Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

No Relief: The Politics Of Welfare Retrenchment, 1873-1898 And 1973-2002, Stephen Pimpare

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

No Relief compares the national repeal of AFDC in 1996 with the widespread campaigns against municipal poor relief that occurred throughout the United States some one hundred years earlier. In both eras businesses and the governments that depended upon them, threatened by growing labor power, civil unrest and the rising costs of poor relief, launched an attack against poor people and the limited benefits available to them. They did not do so directly but under cover of the Charity Organization Societies of the Gilded Age and conservative think tanks of the late twentieth century—"neutral" reform organizations that obscured the class-based …

The City Encomium In Medieval And Humanist Spain, Jeffrey Stephen Ruth

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation narrates the history of city encomia in Spain from the genre's roots in the eighth-century De laude Spanie of Isidore through the humanist laudes urbium of ca. 1455 to 1506. Preliminary context for the Spanish tradition is provided in a survey of classical and medieval theoretical writings for the praise of place. The major European city encomia from those periods are also presented.

Ancient authors tended to write about Iberia as a unit—Hispania—rather than to focus on its regions or cities. Hence the establishment of the early laus Hispaniae tradition in passages of Pliny, Solinus, Claudian, and Pacatus. …

Supervisor Leadership Style And Counselors' Burnout: A Comparative Study Of High School Counselors And Rehabilitation Counselors, David J. Lubofsky Edd

Dissertations

This quantitative study investigated whether the perceived leadership style of high school principals and rehabilitation supervisors had an effect on the burnout of high school and rehabilitation counselors. Demographic and work related characteristics were also assessed to determine if these factors affected burnout rates. Survey data from the three separate scales of the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI), and the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) were combined with demographic data to estimate a series of three regression models. The models focused on the effects of demographic, work-related and leadership variables on counselor burnout. Data were collected from 96 high school counselors and …

Perception And Reality: An Empirical Assessment Of Navy Leadership Styles And Business Process Reengineering Outcomes, Andre D. Murphy Edd

Dissertations

Seeking to improve mission readiness and organizational effectiveness while reducing expenditures, the Department of the Navy (DoN) eliminated and reconstructed many of its business practices. Reconstruction of the military's business practices was accomplished through business process reengineering (BPR). Business process reengineering is a change strategy that provides organizations the opportunity to do “more with less.” Although doing more with less is not a new concept in military settings, the organizational change construct of business process reengineering is new. Most organizations in the private sector that attempt reengineering do not attain their intended results; the literature reveals that 50–70% of organizations …

Modeling The Effects Of Financial Aid On Student Enrollment Decisions: A Quantitative Case Study Of A Private Catholic University, Linda Siefert Edd

Dissertations

Over the last two decades, many institutions of higher education have experienced admissions-related problems due to fluctuations in student enrollment and the increasing need for institutional financial aid. Because of this, administrators need tools that can help them modify policy as the market changes. The purpose of this research was to develop a tool for a private, more selective institution that would answer the following questions: (1) what is the probability of enrollment for each admitted student, and (2) how would changes in the financial aid package affect this probability? The model in this research was based on both economic …

Aircrew Adaptive Decision Making: A Cross-Case Analysis, Constance Ann Gillan Edd

Dissertations

Although the accident rate for military aviation has declined significantly from earlier decades, during the 1990's it reached a plateau. Human error in the cockpit still accounts for over 80% of the aircraft mishaps resulting in loss of life or over one million dollars in damage. Decision error has been a contributing factor for approximately 60% of these mishaps. The purpose of this research was to investigate aircrew process performance variables as predictors of decision-making outcomes. This study was modeled on elements of previous research in naturalistic decision making. Data were collected for cross-case analysis of the role experience plays …

A Model Health-Related Elementary Physical Education Program For Saipan: Teachers' Knowledge, Attitudes, And Practices, Kurt C. Barnes Edd

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine if there was significant differences in changes of knowledge, attitudes, and practices between elementary school teachers who took part in an in-service physical education training program and those who did not take part. The in-service training program utilized a model health-related physical education program. The setting for the study was a school district on Saipan whose teachers were required to teach physical education. Teachers in five of nine public elementary schools were placed in the in-service training program. A questionnaire assessing knowledge, attitudes, and practices, was administrated as a pre- and post-test. …

Factors Influencing Job Satisfaction Of Repatriated Managers, Michael A. Duoto Edd

