Barrett, The Honors College Thesis/Creative Project Collection
Barrett, The Honors College at Arizona State University proudly showcases the work of undergraduate honors students by sharing this collection exclusively with the ASU community.
Barrett accepts high performing, academically engaged undergraduate students and works with them in collaboration with all of the other academic units at Arizona State University. All Barrett students complete a thesis or creative project which is an opportunity to explore an intellectual interest and produce an original piece of scholarly research. The thesis or creative project is supervised and defended in front of a faculty committee. Students are able to engage with professors who are nationally recognized in their fields and committed to working with honors students. Completing a Barrett thesis or creative project is an opportunity for undergraduate honors students to contribute to the ASU academic community in a meaningful way.
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- Creators: School of Politics and Global Studies
Description
This thesis analyzes budgetary documents of the State of Arizona relating to education spending as well as East Valley school districts to examine the extent of reductions in state funding for K-12 education since the beginning of the Great Recession of 2007-2009. Previous research has found that Arizona ranks in the very bottom tier of states in education spending. Moreover, Arizona has cut per-pupil spending by a higher percentage than forty-seven other states. To assess the effects of these cuts, I determine both their magnitude in the aggregate as well as their significance to individual school districts. In the first chapter, I explain the school finance formula to provide a foundation for my analysis, scrutinize the last nine budgets of the Arizona Department of Education to measure annual changes in funding, chronicle the inflation-funding lawsuit to gauge the quantity of funds withheld, rather than cut, from schools, and sum the value of reduced and suspended funding to discover the total cost of these decisions. In the second chapter, I compile data from the budgets of East Valley school districts covering the last eight recorded years to discern and compare annual changes in revenue from the state, aggregate teacher salaries, and the number of teachers employed. Looking ahead, the conclusion discusses public opinion on education funding and the enacted budget for the coming fiscal year, FY 2016. In conjunction, these sections convey both a comprehensive history of the decisions made by our public officials that have affected public education in Arizona and an analysis of the consequences of those decisions.
ContributorsStumpf, Austin Robert (Author) / Herrera, Richard (Thesis director) / Jones, Ruth (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Economics Program in CLAS (Contributor) / School of Public Affairs (Contributor) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor) / School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
Political scientists have long recognized the importance of representation as being critical to the American form of government. This paper begins by establishing the theoretical basis for representational studies in political science. It then turns to the empirical question of measuring the degree to which legislators represent their constituents. While there have been comprehensive studies of representation among members of Congress, several practical difficulties have prevented similar studies at the state legislature level. Underlying measures of representation are the preferences of constituents and the representational behavior of legislators. This paper proposes two metrics, a modified Partisan Voting Index and the American Conservative Union State Legislative Ratings, to compare the district-level preferences with roll call voting behavior (a form of substantive representation) of the corresponding legislators. This methodology is then tested against data collected from the Arizona legislature, specifically incorporating election returns from 2012, 2014, and 2016, and votes taken during the 2017 and 2018 sessions of the legislature. The findings suggest a strong relationship between the partisan and ideological leaning of a state legislative district and how conservative or liberal a legislator’s voting record is, even when controlling for political party. Two special cases are also examined in the context of this data. First, the three legislative districts with a split delegation are analyzed and determined to have a moderating effect on representative behavior. Second, five mid-term vacancies are examined along with the process for filling a vacancy. The paper concludes with a discussion of how this line of research can better inform legislators and help constituents hold their elected officials to account.
ContributorsFairbanks, Austin Kyle (Author) / Herrera, Richard (Thesis director) / Thomson, Henry (Committee member) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05
Description
This thesis determines how first ladies portray their role through their speeches and whether this role meets partisan voters' expectations. Research includes an examination of first ladies' biographical information, content analysis of various speeches, and analysis of public polls to determine Republicans' and Democrats' role expectations and the role that first ladies portray. Analysis shows that first ladies meet some of their partisan voters' expectations and that party identification greatly influences the role they enact.
ContributorsMcManus-Spitzer, Anne (Author) / Herrera, Richard (Thesis director) / Walker, Stephen (Committee member) / Carol-Lynn, Bower (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies (Contributor) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor)
Created2014-05
Description
The GI Bill has an extensive history dating back to 1944. There have been different versions over the years, the most recent being the Post-9/11 GI Bill. Theory would suggest that the education incentives that go along with the bill would cause veterans to go back to school. However, this study explores other factors that may influence the decision-making process. Using a sample of 25 undergraduate student veterans from Arizona State University, this study explores the outside factors that may affect the decision to return to school post-military.
