<p> This thesis sought to narrow some of the knowledge gaps in political communication and advertising. By examining the content of local newspapers about U.S. Senate candidates, this research determined female candidates receive just as much, if not more, newspaper coverage than male candidates. There were few endorsements given to candidates, especially from national and state office holders. Additionally, this thesis found that many of the newspaper articles were focused on non-issues. Previous studies on women in politics suggested female candidates often face more media hurdles than their male counterparts, specifically receiving less print media coverage. In contrast, this thesis found that women may no longer face the same barriers as they once did.</p>

<p> Multi-stakeholder initiatives (i.e., partnerships between governments, civil society, and the private sector) are an increasingly prevalent strategy promoted by multilateral, bilateral, and nongovernmental development organizations for addressing weaknesses in public sector governance. Global public sector governance MSIs seek to make national governments more transparent and accountable by setting shared standards for information disclosure and multi-stakeholder collaboration. However, research on similar interventions implemented at the national or subnational level suggests that the effectiveness of these initiatives is likely to be mediated by a variety of socio-political factors.</p><p> This dissertation examines the transnational evidence base for three global public sector governance MSIs&mdash;the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, the Construction Sector Transparency Initiative, and the Open Government Partnership&mdash;and investigates their implementation within and across three shared national contexts&mdash;Guatemala, the Philippines, and Tanzania&mdash;in order to determine whether and how these initiatives lead to improvements in proactive transparency (i.e., discretionary release of government data), demand-driven transparency (i.e., reforms that increase access to government information upon request), and accountability (i.e., the extent to which government officials are compelled to publicly explain their actions and/or face penalties or sanction for them), as well as the extent to which they provide participating governments with an opportunity to project a public image of transparency and accountability, while maintaining questionable practices in these areas (i.e., openwashing).</p><p> The evidence suggests that global public sector governance MSIs often facilitate gains in proactive transparency by national governments, but that improvements in demand-driven transparency and accountability remain relatively rare. Qualitative comparative analysis reveals that a combination of multi-stakeholder power sharing and civil society capacity is sufficient to drive improvements in proactive transparency, while the absence of visible, high-level political support is sufficient to impede such reforms. The lack of demand-driven transparency or accountability gains suggests that national-level coalitions forged by global MSIs are often too narrow to successfully advocate for broader improvements to public sector governance. Moreover, evidence for openwashing was found in one-third of cases, suggesting that national governments sometimes use global MSIs to deliberately mislead international observers and domestic stakeholders about their commitment to reform.</p>

<p> Bill Clinton proffered a plan for student loans as he was running for president: a direct loan system with repayments tied to income and collected by the Internal Revenue Service. Since that time, student loan policy continued to struggle with the dichotomy of the bank based lending system and the direct loan system, until President Obama ended new federal student loan originations in the bank based system entirely in 2010. The actions of President George W Bush&rsquo;s administration in between these two Democratic administrations also played a role in this evolution of student lending. How and why did these Presidents take these policy actions and what does that tell us about student loan policymaking within the executive branch? This dissertation employs a case study methodology to explore whether frameworks of policymaking theory may offer insights into student loan policymaking across these three administrations. </p>

<p> This thesis investigates the influence of business on the public policymaking process in the United States. A framework is proposed for categorizing policymaking contexts and mechanisms of influence, synthesized from previous literature on structural versus institutional power, automatic versus instrumental influence, arenas of power, and on the opportunity structures pertaining to distinct varieties of capitalism. Much of the literature on business' influence on policy performs analyses at the corporation level, resulting in the limited consideration of firms as formal-legal entities, as rational "black-box" actors, or as ensembles of resources. This thesis proposes an assemblage-theoretic approach to conceptualizing the firm and its position within political institutions and political-economic structures. It is argued that firms' preferences and capacities for influence are properties emergent from the extrinsic relations among actors and resources within the firm, as well as from firms' extrinsic relations with other actors in broader structural and institutional networks. This framework is demonstrated through an analysis of the Department of Energy's Loan Guarantee Program (LGP), including an institutional and structural history of the program, a quantitative analysis of the program's portfolio, and a qualitative analysis of two high-profile cases: Tesla and Solyndra. The qualitative analysis illustrates the instrumentalization of automatic pathways of influence, the transformation of transactional mechanisms into relational pathways, and the interaction of formal and informal pathways. The multivariate regression analyses show a significant positive relationship between lobbying and loan size, reinforcing the notion that relational pathways are instrumentalized effectively by firms at the stage of distribution. Political contributions were not found to be statistically significant, but were negatively associated with loan size, suggesting that the impact of contributions may be indirect through their transformation into relational pathways over time. It is proposed that additional emergent properties captured by the mapping of firm assemblages, such as mediated relational pathways, may be modeled using the framework developed and quantified using network analysis. It is argued that the conception of firms as assemblages comprising larger institutional and structural networks is a promising inroad to future study of business' influence on policymaking, with broader implications for policy studies and political economy.</p><p>

