The onset of the 21st century brought with it an increasingly authoritarian world. Since 2005, countries making democratic declines outnumbered those making democratic gains. Why is it that, despite seemingly disparate conditions in individual countries, democratic backsliding is globally on the rise? Although this sudden and alarming decline has drawn the attention of many political researchers, there currently lacks a strong scientific consensus on the major catalysts for democratic backsliding. This research project explores whether political and affective polarization influence the quality of democracy experienced by a country. I hypothesize that the amount of polarization within a state significantly impacts the extent to which democratic backsliding occurs. This hypothesis comes from my observations of the United States’ current cultural climate, where high levels of polarization have contributed to political dysfunction on a national level. Polarization appears to undermine democratic norms and principles by discouraging bipartisan cooperation, encouraging politicians with autocratic policies to run for elections, and incentivizing voters to choose partisan interests over democratic ones. To test this theory, I run a multivariate regression analysis of the relationship between political and affective polarization on over 100 countries, all of which were considered to be some form of democracy in the year 2013. I test this analysis against multiple potential confounding variables, such as the income inequality within a state, public support for democracy, and rate of immigration. I expect my evaluation to show a significant positive relationship between a nation’s level of polarization and the rate of democratic decline. Erosion of democracy has real-world significance for citizens. Since this period of democratic backsliding began, election freedom and checks on human rights abuses have deteriorated. It’s important to identify a catalyst for 21st century backsliding because it provides us with a method for preventing further liberalism to occur.

In a liberal and democratic society, unjust policies can be prevented by the people through voting or political action. People in a free society have a default political responsibility to prevent unjust policy in these ways. However, people under a non-democratic regime do not have the means to actively engage in political affairs and therefore do not causally contribute to unjust policy. This paper analyzes the protests against the zero-COVID policy employed by the Chinese government since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. I use three theoretical approaches to examine to what extent people have a moral responsibility to oppose unjust policy. First, people can follow the heroic example of Antigone in Sophocles' tragedy and mount heroic resistance at great personal cost. They can appeal to higher moral values and take up rebellion against the authoritarian government. Second, individuals can honor their social roles despite the state's rules. Doctors should treat the patients even though the zero-Covid policy demands them not to do so. Finally, individuals can seek to preserve truth and inner freedom. This is the approach with the least cost. People should seek truth and be aware of the lies made by the government. In the meantime, they need to protect themselves from being punished by the authoritarian government. These are three models of moral responsibility. I argue that sticking with the truth is the minimum moral requirement for individuals under authoritarian regimes.

The “Taiwan issue,” a potential breaking point for U.S.-China relations, is essentially about Taiwan’s highly controversial political status and national identification. Historically, the Taiwanese have identified themselves in different ways, as some self-identify as Chinese and some as Taiwanese. However, there has been a significant change in Taiwan’s national identification in recent decades, as people are increasingly self-identifying as Taiwanese instead of Chinese. This paper tries to answer what has led to changes in Taiwan’s national identity. I explore theories of democratization, authoritarian control in mainland China, and elite manipulation through discourse as potential causes for the shift in Taiwan’s national identification. I use democratic indices from the V-Dem dataset to measure degrees of democratization and the political rights and civil liberties indices from Freedom House to measure levels of authoritarian control in mainland China. To measure elite manipulation through discourse in Taiwan, I conduct a content analysis of key concepts related to both identities on Taiwan’s newspapers. I employ these data to test each of the theories in relation to survey results in Taiwan from 1990-2021. To test each of the theories, I conduct a multivariate regression analysis to determine if there is a relationship between each theory and change in Taiwanese national identity. I expect to find a positive correlation between the three potential causes and change in Taiwan’s national identification, which would indicate that democratization, elite manipulation through discourse, and authoritarian control in mainland China has led to the increasing trend of identifying as Taiwanese. Understanding the cause of change in Taiwan’s national identification and how support for the identities change over time provides insights into why and to what extent Taiwan has separated itself from mainland China and helps inform policy implications for both China and the U.S.’ Taiwan policy.

