Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Political Assemblie'

Dans les Constitutions française, italienne et espagnole, les mentions expresses relatives au droit des assemblées régionales sont rares, mais elles sont déterminantes. L’autonomie régionale a, en effet, pour composante organique l’existence d’une assemblée, dotée d’une nature représentative et d’un caractère délibérant, que l’État soit de forme décentralisée ou régionale. Or, la reconnaissance constitutionnelle d’un organe délibérant propre à chaque région conditionne nécessairement sa nature ainsi que les règles relatives à son organisation et à son fonctionnement. L’étude comparée du droit des assemblées régionales à travers le prisme du droit constitutionnel révèle que l’action des auteurs de ce droit est encadrée par la Constitution. Quelle que soit la valeur des normes qui les consacrent, différents principes issus du droit parlementaire s’imposent ainsi comme des garanties des exigences constitutionnelles en la matière et permettent d’assurer l’autonomie statutaire et fonctionnelle de l’organe. Il existe, dès lors, un degré minimum d’harmonisation du droit des assemblées régionales et parlementaires, qui découle des prescriptions constitutionnelles. Pour autant, ces deux types d’assemblées ne peuvent être confondus dans un État unitaire, ce qui implique que cette transposition ne vise pas les principes liés à leur nature propre. Il existe donc également un degré maximum d’harmonisation qui ne peut pas être dépassé. Par ailleurs, le droit des assemblées régionales peut s’éloigner du droit parlementaire et prendre une forme innovante, pour mieux garantir les fonctions de ces assemblées en prenant en compte leurs spécificités. Donner les moyens aux assemblées régionales d’exercer leurs fonctions, que ce soit en leur appliquant des règles issues du droit parlementaire ou en créant des règles propres à cet échelon, c’est garantir l’autonomie de la région, telle qu’elle est définie par la Constitution
Within the French, Italian and Spanish Constitutions, the direct references to laws regulating regional assemblies are rare, yet determining. Regional autonomy in any of the three countries entails the existence of an assembly, having a representative nature and a deliberative character, regardless of whether the national state of the given country exists in a decentralized or regional form. The nature and internal rules of the regional assemblies are conditioned by the extent to which they are recognized in the constitutions of their respective countries. This comparative study examines the laws governing the regional assemblies, through the prism of constitutional law, and shows that their normative sources are structured by the Constitutions. Different principles of parliamentary law protect the assemblies' structural and functional autonomy, and serve as guarantees for the constitutional exigencies they are submitted to, no matter the value of the normative sources. The constitutions prescribe the minimum threshold for the level of harmonization between parliamentary and regional assembly laws. Yet, a regional assembly cannot be equated with the parliament of a unitary state, and as a consequence, the transposition of laws does not target the inherent principles of each assembly’s particular nature. Hence, there is also a maximum threshold of harmonization that cannot be exceeded. Further, regional assembly law may deviate from parliamentary law and take an innovative form in order to secure the assemblies' functions through the accommodation of their specificities.To give regional assemblies the means to exercise their functions, either through the application of rules governed by parliamentary law or by the creation of particular rules at the regional level, is to guarantee the regions' autonomy as defined by the Constitutions

In Kuwait, an increase in the use of social media by the Kuwait National Assembly (KNA) has allowed it members to reach out to the public and so advance their political agenda. This study examines social media influences on the decision making process; addresses the lack of academic research in relation to KNA members; and seeks to understand the extent to which public political engagement using social media might affect the outcome of their decision making. The proposed social media influence model (SMIM) was used to explore the relationships and relative importance of variables influencing legislator decision making in a social media environment. The second decade of the twenty-first century saw a number of major issues emerging in Kuwait. A core mixed method design known as explanatory sequential was applied to multiple sets of data generated during KNA members' 14th (2013-2016) and 15th (2016-2018) terms. These data included Twitter messages (tweets), the KNA Information Center Parliamentary Information System legislation documents, and the news media articles. The sample was drawn from KNA membership, some of which used Twitter to comment on major events with specific hashtags and the Kuwaiti news media articles related to the same. Study results confirm and support the proposed SMIM. They also suggest that a single person or a group of individuals (in this case, legislators) can be influenced and motivated to use social media for self-promotion and/or advancing their political agenda. Consequently, they can be used to devise ways for improving the use of social media by KNA members in support of legislative work, which in turn will provide citizens with access to real-time information and enhanced political interaction.

La tesi ricostruisce alcuni momenti fondamentali della storia della contea principesca di gradisca, per approfondire i rapporti intercorsi tra 'centro' e 'periferia', tra gli Eggenberg/Asburgo e la nobiltà della contea.
The dissertation reconstructs some fundamental moments of the history of the princely county of Gradisca, in order to study relationships between 'centre' and 'periphery' in depth, between the Eggenberg/Habsburg and the nobility.

La tesi ricostruisce alcuni momenti fondamentali della storia della contea principesca di gradisca, per approfondire i rapporti intercorsi tra 'centro' e 'periferia', tra gli Eggenberg/Asburgo e la nobiltà della contea.
The dissertation reconstructs some fundamental moments of the history of the princely county of Gradisca, in order to study relationships between 'centre' and 'periphery' in depth, between the Eggenberg/Habsburg and the nobility.

Os estudos relacionados aos aspectos culturais da sociedade e a forma como estes influenciam na organização espacial vêm ganhando campo no Brasil nas últimas décadas. O aprofundamento nestas questões e o conhecimento de diferentes áreas do nosso país por vieses diferenciados enriquece o trabalho do geógrafo e cria nuanças diversas para a compreensão da sociedade brasileira. Neste sentido, um conceito que vem ganhando importância dentro do campo científico da Geografia é o de lugar, visto como o espaço das vivências, das relações afetivas e, portanto, do desenvolvimento das identidades espaciais. Assim, o estudo buscará compreender o sentido dos lugares a partir de uma Geografia Eleitoral dos candidatos ligados a Igreja Assembléia de Deus no município de Cabo Frio-RJ, buscando apresentar um estudo inserido no campo da Geografia Cultural que relacione as dimensões política e do lugar com vistas a compreender o(s) fato(s) culturais religiosos como fatores de influência direta e indireta na organização espacial da sociedade.
Studies related to cultural aspects of society and how they influence the spatial organization are gaining ground in Brazil in recent decades. Deepening these issues and knowledge of different areas of our country by different biases enriches the work of the geographer and creates various nuances to the understanding of Brazilian society. In this sense, a concept that is gaining importance in the scientific field of Geography is to place, as seen from space experiences, from emotional relationships, and therefore the development of spatial identities. Thus, the study will seek to understand the meaning of places from one Electoral Geography of candidates linked to Assembly of God Church in the city of Cabo Frio-RJ, seeking to present a study included in the field of cultural geography that links the political and place in order to understand (s) fact (s) religious and cultural factors of direct and indirect influence on the spatial organization of society.

