Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Labour party development'

In 1918, the Labour leadership embarked on a plan of reorganisation that it hoped would transform the party from a trade union pressure group into an independent, national political party. It equipped the party with a comprehensive political programme and determined to create a national network of local branches based on a mass individual membership. In essence, the leadership sought to make Labour a modern 'mass' political party. This study assesses how the national leadership's plan of reconstruction fared at grass roots level, by examining Labour's development in Manchester between 1918 and 1931. In doing so, it examines the nature and outlook of local members, in particular Labour's active core, exploring their role in the party and assessing how far their political views matched those expressed by the national leadership. A final section on Labour's electoral progress in Manchester draws these elements together, in an effort to explain the party's record at the polls. The study argues that the reorganisation carried out after 1918 was not the total failure some have suggested. Nevertheless, it concludes that Manchester Labour was largely frustrated in its efforts to create a 'mass' party machine, and remained marginal to the lives of most members of the local community. Furthermore, despite making electoral progress in the city, it is shown that Labour struggled to attract support outside the working class. However, it is argued that these failings cannot simply be blamed on the party's relationship with the trade unions, as many have claimed. Rather, the study shows that Labour's failure to achieve its organisational goals, and the subsequent problems that created, owed to more complex and deep-rooted problems connected to the public's lack of interest in politics. In the process, it reveals much about the nature of Labour organisation, membership and electoral support in this and subsequent periods.

During the 1980s and 1990s, the autonomy and capacity of the state has been under considerable stress in regards to the reduction of public policy choice. 'External' forces of globalisation and technical innovations have led to a loss of economic 'boundary control', initiating cross-national policy change and a convergence of public policies on a neo- liberally-led paradigm. This development has been reflected in the processes of policy change experienced by the British Labour Party and the German Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands (SPD), in particular in the ideologically charged area of 'social democratic' labour market policy (LMP) choices. This study argues, that although political systems and institutional cultures of 'social democratic' parties and agents differ substantially between the UK and Germany, 'social democratic' parties economic policy approaches are increasingly developing along similar lines. Both parties' responses to the changing contextual 'internal' domestic as well as 'external' socio-economic factors are cross-nationally compared and their constrains encountered by path dependencies and a historically institutionalised economic policy paradigm are investigated. Faced with a general shift in paradigm from 'Keynesian' to 'neo-liberal', party actors - guided by prescriptive social democratic policy templates - were initially inhibited from aligning policy approaches. This contributed significantly to a 'delayed' shift in both parties' economic policy paradigm, electoral failure, and a lack of the parties' public economic policy credibility. Several strata of information have been used to combine analytical and empirical evidence - utilising both quantitative (statistical) data as well as the historical analysis of both parties' policy development processes. Qualitative sources have been backed up by quantitative evidence of the parties' programmatic changes in labour market polices that were gathered with a labour market policy coding frame for the statistical multi-lingual comparison and content analysis of parties policy documents.

In this thesis I explore the attitudes, arguments, and actions of British political elites in connection with the development of human rights law in Europe and the UK. I do this by examining British input into five key episodes for the development of European supranational rights and their incorporation into domestic legal orders (namely the drafting of the European Convention on Human Rights 1950, the drafting of the European Social Charter 1961, the acceptance of individual petition in 1966, the failed 1970s Bill of Rights debate, the passing of the Human Rights Act 1998, and recent developments such as the UK ‘opt-out’ to the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, and the emergence of a new ‘British Bill of Rights’ debate). Casting light on British involvement in less examined periods in European rights development, I challenge existing, isolated, explanations for the more focal episodes (such as Simpson’s rational-choice post-colonial thesis for individual petition acceptance, and ideological accounts for New Labour’s post-1997 constitutional reform). Responding to the most recent literature in the area, central to my analysis is the question of how rights progress relates to inter-party conflict. By considering continuities and discontinuities in elite political discussion of rights I argue that while conflict is a significant underlying feature of every major episode of rights progress during the last sixty years, and is less evident in less progressive periods, other factors have had a greater influence over the form, timing, and extent of rights progress. Most significant amongst these is the constitutional ideological development of the Labour party and the critical connection between Labour’s elevation of the Convention within the UK constitutional space and revisionist shifts in party thinking.

