ArkPSA 2020 Best Paper Awards

The following papers won Best Paper Award at the 2020 Arkansas Political Science Association (ArkPSA) Annual Meeting at Henderson State University (Arkadelphia, AR):

• Best Undergraduate Paper — Bailey Brya (Hendrix College),  “NGO-Driven Environmental Awareness and Citizen Participation: The Case of the Yangtze River Watchers in China”

  

  • Abstract: China has recognized and responded to environmental challenges under the top-down framework of authoritarian environmentalism. Despite this model, citizens at the grassroots level are using greater knowledge about the environment to advocate for more input in the policymaking process. This paper argues that greater environmental awareness leads to more engaged public participation in China. Literature credits the growth of environmental awareness among Chinese citizens to greater access to information about environmental science, pollution, and current policies. Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and the internet have facilitated this greater awareness and access to information, creating and growing a “green public sphere” which educates the pubic and provides a platform for discussion and action on environmental issues. To test this hypothesis, the paper qualitatively analyzes the level of public participation across a time series case study of the response to water pollution in China. The study finds that between 2008 and 2012, awareness of pollution was low and public participation was limited. From 2012 to 2019, as environmental awareness increased, public participation in response was more engaged as nongovernmental organizations coordinated citizen participation at the grassroots level. Today , the government has adjusted regulations on participation, limiting the quality of public participation in China and reversing progress made by NGOs and citizens.
• Best Graduate Paper — Murat Abus (Arkansas State University), ” Reflections in the Mirror: Authoritarian Values and Political Identities in Turkey”
  • Abstract: The widespread experience of democratic decline in both established democracies and hybrid regimes formed one of the main branches of the study of comparative

    

    democratization in the last decade. The fact that countries which had transitioned to democracy and were at different levels of democratic development were equally affected points to the possible presence of an underlying causal process at work. This study is a step in the direction of uncovering the factors associated with a possible wider framework that drives democratic decline. The design is a single-country study focusing on Turkey which has experienced significant autocratization. Nationally representative survey data from Turkey is utilized to investigate the forces at work and there is evidence of an interaction between the supply and demand of authoritarianism which helps shape the regime parameters. The findings suggest that there are structural factors behind the rise of authoritarian values and that we need to have a longer temporal frame of reference to understand the contemporary rise of authoritarianism.