Publication Date
5-2024
Date of Final Oral Examination (Defense)
3-1-2024
Type of Culminating Activity
Dissertation
Degree Title
Doctor of Philosophy in Public Policy and Administration
Department Filter
Public Administration
Department
Public Policy and Administration
Supervisory Committee Chair
Chris Birdsall, Ph.D.
Supervisory Committee Member
Ana Maria Dimand, Ph.D.
Supervisory Committee Member
Luke Fowler, Ph.D.
Supervisory Committee Member
Jared Talley, Ph.D.
Abstract
Developing, fine-tuning, and implementing policy in a pluralistic society includes several potential pitfalls as policy actors engage and represent divergent interests. While much work has been done to explore the possible benefits to the policy process that could come from understanding the intrinsic motivations of individual policy actors, this study is an effort to account for the impact of the core beliefs of institutions as a whole when they engage in the policy process. Drawing from the concepts of the Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF) regarding deep core beliefs, this study applies Moral Foundations Theory to process and analyze the language contained in several hundred Title IX exemption requests filed by religiously-affiliated higher education institutions with the Department of Education since 1972; the aim of the inquiry is to determine whether deep core moral convictions can be identified and assessed to better aid in understanding how institutions operate in the policy arena. In addition to offering enrichment of the deep core belief concepts in ACF, evidence from this study suggests that morally-based language used by institutions is indicative of preexisting deep core beliefs and subsequent policy behavior, thus offering an important research and contextualizing tool for those policy actors who engage institutions in their advocacy or scholarship.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.18122/td.2218.boisestate
Recommended Citation
Miller, Grant, "“Bona Fide and Sincerely-Held”: How Deep Core Beliefs Inform and Influence Policy Engagement at the Institutional Level" (2024). Boise State University Theses and Dissertations. 2218.
https://doi.org/10.18122/td.2218.boisestate