This study analyses the relationship between the activities of think-tanks and the development of, firstly, party-programmatic discourses of the British Labour Party and the German Social Democratic Party (SPD) and, secondly, their welfare and labour market policies as parties of government. It addresses the years between 1992 and 2005 during which both parties underwent a programmatic revision resulting in the adaptation of "Third Way" Social Democracy which served as the leitmotif for comprehensive policy reform in both countries. Description and analysis of the interaction of the various policy field stakeholders establish what exactly it is that a number of specific think-tanks did, whether what they did was policy-relevant, and if and how the country-specific political system influenced the modus operandi of think-tanks. The study employs a multilevel perspective which considers the macro-level of the socio-economic structures, the meso-level of the practice of the policy process and the micro-level of individual agency. Adopting a neo-Gramscian approach to the study of think-tanks as civil society actors active in the (re)production of discursive hegemony, the policy network concept of Maarten Hajer's discourse coalition is enlisted as a further tool to understand what the role of think-tanks is in the policy process. The research does not attempt to establish causal relationships between think-tank activity and policy outcomes but seeks to establish congruence between what thinktanks did and policy outcomes. The focused comparison of two similar countries helps to discern why think-tanks were more successful in some instances while not in others. This study contributes to the literature on the relationship between (social) science, policy and politics. It addressesa number of gaps in the literature: policy advice for political parties in general and for Labour and SPD during the specified time span in particular have not been adequately explored.

This study considers the impact of e-commerce technologies/software implementation on logistics capabilities and firm’s performance, particularly in the Malaysian third party logistics sector. As well as studying the impact of e-commerce, it is also interested in gaining knowledge on the current state of ICT and e-commerce adoption in this sector, and third party logistics companies’ perceived importance of the logistics changes in their industry resulting from the e-commerce revolution. The main tenet of this thesis is that e-commerce technologies implementation and its (higher) level of use strengthens logistics capabilities and stronger logistics capabilities are positively linked to a firm’s performance. The impact of e-commerce technologies implementation on the performance of the third party logistics companies is assumed in this study to be indirect, and, logistics capabilities is assumed to take on a mediating role. Data was collected using both survey and interview methods and then analysed using two main types of analyses: univariate (descriptive) and inferential (bivariate and multivariate). In general, connectivity is good among 3PLs as almost all the companies surveyed are connected to the Internet with various types of broadband access. The use of internal computer networks is also widely deployed with moderate to strong information systems infrastructure capability. Substantial ICT investments have been made as indicated from interviews with the 3PLs. The Intranet has been widely deployed as a tool to integrate internal business processes. However, the survey results suggest that logistics service providers in Malaysia are mostly late adopters with respect to the usage of web-based software systems, such as equipment and vessel tracking and collaborative logistics management systems, which have been around in the market for quite some time now. Relative adoption of online marketing and sales activities are low with the Internet mostly used for information and communication purposes, and not in or less so in marketing and sales processes. CRM is not widely deployed in the companies surveyed. The biggest driver for the uptake of e-commerce among the 3PL companies surveyed and interviewed is to speed up business processes while the biggest barrier was that data communication was too slow. The study of e-commerce impact on logistics capabilities and the performance of a firm shows that there is a positive effect of e-commerce software systems on both. More importantly, logistics capabilities have been shown in this study to function as a mediating variable providing support to the hypothesis that e-commerce software systems has an indirect effect on firm’s performance. Empirical results also suggest that certain performance can be enhanced through strengthening of specific logistics capabilities. For example, strengthening information flow management capabilities would strengthen or enhance the company’s performance in the areas of order cycle time variability, processing accuracy, perfect order fulfilment, planning accuracy, availability of information, and systems malfunction recovery. Results from this study show that the 3PL companies did not consider the logistics changes as significant, except for those that concern information flow to the customers. In fact, most of the logistics changes proposed as important and significant in the literature (these were included in the questionnaire) were not even considered as relevant to the third party logistics industry in Malaysia.

