http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/topic/44/political-science Inquiries Journal provides undergraduate and graduate students around the world a platform for the wide dissemination of academic work over a range of core disciplines. en-us Tue, 05 May 2026 23:36:29 -0400 Tue, 05 May 2026 23:36:29 -0400 http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1960/against-eco-camp-analyzing-the-flaws-of-the-modern-climate-movement By Matthew Quintos - This interdisciplinary paper investigates the shortfalls and obstacles to success currently facing the climate movement, examining issues represented by the disconnect between policy and electoral politics, the hypocrisy and blatant indifference of nations and leaders, and the repeated exclusion of indigenous communities. These challenges are explored through the lens of camp, as defined by Susan Sontag in her seminal essay “Notes on Camp.” Susan Sontag’s descriptions in her essay were designed to more clearly articulate the behaviors, practices, ideas, and sentiments associated... Mon, 19 Sep 2022 03:11 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1960/against-eco-camp-analyzing-the-flaws-of-the-modern-climate-movement http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1957/how-media-influences-the-use-of-violence-in-protests-an-analysis-of-the-black-lives-matter-and-#stopthesteal-movements By Clay B. York - Two of the most prevalent protest movements in recent history were the Black Lives Matter and the #StopTheSteal movements. While there are many differences between the two, one of the most prevalent is their use of violence. Whereas the BLM movement remained largely peaceful, the StS movement did not. Despite previous research indicating that several factors such as communal identities, state repression, and viewing nonviolent methods as ineffective cause protests to turn violent, the research conducted in this paper found that one other factor was more important than those discussed by previous... Tue, 07 Jun 2022 08:52 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1957/how-media-influences-the-use-of-violence-in-protests-an-analysis-of-the-black-lives-matter-and-#stopthesteal-movements http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1954/guns-and-suicidal-thoughts-in-adolescence-an-understudied-relationship By Max Gonzalez Saez-Diez - The prevalent school of thought states that suicidal ideation and suicide planning are not associated with living in households with firearms. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) in the years 1994 and 1995, I use multiple logistic regression models to estimate the effect of the availability of guns on the odds of adolescents in those households experiencing suicidal thoughts. By matching across several key demographic and psychosocial variables, I approximate a randomized treatment assignment. I find evidence that contradicts the prevalent... Fri, 06 May 2022 10:23 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1954/guns-and-suicidal-thoughts-in-adolescence-an-understudied-relationship http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1953/civil-military-linkages-and-authoritarian-regime-survival-during-the-arab-spring-understanding-different-outcomes-of-the-revolutions By Darya Maliauskaya - Strong linkages between autocrats and the military are often seen as a necessary condition for authoritarian regime survival in the face of uprising. The Arab Spring of 2011 supports this contention: the armed forces in Libya and Syria suppressed the mass protests, while the military in Tunisia and Egypt refused to engage in the counterinsurgency efforts. To better understand these divergent outcomes, the following paper examines the factors that affect civil-military linkages in authoritarian regimes in the Middle East and North Africa. The paper argues that there are three main methods through... Fri, 06 May 2022 09:38 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1953/civil-military-linkages-and-authoritarian-regime-survival-during-the-arab-spring-understanding-different-outcomes-of-the-revolutions http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1951/biased-narratives-in-the-media-coverage-of-fatal-shootings-during-black-lives-matter-demonstrations By Halie A. Hoffman - During the summer of 2020, two fatal shootings occurred following Black Lives Matter protests. The first event involved Kyle Rittenhouse in Kenosha, Wisconsin, and the second Michael Reinoehl in Portland, Oregon. Two shootings, each committed by members of opposing political ideologies and opposite their victims, present an opportunity to check for ideological bias in the news by comparing CNN and Fox coverage, sources who lean opposite on media bias scales, in the immediate aftermath of fatal shootings. Results suggest that CNN relied more heavily on episodic framing of the Portland event, thereby... Fri, 15 Apr 2022 02:04 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1951/biased-narratives-in-the-media-coverage-of-fatal-shootings-during-black-lives-matter-demonstrations http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1950/the-impact-of-gender-discrimination-on-statelessness-a-case-study-of-the-impact-of-nationality-laws-on-statelessness By Fernando A. Lopez Oggier - With over 10 million stateless people globally, statelessness has increasingly become a pressing issue in international law. The production of statelessness occurs across multiple lines including technical loopholes, state succession, and discriminatory legislation. This study assesses how gender-based discrimination in nationality laws impacts the incidence of statelessness. There are seven countries whose citizenship laws forbid women to confer their