Dissertations

Turnover due to repatriation is an increasingly costly occurrence for multinational corporations. Understanding why repatriates decide to leave their companies upon being called back from abroad may help to devise ways in which organizations can mitigate such turnover and reduce cost in hiring and training new personnel. To that end, this study examines the impact of training and orientation programs on the job satisfaction of repatriated managers. In general the study looks at whether or not training, orientation, and family support programs have an impact on the job satisfaction of repatriated managers. The study puts forward the hypothesis that training …

Heritage College: Partnership Leadership As Catalyst To A Multicultural Learning Community, Mary Ann Joan Elizabeth Kaczmarski Edd

Dissertations

Heritage College, a four-year, fully accredited, independent, nonprofit college located in rural, south central Washington, serves multicultural populations that have been educationally isolated. It was created against tremendous odds in 1981 by a small, diverse group of committed individuals. An initial study of Heritage College, conducted in 1991, yielded such compelling findings in the areas of leadership, mission, and community, among others, that a more rigorous, in-depth research study was called for. This dissertation is the follow-up study. The president of Heritage College states that the College sees itself as a leadership- and team-oriented institution with a distinctive focus on …

Veteran Teacher Perceptions Of The Grossmont Model Of Peer Assistance And Review. Is It A Viable Alternative To Traditional Evaluation?, Edwin L. Basilio Edd

Dissertations

This study looked at factors that influenced veteran teacher perceptions of the newly implemented Peer Assistance and Review (PAR) program in the Grossmont Union High School District. More specifically, the study explored (1) reasons why teachers with at least five years of successful teaching experience voluntarily chose to forfeit their regularly scheduled traditional evaluation and substitute it with a peer review, (2) factors that contributed to positive perceptions of the PAR program, (3) factors that contributed to negative perceptions of the PAR program, and (4) perceived differences between the traditional and PAR methods of teacher evaluation. This study incorporated multiple …

The Development Of The Tavistock And Tavistock-Inspired Group Relations Movement In Great Britain And The United States: A Comparative And Historical Perspective, Amy L. Fraher Edd

Dissertations

In order to gain a deeper understanding of authority, people must analyze human behavior in groups. To study these behaviors, a group relations movement was spawned approximately 60 years ago and has influenced people's thinking about leadership and authority in groups and organizations ever since. This study analyzed primary and secondary historical sources, including data from extended videotaped interviews the researcher conducted with thirteen group relations experts throughout the United States and Great Britain, as a way to reconstruct the history of a significant part of the group relations movement. These videotaped interviews are available for viewing. Specifically, the study …

Complementarity Of Politics And Administration: An Empirical Examination, Jothi S. Themozhi

Theses and Dissertations in Urban Studies

This dissertation is designed to examine the impact of the complementarity of politics and administration on local governments' fiscal performance. The study adopts Svara's Politics-Administration Complementarity Model, which explains the mutual interdependence and reciprocal influence of administrative relationships between the elected and appointed officials of local governments towards a General Management City (a traditional mayor-council city that appoints a professional city manager to conduct the city's administration without formally adopting the council-manager form).

By adopting the politics-administration complementarity model to a general management municipal administrative structure, this thesis hypothesizes that cities with general management administrative structures achieve measurable fiscal …

Sources Of Inter-State Alignments: Internal Threats And Economic Dependence In The Former Soviet Union, Eric A. Miller

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation develops a framework for understanding the alignment patterns of states of the former Soviet Union (FSU) vis-à-vis Russia. The framework challenges traditional alignment theories, such as balance of power and balance of threat theories, and suggests that these theories provide less accurate predictions of alignment behavior in the FSU than the present framework because of a variety of situational and contextual factors. In particular, the present framework highlights the impact of two variables on alignment patterns, (1) the internal political threats to leaders, and (2) the economic dependence on Russia. These two variables produce a four-outcome model, presented …

The Effectiveness Of Communication By Women Inmates In Florida With The Outside World, George A. Manning

Graduate Student Dissertations, Theses, Capstones, and Portfolios

The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of women inmates in maintaining communication with the outside world. Specifically, the investigator sought to determine how certain independent variables affect particular dependent variables. The independent variables used in the study were, (1) race/ethnicity, (2) remaining time to serve in prison, (3) age, (4) number of children, if any, the inmate has, and (5) education. The dependent variables used in the study were, (1) number of people on the outside world, (2) volume of correspondence, (3) number of visitations, and (4) volume of telephone calls.

