Department of Political Science

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This digital collection includes theses and dissertations from the Department of Political Science.

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Open Access
A right to north: considering territory in the 21st century
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2022) Hildebrandt, Lorena, author; McIvor, David, advisor; Velasco, Marcela, committee member; Sagás, Ernesto, committee member
Humanity has a profound migratory past, incited and shaped substantially by climate change over time, spanning from the earliest humans to the current day. As greenhouse gas emissions rise to levels unprecedented for human history, climatic changes are certainly never more relevant to human movement and settlement. Yet even while greenhouse gas emissions and climatic changes move freely across global space, the movement of people in the 21st century is deeply restricted and, in some cases, prohibited by state territory. Territory's rights, and its associated technologies and practices, confine and restrict, even as the world warms. This project writes against state territory in its current political form utilized by democracies in the global North. It considers territory's history, definition and defenses, the paradox it creates for democratic consent, and its power and subjects. The final chapter of the project imagines resistance to territory and spaces of creolized alterity, articulating a right to both movement and North.
Open Access
Accountability and legitimacy in transboundary networked forest governance: a case study of the Roundtable on the Crown of the Continent
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2015) Jedd, Theresa, author; Betsill, Michele, advisor; Stevis, Dimitris, committee member; Mumme, Stephen, committee member; Cheng, Antony, committee member
Using a social constructivist ontology to examine key debates and areas of inquiry vis-à-vis the democratic nature of transboundary forest governance, this research examines the case of the Roundtable on the Crown of the Continent, an instance of networked governance. Part I builds up to an examination of the movement toward conceptualizing transboundary networked governance, exploring the claim that government has given way to governance, blurring the lines between public and private, and moving beyond its antecedent models--systems theory and complexity, corporatism, state-in-society, new public management and privatization, inter alia--to reflect a more complicated and inherently collaborative relationship between state, society, and market-based actors. The dissertation project, then, investigates several key questions. At a basic level, it asks, what does networked governance look like, and in the case of the Crown Roundtable, how might these arrangements be adaptive given the absence of an overarching forests treaty? Looking deeper into the implications of networked governance, the project then moves to an investigation of the ways that these processes become legitimate modes of governing and how they allow actors to hold each other accountable. Evidence in the Crown Roundtable suggests that the state is simply one actor among many. In this sea of various players, without the traditional forms of accountability, how do we ensure that governance retains its democratic qualities? The second part (chapters 4, 5, 6, 7) builds from the initial observations in the first part (chapters 1, 2, and 3) that state boundaries in the Crown of the Continent are transected by landscape identities and norms. It examines the implications for maintaining democracy in governance. Given the lack of institutions (such as the juridical, legal, and electoral channels) available at the domestic level, how can actors be held accountable? What do shifts toward a flattened and fragmented forest governance landscape represent in terms of both the ability of diverse actors to relate to one another and also for the participants to see NG as a worthwhile process to engage? In answering these questions, Part II examines whether NG architectures are able to incorporate channels for accountability while simultaneously drawing upon a broad base of participation and maintaining social legitimacy. Finally, the dissertation concludes with thoughts on institutional design. In so doing, it hopefully contributes to an understanding of how to build collaborative networked arrangements that are better able to address transboundary environmental problems.
Open Access
Addressing the cause: an analysis of suicide terrorism
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2011) Eggers, Bruce Andrew, author; Yaşar, Gamze Ҫavdar, advisor; Peek, Lori A., committee member; Daxecker, Ursula E., committee member
Since 2001, the rate of global suicide attacks per year has been increasing at a shocking rate. The 1980s averaged 4.7 suicide attacks per year, the 1990s averaged 16 attacks per year, and from 2000-2005 the average jumped to 180 per year. What is the cause behind these suicide attacks? The literature has been dominated by psychological, social, strategic, and religious explanations. However, no one explanation has been able to obtain dominance over the others through generalizable empirical evidence. Emerging in 2005, Robert Pape put forth a theory that has risen to prominence explaining the rise of suicide attacks as a result of foreign occupation. His work and findings comprise the most controversial argument in the literature of suicide terrorism. Remaining new and untested, this study attempts to test Pape's theory of suicide terrorism by applying his theoretical framework and argument to the current suicide campaigns ongoing in Afghanistan, Chechnya, and Pakistan. Through these case studies, this research project will attempt to generalize to the greater theoretical question: What is the root cause of suicide terrorism?
