Do presidential campaign events influence how people vote? Do campaign events impact polling margins? If not, why would presidential candidates and their campaign teams hold hundreds of campaign events in the fall leading up to Election Day? Political science research about the effect of presidential campaign events on election phenomena is mixed. This study examines the relationship between campaign events and average polling margins, at the state level, and vote margins, at the county level, in the 2024 presidential election. This study finds: (1) support for Hypothesis 1 that in a close race, as reflected in the polls, candidates work harder via campaign events in competitive states with a relatively high number of electoral votes; (2) that with respect to Hypothesis 2, the results did not find clear support that within battleground states, candidates hold campaign events where average polling margins are close. Instead, the study finds that for a few states, specifically Michigan, Wisconsin, and perhaps Pennsylvania, there is a moderate to weak correlation that there are fewer campaign events when the margin is larger. However, when the individual battleground state regressions were performed, generally in most states, there was no statistically significant relationship between polling margins and the number of campaign events in the week before the poll or the week following the poll, with few exceptions. With respect to Hypothesis 3, the study did not find clear support that the number of campaign events in a given county had a positive affect on vote margin at the county level. Instead, the regression results may have been affected by selection bias or the tight one-week time frame applied to measure the data.

We are in the midst of a boy crisis. Statistics and cultural observations indicate that there are a myriad of problems in health, education, the workforce, etc., which are having a disproportionate effect on men. At the heart of the boy crisis is a loss of purpose, as men no longer have a clear social role, drawn from their identity as soldier, leader, and sole breadwinner. To make sense of this cultural moment, I reach back to Plato, who lived in the midst of a boy crisis in the fifth century B.C. Athens. Through philosophy, Plato clarified the concept of masculinity and the virtue of courage, rooted in truth and goodness. I close-read Plato's Republic, defending his definition of courage as the act of preserving through everything the beliefs that the lawgiver declared ought to be feared through the process of education. I offer a philosophical response to the boy crisis and call for a cultural consensus and clear societal standards by which boys can find and preserve their sense of purpose. Without courage well-conceived and well-expressed, both individuals and society suffer. I present case studies from in-depth field interviews I conducted with members of Courage International, a Catholic ministry that works with those experiencing same-sex attraction. Through these case studies, I document the unique experiences of two Courage members and a priest working as the organization’s associate director to illuminate Plato's conception of courage, masculinity, and the common good at work in the lives of contemporary American men.

A FICTIONAL NATION: DYSTOPIAN LITERATURE AND THE REVERSAL OF AMERICAN PROGRESS UNDER TRUMP This thesis argues that under Trump’s administration, America begins to reflect the political dystopias imagined in the 20th century, signaling a reversal in the democratic progress of the 21st century. The central research questions guiding this thesis are as follows: • What historical role has storytelling played in shaping political discourse and public consciousness? • How does dystopian literature reflect and critique the political conditions and anxieties of the era in which it was written? • In what ways does the political climate under the Trump administration parallel the dystopian themes articulated in 20th-century fiction? This thesis employs a mixed-methods approach to address these research questions. The qualitative component consists of a close textual analysis of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, which serves as the primary lens for interpreting contemporary parallels. Where relevant, it will also incorporate Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 as a supporting microlens to broaden the comparative framework. These texts are selected for their canonical status in the totalitarian-dystopian genre and their thematic resonance with current socio-political conditions. The quantitative component involves constructing a longitudinal dataset of dystopian novels published across the 20th and 21st centuries, cross-referenced with major political events in the United States. This dataset will help identify patterns in the rise of dystopian literature during political upheaval, democratic backsliding, or heightened civil unrest. Together, these methods allow for interpretive depth and broader contextualization of dystopian literature’s political function.

This thesis analyzes the role, or lack thereof the United Nations played during the Rwandan Genocide. Examining the consequences of flawed information processing. Particularly, how mishandling of information, bureaucratic inefficiencies, and cognitive biases influenced decision-making processes, ultimately contributing to delayed and inadequate interventions. By evaluating primary sources, official reports, and scholarly analyses, I was able to identify critical failures in intelligence gathering, risk assessment, and crisis response by the United Nations. The findings bring to light systemic weaknesses in international institutions and ways information processing mechanisms were improved to prevent future humanitarian crises from occurring again.

Military coups d’état are often seen as detrimental to democracy, but most coups occur in nondemocratic countries. Consequently, a number of scholars have suggested that coups can play a pivotal role in democratization, but others have pointed to heterogeneous effects of coups d’état on democratization. In this thesis, I use linear-regression models with country- and year-fixed effects along with two comparative case studies to test the relationship between various conditions and post-coup democratization. I find that a country’s having recently been a democracy, the presence of protests during the coup, and a country’s having recently experienced another successful coup have positive correlations with post-coup democratization as compared with coups that occur in the absence of those conditions, although not necessarily as compared with the absence of a coup altogether. I also suggest that coups led by officers with ideological goals will be less likely to lead to democracy.

