Political Science

Undergraduate Journal of Political Science

The California State Polytechnic University, Pomona Undergraduate Journal of Political Science is our department's scholarly research journal, providing peer-reviewed articles and essays from subfields throughout the discipline. Areas covered include American politics, public administration, international relations, comparative politics, public law and political theory. The Undergraduate Journal of Political Science is a student-run journal. 

Instructions for Submissions

Senior Editor-in-Chief 2022:
Nicolas Hernandez-Florez

Junior Editor-in-Chief 2022:
Sofia Rosales

Faculty Advisors:
Dr. Elli Menounou (emenounou@cpp.edu) 

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Current Issue: Volume 6, Issue 1, Spring 2022

Previous Issues:

Previous Editors:

  • 2021: Natalie Kassar and Nicolas Hernandez-Florez
  • 2020: Sandra Escobar and Natalie Kassar
  • 2018: Kristen Khair and Samara Renteria
  • 2017: Tara Kwan and Kristen Khair
  • 2016: Tara Kwan

Editors Nicolas Hernandez Florez and Sofia Rosales, in addition to faculty advisor Dr. Menounoum, introduce this volume of the undergraduate journal.

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In the qualitative examination of global sustainability and housing affordability, research findings point to the relevance of globalization and the spread of Neoliberalism which prevent the attainment of affordable housing in both developed and developing countries across the world. Some of the most prominent barriers surrounding this issue are the methodological issues of public policy, housing development, and affordability measurement standards. The commonality between each of these evolving factors will be empirically studied and compared on an international scale to determine the various impact levels–and to identify possible solutions to the global housing crisis. In conducting this study, social stainability will be measured as the focus for the future of affordable housing development–considering the barriers that exist in assuring the affordability of ‘public housing’ and the stressors that currently limit effective land use planning, policy outcomes, governmental expenditures, and measurement standards for affordability. Socially speaking, the citizens facing these impediments to their survival are struggling to meet the demands of the economy with skyrocketing inflation causing them to be excluded from their communities without reasonable alternatives– which has been found to directly affect political engagement and social well-being in the long run. The demand for affordable housing and decent living standards is not only damaging to the future of the economy, but also to long-term health outcomes lower and middle-class communities.

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The Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are undoubtedly two of the largest and most controversial conflicts in recent American history, given the difficulty to determine the levels of success between these two conflicts. It is clear, however, that the United States saw some triumph in their approaches in Iraq, while seeing failures in the deliberate attempt to recreate these approaches in Afghanistan. Regardless, this study argues that U.S. involvement in these wars, whether it followed with a quasi-victory or not, resulted in an increase in Islamist terrorism in both countries alike. This paper utilizes case studies to determine how terrorism worsened, and does so by examining the counterproductive struggles of the U.S. to stay in Iraq and Afghanistan. The results from this case study suggest that U.S. interventionism potentially helped extremist groups such as al-Qaeda gain in Afghanistan and Iraq, amongst others.

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During the time frame of 2005 through 2020 there were approximately 82 domestic terrorist attacks that occurred in the United States that led to the death of over 700 people. All states in the U.S have experienced at least one domestic terrorist attack throughout their history which is why the Second Amendment and firearm laws have became one of the most controversial and important topics in politics. In my research, I determined if domestic terrorist attacks created a shift in perspective on the state’s interpretation of the Second Amendment. To assess the answer to my question I chose at least one attack from each year (all from different states) based on the fatalities and injuries the attack created. After that, I analyzed the state’s firearm laws in which the attack occurred a year prior to the attack and a year after the attack. By doing this I was able to see if the state had strong or weak firearm policies prior to the attack and if these policies were revised after the attack happened. Based on the state’s reaction, proposals, and law revisions I was able to identify if domestic terrorist attacks effect the state’s interpretation of the Second Amendment.

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Attempting to bridge differing perspectives between candidate and elite-driven theories of post-reform presidential nomination contests, this paper studies factors that may affect party coordination. Specifically, it examines the proportion of a party’s sitting governors and senators who endorsed any candidate before the Iowa caucuses and the share of those endorsements received by the leading endorsement-getter as tandem measures of party coordination akin to those outlined by Cohen et. al (2008; 2016). Guided by literature suggesting a role for negative partisanship and ideological extremism to influence strategic voting, this paper investigates whether those factors also impact elite coordination. This paper first hypothesizes that an incumbent president viewed more unfavorably by the opposing party’s voters will correlate positively with an increase in the dual coordination measures for the opposing party. Secondly, this study hypothesizes that an incumbent president viewed as more ideologically extreme will similarly correlate with the dual party coordination measures. This study runs multivariate regressions to test both hypotheses, controlling for the number of major candidates vying for the nomination. The results do not support the hypotheses proposed and therefore this paper does not find evidence that these evaluations influence elite-level coordination. However, this study does find that disapproval of the
incumbent president positively correlates with the ideological extremism of the opposing party’s ultimate nominee albeit at the less stringent 90% confidence interval. This may suggest that while party leaders are not influenced by these evaluations, voters may be. This study recommends further research to evaluate that supposition.