ContributorsMosqueira, Nicole Marie (Author) / Herrera, Richard (Thesis director) / Von Hagen, Mark (Committee member) / Grant, Gisela (Committee member) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
The aim of this study is to analyze the impact Arizona legislation has had on STEM education access, specifically for Latino students. Using socio-ecological systems theory, this study explores the relation between the macro and exo-systemic context of education legislation and the micro-systemic context of being a STEM undergraduate at a state university. In order to understand how STEM education is affected, legislation was analyzed through the Arizona Legislative Database. Additionally, current STEM undergraduates were interviewed in order to discover the factors that made them successful in their majors. Data from the interviews would demonstrate the influence of the Arizona legislation macro and exo-systems on the microsystemic portion of Latinos and their access to STEM education. A total of 24 students were interviewed as part of this study. Their responses shed light on the complexities of STEM education access and the importance of mentorship for success in STEM. The overall conclusion is that more efforts need to be made before STEM education is readily available to many, but the most effective way to achieve this is through mentorship.
ContributorsHernandez-Gonzalez, Rosalia (Author) / Herrera, Richard (Thesis director) / Casanova, Saskias (Committee member) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-05
Description
Debates about criminal justice have erupted onto the American political scene in recent years. Topics like mass Incarceration, civil asset Forfeiture, three strike laws, and mandatory minimums have been dredged up and discussed at every level of government from county courtrooms to state legislatures and all the way up to the halls of the US Senate and the desk of the White House. According to Marc Mauer of the Sentencing Project, a non-profit entity focused on prison population reduction, this new focus has yielded some important victories with New York, and New Jersey both reducing their respective prison populations by 26% between 1999 and 2012 (1). In the summer of 2015, President Obama became the first sitting President in American history to visit a prison. His visit to El Reno Prison, just outside of Oklahoma City, came on the heels of a speech against Mass Incarceration that the President made at an NAACP conference in Philadelphia (Horsely). The movement for change had reached all the way to the desk of the oval office. Indeed, it is of little wonder why our criminal justice system has come under such close scrutiny. With mass protests breaking out around the nation due to clashes between the criminal justice system and those it has victimized, the rise of a new Black Lives Matter movement, and an overburdened prison system that houses almost 25% of the world inmates (Ya Lee Hee), criminal justice in America has been driven to an ideological and financial breaking point. In a nation that purportedly values freedom and individual choice, the stark realities of our prison system have created a divide between those that would reform the system and those who seek to keep the status quo. I align with those stakeholders that desire comprehensive reform. In my opinion, it is no longer fiscally responsible, nor morally credible to lock American citizens up and throw away the key. The days of tough on crime, of Willie Horton, and of super predators are gone. Crime has been reduced to historic lows in almost the entire country despite significant increases in the population. According to Oliver Roeder, in a Brennan Center scholarly article, violent crime has been reduced by 50% since 1990 and property crime has been reduced by 46% (Roeder et al, p.15) while the population during this same period has grown by how much 249 million to 323 million, almost 30%. For the first time in almost 20 years, the conversation has finally shifted to how we can make the system equitable. My vision for our criminal justice system will stretch beyond the following plan to revise truth in sentencing. TIS remains a small component of a much larger question of our justice system. It is my fundamental belief that the way America treats its offenders needs reformation at every level of the system, from the court, to the prison. It is my view that our prerogative when treating offenders should be to address the root causes of crime, that is the societal structure that causes men and women to commit crime. Poverty, education, economics, and community reinvestment will be just some of the issues that need to be addressed to secure a better future. If we seek true justice, then we must seek to reinvest in those communities that need it the most. Only then can the lowest rungs of our society be given the opportunity to climb upward. In my view, a reimagined prison system idealistically strives to put itself out of business.
ContributorsHolbert, Connor Michael (Author) / Herrera, Richard (Thesis director) / Wells, Cornelia (Committee member) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-05
Description
Campaign finance regulation has drastically changed since the founding of the Republic. Originally, few laws regulated how much could be contributed to political campaigns and who could make contributions. One by one, Congress passed laws to limit the possibility of corruption, for example by banning the solicitation of federal workers and banning contributions from corporations. As the United States moved into the 20th Century, regulations became more robust with more accountability. The modern structure of campaign finance regulation was established in the 1970's with legislation like the Federal Election Campaign Act and with Supreme Court rulings like in Buckley v. Valeo. Since then, the Court has moved increasingly to strike down campaign finance laws they see as limiting to First Amendment free speech. However, Arizona is one of a handful of states that established a system of publicly financed campaigns at the state-wide and legislative level. Passed in 1998, Proposition 200 attempted to limit the influence of money politics. For my research I hypothesized that a public financing system like the Arizona Citizens Clean Elections Commission (CCEC) would lead to Democrats running with public funds more than Republicans, women running clean more than men, and rural candidates running clean more than urban ones, and that Democrats, women, and rural candidates would win in higher proportions than than if they ran a traditional campaign. After compiling data from the CCEC and the National Institute on Money in State Politics, I found that Democrats do run with public funds in statistically higher proportions than Republicans, but when they do they lose in higher proportions than Democrats who run traditionally. Female candidates only ran at a statistically higher proportion from 2002 to 2008, after which the difference was not statistically significant. For all year ranges women who ran with public money lost in higher proportions than women who ran traditionally. Similarly, rural candidates only ran at a statistically higher proportion from 2002 to 2008. However, they only lost at higher proportions from 2002 to 2008 instead of the whole range like with women and Democratic candidates.