A statistical design was employed …

It's All Relative: A Study On The Acceptance Of Family Employment In College Athletics, Jennifer E. Cirillo

Graduate Student Dissertations, Theses, Capstones, and Portfolios

Nepotism is a dirty little word: Related individuals work together in entertainment, medicine, education and yes, even sports administration. This study proposes to identify the acceptance of relatives, by blood or by marriage, working together in NCAA Division II colleges in the southeastern United States. "Nepotism" is an arguably accurate descriptor of arrangements of relatives working together. However, the potential for real as well as asserted preferential treatment is shown to exist. Further, as the trend of couples working in the same discipline grows, whether or not a candidate accepts a position may be determined by the potential manager's acceptance …

A Word-And-Flesh Profession: A Response To White And Brueggemann, Marie Failinger

Faculty Scholarship

Speech remakes the world through a relationship among words, speaker, and hearer. On one hand, this view of the human encounter as essentially rhetorical precludes an understanding of speech as purely subjectivist or emotivist self-expression. On the other hand, this same view of human speech interaction precludes the understanding of speech acts as mere descriptions of previously discovered or reasoned truth, either empirical or abstract. Professor White reaffirms this triad among words, speaker, and hearer with what he has identified as the “deeply reciprocal” dynamic of language. Professor Brueggemann also describes the speech acts between Moses, Abraham, and their God …

How Volunteers Saved Legal Aid In The 1990s, Calien Lewis

Maine Policy Review

No abstract provided.

A Sampler From The New Historical Atlas Of Maine: Religion In Maine, Burton Hatlen, Joshua M. Smith, Peter Lodge, Michael Hermann

Maine Policy Review

This article offers an example of work-in-progress on a significant project to develop an historical atlas of Maine. Although an article depicting religious settlement in Maine may seem far removed from the policy analyses typically featured in the journal, religious participation is a fundamental aspect of civic engagement in the United States. Thus, we feature here a glimpse of Maine’s religious heritage. We also present Maine Policy Review’s first full color pullout, which is intended to give readers a visual as well as textual portrait of religious settlement in the Kennebec Valley and Portland through the first half of …

Term Limits, The Standing Committees, And Institutional Response, Matthew C. Moen, Kenneth Palmer

Maine Policy Review

Through citizen initiative in 1993, Maine passed a term limits bill that now prevents legislators with eight years of consecutive service from seeking reelection. Although touted as a means of eliminating careerism in public service and as a means of bringing fresh blood and new policy initiative to Augusta, many now question whether limits on service have hampered legislative efficiency through the loss of experienced leadership and institutional memory. Moen and Palmer examine the impact of term limits on the legislature’s standing committees. While noting adverse impacts such as heavier workloads, they also find an institution hard at work to …

History + Resources = A Sense Of Place, Wendy Griswold

Maine Policy Review

Unlike many states, Maine has an unusually strong “sense of place,” or cultural regionalism. Wendy Griswold explores where this unusually strong sense comes from, and how it can be further nourished through literature. In doing so, she strengthens the argument for investments in cultural-heritage objects and activities as a means not only of reinforcing an already strong sense of identity among Mainers, but also of promoting Maine as a tourism destination.

Gubernatorial Power And The Struggle For Executive Efficiency In Twentieth Century Maine, Paul H. Mills

Maine Policy Review

In this commentary, Paul Mills discusses the balance between the executive and legislative branches of Maine state government in the twentieth century, noting that from 1986 to the time of the writing of this commentary (2002), the state’s governors have had a different political affiliation than the legislatures elected to serve with them. He remarks that even as the mechanics of government have become more efficient through reforms, Maine people have created and enforced a system that puts the governor and legislature at odds, hampering their ability to move forward.

Learning And Earning In Vacationland: Promoting Education And Economic Opportunity In Maine, Anthony Carnevale, Donna M. Desrochers

Maine Policy Review

Technological innovation, globalization and other economic forces together shape the structure of jobs and the way we work. Such forces have gained momentum over the last 40 years with the advent of a new economy that is increasingly reliant on skilled workers with a postsecondary education. This trend is evident in all sectors of Maine’s economy. In this article, Carnevale and Desrochers show where the jobs are in Maine and how the education attainment of those who hold such jobs has changed over the last 40 years. They look at where jobs will be in the future and the skills …

Economic Prosperity In Maine: Held Back By The Lack Of Higher Education, Philip A. Trostel

Maine Policy Review

Maine lags the nation in economic prosperity and in education attainment, and there is little doubt that the relative lack of higher education in Maine is a leading factor. In this article, Trostel looks at each of the three sources of Maine’s relatively low education attainment: the net emigration of college graduates (who are presumably in search of employment opportunities elsewhere); relatively fewer students going on to college; and the net emigration of high-school graduates leaving Maine to attend out-of-state postsecondary schools. While all three factors have happened in Maine to some extent, the net emigration of the state’s high-school …

