Browsing Auburn University Graduate School by Department "Political Science"
Now showing items 1-20 of 107
Agenda Setting for the Vulnerable: Exploring State Legislators’ Sponsorship of Child Welfare Legislation
(2024-12-11)
This study seeks to understand what factors contribute to bill sponsorship by state legislators to address child welfare reform. Guided by Kingdon’s Multiple Streams Framework, this mixed-methods study employs quantitative ...
American Civil Religion Reexamined: A Preliminary Study into Organic and Contrived Civil Theology
(2007-05-15)
Civil religion forms both the basis and the underlying reality for any human
society, informing the myth structure of society and how a society interprets itself within the structure of reality. A distinction, however, ...
An Analysis of Economic Efficiency in Predicting Legislative Voting Beyond a Traditional Liberal-Conservative Spectrum
(2008-05-15)
Self-interest and ideology are important explanatory variables for human behavior and are the two primary determinants of legislative decision-making. Self-interest usually pertains to a maximization of financial resources ...
An Analysis of Municipal Financial Behavior Using the National League of Cities’ Typology
(2007-08-15)
Municipal finance research is an endeavor that requires the classification of cities for comparison purposes. Traditional methods of grouping cities have relied primarily on the form of government (mayor versus manager) ...
An Analysis of the Punctuated Equilibrium Model Applied to Congressional Approval of Passenger Facility Charges
(2006-05-15)
In 1972, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that airports could charge passengers using their facilities a Passenger Facility Charge (PFC), which was commonly called a “head tax.” The imposing of PFCs by airports ...
Applying Game Theory to Presidential Mistakes
(2007-12-15)
Game theory, based on the rational actor model (RAM), is a decision making theory that is useful for predicting economic decisions but is not reliable for predicting political decisions. Game theory might work better if ...
Assessing Networks as Engines of Social Change for Women in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region: A Focus on Women’s Entrepreneurship Efforts
(2021-07-27)
Efforts are being made in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region to increase the educational attainment of women and reduce gender inequalities. However, this has not translated into an increase in economic ...
The Backbone of Democracy: A Study Examining the Impact of Black Women in Politics
(2023-08-02)
This dissertation investigates how the inclusion of Black women in politics impacts democratic
norms in three unique ways: voter turnout, evaluations of government, and legislative policy
priorities. I hypothesize that ...
Beyond the Skin: How African American Women Senior Administrators Describe Their Experiences of Developing an Authentic Leadership Style
(2019-11-18)
Using a qualitative multiple case study approach, this dissertation study seeks to examine how African American women in senior administrator roles at a member institution of the Association of Public and Land-Grant ...
Budgeting in Times of Fiscal Stress: Explaining Strategies for Reducing Agency Expenditures
(2008-12-15)
This research compared budget coping strategies of state administrative heads in public state agencies focusing on the influences of executive administrator characteristics, and organizational characteristics. Budget theory ...
The Changing Status of Women in Taiwan: 1945-2010
(2012-05-04)
This dissertation analyzes the economic, social, and political status of women in Taiwan from 1945 to 2010. This research was guided by a theoretical model of how the status of women worldwide is influenced by the extent ...
Collective Leadership in the Public Sector: A Descriptive Study of Structure, Roles, and Functions in Twelve North Carolina Collaboratives
(2010-07-02)
This descriptive study examined collective leadership in twelve North Carolina interorganizational collaboratives. Inquiry into the twelve participant entities focused on organizational structure, leadership roles, and ...
A Comparative Analysis of Client Satisfaction with Food Assistance Programs: The Case of Nonprofit and Public Sector Organizations in Alabama and Georgia
(2011-11-17)
The epidemic of poverty, hunger, and food insecurity is at an all-time high in the United States and other parts of the world, spurring great interest in finding solutions to address and alleviate this economic disparity. ...
A Comparative Study of State Choices for Institutional Forms of State Pre-Kindergarten
(2021-11-22)
The issue of early care and education is squarely on the policy agenda at the federal, state, and local levels of government. Research and long-term evaluations of early childhood programs have shown that high quality early ...
A comparative study of variations in state water policy in response to recurring droughts
(2023-05-05)
The purpose of this study is to investigate how environmental culture, institutional structures, and water distribution have led to differences in water policy innovation, using Texas, California, and Alabama as case studies ...
Constitutional Reform in Alabama: Why Efforts for Change Continue to Fail
(2015-01-14)
Alabama has been governed by the same constitutional document for one hundred thirteen years. The document is outdated and it is also the longest constitution in the world. Two of the most unique components of the document ...
Creating a Social Value Added Benefit Through an Informal Collaborative Military Centered Nonprofit Network
(2015-05-11)
Over the next 50 years, an intergenerational transfer of wealth is expected to occur between elderly adults and aging baby boomers and their families, with an estimated $6 trillion projected to go directly to charitable ...
The Cybersecurity Preparedness of Local Election Offices: Influences, Challenges, and the Intergovernmental Perspective
(2020-07-16)
Recent events have heightened concerns over the cybersecurity of US elections. In the decentralized US election system, counties and municipalities have primary responsibility for election administration. Therefore, ...
Defining the Phenomenon: Trafficking in Persons, Advocate Organizations and Issue Framing
(2016-12-09)
The modern era of Trafficking in Persons (TIP)—beginning with the African Slave Trade (AST)—has seen an alarming increase in the number of victims of the phenomenon. Contemporary TIP (cTIP) is a result of the increased ...
Determinants of National Policy on Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research in Selected Countries: A Comparative Study
(2015-04-30)
Embryonic stem cells have remained a polarizing issue around the globe. The plethora of potential applications and technologies are unfamiliar to most of society. Politicians and policy analysts continually work to pass ...