Thèses sur le sujet « Economics, Politics and Sociology »

The world is increasingly moving toward a technology- and information-based economy. With this change, a growing occupational category involves working in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). What is the political identification of STEM workers? Quantitative work has shown that professionals, in general, are moving toward the Democratic Party (see, e.g. Hout, Brooks, and Manza 1995); but a qualitative interview-based study suggested that STEM workers, specifically, may be more conservative than others (Zussman 1985). The primary purpose of this study is to bring quantitative analyses to bear on this question to determine if STEM workers, are, indeed, more conservative than others. A secondary purpose is to begin explaining why they are more conservative, if such a pattern is found. The primary research hypothesis follows Zussman (1985) and predicts that STEM workers are significantly more conservative than other workers; a secondary hypothesis is that this significant difference will remain even when controlling for key demographic variables. Regression analyses provide support for both hypotheses, which suggests that STEM workers are, indeed, more conservative than others—a pattern that may be rooted in the structure of their work, a la Kohn (1989).

A broad-based franchise - that is, an inclusive policy for who elects leaders - is fundamental to the spirit of democracy in the twenty-first century. Yet the world's earliest democratic constitutions in Europe and the Americas either made no provision for women's participation, or explicitly prohibited it in their founding documents. Women were barred from the franchise even in those countries that went the furthest in guaranteeing men political equality, such as France and the United States. Things began to change in the 189os, when women around the world began to vote alongside men. What explains this sea-change in women's rights? Were women agents of their own political emancipation, or did politicians preemptively grant women voting rights in a bid for electoral success? Studying the political inclusion of women around the turn of the twentieth century, this dissertation argues that both electoral politics and the ordinary strategies of women's movements explain the extension of female suffrage.

The argument is simple. Politicians care about getting re-elected and so will only support reform if they think it serves that end. But even if politicians believe they can win the votes of the excluded group, they will not deviate from the status quo unless they anticipate losing future elections without female voters. Hence voting rights reform is more likely to occur in highly competitive political environments. In combining these insights, I construct an intuitive theory of the electoral conditions under which franchise extensions should be forthcoming, predicting that vulnerable political parties that foresee an electoral advantage will push for reform. Along with electoral vulnerability and the political preferences of the excluded group, organized political movements add a critical third dimension to this story. Political movements can intervene in the electoral arena, either by changing politician's beliefs about how the disfranchised will vote, or by changing the relative strength of competing political parties.

I substantiate this theory through a comparative historical study of women's suffrage reform in England, France and the United States. Drawing on multiple forms of evidence, including large-n statistical analyses, roll-call analysis, close reading of legislative debates, and primary research into the interactions between suffrage organizers and elected politicians, I show how male representatives were induced by party competition, preference convergence, and organized activism to restrict women's access to political decision-making or to grant women the right to vote.

Whereas most recent scholarship on franchise reform has avoided the subject of female voting rights, determining a priori that it is distinct from, and thus not comparable to, male enfranchisement, my research bridges this gap by highlighting the semi-democratic context in which most moments of voting rights reform have taken place. This re-formulation allows women to emerge as an interesting and relevant group for comparative analysis, and provides an analytical structure for future work to examine the enfranchisement of other groups in a semi-democratic context, including minority groups and segments of the non-ruling classes.

Debates over food security strategies in the Philippines have pitted the neoliberal paradigm of trade liberalization, export cropping, and chemical and biotech agricultural methods against the food sovereignty paradigm of protectionism, staple cropping, and sustainable agriculture methods.

The Philippine government has long pushed for yield increases of staples. However, there has been dissonance between governmental desires for rice self-sufficiency and pursuit of a more export-oriented agricultural economy. The World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the Asian Development Bank, and the World Trade Organization have pressured the government of the Philippines to adopt various tenets of neoliberalism (trade liberalization, privatization, deregulation, and budgetary austerity), which have hindered the achievement of Philippine goals for self-sufficiency in its staple foods and stunted the potential benefits of land reform.

