Elissa Rauth '08

NHIOP announces this year's student research honoraria

Elissa Rauth '08 recognized for her thesis comparing Locke and Tocqueville

By: Mike Atkinson

Posted: 5/5/08

The New Hampshire Institute of Politics Academic Advisory Board announced that Elissa Rauth '08 has received this year's Student Research Honoraria.

Rauth won the award for her thesis comparing the treatment of citizen participation in the works of John Locke and Alexis de Tocqueville. Rauth also compared the civic engagement theories of Locke and Tocqueville with the political situation in America today.

Rauth explained that "Locke believed that citizens created government in order to advance their own interests, while Tocqueville believed that the best type of government is when people stay involved in government."

"The U.S. is currently involved in a Locke-type citizenship," said Rauth. "But I believe that Tocqueville's civic engagement theory will produce the better type of government in the long-term."

Professor Paul Manual, the Executive Director of the NHIOP, announced that Rauth would "receive a $500 honorarium for her work, and her completed thesis will be included among the Working Papers series at the Institute's Academic Research Center (a venue typically reserved for faculty)."

Rauth presented her thesis at a lunch-time discussion on April 24 at the Academic Research Center.

While researching her 70-page senior thesis paper, Rauth discovered that "no one had looked at Locke's theory on civic engagement. I don't want to say I am the first," Rauth said, "but I could not find any other articles."

According to the NHIOP website, "the Institute, through its Academic Advisory Board, funds four Student Research Honoraria. Honoraria are awarded to seniors engaged in promising research, and whose work is nominated by a faculty advisor."

Politics students who are among the class of 2008 are the last students to participate in the 60-to-70 page senior thesis requirement; beginning next year, Politics students will write two 30-page papers.

"I am glad to have gotten in on the 60-page thesis," said Rauth. "I would not have been able to look at such a complex topic if it was only a 30 page paper."