- EN The thesis analyzes the idiolect of the then-presidential candidate Barack Obama in the specific speech situation of the televized debates on the background of the utterances of other candidates in the years 2000, 2004 and 2008. The analysis uses corpus-driven methods to compare the Obama corpus with the reference corpus. The comparison is largely based on the analysis of keywords and their use in context, supplemented by the discussion of their collocations and associated clusters. The results of the analysis, i.e. the principal features Obama's idiolect, are presented in a structured summary, divided into specific areas. Keywords: Idiolect, individual textual profile, Obama, keywords, corpus, corpus-driven

Thesis advisor: Timothy Crawford / This thesis focuses on United States civil-military relations during the first decade of the twenty-first century. It examines interactions between principal-level civilian and top-tier military leadership during three strategic decision-making moments. Each case involves examples of subjective civilian control. The author's goal is to investigate and then categorize the processes that were used, assessing how variables influenced the nature of subjective control. Qualitative process tracing is the primary methodology. The author focuses on available sources from myriad avenues including but not limited to journalism, memoirs, primary documents, and social science literature. Case study analysis identifies numerous variables. Presidential leadership and process organization were found to be the most influential, spanning from engaged to "delegatory" and orderly to ad-hoc, respectively. Correlations are identified between the variables. Then, theories from established literature are reviewed and applied when possible. Research finds that subjective civil-military relations became increasingly moderate and theoretically "pure" over each case, chronologically. The author uses his analysis to create new typologies of subjective civil-military control, focusing on the relationships between presidential leadership and process organization. The resulting typologies are intended to assist political scientists' identification and categorization of varying civil-military relationships on the subjective end of Huntington's spectrum. / Thesis (MA) — Boston College, 2013. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Political Science.

The aim of my thesis was to examine in how far Barack Obama was capable to realize his promises he had given to American voters during his electoral campaign. This task were completed in two time lines: Firstly, I focused on realization of his agenda during the fist year in the office. Secondly, I researched how many of the promises and how far did he manage to realize before the Midterm election changed the constitution of the Congress to his disadvantage. To provide a solid analysis, I chose to narrow the topic and concentrated on three spheres only: tax policy, health care reform and foreign policy. However, the last one mentioned was far too extensive, so I selected three main issues Obama was addressing during his campaign: the war in Afghanistan, Iraq and the detention facility in Guantanamo. During the research I examined Obama's promises and actual policies. To illustrate what Obama was getting into I also characterized the situation in the field before his presidency.

In the early 1990s many scientists claimed that there was a scientific consensus that the anthropogenic production of greenhouse gases was causing global warming. Carbon dioxide is produced in far greater quantities than other greenhouse gases. Over 80 percent of the carbon dioxide produced in the United States comes from coal-fired power plants. If global warming is a threat to the welfare and survival of future generations, the United States, as one of the greatest producers of greenhouse gases,has an obligation to reduce its production of these gases. In order to determine the most effective way to reduce the production of greenhouse gases in the United States, this study examines recent efforts by the Clinton and Obama administrations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from coal-fired power plants.The Clinton and Obama administrations were selected for this study because both administrations were Democratic, and both had avowed political agendas to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. For the first two years each administration enjoyed the support of Democratic majorities in both Houses of Congress, and they had similar political support for the remainder of their time in office. This study will show that President Obama’s executive approach to reducing carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fired power plants has been more effective than the legislative approach of the Clinton administration. The study will indicate that a scientific consensus about anthropogenic global warming and the political will to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from coal-fired power plants did not exist during the 1990s. The study also shows that, despite the effectiveness of the Obama administration in reducing carbon dioxide emissions, there are many problems with the executive approach to the problem. The study suggests that the Clean Air Act has ceded to much legislative power to the Executive branch of government, and that success in reducing carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fired power plants is too dependent on the will of the Executive.

<p>Rhetoric and politics have been interrelated through time. Major political leaders have tried to influence their followers through well-organized and well-written political speeches since the Roman Empire and Byzantium. As one of the original writers of rhetoric, Aristotle referred to it as the art of finding the best aspect of an argument that tends to convince the audience. In my thesis, I analyze and compare the rhetoric of President George W. Bush with that of President Barack Obama. Specifically, I compare and contrast their respective State of the Union Addresses. The questions that I want to answer lay upon the methods both Presidents use during their respective speeches. My thesis also discusses their respective prioritized topics. I give a short presentation of the importance of rhetoric, ranging from the Roman Empire to today‟s American politics. I also comment on the meaning of rhetoric in the modern age. In order to perform my analysis, I use the five stage method of rhetorical analysis: Context, Disposition, Means to convince, Argumentation Analysis and Style. The different argument styles of President Bush and President Obama are discussed.</p>