Open Access
Alcohol policy as defined by path dependency and Prohibition
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2022) Setty, Kathryn, author; Hitt, Matthew, advisor; Saunders, Kyle, advisor; Korostyshevsky, David, committee member
Across the United States there is noticeable variance regarding alcohol regulations from state to state. More restrictive states allow for dry counties, Sunday sale bans, and tightly regulate the types of alcohol that can be sold outside of liquor stores. Conversely, less restrictive states allow for 24/7 purchase, drive through liquor stores, open container zones, and decreased regulation on type of alcohol sold at convenience stores. This variance is not explained by modern or historic partisanship, nor general religiosity of a given area. Religiosity classified by high amounts of Protestantism along with historic rates of Protestantism have the highest amount of explanatory value for states with more restrictive alcohol laws. Utilizing the theoretical foundations of path dependency and increasing returns this paper posits that current variance in alcohol policies across states can be accounted for by the historic levels of support for the 18th Amendment and the temperance movement as represented by historic Protestantism in a given state. That is, after reaching a critical juncture in the passage of the 18th Amendment, states which had been more inclined to prohibit alcohol sales reached policy equilibrium that enabled regulation to persist. This paper will use an original data set that combines historical data from the U.S Census and archival data with modern measures of religiosity, along with constructed composite variables that rank each state's alcohol policy over time as most restrictive to least restrictive. This data, presented in a time series cross section analysis, will illustrate the historic relationship between Prohibition support and modern alcohol policy. History has a prevailing, lasting impact on the modern era which can be illustrated through policy and the power paradigms that persist within our society.
Open Access
American environmentalism, sovereignty and the "immigration problem"
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2012) Hultgren, John, author; Stevis, Dimitris, advisor; MacDonald, Bradley, committee member; Chaloupka, William, committee member; Ishiwata, Eric, committee member; Browne, Kate, committee member
Theorizing the relationship between sovereignty and nature has posed challenges to both scholars and activists. Some believe that sovereignty is a problematic institutional constraint that hampers the formulation of holistic solutions to ecological problems, while others contend that the norms, practices and institutions of sovereignty can be stretched in pursuit of ecological and social sustainability. Complicating this picture is the fact that the empirical contours of sovereignty have shifted of late, as the authority and control of the nation-state has been challenged by neoliberal globalization and the transboundary realities of many environmental challenges, creating a crisis of legitimacy that societal actors attempt to ameliorate in various ways. This dissertation begins from the observation that "nature" - the socially constructed ideal employed to capture the vast multiplicity of the non-human realm - is increasingly central to the process through which individuals, interest groups and social movements attempt to create more democratic, sustainable or ethical political communities and forms of governance. As environmental politics continue to gain traction within mainstream political discourses, environmentalists and non-environmentalists alike are inserting nature into struggles to reconfigure sovereignty toward a particular ecological and/or social ethos. In exploring this interaction, I ask: how do societal groups conceptualize and work to reconfigure the relationship between nature and sovereignty? And what are the social and ecological implications of the normative ideals that they attempt to institutionalize? In order to gain insight into these questions, I examine contemporary American debates over the environmental impacts of immigration. Discussions of the so-called "immigration problem" have been contentious for American greens, leading to significant division within environmentalist organizations, and surprising alliances with a variety of other societal interests. The individuals and organizations involved all attempt to challenge the status quo, but deploy vastly different conceptions of nature, political community and governance to do so. Turning to individuals and organizations who have taken public stances within this debate, I employ (1) textual analysis of websites and publications; (2) semi-structured interviews; and (3) content analysis, in considering the various discursive pathways through which environmental restrictionists and their opponents attempt to reconfigure sovereignty. Through this empirical analysis, I make the case that the discursive terrain on which the relationship between nature and sovereignty resides remains poorly understood - to the detriment of efforts to promote socially and ecologically inclusive polities.