Through ethnographic research of the social and ecological conditions in three rural villages in the province of Bukidnon, this examination of agrarian change explores how various actors—small farmers, collectives, large planters, and agribusiness corporations—have been scaling their projects in the agricultural economy.

The use of chemical inputs has damaged soils and saddled farmers with debts. In many cases, control of land has been lost to elites through sales or pawning arrangements. Relatively egalitarian corn- and rice-farming areas have given way to a stratified landscape of sugarcane and banana plantations, as former smallholders have been forced to work as wage laborers. Multinational agribusinesses have steered the area away from staple production and threatened human and environmental health with pesticide exposure and erosion.

Some farmers though have organized against these prevailing trends. Production and social reproduction have been rescaled through collective marketing, reciprocal labor arrangements, and more equitably gendered divisions of labor. Agroecological methods, such as composting, organic fertilization, seed saving, and indigenous pest control have scaled the reproduction of environmental conditions more locally and increased farmer incomes because their inputs are created on the farm. Protecting local control of the means of production—seeds, fertilizers, and especially land—has become an important method for preserving a smallholder class, maintaining more self-determination, and working toward greater food sovereignty.

This paper explores the relationship between a state's use of voter-approved debt and its credit ratings. The variation in credit ratings from 1973 - 2008 across the 50 US states is explained as a function of states' use of voter-approved debt while controlling for confounding variables. The analysis attempts to estimate the effect of issuing voter-approved debt on credit ratings relative to the effect of issuing legislature-approved debt using a panel dataset constructed from three data sources: the National Conference of State Legislature's Ballot Measure Database, the US Census Bureau's Survey of Government Finances and Standard & Poor's credit ratings. While prior literature has focused on the effect of voter approval requirements on measures of state credit health, this paper investigates the use of voter-approved debt by relying on a variable that measures the share of voter-approved debt issued by a state, in a given year and over time. Ordered probit models controlling for state and year fixed effects, as well as state demographics, finances, economic performance and financial institutions are used to explore the relationship between the use of voter-approved debt and a state's credit rating. The paper finds a statistically significant negative relationship between a state's use of voter-approved debt and its credit ratings. The results show that issuing 60% of state debt using voter-approval (the average for states that issue voter-approved debt in a given year) is related to a 0.71 lower state credit rating on a scale from 1-7 (BBB=1, AAA=7).

In just 30 years microfinance has transformed from a credit-based rural development scheme that has claimed to reduce poverty and empower poor women, to a $70 billion financial industry. In the process, the traditional NGO-led model has given way to commercialized institutions, resulting in an increased emphasis on profitmaking. This has also led to confusion in the sector around its mission: is it to alleviate poverty and empower poor women or simply to provide the "unbanked" with access to formal sources of finance? This research considers the main debates in microfinance with regard to its mission and presents empirical evidence on the effectiveness of microfinance. The study is based on the Pakistani microfinance sector, which provides an ideal opportunity for a comparative analysis of two distinct models of microfinance – the nonprofit microfinance institutions (MFI) and the microfinance banks (MFB). The research compares the depth of outreach, mission, practice, and borrower experiences of MFIs and MFBs, employing a political economy framework. The data includes 140 interviews with policymakers, donors, senior, mid and low-level microfinance officers, and their clients; as well as observations of practitioner-client interactions, including the process of disbursement and collection, group meetings, and field visits with loan officers in urban Pakistan. It also comprises two district-level surveys: the microfinance outreach survey from the Pakistan Microfinance Network (PMN) and the Government of Pakistan's Social and Living Standards Survey (PSLM). The surveys are analyzed econometrically to test whether district-level socioeconomic differences affect patterns of outreach. This study broadens our understanding of the extent to which the local political economy shapes the outcomes of a market-based intervention, such as microfinance. It also provides an insight into the evolution of microfinance, specifically as framed by the global development discourse and subsequent public policy choices. Finally, the study provides an authoritative account of how institutional structure affects microfinance's effectiveness as a tool for poverty alleviation, empowerment and financial access.

