Project Description:  This project examines the factors that determine how members of Congress vote.  We will investigate how well various groups (racial/ethnic, religious, and age groups) are represented through congressional voting.  We will also consider the interaction between Congress and other actors (namely the president and courts).

Meeting times:  There is no regular meeting time for the course.  Instead, each student will meet occasionally with the instructor and we will meet as a group periodically. 

Other information:  Up to nine (9) students will be admitted to this project, for anywhere from 1 to 3 credit hours. Contact the instructor directly for more details about this course including enrollment.

Course Number: POSC 305-005

jfine@clemson.edu

Course Number: POSC 305-003

xhu@clemson.edu

Project Description: Scholars assume that religious values, attitudes, and discourses have shaped American politics since the founding era despite official adherence to the principle of church-state separation.  Many presidents have used religious symbolism and rhetoric as a political strategy for electoral gain, to influence public policy, and to justify military action.  Presidents are also widely viewed as the “high priests” of America’s “civil religion,” because they perpetuate the widely shared American perception that God has particularly blessed the United States (Bellah 1967).  Nevertheless, our knowledge about the nature and role of religious rhetoric that emanates from the White House is extremely limited at this time.

Our project seeks to bridge the religion and politics, sociology of religion, communication, and presidency literatures to analyze ways in which presidents strategically employ religious rhetoric.  We are principally concerned with the question of whether and how the use of religious rhetoric by modern presidents has varied over time.  Specifically, we focus on the nature and frequency of religious rhetoric that comprises the public speeches and statements made by modern presidents from Harry S Truman through the George W. Bush administration.

We are conducting this research for a book project that requires a significant amount of data collection and analysis.  We will offer our research team the opportunity to content-analyze the texts of all presidential speeches and statements published in Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States for each of the modern presidents. 

Course Number: POSC 305-002

laurao@clemson.edu

Adam Warber

awarber@clemson.edu

Project Description: The purpose of this research endeavor is to identify and analyze the assets and liabilities for creative community and economic development policies for ensuring a sustainable future in the nine-county area known as the Pee Dee region of South Carolina.  Students will explore the political, economic, social, and demographic forces shaping municipal, county, and regional growth patterns in the Pee Dee.  The region is anchored by Myrtle Beach/Grand Strand and the Florence area, along with small towns and rural communities elsewhere in the area.  Students will conduct research and engage in analyses, including policy recommendations, focused on issues related to community and economic development such as the environment, rural development, urbanization, patterns of growth and decline, tourism, education, health care, land use and sustainable growth, etc.  Special emphasis will be devoted to exploring the nexus between local/county plans and policies and areawide planning and development.

Course Number: POSC 305-006

bii@clemson.edu

Project Title: Management and Analysis of Local Governments Project

Project Description: The Southeast Local Government Laboratory is a recently developed and funded project headed by the Master of Public Administration program in the Department of Political Science. This newly created laboratory will identify projects in local governments throughout the southeast for study and analysis by laboratory staff and faculty.  Under the direction of a dedicated graduate assistant the undergraduate participants will become fully involved in the start-up, identification and analysis of projects to be undertaken by the laboratory.  In the Fall of 2007 five students will help develop the governance structure of the laboratory (as a nonprofit entity), begin the process of outreach to and identification of local government projects for the laboratory to pursue and help develop the infrastructure and support capacity of the laboratory to undertake the ongoing work of the lab.

Students will function as staff analysts for the laboratory under the direction of the assigned graduate assistant (MPA) and under the overall supervision of the Director of the Master of Public Administration program.   

Meeting Times: Meeting times for the course/project will be determined by the undergraduate participants and the supervising graduate assistant.  Several group meetings will be scheduled.  Each student will meet periodically with the faculty instructor.

Student Outcomes and Evaluation: Student outcomes will be determined by the nature of the assignments given to the students during the semester.  Each student will be guided by an individual performance plan developed by the faculty instructor/Laboratory director and the supervising graduate assistant. As part of this individualized plan, students will develop specific outcomes with both professional and academic components.  Grading will be based upon fulfillment of performance plans each semester.

More Details on Enrollment:  Up to five (5) students will be admitted to Political Science 305-5.  Contact the instructor directly for more details about this course including enrollment.

Course Number: POSC 305-001

rws@clemson.edu

Project Description: The course objective is to encourage undergraduate research in international relations by having several multidisciplinary student teams focus on single countries followed by comparison of findings of each team.  For example, an undergraduate research group of no more than ten students with about three students per country team would allow profiles of three different countries.  Alternatively, students may choose to be a one-person team tracking a country.  Countries selected will be from different regions at different stages of development, say, France, India and Mexico.

In the first semester, undergraduate researchers will track current news and short news articles about their selected country, and on this basis will identify key economic, political and military trends.  In optional successive semesters, undergraduates will build on research by making sustained country comparisons and formulating policy recommendations.   

Meeting times:  There is no regular meeting time for the course, but each student will meet occasionally with the instructor and several group meetings will be scheduled. 

More details including enrollment:  Up to ten (10) students will be admitted to Political Science 305, “Selected Topics.”  Contact the instructor directly for more details about this course including enrollment

Course Number: POSC 305-007

jstewa4@clemson.edu

Project Description: Civil wars are widespread incidences of domestic political conflicts that are characterized by high levels of violence and human suffering. They not only produce economic and political devastation and pose challenges to neighboring states, regional security, and stability, but also have broader implications for political order and human rights, as we have witnessed in the cases of Lebanon, Cyprus, Bosnia, Kosovo, Sudan and Rwanda. Civil wars with massive human rights violations (e.g. Yugoslavia), and the protracted civil wars with substantial refugee flows (e.g. Congo, Sudan) have attracted a great deal of media attention in recent years. As a result, people all around the world have become more aware of the destructive nature of civil wars. Despite the fact that civil wars have been the most common and deadly form of military conflict since the end of Second World War, they have been understudied and, in turn, we are far from a thorough understanding of the main determinants of civil wars.

In all states, there are some citizens who are dissatisfied or frustrated with the existing political, economic or social conditions. However, only in some societies does this latent unrest cross a certain threshold and transform itself into a massive civil war. Why do some states experience political violence in the form of civil wars while others do not? What factors lead to domestic civil violence, more specifically, to civil wars? Which countries are more prone to violent domestic conflict? What is the direct impact of grievances on the emergence of civil wars? Do they increase the risk of civil war? These questions are the backbone of the investigation. In short, the goal is to uncover the universal factors that best account for political violence.

We will start by reading the published academic articles and books on domestic violence both in the field of comparative politics and international relations. After learning the basics, students are expected to do in depth research about individual countries, prepare reports, collect data and write a paper at the end of the data collection. The overall purpose of this course is to provide students the opportunity to experience all aspects of the academic research and expand their understanding of domestic violence.

Course Number: POSC 305-004

ztaydas@clemson.edu