Open Access
Building local confidence: the socioeconomic tasks of peacekeeping operations
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2010) McKee, Meredith L., author; Daxecker, Ursula, advisor; Sunseri, Thaddeus Raymond, committee member; Betsill, Michele Merrill, 1967-, committee member
In the post-Cold War period, intrastate peacekeeping missions evolved from an explicit focus on force to the adoption of multidimensional strategies. These newer techniques include tasks such as infrastructure reconstruction, rebuilding institutions of law and order, and economic development. However, no consensus exists on the extent to which these complex strategies contribute to post-conflict peace and a successful peacekeeping operation. This study evaluates the effects of socioeconomic tasks on the local population during peacekeeping operations. More specifically, this paper argues that in order to achieve lasting peace in the immediate post-civil war period, peacekeeping missions must include substantial socioeconomic elements within their mandate. This study evaluates the relationship between socioeconomic components of peacekeeping operations and the mission's successful outcome in a comparative case study of the peacekeeping missions in Sierra Leone and Liberia, UNAMSIL and ECOMOGUNOMIL.
Open Access
Carbon offsets and certification: how and why offset providers choose to certify
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2011) Taft, David A., author; Stevis, Dimitris, advisor; Betsill, Michele, committee member; Taylor, Peter, committee member
In a world that is increasingly concerned about carbon emissions and the atmospheric impacts of those emissions, carbon offsets have become a broadly accepted form of emissions reductions. While the UN set the initial standard for governing those offsets with the Clean Development Mechanism, a voluntary carbon market and a wide variety of private carbon offset certifications have gained an important role in that voluntary market. Because these private certifications take a variety of forms and have their own specialty niches, it is important to understand the intricacies of these certifications for the growing number of carbon offset producers. This research studies the reasons why a small non-profit carbon offset producer would seek certification, as well as how that producer went about choosing among a wide range of offset standards. The research revealed that for an organization to certify, the increased market share and legitimacy must outweigh the cost of certification. In addition, the choice in certification largely depends on cost, suitability, and the perception that the standard will uphold its legitimacy in the long term.
Open Access
China and transparency norm development in global extractives governance
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2021) Park, Hyeyoon, author; Betsill, Michele, advisor; Harris, Pete, committee member; Duffy, Robert, committee member; Malin, Stephanie, committee member
Growing global demand for extractive resources, such as metals and minerals, particularly to produce low-carbon products, requires international society to develop effective global governance mechanisms to mitigate some of the environmentally and socially negative impacts of mining operations beyond national borders. Since early 2000, several transnational extractive governance initiatives (TEGI) have been established, and these initiatives commonly emphasize a transparency norm to cope with these new global challenges. At the same time, the influence of Chinese actors in global extractive sectors has been increasing along with China's rapid economic growth and rising natural resources demands. Notably, Chinese actors have started engaging in TEGIs and recently appear to take a more active role in global extractives governance. This dissertation examines whether China is a norm-taker or a norm-maker in transparency norm development processes of global extractives governance to understand this new phenomenon. In addition, this research seeks to answer under what conditions China is a norm-taker or a norm-maker and how power matters in transparency norm development. To date, there has been limited research on transnational extractives governance as an independent governance architecture within the system of global environmental governance. In addition, few International Relations (IR) and global governance scholars have examined China's normative role in global governance. In particular, there is a lack of understanding of China's normative role in "re-shaping" existing norms in global governance. This dissertation aims to fill the gaps in existing scholarship. By applying Acharya's (2018) norm-circulation model emphasizing two-way socialization processes, this dissertation find that Chinese actors take a global transparency norm, localize the norm based on China's local context, then universalize the localized transparency norm at the global level. Based on qualitative document analysis, semi-structured interviews, and process-tracing, this research includes a mapping exercise of 48 TEGIs and a case study of the Responsible Cobalt Initiative (RCI), a TEGI established by China in 2016 to improve the responsibility of upstream and downstream companies in the cobalt supply chain. The major findings show that Chinese actors act as both a norm-taker and a norm-maker. The mapping analysis shows that they more actively participate in TEGIs emphasizing a thin transparency norm that lacks the disclosure of information about decision-making processes to the public, the presence of an independent third-party auditor in monitoring processes, or the disclosure of the verification information to the public. The RCI case study reveals that