Historic preservation has been a successful economic development tool that has led to heritage tourism in some Tennessee towns but not in others. The problem studied was to determine if there was a set of tangible attributes a town must possess to be successful in using historic preservation as an economic development tool. Through an extensive literature review, 59 predictor variables were identified and arranged into 6 research questions looking at the tangible attributes related to town demographics, geography, organizational structure, historic preservation organizations, heritage tourism organizations, and town financial structure. Data were collected from a mailed survey of 32 town managers. The response rate was 68.8% (N = 22). Secondary sources, such as U.S. Census data, were used to collect data when those sources appeared consistent and mandatory. The study used logistic regression analysis to compare successful towns, defined as those towns in the upper third of study towns for tourism expenditures per capita, with less than successful towns. The 32 study towns met the criteria of having a 2003 population of fewer than 10,000 and a nationally-recognized historic district that coincided with the towns' central business districts. The results of the logistic regression analysis on the individual predictor variables indicated that 5 were statistically significant--median age, distance to a major city, restaurant beer sales, Grand Division, and merchants' association. Constraining the final predictive model (Garson, 2006) to no more than 1 variable per 10 cases 3 led to the inclusion of median age and merchants' association as the 2 predictor variables that provided the highest predictive value of correctly classified towns (95.8%). In summary, this study is inconclusive in determining whether historic preservation leads to heritage tourism and can be used as an economic development tool by small Tennessee towns. However, it has been established that 5 attributes or characteristics of small towns does contribute to the probability of success and that median age and the existence of a merchants' association proved to be the best predictive model.

As drought becomes more common in California, effective water management has become one of the state’s most critical policy issues. During the drought of 2011-2017 specifically, the state government faced significant legal and political barriers in its attempts to implement sweeping, statewide drought management policy. First, the California water rights system prevents the state from legally curtailing the water diversions of senior water rights holders. Because of this, the State Water Resources Control Board has been engaged in ongoing litigation with senior and junior water rights holders alike over their attempts to curtail water rights in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta during the drought. Second, the Board faced local resistance to the 25% conservation order mandated in Executive Order B-29-15 due to concerns over state intervention in local issues and a disregard for the doctrine of first in time, first in right. Finally, the state passed the sustainable Groundwater Management Act in 2014 in order to address California’s overused and under-regulated groundwater supply. While a step in the right direction, the implementation timeline of this policy is not urgent enough to protect aquifers from overdraft and saltwater intrusion. These barriers all made developing and implementing effective drought policy extremely difficult. While Executive Order B-29-15 and the curtailment notices were not meant to be permanent solutions to the drought problem, they now need to be replaced with a comprehensive package of legislation that addresses a myriad of competing interests and environmental realities.

The purpose of “Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez: A Case Study of Social Media as an Agenda Setting Tool in the U.S. House of Representatives” is to explore the impact of a politician’s social media presence on agenda setting in Congress. It was born out of the research question, “how do freshman members of the House of Representatives seek power and influence in their first term?” I answer this using Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as a case study, as she is a current freshman legislator with undeniable power and influence. I studied Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s tweets from two time periods: the month leading up to her election and her second month in office. I categorized and counted each tweet into 4 categories that yielded quantifiable results. Subsequently, I did a textual analysis of certain tweets from the two periods and explained their relevance to her shift in content and success as a public figure. I found that since being elected, the proportion of Rep. Ocasio-Cortez tweets about National issues increased by four times more than during her primary. Additionally, after being elected, her tweets about her District were proportionally one-fourth of they were during her primary campaign. I interpret this finding as Rep. Ocasio-Cortez’s efforts to influence the national agenda, a task rarely taken on by a freshman Representative. I also found that she had nearly doubled the proportion of tweets that fall under the Extraneous category, utilizing personal anecdotes, inspirational messages, feminist actions and insights, and calls for progressive leadership that connect with her audience and set her apart from strictly policy-oriented politician Twitter accounts. Altogether, I have analyzed Rep. Ocasio-Cortez’s Twitter presence and believe it to be a key element of her success in agenda setting as a freshman Congress member.

This thesis explains how national media shape Indian foreign policy toward Pakistan. I use empirical research to explore the contribution of national media to the formulation of policy during the 1999 Kargil War and 2001 Agra Summit between India and Pakistan. I created a database of news articles in the leading national English newspapers—The Times of India and Hindustan Times and then coded and analyzed them. I analyze the media’s role by identifying trends in media strategies such as framing, agenda setting, and manufacturing consent. In addition, I analyze government documents and parliamentary debates to gather information on the policy processes and on government- media relations. I suggest that the media’s role in shaping policy depends on the level of internal dissent, understood as disagreement between the government and the opposition parties. I argue that national dissent allows the media to emerge as an independent actor, influencing the formulation of foreign policy by presenting their own opinions and policy suggestions. This was the case during the Agra Summit. On the other hand, as seen in the case of the Kargil War, during times of national consensus, the media echo the government’s voice and garner public support for the government’s actions. As such, this thesis contributes to existing scholarship and primary fieldwork by providing an original analysis of the intersection of media and foreign policy.