ContributorsMarshall, Austin Tyler (Author) / Herrera, Richard (Thesis director) / Jones, Ruth (Committee member) / Economics Program in CLAS (Contributor) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-12
Description
Over time, our American society has been fixated on trying to achieve demographic representation in political realms among all three branches. The recent excitement of progress in terms of slightly more equal gender representation in the United States Congress, with almost one-quarter of the total body after the 2018 midterm election consisting of women, was an element of motivation for this thesis. Throughout the thesis, the Literature Review and Theory section presents background as to the importance of representation in general provided by well-respected political scientists’ work. It follows with a section on Women’s Impact on the Political Sphere, and discusses quality candidates in regards to common characteristics political scientists, particularly Peverill Squire, claim are crucial to political success. As the interest for the thesis arose from President Trump’s victory in 2016, as public opinion buoyed an outsider into the most prestigious elected office, my ultimate research question deals with the profile of the winning candidate of first-time members to the House of Representatives in the past ten years and whether Trump’s election may be indicative of the changing type and quality of qualified candidates who are winning Congressional seats recently. It is crucial for both the political parties and society to be aware of the type and common qualifications of political candidates running and ultimately winning in recent years. With a coding metric, similar to Squire’s, research was conducted by coding first-time elected House members’ backgrounds provided by CSPAN over the past ten years, 110th-116th Congressional sessions. The intent was hoping to show how the type of quality candidate is evolving over time. This was demonstrated by determining whether political candidates’ highest level of education, occupation before Congress, and highest level of prior political experience was really that crucial to their success or considered by voters as not as important in terms of being a qualified, winnable candidate when measuring against age, gender, and party affiliation. There were many notable results in regards to overall trends and incredible differences between males and females between each variable measured just within the past ten years. While there is a noticeable increase in those winning with zero prior political experience this past midterm election, and although President Trump’s election was not analyzed as a potential cause of the rise in success of those without prior office experience, my hypothesize was correct in that there could be a correlation drawn as to Trump’s influence upon the change in this country’s thoughts towards candidates. Among other noticeable results, this thesis finds that despite extensive preceding political science research on quality candidates, prior office experience may not be considered as relevant anymore to voters in terms of considering a quality candidate, and the prior “on paper” qualifications in order to be successful may be evolving in today’s politics, most especially for first-time members in the House of Representatives.
ContributorsMaggio, Brigette Teresa (Author) / Herrera, Richard (Thesis director) / Kittilson, Miki (Committee member) / Dean, W.P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor, Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05
Description
Political debates are essential. They are critical components of the democratic process. Debates in the United States of America encourage constructive discussion about the role of government, the actions of individuals in positions of authority, and the future of the nation. During the presidential debate, voters are given the opportunity to understand in detail candidates' platforms and where politicians stand on the hot-button issues of the time. Of course, what politicians say during debates is important. How important, then, is what the politicians do not say? Uncovering Covert Aspects of the Presidential Debate focuses on presidential candidates’ nonverbal communication tendencies, not actual words spoken, through an examination of a sample of presidential debates. Research contains the implementation of a focused analytical method with the objective of formulating a better understanding of how the general population forms perceptions about presidential candidates. Findings include interesting information about psychology, communication, and politics as well as a number of answers to the question of how nonverbal communication affects presidential debates. Politicians involved in the research are Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and Mitt Romney. This research describes how these candidates behave and draws conclusions about trends in the body language of American politicians. No longer will the covert aspects of the presidential debate, which is viewed not only by millions of Americans but also by many individuals in other countries, remain a mystery. The truth behind what matters and what does not matter in the political debate has been established.
ContributorsGupta, Vishal (Author) / Herrera, Richard (Thesis director) / Hoekstra, Valerie (Committee member) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05