the China Chamber of Commerce of Metals, Minerals and Chemical Importers and Exporters (CCCMC) acted as a local idea-shifter by localizing a global transparency norm and developing Chinese versions of transparency guidelines. CCCMC is trying to universalize their locally constituted norm at the transnational level through the RCI. China's role in facilitating a thin transparency norm could lead to green- or white-washing of extractive companies, given the less stringent characteristics of a thin transparency norm. I argue that CCCMC's efforts to universalize the localized Chinese version of transparency is based on their institutional and structural power supported by the Chinese government's sponsorship and its close ties with powerful business actors. These findings, notably, suggest that power facilitates or constrains agency of certain groups of actors seeking to play a norm-maker's role, particularly in a universalization process in Acharya's norm-circulation model. These findings resonate with realist constructivists' understanding of world politics, emphasizing both norms and power, beyond the fragmented paradigmatic debates in IR between realists and constructivists. Collectively, this dissertation contributes to the broader debates in IR and Global Environmental Politics about the rise of China in global governance, global norm development, and legitimacy and accountability of global environmental governance.
Open Access
Civil rights, policy diffusion and the coevolution of immigration and public health in the American food system
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2021) Welsh, Edward S., author; Velasco, Marcela, advisor; Duffy, Robert, advisor; Orsi, Jared, committee member
This research uses the 'policy diffusion framework' to analyze the mechanisms and motivations behind policymaking in the American food system and draw conclusions about the relationship between the policy process and civil rights. It also utilizes analytical concepts lent by historic institutionalism such as process tracing and critical junctures to create a narrative of policy evolution from a cross-case analysis of the most salient issues facing the food system including immigration and public health policies. A case study of the northern Colorado food system details a series of policy adoptions in these issue areas, offering metrics for measuring equality. I hypothesize that the policy diffusion process in the real world has a causal relationship with the civil rights of immigrants and migrants working in food service. I ask the research question, what is the relationship between the policymaking process and civil rights in the food system, and what mechanisms of policy diffusion are active? I find that the policy diffusion process has the best outcomes for civil equality when there is a diversity of stakeholders who take a collaborative approach to the process and share information quickly and often. But, when decisionmakers bias the process by excluding or favoring sets of stakeholders, then the information flow is crippled and policy outcomes negatively affect civil rights.
Open Access
Climate change contributions to conflict: an analysis of Syria, Yemen and Egypt
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2021) Harmon, Daniel, author; Harris, Peter, advisor; Stevis, Dimitris, committee member; Lindsay, James, committee member
Ascriptions of false, causal connections between climate change and conflict sets a dangerous precedent for future refugee migration. Classification of refugees fleeing murderous regimes and/or circumstances, as climate migrants attempting to escape areas impacted climatically, reduces the subjective severity of the actual situations they were fleeing. Potential harmful ramifications to their asylum claims could result, consequential of a reduction in perceived threat to those migrants' lives by Consular officials. It also delegitimizes future climate refugees' asylum claims, those truly fleeing areas devastated by the effects of climate change/variability. Responsible consideration of the latest 2018 IPCC Special Report indicates, absent aggressive greenhouse gas (GHG) abatement measures, these are migrant circumstances that are increasingly likely to manifest. Such false assertions also detract from placing responsibility for the deaths of hundreds of thousands and the displacement of millions where it should be placed: with the Syrian, Yemeni and Egyptian governments. Affirming climate change as the main causal factor that initiated the Syrian conflict allows the regime to shift focus from its own administrative failures that were in fact the largest contribution to a conflict that has witnessed the deaths of hundreds of thousands. Similarly, false attribution of climate effects to Yemen's calamitous situation allows the worst humanitarian crisis in the world, involving famine conditions for millions of Yemenis, to be mistakenly viewed within an environmental context. Deaths and atrocities purportedly resulting from climate phenomena shift responsibility from where it should lay, with the Yemeni conflict's belligerents and their egregious actions. Also, the identification of Egypt's socio and political maladies as primarily consequent of climatic events disallows for the reckoning of the true causes that fomented rebellion during Egypt's Arab Spring "awakening." Finally, such false proclamations inhibit accurate advances to empirical knowledge that could be used in the future towards conflict mitigation and prevention. Implications for future climate refugees and those fleeing violent conflict demand accurate identification of conflict causation. To demand anything less as a member of a global citizenry is a dereliction of one's responsibility to humanity.
