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Public higher education has evolved over time under the control of each individual state. The public system in each state is made up of distinctive types of institutions that together provide higher education in different formats. Public institutions may largely be classified into three groups based on the level of education provided including community colleges, regional institutions, and research universities. While the institutions employed are largely the same in each state, the extent to which each is utilized and the support given reflect the individual characteristics of the state. This dissertation examines appropriations and enrollments by state and year in three classifications of universities: research universities, regional universities, and community colleges. The appropriations and enrollments in regional and community settings are measured relative to the same for research universities. The explanatory variables are political, economic, and demographic variables relevant in state finance to the allocation of state budgets. There are three empirical chapters. The first uses Granger causality concepts to examine whether appropriations and enrollment have strong predictive effects on each other in the following year. Enrollment has no such effect on appropriations, while there is a weak effect the other way. The second chapter studies relative appropriations, finding that the proportion of appropriations allocated to regional institutions has remained consistent, while states have proportionally shifted toward community colleges. The third chapter studies enrollment, which is very stable for regional universities and has shifted toward community colleges relative to research universities. Again, political and economic factors are somewhat different in these models. Examining year effects net of economics and politics, there are no such effects on appropriations; but for enrollment, regional universities grew somewhat relative to research universities in the earlier years (1986 to 1993), and community colleges grew throughout the period with pauses. The Great Recession is clearly visible in community college enrollments, growing as usual during an economic downturn.

To understand attitudes about voting in Kenya, this study examines Kenyan voters’ feelings of freedom to vote according to their own will and without pressure. More specifically it seeks to determine the extent to which these feelings are affected by 1) perception of corruption, 2) levels of trust in the government, 3) fear of political violence and intimidation, and 4) ethnic identity. Rational choice theory and an insideroutsider perspective are applied to examine the issue from a theoretical framework. Previous research conducted in relation to voting behavior and perception of corruption, trust in government, and ethnicity, among other things, are considered. This study uses secondary data collected by the Afrobarometer in 2008, and bivaraite and multivariatea nalysis are employed. Logistic regression models are used to examine the extent to which certain variables explain feelings of freedom to vote according to personal preference. The results from the logistic regression analyses show that both trust in government and fear of being subject to political violence and intimidation affect Kenyan voters’ feelings of freedom to vote according to their personal preference. These results support two hypotheses. First, Kenyan voters will feel freer to vote according to their own preference as their levels of trust in the government increase. Second, Kenyan voters’ feelings of freedom to vote will be negatively associated with fear of being subject to political violence and intimidation.

What does it mean to be middle class? The majority of Americans define themselves as members of the middle class, regardless of their wealth. The number of Americans that affiliate with the middle class alludes to the idea that it cannot be defined simply by level of income, number of assets, type of job, etc. The middle class is a lifestyle as much as it is a group of similarly minded people, just as it is a social construct as much as it is an economic construct. Yet as the masses fall away from the elite, and changes continue to reshape the occupational structure of the job market—due to globalization in a technological age; many have begun to question whether or not the middle class—and, by extension, the American way of life—will be able to survive. This thesis analyzes which Americans fall into the category of middle class and why. It observes the possible reasons the middle class is changing from the style portrayed through much of the 19th and 20th centuries. And lastly, this thesis poses possible solutions through public policy initiatives.

An analysis of risk, cost and benefit associated with U.S. domestic anti-terrorism expenditures.

The Tea Party is a highly publicized movement that has been met with both support and opposition but very little objective reporting from the partisan media. In 2009, amidst a financial crisis unlike any in recent history, a war being fought oversees, and a questioning of American values, this movement known as the Tea Party arose. Borrowing from the annals of history and staying true to the foundations set by the Fathers of our country, the Tea Party movement seeks to provide answers to the growing economic and social issues in the United States. The three core values of the movement are fiscal responsibility, limited government, and free market economics. Yet, the Tea Party movement, while seemingly logical and legitimate, was and continues to be, met with much criticism and combativeness. The frequent colonial dress and showmanship which characterizes their protests, the historical reference from which they get their name, and their strict adherence to the Constitution all seem to fuel the frequent trivialization of these self-proclaimed patriots and their movement, resulting in misconceptions and the stereotyping of supporters. But in a time dominated by sound bytes, tweets and headlines, the media can be deceiving. Therefore, as a young Government major intrigued by a movement that had so rapidly gained America’s attention, I set out to discover through interviews with real Tea Party members what the movement is really all about.