nationality to their children with little to no exceptions. This study examines five of these seven countries where sufficient, reliable information... Fri, 15 Apr 2022 12:40 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1950/the-impact-of-gender-discrimination-on-statelessness-a-case-study-of-the-impact-of-nationality-laws-on-statelessness http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1947/architectural-beauty-as-a-public-good-through-the-lens-of-ritzer-and-kohn By Olivia Sun - After World War II, America’s baby boom and rapid migration into cities sparked a damaging housing crisis. This marked a turning point in architectural style: the rise of modernism. Modernism prioritizes function above all else and believes in the existence of a most efficient, most cost-effective housing blueprint. Hence, America rolled out planned housing developments by the masses with each community constructed in a near-identical fashion. This essay points to the consequential neglect of architectural beauty which is defined as a perfect reflection of the identity of a shared imaginative... Fri, 25 Mar 2022 02:16 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1947/architectural-beauty-as-a-public-good-through-the-lens-of-ritzer-and-kohn http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1939/funding-for-creative-education-and-its-socioeconomic-benefits-a-literature-review By Grady Klein - The United States spends more on public education per student than all but three countries in the world based on 2016 findings from the National Center for Education Statistics, and yet a similar study by the same agency three years later demonstrates that, by comparison, the literacy of those students is faring much worse than countries of lesser FTE (Full-time equivalent) funding - where approximately twenty-one percent of adults read under a 12th-grade reading level. Empirical data suggests that an increase in creative arts involvement among students leads to an increase in overall student... Fri, 11 Feb 2022 09:55 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1939/funding-for-creative-education-and-its-socioeconomic-benefits-a-literature-review http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1937/knowledge-production-in-international-relations-a-poststructural-feminist-critique-of-liberal-feminism By Dana K.J. Al-Thani - In popular international relations (IR) theory, knowledge production is often dismissed as an objective process between the researcher and the empirical world. This article rejects this notion and contends that the process of knowledge production is always inherently political in the conduct and study of IR. In order to achieve this argument, a poststructural lens is adopted in order to critique the liberal understanding of knowledge production within IR as a scientific process capable of revealing ‘universal truths.’ Additionally, in discussing ‘the political’ this article... Wed, 09 Feb 2022 01:27 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1937/knowledge-production-in-international-relations-a-poststructural-feminist-critique-of-liberal-feminism http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1934/the-politics-of-nation-building-ethnicity-and-democratization-in-ethiopia By Melale G. Hailu - This article explores the political relationship between nation-building, ethnicity, and democracy in the context of Ethiopia. It traces Ethiopia's poltical history, explores the consequential role ethnicity has played in the formation of the modern Ethiopian nation-state, and analyzes the manner in which democracy (or some form of it) has materlaized in the country post 1990. It argues that the politicization of ethnicity, in an already weak and culturally pluralistic state, further reinforces the existence of a repressive state and becomes a considerable impediment to democratic maturation and... Mon, 17 Jan 2022 11:59 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1934/the-politics-of-nation-building-ethnicity-and-democratization-in-ethiopia http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1932/chinas-international-investments-under-xi-jinping-long-term-implications-of-the-belt-and-road-initiative-and-asian-infrastructure-investment-bank By Rakkshet Singhaal - The study examines the degree to which Xi Jinping has brought about a strategic shift to the Chinese outward investment pattern and how this may present significant political leverage and military advantages for China in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR). In order to understand China’s intention behind its outward investments, the study examines the numerous outbound investments made by Chinese businesses and state-owned enterprises, especially in the infrastructure and energy sector, and demonstrate a strategic shift brought by Xi Jinping to achieve his domestic objective, which can be seen... Fri, 14 Jan 2022 10:00 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1932/chinas-international-investments-under-xi-jinping-long-term-implications-of-the-belt-and-road-initiative-and-asian-infrastructure-investment-bank http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1931/federalism-and-the-value-of-institutional-experience-during-a-national-disaster-identifying-determinants-of-rapid-emergency-medicaid-waiver-adoption-during-the-covid-19-pandemic By Jason Semprini - Section 1135 emergency waivers were designed as tools for policy-makers to rapidly increase health system capacity during a disaster. Granting regulatory, administrative, or payment-model flexibilities during the covid-19 pandemic, states may be better equipped for an influx of hospitalizations. One month passed before every state adopted a covid-19 waiver and no research