Open Access
Community capacity and collaborative wildfire planning: the role of capacity in acquiring federal mitigation grant funding
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2023) Ryan, Benjamin, author; Scott, Ryan, advisor; Goes, Iasmin, committee member; Burkhardt, Jesse, committee member
Since the passage of the Healthy Forests Restoration Act two decades ago, Community Wildfire Protection Plans (CWPPs) have become the predominant planning tool for community preparedness, risk mitigation, and response; improving coordination between governments, natural resource management agencies, and residents; give communities the ability access federal grant funding programs in the Western United States. Research on CWPPs has mainly been the focus of case studies, with relatively few large-scale studies to understand how a community's biophysical, socio-economic, vulnerability, and social conditions account for the variation in federal grant allocation. This study includes over 1,000 CWPPs in 11 states to evaluate the conditions that precipitate the allocation of grant funds for risk mitigation and community resilience. Through the estimation of a Binomial Integrated Nested Laplace Approximation Model to estimate the probability of winning grant funds based on the included indicators. Findings indicate that grant winnings are closely correlated with biophysical risk, financial capacity, and CWPP Update status, while socially vulnerable communities were more likely not to receive grant funds. However, we fail to find evidence that social capital affects the likelihood of winning grant funds. These findings suggest a need for a more equitable distribution of federal grant funds to mitigate wildfire risk properly.
Open Access
Conceptualizing transnational democratic networks: a case study of world wide views on biodiversity
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2015) Fiske, Desirée, author; Betsill, Michele, advisor; Stevis, Dimitris, committee member; McIvor, David, committee member; Taylor, Peter, committee member
Democratic theory has most recently found itself in a 'deliberative turn.' Extending beyond the capacity maintained by state institutions, the deliberative turn may be understood as necessary for conditions of democracy to move beyond the bounds of the nation-state and to incorporate conditions of a globalizing world. As global governance literature recognizes nuanced abilities to regulate through private and public interactions, the democratic voice of citizen input is in a shift. Deliberative democratic theory has found its way into International Relations discussions, as it proposes methods for transnational democracy. World Wide Views on Biodiversity (WWVB) is the second transnational citizen deliberation to be held on a global scale, allowing a window of opportunity to bridge the normative theories with empirical observation. Identifying WWVB as a transnational democratic network, this analysis simultaneously seeks to inform the project of its pragmatic successes and limitations while placing WWVB within theories of transnational democracy. Results find Transnational Discursive Democracy best explains and understands the phenomena of WWVB. Furthermore, the theoretical findings inform practical implications for the WWViews Alliance to support network expansion through inclusion and dissemination practices. Specific recommendations are made to the network based on the analysis of theory and praxis.
Open Access
Ecological libertarianism: the case for nonhuman self-ownership
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2016) Nelson, Zachary, author; McIvor, David, advisor; Davis, Sandra, committee member; Hempel, Lynn, committee member
To view the abstract, please see the full text of the document.
