Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Commonwealth/State'

This thesis argues that there is an identifiable and distinct body of law, administrative regulations, and institutional structures on state enterprise governance, anti-corruption and public sector ethics emerging in the Commonwealth Caribbean. The law and administrative structures are still developing, but they are sufficiently well developed to be recognised as distinct regimes. These emerging regimes are based on the common law, UK legislation that have been received in the region, and several contemporary legislative and administrative initiatives, many of which have been provoked by international and inter-American developments. The Commonwealth Caribbean anticorruption project can usefully be assessed from the perspectives of agency cost and moral hazard that are essential, but too little explored, features of the agency relationship. The first chapter introduces the thesis, sets out the theoretical statement, explains why the Commonwealth Caribbean anticorruption regimes are suitable objects of study, and investigates the definitions of corruption. Chapter 2 discusses the theory that drives the assumptions of this thesis. It presents the reconstructed theory of corruption that is useful in the analysis of corruption. Chapter 3 sets out the existing state of knowledge on corruption, examines the literature on corruption, including the contribution to the subject by Caribbean scholars. Chapter 4 discusses the international developments and the legal regimes on anticorruption in the region, including the common law rules on bribery and misconduct in public office, the tort of misfeasance in public office, judicial misconduct, anticorruption legislation, and the constitutional implications. Chapter 5 deals with anticorruption strategies and the new institutional framework. Special emphasis is placed on the Contractors-General in Belize and Jamaica as an emerging and unique anticorruption agency. Chapter 6 represents the conclusion of the study.

This paper assessed factors that delayed the passage of the annual budget bill specifically in Virginia and also in 13 structurally similar states including: Arizona, Connecticut, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, Texas, Washington, and Wyoming. Virginia was the core focus of this study, but the variables detailed below were also measured for all thirteen states in an effort to broaden the scope of the study, and determine which political and economic factors affected the budget passage rates in Virginia and the 13 other states. Political and economic explanations were tested to examine their relationship with the passage of the state’s budget bills including: divided governments, election cycle of the Governor, economic conditions, and political party influence. Through the use of a general linear model, the relationship between these political and economic factors and the time that it takes to pass an annual budget was assessed from 1980 to 2010. The findings in this study revealed that split branch governments have an impact on the time that it takes to pass a state budget bill. The findings in this study helped deepen our understanding of factors that influenced state budget bill passage rates and suggested recommendations for future legislative sessions that will benefit state agencies, legislators, and citizens in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Sydney, 2002.
Title from title screen (viewed 15 April 2008). Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy to the Discipline of Government and International Relations, School of Economics and Politics, Faculty of Economics and Business. Degree awarded 2002; thesis submitted 2001. Includes bibliographical references. Also available in print form.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--School of Social, Policy and Curriculum Studies, Faculty of Education, University of Sydney, 2001.
Title from title screen (viewed 12th February, 2009) Includes bibliographical references. Also available in print form.

Thesis (M.P.A.)--Kutztown University of Pennsylvania, 2001.
Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 45-06, page: 2941. Typescript. Abstract precedes thesis as preliminary leaves. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 64-69).

Cette thèse vise à contribuer à la description des langues spécialisées en anglais de spécialité en proposant une caractérisation de l’anglais de la diplomatie au sein du Foreign and Commonwealth Office britannique et du Département d’État américain. Nous adoptons une perspective pluridisciplinaire afin d’explorer les liens entre discours, langue et culture diplomatiques, et de déterminer les fondements de la spécialisation diplomatique professionnelle. La première partie présente une théorie des langues spécialisées qui appartient à un paradigme de recherche spécifique à l’étude de ces variétés de langue. Ce cadre théorique étudie les langues spécialisées comme des objets en soi, indépendamment de tout contexte pédagogique. La théorie est appliquée au domaine professionnel de la diplomatie et associée à une méthodologie tripartite conçue pour situer le discours diplomatique spécialisé dans son contexte pragmatique et culturel.La deuxième partie se concentre sur les genres du discours qui caractérisent la communauté spécialisée diplomatique britannique et américaine ; elle comporte une typologie générale de ces genres et deux études de corpus du mémoire diplomatique et du télégramme diplomatique. La dernière partie de la thèse analyse le lexique diplomatique à travers une étude diachronique des efforts de normalisation lexicographique dans le domaine, ainsi qu’une caractérisation des termes diplomatiques contemporains en anglais. La culture diplomatique est ensuite envisagée à partir d’une enquête sociologique qui s’intéresse aux pratiques discursives au sein du Foreign and Commonwealth Office et s’appuie sur une série d’entretiens qualitatifs
This thesis aims to contribute to the description of specialised languages in English for Specific Purposes research by characterising English for diplomacy within the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the U.S. State Department. We adopt a multidisciplinary perspectiveto explore the interplay between specialised diplomatic discourse, language and culture and to determine the foundations of professional diplomatic specialisation.Part one presents a theory of specialised languages belonging to a specific research paradigm related to specialised language study, which sees specialised languages as objects for characterisation that are separate from a given pedagogical context. This theory is applied to the professional domain of diplomacy and associated with a tripartite methodology designed to situate specialised diplomatic discourse in its pragmatic and cultural context.Part two focuses on the characteristic discourse genres of the British and American diplomatic community, and includes a general genre typology and two corpus-based studies of the diplomatic memoir and the diplomatic cable. The final part of the thesis analyses diplomatic lexisthrough a diachronic study of lexicographical normalisation efforts in the diplomatic field, and an overview of contemporary diplomatic terms in English. Diplomatic culture is then envisaged from the vantage point of a sociological enquiry into discursive practices in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, based on a series of qualitative interviews

