College of Arts & Humanities
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The collections in this community comprise faculty research works, as well as graduate theses and dissertations.
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Item The Clash between Race and Politics: Marion Barry, the District of Columbia Financial Control Board, and the Fight for Home Rule(2023) Horn, Dennis Marshall; Freund, David M.P.; History; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)ABSTRACTTHE CLASH BETWEEN RACE AND POLITICS: MARION BARRY, THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA FINANCIAL CONTROL BOARD, AND THE FIGHT FOR HOME RULE Dennis Marshall Horn, Master of Arts 2023 Thesis Directed By: Associate Professor, David M. P. Freund, Department of History In 1995, the District of Columbia (DC) was insolvent. Marion Barry, who had just been elected mayor of Washington, DC for the fourth time was advised that D.C. faced a $722 million deficit which DC was unable to finance. In addition, DC residents were not getting adequate public services like police, schools, trash pick-up and street repair. In response, Congress suspended “Home Rule”, the law which granted DC citizens the right to be governed by a mayor and a thirteen-member citizen-elected council. Instead, Congress empaneled the District of Columbia (DC) Financial Responsibility and Management Assistance Authority (Control Board), a five-member board appointed by the President to take control of the District’s governance. The Control Board stayed in place and Home Rule was suspended from 1995-2001. The Control Board rather than the elected officials had the authority to run the District’s government while leaving in place the mayor and the DC Council to implement the Control Board’s directives. The division between the authority to set policy and the executive function to implement that policy created a conflict of governing objectives between Marion Barry and the Control Board. In accordance with his Civil Rights background, Barry believed that the main purpose of DC government should be economic empowerment for DC’s Black citizens. The Control Board’s main objectives were to gain control of DC finances, cut unnecessary municipal costs and improve city services with the ultimate goal of attracting middle class residents to stabilize DC’s tax base. The resulting housing boom and population growth led to gentrification which priced the less affluent residents, including many Black residents, out of DC. These dueling policy objectives benefitted some to the detriment of others, and vestiges of these competing policies survive today. This thesis, which is largely based upon interviews with key officials in Congress, the Control Board, the Clinton Administration and the DC government, contributes to the scholarly literature by viewing Barry, the Control Board and the fight for Home Rule through the lens of social and racial politics. The thesis concludes that while the Control Board saved Home Rule by putting the DC government back on a sustainable course, it is at best a temporary solution to a broken government. An unelected Control Board does not have either the capacity or the public support to resolve problems that cannot be separated from group identity politics. On the other hand, when Congress determines to intervene in DC governance, DC’s citizens have little defense without voting representatives in Congress.Item Deliberation and Legitimacy in Economic Development Policy(2021) Good, Joseph E; Wible, Scott; English Language and Literature; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Most policy decisions are channeled through deliberative forums, such as a city council or state legislature. Economic development is a frequent concern in those deliberative forums, as economic development policy can greatly affect the life and livelihood of constituents. Yet the process of economic development policy can be enigmatic, intimidating, and/or inequitable. Accordingly, this dissertation analyzes economic development in localized policy processes and decisions. The driving goal is to better understand and ameliorate policy problems, especially problems of democratic deliberation and legitimacy. Thus, this dissertation joins other works that aim to “illustrate how rhetoric engages advocates and audiences alike to frame public problems and identify policy solutions.” This dissertation uses case studies as the basis for qualitative analysis. The case studies are distinct episodes of economic development decisions and campaigns. Rhetorical analysis is the main method of analysis. But this dissertation also honors the goals of a “problem structuring” study, where policy problems are interpreted, organized, and more clearly defined. Furthermore, each case is structured as an ecological study. This intensive observation of past situations and decisions allows a more concentrated focus on policy problems. Chapter one introduces the frame of work, methods, and goals. Chapter two is an intensive look at the economic development policy of Harrisburg, PA from 1999-2003. This centers around an aging trash incinerator and encompasses issues such as environmentalism and social justice. Chapter three observes university-centered economic development. A series of case studies shows how universities employ similar rhetorical appeals to secure funding and investment. Chapter four addresses democratic legitimacy. After defining the term, the case studies of previous chapters are re-analyzed to uncover problems of democratic legitimacy. In using this localized focus and distinct methodology, this dissertation endeavors to ameliorate policy problems in the analyzed cases. Yet these problems are often analogous to policy processes in many other contexts. Therefore, this dissertation is applicable to many policy situations across the country.Item "Unfit for Family Life": How Regimes of Accumulation, Sexuality, and Antiblackness Have Built (and Rebuilt) West Baltimore(2020) Choflet, Robert Thomas; Sies, Mary Corbin; American Studies; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)“'Unfit