Open Access
Environmental security: a source of legitimacy and contestation in global environmental governance
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2022) Liebenguth, Julianne, author; Betsill, Michele, advisor; Harris, Peter, committee member; Macdonald, Bradley, committee member; Malin, Stephanie, committee member
Environmental security is an increasingly popular concept though which various actors seek to understand and articulate the urgency, risks, and vulnerabilities associated with dangerous socio-environmental changes. Such urgent shifts include rising temperatures, droughts, floods, intensifying weather-related disasters, land-use changes, and the expansion of exploitative and extractive practices, all of which can be said to pose significant dangers to a vast range of political communities and systems under the broader rubric of environmental security. The consequences of turning to the logic of security, however, are heavily debated among those who both espouse and reject this conceptual linkage. Thus, this dissertation seeks to dig deeper into the ways security is conceptualized, leveraged, and contested across certain domains of global environmental politics. Specifically, I contribute three empirical studies that each employ critical discourse analysis to highlight distinct connections between the environment and security as they emerge across different state and non-state actors, including governments, IGOs, NGOs, TNCs, and resistance movements. I focus on the Food, Energy, Water (FEW) security nexus as an over-arching arena of global environmental politics in which such actors frequently draw upon securitized language to describe environmental problems and their potential solutions. I find that 1) elite actors including state representatives, NGOs, and IGOs designing the FEW security nexus agenda position scarcity as the main threat and private sector actors as key agents of environmental security; 2) environmental security is leveraged in unique ways as a source of legitimacy by TNCs operating across the FEW nexus; and 3) resistance movements can generate contradictory and alternative visions of environmental security and legitimacy that challenge prevailing and unequal systems of governance. I conclude that the emergence of the FEW security nexus as global development paradigm presents a particularly important opportunity to interrogate processes and performative implications of securitization (both oppressive and emancipatory), build upon alternative, bottom-up visions of environmental security, and reflect upon the changing role of the state in relation to both security and global environmental politics more broadly.
Open Access
Examining the policy diffusion of organic food and agriculture legislation in the U.S. - the role of the states in developing organic standards
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2014) Mosier, Samantha L., author; Opp, Susan M., advisor; Davis, Charles E., committee member; Saunders, Kyle L., committee member; Thilmany, Dawn D., committee member
From 1976-2010, 38 states created and passed legislation regarding the regulation of organic food and agriculture. Most legislation was passed during the time period of 1985-1990, a period that ended with Congress passing the Organic Food Production Act [OFPA] in 1990. OFPA was passed to eliminate the patchwork of state and private third-party organic standards regulating the market and to maintain access to international markets by assuring U.S. standards were harmonized with key markets. Subsequently, it may have been expected that state adoption of organic policies would cease after federal action in 1990. However, many states continued to adopt and modify existing policies after the passage of OFPA. This research examines the diffusion of organic food and agriculture legislation and dynamics of legislative refinement in the United States both prior to and after federal adoption of organic legislation. With both theoretical and applied implications to be derived, this research uses the policy diffusion literature to examine the diffusion of organic legislation. A mixed-methods approach is utilized to answer the central research question of why do some states adopt organic food and agriculture legislation while others do not? The quantitative portion of this research uses time-series logistical regressions to test an enhanced unified model of policy diffusion. Time controls were used to evaluate the nationwide dynamics across several time periods. In addition, regional models were constructed for four statistically significant regions to further examine regional variations in diffusion factors. The qualitative portion of this research consists of a comparative case study between a leader and laggard state adopters. California and Georgia were the state cases selected for analysis. The results of this analysis suggest that wealth, political culture, partisan control of state government, state vegetable production, third-party certification organizations, horizontal pressures, national-scale pressures, and salience are key explanatory factors for state adoption of organic food and agriculture legislature from 1976-2010. Per capita wealth, issue salience, and regional effects are the most robust explanatory power over the 35-year time period and for each adoption-type. Pre-1990 state adoptions were also strongly influenced by the presence of third-party certifiers and the policy type design. Post-1990 state adoptions were additionally influenced by federal adoption and implementation, partisan control of state government, and state vegetable production. Action at the federal level, including federal adoption and implementation, did not dramatically deter state adoption or cause the repeal of state organic food and agriculture statutes. Across all time periods, certain regions remain distinctive in terms of diffusion dynamics including the Far West, North Central, Southeast, and Mid-Atlantic regions. Two case studies, California and Georgia, shed some light on how adoption of organic food and agriculture legislation occurred in the Far West and Southeast regions.
