Browsing Political Science Theses and Dissertations by Issue Date

Berk, Gerald Chastain, William Chastain, William 2012-10-26T03:58:37Z 2012-10-26T03:58:37Z 2012 http://hdl.handle.net/1794/12371 The Iraq War was an era of crisis and change within the U.S. Army. The failure of the army to adapt to the war revealed the obsolescence of post Vietnam army culture. Innovation experiences in the war were directionless and a new intellectual framework was required to deal with warfare that the army had long disliked: counterinsurgency. Major organizational change was accomplished by a coalition of generals led by Generals David Petraeus, Jack Keane, and Ray Odierno. These officers established a new intellectual framework with FM 3-24, Counterinsurgency. They challenged institutional military orthodoxy in Washington by proposing a renewed commitment to victory. Finally, they demonstrated the efficacy of counterinsurgency theory through a military campaign that “proved” FM 3-24. This major, yet limited, change in service culture fractured the consensus of the post Vietnam narrative and initiated an ongoing reinterpretation of the army’s philosophy of war. en_US University of Oregon All Rights Reserved. Iraq War Military Culture Organizational Change The Iraq War and the Post Vietnam Narrative: Culture and Change in the U.S. Army, 2005-2007 Electronic Thesis or Dissertation

Baumgold, Deborah Andersen, Daniel Andersen, Daniel 2012-12-07T23:13:14Z 2012-12-07T23:13:14Z 2012 http://hdl.handle.net/1794/12536 This dissertation argues for a dialogic grounding for deliberative democracy. Building on Habermasian theories of communication and discourse, deliberative democrats think better (more just, fair, and rational) democratic politics is possible because communication itself (in whatever form it takes) provides the legitimate mechanism for the transformation of citizens' opinions and political will. However, this is a problematic foundation for unleashing the normative potential inherent in citizen engagement. There are good reasons to suspect that a politics based in rational communication cannot actually produce the kinds of changes deliberativists insist are possible. Practical limitations of scale and scope make deliberative democracy difficult to envision. And the Habermasian claim about the inherent rationality in communication is challenged by postmodern notions of language and by conceptions of the embodied processes of reasoning. However, there is another normative foundation hinted at within the deliberative literature. Some theorists gesture toward a theory of transformation rooted more directly in the experiences associated with interpersonal relations, rather than in the language that is exchanged within these interactions. Following this lead, I turn to the work of Martin Buber to outline a dialogic theory that can better explain the intuitive sense that when citizens meet and speak, they are (at least potentially) opened up to new understandings. This theory, based in Buber's "I-Thou relation" and conception of "genuine dialogue," offers an account of the phenomenon located in an interpersonal relation of a particular type in which partners in dialogue are opened up to one another. I argue that a politics rooted in this dialogic experience provides a better account of the transformative potential in citizen engagement. Building on this new orientation towards dialogue, I then demonstrate some practical institutional innovations that are well equipped to take advantage of a politics anchored in dialogue. Along these lines, the dissertation culminates in a discussion of the Restorative Listening Project in Portland, Oregon, where dialogic meeting was a central focus of the institution's efforts to deal with the problem of gentrification in the city's NE neighborhoods. en_US University of Oregon All Rights Reserved. Buber Deliberation Democracy Dialogue Habermas From Deliberation to Dialogue: The Role of the I-Thou in Democratic Experience Electronic Thesis or Dissertation

Myagkov, Mikhail Lukinova, Evgeniya 2013-07-11T20:12:16Z 2013-07-11T20:12:16Z 2013-07-11 http://hdl.handle.net/1794/12989 Standard models of decision making fail to explain the nature of the various important observed patterns of human behavior, e.g. "economic irrationality," demand for "sociality," risk tolerance and the preference of egalitarian outcomes. Moreover, the majority of models does not account for the change in the strategies of the human beings playing with other human beings as opposed to playing against a machine. This dissertation analyzes decision making and its peculiar characteristics in the social environment under conditions of risk and uncertainty. My main goal is to investigate why human beings behave differently in a social setting and how the social domain affects their decision-making process. I develop the theory of "sociality" and exploit experimental and brain-imaging methodologies to test and refine the competing theories of individual decision making in the context of the social setting. To explain my theory I propose an economic utility function for a risk facing decision-maker that accounts for existing theories of utility defined on the outcomes and simply adds another term to account for the decision-making process in the social environment. For the purposes of my dissertation I define "sociality" as the economic component of the utility function that accounts for social environment, a function of a process rather than of an outcome. I follow on the breakthrough work by evolutionary psychologists in emphasizing the importance of the substantive context of the social decisions. The model I propose allows one to think about situations in which individuals may care for more than their narrowly-defined material interest and their decision may be driven by "sociality" and other non-monetary considerations. The "sociality" component of the economic utility function demonstrates the fact that individuals do not only care about outcomes but also about the processes which lead to these outcomes. In my empirical chapters I put the theory to the test in a series of laboratory experiments carried out in the United States, New Zealand and Russia and a series of fMRI and computer experiments executed at the University of Oregon. en_US University of Oregon All Rights Reserved. Behavioral and Neurobehavioral Features of "Sociality" Electronic Thesis or Dissertation Ph.D. doctoral Department of Political Science University of Oregon