for Family Life': How Regimes of Accumulation, Sexuality, and Antiblackness Built (and Rebuilt) West Baltimore,” is an historical study of West Baltimore housing transformation in the late twentieth and early twenty first centuries. Derived from in-depth oral histories conducted over a number of years with fifty-three Baltimore residents who have lived in (or currently live in) public housing, this project drew from resident reflections and rigorous archival work, in order to investigate the demolition campaigns that reduced Baltimore's public housing stock by almost half and the privatization campaigns that have rebuilt these once public spaces. Policy makers, housing reformers, planners, and real estate interests constructed a shared cultural politics that imagined black women as imperiled actors, public housing as destabilizing to black family life, and demolition and privatization as a necessary, even moral, intervention. This process ignored black women's organizing efforts and specific political demands, while isolating them from one another and disrupting established political coalitions. In spite of this, oral histories reveal continued efforts by residents to organize for democratic redistribution of housing resources.Item Between Rebel Flags: Iraqi Vexillology and State Iconography, 1921 - 2017(2020) Andrews, John T; Wien, Peter; History; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)In under a century of existence, the Republic of Iraq has adopted seven national flags. The circumstances of these modifications occurred under times of tremendous political transformation following wars and military coups. The evolution of Iraqi vexillology often corresponded to sub-national violence and direct challenges to state authority. This thesis considers Iraqi identity through the lens of its national flags and iconography from 1921 to 2017. It argues that Iraqi flags and iconography constitute an archive revealing a national identity organized around an emphasis on ethnicity and transhistorical relationships.Item Edifice Complex: Public Stadium Funding and Urban Redevelopment in Baltimore, Maryland(2018) Bucacink, Ian Charles; Freund, David M; History; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)In the 1980s, Marylanders engaged in a public debate over the need to replace Baltimore’s Memorial Stadium. New stadium proponents, led by an elite coalition of politicians, businesspeople, and the newspapers, argued that Baltimore needed professional sports teams economically, as well as for the positive image they bestowed upon the city. Only a new publically-funded stadium would prevent the baseball Orioles from following the football Colts out of town, these supporters contented. A large segment of the public questioned the need to replace Memorial Stadium and suggested alternative social priorities for state funding, but the state legislature decided to fund the new stadium complex at Camden Yards anyway, despite intense popular opposition. For Baltimore’s elites, the issue was about more than sports. The new stadiums were a defense and continuation of the city’s neoliberal policies of urban redevelopment, along with all that those policies entailed, both good and bad.Item Building Publics: The Early History of the New York Shakespeare Festival(2018) Sheaffer, Adam; Hildy, Franklin J; Theatre; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation explores the New York Shakespeare Festival/Public Theater’s earliest history, with a special focus in the company’s evolving use of the rhetoric and concept of “public.” As founder Joseph Papp noted early in the theater’s history, they struggled to function as a “private organization engaged in public work.” To mitigate the challenges of this struggle, the company pursued potential audiences and publics for their theatrical and cultural offerings in a variety of spaces on the cityscape, from Central Park to neighborhood parks and common spaces to a 19th century historic landmark. In documenting and exploring the festival’s development and perambulations, this dissertation suggests that the festival’s position as both a private and public-minded organization presented as many opportunities as it did challenges. In this way, company rhetoric surrounding “public-ness” emerged as a powerful strategy for the company’s survival and growth, embodied most apparently by their current moniker as The Public Theater.Item Public Opinion, Political Representation, and Democratic Choice(2015) Zenz, Michael; Pacuit, Eric; Morris, Christopher W; Philosophy; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)In this dissertation I argue that political representatives have duties to be responsive to public opinion in their policy decisions. The existence of this duty, I claim, is a basic requirement of a truly democratic system of government. In chapter 2, I show that several standard versions of democratic legitimacy require political representatives to ``respect'' public opinion. However, I argue that a particular version of political legitimacy, based upon popular sovereignty and the importance of self-governance, provides an especially useful background for understanding what this ``respect'' must mean. In chapter 3, I argue that respecting public opinion requires political representatives to integrate public opinion information into their policy decisions. According to one of the standard views of political representation, the liberal conception, representatives deciding between policy alternatives should balance what they believe to be in the interests of the public against public opinion. I argue that this is the only adequate theory of political representation. Although this view of political representation is often discussed in the literature, it is less often given a mathematically precise form. Therefore, I present a formal model of such a balancing procedure, and this reveals several important formal requirements that a conception of public opinion must satisfy; most importantly, it must account for instability in the expression of public opinion, individual differences in opinion strength, and