Open Access
Failure to communicate how American progressive neoliberal campus policies contribute to conservative mistrust of higher education and skepticism towards research on anthropogenic global warming
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2022) Bork, Nathanial, author; McIvor, David, advisor; Cafaro, Phil, committee member; Hitt, Matthew, committee member; Mumme, Stephen, committee member
When conservatives believe American universities implement policies that limit their free speech rights and demean their social identities, their support for the institution can decline. Negative partisanship and political polarization push consumption of agreeable media and distrust of antagonistic media, which means conservative media and social media are a major source of information about the contemporary university system for that population. I hypothesize that this is an important variable, among many, in understanding why conservatives reject environmental research on topics such as Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW). To explain this phenomenon, I begin by reviewing the current research on conservative skepticism of AGW. I add to this literature through a treatment effect experiment I conducted, which reaffirms the findings of others that those on the political right perceive themselves as under threat on campus, which impacts their experiences in the classroom and their views of higher education. Second, I conduct a critical analysis of higher education as a progressive neoliberal university. I argue that, as a neoliberal institution, the contemporary university tries to operate as a financially successful organization that manages its resources, employees, and students efficiently; and as a progressive institution, it dedicates itself to bringing about social and political changes, especially through the use Inclusion, Equity, and Diversity (IED) policies, and that these two goals create conflicts with one another. Third, I use the work of the social theorist and philosopher Jürgen Habermas to diagnose these conflicts as social pathologies, both in terms of material harm to students and faculty, and as generating campus conditions which violate his 'ideal speech community,' which I use as my model of social health. I then look at Habermas's contributions to the disciplines of Discourse Theory and Public Deliberation, and demonstrate how these fields offer pathways to improving campus policies, which could hopefully improve the public perception of the university, and its research as being legitimate in our current hyper-partisan political environment. Fourth, I use Social and Political Psychology to explain why current approaches to gain the cooperation of conservatives on AGW initiatives are not working, and explain how understanding social identity, particularly partisan social identity, can produce Best Practices that reach people across the political spectrum and encourage deliberation and cooperation. Finally, I look at various reform proposals to higher education, which aim to achieve IED goals in ways that are also inclusive of conservative and heterodox thinkers, and explain why implementing them would benefit students, faculty, and administrators.
Open Access
Fracking and Goldilocks Federalism: the too loud, too quiet and just right politics of states and cities
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2015) Fisk, Jonathan M., author; Davis, Charles E., advisor; Opp, Susan M., committee member; Straayer, John A., committee member; O'Connor Shelley, Tara, committee member
Wicked environmental and energy challenges often originate where energy, the environment and economics intersect (Rittel and Webber 1973). Fracking is one such example. As a practice, it has prompted a certain amount of political debate at both the state and municipal levels. Proponents argue that natural gas extraction creates well-paying jobs, helps grow and revive stagnant economies and that it provides a 'cleaner' burning energy source. Its opponents counter that the technique produces a number of environmental harms such as air pollution, surface and groundwater contamination, places new demands on infrastructure and causes geological instability (Davis 2012). Ranging from intergovernmental battles to cooperative relationships, the politics of fracking are reshaping the relations between neighborhoods, city hall and the statehouse. To explore the 'second order' dynamics of fracking, this dissertation asks several interrelated questions. What are the state and local institutions, rules and informal norms governing state-municipal relationships when it comes to hydraulic fracturing? To what extent do municipalities regulate fracking and what are the types of city-level regulation? Finally, why are some cities willing to pass land use policies that challenge their state's natural gas extraction goals and preemptive authority and others are not? To answer the questions above, I consider the second order dynamics in the context of Colorado, Texas and Ohio and a sample of cities in each state. Each state has a high number of citizens living near gas wells, but offers cities and towns varying degrees of land use authority. To elucidate their second-order relationships and dynamics, each chapter tests potential explanatory variables originating from studies of environmental policy, democratic theory and urban governance. Results suggest that both macro level (environmentalism and mobilization) and micro level concerns (percentage of owner occupied homes and median home values) can affect second order relations and the willingness of local communities to exert more municipal autonomy and challenge their state. My findings offer a more complete picture of second order federalism and strengthen the scholarly and applied understanding of two key American political institutions.