There is a limited knowledge on the meanings, experiences, and perceptions of organizational members regarding performance appraisal and how the various experiences and perceptions are perceived to bear on organizational outcomes. With this qualitative study, I explored the experiences and perceptions of organizational personnel regarding performance appraisal systems and how these are perceived to bear on work outcomes. Using case study as research design, a detailed analysis of semi-structured interview involving organizational personnel (leaders, managers, and frontline employees) who lived in northeastern New York, and working in various disciplines and professions was conducted and recorded. NVivo software was used in generating the major thematic links and invariant constituents of the study. Results of the study revealed five significant themes: (a) essential descriptions of performance appraisal, (b) perceived rewards of performance appraisal, (c) differences and similarities of performance appraisal systems across different organizations, (d) perceived association of performance appraisal systems and work outcomes, and (e) recommended changes in performance appraisal systems. Employees who have positive experiences with the system associate performance appraisal with something equally beneficial to employees’ improvement and the operational performance of the organization. These employees reported experiences of motivation, loyalty, commitment, and productivity as they received their feedback. The study identified human resource development activities that could further achieve the real and genuine objectives of performance appraisal system.

The federal government provides an uncapped reimbursement of state Medicaid spending. In theory, states can use the federal Medicaid funds as a replacement for state funds or the federal funds, which take the form of a matching grant that reduces the relative price of Medicaid, can increase (or stimulate) spending on Medicaid with state-raised tax revenue. In the first dissertation paper, Subsidizing Medicaid Growth: The Impact of the Federal Reimbursement on State Medicaid Programs, I use a state panel data set from 1992 to 2006 to assess the impact of the federal reimbursement on the size of state Medicaid programs. I find that a one point increase in a state's Medicaid reimbursement percentage increases state per capita Medicaid spending between $5 and $16 and increases the percentage of the state's population receiving Medicaid benefits by 0.04 percent to 0.29 percent.

The first paper also utilizes a case study that shows significant growth in Alaska's Medicaid program after its effective federal Medicaid reimbursement increased 50 percent between 1998 and 1999. The large growth in Alaska's Medicaid program after this increase provides evidence that states respond to large increases in the federal Medicaid subsidy in a stimulative manner by increasing spending with state-raised revenue. Overall, the results in the first paper are consistent with the hypothesis that decentralization in the form of intergovernmental matching grants increases the size of government. I also find that states with wealthier and more liberal populations tend to have larger Medicaid programs and that states with Democratic legislatures tend to have more Medicaid beneficiaries than states with Republican legislatures all else equal.

Since 2008, states have experienced significant budgetary pressure; in large part, because of rising Medicaid enrollment due to the recession and weak recovery. Between 2009 and 2011, many states enacted health care provider taxes as a way to bring in additional revenue through the federal Medicaid reimbursement. Provider taxes are generally supported by health care providers since states often give providers an implicit or explicit guarantee of a return of at least as much funding through higher payment rates or supplemental payments. In the second dissertation paper, Impact of Hospital and Nursing Home Taxes on State Medicaid Spending, I assess the impact of the two largest provider taxes, the hospital tax and the nursing home tax, on state Medicaid expenditures using a panel dataset of 42 states from between 2007 and 2011. I find significantly larger Medicaid spending growth for hospitals in states that added hospital taxes and significantly larger Medicaid spending growth for nursing homes in states that added nursing home taxes within the first two years of the enactment of the tax. I also find some evidence that states with hospital taxes were able to increase their total Medicaid spending more than states without hospital taxes during the economic downturn and initial recovery period. This paper also contains evidence that nursing home taxes diverted Medicaid spending from home and community based services to nursing homes.