Baumgold, Deborah Stevenson, Kyle 2013-10-03T23:37:18Z 2013-10-03T23:37:18Z 2013-10-03 http://hdl.handle.net/1794/13326 Empirical studies in the sub-field of European state-building within political science have centered on material or institutional explanations for the development of the modern state. These cross-case analyses ignore key distinctions amongst cases, such as the importance of ideational factors in the modernizing process. This case study of the development of the British state looks at how changes in the conceptualization of the state and the nature of constitutionalism evolved over the course of the 17th century through the political writings of several influential theorists. This evolutionary process highlights distinctions in British constitutionalism between the personalist Union of the Crowns and the constitutionalist parliamentary Acts of Union. This study concludes with a discussion of the Scottish independence movement and the possible effects of the 2014 referendum on the British state. en_US University of Oregon All Rights Reserved. Britain constitutionalism James Stuart Locke Scotland From Medieval to Modern Union: The Development of the British State between the Union of the Crowns of 1603 and the Acts of Parliament in 1707 Electronic Thesis or Dissertation M.S. masters Department of Political Science University of Oregon

Berk, Gerald Durant, Timothy 2014-06-17T19:45:18Z 2014-06-17T19:45:18Z 2014-06-17 http://hdl.handle.net/1794/17930 This research examines the dynamics and workings of bridging social capital through a comparison of the Cleveland and Portland City Clubs. Bridging social capital differs from most common conceptions of social capital (often referred to as bonding social capital) in that the associational connections seek to cross an important boundary that has marked an association at a particular point in time. Each of these clubs excluded women until the 1970's; both have also sought to build a cohort of young professionals over the last decade. The goal of this research is to understand the processes behind integrating these two populations into their respective clubs to expose the development of bridging social capital. Scholars have increasingly noted that associations which can build viable bridges often experience transformative outcomes - including the broadening or re-visioning of an association's mission and its impact within the community. However, due to certain structuralist methodological and theoretical predispositions, most bridging research can often point to the existence of these outcomes but cannot explain how they transpired. How bridging relations operate and produce transformative outcomes is still poorly understood. This dissertation uses a historicist approach to address those shortcomings. It reveals that bridging relations are far more dynamic then previously presented. Bridging relations can often mitigate, and be mitigated by, politics. How they do this is crucial to their success and the outcomes they produce. I argue that acts of power articulation and capacity development are important elements in building successful bridges. Institutional variations, the creative agency of actors, and the histories of these clubs within their communities help form the playing field through which these elements unfold. To understand this complex nexus and how it produces transformative outcomes, scholars need to study bridging relations over time and within the context from which they emerge. en_US University of Oregon All Rights Reserved. Capital City Club Social Bridging Social Capital, the Power and Development of Transformative Processes: A Story of Two City Clubs Electronic Thesis or Dissertation Ph.D. doctoral Department of Political Science University of Oregon

