Freedom, Markets, and Well-being Fall 2017

Thesis Updates

Overview

Here is where our thesis projects are.

Blake is going to compare two counter-terrorism strategies: boots on the ground and drones. Readers: Seery (Politics) and Green (Philosophy)

Nico is going to look at the economics and ethics of legalizing prostitution. Readers: Brown (Economics) and Green (Philosophy)

Matthew is interested in executive power. He is divided between a project that would try to explain why Presidents in the US have started to accumulate a disproportionate amount of power or a project that would focus more on sources from the history of political theory. Readers: Bush (Politics, CMC) and Green (Philosophy)

Aaron is going to write about social group voting. He starts from the premise that people vote for the party that they think represents the group they identify with rather than their policy preferences. He plans to pursue two questions about this. First, how should elected officials think of their roles, assuming that this premise about voter behavior is true? Second, would proportional voting make the system work better? Readers: Menefee-Libey (Politics) and Green (Philosophy)

Tristan’s project is on fake news. He plans to describe the phenomenon, focusing on Russian interference in elections in Ukraine, the US, France, and Germany. Then he will look into the effects of living in a world saturated with disinformation and propose some remedies for the problem. Readers: Seery (Politics) and Green (Philosophy)