This study from the onset sought to explore, through a postcolonial critique, the meaning ascribed to child labour by fishers in a fishing community in Ghana. The purpose was to inform practice in social work so that social justice might be achieved for working children and their parents. However the study expanded, methodologically and theoretically, to preliminarily include a psychoanalytically informed psychosocial and discursive approach, extending the postcolonial critique to develop a nuanced understandings of the fishers' lived experience of, and responses to, children's work. Distinct from the dominant reductionist and positivistic etiologic understandings of child labour, this approach neither derides child labour as morally reprehensible and unequivocally dangerous, nor romanticises its beneficial aspects and links to cultural and traditional beliefs and practices (see Klocker, 2012). Instead, enables understanding of the fishers as ‘defended subjects' who invest in certain discourses as a way of defending against their vulnerable selves. It also affords a critically reflexive understanding of myself as a ‘defended researcher', owing to my semi-insider position as a former child labourer, and of the impact of this on my research relationships and findings. The study is intended to inform social worker practices in order to deal with complex situations concerning the relationship among fishers and their children paying equal attention both to the inner and the social circumstances of the fishers (Wilson, Ruch, Lymbery, & Cooper, 2011). In this regard it is inspired by Mel Gray's (2005) contention that social work practice should be shaped by the extent to which local social, political, economic, historical and cultural factors, as well as local voices, mould and shape social work responses. The study is conducted using critical ethnographic design that draws on the lived experiences of 24 fishers. Attempts were made to explore the fishers' experiences using psychoanalytically informed method (FANI) in addition to other conventional methods. The study highlights the fishers' use of narratives of slavery to explicate child labour. It focuses on the relationships that the fishers' have developed with their children and with the laws surrounding the use of children in work. It gives an indication of how the fishers' violently and aggressively relate with their working children. It also highlights the fishers' rejection of the laws surrounding child labour as being foreign and an imposition which excludes customary laws. The study further examines the identities the fishers developed in relation to laws that regulate them and children's work. It suggests that others see the fishers as powerless subjects who don't matter. It also underscores my shame and worries as a researcher considered by the fishers as an ‘educated elite' who works for ‘white people'. It further highlights how I provided self-justifying explications to defend myself as a researcher. The findings imply that solutions to child labour need to be localised paying equal attention to both the psyche and the social life of the fishers. They speak to the imperative for critical review of social workers/NGOs practices taking into account the unconscious processes that go on between fishers as parents and social workers as service providers. This thesis introduces a psychosocial dimension and insight into debates on child labour in Ghana.

The study of the educational platforms of the major political parties in WA has been largely neglected. It is the aim of the following historical study to trace the evolution of the ALP's education policies and platforms in WA from 1964 to 1982 and the events, trends and issues which have given it its current shape. This process has been studied largely from the records of the ALP and via interviews with key participants. One of the more important trends has been the gradual erosion of community apathy towards education. From the earliest years of this century the WA Education Department assumed control over most aspects of education, including the formation of policy. The community. Parliament and Ministers for Education largely seemed content with this state of affairs. This situation remained almost unchanged until the late 1960s. At that time national events such as the increasing involvement of the Commonwealth Government in school funding and the state aid debate aroused community interest in education. Coupled with these political events were societal changes such as the effect of technology on employment, the growing demands of ethnic groups and the emergence of the women's movement. These changes placed new demands on education and political, as well as bureaucratic solutions, were sought. Groups with interests in education brought pressure to bear on Ministers for Education and their political parties in order to achieve their ends. The results of these events were threefold. Firstly, party platforms on education grew dramatically. Thus the 1967 platform comprising a mere one and a half pages grew to over twelve by 1984. Secondly, these platforms expanded largely because of pressure from the community and from lobby groups for more educational services. Thus the political parties had a vested interest in implementing their platforms. Finally, the implementation of these platforms resulted, in effect, in a challenge by the Ministers for Education to the de facto supremacy of the Education Department in the area of policy creation. The first two areas, the expansion of ALP platform and the reasons for its occurrence are the major concerns of this study. During the period under study (1964 - 1982) clashes between the Minister for Education, the Director General and his Education Department have increased. Smart and Alderson (1980) have documented these events. It remains to be seen whether the implementation of the Beazley Report (1984) will further erode the historically dominant position of the Director General as the chief actor in the policy formation process.