This dissertation addresses the issues of crafting a constitution for Nigeria that would meet the criteria of being visible, sustainable, and durable for national political unity, social and economic development. Specifically, it focuses on the years 1978 — 1995 during which several high profile systematic, constitution crafting exercises were undertaken. These included the establishment of a Constitution Drafting Committee to craft a constitution, and a Constituent Assembly. Ultimately, these exercises have proven to be only partially successful. The goal of producing an endurable constitutional framework for Nigerian politics remains elusive. The two core questions pursued in this dissertation focus on: Why did the military pursue these constitution crafting activities? What are the pressing political issues that the constitutional framework will have to manage? The dissertation pursued these issues through surveys, interviews, a review of government documents and reports, participant observation, and a review of existing literature regarding constitution development, federalism and Nigerian history and politics. Key research findings uncovered pressing political concerns ranging across ethnic fears, gender and youth concern, institutional restructuring and economic subordination. Our findings also related to the elite background of participants in these constitutional exercises, and the intrusion of religion, class, and geographical interests into the deliberations of the assemblies. The continued violation of constitutional provisions by the military was highlighted. The widespread call for a Sovereign National Constitutional Conference to shape a new popular constitution for the country was also a prominent concern. Key recommendations focus on the need for a national constitutional conference free of political interference and constricting mandates.

The overarching characteristic of the 2009 legislative elections lay in the legislative candidates’ politics of image. It stemmed from the amendment to the election Law no. 10/2008 article 214 that ostensibly cut off the parties’ power in determining their candidates without the public’s “direct” consent. The public was then given a direct opportunity to choose and vote for their preferred candidates in the 2009 elections. This marked the emergence and proliferation of the candidates’ image construction, especially in the “outdoor” political arena. Billboards were chosen as the most effective outdoor advertising medium to introduce the candidates and propagate their slogans and platforms. However, at the same time, this mode of introducing and propagating reveals itself as an ideological map that demonstrates the contestation and synthesis of the two major ideological camps in the Indonesian political arena, i.e. the nationalist and Islamic. The candidates were coopted into and by this framework. They themselves could not escape as their political dispositions were unconsciously defined by this framework. Their billboards speak loudly the ideological contestation and synthesis. The investigation of the contestation and synthesis needs Bourdieuan analytical tools, such as capital, dispositions (habitus) and field. These are used not merely to show how the mechanism of the contestation and synthesis operated and was defined by the rules of political “game”, but also to show how this mechanism involves the intricate inter-relationships of various capitals, such as the political, social, economic, cultural and symbolic, that reflect the candidates’ (read also: the parties’) dispositions within the field of Pancasila discourse. Pancasila becomes not only an ideological basis for the state but also the bastion of the contestation and synthesis. The twin roles arguably derive from the dominant cultural root (Javanese) that highly values the concepts of harmony, tolerance and appropriateness as the essences that allow the ideological contestation and synthesis of the nationalist and Islamic strands as the dominant ideological markers in the Indonesian political arena. This thesis aims to demonstrate how the candidates’ billboards represent ideological contestation and synthesis as the billboards can also be perceived as the candidates’ visual “responses” which reflect their political dispositions and the process of taking stances amidst the contestation and synthesis. Therefore, this study was conducted in the form of a layered case study. Using a Bourdieuan lens, the first layer explores the historical background of the contestation and synthesis, their proliferation in the political arena and the mechanism of deploying these strands in the political parties’ branding. Using a social semiotic lens, the second layer investigates how the billboards as the products of the candidates’ political articulation represent not only these contestations and syntheses but also their dispositions. I found that the system of representation (on the candidates’ billboards) operates within the Javanese ideals of “equilibrium” in Pancasila discourse. These ideals frame the power relations between the nationalist and Islamic factions in an ostensible “consensus” in order to maintain the harmony and dilute ideological friction.

A large measure of the durability of the Huguenot movement was derived from then- general political assemblies. The assembly held at Montauban in 1579 was the first attended by a deputy north of the Loire; after the final and twenty-second general assembly at La Rochelle in 1622, only localised gatherings were held. This thesis argues that the assemblies were primarily a corps: their principal purpose was both to oversee the implementation of the edicts of pacification and to mobilize resources if peace broke down. Essentially based on the available manuscript sources, many of them unexplored, this thesis approaches the general assemblies as an institution. The first two chapters highlight the process of convocation of the general assemblies and the manner in which political representation (both within the assemblies and to the monarchy) took place. The third chapter principally explores the relationship between the general assemblies and the chambers created for Huguenots in the parlements from 1576. The assemblies supported these chambers as a means of obtaining implementation of the edicts of pacification. In the fourth chapter, the apparently conflicting attitudes of the general assemblies to property and civil rights are addressed. For instance, while the assemblies regulated the taking of lay and ecclesiastical property, revenue from these sources was often reinvested to support ministers, schools and charitable purposes. The fifth and sixth chapters examine the provisions for war made by the general assemblies and their attempts to ensure the adequate financing of Huguenot troops. The assemblies always stated that they acted in self-defence; a primary concern was the need to ensure the protection of local civilian populations. The monarchy allowed the assemblies to organise levies for the repayment of debts owed to mercenary troops and provided for the maintenance of Huguenot garrison troops from royal revenue. This thesis concludes that while the general assemblies worked as a corps, they never received letters of corporation from the monarchy; they remained ad hoc, susceptible to events and to the manipulation of public opinion through wellaimed pamphlet literature.

