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Progress or Decline: International Political Economy and Basic Human Rights

Description: This dissertation is a cross-national, empirical study of human rights conditions in a dynamic international political economy. The scope of the examination covers 176 developed and developing countries from 1980 through 1993. Through evaluating the numerous theoretical aspects of human rights conceptualization, I draw upon Shue's framework and consider whether there are indeed "basic rights" and which rights should fit into this category. Further, I address the debate between those who claim t… more
Date: May 1999
Creator: Milner, Wesley T.
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Fractional Integration and Political Modeling

Description: This dissertation investigates the consequences of fractional dynamics for political modeling. Using Monte Carlo analyses, Chapters II and III investigate the threats to statistical inference posed by including fractionally integrated variables in bivariate and multivariate regressions. Fractional differencing is the most appropriate tool to guard against spurious regressions and other threats to inference. Using fractional differencing, multivariate models of British politics are developed in … more
Date: August 1999
Creator: Lebo, Matthew Jonathan
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Economic Development, Social Dislocation and Political Turmoil in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Pooled Time-Series Analysis and a Test of Causality

Description: This study focuses on economic development and political turmoil in post-independence Sub-Saharan Africa. There has been a resurgence of interest in the region following the end of the Cold War. In 1997 U.S. president Bill Clinton took a 12-day tour of the region. In 1999 the U.S. Congress (106th Congress) passed the Growth and Opportunity Act and the Hope for Africa Act, designed to encourage political stability and economic development in the region. Although most Sub-Saharan African countrie… more
Date: December 2000
Creator: Obi, Zion Ikechukwu
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Jacksonian Democracy and the Electoral College: Politics and Reform in the Method of Selecting Presidential Electors, 1824-1833

Description: The Electoral College and Jacksonian Democracy are two subjects that have been studied extensively. Taken together, however, little has been written on how the method of choosing presidential electors during the Age of Jackson changed. Although many historians have written on the development of political parties and the increase in voter participation during this time, none have focused on how politicians sought to use the method of selecting electors to further party development in the count… more
Date: May 2001
Creator: Thomason, Lisa
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Strategic Versus Sincere Behavior: The Impact of Issue Salience and Congress on the Supreme Court Docket

Description: The theory proposed here is that the Supreme Court behaves in a strategic manner at the agenda-setting stage in order to vote sincerely on the merits. To test this, I measure the impact issue salience and ideological distance between Congress and the Supreme Court has on the agenda. The results indicate that whether the Supreme Court behaves either sincerely or strategically depends on the policy area. The strategic nature of the Supreme Court at the agenda-setting phase may be in large part wh… more
Date: May 2002
Creator: Williams, Jeffrey David
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Changing Ideological Boots: Adaptive Legislator Behavior in Changing Districts

Description: Congressional roll-call votes are often used to investigate legislative voting behavior. To depict adaptive roll-call behavior in response to demographic changes that occur during redistricting, I use issue specific interest group scores from the ADA, NFU, and COPE. This exploits the bias in the selection of the issues that interest groups utilize to rate U.S. representatives, by using them to reflect changes in response to significant demographic fluctuations in the constituency population. T… more
Date: August 2002
Creator: Dunaway, Johanna
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Partisanship and Judicial Decision Making in U.S. Courts of Appeal

Description: Partisanship is found in voter and Congressional behavior. Members of the federal judiciary should behave similarly. I utilize cases involving the Republican and Democratic parties from 1966 to 1997 and examine the voting behavior of federal Courts of Appeal judges. I utilize both cross tabulations and a Logit regression model to determine the likelihood appellate judges will vote for their own party and against the opposition.
Date: December 2002
Creator: Meaders, Eddie Loyd
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

The Musical Fallout of Political Activism: Government Investigations of Musicians in the United States, 1930-1960

Description: Government investigations into the motion picture industry are well-documented, as is the widespread blacklisting that was concurrent. Not nearly so well documented are the many investigations of musicians and musical organizations which occurred during this same period. The degree to which various musicians and musical organizations were investigated varied considerably. Some warranted only passing mention, while others were rigorously questioned in formal Congressional hearings. Hanns Eisler … more
Date: August 1993
Creator: McCall, Sarah B.
Partner: UNT Libraries
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"They Have Gone From Sherman": The Courthouse Riot of 1930 and Its Impact on the Black Professional Class

Description: This study describes the development of the black business and professional community with emphasis on the period from 1920 to 1930, the riot itself, and the impact of the episode on the local black community. It utilizes traditional historical research methods, county records, contemporary newspapers, and oral history.
Date: December 1995
Creator: Kumler, Donna J.
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Resource Evaluation and Presidential Decision-making: Predicting the Use of Force by U.S. Presidents, 1976 - 1988

Description: In order to explain presidential decisions to use force, a model is developed that incorporates three distinct decision-making environments. The results indicate the president is responsive not only to domestic and international environments, but also to the resource evaluation environment. The evidence here demonstrates that while these two environments are important the president can't use force arbitrarily; rather, his evaluation of resources available for the use of force can limit his abil… more
Date: May 1997
Creator: Waterman, Peter A. (Peter Alan)
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Party-Military Relations in the PRC After Mao, 1976-1990

Description: The importance of party-military relations in the People's Republic of China was succinctly stated by Mao in his dictum that "political power comes from the gun" and "the Party should command the gun." Party-military relations in the PRC have never fully conformed to Mao's warning. This study seeks to analyze the nature and types of party-military relations in the PRC during the post-Mao period and the factors affecting change in these relations.
Date: December 1991
Creator: Hung, Lu-hsun Theodore
Partner: UNT Libraries
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A Role Modification Model: the Foreign Policy of the Palestine Liberation Organization, 1964-1981

