A Money Driven Dichotomous Union — Presentation Detail — Celebration of Scholars

Instructions

Student presentations must have a faculty sponsor.

Abstracts must include a title and a description of the research, scholarship, or creative work. The description should be 150-225 words in length and constructed in a format or style appropriate for the presenter’s discipline.

The following points should be addressed within the selected format or style for the abstract:

A clear statement of the problem or question you pursued, or the scholarly goal or creative theme achieved in your work.
A brief comment about the significance or uniqueness of the work.
A clear description of the methods used to achieve the purpose or goals for the work.
A statement of the conclusions, results, outcomes, or recommendations, or if the work is still in progress, the results you expect to report at the event.

Presenter photographs should be head and shoulder shots comparable to passport photos.

Additional Information

More information is available at carthage.edu/celebration-scholars/. The following are members of the Research, Scholarship, and Creativity Committee who are eager to listen to ideas and answer questions:

Jun Wang
Kim Instenes
John Kirk
Nora Nickels
Andrew Pustina
James Ripley

A Money Driven Dichotomous Union

Name: Ryan Trower
Major: Finance; Political Science
Hometown: Saint Charles, MO
Faculty Sponsor:
Other Sponsors:
Type of research: Senior thesis

Abstract

Economic health is an issue that every nation struggles with, and the United States of America is no exception. Policy makers, interest groups, media outlets and ordinary citizens constantly propose new ideas for how they believe the economy should be handled, and what policies they prefer to improve it. However, not everyone is aligned in their beliefs on not only the economy, but many different mainstream or obscure issues present today. This difference in beliefs leads to polarization on both the national and individual level. Due to the heavily structured two-party system in the United States, most align to one of two sides; the Republicans or the Democrats. Each party is in a struggle with the other to retain or steal congressional seats and to win the presidency, often citing either economic prosperity or, more often than not, economic disparity to their advantage. However, the rhetoric of the political elite does not only affect the next polling cycle, but could potentially affect the levels of risk averting that consumers feel are necessary in their economic environment.

Using economic and congressional voting data, correlations between polarization and economic health can be considered and could potentially help explain the levels of co-dependency. With this information, an independent theory was made looking into potential ranges of economic health that create ideal environments for polarization to occur, and if high levels of prosperity or privation could actually lead to political alignment.

This thesis found that negative rhetoric resulting from the increase in polarization has potential to negatively affect consumer behavior, resulting in negative economic trends. Though the correlation study is inconclusive, the research into the economy’s effect on polarization suggests that the current format of budgetary policy proposal and approval is vulnerable to political gridlock, resulting in negative economic conditions. The theory proposed suggests a limit to which the negative economic conditions caused by polarization are sustainable, after which a forced political alignment will occur due to necessity.

Poster file