Open Access
Fracking politics: a case study of policy in New York and Pennsylvania from 2008-2011
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2012) Clarke, Chad, author; Davis, Sandra, advisor; Davis, Charles, committee member; Lindsay, James, committee member
This paper focuses on the politics of regulating natural gas hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in New York and Pennsylvania from 2008 to 2011 and how policy has changed in each state during this time. By applying Kingdon's multiple streams model as a tool, this paper finds four major influences on the stringency of fracking in New York and Pennsylvania. First, is increased negative news reporting, which results in the problem being seen as more significant than previously believed and contributing to a change in policy stringency. Second, the presence of focusing events increases the likelihood of a change in policy stringency. Third, policy entrepreneurs exert influence over policy stringency. Fourth, when Republicans are in control, they seek less stringent fracking regulation while Democrats work for more stringent fracking regulation. Finally this paper observes that when the aforementioned streams converge and a window of opportunity opens there is significant policy stringency change in both New York and Pennsylvania.
Open Access
Gender, political participation and the environment in Japan
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2007) Freiner, Nicole, author; Charlton, Sue Ellen, advisor
This dissertation examines women's centers in Japan; these government institutions were established in order to promote women's formal political participation. The women's centers are designed to raise awareness about public issues and provide networking opportunities. Although some have criticized these structures as being a "top-down" initiative, others have seen opportunities for creating new pathways into politics for women. This dissertation utilized qualitative interviews in order to ascertain the role of women's centers in formalizing women's political participation. Moreover, this dissertation examined the degree to which environmental issues are addressed in the activities of the women's centers because there is a historical trend in Japan which suggests that the environmental issue area is particularly salient for women. This dissertation research finds that while the women's centers are offering services for women in the area of domestic violence which challenge traditional gender norms, the women's centers examined have not significantly altered women's status or access to formal politics.
Open Access
Gender, security, and the environment: lessons from the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna water basin
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2009) Detraz, Nicole, author; Betsill, Michele, advisor
Environmental security has come to represent a way for scholars and policymakers to link the concepts of traditional security scholarship to the environment. Within academia, scholars use the concept of environmental security in several different ways, as well as using alternative terms to convey a relationship between security and the environment. While there has been some scholarly work conducted that seeks to identify the ways that academics link these concepts, there has been little systematic work done that examines the intersection between approaches to environmental security and gender. This dissertation argues the necessity of including gender into the discourses on security and the environment. In the project I address the theoretical and practical implications of ignoring the gendered aspects of security and the environment and the possibilities for introducing gender into theoretical and political debates linking environment and security. The key questions that this project explores are (1) How are the issues of security and the environment linked in theory and practice; (2) To what extent is gender a part of these discussions; and (3) What are the implications of how these issues are linked? I undertook three research steps for the dissertation. Step 1-discourse analysis of the academic literature linking environment and security. This step involved examining the academic literature using discourse analysis to identify three distinct discourses linking environment and security. Step 2-gender analysis of the three major discourses linking environment and security. This step consisted of tracing the presence and absence of gender in the security and environment debates in order to understand the place of gender currently, and the possible inclusion of gender into the discourses. Step 3-case studies of water issues in South Asia. These case studies explore some of these ideas in the context of real world policy discussion to see whether these same discourses inform policy debates; whether and how gender is considered in these policy debates; and refine some of the ideas/concepts about how gender matters and could be incorporated in the academic discussions.