it must be representable along a cardinal scale. Standard measures of public opinion do not satisfy these requirements. I argue that if such a model of public opinion cannot be formulated, then the liberal conception of political representation is incoherent. In chapters 4 and 5, I present a model of public opinion based upon Thurstonian scaling techniques that fulfills the necessary formal requirements. Finally, in chapter 6, I discuss several important implications this model has for the measurement of public opinion, the use of public opinion by political representatives in policy deliberation, and other problems in social choice theory.Item Getting the Word Out: A Study of Assistance Information Made Available to Low-Income People through County Websites(2014) Wilson, Susan Copeland; Jaeger, Paul T.; History/Library & Information Systems; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Electronic government (e-government) is vetted as a mechanism to deliver government information and services to the public with efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and greater democratization. The impacts to low-income people can be significant but the topic remains largely unexplored by research. This new study establishes a research agenda to examine the social impacts (rather than the technology focus) of that space wherein assistance information is deployed digitally and a low-income person seeks and retrieves it. This dissertation examines how information about Medicaid, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program ("food stamps), and Temporary Assistance to Needy Families ("welfare") are delivered electronically. Case studies of three Maryland counties 1) examine information to understand what is made available on-line, 2) examine the state and county statutes, strategies, and policies issued on-line to understand expectations, requirements, and implementation decisions, and 3) compare implementations and alignment with statutory mandates. The research identified commonalities and gaps between the mandates and implementation. In particular, state statutes support delivering services and information digitally across multiple platforms. This is being implemented for some county services but notably, not for assistance services for low-income people. This obviates opportunities to reduce the stigma, effort, and costs in applying for services and for realizing greater efficiency in assistance delivery by Departments of Social Services. This gap perpetuates low-income people as a "separate but unequal" class, making this a question of civil rights, and issues of income and full-realized citizenship. This exploratory research provides a new lens through which to expand current information theory models such as information poverty, small worlds, and digital inclusion. It can help identify mechanisms to address. This research can help policymakers to address the intersection of technology; changes in demographics, technology access, and literacy; income; citizenship; biases designed into automation; and organization efficiency. Finally, it can help inform a practical framework with which counties can determine how closely program information and delivery meet public needs and evaluate the impacts of e-government.Item Irrelevant Genius: Professional Economists and Policymaking in the United States, 1880-1929(2013) Franklin, Jonathan Stevenson; Sicilia, David B; History; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The rapid establishment and expansion of economics departments in colleges across the United State in the late nineteenth century indicates a significant shift in the way Americans understood economic science and its importance to federal economic policy. This dissertation addresses that phenomenon by explaining how American economists professionalized; and how that process influenced economic policymaking in the U.S. from the formation of the American Economic Association in 1885 to the Great Depression of the 1930s. Chapters alternate between analyzing the dilemmas economists faced while crafting a distinct academic discipline and investing early professional economists' role in the federal economic policymaking process. Three emerging themes help explain the consistent failure of early U.S. economists to translate modern economic theory to economic policy in a timely fashion. First, public skepticism and the persistence of folk economics proved to be a powerful deterrent to professionally-trained economists' authority in debates over policy matters. The combination of democratic idealism, populist politics, and skepticism regarding the motivations of professionally-trained economists undercut much of the social prestige professional economists garnered as educated elites. Second, disagreement among professional economists, often brought on by young economists' efforts to overturn a century's worth of received wisdom in classical economic theory, fostered considerable dissent within the field. Dissent, in turn, undermined the authority of professional economists and often led to doubt regarding economists' abilities among the public and policy compromises that failed to solve economic problems. Third, networking was central in the policymaking process. Personal relationships often were crucial in determining which prerogatives won out, a fact that indicates how haphazardly economic theory was applied to the nation's most pressing economic problems.Item International Origins of Nixon's War on Drugs(2013) Kadz, John Taylor; Sicilia, David B; History; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)President Richard Nixon initiated the modern war on drugs after being influenced by his keen interest in foreign policy and foreign influences on American society. Phases of hysteria preceded Nixon's drug war and led to development of anti-drug legislation and a global policy to control international narcotics trafficking. Nixon's drug war strategy changed over time and was mainly a three pronged all-out offensive consisting of international supply reduction, law enforcement, and drug abuse and treatment program.