years. First appearing in 2012, men and women have different levels of fear and anger, which in turn impact how they feel about the Democratic and Republican parties, as well as voter turnout. Additionally, there is a consistent pattern about the direction of the indirect effect of gender. When afraid or angry, women like the Democratic Party more and the Republican Party less. Furthermore, women are more likely to turnout to vote when fear and anger are directed towards Republican Presidential candidates and less likely to vote if they are fearful and angry at the Democratic Presidential candidates. This article provides new insight to how fear and anger are impacting political attitudes and behaviors in increasingly gendered ways.

Committee: Ryan Claassen (Committee Chair) Subjects: Political Science; Womens Studies

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 1975, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects:

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 1962, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects:

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 1969, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects:

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 1969, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects:

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 1970, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects:

Bachelor of Arts (BA), Ohio University, 2024, Sociology

This thesis searches to find what the most influential factors on the development of political morals and motivations are for Generation Z students at Ohio University. In 2024, there are over forty states that have legislation in the process of becoming law, or already signed into law, that aim to restrict Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiatives or limit academic freedoms in some way. America is sorely lacking the research and literature on what is shaping the political mindsets of today's youths; literature that is essential in protecting academic freedom. This research study utilizes a survey and quantitative analysis to discover if students at Ohio University believe that going to college is making this generation more liberal or if outside factors such as climate change and social media are more influential than traditional education. The findings of this study indicate that study participants do not believe that traditional education is the most influential factor in the development of their political ideology. They instead look to current events, social media, and friends to shape their ideals. Further, this study proves that students at Ohio University value diversity in thought and the opportunity to have complex meaningful discussions within the classroom and therefore they are not supportive of academically limiting legislation such as Ohio's Senate Bill 83.

Committee: Dr. Paula Miller (Advisor) Subjects: Political Science; Sociology

Bachelor of Arts, Ohio University, 2024, Political Science

This thesis critically examines the fate of administrative governance, focusing on the Supreme Court's jurisprudence on legislative delegation to the executive branch. The strengthening Major Questions Doctrine (MQD) inspires this examination, a recent legal principle that negates delegations of economically or politically significant regulatory power when Congress does not speak clearly enough to satisfy the Court. The MQD exemplifies the tension between rigid adherence to the separation of powers and the practical governance demands of an ever-changing society.

Committee: Lysa Burnier (Committee Chair); Kathleen Sullivan (Advisor) Subjects: Law; Political Science

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2023, Arts and Sciences: Political Science

Recent cases of hybrid warfare and other forms of ambiguous conflict present a challenge to crisis bargaining models, which describe crisis escalation as a three-part signaling process. First, states engaged in a policy dispute will make public demands about the disputed issue. Second, states follow with coercive threats if the demand is not met. Finally, states demonstrate resolve through increasingly hostile public behaviors that move the crisis closer to war. Thus, signaling is the primary strategic mechanism in crisis bargaining models. However, this traditional view of crisis escalation conflicts with some cases of international crisis. This presents a theoretical challenge to conventional bargaining and traditional views of escalation. To resolve this discrepancy, an alternative escalation model is presented below that attempts to resolve this theoretical and empirical discrepancy and explain cases of “hybrid warfare” without violating the foundational tenets of bargaining theory. The theory posits that states do not always utilize signaling as the primary strategic mechanism during an international crisis. Instead, they may utilize other strategic mechanisms to advance their interests. The model presented here, labeled “hybrid escalation,” describes one approach states take to crisis escalation that utilizes ambiguity. While escalating with military means, the hybrid state generates ambiguity by distorting information about the crisis using informational means like propaganda, censorship, proxies, disinformation, and other forms of deception. This allows the hybrid state to lower the traditional costs of escalation by exploiting various cost-lowering mechanisms that limit the typical material and political costs of escalation. To test the efficacy of this theory, I examine two recent conflicts associated with hybrid warfare. I test the data against two crisis bargaining models, traditional and hybrid escalation. I hypothesize that trad (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Brendan Green Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Thomas Moore Ph.D. (Committee Member); Richard Harknett Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Political Science

