Political Science Electronic Theses and Dissertations (UMKC)
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The items in this collection are the theses and dissertations written by students of the Department of Political Science. Some items may be viewed only by members of the University of Missouri System and/or University of Missouri-Kansas City. Click on one of the browse buttons above for a complete listing of the works.
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Item Whatever you can do is the best thing: insights into how youth in personalized learning environments perceive civic engagement(2024) Schmer, Bevin N. L.; Strekalova-Hughes, Ekaterina; Skidmore, Max J., 1933-An engaged and active citizenry is essential to a functional democracy. Historically, the purpose of public schools has been to prepare young people with the knowledge and skills to be civically engaged. However, the civic education pedagogy and curriculum often do not use approaches likely to meet this goal, whether due to narrowed curriculum due to standardized testing, or due to not being culturally responsive to the learner. At the same time, research had not been done on newer approaches that may better support civic engagement in youth like personalized learning. Currently there is a narrative in the research that young people are civically disengaged or are unprepared to be active and engaged citizens. Despite this narrative, there is evidence that youth may be participating in ways not traditionally measured. There is a need for additional research, centered around youth voices, to gain a better understanding of how youth perceive civic engagement and how they believe they develop civic engagement. This phenomenological qualitative study used surveys and interviews to gain insight into how Generation Z high school seniors in personalized learning environments perceive civic engagement and its development. This study was guided by two research questions: 1. How do high school seniors in a personalized learning environment perceive civic engagement? and 2. How do high school seniors in a personalized learning environment believe they develop civic engagement? The theoretical frameworks guiding this study were empowerment theory and experiential learning. This study was set in a personalized learning program within a school district. Thirty-three survey responses were collected and 10 interviews were conducted. Data was analyzed using a qualitative analysis spiral, codes were identified, and themes were developed. The eight themes were (a) informed agency, (b) civic engagement as a current, persistent, and collaborative action, (c) emphasis on civic skills over civic knowledge, (d) developing civic engagement from a broad spectrum of classes, (e) developing civic engagement through experiences outside of school, (f) developing civic engagement through self-directed continuous learning, and (g) learning aligned with personalized learning. This research provides support for national and state level agencies to re-evaluate the role, support classroom teachers in cross-curricular learning experiences by creating cross-curricular crosswalks, adjust graduation requirements to allow for more release time for internships and other outside of the classroom learning experiences, and explore shifting curriculum from content based to a more skill-based approach. Teachers in the classroom could use the results from this research to shift from a deficit view of students to recognizing the bodies of knowledge youth are bringing to the classroom. Teachers could also work across buildings to identify common skills, use common vocabulary to teach those skills, and model research skills often in their classroom. Future research could identify teachers and practices that support how youth are perceiving and developing civic engagement and work to communicate that clearly to current classroom teachers to support these shifts.Item Social power in public-private partnerships: shifting sands make an unstable foundation(2021) Klumb, Jason; Renz, David O. (David Owen)This case study examines stakeholder salience and social power in the pre-solicitation phase of a public-private partnership. Public bodies are increasingly exploring public-private partnerships to address high-cost, high-profile, high-risk public infrastructure needs. These multi-stakeholder procurement methods require a deeper understanding of stakeholder salience and power dynamics. The methodology in this study consisted of coding archival documents and interviews and analyzing data from worksheets provided by informants. Stakeholder theory is applied to the case of a $1 billion new airport terminal project, and the findings reflect shifting salience among key stakeholders over the study's timeline. Power ratings were collected from key stakeholders to assess themselves and their peers throughout the process. Power ratings illustrated through radar charts demonstrated a progression toward a nearly equal distribution of power among highly salient stakeholders. In this case, the pre-solicitation phase evolved from presenting a sole-source, no-bid proposal with private financing to requiring a full and open competition with public financing. There was an evident decrease in the power rating for some stakeholders and an increase in the power rating for other stakeholders. These dynamics suggest that an academic and managerialist approach to public-private partnerships, particularly in the critical pre-solicitation phase, should consider the application of stakeholder theory and collaboration techniques to better understand stakeholder salience and social power.Item The Effect of Participatory Budgeting on the Provisioning Process(University