investigated why states adopted waivers sooner than others. This study utilizes a Parametric (Gamma) Time-to-Event design to construct a Contextual, Institutional, Political, External, and a combined Integrated model to identify... Thu, 06 Jan 2022 01:24 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1931/federalism-and-the-value-of-institutional-experience-during-a-national-disaster-identifying-determinants-of-rapid-emergency-medicaid-waiver-adoption-during-the-covid-19-pandemic http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1930/mobutu-and-the-collective-congolese-memory-reconstructing-the-past-as-a-survival-tool By John M. Mulunda - Despite the focus of scholars on the repressive elements of Mobutu’s Reign, “The rumble in the Jungle,” abacost jackets and the return to “authenticité” instead form the core of the 32-year reign of dictator Mobutu Sese Seko in the collective Congolese memory. In the nearly 24 years since his removal from office, Mobutu’s memory has been collectively reconstructed by the Congolese people, complicating our scholarly understanding of Mobutu’s reign and its place in contemporary imagination. The once despised dictator is now often admired as a symbol... Thu, 06 Jan 2022 12:41 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1930/mobutu-and-the-collective-congolese-memory-reconstructing-the-past-as-a-survival-tool http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1929/understanding-the-2016-republican-primary-substantive-versus-strategic-voting-behavior By Max Gonzalez Saez-Diez - Was the selection of Donald Trump in the 2016 Republican Primary a strategic or a substantive choice? Donald Trump defied many predictions when he won the GOP’s presidential nomination despite his initial ‘underdog’ standing and controversial record. However, there is a limited understanding of the interplay between assessments on Trump’s electoral power versus policy and ideological preferences in voters’ decision-making. Scholars have long argued that “viability” considerations strongly affect voters’ choice in primary elections, where substantive... Mon, 03 Jan 2022 11:44 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1929/understanding-the-2016-republican-primary-substantive-versus-strategic-voting-behavior http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1925/emotion-and-politics-how-strengths-of-mind-relate-to-political-attitudes-in-the-united-states By Vincent C. Patierno - Political polarization has been an increasingly salient point of discussion since the 2016 presidential campaign, the election of Donald Trump, and into today. Beyond emphasizing partisan and issue-based divides, scholars have identified emotion-based roots of polarization. With more cognitive and emotional aspects of social behavior being considered in empirical frameworks, contributions from psychology have become of paramount importance. The present study employs measures of variables that emphasize self-awareness and openness to opposing viewpoints, like intellectual humility. Research to... Wed, 01 Dec 2021 02:36 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1925/emotion-and-politics-how-strengths-of-mind-relate-to-political-attitudes-in-the-united-states http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1922/dengs-war-assessing-the-success-of-the-sino-vietnamese-war By Richard Chen - The Sino-Vietnamese War remains one of the most peculiar military engagements during the Cold War. Conventional wisdom would hold that it was a proxy war in the vein of the United States’ war in Vietnam or the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan; however, it was far from either of these engagements, both in its scope and in its final goals. Military analysis holds that the Sino-Vietnamese War was a tremendous failure—Chinese troops massively underperformed when compared to Vietnamese soldiers. However, after a consideration of Deng’s political situation and the balance of power in... Mon, 22 Nov 2021 09:22 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1922/dengs-war-assessing-the-success-of-the-sino-vietnamese-war http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1919/how-religiosity-shapes-satisfaction-with-democracy-a-mediterranean-case-study By Julien Argoud - More and more countries are democratic, but at the same time, the number of people dissatisfied with it has constantly been increasing during the last two decades. Nevertheless, studying people’s “satisfaction with democracy” has been heavily debated in Comparative Politics. However, using this variable does make sense as it is possible to observe significant correlations between strong dissatisfaction with democracy and democratic backsliding globally. We argue in this paper that religiosity is a crucial factor to understand this phenomenon. Research has nonetheless come to... Tue, 26 Oct 2021 10:58 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1919/how-religiosity-shapes-satisfaction-with-democracy-a-mediterranean-case-study http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1913/securitization-framing-and-the-threat-of-right-wing-militias-under-donald-trump By Mia Wolosky - This paper assesses the political preferences and ideologies of the Trump administration and how they influenced framing issues in a way that has underestimated the threats of right-wing militia groups in the United States. President Trump and officials within his administration used rhetoric to place emphasis on the security concerns associated with immigration and far left-wing groups, while failing to condemn violence coming from the right. This paper analyzes how framing, and the securitization of certain issues, downplayed and encouraged the persistent threat of