In the third dissertation paper, Statewide Health Impact of Tennessee's Medicaid Expansion, I utilize a quasi-experimental approach to assess the impact of a large statewide public health insurance expansion on access to health care services, health care utilization, and health outcomes. In 1994, Tennessee expanded its state Medicaid program, called TennCare, by about ten percent of the state's population. Along with a major Medicaid expansion, Tennessee increased government subsidies for individuals to purchase health insurance coverage and emphasized managed care. Using a difference-in-difference methodology with Tennessee's neighboring states as controls, I found that TennCare's impact on utilization was mixed as blood pressure and cholesterol checks increased but regular physician check-ups decreased relative to the surrounding region. Surprisingly, both self-reported health and mortality rates were less favorable in Tennessee relative to the control states after TennCare. Ultimately, the evidence in this paper suggests that health reform built around a significant public insurance expansion is likely to result in minimal, if any, overall health gains measured in the entire population, at least in the short run.

The final dissertation section summarizes the findings from the three dissertation papers, discusses the economic efficiency of the uncapped federal Medicaid reimbursement and state provider taxes, and makes several predictions related to the Medicaid expansion in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

Title: What is important knowledge in social studies- An analyse of opinions among teachers in social studies

The aim of this paper is to increase the awareness about how teachers in Social studies think about goals and substance in the subject. I also want to get a picture about what kinds of problems teacher’s experiences when teaching Social studies. My expectations told me that Social studies are complex to teach, because it derives from several university disciplines such as Political science, Economics, Sociology, Law and Geography, which I believe makes the subject harder to define and what to give priority to. Finally, I want to increase the awareness, if it seems to be any fundamental essence in Social studies as a subject.

To achieve my goals with this paper I have studied relevant literature about Social studies. I also made an investigation with seven teachers who teach Social studies.

The results of the investigation showed that political science is very wide and contains a lot of different areas. The basic view about Social studies varied among the investigations participants, however the majority thought that the subject should convey practical training skills and ought to, in some way, prepare students for later acts in life. The investigation also showed that the participants mainly focused on areas from Sociology and Political science and less often from Law, Geography and Economics. Finally, when it comes to the essence of the subject, the investigation showed that that democracy has a very special place. However, in what way the teachers work with and discuss democracy, vary.

Uppsatsens syfte är att öka kännedomen om hur samhällskunskapslärare tänker kring mål och innehåll i ämnet Samhällskunskap. Jag vill också få en bild av vilka problem, man kan uppleva som samhällskunskapslärare i sin undervisning i Samhällskunskap, då ämnet är väldigt komplext och härstammar från flera olika universitetsdiscipliner vilka är Statsvetenskap, Sociologi, Nationalekonomi, Rättskunskap och Samhälls/Kulturgeografi. Den varierande bakgrunden och mängden stoff kan, menar jag, eventuellt medföra stoffträngsel, prioriteringssvårigheter och att ämnet upplevs vara svårdefinierat. Slutligen vill jag få ökad kännedom om det verkar finnas någon grundläggande kärna i ämnet?

För att uppnå mina syften med uppsatsen studerar jag dels studerat relevant litteratur om Samhällskunskap både ur ett beskrivande och problematiserande perspektiv. Jag genomför även en undersökning, i form av en enkät med öppna svarsalternativ, som besvaras av sju verksamma gymnasielärare i Samhällskunskap.

Undersökningens resultat visar att Samhällskunskap är vitt och mångfacetterande, då undersökningsdeltagarna lyfter fram många och olika tankar kring vad som är viktigt stoff i ämnet. Synen på målen med Samhällskunskap varierar hos undersökningsdeltagarna även om majoriteten lyfter fram att Samhällskunskap skall innefatta färdighets och förtrogenhetskunskap och att man som elev skall förberedas för senare agerande i livet. Man kan utifrån undersökningen även se att de områden och begrepp som lärarna främst lyfter fram härstammar från universitetsdisciplinerna Sociologi och Statsvetenskap. Däremot lyfts mer sällan begrepp från Rättskunskap, Samhälls/Kulturgeografi och Nationalekonomi fram vilket tyder på ”stoff prioritering” i en viss riktning. När det gäller ämnets kärna kan man se att demokrati verkar ha en särskild plats inom ämnet, på vilket sätt, varierar dock. Demokratins särskilda plats harmonierar dock väl med de intentioner man har haft och fortfarande har med Samhällskunskap som ämne.