Honors Theses, Ohio Dominican University, 2023, Honors Theses

American Catholics were once a voting block which favored the Democratic party. However, Catholics now vote nearly the same as the general population, a contradiction when compared to other Christian denominations in the United States. This essay works to explore the political, historical, and theological elements of this division which caused the Church to fracture in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Philosophically, the core political ideals of the Catholic Church and the modern United States stand in stark contrast with one another. Presently, the foundational political theory of the United States as formulated by John Locke has become warped into a sort of hyper-individualism. This hyper-individualism emphasizes a personalization of moral truths, and thus stands against the natural law theory of the Church developed from the works of St. Thomas Aquinas. This hyper-individualism would eventually seep into the American Catholic Church, and events throughout the twentieth century would work to further this permeation. Historical events such as the Americanism controversy, the Second Vatican Council, the election of John F. Kennedy, the widespread rejection of Humanae Vitae, and the political actions before and after Roe v. Wade, would work to further divide the Church. Finally, the essay concludes with an examination of various topics prevalent in American political discourse and determines how a Catholic could respond to those issues while remaining faithful to the teachings of the Church. This examination includes consideration of teachings from the Magisterium and determines the level of authority each teaching has by utilizing the concluding paragraphs of the Profession of Faith. The conclusions of this examination show that many politicians who claim to be Catholic take up positions contrary to the faith and risk placing themselves outside of full communion with the Catholic Church. Finally, this essay raises the question as to whether American Cathol (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Ronald Carstens PhD (Advisor); Matthew Ponesse PhD (Committee Member); Leo Madden S.T.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: American History; Political Science; Religious History; Theology

PHD, Kent State University, 2022, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Political Science

Who do we blame? A simple yet often complex question which requires an understanding of many aspects of the blame attribution process. Determining who is ultimately responsible for a crisis requires an individual to assess to what extent a particular actor is responsible, and this task is made more difficult because elected officials are motivated to avoid blame at all costs. Traditional understandings of blame attribution focus on the role of partisanship, individuals exonerate their fellow partisans, while holding out of party members responsible for a crisis. However, these decisions of blame are also influenced by other predispositions, and the political environment. This work develops a variable which captures an individual's desire for government involvement in the economy and society, referred to as economic predispositions. This work then uses 2012 ANES data to prove that economic predispositions matter in attributions of blame. Then, fields two survey experiments considering blame attribution for three cases, the 2008 housing market crisis, the opioid epidemic, and the spread of COVID-19. In each of these survey experiments, respondents received messages of blame that either an individual, an institution, or a government agency is responsible for the crisis. Using the economic predispositions scale, I find that the blame attribution process is not completely understood through the lens of partisanship. Finally, I examine the role of emotions in attributions of blame for the spread of COVID-19, through using an episodic and thematic frame. I find that emotions are not significant in attributions of blame for the spread of COVID-19, and economic predispositions are still significant in understanding attributions of blame.

Committee: Michael Ensley (Committee Chair); Eileen Braman (Committee Member); Daniel Hawes (Committee Member); Ryan Claassen (Committee Member) Subjects: Political Science

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2022, History

This dissertation examines the careers of African American members of Congress from the election of Oscar DePriest, the first African American elected in the 20th Century in 1928, through the early years of the Congressional Black Caucus in 1973. It examines the interactions with and contributions of Black members of Congress to the broader Civil Rights and Black Power movements during this period and their relationship with electoral politics. It shows how Black members both played fundamental roles in passing major pieces of Civil Rights legislation during this period and how without their work and input these laws would have been weaker. Simultaneously, it shows how the demands and realities of electoral politics constrained the scope of Black members' legislative efforts, but also how these members actively took steps to advance partisan political goals at the expense of activists because they believed that their work was the best and sometimes only legitimate form of Black activism. Building upon scholarship in both history and Political Science, it contributes to our understanding of the scope of Black political power in the United States prior to the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the impact it had. Simultaneously, it compliments the literature on the Civil Rights and Black Power eras that focus on grassroots movements as the main agents of change by showing how the connections between many Black activists and Black Congressmen helped passed landmark legislation like the Civil Rights Act of 1964, but also how Black members came to distance themselves from those activists as they failed to monopolize Black political action around themselves to the detriment of both their own political agenda and that of activists.

Committee: David Stebenne (Advisor); Bart Elmore (Committee Member); Hasan Jeffries (Committee Member) Subjects: African American Studies; African Americans; American History; History; Political Science

Bachelor of Arts (BA), Ohio University, 2022, Political Science

Through the use of testimonies and statements, scholars can have a better understanding of how perpetrators justify participation in political violence. Policymakers can then use their understanding of these motivations to create strategies for effective conflict prevention. My method of analysis in this thesis is discourse and frame analysis, using individual accounts and statements of people committing violence, including paramilitary actors, genocide participants, professional soldiers, and violent criminals. These are pulled from interviews with and writings by the perpetrators in question. In this research project, I have identified 6 frames used by paramilitary actors, 5 frames used by genocide and massacre participants, 7 frames used by professional soldiers, and 6 frames used by violent criminals. Many frames were common across my categories, but some were unique to the category. These frames direct us to policy implications and recommendations that have the potential to decrease the probability of violence.

Committee: Nukhet Sandal (Advisor) Subjects: Political Science