http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/keyword/politics 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 Thu, 14 May 2026 02:12:21 -0400 Thu, 14 May 2026 02:12:21 -0400 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/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/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/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/1926/american-construction-reconstruction-and-destruction-the-cultural-historical-and-literary-underpinnings-of-our-great-divide By Michael L. Neely - This thesis explores the inherent conflict between liberty and equality—the twin pillars on which the United States and its Constitution are predicated—and the materialization of this conflict in storm center texts, whose subjects cover the sentiments of the zeitgeist during American construction, destruction, and reconstruction. This paper asserts that American Construction and Reconstruction were fraught with the partition between these twin pillars—liberty and equality—and it brought this partition to the fore. American founders and historical and literary figures gave... Thu, 09 Dec 2021 12:12 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1926/american-construction-reconstruction-and-destruction-the-cultural-historical-and-literary-underpinnings-of-our-great-divide 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/1920/propaganda-patriotism-and-perseverance-how-music-became-an-instrument-for-the-us-war-effort-during-the-second-world-war By Anastasiia Gordeeva - This article analyzes the role of musical works in the United States during World War II. It chronologically examines how the social and therapeutic functions of music evolved due to the developments of the war. This article uses the lyrics of wartime songs as a window through which to examine changes in public opinion during the course of the war. It thus demonstrates how music influences and is influenced by exogenous changes in society, notably during times of crisis. To this end, a selection of American songs from different periods of the Second World War are analysed and their lyrics are... Mon, 01 Nov 2021 11:13 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1920/propaganda-patriotism-and-perseverance-how-music-became-an-instrument-for-the-us-war-effort-during-the-second-world-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/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/1891/conservative-perspectives-of-political-outsiders By Audrey Cialdella - Western conservatism is often conceived as the philosophy of large landowners in the past and business executives in the present. Heightened awareness of racial and class disparities in recent years has increased the perception that conservatism is the ideology of the elite. In this paper, I will explore the conservative philosophies of three individuals who contradict this notion: Cicero, Edmund Burke, and Alexander Hamilton. I argue that conservatives consider their in-group to be those who share their values and traditions, and those traditions and values are their most salient identity. Disruption... Thu, 18 Mar 2021 04:39 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1891/conservative-perspectives-of-political-outsiders 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/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/1856/problems-and-solutions-in-factory-farming-the-role-of-institutions-capital-and-rhetoric By Cael Jones - This paper examines the intricacies of factory farming by analyzing its social, political, economic, and environmental impacts in an age of capitalist consumption. Factory farming has become a pervasive institution with which most Americans engage on a daily basis by consuming meat and other animal derivatives. This mode of food production has vastly exacerbated the effects of climate change while creating a plethora of health, ecological and social problems. My research utilizes sentiment analysis to reveal the nature of factory farm discourse. Understanding the use of rhetoric is important because... Mon, 04 Jan 2021 01:25 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1856/problems-and-solutions-in-factory-farming-the-role-of-institutions-capital-and-rhetoric http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1836/todays-poland-as-a-bastion-of-conservative-populism-targeting-families-in-a-populist-power-grab By Jaroslaw S. Myjak - On the same day, in the Silesian city of Rybnik, some two and a half hours’ drive to the west, the democratic candidate, Rafał Trzaskowski, appealed to the civil liberties of individuals, and limits to state power: transparency and honesty in public life, checks and balances, and the accountability of authorities—as well as the values of the European Union. The populist incumbent, Andrzej Duda, spoke about people’s prosperity and job and financial security, all framed in terms of the needs not of individuals, but of families. With this platform and discourse, the populist leader... Fri, 13 Nov 2020 09:31 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1836/todays-poland-as-a-bastion-of-conservative-populism-targeting-families-in-a-populist-power-grab http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1835/has-the-us-constitution-reached-its-expiration-date-a-review-and-criticism-of-the-worlds-longest-lasting-constitution By Emma L. Bernstein - The United States Constitution is the longest lasting written constitution in the world, despite the fact that one of the key framers, Thomas Jefferson, believed that written constitutions ought to have a nineteen year expiration date before they are revised or rewritten. Yet, it has been nearly thirty years since the United States Constitution has even been amended, and critics believe many aspects of the Constitution are no longer suitable for the United States today. This article argues that the Constitution is long overdue to be amended or even rewritten. It will first analyze factors that... Tue, 10 Nov 2020 08:36 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1835/has-the-us-constitution-reached-its-expiration-date-a-review-and-criticism-of-the-worlds-longest-lasting-constitution http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1833/deconstructing-and-renouncing-the-conditioned-identities-of-gender-and-nationality-in-modern-society By Anna . Militsi - This paper investigates the convoluted societal processes to which the individual is exposed from an early age in order to form and acquire their sense of identity, and aims at dismantling these very processes by exhibiting their flimsy and unsubstantiated underpinning rationale. The compelling role of gender has often been excluded from deliberations and studies regarding the issue of national identity and nationalism as culturally constructed forms of identity and "imaginary" figments of