By integrating theory from political economy and consumer psychology, this dissertation provides a framework for understanding consumer preferences toward trade liberalization. Public support for protection is typically analyzed through trade's consequences on labor markets. Few studies directly consider the impact of trade on consumers, who are typically assumed to benefit from liberalization. Although trade is theorized to increase consumer welfare, consumers often express mixed attitudes toward trade liberalization. It is argued that trade has clear effects on consumption with welfare gains being realized through the purchase of imports. Because consumers differentiate products by country of origin, however, the gains of trade are not distributed equally across individuals, industries, or agreements. While trade is welfare-enhancing for heavy consumers of imports, individuals with strong preferences for domestic products benefit from protectionist policies that disperse the cost of maintaining inefficient industries and guarantee the availability of domestic goods. Empirical and experimental data overwhelmingly support the claims of the model. Individuals who prefer domestic goods are shown to express higher levels of support for protection. Additionally, bilateral trade attitudes are consistent with the consumer preference model. Public support for trade is higher with countries predicted to provide a greater consumer surplus. It is concluded that consumerism plays a major role in trade attitude formation and consumer preferences should be given greater emphasis in future work examining the political economy of trade. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Political Science in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Fall Semester, 2013. / October 18, 2013. / Consumer Preferences, International Political Economy, Political Psychology, Protection, Public Opinion, Trade / Includes bibliographical references. / Sean D. Ehrlich, Professor Directing Dissertation; Stefan C. Norrbin, University Representative; Dale L. Smith, Committee Member; Jennifer Jerit, Committee Member; Brad T. Gomez, Committee Member.

My dissertation project examines the causes of FDI inflows in autocratic countries, attempting to answer the puzzle "Why do some autocratic countries attract more FDI inflows than others?" Given the credible commitment issue that FDI entails, institutions to protect property rights and enforce contracts are argued to be central mechanisms for attracting FDI inflows. This line of reasoning leads to the stylized conclusion that democracy has more advantages than autocracy in attracting FDI. However, we observe autocratic countries, such as China and Singapore, attracting huge amounts of FDI. This generates the puzzle. I focus on the role of domestic and international commitment institutions and how they affect FDI inflows in autocratic countries. I argue that autocratic regimes can attract FDI inflows by developing domestic commitment institutions particularly when they have long time horizons, and the credibility of the institutions is strengthened by political institutions such as autocratic legislatures and parties. I also contend that autocratic countries benefit by joining international commitment institutions such as bilateral investment treaties (BITs), but the effects of those international institutions on FDI inflows are modified by the strength of the domestic commitment institutions. Using a time-series cross-sectional design which covers autocratic countries from 1970 to 2008, I find evidence supporting the arguments. My conclusion is that market friendly and stable autocrats can attract considerable FDI inflows just as democratic countries are able to do. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Political Science in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester, 2014. / April 8, 2014. / Autocracy, Commitment Institutions, Foreign Direct Investment / Includes bibliographical references. / Dale L. Smith, Professor Directing Dissertation; Manoj Atolia, University Representative; Mark A. Souva, Committee Member; Sean D. Ehrlich, Committee Member; Christopher Reenock, Committee Member.

This dissertation is comprised of three empirical studies that explore both the determinants and consequences of election law restrictiveness in the American states. The first study examines why states restrict the public's ability to use the initiative process. I argue that states will move to increase election law restrictiveness when the initiative is perceived as threatening to legislative autonomy, majority party control over policymaking, or a state's fiscal health. I test these expectations using a novel dataset that catalogues both proposed and enacted restrictions to the initiative process between 1996 and 2011. I find evidence that, contrary to the expectations of prior works, threats to state fiscal health exert a minimal effect on subsequent changes to election law restrictiveness. Rather, it is the threat to state autonomy and majority party control over policy that appears to shape state legislative response to direct democracy; in particular, the education of a state's electorate, electoral volatility, and citizen-government distance each exert strong effects on the willingness of states to make it more difficult for the public to successfully use the initiative process. The second study examines several potential effects of election law restrictiveness. Recently, many U.S. states that allow citizen initiatives have passed laws designed to make it more difficult for an initiative to qualify for the ballot (e.g., by increasing the number of signatures required to get on the ballot), thereby making it harder for citizens to bypass the legislature and make direct changes to public policy. Such laws have reduced both the number of measures that make the ballot, and the number that pass on Election Day. I show that laws governing access of initiatives to the ballot also shape the policy agenda; provisions making it harder for proposals to get on the ballot decrease the complexity of the initiatives on the ballot. Since less complex initiatives are more likely to be understood by voters, and voters are reluctant to vote for measures they do not understand, more restrictive laws increase the percentage of ballot measures that are approved. Finally, the third study explores how the complexity of ballot measures shapes individual-level abstention. That is, why do individuals who have turned out to vote abstain from voting on certain ballot measures? Previous work examines abstention at the aggregate level by observing ballot roll-off, and focuses on the readability of the ballot summary for a measure as the primary determinant of whether individuals will abstain. In contrast, I hypothesize that three individual-level factors interact with the accessibility (i.e., ease or difficulty) of a ballot measure's issue content to influence one's propensity to abstain. Individuals with low knowledge, who are risk averse, and who attach low importance to the issue should be more likely to abstain from voting than those with high knowledge, who are risk acceptant, and who attach high importance to the issue. Furthermore, the impact of each of these individual-level traits strengthens as the issue raised in the measure becomes less accessible. I find strong empirical evidence for these hypotheses using a survey experiment. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Political Science in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester, 2014. / March 20, 2014. / Election laws, Elections, Interest groups, Voting / Includes bibliographical references. / William D. Berry, Professor Directing Dissertation; Brad T. Gomez, Committee Member; John Barry Ryan, Committee Member; Jennifer Jerit, Committee Member.

