In developed economies, medium sized firms make up roughly half of all economic growth and employment. Among poor economies however, these firms are virtually absent, as is financing for the creation of them, despite the rise of innovative microfinance institutions. This phenomenon is termed the “missing middle”. My paper sought to understand how firms of this size were established in the developed world, by juxtaposing the financial ecosystem of Industrial Revolution era Scotland to those of developing countries today. I choose Scotland because of its’ rapid development during the 18th and 19th centuries, despite relative poverty and lack of infrastructure compared to contemporary western European countries. I studied primary sources such as accounting documents, and letters between firm owners and managers to develop a picture of the business strategies and financial products used by these firms. These historical strategies were compared to those employed by modern microfinance institutions such as Grameen, based on their published financial statements. Similarities abounded: schemes where individuals pool their savings to create loanable capital, easy loan terms, co-signing, and other practices. The differences however, are stark. Scottish banks lent small and medium sized debts, and rarely had more than a few hundred, local accounts. Modern microfinance institutions service millions of tiny borrowers. Additionally, Scottish banks were universally general-partnerships, a form mostly extinct today. I conclude by suggesting that these differences were key in allowing Scottish banks to finance the Industrial Revolution in Scotland, and that they could assist in financing the “missing middle” in the developing world today.

In 2016, the global median favorability of the United States stood at 64%; in 2017, median favorability dropped to 39%. Causes for anti-American attitudes have been difficult to pinpoint, but research suggests the reach of the United States military-approximately 800 foreign military installments in 70 countries-could have a part in America's negative image. Past research has considered the impact of military presence on anti-Americanism versus the lack thereof. But, whether a greater military presence (i.e. more troops, funding, and base cost) accounts for higher levels of anti-American attitudes has not been considered. My research studies whether greater levels of military presence, measured by Plant Replacement Value (PRV), acreage, and personnel, contribute to unfavorable attitudes towards the United States. I predict that greater military presence significantly increases anti-Americanism because an overt outside military presence attributes to a perception of the United States as intrusive, politically motivated, and imperialistic. I use attitudinal data from the Pew Global Attitudes Project and data pertaining to military presence from the Department of Defense's annual Base Structure Report. This relationship, if substantiated, could have important consequences on the future of American trust, power, and foreign policy.

Credible threats of nuclear war have not been as profound as they are in the society of today, since the Cold War. The nuclear tension between North Korea and the United States has been escalating at an alarming rate. As a resident of Seattle, I am living in the target area of a potential strike. As a United States Marine, I am one of the first to go when our Nation calls. But what is the likelihood of us actually engaging in nuclear war? Is Kim Jong-un really an insane dictator— lost in his own version of reality, or is he an intelligent and calculating leader attempting to influence the world around him? By using something from the social sciences called game theory, we can break away from the speculation in the media and systematically begin to understand the problem. We can analyze the people involved, their preferences and expectations, and what available actions they can take to achieve these goals. By attaching a theoretical payoff to every action a nation may take, such as North Korea or the United States, we can compare the possible outcomes and accurately predict the course of action by relying on two fundamental theories— first that people are rational. And secondly, that people are always looking to rationally maximize their utility. Through my research, I have found that when you analyze a leader like Kim Jong-un, you realize that his actions, however brash or combative they may be perceived, are actually rational choices. Furthermore, his decision to progress his nuclear program is also rational. Despite that, the crux of my research is that nuclear war with North Korea is currently very unlikely. Using the models from game theory, I can change this assertion from one that typically comes from speculation, to one of calculation.

Religious rhetoric has been a common tool in politics for the majority of American history, from Thomas Jefferson being “unfit to lead a Christian Nation” to Ronald Reagan’s “City Upon a Hill”. Although the Constitution declares the government to be secular, members of Congress, to varying degrees, regularly invoke religious imagery and rhetoric in the public communications. This study seeks to understand why. I examine congressional religious rhetoric using a unique data source of congressional webpages from the massive .GOV collection of the Internet Archive Project. I hypothesize that members' personal beliefs and electoral strategies help to explain differences in website content. I measure the personal religiosity of members using a carefully constructed scale of involvement in their religious communities. I measure district religiosity using information about district-level church attendance and prayer frequency from the Cooperative Congressional Election Survey. Finally, I draw from established religion lexicons to measure religious emphasis in congressional website content. I find positive, statistically significant support for both hypotheses. This work sheds light on politicians in particular members of congress are actively seeking to brand themselves through the internet for political purposes.

