Skip to main content
eScholarship
Open Access Publications from the University of California

About

Welcome to the Berkeley Undergraduate Journal, a biannual publication dedicated to publishing exemplary undergraduate research in the humanities and social sciences.

Articles

Playing to Win: Clientelist Campaign Strategy in Southern Africa

One major mark of a strong democracy is the use of policy-based rather than clientelist campaign strategies—but in southern Africa, we still see political parties in relatively strong democracies using clientelist strategies. I aim to build on the small existing pool of literature on this topic by performing a comparative study of campaign strategies in South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Malawi, and Zambia. I then examine how political parties in those countries use clientelist and policy-based strategies in general elections and what relationship strategy has to economic development and educational quality over time and relative to other countries in the same region. The data come from news sources, party manifestos, and candidate speeches of major parties in the countries used. I find that although they are harder to observe within countries across time, clientelism rates are lowest in countries with higher levels of economic development and educational quality. This trend is most clearly seen when analyzing inter-country differences. This study will hopefully provide further explanation regarding how political and state infrastructure can affect the motivations of political parties and take another step toward understanding and strengthening democracy.

Denk-Mittel Metaphors: Metaphors as Thought Devices in Henry James’ The Wings of the Dove

Henry James’ late works have created an ongoing case for investigation. From his stream-of-consciousness style we see his mastery of language while experiencing the difficulty of comprehending his writing. Specifically, the role of metaphors within his late novel The Wings of the Dove are striking because of their independent behavior, and upon analysis of this work, I have found new discoveries in the function of metaphor, most prominently as a device that is more than a substitution for something else, which mystifies rather than clarifies, and which reflects the inner workings of the mind. In fact, metaphor is integral to the way James represents thought streams - it may even be used as an deceptive thought in the mind of a character, instead of a just a modifier, it may be used as an aid to the reader in difficult passages of character’s thoughts, and lastly it may even work as a moving scene, rather than a picture. Metaphors in this novel in the end may even represent the everyday processes of the mind and a character’s growth and maturity, which I find to be novel functions of the metaphor and something which is yet to be explored further in James’ works.

Bureaucratizing Consent: An Analysis of Sexual Freedom Paradigms in University of California, Berkeley Sexual Harassment Policies

This thesis examines how the University of California, Berkeley’s policies on sexual harassment reflect models of conduct and sexual freedom. Drawing on a liberal choice model of sexual freedom and a theory of genuine autonomy, the thesis analyzes the evolution of the University of California, Berkeley’s sexual harassment policy and grievance procedures and how these policies—or lack thereof—reflect, or fail to reflect, sexual freedom paradigms. In addition to outlining key changes in campus sexual harassment policies over time, the objective of this thesis is to provide a conceptually driven theory of policy change.