OBJETIVO: O objetivo do presente estudo é comparar o poder da medida do comprimento do colo uterino quando obtida no período de 18-21 semanas com a obtida no período de 22-25 semanas de gestação na predição do parto prematuro espontâneo em gestações gemelares e analisar o valor do encurtamento cervical observado entre essas duas medidas. MÉTODO: estudo retrospecto envolvendo 383 gestantes gemelares que foram avaliadas entre a 18ª e a 21ª semanas (GRUPO 1- 241 pacientes) e a 22ª e a 25ª semanas de gestação (GRUPO 2- 266 pacientes). Esses dois períodos foram avaliados de maneira independente e as pacientes foram incluídas em um deles ou em ambos, com ao menos 3 semanas entre os exames. Pacientes incluídas nos dois períodos (GRUPO 3- 124 pacientes) permitiram a análise do encurtamento cervical. Não foram incluídas gestações com as seguintes complicações: síndrome da transfusão feto-fetal, poliidrâmnio, malformação fetal, patologia uterina, gestações submetidas a procedimento invasivo, cerclagem uterina, parto prematuro eletivo e os casos em que não foi possível obter o desfecho da gestação. O parâmetro avaliado foi o comprimento do colo. Curvas ROC foram usadas para comparar a capacidade de predição do parto prematuro. Na determinação de sensibilidade, especificidade, VPP e VPN foi usado como ponto de corte o 5º percentil do comprimento do colo determinado por Fujita et al (2002) em nossa população. RESULTADO: GRUPO 1- o comprimento médio do colo com 19,5 semanas (IG média no grupo) foi 38,2 ±8,7 mm. A taxa de PPE (parto prematuro espontâneo) abaixo de 28, 30, 32 e 34 semanas de gestação foi 3,7%, 6,2%, 7,8% e 16,1%, respectivamente. A incidência de colo curto foi (14/241) 5,8%. Análise da curva ROC revelou área sob a curva de 0,64 (CI95% 0,53-0,75). Sensibilidade de 33,3%, 33,3%, 30% e 23% e VPN de 97,3%, 95,6%, 93,8% e 86,8% para parto abaixo de 28, 30, 32, e 34 semanas de gestação foram obtidos. GRUPO 2- o comprimento médio do colo com 23,3 semanas (IG média no grupo) foi 35,6 ±10,5 mm. A taxa de PPE abaixo de 28, 30, 32 e 34 semanas de gestação foi 2,6%, 5,2%, 7,1% e 12,8%, respectivamente. A incidência de colo curto foi (22/266) 8,2%. Análise da curva ROC revelou área sob a curva de 0,80 (CI95% 0,72-0,88), e essa área é maior do que a do GRUPO 1 (p0,001). Sensibilidade de 71,4%, 57,1%, 52,6% e 38,2% e VPN de 99,1%, 97,5%, 96,3% e 91,4% para parto abaixo de 28, 30, 32, e 34 semanas de gestação foram obtidos. GRUPO 3- Análise da curva ROC revelou área sob a curva de 0,81 (CI95% 0,73-0,89). O melhor ponto de corte para encurtamento cervical foi dado pelo joelho de curva e foi 2 mm/semana. Sensibilidade de 80%, 90%, 78,5% e 60,8% e VPN de 98,9%, 98,9%, 96,8% e 90,6% para parto abaixo de 28, 30, 32, e 34 semanas de gestação. CONCLUSÃO: nas gestações gemelares, a medida do colo uterino entre 22-25 semanas de gestação é melhor preditora do parto prematuro abaixo de 34 semanas do que a medida obtida entre 18-21 semanas. O encurtamento cervical 6mm/3 semanas entre 18 e 25 semanas de gestação é bom preditor de parto prematuro em subgrupo de alto risco.
