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 2023:
Sofia Rosales

Junior Editor-in-Chief 2023:
Kyle Chao

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

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Current Issue: Volume 7, Issue 1, Spring 2023

Previous Issues:

Previous Editors:

  • 2022: Nicolas Hernandez-Florez and Sofia Rosales
  • 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 Sofia Rosales and Kyle Chao, in addition to faculty advisor Dr. Menounoum, introduce this volume of the undergraduate journal.

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American military interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan share a great many similarities. Both are usually mentioned as failures. In both cases, the ruling authorities were overthrown relatively quickly, the dictator Saddam Hussain of Iraq and the Taliban in Afghanistan. However, a key difference is that when the U.S. withdrew troops from Iraq, they could sustain their security forces, government institutions, and economy, whereas, unfortunately, Afghanistan has not. This research paper uses a case-study method to analyze the factors that made the United States’ efforts to state-build through military intervention more successful in Iraq and not as successful in Afghanistan. Both Iraq and Afghanistan experienced military intervention by the United States. However, the results were different; why? This thesis does not intend to say that Iraq is an excellent example of statebuilding through military intervention because it is clear that is not the case. It is designed to analyze and fill in the gaps in the current scholarly literature by addressing first what it means to successfully state-build and offering reasons why a “one-size fits all method” did not work in these two cases. This study argues that the United States was more successful in Iraq versus Afghanistan due to sustainability issues, diverted resources from Afghanistan to Iraq, and Afghanistan being more ethnically fragmented. This type of research is necessary because (1) leaders in the U.S. continue to assume that state-building through military intervention will be easy and do not show an understanding of the complexities involved. (2) Usually, when analyzing state-building in Iraq and Afghanistan, they are lumped together as failures, but there are key differences, and one was more successful than the other.

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Traditional policy approaches to prevent human trafficking focus on human trafficking as a sex crime. When we take a step back and introduce labor trafficking as part of human trafficking, we learn that current policies undermine the victims who are being trafficked for labor purposes. If we have ignored the rates of unauthorized immigrants who are being trafficked for labor purposes, how have policy approaches to combat the crime of human trafficking affected unauthorized immigrants in human trafficking?

This paper analyzes the policy of The Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000. Current policy efforts in the United States combat trafficking in a 3-pronged approach: Protection, Prosecution, and Prevention. Human Trafficking reports show that as migration rates go up detection of cases of victims who have been trafficked rises with it. Limited data makes it difficult to accurately study the trends of human trafficking. However, when migrants are trying to apply for special T-visas or U-Visas, there is a lack of knowledge among law enforcement officials in detecting trafficked immigrants. These officials not only deny immigrants their visas but leave them in unprotected situations where they can be further exploited. Although there has already been a victim-centered approach to combat Human Trafficking, for labor trafficking to be considered, policymakers need to focus on the current policy approaches that only push migrants to seek dangerous methods of crossing the border, including human trafficking.

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In the United States of America, the highest position an elected official can hold is the Office of the President of the United States. With that title comes great responsibility and an assumption is made by the people of the United States that their leader will continue to protect and serve the interest of the majority of Americans. To ensure that the president can act in the position, we entrust them with special powers that allow the president to make decisions that are beneficial to the safety and security of the people of the United States. These powers allow the President, to in some cases, bypass Congress to protect the people. This thesis will contain a brief explanation of what executive orders are and how presidents have used them. Furthermore, I will discuss how unilateral executive power plays a role in presidential prerogative and a brief discussion of the unitary executive theory. My research will show that a president’s ability to serve and protect American citizens while supporting the spread of democracy depends on the ability to act. However, when the ability to act is necessary but hindered by partisanship or necessary out of a national emergency it is within the president’s power to circumnavigate traditional methods which could be detrimental to the rights and protection of minority groups.

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This paper analyzes how legal representation affects defendants’ criminal proceedings, particularly in their sentencing phase. This qualitative research utilizes various case studies to examine the differences between the outcomes minority defendants get that result from having a public defender. These case studies reveal that there is a racial bias in this type of legal representation with minority defendants receiving worse sentences as opposed to their white counterparts. The findings illustrate yet another aspect of systemic racism that is not only linked to the criminal justice system itself but to its legal actors as well.

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In the United States, those that go before the law in a criminal matter have the right to an
attorney and if they cannot afford counsel, one will be provided to them. This is where the public defender comes into play. Public defenders play a crucial role in the American judicial system because they provide necessary legal assistance to those that could not afford to hire an attorney themselves. Despite their importance, over the years there has been a growing trend to view public defenders as overworked and underfunded. This has led to the commonly held belief that public defenders perform worse than privately hired attorneys. The purpose of this paper is to take a deep look into the dynamics of the public defender in a workgroup setting. This paper will make the argument that, within the courtroom workgroup envi- ronment, public defenders have an already established relationship with other legal actors that helps them to deliver legal assistance that is on par with outside counsel. Outside counsel may have more resources but they lack these connections in a courtroom setting. After attending a Southern California courthouse, observations show that there is a vital relationship between the public defender and other legal actors due to the nature of their work and their familiarity with a particular courtroom workgroup. This already established relationship helps give public defenders the ability to deliver effective legal assistance.

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This research investigates if the factor of generational status has an impact on how Latinos vote in certain states during the presidential elections of 2016 and 2020. Unpacking four case studies, the paper focuses on California, Texas, Florida and Arizona to better understand Latino voters in these elections and if coming from a different generation influences how they vote for either political party. The case study analysis uses exit polling data and new sources from these states over the last two presidential cycles to contribute to my ongoing understanding of how Latinos across these four states vote and the factors that lead them to vote for one party over the other. The research finds that the issues of immigration and/or the economy were major factors for Latinos voters in the 2016 election. The research also finds that the 2020 election shows the possibility of generational status, along with identity, contributing to how Latinos in the states of Texas, Florida and Arizona.