This research tests the hypothesis that post-conflict power-sharing systems are less inclusive on the grounds that they are designed to accommodate those participating in conflict, rather than for the governance of a society in general, with all its diversity. The importance of the research is that, if power-sharing systems are seen as a means for managing violent inter-communal conflict, there needs to be an understanding of the pitfalls of such an approach. Seeing to the immediate needs of groups engaged in violence not only marginalises other identities, but also rewards more extreme methods of political expression with access to political power and decision-making privileges. The particular research draws on two cases that have approached power-sharing differently since the late 1990s: Northern Ireland as a consociational system and Kosovo as a power-sharing system with minority community safeguards. The research draws specifically on primary interview material in both contexts, focussing on gender and minority ethnic identity, as a contribution to the wider literature on these two conflicts in particular and on ethnic conflict management more broadly. Specifically, this is the first occasion on which these two cases have been subjected to in-depth comparative analysis. The analysis utilises theories of political inclusion, specifically drawing on deliberative democracy. This is operationalised through an analytical framework developed by Yvonne Galligan and Sara Clavero (2008). The research set out to examine whether post-conflict power-sharing legislatures exclude identities not associated with the conflict they are intended to manage. The evidence is that they do. Such political institutions are dominated by conflict elites or parties aligned along conflict lines and the primary capital of political debate relates to the conflict paradigm. Whether the political landscape is a legacy of a persistent conflict model anyway or whether political institutions help to mould and shape such preoccupations, the political structures that privilege conflict identity certainly sustain such a system. The research also demonstrated the effectiveness of the Galligan/Clavero framework as a robust analytical tool for the measurement of political inclusion, not just for gender democracy, for which it was designed, but for other identities.

Elections are a core element in democracy, and a number of analysts have identified electoral participation of eligible voters as an important indicator of how well democracy is functioning at a particular time in a particular place (see, for example, Burnham, Elections as Democratic Institutions, 1987). In such studies, a major lament about U.S. democracy has been the decline in citizens’ participation in elections. In 2010, California voters passed Proposition 14. Proposition 14 enforces an open primary in which the top two candidates who garner the highest vote totals proceed to the general election, regardless of party. Supporters of Proposition 14 believe that a Top-Two primary will create more moderate candidates, which will appeal to a larger cross section of the electorate and increase competition and voter turnout. Opponents of Proposition 14 claimed the opposite, and believe that the constitutional amendment will decrease voter turnout due to lack of plurality, as write-ins will be eliminated and only two candidates will contend in the general election.

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The discussion about the low female partaking in the public sphere, especially in the legislative - a privileged locus for discussing and legislating about the destinies of a nation - has lately frequently arisen. This worry is due to the fact that the woman is considered, according to the law, equal to man in the political sphere. In practice, this equity does not take place. She continues, in spite of the legal equality, badly represented in the Executive as well as in the Legislative. This verification made the legislators create a rule that obliges the parties to present at least 30 % of women candidates in their rolls. The objectives of this thesis are: to go through the political process aiming at the inclusion of women, by obliging the establishment of quotas for women candidates to positions in the Legislative in São Paulo; to discuss the paradoxes (setting up of a system of quotas and the effective participation of women in the decision-making process) faced by the political parties PT, PSDB and PFL and to try to see if it is possible to state that the quotas applied to the election for positions in the legislative, in São Paulo, can be considered an autonomous movement. The focus was on the actors performing parliamentary mandate in the Assembly of São Paulo - parliamentarians elected in the elections of 2002 - and party representatives occupying some type of position in the direction of the PT, PSDB and PFL parties. The results indicate a paradoxical movement: internally, some parties have broadened the discussion and created agencies to foster the number of women candidates, but the majority has not been elected. Another paradox verified is that, in spite of the fact that some parliamentary women present projects concerned with the social change, many of them still continue to make part of the current social and sectarian politics. The small resistance movements, the imperceptible conquests and changes can be considered an autonomous movement because they have an important revolutionary element: they start to change the social relations in the micropolitics in order to, later, reach the social exclusion pattern in the macropolitics
A discussão sobre a baixa participação feminina no espaço público, especialmente no legislativo - locus privilegiado para discutir e legislar sobre os destinos de uma nação - tem aparecido, com freqüência, nos últimos tempos. Essa preocupação decorre do fato de que a mulher é considerada, pela lei, igual ao homem no campo político. Na prática, essa equidade não acontece. Ela continua, apesar da igualdade legal, sub-representada tanto no Executivo, como no Legislativo e no Judiciário. Essa constatação levou os legisladores a criarem uma norma que obriga os partidos a lançarem, pelo menos, 30% de candidatas em suas listas. Os objetivos dessa tese são: percorrer o processo político para inclusão das mulheres, por meio da obrigatoriedade do estabelecimento de cotas para candidatas a cargos no legislativo em São Paulo; discutir os paradoxos (implantação do sistema de cotas e a participação efetiva das mulheres no processo decisório) enfrentados pelos partidos políticos PT, PSDB e PFL e tentar verificar se é possível afirmar que as cotas aplicadas à eleição para cargos no legislativo, em São Paulo, podem ser consideradas um movimento autônomo. Foram enfocados os atores que estão exercendo mandato parlamentar na Assembléia Legislativa de São Paulo parlamentares eleitos no pleito de 2002 - e representantes partidários que ocupam algum tipo de cargo na direção dos partidos PT, PSDB e PFL. Os resultados apontam para um movimento paradoxal: internamente, alguns partidos ampliaram a discussão e criaram instâncias para fomentar o número de candidatas, mas a maioria não se elegeu. Outro paradoxo verificado é que, apesar de algumas parlamentares apresentarem projetos preocupados com a transformação social, muitas ainda continuam fazendo parte da política social vigente e sectária. Os pequenos movimentos de resistência, as imperceptíveis conquistas e transformações podem ser considerados um movimento autônomo porque contêm um elemento revolucionário importante: começam a transformar as relações sociais na micropolítica para, mais tarde, atingir o modelo de exclusão social na macropolítica

This thesis is submitted to an English university and English expressions are used throughout. Foreign words and expressions are italicised except for those accepted in common English use, e.g. the Holy Koran. Principal place names are as appearing in The Times Atlas. Minor place, tribal and family names are italicised and included in the Glossary of Arabic Terms (below). Diacritical marks are omitted throughout. Dates are given for the Common Era (C.E.), and comparative tables of Al Hijra (A.H.) and Common Era years follows the Glossary. Throughout the thesis, the Kingdom means the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and The Prophet means the Prophet Mohammad salla-Hahu alayhi wa- salam ("God bless him and give him peace"). The Majlis Ash-Shura means the Consultative Council, and is referred to as such throughout this thesis.