OBJECTIVE: The aim of the present study is to compare the value of cervical assessment in twin pregnancies in predicting risk of spontaneous preterm delivery when performed at 18-21 weeks and 22-25 weeks gestation and to examine the value of cervical shortening observed between both periods. METHODS: This retrospective study involved 383 women carrying twins who were scheduled between 18-21 completed weeks (GROUP 1- 241 patients) and 22-25 completed weeks of gestation (GROUP 2- 266 patients). These two periods were assessed independently, and patients could be included in one or both with at least three weeks between the exams, whose delivery data was obtained. Patients included in both periods (GROUP 3- 124 patients) allowed the analysis of cervical shortening. Pregnancies presenting with the following complications where not included in the analyses: twin-twin transfusion syndrome, polihidramnius, fetal malformation, uterine patology; cases that underwent invasive procedures or uterine cerclage, premature delivery indicated for maternal or fetal complications and cases in which pregnancy outcome was impossible to obtain. Cervical length was the analyzed parameter. Area under the ROC curve was used to compare the predictive capacity of spontaneous preterm birth. To determine sensitivity, specificity, PPV and NPV, cervical length cut-off for short cervix was determined by Fujita et al (2002) curve, designed in our population. RESULTS: GROUP 1- The mean cervical length at 19.5 weeks (mean gestational age in the group) was 38.2 +- 8.7 mm. The rate of spontaneous preterm delivery (SPD) < 28, <30, <32 and < 34 weeks of gestation was 3.7%, 6.2%, 7.8% and 16.1%, respectively. The incidence of short cervix in the group was (14/241) 5.8%. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis revealed area under the curve 0.64 (CI95% 0.53-0.75). Sensitivities of 33.3%, 33.3%, 30% and 23% and negative predictive values of 97.3%, 95.6%, 93.8% and 86.8% for delivery at <28, <30, <32, and <34 weeks gestation were achieved. GROUP 2- The mean cervical length at 23.3 weeks (mean gestational age in the group) was 35.6 +- 10.5 mm. The rate of SPD < 28, <30, <32 and < 34 weeks of gestation was 2.6%, 5.2%, 7.1% and 12.8%, respectively. The incidence of short cervix was (22/266) 8.2%. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis revealed area under the curve 0.80 (CI95% 0.72-0.88), and this is larger than GROUP 1 area (p0,001). Sensitivities of 71.4%, 57.1%, 52.6% and 38.2% and negative predictive values of 99.1%, 97.5%, 96.3% and 91.4% for delivery at <28, <30, <32, and <34 weeks gestation were achieved. GROUP 3- Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis revealed area under the curve 0.81 (CI95% 0.73-0.89). The best cut-off for cervical shortening was reveled by the inflection point of the curve and was 2 mm/week. Sensitivities of 80%, 90%, 78.5% and 60.8% and negative predictive values of 98.9%, 98.9%, 96.8% and 90.6% for delivery at <28, <30, <32, and <34 weeks gestation were achieved. CONCLUSION: In twin gestations, assessment of cervical length at 22-25 weeks is better than __________________________________________________________________ assessment at 18-21 weeks to predict preterm delivery before 34 weeks. Cervical shortening of 6 mm/ 3weeks between 18 and 25 weeks gestation was a good predictor of spontaneous preterm birth in high risk population.

