This dissertation explores contemporary American unwritten constitutionalism in three areas of public law: constitutional theory, election law, and administrative law. Drawing on methods familiar to political theory—analytic political philosophy and intellectual history—it offers a way of analyzing constitutional phenomena beyond legal reasoning tethered to text. The first essay uses social philosophy to build a theory of constitutional norms that explains their salient features and functions. The second essay builds a framework for understanding the concept of representation in the law of democracy. It uses political theory to reveal the latent normative questions animating election law doctrine. The third and final essay recovers the lost and contested origins of presidential administration during the Reagan administration. It shows how the combined efforts of executive branch lawyers, judges, and academics decisively brought the administrative state under presidential control and laid the foundations for the emergence of a plebiscitary president. Together these essays provide proof of concept for the dissertation’s central methodological claim: the need to move beyond text and legal reasoning in understanding American constitutionalism.

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This study examines how the administrations of Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan responded to the widespread human rights abuses committed by the Argentine military during the country's Dirty War between 1977 and 1982. The objective is to gain a broader understanding of the policies pursued by both administrations. Under Carter, who brought human rights to the forefront of American foreign policy, Argentina was heavily targeted and sanctioned with the anticipation that such measures would enhance the human rights status in Argentina. Ultimately, such policies resulted in open hostility in bilateral relations, culminating in Argentina's refusal to support Carter's proposed grain embargo on the Soviet Union in 1980. Reagan moved to restore relations until Argentina's invasion of the Falklands in April, 1982. The works of many authors were consulted in conjunction with newspapers, journal articles, government proceedings and declassified documents obtained from the National Security Archives.

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Från Reagan till Trump: Populistiska uttryck inom det republikanska partiet 1980–2017 är en kandidatuppsats av Angelica Carlsson. Syftet med studien är att förklara förekomsten av populistiska uttryck inom det republikanska partiet i USA under tidsperioden 1980–2017. Populistiska uttryck i politiska tal av presidenterna Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush och Donald Trump undersöks och graderas utifrån Kirk A. Hawkins sex kriterier över populism. Talen analyseras också utifrån de teoretiska begreppen tunn respektive tjock populism. För att förklara de populistiska uttrycken beaktar studien den historiska kontexten och utvecklingslinjer inom det republikanska partiet. Utifrån studiens resultat kan konstateras att de populistiska uttrycken är högst i Reagans och Trumps tal, medan Bushs tal har en lägre grad av populism. I studien förklaras detta utifrån den historiska kontexten, där 1980 och 2016 präglades av mer politisk instabilitet än 2000. Studien belyser hur populism inte uppstår ur tomma intet utan ska förstås i relation till kontexten i vilken den uttrycks. / From Reagan to Trump: Populist expressions within the Republican Party 1980–2017 is a bachelor thesis by Angelica Carlsson. The aim of the thesis is to explain populist expressions within the Republican Party in the United States during the period 1980–2017. Populist expressions in political speeches by the presidents Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush and Donald Trump are investigated and graded based on Kirk A. Hawkin's criteria of populism. The thesis is also taking the theoretical terms thin and thick populism into consideration. In order to explain the populist expressions the historical context and the historical development of the Republican Party is taken into account. The main findings of the thesis is that Reagan's and Trump's speeches has the highest degree of populist expressions, while Bush's speeches has a lower degree of populist expressions. The study explains this from the historical context, where 1980 and 2016 were characterized by more political instability than 2000. The study illustrates how populism does not arise from nothing and should be understood in relation to the historical context.

The diploma thesis "Strategic Defense Initiative" deals with the issue of the Strategic initiative on the basis of historical-political analysis. The SDI was a crucial topic during the 80s, which had political impacts on the development of the international events and the Cold war in general. This work presents brief history of the United States ABM systems and introduced historical context. Furthermore, the author analyzes possible reasons for the SDI announcement and reexamines Reagan's speech from March 1983. Persons and interest groups who were promoting strategic defense are also included in this analysis. Problems connected to the SDI and its brief description are also mentioned. The following chapter deals with Soviet reaction to the SDI. The seventh chapter dicusses the European reaction to the SDI. The topic is analyzed on the example of United Kingdom. Next chapter deals with the Anti Ballistic Missile treaty and its interpretations from the SDI prespective. Last chapter discusses US - Soviet summits which took place in the 80s with emphasis on the SDI.

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The United States, during both the Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan administrations, pursued humanitarian relief in the Horn of Africa and East Africa with an eye towards Cold War politics. During the Carter administration the focus was on Ethiopia and the regime of Mengistu Haile Mariam, while during the Reagan administration the United States’ efforts were mainly targeted towards Sudan and the regime of Gaffar Nimeiry. In both instances, the United States was concerned with the politics of the Cold War, trying to create a more positive image of the U.S. abroad by relieving world hunger, while also propping up governments that supported U.S. interests during the Cold War against the Soviet Union.

The incarceration rate in the United States has increased dramatically in the period since 1945. How did the United States move from having stable incarceration rates in line with global norms to the largest system of incarceration in the world? This study examines the political and intellectual aspects of incarceration and theories of criminal justice by looking at the contributions of journalists, intellectuals and policy makers to the debate on whether the purpose of the justice system is rehabilitation, vengeance, deterrence or incapacitation. This thesis finds that justice and the institution of the prison itself are not immutable facts of modern civilization, but are human institutions vulnerable to the influence of politics, culture and current events.

The distribution of power between the executive branch and the legislative branch in the realm of foreign policy is a delicate balance and one that has been debated since the Founding Fathers met in Philadelphia in the summer of 1787. The debate has gotten no less intense and no less crucial in the modern, nuclear age, and it remains unresolved. The Reagan administration's foray into Nicaragua during the 1980's and its confrontations with Congress during that time period illuminate the complexities of the power-sharing arrangement in foreign policy and offer the ideal case study of executive-legislative war power. The lessons to be drawn from America's involvement in Nicaragua are that the expanded Presidential power in the realm of foreign policy are necessary for the safety of the country in today's world, but dangerous without the vigorous oversight and ultimate check by Congress.