<p> This thesis was written as to meet the requirements and specifications of the Pepperdine School of Public Policy National Security capstone course SPP 607.01. Written in the spirit of the official National Security Strategies created by each Presidential administration, this document looks to analyze policy concerns of the United States, surrounding the Russian Federation. Despite the seemingly endless points of contention between both nations where there interests conflict, there are an abundance of opportunities where both nations&rsquo; interests align. It is within these concurrent interests that opportunities arise for coordination and cooperation. Policy makers whom adopt a realistic understanding of the Russian Federation, can pragmatically craft policy to advance American interests in the region and more readily protect the Security of the United States.</p>

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2003. / Document formatted into pages; contains vi, 316 p. Includes bibliographical references (p. 305-316). Abstract available online via OhioLINK's ETD Center; full text release delayed at author's request until 2006 Aug. 15.

<p> Over the past twenty-five years, the United States has moved from optimism to considerable pessimism about its role to do well in the world. Indeed, President George H.W. Bush&rsquo;s &ldquo;New World Order&rdquo; stands unquestionably in stark contrast to today&rsquo;s reality; from failed states in Africa to aspiring if not un-stabilizing states in Asia. Yet, when faced with such problems the United States does not know what it stands for, or what to do about them. In short, since emerging as a superpower the United States has, until of late, known what role it must play in terms of global leadership; whether it was making the world safer for democracy or in charge of a global economic order. Nevertheless, since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the American led geo-political system, as a whole, has become more unstable not less. </p><p> Using a multidimensional approach this thesis sets out a trio of structural factors: (1) Superpower China; (2) A liberal international order that is neither liberal, nor international, nor orderly; (3) Failed American foreign policy. Combined, these three factors have emerged to mean that American primacy is in real danger. This thesis also proposes that for Pax Americana to continue there must emerge a consistency between American values and the grand strategy that it pursues.</p><p>

Although many workers have a private household as their workplace, many household employers are unaware of or fail to meet their state and federal payroll tax obligations, thus undermining the workers’ retirement income security. This dissertation uses sixty interviews with household employers and employees in the Washington, DC, area to investigate the causes and conditions of nanny tax evasion. Ethnographic fieldwork and semi-structured interviews indicate that lack of awareness, tax complexity, social norms of noncompliance, and poor personal ethics diminish payroll tax payment; concern over one’s job, personal ethics and altruistic concern for the employee motivate compliance. An analysis of limited IRS data on audits as well as data on Schedule H household employment payroll tax returns reveal that although some unpaid tax was discovered, almost as much tax paid in error was refunded, confirming the importance of complexity as a determinant of compliance. Analysis of results using Kohlberg’s stages of moral development and force field analysis of motives provides insight into employers’ decisions to pay or evade their nanny taxes. Policy recommendations emphasize increasing public awareness, tax simplification, and enforcement.

<p> A significant number of Liberian ex-militants are unemployed and underemployed despite the job skills, formal education, and entrepreneurial training they received as participants in the Formal Disarmament, Demobilization, and Reintegration (DDR) program that was established to reintegrate combatants into civilian society at the end of the two civil wars in Liberia in 2003. The purpose of this study was to examine the strengths and weaknesses of the vocational training offered by the DDR program. Informed by the theories of Human Capital, Peace Building, and Bronfrenbrenner, the research questions for this study assessed the benefits of the educational component of DDR. A phenomenological study design was employed with a purposeful sample of ex-militant participants that included 12 ex-militants and a focus group of 6-ex-militants drawn from the 12 who completed vocational training at the Monrovia Vocational Training Center in Monrovia (MVTC). All data were inductively coded and analyzed using a constant comparative method. Data analysis uncovered five textural themes: motivation for disarmament, hope to rebuild lives through vocational training, dissatisfaction with reintegration, perception of reintegration, and perception of future combat participation. Findings support human capital, peace building, and ecological systems theories in that ex-militants perceived the benefit of education in their transition to peacetime endeavor, but consider themselves only partially reintegrated since all consider themselves unemployed with no means to survive economically. This study is significant because it provides recommendations to policymakers on how such a program can improve the vocational training offered and provide follow-up life-skills counseling. </p>

Today, climate change and rapid ecological change are impacting our ecosystems and landscapes in numerous, often surprising ways. These changes result in social, cultural, ecological, and economic shifts, as exemplified in the climate-exacerbated mountain pine beetle (MPB) outbreak in British Columbia. Recently, scientific communities have boosted calls for “usable science.” By interviewing leading MPB scientists, I ask, “How are scientists and their institutions responding to rapid ecological change?” Numerous factors shape MPB science—institutional support, funding, and values—and these factors enable and constrain effective relationships and ultimately, useful science, in response to the outbreak. Results suggest that while science and scientific institutions change slowly, and while relationships between MPB science and policy are characterized as tenuous, there are signs that crossing institutional boundaries (such as the TRIA Network) contributes to producing science that is more effective for responding to rapid ecological change. / Graduate