The Hawke Labor government was elected for its third term of office in 1987. It owes much of this success to its Accord with the Australian Council of Trade Unions. The purpose of this thesis is to elucidate what consolidates and sustains the bargained bipartite relationship that is the core of the Accord and central to its viability as a cooperative incomes strategy for the industrial and political wings of the Australian labour movement. The thesis begins with an examination of what the Federal Parliamentary Labor Party and the ACTU each sought to achieve from a co-operative incomes policy. The following chapters trace the origins and development of the Accord, beginning with the difficulties that arose between the Whitlam Labor government and the ACTU that prevented any similar agreement. The post-Whitlam period brought about a change in attitude by both the unions and the FPLP that made the Accord possible. The thesis examines the reasons why Australian unions changed their approach from maintaining living standards primarily through nominal increases to the industrial wage to embrace a collective centralised incomes strategy that included the industrial wage, employment and the social wage. The effective point of wage negotiation then lay with the ACTU. This thesis examines the basis of ACTU wages policy and the reasons why the strategies that were pursued to gain its implementation failed. This failure led directly to the Accord with the FPLP. The following two chapters examine the reasons why and how the FPLP reached similar conclusions about the necessity for a collective incomes policy with the unions in 1979 and the subsequent negotiations that brought them to formal agreement on the Accord with the ACTU in 1983. The Accord has proved to be a flexible process that remains relevant nearly six years after its inception. The operations and renegotiations of the Accord that have occurred over this period are examined to determine why this has been possible. A discussion about the relevance of corporatism to the Accord follows. This concludes that, while there may be some aspects of corporatism that can be related to the Accord process, the imprecise nature of corporatist theory raises doubts about its utility as an explanation for the bargained bipartite relationship that is the essence of the Accord. It is suggested that it is more satisfactory to regard the Accord as a contemporary embodiment of traditional Australian labourism; that is, the balancing of economic, electoral and social objectives by the trade union movement and the ALP to achieve what is politically and economically possible through Labor in government.

碩士
東吳大學
德國文化學系
98
German Social Democratic Party won the Bundestag election in 1998 and with the Greens for the first time the Red-Green coalition government. Federal Chancellor Gerhard Schr?丼er accepted the British Prime Minister Tony Blair "The Third Way" concept, and proposed the German reforms that met the needs of the "die Neue Mitte", and in June 1999 with British Prime Minister Tony Blair jointly issued the "Schr?丼er-Blair Papier". The " Schr?丼er-Blair Papier" revealed the emergence of Germany for the direction of reform, and for the German Social Democratic Party itself was a breakthrough over the years. For the four years the first time the ruling Red-Green government (1998-2002), in the labor market policy reforms were not substantial, therefore, the most fundamental problem of unemployment had not improved. In September 2002 after the German Social Democratic Party re-election, the Federal Chancellor Gerhard Schr?丼er began his series of large-scale reforms, including the start of the Hartz concept and the subsequent Agenda 2010 before the election. Both for the German social welfare system and labor market reforms enacted, Chancellor Gerhard Schr?丼er looked forward to the two reform packages, to thoroughly address the problems facing Germany. This article aims to examine what the German Social Democratic Party have been done after ruling in 1998, and the party is the political party traditionally that focuses on the unemployment problem. Hartz concept and the Agenda 2010 were the German Social Democratic Party’s significant changes in the labor market policy, social policy, economic policy and other in power seven years (1998-2005);what kind of impact caused by these changes in the domestic environment, and the Social Democratic Party itself? In particular, the Agenda 2010 and the Hartz concept Ⅲ, Ⅳ, the whole line will completely get rid of the stereotype of the traditional Social Democratic Party, should be further explored. Keyword: German Social Democratic Party、Labor markt policy、Agenda 2010、Hartz concept