The study of diffusion and adoption of innovations in political science is incomplete and unable to answer the question why do policies diffuse? Additional information should be incorporated into the process. Specifically, rightly defining adoption events that are policy inventions leads to better distinction between major and minor policy changes. Merging two dominant and productive frameworks used for studying policy change-innovation, diffusion and adoption (IDA) framework, and Advocacy Coalition (AC) framework-we can incorporate contextual information more readily into an analysis of policy diffusion. I call this an Invention Based Approach (IBA). With the IBA I explicitly pursue historical events and critical junctures. In this dissertation I gain better understand of an invention event, resulting policy diffusion, and reinvention. I provide descriptive analysis of child adoption policy history in America prior to 1851 and analyze new data to buttress understanding policy invention. I show that conventional wisdom regarding how child adoption policy was created is wrong. I identify and describe important elements of belief for the major and minor coalition factions present at this time. The coalition variables receive limited support in diffusion models. Traditional indicators resource is supported. Other traditional indicators are insignificant which is supportive of the theory presented. Policy reinvention analysis also supports the theory that coalition replacement must occur before major policy change can occur. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Political Science in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester, 2014. / April 8, 2014. / Advocacy Coalition Framework, Child Adoption, Invention Based Approach, Policy Diffusion, Policy Invention, Policy Studies / Includes bibliographical references. / Charles Barrilleaux, Professor Directing Dissertation; Lenore McWey, University Representative; Jason Barabas, Committee Member; Eric Coleman, Committee Member; Carol Weissert, Committee Member.

<p> Many concerns contributed to the creative success of Charles Darwin&rsquo;s theorizing, including his humble character, reading Wordsworth, courting Emma for his wife, and considering the origins of creative thought in a material mind. Creativity is not straightforward; in Darwin&rsquo;s case, it was fed by diverse interests, literary sensitivities, character traits, unusual introspection and even thoughts of marriage.</p><p> During the time frame of this study, the two important years between his return from the <i>Beagle</i> and his Malthusian insight that led to natural selection, Darwin twice read <i>The Excursion</i> and fell in love. While he thought hopefully of Emma, he was focused on reproduction to understand species transmutation and pondered evolved roots for emotions like love, thus linking his sexual and creative stimulation. Part of his drive to succeed was for Emma&rsquo;s approval, to be a victorious naturalist and demonstrate that he would be a good provider. Emma appreciated Darwin&rsquo;s humble character, a trait that also allowed him to question belief systems and intellectual conceits that restricted other naturalists. Darwin noted that many of his peers were blocked from understanding species transmutation by their intellectual vanities&mdash;like the idea that man was the crown of creation instead of just one species in nature&rsquo;s panoply.</p><p> In the intellectual culture of Darwin&rsquo;s time creationism was science, while scientists competed with poets for authority over explaining nature. Wordsworth epitomized creativity while asserting that <i>The Excursion&rsquo;s </i> themes were man, nature and human life&mdash;parallel to Darwin&rsquo;s. Wordsworth&rsquo;s insights into human emotions, morality and creativity were important to Darwin, who needed to explain all human traits, physical, emotional and mental, as evolved from simpler animals. Darwin reflected on the roots of imaginative thought and proposed a process for thinking that he applied it to his own theorizing; from nascent generation of ideas through rigorous dialectic testing to solid conclusions, thus demonstrating thoughts in competition.</p><p> The strong correlation between the productivity of Darwin&rsquo;s theorizing and his humility, poetry, Emma and considerations of creativity, offers new insights into the path of his theorizing, and perhaps into the origins of creativity itself.</p>