Wealth inequality in the U.S. is at an extremely high level and continues to grow. In 2010, the wealthiest 10% owned 70% of total wealth, a percentage close to the level in 1930. The gross wealth disparity that characterizes the contemporary U.S. is one of the most pressing economic and political issues of our times. In this work, I present agapism as an alternate philosophical system of ethics to address the debilitating wealth inequality in the U.S. today. Agapism is an ethical system based on the commandment in the Pentateuch to love one's neighbor as oneself. Traditionally, academic philosophy has overlooked agapism as an ethical system because its foundational sources are of religious origin rather than grounded in philosophical texts. However, agapism is a robust ethical system that provides compelling moral reasons for government wealth redistribution. In my work, I detail the moral and philosophical reasons for wealth redistribution that arise from the agapist tradition and explore the kinds of moral obligations agapism imposes on individuals and communities. Though agapism’s foundational sources include those of Christian origin, I consider and respond to Christian arguments against government wealth redistribution and Christian arguments that make a weaker case for wealth redistribution than agapism calls for. I also consider and respond to arguments regarding the proper and just distribution of wealth from influential secular figures in contemporary moral philosophy, including John Rawls and Robert Nozick. Among other issues, I consider their perspectives on how wealth should be justly distributed, as well as the government’s role in wealth redistribution.

In 2015, Seattle voters overwhelmingly voted in favor of Honest Elections Seattle. A citizen-led initiative that significantly changed the way Seattle City elections were financed. By providing every resident of Seattle with Democracy Vouchers, four $25 credits that can be given to participating candidates, these reforms have provided a new opportunity for citizens to become political donors and participate in a process that has been dominated by wealthier and more educated elites. My research analyzes every political contribution made in the 2017 and 2015 electoral cycles for two city council races that are city wide. I break down the city of Seattle into ZIP codes and compare political contributions from each ZIP code in 2015 and 2017. I then use the American Community Survey data to compare each ZIP code by mean income, percent of residents with a bachelor’s degree or higher, and percentage of white residents. I predict that Seattle’s Democracy voucher program has significantly changed the profile of the average political donor in Seattle and made them more representative of the city as a whole. I hope to find that through publicly financing elections, we can create an electoral system where everyone can participate, not just the wealthy elite. This work is critical for evaluating the success of a multi-million dollar public program and whether it ought to be adopted in other cities throughout the United States.

Nuclear coercion rests on the threat of force to compel a demand. Some strategists contend that nuclear coercion does not work between nuclear adversaries. The theory of the nuclear revolution posits that military victory is not possible in the nuclear era, and therefore military power cannot advance political ends. Others maintain that nuclear coercion is indeed possible, and the nuclear balance of power between adversaries shapes political outcomes. This study explores whether strategic superiority generates coercive leverage in crisis bargaining. It employs a qualitative case study analysis of Soviet decision making during the Cuban Missile Crisis to test rival theories of nuclear strategy.

The decriminalization of abortion has been a contentious issue in many countries throughout the world. Not only does the issue evoke religious debate, but a country's abortion laws also highlight the relationship between the state and women's bodies. The courts can have a considerable impact even in sensitive issues in society. Governments that have an independent judiciary as well as international courts in particular can provide a means for institutional change to occur. The purpose of this study is to understand the role that international courts' judicial policymaking plays in nations with restrictive abortion laws by examining the interactions between international courts and the domestic legal system. More specifically, the focus is on the case of Ireland due to its restrictive abortion laws and its increasingly independent judiciary as well as the fact that it is embedded in numerous international legal systems, such as the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). The HUDOC ECtHR Database, the Curia European Court of Justice Database, the Supreme Court of Ireland Judgement Database, as well as the Irish Statute Book were utilized in order to compare both domestic and international judicial rulings to Irish policy changes. Through examining the progression of the decriminalization of abortion in Ireland, the study concludes that international courts are in a unique position to provide incentive for countries to clarify ambiguity in their abortion policy and to institute domestic services. Although the focus is Ireland specifically, the study provides a general framework for the examination of international courts’ impact on other member states and contributes a more nuanced understanding of international courts' role in policymaking.

Past research shows that white and wealthy men are the most prevalent donors to local and state political campaigns, maintaining political influence through ineffectively regulated systems thereby threatening the quality of American democracy. As regulation-based campaign finance reform has been unable to mitigate the influence of large donors in local campaigns, city councils and grassroots organizations have started to present incentive-based policies to provide average Americans with the means to donate, though few have actually implemented them. Budding reforms like that of the Democracy Voucher program in Seattle, though showing promise, demand the attention of researchers to analyze their efficacy. Through comparing both the demographics and the histories of political engagement between donors, program participants, and other voters, this study seeks to determine the initial success of the Democracy Voucher program in Seattle. It concludes that one can observe a minimal increase in donors and more diverse donors, suggesting that the Voucher Program was marginally effective in achieving its goals of diversifying the donor pool. This research contributes to the literature available to policy makers and other researchers interested in developing public campaign financing reforms at the municipal and, potentially, state level.

