The usefulness and appropriateness of a federalist perspective as a theoretical construct for the study of government and civics at the secondary level

This dissertation is the formulation of an argument for the incorporation of a liberated federalism perspective as the foundational theoretical construct for the teaching and study of American government and civics at the secondary level. The argument asserts that the history of the nation, in terms of its basic view of government, has developed from a traditional federalist view to a natural rights view. Instruction of government and politics has paralleled that development. The argument further asserts that the current dependence on the natural rights perspective has contributed and helped legitimize, however unintentionally, the excessive levels of individualism, self-absorption, and uncivil behavior that is being experienced in our society today.^ The argumentation follows the dialectic form presented by Hegel of thesis, antithesis, and synthesis. That is, the thesis argues that the traditional federalist perspective would serve as a viable construct for the teaching of government and civics. In this portion of the argument, the republican model of political reality is presented. The antithesis promotes the natural rights perspective and relies on the political systems model for its theoretical approach. Finally, the synthesis argues that a liberated federalism perspective should be the foundational construct. Here, the argument presents its own model as a theoretical construct that is designed to assist teachers and curriculum materials writers in the development of American government and civics lessons and materials. ^

Patronage and bribery in sixteenth-century Peru: The government of Viceroy Conde del Villar and the visita of Licentiate Alonso Fernandez de Bonilla

This dissertation deals with the nature of the political system in sixteenth-century colonial Spanish America through an analysis of the administration of Viceroy Fernando de Torres y Portugal, Conde del Villar, in Peru (1585–1590). The political conflicts surrounding his government and the accusations of bribery leveled against him and members of his household provide the documentation for a case study in a system in which prestige and authority were defined through a complex network of patronage and personal relationships with the Spanish monarch, the ultimate source of legitimate power. ^ This dissertation is conceptualized using categories presented in Max Weber's theory on the nature of political order and authority in the history of human societies and the definition of the patrimonial system as one in which the power of he king confers legitimacy and authority on the whole political structure. ^ The documentary base for this dissertation is an exceptionally detailed and complete record related to the official administrative review ( visita) ordered by Philip II in 1588 to assess the government of Viceroy Torres y Portugal. Additionally, letters as well as other primary and secondary sources are scattered in repositories on both sides of the Atlantic. ^ The study of this particular case offers an excellent opportunity to gain an understanding of a political order in which jurisdictional boundaries between institutions and authorities were not clearly defined. The legal system operating in the viceroyalty was subordinated to the personal decisions of the king, and order and equilibrium were maintained through the interaction of patronage networks that were reproduced at all levels of the colonial society. ^ The final charges against Viceroy Conde del Villar, as well as their impact on the political career of those involved in the accusations, reveal that situations today understood to constitute bribery had a different meaning in the context of a patrimonial order. ^

Selection and passage of county land preservation voter referendum: The role of government

County jurisdictions in America are increasingly exercising self-government in the provision of public community services through the context of second order federalism. In states exercising this form of contemporary governance, county governments with "reformed" policy-making structures and professional management practices, have begun to rival or surpass municipalities in the delivery of local services with regional implications such as environmental protection (Benton 2002, 2003; Marando and Reeves, 1993). ^ The voter referendum, a form of direct democracy, is an important component of county land preservation and environmental protection governmental policies. The recent growth and success of land preservation voter referendums nationwide reflects an increase in citizen participation in government and their desire to protect vacant land and its natural environment from threats of over-development, urbanization and sprawl, loss of open space and farmland, deterioration of ecosystems, and inadequate park and recreational amenities. ^ The study's design employs a sequential, mixed method. First, a quantitative approach employs the Heckman two-step model. It is fitted with variables for the non-random sample of 227 voter referendum counties and all non-voter referendum counties in the U.S. from 1988 to 2009. Second, the qualitative data collected from the in-depth investigation of three South Florida county case studies with twelve public administrator interviews is transformed for integration with the quantitative findings. The purpose of the qualitative method is to complement, explain and enrich the statistical analysis of county demographic, socio-economic, terrain, regional, governance and government, political preference, environmentalism, and referendum-specific factors. ^ The research finds that government factors are significant in terms of the success of land preservation voter referendums; more specifically, the presence of self-government authority (home rule charter), a reformed structure (county administrator/manager or elected executive), and environmental interest groups. In addition, this study concludes that successful counties are often located coastal, exhibit population and housing growth, and have older and more educated citizens who vote democratic in presidential elections. The analysis of case study documents and public administrator interviews finds that pragmatic considerations of timing, local politics and networking of regional stakeholders are also important features of success. Further research is suggested utilizing additional public participation, local government and public administration factors.^