This project develops extant theories of political affect and relational identification and affinity formation by tracing how the visual images of an understudied archive--American superhero comic books--work to build multiple, alternative, fitful, inchoate, and sometimes radically creative spaces for visions of the political to take shape and develop over time. By analyzing and interpreting the generic superhero phenomenon of origin stories in comic books and by mapping the formal and narrative techniques used to construct origin stories, I show how received understandings of power, order, justice, violence, whiteness, masculinity, and heteronormativity often linger outside of language in an analytically untapped relational space between bodies--the space of political affect. Visual images of superheroes thus do more than take up space within political sign-systems; I argue them as material engines of affect, as engines of potential and usefully critical political identities and affinities. Superhero comic books, a cultural form often disregarded as childish or even ideologically dangerous, are thus recovered in this project as theoretically complex, offering speculative feminisms, anti-racism, and queer temporalities that link these popular objects of visual culture to ongoing traditions of utopianism and foundational revisionism within American political culture.

Resumo: O objetivo desta pesquisa é analisar a implantação da TV Sinal na Assembleia Legislativa do Estado do Paraná, além de identificar mudanças após a sua criação no comportamento dos parlamentares em plenário. Para tanto, foi realizado um levantamento comparativo de dados ao longo da 16ª Legislatura (2007-2010) sobre as atividades internas na Assembleia paranaense. Também foram realizadas entrevistas com profissionais que participaram do projeto de implantação do canal, diretores e ex-diretores da Casa. A conclusão geral é de que, além de dar mais transparência aos trabalhos dos deputados paranaenses, a TV Sinal, inaugurada em dezembro de 2007, estimulou o aumento no número de pronunciamentos em plenário, bem como a presença e participação dos deputados nas atividades legislativas. No entanto, no que se refere aos mecanismos para promover a participação da sociedade nas atividades legislativas, identificamos a necessidade de investimentos nesse aspecto que se encontra deficiente no modelo atual. Dessa forma, concluímos que a televisão legislativa paranaense se destaca pela ênfase na exposição da imagem dos parlamentares em detrimento da aproximação e participação da comunidade na discussão dos assuntos de interesse público.

O presente estudo versa sobre os embates, surgidos a partir da adoção da Lei Fundamental do Império, acerca dos poderes constitucionais e seu impacto sobre a articulação das forças políticas regionais. Acompanhou-se o surgimento, o desenvolvimento, e a tentativa de perpetuação no tempo dos grupos políticos que, disputando os assentos da Assembléia Geral, desejavam moldar Estado e Nação conforme seus interesses. O enfoque foi a Província de Minas Gerais, que ocupava o maior número de assentos na Assembléia Geral, escolhendo-se, como baliza temporal, sua 1ª Legislatura. Parte-se da tese que a interpretação dada à Lei Fundamental do Império foi um importante elemento a determinar as diferenciações identitárias, bem como a composição das alianças que, no interior da Província e da Assembléia Geral, disputavam o mando sobre o Império.
This study concerns the clashes that emerged after the adoption of the Imperial Constitution regarding the constitutional powers, and its impact on the articulation of the regional political forces. It analyzes the origin, the development, and the attempts of self-perpetuation of the political groups that, disputing the seats of the General Assembly, intended to shape the State and the Nation according to their own interests. The focus was the Province of Minas Gerais, which had the largest number of seats on the General Assembly, and the period chosen was its 1st Legislature. The study relies on the thesis that the interpretation of the Imperial Constitution was an important element determining the identitary differentiations, as well as the composition of alliances that, within the Province and the General Assembly, disputed the rule over the Empire.

This thesis presents an interpretivist analysis of institutional development in the English regional assemblies. It presents a history of institutional development in the regions, arriving at a conceptualization of this tier as a site of ‘institutional ambiguity.’ Exploring the theoretical bases of institutions and conducting a thorough critique of the schools of institutionalism, this thesis takes forward the theory of ‘constructivist institutionalism.’ A theoretical framework focussed on the processes of institutional design and change is built from constructivist institutionalism, as is a complementary and coherent methodological package to explore the empirical sites of the West Midlands and North West regional assemblies. The concepts of ‘frames’ and ‘stories’ are set out as interpretivist tools through which the primary interview data is analysed, to capture the development of the democratic institution of representation as it relates to the local government and stakeholder actors involved in these two regional assemblies. This thesis finds actors engaged in interplay between structure and agency while contributing to the processes of institutional design and change. Actors draw together their ideas with the pre-existing institutional context, relating them together in discursive constructions (frames, stories) that underpin their strategic-relational action, which in turn underpins the institutions of the assemblies. Regional representation transpires to mimic local governmental norms due to the dominant influence of the pre-existing context.

This thesis argues for a different approach towards the study of elections, campaigns and political parties than has conventionally been pursued in political and electoral geography. I argue that approaches in electoral geography have neglected the everyday lived experience of elections, and in political geography of recent there has been a distinct lack of consideration of the 'political party'. These issues have not gone unnoticed in either field and so I am answering several calls for renewal. To do this, I theorise campaigns, elections and parties through the Deleuzo-Guattarian (2013a, 2013b) concepts of assemblage and affect, highlighting the themes of people, materials and technology in my analysis. Starting with Labour's 2014 Manchester Conference and ending at their 2015 Brighton Conference, I conducted an ethnographical study of the British Labour Party and its relationship to the 7 May 2015 UK General Election. During this period, I participated in Labour's campaign for Hove in the south coast, interviewed participants of the wider Brighton and Hove Labour Party campaigns, recorded how social media related to the election and the subsequent Labour leadership election and lastly, conducted a discourse analysis. By focusing on the themes of leadership, people and materials through relations and experience, I show that there is a different iteration of the party that is becoming in each moment. I conclude by drawing out some theoretical discussions around assemblage and affect, specifically the notion of the 'abstract machine', arborescent/rhizomatic structures and the 'war machine'. I contribute to both electoral geography and political geography by reconceptualising elections, campaigns and political parties as entangled in a bodied, material, emotional and relational world.

