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Issues related to money in American politics have long received widespread national attention, particularly among those fearing the outsized role of political spending on elections. Campaign finance regulations have evolved as a patchwork of legislation and court precedent speaking to these concerns, with substantial variation in scope and enforcement across the states. Regrettably, research is lacking in municipal contests, where the risk of undue influence through campaign contributions and spending could be of more pressing concern given four inter-related factors: 1. Low voter knowledge about candidates, 2. the substantial (and increasing) amounts of money spent on elections, 3. the proximity local elected officials have to their constituents and donors, and 4. the varying, often lacking, degree of transparency in the campaign finance regimes in place. This project examines the role of money in municipal elections, as well as the impact of campaign finance regulations and reforms on election dynamics. I test the proposition that less restrictive campaign finance regulations will lead to more overall candidate spending, resulting in increased turnout. These spending and turnout theories will be juxtaposed with Citizens United-fueled fears of independent expenditures crowding out candidate spending. I present a modified hydraulics theory of campaign finance for local elections and argue that as the price of making independent expenditures is reduced relative to campaign contributions, then money should be observed moving to this more efficient option. While previous work emphasizes the futility of campaign finance restraints, I point to the opposite in the case of independent expenditures in that Citizens United expanded how money could be spent in elections, causing a change in the relative price of political participation through campaign spending via independent expenditures. I will explore the proposition of whether the critics of the Citizens United decision are correct in that spending is shifting towards independent expenditures, fueled by corporate and union spending, and away from candidates in local elections. Last, if Citizens United has damaged American democracy at the local level, one pathway through which this will be found is in lower turnout levels brought about by increases in independent expenditures

Comics can be used as sophisticated teaching tools at a high level of education. Comic books, graphic novels and digital comics are increasingly being accepted into educational institutions, as instructional texts, textbooks and even as a way of publishing academic research. Although advocates for teaching with comics are growing alongside studies showing the benefits of educational comics, there has been little research done to situate educational comics within a theoretical framework. This thesis addresses that gap using several methodologies, including cultural and historical discourse analysis, multimodal analysis and a practice-based case study. I have approached each of these methodologies from the perspective of critical pedagogy, specifically the philosophy of educational constructivism that argues that learners draw on available resources to create their own knowledge. My argument connects this constructivist understanding of comics with the work of media theorist Marshall McLuhan who suggested that comics, like seminars, have the quality of being open to interpretation and participation, compared to the more authoritative qualities of traditional printed text and lectures. Since their inception, comics have had a fraught relationship with authority and education. Despite this, educational comics have been published for more than a century. For example, at the same time that Fredric Wertham was testifying about the dangers of comic books at the 1954 U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency, cartoonist Will Eisner was working for the U.S. Army as editor of an educational comic book for their troops. This thesis traces how the relationship between comics and education developed and evolved as pedagogical attitudes about literacy, authority, and the role of students in the classroom shifted during the 20th and early 21st century. It also shows how educational comics themselves changed in accordance with these cultural shifts to model different kinds of pedagogical design, highlighting how the work of Eisner, Mexican cartoonist Rius and comics theorist Scott McCloud have influenced the current boom of educational graphic novels. By engaging broadly with the historical, cultural and formal challenges and opportunities of using comics as vehicles for education, I propose that comics mediate concepts of authorship and authority in ways that align strongly with the principles of constructivist pedagogy. To put this hypothesis into practice, the final section of this thesis details how I designed and drew an educational comic for new doctors at a hospital in Queensland to help them improve their abilities to manage professional challenges. I designed this comic in accordance with theories developed in this thesis, and its effectiveness, as demonstrated through a series of qualitative and quantitative tests, helps to validate those theories. As an additional level of practice research, several chapters of this thesis were also composed entirely as comics. As a whole, this thesis presents a critical and historical survey of the field of educational comics, and suggests how they can be best understood and designed to improve teaching and learning.

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