Selection and Passage of County Land Preservation Voter Referendum: The Role of Government

County jurisdictions in America are increasingly exercising self-government in the provision of public community services through the context of second order federalism. In states exercising this form of contemporary governance, county governments with “reformed” policy-making structures and professional management practices, have begun to rival or surpass municipalities in the delivery of local services with regional implications such as environmental protection (Benton 2002, 2003; Marando and Reeves, 1993). The voter referendum, a form of direct democracy, is an important component of county land preservation and environmental protection governmental policies. The recent growth and success of land preservation voter referendums nationwide reflects an increase in citizen participation in government and their desire to protect vacant land and its natural environment from threats of over-development, urbanization and sprawl, loss of open space and farmland, deterioration of ecosystems, and inadequate park and recreational amenities. The study’s design employs a sequential, mixed method. First, a quantitative approach employs the Heckman two-step model. It is fitted with variables for the non-random sample of 227 voter referendum counties and all non-voter referendum counties in the U.S. from 1988 to 2009. Second, the qualitative data collected from the in-depth investigation of three South Florida county case studies with twelve public administrator interviews is transformed for integration with the quantitative findings. The purpose of the qualitative method is to complement, explain and enrich the statistical analysis of county demographic, socio-economic, terrain, regional, governance and government, political preference, environmentalism, and referendum-specific factors. The research finds that government factors are significant in terms of the success of land preservation voter referendums; more specifically, the presence of self-government authority (home rule charter), a reformed structure (county administrator/manager or elected executive), and environmental interest groups. In addition, this study concludes that successful counties are often located coastal, exhibit population and housing growth, and have older and more educated citizens who vote democratic in presidential elections. The analysis of case study documents and public administrator interviews finds that pragmatic considerations of timing, local politics and networking of regional stakeholders are also important features of success. Further research is suggested utilizing additional public participation, local government and public administration factors.

A history of the presidency of National Taiwan University: The relationship between the university and an evolving democratic nation

Higher education always plays an important role in the development of a nation. Taiwan is no exception. Graduates of the National Taiwan University have occupied most of the important positions in this country and today many devote themselves to the development of Taiwan since the central government of the Republic of China (ROC) withdrew from Mainland China and re-located to Taiwan in the winter of 1949. The higher education system in Taiwan, including university and junior colleges, received special attention from the government except from 1945 to 1949 during the transitional period; the time of the early restoration year and the central government's retreating period from Mainland China.^ The five presidents of National Taiwan University who served from 1949 to 1993, Fu Szu-nien, Chien Seu-liang, Yen Chen-Hsing, Yu Chao-chung, and Sun Chen, are the subject of this research. All of the presidents were appointed by the government which established a direct connection between the government and the university leadership. The purpose of this study is to understand how each president balanced politically assigned roles and expectations with personal visionary academic responsiveness to the principles which define the university.^ Each president and his tenure were analyzed using historical research, a developed leadership model, an integration of role theory, Locke's leadership model, Wiles and Bondi curriculum leader tasks, and Burn's leadership style. Results of analyses of documents showed that all presidents of the National Taiwan University were highly respected due to their academic background, personal characteristics, and contribution to the university as a leader. Meanwhile, implementation and achievement of the presidents led to the conclusion that appointed university presidents had significant relationships with government policy. Their leadership style was affected strongly by their personal traits and knowledge and the social and political climate of the time. ^

Attitudes towards the marine environment and implications for marine resource management in Seward, Alaska

This research, conducted in 2006-2008, examines the ways in which various groups involved with the marine resources of Seward, Alaska construct attitudes towards the environment. Participant observation and semi-structured interviews are used to assess how commercial halibut fishers, tour boat operators, local residents and government officials understand the marine environment based on their previous experiences. This study also explores how ideologies relate to the current practices of each group. Two theories orient the analyses: The first, cultural modeling provided a theoretical and methodological framework for pursuing a more comprehensive analysis of resource management. The second, Theory of Reasoned Action (Ajzen and Fishbein 1980), guided the analysis of the ways in which each participant’s ideology towards the marine environment relates to their practice. Aside from contributing to a better understanding of a coastal community’s ideologies and practices, this dissertation sought to better understand the role of ecological ideologies and behaviors in fisheries management. The research illustrates certain domains where ideologies and practices concerning Pacific halibut and the marine environment differ among commercial fishers, government, and management officials, tour boat operators and residents of Seward, AK. These differences offer insights into how future collaborative efforts between government officials, managers and local marine resource users might better incorporate local ideology into management, and provide ecological information to local marine resource users in culturally appropriate ways.