A fair system of criminal justice must maintain consistency in sentencing. Consistency refers generally to the requirement that a court must use the same principles, purposes, and factors in evaluating different cases. Sentencing practices for international atrocity crimes are widely criticized as confusing and disparate. However recent empirical studies considering only a limited number of international courts suggest that sentencing practices may be more consistent than is generally believed. In this project, I examine consistency in international atrocity crime sentencing across all international and hybrid courts to better understand how and why key factors are shaping sentencing practices. To examine this dynamic process, I develop an original case law dataset that includes all cases from nine different international and hybrid courts from the first case in 1945 to 2021. Each case is coded for key characteristics such as number of crimes committed, type of crimes and mitigating factors as well as the length in months of the sentence. Using multivariate regression analyses, I determine levels of consistency across rulings. In the second part of my analysis, I utilize this dataset and machine learning techniques to develop and test two models for predicting the length of sentences in international atrocity crime cases. I expect the model incorporating different legal sentencing determinants to be a more powerful predictor of sentencing lengths. Preliminary findings reveal that international and hybrid court sentencing in international criminal cases does exhibit considerable consistency. This high consistency allows us to predict the outcome of similar cases, potentially alleviating congestion and case backlogs that plague international courts.

In the spring of 2021, a man suffering from what he called a “sexual addiction” obtained a gun and attacked three different Asian massage parlors in Atlanta, Georgia, killing eight people – six of whom were Asian women. This event, alongside the rise in violence against Asian American women since the beginning of the pandemic, motivated me to investigate the role of stereotypes in portrayals of violence against Asian American women. I first conducted a literature review on the history of Asian American women in the United States, the stereotypes that have arisen, and their lasting impacts. I chose to perform thematic analysis on the coverage of the 2021 Atlanta spa shootings in order to investigate the effect of stereotypes in the portrayal of significant act of violence against Asian American women that received intense media attention. I analyzed 48 articles from 4 different news sources within a 48 hour and 2 week time frame, coding for relevant themes. Ultimately I expect to find that the coverage reinforces historical stereotypes that sexualize, objectify, and dehumanize Asian American women, and fails to address the nuances of the shootings. By becoming aware of the ways that stereotypes of Asian American women inhabit their portrayals, we can begin to confront these stereotypes and prevent their presence when taking action against violence against Asian American women.

Non-evangelical denominations of Protestantism have experienced unsettling declines in funding and membership since the 1960’s. Seattle churches are no exception. A collective of “progressive” identifying Seattle churches are tackling the organizational issues they face. Together, they are asking questions such as: “How can we disrupt the entrenched Christian elitism that separates our church from the community landscape?” and “How can we reteach our congregations what it means to be in community with other people?” Political scientists and religious scholars have offered many theoretical explanations for why some churches, denominations, or religions thrive when others do not. This paper seeks to quantitatively assess mainstream explanations for progressive Protestant decline by using survey data collected from this local collective of churches. The survey utilizes likert scale questions, which will be analyzed using a logistic regression to understand how individuals relate their political beliefs to their religious beliefs in the context of their congregations.This paper advances three hypotheses: progressive Protestantism decreases theological and political cohesion among their congregations; progressive church-goers develop political beliefs that are less influenced by the church than their conservative counterparts; and lastly that progressive churches have weak self-conceptions of their theological teachings. Progressive theologies inherently encourage open-mindedness and individuality: beliefs that are often corrosive to the ideological strength of a church because they undermine the church's moral authority. I believe that progressive Protestants generally-- and these Seattle churches specifically-- have so diluted the coercive influence of the church, that their congregations are struggling to maintain a cohesive theological outlook. The Christian church undergirds many Americans’ political beliefs. Understanding how a church’s adoption of a progressive theology impacts the organizational strength of a congregation, and the ideological beliefs of the individual are crucial considerations for a country increasingly divided by political polarization.

I completed my project alongside the assistance of my mentor, Kari Bull, who I worked with previously when I was a fellow at Fuse Washington. The population of the leadership project has been tailored to communities in low-income and minorities and focused on educating community members on how important their voices are to affect change in local politics. I chose this focal point because, as a fellowship with Fuse, I noticed the need for diversity in politics. When canvassing, I noticed how community members were scared to be involved with politics because they feared being deported or having problems with the police. My mentor shared her experience and knowledge with me to guide me in creating actions to empower the populations who might have otherwise been afraid to get involved. I learned how to reach out to nonprofit organizations whose goals aligned with my project to bolster efficacy for us all. Summer of 2022, I gave a presentation called Beyond the Ballot Box: Opportunities for Civic Engagement for Undocumented Immigrants. I recruited family, friends, and people in my community to come to learn about civic engagement and signed them up for a phone bank for Senator Emily Randall. Because politics doesn’t stop after elections, I gave a presentation to educate my peers on how to be involved in the legislative process in Olympia. I spoke on House Bill 1095, a bill that would grant undocumented workers unemployment benefits. Overall, with improved resources and education, people will be more confident engaging in politics. The expected results based on prior knowledge was community members who persuade civic engagement involvement.