of Missouri -- Kansas City, 2018) Bateman, George Robert Jr; Forstater, Mathew, 1961-The hypothesis of this dissertation is that as more of us become actively engaged in deliberations concerning local economic/political issues, the happier, more tolerant, and more understanding we can become. This is a philosophical dissertation because PB’s potential benefits are researched by examining the works of relevant American social philosophers who wrote about these benefits. The research uses scientific methodology to examine social policy, as advocated by John Dewey. Foster’s theory of institutional adjustment explains what is needed for PB to realize its potential benefits. Dewey’s insight on internal deliberation explains how individuals can change to think of themselves as part of the community, to meet one of Foster’s three principles of change. The Iroquois Confederation is an example of an egalitarian democratic society with an oral constitution. The earliest settlers in New England are reviewed to learn about their Congregationalist policy, which empowered each church congregation to govern themselves. Next, Thomas Jefferson’s motivation for his ward system proposal seems to have been directed toward increasing public happiness though public participation. Then, three transcendentalist writers are analyzed. Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Walt Whitman advocated the power of self-reflection to teach people that they have unlimited potential, the importance of using one’s voice and the importance of equality. Next is consideration of the pragmatic political thought of John Dewey and of C. Wright Mills. Dewey believed that improving the methods of public communication was a key to improving democracy, which should also help people become more tolerant. Mills, like Dewey, believed that small publics could help individuals as well as the community. The vision of participation of the Port Huron Statement inspired social movements in the 1960s. Alfred Schutz studied how people can come to understand each other through face-to-face communication. And finally, Robert Putnam’s social capital is explored to learn why people get more done together than separately. Finally, two suggestions are made for PB in NYC, to test the hypothesis of this dissertation: First, improving public deliberation within PB, and second, suggesting PB reach out to additional social justice organizations. This could help PB grow, which should help the participants as well as our political system.Item The logic of violent conflicts in DR Congo : a nested-analysis approach to the understanding of civil war in Sub-Saharan Africa(2020) Twumasi, Richard; Forstater, Mathew, 1961-Violent conflicts have hampered Congo’s development in several ways. Some of the deadliest and longest-running wars in post-colonial Africa happened in Congo. Like many others in sub-Saharan Africa, Congo’s civil wars are often misdiagnosed as outcomes of ethnic differences and competition for resources. This study challenges the conventional interpretation of civil wars in sub-Saharan Africa, using a mixed-method approach that nests case-study analysis within cross-country econometric analysis. The case-study analysis, based on cases of violent conflicts in Congo, considers the historical and political dimensions of Congo’s war cycles. The case studies show that the understanding of civil wars in sub-Saharan Africa requires more than simply citing ethnic differences and resource greed. Crucial to the explanation of the Congolese civil wars is the legacy of colonial rule. The case-study analysis indicates that state fragility and politics of ethnicity (characterized by patterns of elite power struggles) are at the roots of Congo’s intractable civil wars. The reasons for the wars in Congo often changed from political to resource or ethnic during the war processes. The analysis identified that ethnicity and mineral resources were fundamental elements in shaping the characteristics of the wars in Congo. Ethnicity mainly served as a pool for rebel mobilization, while mineral resource was both a sustaining element and a source of economic motivation for fighters. The findings from the case-study analysis were used to generate a set of hypotheses that were tested using the econometric analysis. The econometric analysis confirmed that the incidence of civil war in sub-Saharan Africa increases as the number and the size of politically excluded groups enlarge. The parts of the econometric analysis that looked at how ethnicity, mineral resources, among other variables, influence the characteristics of sub-Saharan Africa’s civil wars – in terms of intensity and geographical spread – also yielded some interesting results that echo Congo’s civil war experience.Item Narrative as a Critical Component for Violent Weaker Actor Success(2020) Steed, Brian L.; Lyne, Mona M., 1960-Conflicts exist within a narrative about a society, a government, and the people’s place within it that they use to make sense of their world. Since 1945, conventionally weaker military actors have had increasing success against stronger actors by exploiting dissonance in that narrative to incrementally displace existing governing structures and establish control. This strategy takes time as the weaker actor employs a strategy of exhaustion that drains the will and resources of the stronger actor. This dissertation demonstrates this theory through three case studies: Hezbollah against Israel (1982-2000 and 2006), the Taliban against the United States (2001-present), and the Islamic State (ISIS) against Iraq and the United States-led coalition (2014-present). Each case presents a different way a weaker actor accomplished disruption, displacement, and exhaustion.