<p>This thesis argues that it is productive to consider playthings, playmates, playgrounds, and play practices as constituting a set with shared design characteristics. </p><p> Before turning to the case studies that lead to the principles of play design, we must first address two foundational methodological points: </p><p> First, in order to analyze something as play, we must be able to speak constructively about play itself, which is a bewildering subject. In chapter 1, <i>Play</i>, we review the literature on play, reconciling multiple perspectives and definitions, and distill seven play characteristics that underpin the thesis. </p><p> Second, in order to analyze software, we must have methods for doing so. Chapter 2, <i>Software</i>, advances an analytical framework for this purpose. This is a methodological contribution to the nascent field of software studies, which seeks to interpret the semi-visible infrastructure of computing that mediates modern life, from our bodies and our most intimate relationships to our public and political lives. To link software to play, I introduce an additional analytical framework for considering software as a resource for play. </p><p> Will Wright created <i>SimCity</i> to amuse himself and learn about cities. To build it, he appropriated from multiple traditions in which computers are used as tools for modeling and thinking about the world as a complex system, most notably system dynamics and cellular automata. Wright&rsquo;s make believe play was scaffolded by these software practices, which offered inspiration and guidance, as well as abstract computational primitives for world building. Chapters 3&ndash;5 trace the historical contexts and origins of <i>SimCity</i>&rsquo;s many design influences, from system dynamics (chapter 3) and cellular automata (chapter 4)&mdash;two very different ways of seeing, thinking about, and computationally representing the world&mdash;to <i> Pinball Construction Set</i> and <i>Raid on Bungling Bay</i> (chapter 5). </p><p> Taking up the evolution of software in this way allows us to see how it is formed, what it is made of, and how ideas are embedded within and perpetuated by it. Deconstruction also helps us to understand software as a medium of dynamic representation, a scaffold for thought, an aesthetic experience, and its appeal as a resource for play. </p><p> In Chapter 5, <i>SimBusiness</i>, I give a historical account of <i>SimCity</i>&rsquo;s creation and the social circumstances that shaped its design, and sketch the history of Maxis, the company that marshaled and published <i>SimCity</i>. The trajectory of Maxis offers a parable about play and creativity. We see in Maxis&rsquo;s formation and unraveling the inescapable tension between play and capitalism, and between intrinsic and extrinsic play&mdash;the private autotelic play that innovates and creates, and the public play of player-consumers that pays the bills. </p><p> Chapter 6, <i>SimCity</i>, completes the <i>SimCity</i> case study by considering it as play artifact and experience. Using extensive diagrams that translate and map its code, I perform a close reading of <i> SimCity</i>, explaining how it conjures the illusion of a miniature living city, and how this living world scaffolds play. </p><p> Two non-digital examples round out the play design case studies. In chapter 7, <i>City Building Education</i>, we look at Doreen Nelson&rsquo;s practice of building and role playing model cities with children in classrooms. Nelson&rsquo;s simulation is an excellent counterpoint to Wright&rsquo;s, and their comparison elucidates many play design principles. Chapter 8, <i> Adventure Playground</i>, looks at an unusual playground in which children build with junk, and play with risks and materials, like wood, paint, and nails, that are typically withheld from them. In addition to illuminating principles of play design, the adventure playground tradition reveals play&rsquo;s &ldquo;refructifying&rdquo; (Sutton-Smith 1999) capacity to sweep up everything, even the detritus of civilization, and creatively reimagine it. Conceived amidst the darkness of World War II, adventure playgrounds illustrate how life transcends ruin through play&mdash;an important lesson for the 21st century&rsquo;s unfolding challenges. </p><p> In chapter 9, <i>Play Design</i>, I articulate play design principles drawn from the case studies. The principles are analytical, enabling us to see how play is scaffolded, as well as generative, prescribing design strategies for scaffolding play. This analytical-generative pairing enables us to deconstruct the design of a plaything, and transfer these design techniques to a new project&mdash;a technique that should be of interest to the educators, marketers, and designers of all stripes who have often envied the deep focus, enthusiasm, and pleasure afforded by make believe caves, dungeons, cities, and computationally animated living worlds. Play design is also deeply relevant to new embodiments of computation on the horizon, such as augmented reality and tangible dynamic media. Play is profoundly appropriative, and good play designs teach us how to robustly accommodate unpredictable environments and activities. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)</p>