The majority of women's health nurses in this study work in generalist community health centres. They have developed their praxis within the philosophy and policies of the broader women's health movement and primary health care principles in Australia. The fundamental assumption underlying this study is that women's health nurses possess a unique body of knowledge and clinical wisdom that has not been previously documented and explored. The epistemological base from which these nurses' operate offers important insights into the substantive issues that create and continually shape the practice world of nurses and their clients. Whether this represents a (re)construction of the dominant forms of health care service delivery for women is examined in this study. The study specifically aims at exploring the practice issues and experience of women's health service provision by women's health nurses in the context of the provision of cervical cancer screening services. In mapping this particular group of nurses practice, it sets out to examine the professional and theoretical issues in contemporary nursing and women's health care. In critically analysing the powerful discourses that shape and reshape nursing work, the study raises the concern that previous analyses of pursing work tend to universalise the structural and social subordination of nurses and nursing knowledge. This universalism is most often based on examples of midwifery and nursing work in hospital settings, and subsequently, because of these conceptualisations, all of nursing is too often deemed as a dependent occupation, with little agency, and is analysed as always in relation to medicine, to hospitals, to other knowledge forms. Denoting certain discourses as dominant proposes a relationship of power and knowledge and the thesis argues that all work relations and practices in health are structured by certain power/knowledge relations. This analysis reveals that there IX are many competing and complimentary power/knowledge relations that structure nursing, but that nursing, and in particular women's health nurses, also challenge the power/knowledge relations around them. Through examining theories of power and knowledge the analysis, argues that theoretical eclecticism is necessary to address the complex and varied nature of nursing work. In particular it identifies that postmodern and radical feminist theorising provide the most appropriate framework to further analyse and interpret the work of women's health nurses. Fundamental to the position argued in this thesis is a feminist perspective. This position creates important theoretical and methodological links throughout the whole study. Feminist methodology was employed to guide the design, the collection and the analysis. Intrinsic to this process was the use of the 'voices' of women's health nurses as the basis for theorising. The 'voices' of these nurses are highlighted in the chapters as italicised bold script. A constant companion along the way in examining women's health nurses' work, was the reflexivity with feminist research processes, the theoretical discussions and their 'voices'. Capturing and analysing descriptive accounts of nursing praxis is seen in this thesis as providing a way to theorise about nursing work. This methodology is able to demonstrate the knowledge forms embedded in clinical nursing praxis. Three conceptual threads emerge throughout the discussions: one focuses on nursing praxis as a distinct process, with its own distinct epistemological base rather than in relation to 'other' knowledge forms; another describes the medical restriction and opposition as experienced by this group of nurses, but also of their resistance to medical opposition. The third theme apparent from the interviews, and which was conceptualised as beyond resistance, was the description of the alternative discourses evident in nursing work, and this focused on notions of being a professional and on autonomous nursing praxis. This study concludes that rather than accepting the totalising discourses about nursing there are examples within nursing of resistance—both ideologically and X in practice—to these dominant discourses. Women's health nurses represent an important model of women's health service delivery, an analysis of which can contribute to critically reflecting on the 'paradigm of oppression' cited in nursing and about nursing more generally. Reflecting on women's health service delivery also has relevance in today's policy environment, where structural shifts in Commonwealth/State funding arrangements in community based care, may undermine women's health programs. In summary this study identifies three important propositions for nursing: • nursing praxis can reconstruct traditional models of health care; • nursing praxis is powerful and able to 'resist' dominant discourses; and • nursing praxis can be transformative. Joining feminist perspectives and alternative analyses of power provides a pluralistic and emancipatory politics for viewing, describing and analysing 'other' nursing work. At the micro sites of power and knowledge relations—in the everyday practice worlds of nurses, of negotiation and renegotiation, of work on the margins and at the centre—women's health nurses' praxis operates as a positive, productive and reconstructive force in health care.