This thesis explores questions of politics and public space through an examination of the experiences of people involved in Occupy protest camps and local officials who were tasked with managing the protests in Eugene, OR and Madison, WI. Using assemblage as an organizing theoretical framework, this work identifies the actors involved in the production of Occupy protest camps and traces the trajectories of two Occupy protests from their beginnings to eviction day. It highlights the role of space in the protests, the ways in which protesters negotiated with local authorities for long-term use of public spaces previously prohibited by law, and some of the factors that contributed to the eviction of the protest camps. Finally, it seeks to reframe the debate on public space and conceptualizes public space as an assemblage that is continually made, unmade, and remade through the interactions of diverse, heterogeneous actors.
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Conselho Nacional de Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico - CNPq
Este trabalho procurou investigar a presença e a trajetória política das mulheres nos legislativos estaduais do Brasil eleitas no pleito de 2010, com o objetivo de identificar fatores que são preponderantes para a construção de suas carreiras políticas, a partir das redes de contatos que favorecem a entrada e a permanência das mulheres no campo político. Paralelo a isso, analisou-se a existência ou não de diferenças em função da diversidade regional das parlamentares brasileiras. Desse modo, adotou-se como hipótese que as parlamentares eleitas em 2010 possuemcaracterísticas em comum em termos sócio-econômicos e apresentam carreiras políticas similares, fato que foi confirmado na pesquisa. Neste sentido, a presença destas representantes, devido ao acúmulo de capital político, impulsionou a carreira consolidada das parlamentares. A análise dos dados da pesquisa ocorreu através do estudo das trajetórias das deputadas, observando seus perfis através de informações extraídas das páginas eletrônicas das Assembleias Legislativas, Tribunal Superior Eleitoral, Blogs das deputadas estaduais, bem como a análise descritiva e comparativa das parlamentares. Por fim, diante das análises realizadas cabe apontar algumas questões para serem apreciadas com pesquisas futuras, relacionadas às carreiras políticas femininas. Essas se situam, principalmente, no fato de existir um número pequeno de mulheres eleitas aos Parlamentos Regionais (poder supranacional). Isso configura um aspecto de significativa influência para a homogeneidade nas carreias políticas apresentadas neste trabalho. Ou, como indica a bibliografia sobre a carreira política, a homogeneidade nas carreiras políticas está voltada ao fato dessas parlamentares, mesmo sendo mulheres, pertencerem a uma elite política.
This study sought to investigate the presence and women's political career in the state of Brazil elected in the 2010 legislative elections, in order to identify factors that are crucial to building their political careers, from the contact networks that favor the entry and the permanence of women in the political field. Parallel to this, we analyzed the existence of differences depending on the regional diversity of Brazilian parliamentarians. Thus, we adopted as hypothesis the notion that specific characteristics of women who are in electoral politics have a similar political career between state legislators, a fact that was confirmed in the survey. In this sense, the presence of these representatives due to the accumulation of political capital, boosted consolidated parliamentary career. The analysis of the survey data occurred by analyzing the trajectories of MPs, watching their profiles through information extracted from the electronic pages of the Legislative Assemblies, the Superior Electoral Court, Blogs of state deputies, as well as descriptive and comparative analysis of parliamentarians. Finally, on the analyzes it is to point out some issues for consideration in future research related to women's political careers. These are located mainly in the fact that there is a small number of women elected to regional parliaments (supranational power). This sets up an aspect of significant influence to the homogeneity in political carreias presented in this paper. Or, as indicated by the literature on the political career, the homogeneity in political careers is facing the fact that these parliamentarians, even as women belonging to a political elite.

This thesis analyses the Public Participation Programme in the South African constitution-making process. The central premise of the thesis is that there is a link between participatory lawmaking processes and legitimate democracy. Accordingly, the drafting of the constitution and other law requires public participation in order to be accepted and recognised. Jurgen Habermas' latest theory (Between Facts and Norms) is used in this analysis. Jurgen Habermas has developed a new theoretical paradigm that defines the tension that exists between the coercive factual force of law ("facticity") and the recognition of law ("validity").

Calls for more female participation in politics have featured strongly in developed and developing countries since 1975 when the UN made women’s issues a priority. Ghanaian society’s underlying patriarchal structure has made some progress towards gender equity in politics. Whilst there has been a significant improvement in levels of female participation and representation rates, targets have not been reached and the least amount of progress has taken place in local government. The thesis draws upon theories of gender and development (GAD) that emphasises on gender relations in development and proposed the empowerment of women as central to gender equality. Also, social capital underpins this study in arguing that although social capital tends to be accessed differently by men and women, and that culturally men have more established ways of networking widely, there is potential for women to strategically garner social capital in ways that are beneficial to contesting for political seats. Interviews undertaken individually with 40 women in district assembly (DA) positions, and focus groups of 40 men and 10 women campaigners from 4 zones in the country were transcribed, categorised and coded using Nvivo version 10 software. From this qualitative data, the enabling and precluding factors of participation in local government by women in Ghana were analysed and ranked according to the prevalence in the data. The results identified that enabling factors’ themes were Individual Motivational Strategy, Community Support, Civil Society Support, Family Support and Campaign Strategy. Precluding factors’ themes were Barriers, Challenging Factors, and Discouraging Factors. The issues surrounding gender equity in Ghanaian politics and governance have been comprehensively described against this backdrop of explanations from people with experience of campaigning, taking up official positions, and in some cases withdrawing from politics or competing against women. v Whilst patriarchal beliefs still abound for aspiring and serving female politicians, some candidates have been able to achieve high levels of male support, and many feel voters’ support has come from constituents’ belief that representation by a woman is their best hope of having development addressing women’s issues. The findings are potentially useful to future aspiring female politicians in Ghana, and other stakeholders committed to encouraging and supporting women with the overall aim of achieving gender equity.

This dissertation is an exploratory longitudinal case study of Black political effectiveness within state legislative structures. More specifically, it examines the development of a Black legislative base during an era of emerging control by the Republican Party. Chapters I and II serve as introductory chapters by outlining the basis for the study and historical overviews of the role Blacks have played in North Carolina's politics. Chapter III sketches North Carolina's governmental structure while Chapter IV discusses the crucial issues surrounding the 1984 reapportionment plans. Chapter V identifies the criteria for effective state representation and Chapter VI discusses how effective North Carolina's African-American legislators have been. It is hoped that this study is a scholarly contribution to discussions that will bring us closer to effective political power.