How do state-level political structures, party affiliations, and committee memberships shape oil and gas lobbying and policy outcomes? While federal lobbying has been widely studied, state-level dynamics remain underexplored despite its critical role in energy regulation. This paper hypothesizes that oil and gas lobbying strategies vary across state legislatures, dependent on party affiliation, committee memberships, and legislative tenure. Moreover, this thesis suggests that higher campaign contributions correlate with industry-friendly votes with energy committee members receiving higher contributions. Using a comparative case study of Texas, Pennsylvania, California, and Michigan, this study analyzes campaign contributions, legislative votes, and policy outcomes. Findings show that party affiliation is the strongest predictor of voting behavior, with Republicans consistently favoring industry policies. Contributions correlate with support, but outliers highlight limits to lobbying influence. Additionally, energy committee members receive substantially more funding indicating strategic lobbying efforts, while the impact of tenure varies depending on state political ideology.

Following the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, scholars have debated the growing cooperation between China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea that some have dubbed the “Axis of Upheaval.” Many observers have argued that these countries do not share an ideology and are solely united by shared animosity towards the United States. This study challenges these observations and demonstrates the existence of a shared ideology between the Axis of Upheaval consisting of support for multipolarity, anti-imperialism, and viewing the world through a civilizational lens. Using a mixed method approach, this study conducts a quantitative analysis of speeches by the leaders of the Axis of Upheaval, namely Xi Jinping of China, Vladimir Putin of Russia, Ali Khamenei of Iran, and Kim Jong-un of North Korea. It also conducts case studies of state-controlled media coverage across the Axis of conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza. The results demonstrated consistent rhetoric and emphasis on ideologies of multipolarity, anti-imperialism, and civilizationism. The study further revealed that state-controlled media in China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea interpret global events the same way, further suggesting the existence of ideologically driven narratives. Meanwhile, a comparative analysis with speeches by former U.S. President Joe Biden and American mainstream media reveals ideological division between the United States and the Axis of Upheaval. These findings challenge observations that the Axis of Upheaval is purely bound by opposition to the United States and not ideology. These findings also challenge the assertion that the conflict between the United States and countries like China and Russia is not ideological

The world faces two energy crises: dependence on carbon-emitting fuel sources exacerbating climate change and energy poverty. At the same time that global temperatures rise, over one billion people around the world subsist energy-poor. National and international government bodies focus alleviation efforts on green energy transitions for the sake of the environment but at an unnoticed cost. Climate-oriented policies shift foreign aid allocations, removing aid from fossil fuels and promoting renewable energy. In developing countries, these foreign aid flows play a role in helping move towards cleaner energy sources; however, this comes with unintended consequences. This thesis aims to establish a connection between foreign aid and rises in energy poverty in developing countries. Through original data analysis, this study shows that increases in official development aid, when coupled with increases in green energy aid, drive an increase in energy poverty as a function of the cost of electricity and household affordability. To explore how foreign aid flows have country-specific impacts on energy poverty, the thesis relies on the examples of India and Bangladesh. The findings presented in this thesis contribute to the broader discussion of foreign aid and climate policy in political science and have valuable insights for policymakers as they work to create a sustainable and affordable future.

Companies’ involvement with American politics has become a central issue in the media. This thesis aims to address the political intricacies behind why companies get involved with public policy and how consumers react to this involvement. Thus, the main question in this thesis is: why/how do companies get involved with public policy and how does it affect American consumers? Scholarship around this topic has thoroughly examined factors like “corporate political activity” and “corporate social responsibility,” as well as “partisan brand signals,” “political consumerism,” and “agenda setting” to answer these questions. Scholars have found that companies have an increased awareness of the rapport they can build with their customers and stakeholders by being socially and politically responsible. Although, this comes with complex convergences of political actors’ agendas and company agendas. The issue of influential companies’ involvement with politics is a contemporary issue that every American has to reconcile. I form my argument by scraping data from 25 corporate X accounts to analyze the trend of corporate political posting in the media. I pair this trend with surveys on American sentiment towards company involvement with public policy and conduct case studies on Bud Light and Amazon to fully understand how consumers and companies are affected by corporate political involvement. I find a recent downward trend of political posting and of American sentiment towards company involvement with public policy. The implications of my findings are that the relationship between corporate political activity/corporate social responsibility and consumer sentiment is cyclical and thermostatic. This means companies, consumers, and political actors should be able to predict what CPA and CSR will look like in the years to come.

In this Thesis, I examine how the extension of American-ness to Black quarterbacks in the NFL may be contingent on their performance. I hypothesize that, when Black quarterbacks play well or win their games, they are accepted into the American group—but when they play poorly or lose their games, their status as part of this group is called into question. I use archival research and content analysis of historical newspapers about Black quarterbacks of the past; structural topic modeling (STM) in R on Reddit comments about quarterbacks during the 2023-2024 NFL playoffs; and analysis of a poll conducted in 2017 about former 49ers quarterback and current activist Colin Kaepernick to test my hypothesis. Though many of the results of this Thesis were not statistically significant and therefore do not seem to provide conclusive evidence for my hypothesis, I leave open the possibility of quarterbacks’ gameplay and their actions outside of the sport impacting how American-ness is ascribed to them. I also provide direction for future research that can build upon this Thesis.