This thesis is a study of the processes by which domestic violence, as framed by Australian feminists from the early 1970s, was inserted into the policy agenda of governments, and developed into a comprehensive body of policy. The thesis covers the period between 1970 and 1985. Acknowledging the federal nature of the Australian polity, it examines these processes that unfolded within both the Australian Commonwealth government and the government of New South Wales. The thesis provides a political history of domestic violence policy making in the identified period. It shows that policy responses to women escaping violent partners included both immediate measures (such as protection and justice strategies) and more long-term measures to attempt to secure the conditions for women�s financial, legal and personal autonomy. The elements found to have been most significant in shaping the development of such policies were the roles and identities of the participant players, including the driving role of the women suffering partner violence; the lack of contest in the early stages of policy achievement with established professionals in related fields; the uniquely �hybrid� role and positioning of refuge feminists; and the degree of integration and continuity which characterised the domestic violence policy process. The thesis also investigates the relationship between domestic violence policy making and the broader women�s policy enterprise. It demonstrates the care with which those involved avoided the dangers of sensationalism and tokenism while striving for an appropriate policy response. The thesis pays particular attention to the circumstances in which feminists in the early 1970s experienced their �discovery� of domestic violence. It demonstrates the significance of social and economic circumstances in shaping the political options of feminists in the thesis period and those preceding it, and the extent to which policy possibilities are shaped by representations of the nature and functions of policy itself. Finally, the thesis investigates the relationship between the strategic processes undertaken and the policy outcomes produced, finding that policies achieved in the thesis period complemented and in some ways transcended accepted policy practice in the relevant period.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Sydney, 2005.
Title from title screen (viewed 21 May 2008). Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy to the Discipline of Government and International Relations, Faculty of Arts. Degree awarded 2005; thesis submitted 2004. Includes bibliographical references. Also available in print form.

The formation of the Liberal Party of Australia in the mid-1940s heralded a new effort to stem the tide of government regulation that had grown with Labor Party rule in the latter years of World War II and immediately after. It was not until 1949 that the party gained office at Federal level, beginning what was to be a record unbroken term of 23 years, but its efforts faltered at State level in Victoria, where the party was divided, and in New South Wales, where Labor was seemingly entrenched. The fortunes were reversed with the rise to leadership of men who bore a different stamp to their predecessors, and were in many ways atypical Liberals: Henry Bolte in Victoria and Robin Askin in New South Wales. Bolte, a farmer, and Askin, a bank officer, had served as non-commissioned officers in World War II and rose to lead parties whose members who had served in the war were predominantly of the officer class. In each case, their man management skills put an end to division and destabilisation in their parties, and they went on to serve record terms as Liberal leaders in their respective States, Bolte 1955-72 and Askin 1965-75. Neither was ever challenged in their leadership and each chose the time and nature of his departure from politics, a rarity among Australian political leaders. Their careers are traced here in the context of the Liberal revival and the heightened expectations of the post-war years when the Liberal Party reached an ascendancy, governing for a brief time in 1969-70 in all Australian States as well as the Commonwealth. Their leadership is also examined in the broader context of leadership in the Liberal Party, and also in the ways in which the new party sought to engage with and appeal to a wider range of voters than had traditionally been attracted to the non-Labor parties.

Urban Education
Ph.D.
Teacher turnover is a well-studied phenomenon, particularly in highly urbanized locales, but not well researched in a state as geographically and demographically diverse as Pennsylvania, which is a composition of two major metropolitan areas combined with smaller urban centers and expansive rural regions. Those retention studies that do exist have been mainly exclusive to the Philadelphia region, with limited research devoted to the remainder of the state. This lack of a comprehensive empirical approach that compares turnover in three distinct settings limits a nuanced understanding of the issue and, in turn, can lead to incomplete policy considerations. This study utilizes Pennsylvania Department of Education data from 2012-2017, which describes the entire public-school workforce in all local education agencies (LEAs), to study how compensation and auxiliary spending (per student spending sans instructional costs) influence teacher turnover using multiple, parallel Cox Proportional Hazards survival models. Findings suggest that despite a “one size fits all” approach to public school funding policy popular amongst politicians on both sides of the political aisle, the effects of a monetary increase in reducing the likelihood of turnover varies considerably when accounting for the region, Title I status, experience and subject matter. The study highlights how the lack of monetary investment can lead teachers to seek employment elsewhere since low pay functions as a strong demotivator. Additionally, the results suggest that while a pay raise may arrest turnover risk, it is a poor long-term motivator or cause of job satisfaction. The study concludes by offering state and LEA leaders with policy recommendations that may improve both retention and job satisfaction. To date, this is the only study in the current literature that explores teacher turnover extensively in the nation’s fifth most populous state.
Temple University--Theses