This thesis builds on the existing constituency representation (or dyadic representation) literature that assesses how closely elected officials represent their constituents' views in their official roles. While much research has been completed on this type of representation in presidential systems, much less has been completed in parliamentary systems. There are typically high levels of constituency representation in presidential systems, but that does not mean that there is no presence of it in parliamentary systems. Following the research design of a study of constituency representation completed at the national level in Canada that found some evidence of this type of representation, this study seeks to replicate that study at the provincial level in Alberta to see if evidence can be found at that level also, thus adding to the broader comparative literature on constituency representation.
Cette thèse se fonde sur la littérature existante de la représentation de circonscription électorale (ou la représentation dyadic) qui évalue comment étroitement les élus représentent les avis de leurs constituants dans leurs rôles officiels. Tandis que beaucoup de recherche a été complétée sur ce type de représentation dans des systèmes présidentiels, beaucoup a moins été complétée dans des systèmes parlementaires. Il y a les typiquement hauts niveaux de représentation de circonscription électorale dans des systèmes présidentiels, mais cela ne signifie pas qu'il n'y a aucune présence de cela dans des systèmes parlementaires. Après le design de recherche d'une étude de représentation de circonscription électorale complétée au niveau national au Canada qui a trouvé un peu d'évidence de ce type de représentation, cette étude cherche à reproduire cette étude au niveau provincial en Alberta pour voir si l'évidence peut être trouvée à ce niveau aussi, ajoutant ainsi à la littérature comparative plus large sur la représentation de circonscription électorale.

Despite their explicit intent to speak with a single voice in foreign affairs, EU member states manage to do so only some of the time. Which are the factors that determine whether or not the EU member states successfully coordinate their positions in the international arena? To find out, I propose to examine the voting behaviour of the EU member states inside the United Nations General Assembly; a forum in which, notwithstanding heterogeneous policy preferences, they intend to coordinate their votes and are thus subject to coordination pressures. This means that for divisive resolutions, each member state must try to reconcile its national policy preference with the objective of casting a unified vote. I hypothesise that the balance a member state strikes generally depends on how important it views the issue at hand, how powerful it is, what type of relationship it maintains with the EU and under certain conditions, what type of relationship it maintains with US. I further argue that the balance is expected to tip in favour of EU unity when increasing the collective bargaining power by working together becomes a tangible objective. By adopting a multi-method approach, the thesis shows that the EU member states make a genuine and continuous effort to coordinate their votes inside the General Assembly. Significantly, the thesis illustrates that member states, at times, are able to override their heterogeneous national policy preference in order to stand united. I conclude by connecting the findings with the constructivist/rationalist debate, which juxtaposes foreign policy cooperation according to the logic of appropriateness with the logic of consequence. The results obtained have implications not only for the study of EU voting behaviour in the United Nations, but also for theoretical debate underlying it.

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This provision tralhado, as an object of religious studies with emphasis in Sociology, aims to present the church the Assemblies of God and their insertion aspects of party politics in the state of Goiás, with historical period from 1980 to 2010. For that, had the significant contribution of the theoretical apparatus of domination of Max Weber and the symbolic power Pierre Bourdieu, proposing as these joints are established in the religious landscape, especially with regard to political and religious activities. Continuing the text is split into three main moments of the research proposes the history of the Pentecostal movement and consequently how this phenomenon gaining strength in Brazil to achieve performance space in the political arena. Continuing the research object enters the picture, tracing the historical data of the Assemblies of God in Brazil and in the State of Goiás, as well as its forms and administrative strategies. The analysis continues in the third moment is specifically presented to party politics in the ADs, prioritizing the action of leadership related church policy goiano ground, prioritizing the three decades drawn the theme, from the first moment of access ADs in policy, through changing assembleiano pentecostal behavior on such practices to the final conquest of the political field. The aim of this study was to understand how the Assembly of God church, directed by its influential leaders, migrates from anonymity to the political leadership, it is therefore decisive in any elections.
Este tralhado disposto, enquanto objeto das Ciências da Religião com destaque em Sociologia, propõe a apresentar as igrejas Assembleias de Deus e seus aspectos de inserção na política partidária no Estado de Goiás, com recorte histórico de 1980 a 2010. Para isso, contou com a contribuição significativa dos aparatos teóricos sobre dominação de Max Weber e o poder simbólico em Pierre Bourdieu, propondo como essas articulações se estabelecem no cenário religioso, principalmente no que tange às atividades político-religiosas. Em continuidade ao texto, é fracionado em três grandes momentos da pesquisa que propõe a história do movimento pentecostal e consequentemente, como este fenômeno ganha força no território brasileiro até conseguir espaço de atuação na arena política. Em continuidade, o objeto de pesquisa entra em cena, traçando os dados históricos das Assembleias de Deus no Brasil e no Estado de Goiás, como também suas formas e estratégias administrativas. A análise dá continuidade no terceiro momento onde é apresentado especificamente a política partidária nas ADs, priorizando a ação da liderança da igreja relacionada a política em solo goiano, tendo como prioridade as três décadas traçadas pela temática, desde o primeiro momento de acesso das ADs na política, passando pela mudança do comportamento do pentecostal assembleiano sobre tais práticas até a conquista definitiva do campo político. O objetivo deste trabalho foi perceber como a igreja Assembleia de Deus, direcionada pelos seus líderes influentes , migra do anonimato para o protagonismo político, sendo, portanto, decisiva em qualquer período eleitoral.

This dissertation argues that conventional analysis of business-state relations fails to capture the nuances of networks shaping Egypt's neoliberal reform experience. Instead, it posits that both the 'business-state' and 'domestic-international' divides should be reconsidered - with categories better understood based on the nature of individuals' socio-economic capital (Bourdieu 1986). I argue that only by using such a framework can we make visible insidious forms of resource capture and economic exclusion. On the macro-level, this dissertation tells a story of elite resource capture that occurred alongside Egypt's experience of economic liberalization. While particular attention is paid to reforms of the 2000s, I also trace developments to roots laid by international partnerships and platforms established during the first IMF-led reform project of the Mubarak era in the 1990s. On the micro-level, this is a story of some of the central networks of 'globalizers' (Springborg and Henry 2010) - or individuals who rose to become chief mediators for internationally funded initiatives to empower Egypt's 'private sector.' I examine their ascent in the industrial policy-making space during the tenure of the first businessman cabinet member, Rashid Mohammed Rashid (2004-2011). I focus on the role of these networks in capturing the central 'business development' programs initiated alongside the reforms of the 2000s, which I argue served as platforms for accessing both immediate rent streams, as well as for shaping industrial policies to gain future rents. I then follow a handful of these individuals as they secure one highly controversial industrial policy: the Qualifying Industrial Zones (QIZ) trade agreement between Egypt, Israel and the US. In particular, I highlight the web of individuals and organizations mobilized in the process, providing close examination of the small cohort standing at the center of negotiations. I draw from targeted interviews and participant observation conducted over three years of fieldwork and triangulate findings with printed sources including corporate press releases, leaked US embassy cables and evaluations by international development organizations.