According to the 2011 National Gang Threat Assessment created by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, there are more than 33,000 gangs in the United States, cited as being responsible for nearly 48% of the violent crime in the country. Using information drawn from gang-related court cases, this study examines the nature of inter- and intra-gang violence occurring between January 1, 2002-December 31, 2011. An innovative application of network analysis will be used to hone in on rivalries, the existence of possible hierarchy, and the relational and structural characteristics of Blood and Crip gangs in Los Angeles County. Results show that the majority of gang-on-gang violence originates and targets individuals in the city of Los Angeles. Furthermore, more than two-thirds of the violence committed at the hands of Blood and Crip gangs is upon individuals that are not affiliated with a gang. Strategies are offered on how to improve the effectiveness of existing community-based policing or hot-spot policing in areas known to have violent gang-related incidents (Los Angeles City). Furthermore, the implementation of programs designed to assist and deter the formation and proliferation of gangs will result in less gang violence and therefore more time to be spent on creating law enforcement strategies aimed at quelling the more troublesome gang rivalries.

More law enforcement agencies are adopting social media as a progressive policing strategy each year. They utilize it for several reasons including, community outreach and engagement, public relations, notifying the public of safety concerns, recruitment, intelligence gathering for investigations, among other uses (IACP, 2017). This study explores Southern California Law Enforcements’ use of social media through a survey and content analysis. First, the survey results suggest that more than 93% of departments surveyed concentrate on community outreach through their social media channels. Second, the content analysis results suggest that when media (pictures/video), links, and hashtags (#), are included in posts the more engagement will take place. The more engagement a department receives online the more their voice and message are heard. The results of this study contribute to the sparse literature dedicated to law enforcement and effective use of social media.

The purpose of this project was to trace the developments which led to the utilization of para-profess iona1 persons as service aides in public welfare departments and to examine, in particular, the developments in Oregon at the state and county levels. The establishment of such programs was mandated in the Social Security Amendments of 1967. A review of the 1967 legislation showed the legislative intent to be inconsistent with the stated purposes of the program. This inconsistency, it was found, has been reflected in Oregon’s aide program. The theoretical origins underlying the aide concept were also examined in order to provide a fuller understanding of the means which were finally selected in Oregon to meet the legislative requirements. The aide program which evolved in Oregon has been marked by confusion in two major areas, the establishment of goals and the definition of roles. Specific problems which emerged within these two areas were analyzed in detail with special attention being given to the progress which has been made. To conclude, a theoretical model for the utilization of aides was proposed. While limited by its generality, the model does delineate the objectives which are considered essential to the establishment of an aide program based upon the research which was done in conjunction with this study.

President Clinton created Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument on September 17, 1996. The Antiquities Act of 1906 gives the president power to establish national monuments on public lands through presidential proclamation. The Act has been used to create national monuments in places such as Muir Woods, Grand Canyon, Mount Olympus, Jackson Hole, and the 1978 Alaskan d-2 lands. Its use has also produced negative public response, manifested as demonstrations, lawsuits, and congressional bills. In spite of significant legal and legislative challenges, the Antiquities Act and most of the monuments established through its use remain. The negative public response to the Act and the monuments has not been able to dissuade presidents from using executive authority. In each of the controversial cases the scope of the Antiquities Act was expanded in regards to the values being protected, monument size, or land use. The public had little influence in reversing that expansion. The Antiquities Act was designed as a tool to provide protection to threatened lands. It has protected federal lands, and in many cases the national interest. The historic and scientific values of once controversial monuments such as the Grand Canyon, Muir Woods Mount Olympus, Jackson Hole, and the d-2 lands, are now indisputable. These monuments have evolved to represent part of our natural national heritage. Only time will tell if the same can be said for Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.

In the past two decades, there has been a growing consensus regarding the inadequacies of the existing environmental policy regime and the need for reform to address complex, cross-jurisdictional sustainability challenges, such as nonpoint source pollution. Reform theory has focused on the need for more integrated, collaborative, adaptive, and results-oriented environmental management, while empirical studies have highlighted the wide implementation gap due to an array of institutional obstacles. Key principles and challenges of these four reform dimensions were synthesized in this study and used to assess implementation of the watershed approach by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and states since the early 1990s. This dissertation used a qualitative multiple case study design to examine the evolving watershed reform strategies of North Carolina, Georgia, and Kentucky, drawing on extensive document review and interviews with over 50 agency managers. Using an environmental federalism framework adapted from Scheberle (2004), the study explored the role of the national and regional EPA policy context, as well as state-level factors, in helping to shape the watershed approach strategies in the state cases. The research revealed that while EPA provided important initial support of state watershed management, its fragmented, output-driven program management continues to be a barrier to reform. EPA Region 4’s recent reform efforts demonstrate that regional offices can take critical steps to incorporate the watershed approach into internal agency management processes and external relations with states and stakeholders, but these changes often go against the grain of agency culture and norms. State agencies have made progress but face similar reform challenges, and their strategies are further shaped by important policy drivers, constraints, and resource limitations at the state level. More substantial investment is needed by EPA and states to: strengthen internal and external watershed coordination roles and forums; support collaborative stakeholder initiatives more fully where needed; and manage adaptively and accountably towards collectively defined watershed outcome targets.

For many of Latin America’s small farmers, a future in agriculture may be short lived. Due to increasing mechanization, land consolidation, and globalization, the demand for agricultural labor is declining, and small landowners are feeling the brunt of this change. Given this reality, the non-farm rural economy should become a much greater priority on the rural development agenda. Many non-farm positions demonstrate significant potential for poverty alleviation, but these jobs often present substantial barriers to entry. In order for smallholders to access these positions rather than low-skilled, low-productivity, and low-paying jobs, government involvement is essential. By helping small farmers build non-farm skills and knowledge, facilitating profitable land transactions, and fostering a business environment that supports rural job creation, governments can ensure that small farmers are not only able to transition to non-farm employment, but that they are able to do so in a way that maximizes the impact on overall rural welfare.