Conventional wisdom holds that civil society building always strengthens democracy, and that civil society gains by undermining the state. Many studies have taken the case of democratic countries, such as the United States and India. However, the emerging civil society within authoritarian China raises an interesting question to the neoclassical hypothesis. Does civil society building necessarily leads to democracy? How do we evaluate the work of local civic groups and why does that matter? This thesis seeks answer through a case study of women’s organizing around the issue of domestic violence in China, exploring to what extent the growth of women’s organizing challenges or strengthens the hegemony of state, and in what ways transnational feminism facilitates the development of feminist activism in China. The case study finds a positive correlation between the increasing women’s organizing around the issue of domestic violence and the level of state intervention. Through closely examining the work of local women’s groups in China, it identifies the structural barriers and the state regulations limiting women’s organizing, but it also explores mobilizing strategies by women’s groups and the changes they have made despite the authoritarian setting. Ultimately, this thesis attempts to argue that civil society building is a political process structurally depended on the political economy of the state, and that the state also plays a significant role in “producing” certain kind of civil society. A situated analysis suggests that local groups adopt certain political strategies and prioritize certain issues over others under political, economic, and social constraints of their living environment, meaning that the strategies and focuses of civil society groups under the authoritarian setting in China will be different from the groups in the developed, democratic countries. Meanwhile, transnational feminism provides women activists with alternative discourses on gender issues and alternative sites for mobilization.

Due to its high levels of concern and awareness of environmental issues, rural character, and sparse population, Vermont would at first glance appear to possess the ideal recipe to become a national leader in renewable energy development. Renewable initiatives have focused primarily on wind energy, as over a dozen wind farms have been proposed in the last few years across the state. However, in spite of the widely held belief in Vermont’s wind energy future, its proponents have run into vehement opposition at every proposed site, often successfully impeding the planned developments. This report develops a wide-level framework of the motivations of and complaints presented by wind opposition groups around the state, followed by an analysis of opposition strategies commonly employed. These are contrasted with the tactics used by wind developers and their supporters to remediate or overcome this opposition. Next, this essay will offer a view of the state and local institutional settings in which these battles take place, and finally conclude with a brief analysis of various alternatives to utility-scale wind, offering suggestions for wind’s role in the future of energy in Vermont.

Political engagement has an established body of research. However, one key area that has not been investigated in the field is the relationship between political engagement and type of community lived in. This study explores this relationship between type of community, past political engagement, perceptions of community leaders, attitude about political engagement, and socieodemographic characteristics. A conceptual model was developed based on existing literature. Utilizing a statewide survey conducted in 2009 that yielded 1,154 respondents with a response rate of 30.2% was used to explore these relationships. Using statistical procedures that test correlation were utilized to investigate the relationship between the key study variables. In addition, a regression model was created to be able to predict an individual’s political engagement. The result concluded that type of community does not significantly play a role in determining an individual’s political engagement. However other insights were revealed that showcase the complexity of political engagement and raise other questions about the role an individual’s attitude towards political engagement, and perception of community leaders affects their political engagement.

This study examined the pattern of online public opinion change in China by investigating the top one hit blog and its following commentaries of every day from July 2009 to March 2012 on a famous Chinese website, and then discussed potential factors that affected the formation of online public opinion. The extent of freedom of online public opinion during this period presented regular fluctuations. Whether criticisms were registered by commentators was influenced by four factors. First and most important, the negative tone of bloggers increased criticism and the positive tone decreased criticism, which shows that the news that flows from the media to the public is amplified and interpreted by influential bloggers according to the two-step flow theory. Second, while national and local events had no effect, international news events decreased criticism because the public strongly supported the Chinese government. This was as important as the first factor. Third, the negative tone of events discussed in blogs increased criticism, which means that the mass media did have some direct influence through negative but not positive events. And fourth, when the government censored blogs and commentaries, the public shied away from criticism because their posts would probably be removed.