Cette thèse se propose d’opérer un rapprochement entre quatre penseurs emblématiques de la période qui va de la Grande Rébellion à la Glorieuse Révolution en Angleterre au dix-septième siècle : Thomas Hobbes, James Harrington, Algernon Sydney et John Locke. Ces penseurs au statut et à la postérité différents se caractérisent par de fortes divergences théoriques : théoricien de l’absolutisme pour Hobbes, partisans d’un régime de représentation populaire pour Harrington et Sydney, tenant d’une monarchie parlementaire pour Locke. Malgré ces divergences, on a pu dégager une perspective commune chez ces auteurs, marquée par le souci de prendre en compte les conditions réelles dans lesquelles s’exerce le pouvoir politique. Cette perspective commune, qualifiée de réaliste, s’articule autour de trois grands axes : tout d’abord elle se signale par une volonté de fonder l’organisation politique dans les principes de nature, tels qu’ils sont découverts par un examen historique des sociétés humaines, ainsi que par une démarche rationnelle ; elle les conduit ensuite à rechercher les conditions optimales de préservation de la République ainsi fondée ; enfin, elle les entraîne à prendre en compte l’intérêt de la République dans le traitement d’un certain nombre de questions politiques fondamentales qui se posaient alors. On conclura en établissant que ce réalisme les pousse à formuler des propositions similaires sur la nature et l’étendue du pouvoir qui doit être confié aux gouvernants, quel que soit le régime envisagé
The purport of this doctoral thesis is to bring in perspective four emblematic thinkers of the period of English history extending between The Great Rebellion and the Glorious Revolution : Thomas Hobbes, John Harrington, Algernon Sydney and John Locke. These authors, whose respective status and posterity widely differ, are divided by strong ideological differences : Hobbes was a proponent of absolutist government, Harrington and Sidney inclined in favour of a regime based on popular representation and John Locke was a partisan of parliamentary monarchy. Whatever their differences, these philosophers share a common attitude that consists in taking into account the real conditions presiding over the exercise of political power. This common perspective which has been described as political realism is founded on three main axes : the first one is the will to choose a foundation of all political organisations the principles of nature as evidenced by the historical study of human societies and rational analysis ; the second axis is to be found in their search for optimal conditions to ensure the preservation of the Commonwealth built on such foundation ; the third and last axis consists in taking into account the Commonwealth ‘s interest in the resolution of a certain number of fundamental political questions that prevailed during that period. We shall establish in conclusion that their common realism induces them to put forward similar propositions on the nature and extent of the power that political leaders must be entrusted with, whatever the chosen form of government may be

This thesis examines 'improvement' of wetland commons in early modern England as a contested process of rapid environmental change. As a flagship project of agrarian improvement, drainage sought to alchemise pastoral fen commons into arable enclosed terra firma and promised manifold benefits for crown, commoners, and commonwealth alike. In practice, however, improvement schemes generated friction between the political and fiscal agendas of governors and projectors and local communities' customary ways of knowing and using wetland commons, provoking the most sustained and violent agrarian unrest of the seventeenth century. This thesis situates the first state-led drainage project in England, in the northern fens of Hatfield Level, in the context of the local politics of custom, national legal and political developments, and international movements of capital, expertise, and refugees; all of which intersected to reshape perceptions and management of English wetlands. Drawing on the analytic perspectives of environmental history, this thesis explores divergent ideas and practices generating conflict over the making of private property, reorganisation of flow, and reconfiguration of lived environments. This thesis argues that different 'environing' practices - both mental and material - distinguished what was seen as an ordered or disordered landscape, determined when and how water was understood as a resource or risk, and demarcated different scales and forms of intervention. Rival visions of the fenscape, ways of knowing land and water, and concepts of value and justice were productive of, and produced by, different practices of management, ownership, and use. Drainage disputes therefore crossed different spheres of discourse and action, spanning parliament, courtroom, and commons to bring improvement into dialogue with fen custom and generate a contentious environmental politics. In seven substantive chapters, this thesis investigates how improvement was imagined, legitimised, and enacted; how fen communities experienced and navigated rapid environmental transformation; and how political, social, and spatial boundaries were reforged in the process. By grounding improvement in the early modern fenscape, this thesis reintegrates agency into accounts of inexorable socio-economic change, illuminates ideas at work in social contexts, and deepens understandings of environmental conflict.