The 2008 election of Barack Obama to the United States’ presidency is an undeniable historical landmark demonstrating progress in race relations; however, it has yet to be determined how the election affects the way in which racial minorities are viewed and whether Obama’s presidency will advance their societal position. Despite some claims that the election signifies the existence of a post-racial nation, recent social (Harlow 2008; Hunt and Wilson 2009; Parker, Sawyer, Towler 2009; Tesler 2010), psychological (Effron, Cameron, and Monin 2009; Eibach, and Purdie-Vaughns 2009; Kaiser et al. 2009), political (Piston 2001; Huddy and Feldman 2009; Redlawsk, Tolbert, and Franco 2010), economic (Jacobson 2010; Lewis-Beck and Tien (2009) and legal (Nelson 2009; Troutt 2009) research predicts that the election will have little effect, or potentially a negative impact, on efforts to achieve racial parity in America. To assess what President Obama’s election means for American race relations, this study examines multiple measures of prejudice among Whites as predictors of their support for racial equality. Using data from the American National Election Studies (ANES), I examine different forms of racism, and the extent to which they influence Whites’ support of government policies that promote racial equality. The focal independent variable, racial ideology, is measured by old-fashioned racism, systemic racism, symbolic racism, laissez-faire racism, and color-blind racism. The focal dependent variable, race-based policy preferences, is measured through support for government policies which promote racial equity in education and employment contexts. Factor analysis is used to identify how Whites’ feelings towards Obama, reaction to Obama’s election victory, feelings towards Blacks, outlook on black presidents in general, and beliefs concerning political power differentials between Blacks and Whites relate to different theoretical racial ideologies. Racial orientations that are indicated by measured variables then serve as focal independent variables in multiple regression analysis to predict the focal outcome variables concerning support for policies that foster racial equality. Factor analysis and regression analysis are conducted with pre-election, post-election, and recent data in order to assess change in Whites’ racial attitudes and policy preferences at various points in time. Results from the analysis suggest differences before and after the election in terms of racist ideology and support for programs that benefit racial minorities. Whites are now less likely to agree with the implementation of affirmative action and government policy supporting racial equality. Systemic and color-blind racist ideologies are the strongest predictors of opposition to race-based policy. Furthermore, it seems antiracist ideology has diminished since President Obama was elected. These findings are consistent with sociological and political research that suggests Whites’ opposition to racial policies and black candidates is often more influenced by symbolic racism than by realistic self-interest (Sears and Henry 2003) and confirms predictions (Bonilla-Silva and Ray 2009; Metzler 2010) that Obama’s presidency coupled with new forms of racism, such as color-blind racism, may serve to negatively affect racial equality in the United States.

Rhetoric and politics have been interrelated through time. Major political leaders have tried to influence their followers through well-organized and well-written political speeches since the Roman Empire and Byzantium. As one of the original writers of rhetoric, Aristotle referred to it as the art of finding the best aspect of an argument that tends to convince the audience. In my thesis, I analyze and compare the rhetoric of President George W. Bush with that of President Barack Obama. Specifically, I compare and contrast their respective State of the Union Addresses. The questions that I want to answer lay upon the methods both Presidents use during their respective speeches. My thesis also discusses their respective prioritized topics. I give a short presentation of the importance of rhetoric, ranging from the Roman Empire to today‟s American politics. I also comment on the meaning of rhetoric in the modern age. In order to perform my analysis, I use the five stage method of rhetorical analysis: Context, Disposition, Means to convince, Argumentation Analysis and Style. The different argument styles of President Bush and President Obama are discussed.

An ongoing debate surrounds the question of whether digital media can promote participatory democracy. A qualitative case study was conducted on Barack Obama’s campaign social networking site, my.barackobama.com, in order to investigate the ways in which the website promotes or discourages participatory democracy. For a rich analysis, the case study drew on various relevant theoretical perspectives, including the concepts of participatory democracy and digital democracy. The case study included a content analysis of the website and interviews with members of groups on the site. The study found that my.barackobama.com promoted political knowledge and non-electoral participation, but failed to promote political discussion and community. Consequently, the recommendations highlighted the importance of an online public sphere. The findings of this case study add to the research literature about the political use of digital media, and they also add new information about Barack Obama’s digital media strategies.

This essay will show how conservatism and liberalism is established and maintained in American presidential rhetoric, by analyzing the speeches held by George W. Bush in 2000 and Barack Obama in 2008 at their respective party’s national convention, at the time when they accepted their party’s nomination for the presidency for the first time. By conducting an ideology analysis by examining the language used in the two speeches, and connect that to the metaphors of morality in George Lakoff’s (2002) theory of the Nation-as-Family, the essay will show examples of how the two presidential candidates establish themselves as bearers and protectors of their party’s ideological base and how this can be related to the view on moral in American politics. The Republican Party connects to conservative ideology and the Democratic Party to liberal ideology. The Nation-as-Family theory involves looking at the relationship between the government and its citizens as that between parents and their children. Connected to conservative ideology is the Strict Father who proclaims authority, obedience and character and connected to liberal ideology is the Nurturant Parent who proclaims nurturing, empathy and equal distribution of opportunities. Connected to Strict Father and Nurturant Parent there exists a number of metaphors of morality that helps organize the language being used. Although notions of the ‘wrong’ moralities appear in the ‘wrong’ speeches, the results from the analysis clearly indicates that the Nation-as-Family theory is highly valid in displaying the connections between political speeches and the ideological bases to which the speakers adhere.

This paper attempts to provide an answer to the question of why the White House Tribal Nations Conferences (2009-2011) are happening by offering two hypothesis-- the first being the growing American Indian political power, while the other looks at whether the Conferences are simply symbolic politics--as potential answers. An in depth analysis of the Conferences and the purported accomplishments from the summits are analyzed in order to gain a deeper understanding of the Conferences themselves. Lastly, an interview with a tribal leader is presented to provide another framework in which to view the Conferences.