Thesis Archives Search
This search engine will let you explore the over 1800 theses written in Honors at The University of Maine since the Program’s inception in 1935. You may search our thesis archives based on any of the fields listed above. If the thesis is available at the Reynolds Library (Thomson Honors Center) or Fogler Library (Special Collections), the information will appear below the bibliographic data. At last count, we had about 1800 theses in the Reynolds Library.
Search Results
A Study of the First French Romantic Dramas with Regard to Their Influence on the Early Spanish Romantic Dramas
A Study of the Flora and Fauna Associated with Two Beaver Flowages in Eastern Maine
A Study of the Gender Dynamic in Congressional Campaigns in the State of Maine
A Study of the Impacts of the Citizens United Supreme Court Decision on Electoral Outcomes in U.S. House of Representatives Races
Author:
Asher
Sizeler-Fletcher
Major: Political Science Graduation Year: 2019 Thesis Advisor: Mark D. Brewer
Description of Publication:
The 2010 Supreme Court decision in the case Citizens United v. FEC brought about major changes in U.S. Campaign finance law, most infamously the creation and proliferating of Super PACs, a new vehicle for outside spending. In this thesis, I investigate the impacts of the Citizens United decision on electoral outcomes in U.S. House of Representatives races. I analyzed campaign finance data from the 2006, 2014, 2016, and 2018 election cycles for three categories of House races: open seats, competitive seats, and seats that fall within a specific spending ratio between the top two vote getters. I conducted a number of comparisons of the winning percentages of candidates with more PAC support (in individual races) and more outside support (in individual races), between election cycles and seat categories. I also compared incumbent-party winning percentages to PAC and outside-spending winning percentages, to look for differences between the impact on incumbents and challengers. I found that outside spending is more aligned with winning candidates in the competitive seats categories than PAC spending. However, in the other categories there is no substantial difference between PAC support and outside support. I also found that the Citizens United decision appears to be helping challengers try to unseat incumbents by making it easier to inject large sums of outside money into races. When two candidates are very evenly matched, having more outside spending can help a challenger unseat an incumbent, but if the incumbent has numerous factors favoring them, having more outside support will not substantially help the challenger.
Location of Publication:
URL to Thesis: https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/honors/539/
Major: Political Science Graduation Year: 2019 Thesis Advisor: Mark D. Brewer
Description of Publication:
The 2010 Supreme Court decision in the case Citizens United v. FEC brought about major changes in U.S. Campaign finance law, most infamously the creation and proliferating of Super PACs, a new vehicle for outside spending. In this thesis, I investigate the impacts of the Citizens United decision on electoral outcomes in U.S. House of Representatives races. I analyzed campaign finance data from the 2006, 2014, 2016, and 2018 election cycles for three categories of House races: open seats, competitive seats, and seats that fall within a specific spending ratio between the top two vote getters. I conducted a number of comparisons of the winning percentages of candidates with more PAC support (in individual races) and more outside support (in individual races), between election cycles and seat categories. I also compared incumbent-party winning percentages to PAC and outside-spending winning percentages, to look for differences between the impact on incumbents and challengers. I found that outside spending is more aligned with winning candidates in the competitive seats categories than PAC spending. However, in the other categories there is no substantial difference between PAC support and outside support. I also found that the Citizens United decision appears to be helping challengers try to unseat incumbents by making it easier to inject large sums of outside money into races. When two candidates are very evenly matched, having more outside spending can help a challenger unseat an incumbent, but if the incumbent has numerous factors favoring them, having more outside support will not substantially help the challenger.
Location of Publication:
URL to Thesis: https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/honors/539/
A STUDY OF THE NUTRITIONAL EFFECTS OF GRAINS IN THE DIET OF A DOG
Author:
Kristyn
M.
Souliere
Major: Animal and Veterinary Sciences Graduation Year: 2014 Thesis Advisor: Martin R. Stokes
Description of Publication:
Location of Publication:
URL to Thesis: http://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/honors/182/
Major: Animal and Veterinary Sciences Graduation Year: 2014 Thesis Advisor: Martin R. Stokes
Description of Publication:
Location of Publication:
URL to Thesis: http://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/honors/182/
A STUDY OF THE PHILOSOPHIC UNDERPINNINGS OF THE MOTIVATIONS AND BEHAVIORS OF LIFESTYLE ENTREPRENEURS
Author:
Ryan
Lopes
Major: Management Graduation Year: 2017 Thesis Advisor: Jason Harkins
Description of Publication:
It appears that there is a fundamental difference in the attitudes of large business owners/operators and lifestyle entrepreneurs. This claim rests on an assumption that those owners and operators of large corporate firms generally comply with Milton Friedman’s ideas as presented in his 1970 op-ed in the New York Times titled “The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase its Profits.” Friedman wrote that business owners are concerned with making “as much money as possible while conforming to the basic rules of the society.” It seems that corporations in the United States and abroad do comply with Friedman’s attitude. Every time a company resists a minimum wage increase, replaces human beings with automated processes, outsources jobs to cheaper work forces, or generally commoditizes its workers, that company is complying with Freidman’s idea. Our research suggests that lifestyle entrepreneurs deviate from this paradigm, although this study is not a comparison. It is instead an exploration of a number of lifestyle entrepreneurs’ attitudes towards their human capital, work-life balance, expansion, and independence. Simply showing that lifestyle entrepreneurs value certain things is insufficient in understanding them as a demographic. We have identified common qualities and have examined some philosophic principles of David Hume, Plato, Xenophon, and Jean Jacques Rousseau. In so doing, we hope to more clearly define lifestyle entrepreneurship.
Location of Publication: fogler reynolds
URL to Thesis: https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/honors/434
Major: Management Graduation Year: 2017 Thesis Advisor: Jason Harkins
Description of Publication:
It appears that there is a fundamental difference in the attitudes of large business owners/operators and lifestyle entrepreneurs. This claim rests on an assumption that those owners and operators of large corporate firms generally comply with Milton Friedman’s ideas as presented in his 1970 op-ed in the New York Times titled “The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase its Profits.” Friedman wrote that business owners are concerned with making “as much money as possible while conforming to the basic rules of the society.” It seems that corporations in the United States and abroad do comply with Friedman’s attitude. Every time a company resists a minimum wage increase, replaces human beings with automated processes, outsources jobs to cheaper work forces, or generally commoditizes its workers, that company is complying with Freidman’s idea. Our research suggests that lifestyle entrepreneurs deviate from this paradigm, although this study is not a comparison. It is instead an exploration of a number of lifestyle entrepreneurs’ attitudes towards their human capital, work-life balance, expansion, and independence. Simply showing that lifestyle entrepreneurs value certain things is insufficient in understanding them as a demographic. We have identified common qualities and have examined some philosophic principles of David Hume, Plato, Xenophon, and Jean Jacques Rousseau. In so doing, we hope to more clearly define lifestyle entrepreneurship.
Location of Publication: fogler reynolds
URL to Thesis: https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/honors/434