far right-wing domestic terrorists... Tue, 05 Oct 2021 10:23 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1913/securitization-framing-and-the-threat-of-right-wing-militias-under-donald-trump http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1912/populist-authoritarian-readings-of-machiavellis-prince-from-interwar-to-the-present By Graciela E. Lee - In the present day, it seems there's been an unprecedented influx of strong leaders – strong leaders, strong diplomats, strong political campaigns, and strong personalities. Not all of these qualities are mutually exclusive, though it does appear that those in power who exhibit themselves primarily through their “strong personality” possess more controversy and instability than those who are of the other character types. One man, however, seemed to cover all the above bases in his various roles – as a diplomat, strategist, poet and playwright – though he seemed to... Thu, 30 Sep 2021 10:22 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1912/populist-authoritarian-readings-of-machiavellis-prince-from-interwar-to-the-present http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1910/covering-climate-change-a-sentiment-analysis-of-major-newspaper-articles-from-2010--2020 By Amy M. Patronella - This research lies at the nexus of political communication theory relating to emotional affect and political processing and the burgeoning field of sentiment analysis. News coverage can affect opinion both through the information it provides and the emotional reaction it generates. To better understand the affective content of news coverage of climate change, we mobilized two dictionary tools to perform an unsupervised sentiment analysis. Using 2,017 articles about climate change from 11 major U.S. newspapers between 2010-2020, this study assesses both the valence and top eight basic emotions... Thu, 23 Sep 2021 08:26 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1910/covering-climate-change-a-sentiment-analysis-of-major-newspaper-articles-from-2010--2020 http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1909/grand-narrative-fragmented-reality-the-belt-and-road-initiative-in-heilongjiang-province By Gabriel Wagner - Most analysts agree that China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is set to become a defining feature of the global economy of the 21st century. However, there is wide-ranging debate about how to understand the BRI. Is it a top-down “grand strategy” directed by Xi Jinping, or just an umbrella term for a wide range of fragmented individual projects? This paper examines the “Three Bridges One Island” (三桥一岛) initiative in Heilongjiang province to shed light on this question. The findings suggest that official policy narratives about the BRI are indeed dictated... Tue, 21 Sep 2021 07:21 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1909/grand-narrative-fragmented-reality-the-belt-and-road-initiative-in-heilongjiang-province http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1907/through-thick-and-thin-understanding-democracy-and-its-consequences-in-the-united-states By Zak Schneider - One of the key ways to measure and analyze the performance of such expansive countries such as the United States is to look at their institutions and corresponding values. This paper offers a framework of thin democracy, the institutions, norms, and end goals that are broadly accepted by Americans in order to wage political conflict through peaceful means. And thick democracy, or a more complex sense of civic understanding that permeates at the mass level. Then, this work delves into the American case study of democratic erosion, looking through the lens of both thin and thick democratic elements... Fri, 17 Sep 2021 09:20 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1907/through-thick-and-thin-understanding-democracy-and-its-consequences-in-the-united-states http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1901/the-jazz-ambassadors-intersections-of-american-foreign-power-and-black-artistry-in-duke-ellingtons-far-east-suite By Rebecca E. Coyne - Scholarly discussions of Ellington’s Far East Suite, a composition inspired by his travels to India and the Middle East, have tended to interpret its impressionistic depictions of the “exotic” either as evidence of a superior cultural sensitivity or as the straightforward continuation of a white Orientalist musical tradition. I propose a third view based on the overlapping and racialized power dynamics of jazz ambassadorship itself: Ellington uses conventional jazz tropes rather than absorbing foreign musical influences in the Far East Suite in order to assert the independent... Tue, 25 May 2021 09:12 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1901/the-jazz-ambassadors-intersections-of-american-foreign-power-and-black-artistry-in-duke-ellingtons-far-east-suite http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1894/the-growing-popularity-of-the-radical-right-comparing-institutional-societal-and-historical-explanations-in-the-united-states-and-france By Zak Schneider - Following the enlightenment era, a new incarnation of politics created a uniquely democratic, liberal, egalitarian structure of government in Western democracies. In recent years, there has been an erosion of these qualities in favor of alternate ideologies such as Right-Wing Populism. Fundamentally, what is the appeal of these ideologies that are diametrically opposed to liberal democracy? I argue that multiple factors are catalyzing the growth of this Right-Wing Populism worldwide. Firstly, the structural weaknesses in democratic governance itself. Secondly, contemporary societal conditions... Mon, 05 Apr 2021 03:10 