historical unity (Rodó-Zárate, n.d.). In this light, the scope of this paper is threefold;... Mon, 09 Nov 2020 09:04 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1833/deconstructing-and-renouncing-the-conditioned-identities-of-gender-and-nationality-in-modern-society http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1829/construction-of-asian-identity-in-restaurant-menus-a-case-study By Mika Skibinsky - This paper explores the meaning and implications of “Asian” in the context of American restaurant menus. I determine what kind of language in dish descriptions, specifically ingredients and adjectives, indexes a restaurant or dish as “Asian.” Then, building on Mapes (2018), I observe how “Asianness” is constructed and performed using key discourse strategies, which I divide into two parts: Constructing “The Other” and Constructing “The Comfort Zone.” I then discuss how the construction of “Asianness” indexes the restaurant... Thu, 29 Oct 2020 09:56 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1829/construction-of-asian-identity-in-restaurant-menus-a-case-study http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1826/resurrecting-the-bog-queen-exploring-the-gender-politics-of-irelands-bogs-in-postcolonial-and-nationalist-literature By Rosie Ryan - Bogs are one of Ireland’s most notable and mysterious landscapes. As explored in the work of Seamus Heaney, the bog’s capacity to preserve memory across generations makes it a melancholic terrain that is uniquely suited to explorations of Ireland’s national identity, particularly as Ireland emerged out of the grip of British colonialism. This paper draws upon postcolonial, feminist, and literary theory to explore why the bog has become such a provocative terrain for the exploration of Irish identity and Irish femininity. Beginning with the writings of colonial administrators,... Mon, 26 Oct 2020 10:41 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1826/resurrecting-the-bog-queen-exploring-the-gender-politics-of-irelands-bogs-in-postcolonial-and-nationalist-literature http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1824/how-populist-conservatism-influences-the-rhetoric-of-ethnic-entrepreneurs By Aishwari Krishna - This research paper investigates the impact that the rhetoric of a populist conservative ethnic entrepreneur can have on ethnic conflict by analyzing the tweets of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Over the years, the emergence of right-wing leaders in power has led to the increasing importance of the study of their impacts on society. Ethnic conflict between Indian Hindus and Muslims has recently been exacerbated, so India under Modi’s tenure was an ideal nation to study. The original content analysis compares tweets from two time periods, those during a period of crisis and those from... Wed, 21 Oct 2020 07:51 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1824/how-populist-conservatism-influences-the-rhetoric-of-ethnic-entrepreneurs http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1822/trust-in-state-media-analyzing-the-chinese-communist-partys-changing-approach-to-public-opinion-and-media-censorship By Edward F. Xu - China’s rise as a global power has major implications for the future of free speech and media censorship both within and outside the People’s Republic. While there are numerous examples of the Chinese Communist Party employing blanket bans on accessing information, it also often frequently permits the presence of media unfavorable to the party due to the current state strategy of “public opinion guidance” that utilizes centrally commanded counter-narratives that delegitimize or undermine dissenters (Tai). I evaluated this approach and determined that it is crucial in fostering... Wed, 21 Oct 2020 07:51 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1822/trust-in-state-media-analyzing-the-chinese-communist-partys-changing-approach-to-public-opinion-and-media-censorship http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1817/the-power-of-right-wing-populism-in-the-twitter-age-analysis-of-donald-trumps-tweets-during-the-2016-election By Cecilia S. Dakers - The emergence of social media platforms into American life has remarkably altered the political communication landscape. Websites such as Twitter have become a prioritized communication medium for politicians looking to directly reach the electorate, replacing more traditional mass-media avenues. Concurrent with this transformation, the United States has seen a rise in modern right-wing populism, reaching a new peak with the election of Donald Trump in 2016. This article dissects the role of Twitter as a vital communication channel for Trump's right-wing populist rhetoric throughout his 17-month... Fri, 16 Oct 2020 07:55 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1817/the-power-of-right-wing-populism-in-the-twitter-age-analysis-of-donald-trumps-tweets-during-the-2016-election http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1811/the-gender-gap-in-american-politics-how-money-in-politics-affects-female-representation By Lauren E. Rothschild - In the 116th United States Congress, women hold 23.2% of House seats and 25% of Senate seats. Down the ballot, across state and local elected offices, women are underrepresented in their communities. This continual disparity presents a fundamental contradiction with America’s founding principle of representative democracy. This paper examines the roots of economic inequality in America, with a focus on the gender wage gap and gender wealth gap as they relate to the political donating tendencies of women. Next, this paper examines the experiences of female candidates as they seek campaign... Tue, 06 Oct 2020 07:42 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1811/the-gender-gap-in-american-politics-how-money-in-politics-affects-female-representation http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1796/the-forgotten-center-an-analysis-into-the-disappearing-moderate-in-a-climate-of-increasing-political-polarization By Kellie L. Harrison - Political polarization in the United States has been one of the main issues at the forefront of American politics. Studies show that political parties have in fact become more divided ideologically than ever, and more Americans that belong to one political party view the opposing party with disdain[1]. Yet as public attention remains on the two major parties moving farther away from the center, focus on the shrinking number of moderate Americans has been neglected to the point where they have been referred to as “politically homeless,” as they increasingly don’t seem to fit in... Fri, 11 Sep 2020 12:44 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1796/the-forgotten-center-an-analysis-into-the-disappearing-moderate-in-a-climate-of-increasing-political-polarization