Southwell, Priscilla Bhattacharya, Debasis 2014-06-17T19:41:44Z 2014-06-17T19:41:44Z 2014-06-17 http://hdl.handle.net/1794/17911 During the last four decades, precisely from the early 1970s, U.S. foreign policy has played a dominant role in the U.S. political landscape. The current political discourse is predominantly marked by divided government, polarized politics and gridlock. Such a contentious political environment has proved to be detrimental for efficient and effective policy-making in foreign policy. There are significant factors that profoundly complicate the process of decision making and congressional-presidential relations. Partisan and ideological differences under the conditions of divided government are dominant in the current political process and in turn affect the prospects of legislative-executive consensus and dissension. Other factors such as media salience, public opinion, and electoral imperatives also complicate the dynamics of legislative-executive relations. In an era in which heightened political brinkmanship has enveloped Washington politics, continuum of consensus and dissension between Congress and the president on strategic foreign policy issues has virtually become a norm. This dissertation examines the dynamics of legislative-executive relations in two high politics U.S. foreign policy issue areas of treaty process and war powers. It appears that in contemporary U.S. foreign policymaking the trajectory of a continuum of legislative-executive consensus and dissension is a new normal and potentially irreversible, as Congress and the president try ardently to preserve their respective constitutional prerogatives. Empirical investigation across these two issue areas demonstrates a new era of a resurgent Congress marked by its greater assertive role and acting as a consequential player in the foreign policy domain. The passage of the War Powers Resolution in 1973 by Congress, overriding a presidential veto, has profound implications in the modern political landscape. It was a pivotal moment that permanently transformed the future road map of congressional-presidential relations. Since then the U.S. political system has been relentlessly experiencing an institutional power struggle in the foreign policy domain. Findings suggest that when Congress determines to confront the president and exercise its constitutional responsibilities it becomes very difficult for the president to overcome such congressional resistance. Interbranch competition has virtually created a consistent trajectory of a continuum of legislative-executive consensus and dissension in the foreign policy decision-making process. en_US University of Oregon All Rights Reserved. Congress Consensus and Dissension Foreign Policy President Treaty Powers War Powers Legislative-Executive Relations and U.S. Foreign Policy: Continuum of Consensus and Dissension in Strategic Political Decision Process from 1970 to 2010 Electronic Thesis or Dissertation Ph.D. doctoral Department of Political Science University of Oregon

Cramer, Jane Baxter, Corbett 2014-09-29T17:46:11Z 2014-09-29 http://hdl.handle.net/1794/18367 Between 2001 and 2008 the U.S. launched approximately 50 lethal strikes using unmanned aerial vehicles, (UAVs) in Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia. In contrast, the Obama administration has launched over 417 strikes since taking office in 2009. Some analysts have stated that the increase is the inevitable result of President Obama's decision to eliminate extrajudicial detention. They argue that the Obama administration painted itself into a corner of "no-quarters" warfare wherein enemy combatants outside of a declared war zone are no longer eligible for capture. However, this view fails to recognize that the expansion of the U.S. targeted killing program was already gaining momentum prior to President Obama's inauguration. The rapid expansion of the U.S. targeted killing program after 2008 has been primarily contingent on three factors: The development and availability of UAVs, the Executive's evolving approach to terror suspects, and the context of each strike decision. en_US University of Oregon All Rights Reserved. Truth Within the Rubble: Understanding the Expansion of the U.S. Targeted Killing Program Electronic Thesis or Dissertation 2015-03-29 M.S. masters Department of Political Science University of Oregon

Lowndes, Joseph Plencner, Joshua 2015-01-14T15:59:46Z 2015-01-14T15:59:46Z 2015-01-14 http://hdl.handle.net/1794/18748 This project develops extant theories of political affect and relational identification and affinity formation by tracing how the visual images of an understudied archive--American superhero comic books--work to build multiple, alternative, fitful, inchoate, and sometimes radically creative spaces for visions of the political to take shape and develop over time. By analyzing and interpreting the generic superhero phenomenon of origin stories in comic books and by mapping the formal and narrative techniques used to construct origin stories, I show how received understandings of power, order, justice, violence, whiteness, masculinity, and heteronormativity often linger outside of language in an analytically untapped relational space between bodies--the space of political affect. Visual images of superheroes thus do more than take up space within political sign-systems; I argue them as material engines of affect, as engines of potential and usefully critical political identities and affinities. Superhero comic books, a cultural form often disregarded as childish or even ideologically dangerous, are thus recovered in this project as theoretically complex, offering speculative feminisms, anti-racism, and queer temporalities that link these popular objects of visual culture to ongoing traditions of utopianism and foundational revisionism within American political culture. en_US University of Oregon All Rights Reserved. Affect Theory American Political Culture Comics Studies Racialization Superheroes Visual Culture Four-Color Political Visions: Origin, Affect, and Assemblage in American Superhero Comic Books Electronic Thesis or Dissertation Ph.D. doctoral Department of Political Science University of Oregon