This thesis addresses the role of geography in the Scientific Revolution, a matter yet to be settled by historians of science. Specifically it argues that cosmography, the parent discipline of both astronomy and geography, was central to Copernican natural philosophy in the early modern period. Copernicus, Bruno, Gilbert, Galileo and Descartes all sought to provide a unified picture of the heavens and earth by harmonising ideas in geography and astronomy, according to established principles of cosmography. In addition, using concepts about the earth?s form to build heliocentric cosmological theories was routine amongst Copernican thinkers. Indeed, this analysis demonstrates that Copernicus, Bruno and Gilbert staked their claims about the heavens on their theories of the earth. Recognising cosmography offers several advantages to historical understanding of the Scientific Revolution. It helps explain the form of Bruno?s argument for an infinite cosmos and a multiplicity of worlds. It provides insights into Gilbert?s interest in the detailed structure of the earth, beyond simply magnetism, and reveals that his argument followed a more traditional path than generally thought. A cosmographic perspective explains why Galileo took such pride in his theory of the tides and clarifies the place of this theory in his case for heliocentrism. From the cosmographic viewpoint, Descartes appears as a radically ambitious cosmographer with his use of a single account of the creation of the heavens and earth, thereby linking geography and astronomy in a single physical theory. Thus, cosmography represented a competitive enterprise among the Copernican natural philosophers. In general, thinking in terms of cosmography helps us understand the manner in which geographical ideas entered into the conceptual developments of the Scientific Revolution. The main contribution to knowledge in this thesis is its identification of cosmography as a key frame of reference for early modern thinking about cosmology, overlooked in the historical literature.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2006. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 207-210).

<p> This dissertation examines the importance of geography, performance, and microscopy in the construction of theories of human difference in Europe in the eighteenth century, with a particular focus on "fringe groups" such as albinos with black parents and individuals with complexion disorders. It joins a growing discussion in history, the history of science and medicine, and critical racial theory about the social and philosophic bases of early-modern human taxonomic schemas. Collectively, the fields analyzed in this study share a common conceptual root in their dependence on transferable physical processes&mdash;techniques&mdash;as much as on the intellectual frameworks investing those gestures with meaning. The necessarily embodied processes of exploration, spectatorship, and microscopic visual analysis produced discrete ways of seeing human difference which influenced the conclusions that natural philosophers reached through those embodied experiences. Marginal groups of individuals with unexpected or "abnormal" complexions drew a disproportionate amount of attention in the eighteenth century, because they were not easily identifiable with pre-existing conceptions of human difference and consequently provided a strong impetus to reconsider those epistemic categories. Overwhelmingly, the perspectives of eighteenth-century natural philosophers were profoundly non-racial in nature; instead, they drew upon ideas as varied as monstrosity, morality, self-analysis, dramatic tragedy, entertainment, and imagination to position experiences of unexpected human diversity in a distinctly valuative and sensational understanding of human difference. Through the interrogation of new and underutilized sources, this dissertation argues for an enrichment of our understanding of the "history of race" by taking into account the diversity of the physical techniques that were used by eighteenth century thinkers to arrive at ideas about human difference, while simultaneously demonstrating the centrality of hitherto understudied groups&mdash;such as albinos with black parents&mdash;in the formulation of systems of human difference. </p>

<p> I consider the claims made by medical ethicists that funding by pharmaceutical companies threaten the integrity of medical research and the claims of philosophers of science that evidence-based medicine can provide a sound epistemic foundation on which to base medical treatment decisions. Drawing on both game theory and medical history, I argue that both medical ethicists and philosophers of science have missed crucial aspects of medical research. I show that both veritistic and commercial aims are enduring and entrenched aspects of medical research. Because these two drives are perpetually pulling medical research in different directions, I identify the resultant conflict as the fundamental antagonism </p><p> The primary task of the dissertation is to provide a framework that incorporates both drivers of medical research. Specifically, I argue that medical research is best conceived of as an asymmetric arms race. Such a dynamic is typified by a series of moves and countermoves between competing parties who are adjusting to one another's behavior, in this case between those who seek to make medical practice more responsive to good evidence and those whose primary motivations are instead commercial in character. </p><p> Such a model presents three challenges to standard evidential hierarchies which equate epistemic reliability with methodological rigor. The first is to show that reliability and rigor can (and do) come apart as a result of the countermeasures employed by manufactures. This fact suggests that in considering policy proposals to improve epistemic reliability, it is robustness (i.e. resistance to manipulation) that should be the crucial desideratum. The second consequence is a reorientation of medical epistemology. One of the primary strategies that manufacturers have employed is to manipulate the dissemination of information. A focus on an isolated knower obscures the impact that industry has in shaping what information is available. To address these problems medical knowledge must be understood from a social epistemological framework. Finally, and most importantly, the arms race account suggests that the goal of identifying the perfect experimental design or inference pattern is chimerical. There is no final resolution to the fundamental antagonism between commercial and scientific forces. There is only a next move.</p>