Democratic innovations focusing on increased citizen engagement is believed to be important since they have the potential to revitalize representative democracy. However, criticism has also been raised claiming that democratic innovations only have a facade of deepening democracy. This study seeks to investigate the preparatory phase of the implementation of the Citizens’ Assembly in Knivsta municipality. Focusing on the intentions and aims of the politicians and public officials behind the implementation to investigate if previously recognized problems and criticism raised by the deliberative systems approach can be identified and answered to. In order to realise this, semi-structured interviews were conducted and complemented with documents from the public administration. The criticism raised by the deliberative systems approach acts a backbone to the study, whilst also serving a function to identify the problems and understand the intentions. The study finds that the intention and aims of the implementation is for the Citizens’ Assembly to be a genuine tool to deepen democracy. In addition, one of the problems found in previous research could clearly not be identified. The extent to which the other two problems can be identified is discussionable. Further studies are recommended to increase the understanding of how the intentions behind an initiative influences its outcome.

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento CientÃfico e TecnolÃgico
A pesquisa tem o objetivo de observar, no plano estadual cearense, se a aÃÃo polÃtica dos deputados estaduais da Assembleia Legislativa era direcionada aos municÃpios nos quais obtiveram votos e como se dava a relaÃÃo deles com o partido. Em ambos os casos, o polÃtico parlamentar cumpriria seu mandato tendo em vista se reeleger na eleiÃÃo seguinte, seja ao mesmo cargo no legislativo, seja a outro cargo polÃtico. Para viabilizar a pesquisa foi necessÃrio, como perspectiva metodolÃgica, perceber a importÃncia do espaÃo geogrÃfico, ou seja, importÃncia analÃtica da geografia polÃtica para compreender quais as demandas sugeridas aos nossos representantes atravÃs das estratÃgias adotadas pelos candidatos na Assembleia Legislativa e, assim, perceber como a representaÃÃo e a representatividade polÃtica sÃo exercidas na aÃÃo legislativa estadual. Elaborei, ao final, tipologias para interpretar a distribuiÃÃo de votos dos deputados estaduais. No resultado, temos a formaÃÃo de circunscriÃÃes informais e a presenÃa de bases eleitorais territoriais que conduzem a aÃÃo polÃtica de grande parte dos deputados pesquisados.
The research aims to observe whether the political actions of the representatives at the Legislative Assembly of the State of Cearà were directed to the municipalities in which they obtained most of their vote and how was their relationship with their political parties. Politicians fulfill their term of office in order to be granted a new mandate in the next election. This mandate might be a renewed one at the Legislative Assembly or a new mandate at another political office. The political geography of the Assembly elections was analyzed to understand the relationship between vote distribution and the type o parliamentary activity. A typology of vote distribution was elaborated leading to the conclusion that there are informal territorial constituencies and that most politicians guide their actions towards these constituencies.

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Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES
Faced with the civil and military ambivalence of nuclear energy, its use by various international actors has become synonymous not only with development tools, but also with mistrust and global danger. In this context, Brazil had appeared to be a threat to international security, for not signing the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) in 1968, and for having a nuclear program that sought to achieve full control of its fuel cycle since 1953. This work aims to understand how the nuclear issue became a matter included in the 1988 Constitution, taking into account the different actors involved in this process, their performance and the interests that guided the acceptance or non-acceptance of the Brazilian nuclear program . The debate about the use of this technology reaches nuances that go beyond simple ideological and party questions, crossing a pretended "national interest", placed in a spectrum that can be understood from the Brazilian demand for technological capacity restricted to a club of powers until the possibility of imposing itself as a military agent with greater military power. Being placed as a sine qua non condition for the chance of Brazil to project itself as an influential country in the international system, the decision-making process regarding the acceptance of this type of energy in the 1988 Constitution runs through a complex international context. Thus, it is intended to contribute with the studies about the Brazilian nuclear program in the context of redemocratization. The work is based on the analysis of primary sources and the rich literature on the Brazilian nuclear program, on legislative behavior and non-proliferation of nuclear weapons. As a conclusion, the thesis hypothesizes that the nuclear imaginary was an element belonging to the State project that was proposed in the 1987/1988 Constituent, considering Brazil as a nation that should be independent and technologically advanced compared to other countries.
Diante da ambivalência civil e militar da energia nuclear, sua utilização por diversos atores internacionais tornou-se sinônimo não somente de instrumento de desenvolvimento, mas também de desconfiança e perigo global. Nesse contexto, o Brasil afigurou-se como uma ameaça para a segurança internacional, por não assinar o Tratado de Não-Proliferação de Armas Nucleares em 1968, e por ter um programa nuclear que ambicionava alcançar o pleno controle de seu ciclo de combustível, já desde 1953. Este trabalho objetiva compreender como a questão nuclear se tornou um tema incluído na Constituição de 1988, levando em consideração os diversos atores participantes desse processo, seu desempenho e os interesses que nortearam a aceitação ou não do programa nuclear brasileiro. O debate sobre a utilização dessa tecnologia atinge nuances que vão além de simples questões ideológicas e partidárias, perpassando um pretenso “interesse nacional”, colocado em um espectro que pode ser entendido desde a demanda brasileira por capacidade tecnológica restrita a um clube de potências até a possibilidade de se impor como agente militar com maior poder bélico. Sendo colocado como condição sine qua non para a possibilidade de projeção do Brasil enquanto país influente no sistema internacional, o processo decisório sobre aceitação desse tipo de energia na Constituição de 1988 resvala um contexto internacional complexo. Dessa forma, pretende-se contribuir com os estudos sobre o programa nuclear brasileiro no contexto da redemocratização. O trabalho baseia-se na análise de fontes primárias e da rica literatura sobre o programa nuclear brasileiro, sobre o comportamento legislativo e sobre a não- proliferação de armas nucleares. Como conclusão, a dissertação lança a hipótese de que o imaginário nuclear foi elemento pertencente ao projeto de país que se propunha na Constituinte de 1987/1988, ao pensar o Brasil como nação que deveria ser independente e avançada tecnologicamente frente aos demais países.