Connecting patients to the appropriate health or social service intervention is critical for their long-term health and well being. The 911 system is increasingly being utilized for non-emergency medical situations that originate with non-acute health issues and poor health care access. This diverts resources away from the core mission of fire departments which is to respond to emergencies in a timely manner. This study utilized data from South King County’s 911 dispatch center, Valley Communications, and the American Community Survey to identify socioeconomic factors that may correlate with non-emergent 911 responses. Ultimately, this demographic study identified areas with high primary health needs that are ineffectively addressed and characterized their demographic profiles. Of particular interest are high frequency non-emergent callers that rely on the 911 system for chronic and reoccurring health issues. This information was mapped and related to health care facility locations to determine how health access played a role in this behavior. Researchers and policymakers can expand upon the conclusions of this study to create more targeted, effective, and efficient alternatives to the emergency medical system that can serve regions with the greatest health access and health delivery needs.

Scholars continue to be perplexed by the low rates of Asian American political participation despite their relatively high levels of education and income, two factors which have been shown to be strong predictors of political behavior among whites, African Americans, and Latinos. What is different about Asian Americans that make them largely unaffected by these factors? If their low rates of participation remain unmoved, they risk being systematically neglected from the democratic processes of the government. This study hypothesizes that the deeply rooted Asian cultural values of respect for authority and hierarchy dampen defiance and encourage passivity, therefore causing Asian Americans who are closely tied to their Asian culture to be less politically active. This study will measure political participation through self-reported voting and registration, while using a series of variables to determine levels of engagement with Asian culture. The dataset used from National Asian American Survey captures Asian Americans’ political attitudes and behaviors during the Presidential elections of 2008.

Environmentalism has often been considered a moral commitment. However, this paper investigates the hypothesis that environmentalism is not just a moral commitment, but a highly logical economic commitment. I argue that environmentalism is not contrary to economic motivations: instead, states fund their departments of ecology when they stand to gain economically from doing so. This paper compares the percentage of each state’s budget that went towards funding their ecology department to the tax revenue generated by two types of state resources: the outdoor recreation economy in each state and each state’s proven crude oil, shale gas, and natural gas reserves. When states receive more tax revenue from the outdoor recreation economy, they allocate a larger percentage of their budget to ecology departments. On the other hand, the presence of proven crude oil, shale gas, or natural gas reserves will decrease the amount of funding for state ecology departments because states generally gain more economically from the exploitation of those resources than from the outdoor recreation economy. Broader implications of this paper include the conclusion that the best way to ensure that states will be environmentally conscious is to make it economically advantageous to do so as states act primarily on economic incentives. This study uses data sets from Ballotpedia and American FactFinder and is supplemented with data from the National Conference of State Legislatures and the Outdoor Industry Association.
 

Since the implementation of health insurance provider policies that mandate opioid painkillers as the first line treatment for chronic back pain in the 1990s, opioid prescriptions and subsequent opioid poisoning related deaths have quadrupled. In the U.S., the second leading cause of physician visits and disability is back pain symptoms. The decision to assign opioid painkillers as the first line treatment is due to current cost containment efforts of health insurance providers. The method of research used is a literature review of available clinical studies, research reports, news archives, and legislative policy examining the origin these first line treatment policies and the impact they have on communities in the United States, as well as, the ethical implications of this method of treatment. Further, I explored the safety and utilization of chiropractic spinal manipulation, a non-pharmaceutical treatment for back pain. To assess the influence of non-pharmaceutical treatment on the occurrence of opioid overdose, my research analysis compares public accessibility and utilization of chiropractic treatment in each of the 50 states. While painkillers are the current first treatment for chronic pain, chiropractic treatments are a form of preventative care that specifically focuses on spinal conditions and hold significantly less risk for the patient. My research indicates that communities which have increased accessibility to chiropractic care also have lower instances opioid overdose. My analysis concludes that as the number of opioid prescriptions rises, there is also an increased probability of patients with painkiller prescriptions developing a drug dependency. This correlation calls into question the ethics and morality of the decision to designate opioids as the first line treatment for chronic back pain, as patient suffering is highly influenced by designated treatment options, and that a non-pharmaceutical treatment should be considered as a replacement for the currently mandated first line treatment.