Political Science Honors Theses

Permanent link for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/2022/27449

Browse

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4

Storms and Sorting: The Partisan Impact of Domestic Climate Migration
([Bloomington, Ind.] : Indiana University, 2026-05) McCrea, Samantha; Brannon, Elizabeth
As climate-induced natural disasters increase in frequency and severity, domestic climate migration is shifting from a future projection to a present reality in the United States. While the political impacts on “origin communities,” areas facing climate disasters from which people may move, are well-documented, the political consequences for communities receiving climate migrants remain minimally researched. This paper investigates how climate migrants influence the partisan alignment of the communities they are moving to, particularly the “receiving counties.” By integrating IRS county-to-county migration data, the FEMA National Risk Index, election results from the National Neighborhood Data Archive (NaNDA) between 2016 and 2020, and Census data, I test whether migration from climate-vulnerable areas predicts shifts in Democratic vote share. Building on theories of ideological sorting, spatial dependence, and risk perception, I find that the proportion of movers from areas with moderate-to-high climate risk is a statistically significant predictor of increased Democratic vote share in receiving counties. This suggests that climate-induced mobility is not politically neutral. That it may involve Democratic-leaning individuals proactively seeking to move to areas that are safer from climate impacts, areas often vote for Democratic candidates. While climate migrants currently represent a small fraction of the electorate, these findings suggest that intensifying environmental displacement could fundamentally reshape the American political landscape as climate change intensifies.
Conceptualizing Purity: Mapping the genealogical role of the “Idealized White Woman”
([Bloomington, Ind.] : Indiana University, 2026-04) Parker, Madison; Eber-Schmid, Noah
Pandemic Ponderings: The Effect of Trust on Covid-19 Policy Stringency in Developed Democracies
([Bloomington, Ind.] : Indiana University, 2022-05-05) Pratt, Bryant; Carmines, Edward
From the onset of the Covid-19 Pandemic, global democracies have attempted to contain the disease. With an array of policy options available, some democratic governments employed strict policies characterized by sweeping mandates and curbing of personal autonomy, while others relied more heavily on recommendations and relatively less stringent policies. Beginning with a sample of 21 developed democracies, I conducted a series of OLS regression analyses to determine the influence of governmental and interpersonal trust on the stringency of democracies’ Covid-19 policies. I found a significant negative relationship between levels of interpersonal trust and Covid-19 policy stringency. Governmental trust did not significantly predict Covid-19 policy stringency. These results conflict with extant literature regarding the importance of governmental trust to policy implementation. I reconcile this discrepancy by extending the conversation characterizing the Covid-19 Pandemic as a social dilemma. I contend that democracies deviate from traditional democratic principles during crises and act decisively to combat immediate threats. During the pandemic, this emergency response is applied using the social dilemma framework, explaining the significance of interpersonal trust. This thesis sheds light on democracies’ responses to immediate threats and proposes priorities for democracies to encourage the continuity of democratic values even in times of crisis.
When Rubber Bullets Ricochet: Functional Victimization and Police-Protester Interactions
([Bloomington, Ind.] : Indiana University, 2021-12) Radde, Kaitlyn; DeSante, Christopher
Protests frequently come into contact with the police, and those interactions can become central to how a movement is perceived. The functional victimization hypothesis posits that state violence against demonstrators will generate positive movement outcomes by triggering sympathy with demonstrators and opposition to the state among observers. To test this hypothesis, this paper relies on a survey experiment measuring responses to police-protester interactions, focusing on 2020 Black Lives Matter and COVID-19 shutdown protests. The study aims to measure how likely it is that someone who reads about various police-protester interactions expresses greater support for and willingness to join future demonstrations.

Browse

Recent Submissions