Politics at the water's edge: The presidency, Congress, and the North Korea policy of the United States

For all their efforts to avoid a nuclear North Korea, the Clinton and Bush administrations failed to achieve this goal, the most important policy objective of the United States in its relations with North Korea for decades, mainly because of inconsistencies in U.S. policy. This dissertation seeks to explain why both administrations ultimately failed to prevent North Korea from going nuclear. It finds the origins of this failure in the implementation of different U.S. policy options toward North Korea during the Clinton and Bush administrations. To explain the lack of policy consistency, the dissertation investigates how the relations between the executive and the legislative branches and, more specifically, different government types—unified government and divided government—have affected U.S. policy toward North Korea. It particularly emphasizes the role of Congress and partisan politics in the making of U.S. policy toward North Korea. This study finds that divided government played a pivotal role. Partisan politics are also central to the explanation: politics did not stop at the water’s edge. A divided U.S. government produced more status quo policies toward North Korea than a unified U.S. government, while a unified government produced more active policies than a divided government. Moreover, a unified government with a Republican President produced more aggressive policies toward North Korea, whereas a unified government with a Democratic President produced more conciliatory policies. This study concludes that the different government types and intensified partisan politics were the main causes of the inconsistencies in the United States’ North Korea policy that led to a nuclear North Korea.

Raising Cane in the 'Glades: The Global Sugar Trade and the Transformation of Florida

Over the last century, the Everglades underwent a metaphorical and ecological transition from impenetrable swamp to endangered wetland. At the heart of this transformation lies the Florida sugar industry, which by the 1990s was at the center of the political storm over the multi-billion dollar ecological “restoration” of the Everglades. Raising Cane in the ’Glades is the first study to situate the environmental transformation of the Everglades within the economic and historical geography of global sugar production and trade. Using, among other sources, interviews, government and corporate documents, and recently declassified U.S. State Department memoranda, Gail M. Hollander demonstrates that the development of Florida’s sugar region was the outcome of pitched battles reaching the highest political offices in the U.S. and in countries around the world, especially Cuba—which emerges in her narrative as a model, a competitor, and the regional “other” to Florida’s “self.” Spanning the period from the age of empire to the era of globalization, the book shows how the “sugar question”—a label nineteenth-century economists coined for intense international debates on sugar production and trade—emerges repeatedly in new guises. Hollander uses the sugar question as a thread to stitch together past and present, local and global, in explaining Everglades transformation.

The Transitioning Economic Dynamics of the Military in Communist Regimes: A Comparison of Cuba, China and Vietnam [Student's Paper Series]

Several factors can increase or decrease military-economic involvement in communist regimes. This anomalous form of military behavior, labeled as the Military Business Complex (MBC), emerged in various communist regimes in the 1980s. However, in early 2000s, the communist governments of China and Vietnam began to decrease the number of military-managed industries, while similar industries increased in Cuba. This paper explains why military industries in Cuba have increased over the last two decades, while they decreased in the Chinese and Vietnamese examples. This question is answered by comparatively testing two hypotheses: the Communist Party and the Bureaucratic-Authoritarian (BA) Hypotheses. The Communist Party hypotheses helps explain how the historical and current structures of Party oversight of the military have been lacking in strength and reliability in Cuba, while they traditionally have been more robust in China and Vietnam. The BA hypotheses helps explain how, due to the lack of a strong civilian institutional oversight, the Cuban military has grown into a bureaucratic entity with many political officers holding autonomous positions of power, an outcome that is not prevalent in the Chinese and Vietnamese examples. Thus, with the establishment of a bureaucratic military government and with the absence of a strong party oversight, the Cuban military has been able to protect its economic endeavors while the Chinese and Vietnamese MBC regimes have contracted.