Description: This study is a Comparative Foreign Policy (CFP) analysis of the Palestine Liberation Organization's (PLO) foreign policy behavior from 1964 through 1981. This study develops and tests a role modification model that accounts for evolutionary changes in foreign policy behavior. One of the major premises of this research is that what often appears as dramatic restructuring in foreign policy is actually the culmination of a series of modifications that transpired over an extended period of time. T… more
Date: December 1993
Creator: DiGeorgio-Lutz, JoAnn A. (JoAnn Angela)
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

US-Japan Relations during the Korean War

Description: During the Korean War, US-Japan relations changed dramatically from the occupation status into one of a security partnership in Asia. When North Korea invaded South Korea, Washington perceived Japan as the ultimate target. Washington immediately intervened in the Korean peninsula to protect the South on behalf of Japanese security. Japanese security was the most important objective of American policy regarding the Korean War, a reality to which historians have not given legitimate attention. Wh… more
Date: May 1995
Creator: Kim, Nam G. (Nam Gyun)
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Dealignment Decades on: Partisanship and Party Support in Great Britain, 1979-1996

Description: This dissertation surveys electoral change in Great Britain during the period between 1979 and 1996. It analyzes the long-term factors and the short-term dynamics underlying the evolution of three aspects of the electorate: party identification, voting intentions and party support in inter-election periods. Drawing on cross-sectional and panel data from the British Election Studies and public opinion polls, I investigate the impacts of long-term socialization and short-term perceptions on voter… more
Date: December 1996
Creator: Ho, Karl Ka-yiu
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

The Republic of China's Foreign Policy 1949-1988: Factors Affecting Change in Foreign Policy Behavior

Description: The Republic of China (ROC) has faced severe foreign policy challenges since its relocation from mainland China to Taiwan, and it has had to modify its position several times as its environment has changed. Its foreign policy since 1949 has gone through three distinct phases of development. A series of diplomatic adversities befell the ROC following its defeat in the United Nations in 1971, which presented the nation with an unprecedented challenge to its survival. These calamitous events for t… more
Date: May 1993
Creator: Wang, Chian, 1955-
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Socioeconomic Development and Military Policy Consequences of Third World Military and Civilian Regimes, 1965-1985

Description: This study attempts to address the performance of military and civilian regimes in promoting socioeconomic development and providing military policy resources in the Third World. Using pooled cross-sectional time series analysis, three models of socioeconomic and military policy performance are estimated for 66 countries in the Third World for the period 1965-1985. These models include the progressive, corporate self-interest, and conditional. The results indicate that socioeconomic and militar… more
Date: May 1992
Creator: Madani, Hamed
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Immigration Beliefs and Attitudes: A Test of the Group Conflict Model in the United States and Canada

Description: This study develops and tests a group conflict model as an explanation for international immigration beliefs in the United States and Canada. Group conflict is structured by evaluations concerning group relationships and group members. At a conceptual level group conflict explains a broad range of policy beliefs among a large number of actors in multiple settings. Group conflict embodies attitudes relating to objective-based conditions and subjective-based beliefs.
Date: August 1999
Creator: McIntyre, Chris, 1964-
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Democratization and the Information Revolution: A Global Analysis for the 1980s

Description: Comparative studies of democratization point to a multitude of explanatory factors, while often lacking empirical evidence and theoretical foundation. This study introduces the revolution in information technology as a significant contributor to democratization in the 1980s and beyond. Utilizing a cybernetic version of an evolutionary interpretation of democratization an amended model for 147 countries is tested by bivariate and multiple regression analysis. The focus of the analysis is on how … more
Date: August 1995
Creator: Esslinger, Thomas A. (Thomas Andreas)
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Beyond the Merchants of Death: the Senate Munitions Inquiry of the 1930s and its Role in Twentieth-Century American History

Description: The Senate Munitions Committee of 1934-1936, chaired by Gerald Nye of North Dakota, provided the first critical examination of America's modern military establishment. The committee approached its task guided by the optimism of the progressive Social Gospel and the idealism of earlier times, but in the middle of the munitions inquiry the nation turned to new values represented in Reinhold Niebuhr's realism and Franklin D. Roosevelt's Second New Deal. By 1936, the committee found its views out o… more
Date: May 1996
Creator: Coulter, Matthew Ware
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Out with the Old? Voting Behavior and Party System Change in Canada and the United States in the 1990's

Description: This study has attempted to explain the dramatic challenges to the existing party system that occurred in Canada and the United States in the early 1990s. The emergence of new political movements with substantial power at the ballot box has transformed both party systems. The rise of United We Stand America in the United States, and the Reform Party in Canada prompts scholars to ask what forces engender such movements. This study demonstrates that models of economic voting and key models of par… more
Date: December 1997
Creator: Rapkin, Jonathan D.
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

The Determinants of Federal Spending for the Administration of Justice

Description: This study develops and empirically tests a model of the determinants of federal spending for crime-fighting policies. An inter-disciplinary approach to building the model is utilized that merges ideas from budgeting, policy analysis and criminology. Four factors hypothesized to impact federal spending for the administration of justice are operationalized as eight variables and tested using ordinary least squares regression analysis on time series data. The factors hypothesized to impact federa… more
Date: December 1998
Creator: Gabriano, Gina
Partner: UNT Libraries
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