Barriers To Postsecondary Education In Maine: Making College The Obvious And Attainable Next Step For More Maine Students, Colleen J. Quint, Lisa Plimpton

Maine Policy Review

The question of why more high school students do not go on to college has been the focus of recent research at the Mitchell Institute. Quint and Plimpton summarize this research, which involved more than 2,500 Maine students, educators and parents. They find that financial barriers are only one piece of a complicated puzzle. Other barriers include parental attitudes, whether any family members have attended college, the high school experience (i.e., what track the student is placed in), the quality of career planning in school and at home, and the level of active planning for college (while many students say …

Maine’S Investment Imperative, Laurie G. Lachance

Maine Policy Review

In the past two decades, Maine’s per capita income ranking has not topped 27th, and in recent years, the state’s relative position has dropped to 36th. More importantly, the gap between Maine and the United States has increased since 1990. In this article, Maine’s State Economist Laurie Lachance lays out a long-term investment strategy for Maine that focuses on education, research and development, comprehensive tax reform, greater efficiencies in the delivery of state and local services, and limits on government spending. Lachance argues that choices must be made even in times of fiscal crisis. Failure to invest means failure, period.

The Perils Of Voice And The Desire For Stealth Democracy, Elizabeth Theiss-Morse

Maine Policy Review

This article is an address given at the May 2002 Maine Town Meeting sponsored by the Margaret Chase Smith Library in Skowhegan. Elizabeth Theiss-Morse takes issue with each of the alleged beneficial effects of increased participation and deliberation in politics. She presents evidence from her own research with colleague John Hibbing that suggests a more participatory democracy does not necessarily result in better decisions, a better political system or better people. Rather, most Americans would prefer not to have to participate in politics at all. Theiss-Morse explains where this view comes from and, in the end, argues for a civic …

The Project Of Democracy, Alexander Keyssar

Maine Policy Review

This article is an address given at the May 2002 Maine Town Meeting sponsored by the Margaret Chase Smith Library in Skowhegan. Alexander Keyssar chronicles the advances and contractions of democratic political rights in American history. While on balance, this is a story of progress, it is not, Keyssar argues, unilinear, nor one that is completed. Although arguably late for the world’s “greatest democracy,” by the 1970s the United States had achieved universal suffrage. Today, however, the tug between democratic and anti-democratic forces continues. The contest is no longer over voting rights but over the procedures and rules governing elections …

Teenage Births In Maine: Positive Trends But More To Be Done, Leslie King, Stephen Marks

Maine Policy Review

Teen birth rates in Maine have fallen by 34 percent over the past decade, the fourth highest decline in the nation. However, as King and Marks point out, a low birthrate of 29.8 percent in 1999 still exceeds the teenage birthrate in most other industrialized countries in the world by a substantial margin. Moreover, when the authors compared Maine’s predominantly white population with non-Hispanic whites in other states, Maine’s success is not as remarkable. Indeed, the teenage birthrate of Maine’s non-Hispanic white population is higher than every other state in the Northeast corridor with the exception of Delaware. All of …

Why More Is Required To Address Maine’S Childhood Lead-Poisoning Problem, David Littell

Maine Policy Review

Although largely hidden from the public eye, childhood lead poisoning has been identified as one of Maine’s leading environmental health problems. Recent data show not only that lead-poisoning levels are unacceptably high among Maine’s children, but also that screening rates are lower than recommended by national health organizations and lower than in other New England states. David Littell discusses why childhood lead poisoning is such a problem in Maine and what can be done to remedy the situation, providing a thorough examination of how children are exposed to lead and the magnitude of the problem. He reviews the state’s existing …

Snowmobiling In Maine: Past Successes, Future Challenges, David Vail

Maine Policy Review

With one snowmobile registration for every 15 residents, Maine may well have the most snowmobiles per capita of any U.S. state. Moreover, the state’s 12,000-mile network of groomed trails and its 2,500-mile Interconnected Trail System make it a major winter tourist attraction. Still, as David Vail points out—and as the number of snowmobile-related deaths confirms—such progress has not come without costs and conflict. Although Vail argues the benefits outweigh the costs, he suggests Maine should act now to alleviate the conflicts related to congestion, over use of the state’s major trails, noise and air pollution, and free riding by non-dues-paying …