This thesis examines how the legacies of colonialism and Cold War geopolitics have shaped Guyana’s fiscal policy, institutional architecture, and enduring patterns of ethnic inequality. Through a historically grounded analysis, it traces how British colonial governance fostered extractive institutions and racialized labor divisions, while Cold War interventions entrenched authoritarianism and ethnic clientelism within the state apparatus. The result was a political economy in which fiscal policy became a tool not of redistribution or development, but of patronage and division. With the discovery of vast offshore oil reserves and the influx of petroleum revenues, Guyana now stands at a pivotal juncture: oil wealth offers the unprecedented potential to reverse historical inequalities—or to deepen them under new conditions of resource dependency. Employing a multidisciplinary framework that draws on Dependency Theory, Rentier State Theory, and Participatory Democracy, this thesis interrogates whether Guyana’s emerging oil regime has thus far fostered inclusion or exacerbated existing divides. Ultimately, it argues that without radical institutional reform and meaningful civic engagement, the country risks reproducing its past under the guise of petro-futurism.

This thesis investigates whether local legislative bodies—specifically city and county councils—exhibit patterns of partisanship and political polarization, despite institutional structures designed to suppress them. Using Optimal Classification (OC), a spatial modeling technique applied to over 550,000 roll-call votes across 55 councils, I analyze the extent to which party affiliation shapes legislative behavior in both partisan and formally nonpartisan settings. The findings reveal that partisanship is a notable organizing force in local governance: parties form cohesive coalitions, and ideological polarization is present across council types and jurisdictions. These results challenge long-standing assumptions that local politics operates independently from national partisan trends and contribute to a growing body of literature on the nationalization of American political life. Ultimately, this thesis highlights the need for renewed attention to local government as a meaningful site of ideological conflict and democratic accountability.

The rising prevalence of far-right rhetoric on mainstream social media sites poses an ever-increasing danger towards American society. This thesis explores one potential cause of that mainstreaming, that being the use of memetic iconography by both the public and political elites. Through an in-depth content analysis of one of the most prevalent memes used by the far-right today, the wojak, as well as a quantitative and qualitative analysis measuring the engagement surrounding tweets of several political elites, I show that a) memetic iconography is an integral part of the mainstreaming of far-right rhetoric due to its ability to normalize such content and b) political elites use memetic iconography to signal support to those with silent far-right preferences, emboldening them to express their views on mainstream social media sites. These findings have implications for theories on political persuasion, radicalization, political normalization, and network amplification.

This paper aims to analyze China’s Belt and Road Initiative and the investments it has made into several key countries. The countries that will be used as a case study for this research paper are Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. These countries were selected as key pieces to China’s Belt and Road Initiative’s success. This research paper aims to show how connected China is to these countries' economies and the massive investments China has made. Ultimately, the main focus is on how China uses the economy's dependence and leverages the massive investment as political leverage. The research surrounding this primarily claims that China hasn’t been successful in gaining political leverage through investments from the Belt and Road Initiative. Although this is true in some instances, most of the research has been on European countries. This paper will show that certain qualities, such as economic dependency and relationships with the United States, determine if China can gain political leverage. Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates all meet specific criteria for China to gain political leverage. To see if political leverage is achieved in these countries, UN voting data will be analyzed between the countries and China. This will encompass years before and after the investment from China. Then, all the data will be taken and compiled into a graph showing whether or not UN voting alignment increases after the investment. This will indicate whether or not China has gained political influence, as the more aligned the country is with China on political issues, the more influence they have. In addition to this, there will be a qualitative study of each of the countries, as UN voting alone can’t give the full influence China has.

This paper investigates the divergent energy transition pathways of Southeast Asian nations, with a deep focus on two nations in particular, Cambodia and Indonesia, in order to explore how structural factors, governance, and foreign investment shape national responses to climate change. The two nations have also taken very different approaches to the adoption of renewable energy, even though they are both exposed to international climate commitments and Chinese infrastructure funding under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Cambodia has quickly expanded its capacity for renewable energy, especially in solar and hydro power, by utilizing Chinese investment, international partnerships, and the absence of legacy fossil fuel industries to build a green energy system from the ground up, while Indonesia continues to prioritize coal because of its well-established coal industry, strong lobbying groups, and the complexity of its geography as an archipelago, which creates major infrastructure barriers to the integration of clean energy. Drawing on policy reports, energy data from years between 2000–2023, and case studies on foreign direct investment (also known as FDI), this paper argues that economic development alone does not determine a country's energy trajectory. Instead, legacy industries, governance capacity, and geographic realities critically mediate the impact of foreign capital and climate frameworks like the Paris Agreement. Additionally, my analysis will shed light on how Cambodia’s institutional flexibility and weak fossil fuel incumbency allowed room for rapid green transition, while Indonesia’s deep-rooted coal legacy industry sector and regulatory stagnation have prevented pro-green energy reforms. I also aim to include policy recommendations emphasizing transition strategies, regional cooperation, and targeted green finance which are all imperative for Southeast Asia’s sustainable future.