Sexual education has been a much-debated topic in the United States since it was instated in light of the HIV/AID pandemic of the 1980s. The debate has always centered on the role of sexual education: should it act to objectively relay the facts about sexual health? Or should it be utilized as a moral purveyor of teen’s sexual behavior? During the second Bush Administration it seemed as if the conservative right had won and sexual education adopted a role policing teen’s morality with $1.5 billion in federal funding for abstinence-only education. This study aims to provide evidence against abstinence-only education by highlighting its ineffectiveness to meet its own standards of success (preventing teen pregnancy and STI infection), as well as its violation of legal human rights standards. As well, this study will provide an alternative to abstinence-only education, comprehensive sexual education, which provides students with accurate information about sexual health (including information about contraception, abortion, etc.) while still emphasizing abstinence as the preferred sexual behavior in teens.

This senior thesis is a study of federal forestry policy in Oregon and its effects on rural communities and the urban-rural division in the state. Looking specifically at the “Timber Wars” of the early 1990s, it delves deeper into the controversy over the protection of the northern spotted owl, the Northwest Forest Plan, and President Clinton’s efforts to solve the conflict between grassroots environmental activists and those with a vested interest in the timber industry. It also analyzes the federal timber payment system created by Congress to solve the problems for rural communities caused by forestry regulations. Lastly, it looks at the divisions between urban Oregonians and rural Oregonians on all issues, including environmental policy, in order to understand why Oregon is so divided and how this issue and conflict can be used as an example of a greater national conflict and recent trends of urban rural division across the country.

Thesis (doctoral)--Universität Erlangen, 1906. / Includes bibliographical references (p. vii-x).

Thesis (B.A.)--Haverford College, Dept. of Economics, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references.

The new technological mediums of each era, such as the radio in the 1920s and 30s, television in the 1950s and 60s, and today’s Internet and social media platforms, allow presidential candidates the opportunity to control their messaging and the potential to reach a greater audience than ever before. Candidates today are increasingly using social media and the Internet as a vital campaign source for spreading information, raising money, and rallying voters. Whether social media will measure into offline votes and political influence is yet to be seen, but presidential candidates who quickly recognize the potential of the latest technologies and use the new mediums at their disposal will nonetheless reap the most benefits of political communication.

By selecting the pool of candidates that voters can choose from in the general election, party nominating contests play a fundamental role in determining the outcome of elections at all levels of government. However, past research has indicated that, due largely to the incumbency advantage, primary competition has declined dramatically since the institution’s origins. Strategic entry theory suggests that skilled candidates, often those holding prior political office, wait for the most opportune chance to run for higher office. To test this hypothesis, I collected data on all congressional districts and candidates from the 2014 midterm elections. Using candidate information gathered from the Federal Election Commission and other candidate databases, district level demographic and political data, and incumbent statistics, I developed a model using the individual and structural factors to predict when an experienced politician will challenge an incumbent within their own party. The data show that strong intraparty challenges are rare compared to cross-party challenges, and that the most ideologically centrist incumbents, of either party, are the most likely to be “primaried” by an experienced and ambitious challenger.

Several recent studies on information shortcuts and electoral vote choice show that challenges to classic democratic theory are largely exaggerated. Namely, there is now convincing evidence towards Americans having the ability to cast votes that are representative of their own political preferences. Research on such heuristics largely depend on presidential election data however, and it remains uncertain how voters respond to less salient elections where candidate information may not be as apparent and electoral communication efforts are more dismal. This study utilizes a voting correctly measure previously developed to analyze the ability of voters during Senate elections. Special attention in this study is given towards individual characteristics and campaign characteristics. First, individual characteristics, such as social and demographic variables, are expected to have an effect on voting correctly based on previous political behavior studies noting group disparities among political interest, knowledge, engagement, and turnout. Second, campaign characteristics are hypothesized to have an effect on quality voting based on literature explaining how campaigns matter in an informational sense. The findings reported in this study provide lackluster evidence towards the ability of voters to make preferred decisions based on limited information and minimal campaign effects on correct voting.

This project investigates how the emergent ideological, institutional, and political commitments of the national defense and security state shape the domestic programmatic agendas of modern presidents. Applying a historical and developmental analysis, I trace this dynamic from its origin in the twin crises of the Great Depression and World War II to examine how subsequent presidents since Franklin D. Roosevelt have navigated the intersecting politics of this warfare -welfare nexus. I use original, archival research to examine communications between the president and his staff, cabinet members, administration officials, and Congressional leaders to better appreciate how the interaction of these dual political commitments are reflected in the formulation and promotion of the president’s budgetary requests and domestic policy initiatives. More directly, I focus on the relationship between the national security politics of the Cold War and the efforts of Presidents Truman and Eisenhower to support their objectives in either the expansion or retrenchment of the New Deal-liberal welfare state. My research suggests that Cold War concerns occasionally aided the growth of the welfare state in areas such as public health and federal aid to education, while at other times defense and security anxieties provided the backdrop for presidential efforts to diminish the political capacity of the welfare state. More specifically, I find that both Truman and Eisenhower constructed visions of national strength which framed their initiatives in national defense and social welfare as interrelated goals. In the end, I argue that the changing institutions, ideologies, and international commitments of the warfare state present both opportunities and challenges for presidents to articulate political visions in service of domestic policy advancement.

This research examines the central question of representation in the California State Legislature and the United States House of Representatives. This thesis examines the proper size for both legislative bodies in comparison to their current sizes. Considering this analysis, this thesis proposes that the California State Legislature be doubled in size, and that the United States House of Representatives be increased in size in accordance with the Wyoming Rule. This thesis examines the advantages and drawbacks of a larger legislature in both settings. Increasing the size of the California State Legislature would lower campaign costs, improve representation for communities of interest, and reduce the effectiveness of partisan gerrymandering. Increasing the size of the U.S. House of Representatives would reduce malapportionment among states, make the Electoral College more equitable, and increase political diversity among the states.

This thesis explores educational pluralism in the context of the American public school system and analyzes the charter school movement as a mechanism for education reform. Because charter schools have only existed for 26 years, scholars have yet to understand the effect that they have on our public school system, as well as how they compare with traditional public schools. Rather than trying to determine whether charter schools are better than traditional public schools, I introduce the philosophy behind educational pluralism, examine the evolution of the charter school movement, and analyze states as laboratories for testing new educational practices through charter schools.