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Living in Los Angeles, visiting a neighborhood park, and taking advantage of recreational space seems like a simple, uncontroversial activity. The ability to easily be in outdoor spaces is something that most will take for granted. As such, the distribution and availability of public parks is not an issue many urban dwellers think about. Yet, as with many contemporary issues in the United States, public park access highlights inequities across racial and socioeconomic lines. For lower-income neighborhoods and communities of color, park inequity is a symptom of, and the catalyst to a multitude of much larger problems. As the US’s second-most populated city, one would hope that LA provides enough recreational space for all its residents. However, this thesis shows that most parks and other green spaces in LA are concentrated in wealthy, majority-white neighborhoods, leaving the remaining residents with unequal and inequitable access to what is commonly considered a public good and a human right. This creates a gap in public health, leading to higher reported rates of obesity, poor mental health, and general quality of life. Through new use of public funds, change in policy, and community-oriented design for urban parks, this inequity in Los Angeles can be a thing of the past.

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The level of outside influences, such as political allegiances, public opinion, or amici curiae briefs on judicial decision-making and judicial activism has long been debated. With the increase in social movements and widespread media via technology in the 21st century, the way public perception can contribute towards judicial decisions has increased. This research project examines the impact of popular opinions on judicial activism in different legal systems. The project highlights search and seizure and same-sex marriage cases in the highest federal courts within the United States, which utilizes a common law system, and Germany, a civil law system. It is inconclusive as to whether common law or civil law systems tend to be more favorable towards judicial activism; however, both systems employ judicial activism when there is a major shift in public opinion and a large-scale social movement.

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Marijuana is a schedule one restricted substance, which means there is no federally
recognized safe medical usage for it and it is labeled as carrying a high potential for abuse
(Mead, 2017). Despite this federally recognized ban thirty-six states have legalized
marijuana for medical usage. (Garcia, Hanson, 2021) This is frankly unprecedented
as federal law takes precedence over state law. However, this has been the way legislation
in this area has continued through multiple administrations and policy shifts. Which of course gives rise to the question of why this has come to be. Many feel that political party is the driving factor in how legislators respond to legalization efforts and that this may be partially to blame for the current state of legalization. This paper looks at the question: Is party allegiance a significant factor in the decision by lawmakers to legalize marijuana and if so can that explain why legalization has been led by the states? This research seeks to prove whether or not there is a strong connection between political party and how the citizens and state legislators have acted in regard to legalization laws and whether this may be used to predict the actions of the federal legislature and perhaps understand the reason they have not passed legislation on the legalization issue at this time. The main investigative method used in this research was data collection and analysis. Each state which has legalized marijuana for medical or recreational use had data collected on the political party make-up of the citizens and state legislators as well as the voting record on the laws in question to try and find a correlation between the two. The data collected shows that the most likely answer appears to be that while political party does play a role in voting behavior it is not as strong an indicator as initially predicted. People are not strictly divided along party lines on this issue and there is more room for debate to perhaps change people’s minds than was initially expected.

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This piece explores the causality betweenlaws in the criminal justice system and the prison disparity among Black and White Americans. This issue first arose during the War on Drugs with lasting effects leading to the central problem of mass incarceration in our modern prison system. Prior research sought to understand how this began by analyzing legislation, judicial decisions in civil rights cases, as well as the general sentiment of the public. I will explore these contents in a controlled timeline of 1860-2010. I aim to test if prior decision making in the judicial and legal sectors contributed to the disproportionate impact policies have on Black individuals. The qualitative tool known as the Process Tracing Method will test whether or not the traces in each sequence within the timeline are applicable to the primary hypothesis. The implications of these findings demonstrate the need for more research on interpreting the causal link between law and disparity in prison.

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Homelessness is one of the biggest societal issues today, especially in the state of California, that continues to affect the lives of many minority communities. Victims of homelessness are individuals who lack a stable place of residence and either live in shelters, temporary housing, or public places that are not necessarily arranged for permanent sleeping accommodations. This research paper discusses the several different paths that lead an individual to become unhoused and possible solutions to overcome it. Furthermore, this paper will analyze in depth case studies between more affluent cities versus minority cities. This thesis will then examine the disparities of each by focusing on the population, median housing prices, and the presence or absence of programs and acts of legislation on affordable housing. The ultimate goal of this thesis is to analyze how these certain factors increase or decrease rates of homelessness. Finally, the results of this study yield that high rate of homelessness in California are due to the lack of affordable housing. Therefore, more housing programs and policies should be implemented to appropriately combat the struggles that lead people to homelessness.

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This study analyzes the effectiveness of counterterrorism policy by the United States to address the recent increased trend of alarming domestic attacks carried out by Racially and Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremism (REMVE). U.S. counterterrorism policies are closely analyzed to identify the most successful means of combating REMVE in the 21st century, as the threat landscape posed by REMVE has changed to encompass primarily white-identity terrorism and other types of right-wing extremist. Each of these counterterrorism policies are examined through an empirical case study, measuring the U.S. ability to effectively detect, disrupt, and dismantle REMVE networks and cells. The results from this study suggest a comprehensive multi-agency approach in coordination with domestic and international institutions must be taken in order to effectively combat the increased threat posed by REMVE in the 21st Century.

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