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1894/the-growing-popularity-of-the-radical-right-comparing-institutional-societal-and-historical-explanations-in-the-united-states-and-france http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1889/single-payer-reform-and-rural-health-in-the-united-states-lessons-from-our-northern-neighbor By Jared M. Hirschfield - Single-payer health reform has secured its place in the mainstream American health policy debate, yet its implications for particular subpopulations or sectors of care remain understudied. Amidst many unanswered questions from policymakers and political pundits, rural health has emerged as one such area. This article explores rural Canada’s five-decade-long experience with a national publicly funded health insurance program as a valuable opportunity for cross-national learning. During March 2020, I conducted 13 semi-structured, elite stakeholder interviews with government officials, academic... Mon, 15 Mar 2021 02:29 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1889/single-payer-reform-and-rural-health-in-the-united-states-lessons-from-our-northern-neighbor http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1888/sisters-in-solidarity-the-fight-for-feminism-in-modern-day-china By Ashley Tan - Feminism has grown to be a complex, multifaceted topic of conversation in China. It has witnessed a series of peaks and troughs that have both advanced and regressed the women’s movement since Mao’s era. This paper aims to evaluate the extent to which feminism in modern day China has been curtailed by the state, and the reasons underpinning this phenomenon. It concludes that the state’s adoption of certain state laws, initiatives and fostering of a culture that normalises working women rather than portraying them as misfits or anomalies have created a more equalised environment... Fri, 12 Mar 2021 09:12 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1888/sisters-in-solidarity-the-fight-for-feminism-in-modern-day-china http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1870/liberal-and-realist-explanations-of-merkels-open-door-policy-during-the-2015-refugee-crisis By Niklas Ernst - During the 2015 refugee crisis Chancellor Angela Merkel allowed refugees to enter Germany in unprecedented numbers. Her historic decision to adapt the so-called “open-door policy” continues to shape contemporary German politics. More precisely, it will likely define Merkel’s legacy and political future. This article analyzes her decision through two major IR theories: liberalism and realism. It aims to contribute to the discipline’s understanding of the “open-door policy” by assessing what each theory can explain well and less well. While the article analyzes... Mon, 01 Feb 2021 02:03 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1870/liberal-and-realist-explanations-of-merkels-open-door-policy-during-the-2015-refugee-crisis http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1864/democratic-misrepresentation-a-quantitative-analysis-of-out-of-district-state-campaign-fundraising By Mattew L. Katz, Justin Miller, & Sethu Odayappan - This paper aims to fill the gap in quantitative research on out of district donations at state levels of American government. Examining inequality in donor representation is an important part of ensuring an equitable and just democracy. Using donor data from the Massachusetts Office of Campaign and Political Finance (OCPF) we identify unjust patterns in out of district contributions to state representatives in the 2016-2018 Massachusetts campaign cycle. Specifically, we examine economic, occupational, and racial factors through the use of home price estimates as a proxy for wealth, self-reported... Tue, 19 Jan 2021 05:46 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1864/democratic-misrepresentation-a-quantitative-analysis-of-out-of-district-state-campaign-fundraising http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1860/reimagining-populism-to-reveal-canadas-right-wing-populist-zeitgeist By Kyle R. Friesen - Through an examination of recent populist political formulations in Canada, this paper argues that prevailing understandings of right-wing populism are incomplete insofar as they occlude expressions of right-wing populism through regional and economic formulations of ‘the people’ that exist outside of ethnic or cultural conceptions of ‘the nation.’ Thus, counter to the prevailing popular narrative, this paper contends that Canada is not immune to right-wing populism and that such populism can exist without overt ethnic or culturally based exclusions in its construction... Mon, 11 Jan 2021 11:37 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1860/reimagining-populism-to-reveal-canadas-right-wing-populist-zeitgeist http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1858/the-lingering-influence-of-revolutionary-political-discourse-from-the-civil-war-and-reconstruction-era By Bhadrajee S. Hewage - The Civil War was a seminal moment in the historical development in the United States. The American Revolution may have created the U.S. as a sovereign nation, but the Civil War helped to determine what kind of nation America would become. The Reconstruction era, from Lincoln's 1863 Emancipation Proclamation to Hayes's removal of federal troops from the South in 1877, further defined how exactly the U.S. would evolve into the nation that it is today. By examining the attitudes towards the extension of slavery in the pre-war U.S., the decisions taken by the Union and Confederate governments during... Fri, 08 Jan 2021 10:45 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1858/the-lingering-influence-of-revolutionary-political-discourse-from-the-civil-war-and-reconstruction-era