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What role does colonial mentality play in causing intergenerational differences in voting amongst Filipino Americans? In their attempts to explain Asian American politics, scholars have come to recognize uniquely fractured patterns of voting behavior that sometimes deviate along ethnic lines. Much of the established research contextualize these trends in relation to domestic conditions and leave little consideration for the potential effect of lasting immigrant experiences, especially for historically oppressed Filipinos. Because ethnic-level nuances for Asian American electorates can become easily lost in aggregate analysis, this paper stresses the distinguishing attributes than make Filipino American voting behaviors unique. I hypothesize that first generation immigrants are more likely to exhibit symptoms of colonial mentality in their voting behavior and that these effects wane in subsequent generations. To address a considerable gap in current research, this paper’s analysis draws on literature from multiple pertinent fields to substantiate the viability of my hypotheses as well as encourage further research.

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The judicial behavior of the Supreme Court Justices is one of the biggest factors that affects the law of the land on a daily basis. However, it is not only the majority opinions that cause long- lasting effects. This is argued because dissenting opinions also have long-lasting effects that help to shape the legal field of the country, even if they are not what leads to a ruling to be made. This research paper discusses the several different ways that dissents can be strong and effective, varying from the way that they are written, to the way that they are presented, and even depending on how many or how few justices decide to dissent. This thesis utilizes case studies to examine the significance of dissenting opinions on future rulings of the Supreme Court and how these opinions can cause the overturning of rulings of cases from the past. The ultimate goal of this thesis is to analyze Supreme Court opinions, specifically dissenting ones, how certain factors can help strengthen dissenting opinions and how dissenting opinions can even strengthen or weaken the image of a Supreme Court Justice. Finally, the results of this study yield that dissenting opinions are actually the strongest opinions made by the Supreme Court. Therefore, the more consideration that a Supreme Court Justice puts towards their dissenting opinion means the higher effects that they will have on the nation that they have a life-term to serve.

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Debates regarding the role of religion in political behavior have become increasingly contentious since the millennium, particularly in the cases of the United States and Bangladesh. Although the current literature effectively analyzes the response of the public toward political religiosity or secularity in both states, there is a failure to bridge a link between both states that would generalize the role of religious politics across states. This paper will fill this gap by examining the link between political religiosity and public perception of governmental stability in the United States and Bangladesh. The role of religion in a state’s political activity and its ability to influence public trust in institutional stability is explored by conducting case studies utilizing primary and secondary source analysis in the United States and Bangladesh from 2017-2022. In doing so, the driving factor determining acceptance or rejection of overt political religiosity by the public depends on national identity: if a constituency believes religion is integral to the identity of the state and its people, overt political religiosity is widely accepted and potentially even preferred to secular government policy. This study’s significance lies in its generalizability through its comparison of Western and non-Western democracies and leaves room for potential similar comparisons between different states and on a broader scale.

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This thesis examines the correlation between non-citizen voting and its impact on school board policies. The United States is home to a majority of immigrant families who utilize the educational system on behalf of their children. One of the many hardships non-citizens face is their inability to vote in these cities that they live in to better their communities. In order to understand the correlation and impact that non-citizen voting has, I compared a city in California that allows such voting such as San Francisco and those that do not, such as Los Angeles and Santa Clara. I utilize three case studies, one that allows non-citizen voting, and two that do not. Comparing these policies would allow for a better understanding of non-citizen voting and whether representation of this community within school board policies based on the ability of them voting. The results of this thesis illustrates that even when non-citizens are allowed to vote there is no direct correlation to the policies being created. Therefore, the cities that don’t allow non-citizen voting reflect a more representative school board through their policies when compared to the cities that do allow non-citizen voting.

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When comparing our current incarceration system to other first-world countries, such as Norway’s dorm room-like prison cells and rehabilitative approach to incarceration, it can lead one to wonder. Why does America utilize retribution over rehabilitation in our country’s prisons? The history of our country shows that much of American public opinion greatly influences policymaking or lack thereof which has outreaching effects on governmental systems like our current incarceration system. This study was designed to discover if there is a relationship between Americans’ political ideology and their favoritism of either retributive or rehabilitative forms of incarceration. Using a survey experiment, I illustrate that those with more liberal ideologies favor rehabilitative forms of incarceration. In contrast, those with more conservative ideologies favor retributive conditions of incarceration—further opening up room for more questions like how this impacts the sociocultural standpoints surrounding incarceration, the legislation, and the complacency in both our government and societies surrounding injustices happening in prisons across the country.

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As the Latino population in the United States increases, they have become an increasingly important demographic in American elections. Existing literature claims that Latino voting behavior is driven by various factors, including party identification and policy issues. What this existing literature fails to emphasize is the importance of religious groups. This thesis will examine religion as an additional factor that influences Latino voting behavior. My research question asks: Why do Evangelical Latinos vote more on the conservative end of the political spectrum than Catholic Latinos? This study takes a closer look at these two groups through a collection of surveys that focus on obtaining data regarding church participation. I argue that Evangelical Latinos vote more conservatively compared to Catholic Latinos because they present higher rates of participation within the church. This topic is worth pursuing because religion plays a prominent role in Latino political participation and identity. As a growing population, Latino voting behaviors are of great importance as they significantly impact elections.

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