Advances in medical technology have altered the need for certain types of surgery to be performed in traditional inpatient hospital settings. Less invasive surgical procedures allow a growing number of medical treatments to take place on an outpatient basis. Hospitals face growing competition from ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs). The competitive threats posed by ASCs are important, given that inpatient surgery has been the cornerstone of hospital services for over a century. Additional research is needed to understand how surgical volume shifts between and within acute care general hospitals (ACGHs) and ASCs. This study investigates how medical technology within the hospital industry is changing medical services delivery. The main purposes of this study are to (1) test Clayton M. Christensen’s theory of disruptive innovation in health care, and (2) examine the effects of disruptive innovation on appendectomy, cholecystectomy, and bariatric surgery (ACBS) utilization. Disruptive innovation theory contends that advanced technology combined with innovative business models—located outside of traditional product markets or delivery systems—will produce simplified, quality products and services at lower costs with broader accessibility. Consequently, new markets will emerge, and conventional industry leaders will experience a loss of market share to “non-traditional” new entrants into the marketplace. The underlying assumption of this work is that ASCs (innovative business models) have adopted laparoscopy (innovative technology) and their unification has initiated disruptive innovation within the hospital industry. The disruptive effects have spawned shifts in surgical volumes from open to laparoscopic procedures, from inpatient to ambulatory settings, and from hospitals to ASCs. The research hypothesizes that: (1) there will be larger increases in the percentage of laparoscopic ACBS performed than open ACBS procedures; (2) ambulatory ACBS will experience larger percent increases than inpatient ACBS procedures; and (3) ASCs will experience larger percent increases than ACGHs. The study tracks the utilization of open, laparoscopic, inpatient and ambulatory ACBS. The research questions that guide the inquiry are: 1. How has ACBS utilization changed over this time? 2. Do ACGHs and ASCs differ in the utilization of ACBS? 3. How do states differ in the utilization of ACBS? 4. Do study findings support disruptive innovation theory in the hospital industry? The quantitative study employs a panel design using hospital discharge data from 2004 and 2009. The unit of analysis is the facility. The sampling frame is comprised of ACGHs and ASCs in Florida and Wisconsin. The study employs exploratory and confirmatory data analysis. This work finds that disruptive innovation theory is an effective model for assessing the hospital industry. The model provides a useful framework for analyzing the interplay between ACGHs and ASCs. While study findings did not support the stated hypotheses, the impact of government interventions into the competitive marketplace supports the claims of disruptive innovation theory. Regulations that intervened in the hospital industry facilitated interactions between ASCs and ACGHs, reducing the number of ASCs performing ACBS and altering the trajectory of ACBS volume by shifting surgeries from ASCs to ACGHs.

A major aim of many international organizations is to support development in member countries but despite the importance of this objective in international relations and international cooperation, there are surprisingly few evaluations regarding the effectiveness of development assistance as perceived by recipients. This study, which was conducted using qualitative research methods, addresses the issue as it applies to Seychelles and the Commonwealth. The focus of the Modern Commonwealth, an association of 54 countries, is to fulfil the agenda of member countries as stated in periodic declarations of heads of states. The association has been particularly active, and vocal, in supporting small, least developed, and vulnerable states, including small island developing states. The Republic of Seychelles, a member of the Commonwealth since 1976, is a microstate with limited resources to support national development. Relying heavily on overseas development aid, then on commercial loans, the country attained remarkable levels of socio-economic development despite reaching the verge of bankruptcy in 2008 – when help was sought from the IMF. The continued existence of deep political dissensions has also earned it the label of „unquiet islands‟. Despite considerable support received from the Commonwealth, few individuals in positions of responsibility in Seychelles think that this assistance has had an impact on the country‟s development. Commonwealth support in areas which could potentially change the future of the islands, such as maritime boundaries and petroleum prospecting, are generally invisible to most. It is clear that some Commonwealth assistance is visionary and sustained but according to recipients in Seychelles, the bulk of it falls short of expectations. This perception is due mostly to the inability of people in-country to connect with the Commonwealth or to understand how the Commonwealth functions. Commonwealth officials also seem unaware of the effects of their assistance programmes on intended recipients in Seychelles. The study reveals that communication systems that are inclusive rather than exclusive, approaches that show sensitivity to national context, and a focus on relationship-building, could improve both the content and relevance of the assistance provided by an international organization as well as recipients‟ perception of the value of this assistance.
Development Studies
D. Litt et Phil. (Development Studies)