Consolidating Security and Development in Colombia: Lessons for Peru and Panama

Colombia's increasingly effective efforts to mitigate the power of the FARC and other illegitimately armed groups in the country can offer important lessons for the Peruvian government as it strives to prevent a resurgence of Sendero Luminoso and other illegal non-state actors. Both countries share certain particular challenges: deep economic, social, and in the case of Peru ethnic divisions, the presence of and/or the effects of violent insurgencies, a large-scale narcotics production and trafficking, and a history of weak state presence in large tracts of isolated and scarcely-populated areas. Important differences exist, however in the nature of the insurgencies in the two countries, the government response to them and the nature of government and society that affects the applicability of Colombia's experience to Peru. The security threat to Panama from drug trafficking and Colombian insurgents --often a linked phenomenon-- are in many ways different from the drug/insurgent factor in Colombia itself and in Peru, although there are similar variables. Unlike the Colombian and Peruvian cases, the security threat in Panama is not directed against the state, there are no domestic elements seeking to overthrow the government -- as the case of the FARC and Sendero Luminoso, security problems have not spilled over from rural to urban areas in Panama, and there is no ideological component at play in driving the threat. Nor is drug cultivation a major factor in Panama as it is in Colombia and Peru. The key variable that is shared among all three cases is the threat of extra-state actors controlling remote rural areas or small towns where state presence is minimal. The central lesson learned from Colombia is the need to define and then address the key problem of a "sovereignity gap," lack of legitimate state presence in many part of the country. Colombia's success in broadening the presence of the national government between 2002 and the presence is owed to many factors, including an effective national strategy, improvements in the armed forces and police, political will on the part of government for a sustained effort, citizen buy-in to the national strategy, including the resolve of the elite to pay more in taxes to bring change about, and the adoption of a sequenced approach to consolidated development in conflicted areas. Control of territory and effective state presence improved citizen security, strengthened confidence in democracy and the legitimate state, promoted economic development, and helped mitigate the effect of illegal drugs. Peru can benefit from the Colombian experience especially in terms of the importance of legitimate state authority, improved institutions, gaining the support of local citizens, and furthering development to wean communities away from drugs. State coordinated "integration" efforts in Peru as practiced in Colombia have the potential for success if properly calibrated to Peruvian reality, coordinated within government, and provided with sufficient resources. Peru's traditionally weak political institutions and lack of public confidence in the state in many areas of the country must be overcome if this effort is to be successful.

Attitudes towards the Marine Environment and Implications for Marine Resource Management in Seward, Alaska

This research, conducted in 2006-2008, examines the ways in which various groups involved with the marine resources of Seward, Alaska construct attitudes towards the environment. Participant observation and semi-structured interviews are used to assess how commercial halibut fishers, tour boat operators, local residents and government officials understand the marine environment based on their previous experiences. This study also explores how ideologies relate to the current practices of each group. Two theories orient the analyses: The first, cultural modeling provided a theoretical and methodological framework for pursuing a more comprehensive analysis of resource management. The second, Theory of Reasoned Action (Ajzen and Fishbein 1980), guided the analysis of the ways in which each participant’s ideology towards the marine environment relates to their practice. Aside from contributing to a better understanding of a coastal community’s ideologies and practices, this dissertation sought to better understand the role of ecological ideologies and behaviors in fisheries management. The research illustrates certain domains where ideologies and practices concerning Pacific halibut and the marine environment differ among commercial fishers, government, and management officials, tour boat operators and residents of Seward, AK. These differences offer insights into how future collaborative efforts between government officials, managers and local marine resource users might better incorporate local ideology into management, and provide ecological information to local marine resource users in culturally appropriate ways.

Atlantic Threads: Singer in Spain and Mexico, 1860-1940

This dissertation examines the role of Singer in the modernization of sewing practices in Spain and Mexico from 1860 to 1940. Singer marketing was founded on gendered views of women’s work and gendered perceptions of the home. These connected with sewing practices in Spain and Mexico, where home sewing remained economically and culturally important throughout the 1940s. "Atlantic Threads" is the first study of the US-owned multinational in the Hispanic World. I demonstrate that sewing practices, and especially practices related to home sewing that have been considered part of the private sphere and therefore not an important historical matter, contributed to the building of one the first global corporation. I examine Singer corporate records and business strategies that have not been considered by other scholars such as the creation of the Embroidery Department in the late nineteen-century. Likewise, this dissertation challenges traditional narratives that have assumed that Spain and Mexico were peripheral to modernity. I look at Singer corporate records in Spain and Mexico and at regional government and cultural sources to demonstrate how Singer integrated Spain and Mexico within its business organization. Singer's marketing was focused on the consumer, which contributed to make the company part of local sewing businesses and cultures.