The PhD dissertation here presented concerns the political significance and function of the theatre and the sanctuary of Dionysos Eleutherios in Athens in a chronological period which runs from the fifth to the first century B.C. Its primary aim is to investigate the practice of displaying inscriptions in the area of the theatre, in order to recognize the ideological value of the documents there exposed and, consequently, to understand the socio-cultural and political meaning of this specific site as an appropriate place for the publication of official texts within the city. This problem is the focus of the first part of the dissertation, which comprises a classification of all the inscriptions displayed in the area of the sanctuary of Dionysos during the Classical and Hellenistic periods. The selection and identification of the documents has been carefully conducted on the basis of the excavation data (fundamental for this research, though not always accurate in recording the precise provenance) and an analysis of their content (in those cases where the texts are not too fragmentary). It should be noted that we are dealing with texts which are often incomplete while other inscriptions which may once have been displayed in the area of the theatre have not survived. However the study of all the surviving inscriptions located in the site – together with an appreciation of each of them in its proper cultural and historical context – has enabled me to investigate in depth the political use and value of the theatre. I drew up a catalogue deploying categories to classify the different inscriptions (for example, decrees, catalogues, dedications, etc…) before arranging the texts within each section into chronological order. The most represented categories are honorific decrees and dedications, exhibited in the area to express gratitude to benefactors or citizens whose activities were linked in various ways to the sacral or theatrical practice of the site and whose behavior served as a model for Athenians. This catalogue provides the following information for each inscription: physical description, provenance, conservation status, dating, text with apparatus, current published editions, brief comment on the most remarkable aspects (concerning palaeography, language, chronology and content) of the document. The readings have been verified thorough autopsy of the texts at the Epigraphical Museum or at the Archaeological Site of the Acropolis. This compilation is complimented by two more sections concerning other inscriptions found in the area of the sanctuary whose original setting in the site is either plausible (section VI) or has to be definitively excluded (section VII); the reasons for the inclusion of each document in these two last sections are detailed in the accompanying notes. Some of the decrees collected in the catalogue explicitly indicate that the decisions handed down by the city were taken during an assembly held in the theatre of Dionysos. This theme lies at the heart of the political significance of the theatre and is the central concern of the second part of the dissertation. The political use of the theatre is attested for in many cities of the Greek world and must be analyzed with an understanding of the diverse values and functions which typified theatrical buildings in Greek society. However, this phenomenon becomes more complex in Athens, because of the presence in the city of a dedicated ekklesiasterion on top of the Pnyx, whose construction saw three different phases between the fifth and the fourth century B.C. and whose activity is documented in the written sources. The custom of assembling in the theatre – seldom documented in the fifth century before becoming more frequently attested to from the second half of the fourth century – is testified not only for the theatre of Dionysos, but also for that of Munichia at Piraeus, which was similarly used for the meeting of the ekklesia in this period. Therefore the second part of the thesis provides a detailed, diachronic examination of all the literary and epigraphic Greek texts mentioning the use of these two theatres as assembly places. Here the purpose is to investigate which factors determined why Athenians chose these sites for assemblies over the Pnyx and to understand how across time the theatre gradually came to supplant the role of the ekklesiasterion. In this regard, particular attention has been paid to the political use of the theatre in the fifth century – a time when the Pnyx was still in use as an assembly place, and the theatre had yet to assume its current monumental form in stone. The literary passages are analyzed individually, while the inscriptions are tabulated according to the formula used to indicate the place of the meetings. The evidence examined include a far more up-to-date survey than previous studies – which though few remain essential – thanks especially to the excavations conducted in the area of the Agora by the American School of Classical Studies in Athens from the 1930s. These sources are analyzed in parallel with an appreciation of the archaeological data pertaining to the Pnyx and the theatre of Dionysos: these data complement the evidence of the written sources, providing information about the shape and size of these sites and, consequently, on the number of people who could be accommodated there. In conclusion, the analysis of the broader material evidence together with historical sources suggests that – while political and ideological contexts remained always significant – changing practical needs after the fifth century were crucial to the changing location of political assemblies.
La tesi di dottorato qui presentata riguarda il significato e la funzione politica del teatro e al santuario di Dioniso Eleutereo ad Atene in un lasso cronologico intercorrente tra il V e il I secolo a.C. Scopo principale della ricerca è quello di analizzare la consuetudine di esporre epigrafi nell’area del teatro, al fine di comprendere il valore ideologico dei documenti ivi pubblicati e, di rimando, di approfondire il significato socio-culturale e politico che tale sito acquisì nel tempo in quanto spazio scelto all’interno della città per la pubblicazione di testi ufficiali. Questo tema costituisce il fulcro della prima parte della dissertazione, che comprende una catalogazione di tutte le iscrizioni pubblicate nell’area del santuario di Dioniso durante le età classica ed ellenistica. La selezione e l’identificazione dei documenti epigrafici raccolti è stata meticolosamente effettuata sulla base dei dati di scavo (fondamentali per questa ricerca, ma non sempre precisi nel registrare con esattezza il luogo di rinvenimento) e l’analisi del loro contenuto (nei casi in cui il testo non è troppo frammentario). È necessario porre l’attenzione sul fatto che tali testi documenti sono spesso lacunosi e che costituiscono un campione certamente limitato rispetto all’insieme di tutte le iscrizioni che potrebbero essere state pubblicate nell’area del teatro nel periodo in oggetto. Ad ogni modo, lo studio complessivo di tutte le epigrafi superstiti collocate nel sito – associato ad un riesame di ognuno di questi testi nel contesto storico-culturale che gli è proprio – ha consentito di approfondire l’uso e il significato politico del teatro. Le iscrizioni sono classificate nel catalogo in base alla tipologia epigrafica dei testi in diverse sezioni (decreti, cataloghi, dediche ecc.), all’interno delle quali i documenti sono organizzati in ordine cronologico. Le categorie epigrafiche più rappresentate sono i decreti e le dediche onorarie, ivi esposti per esprimere gratitudine verso personaggi legati a vario titolo all’attività teatrale o cultuale svolta nel sito e il cui lodevole comportamento nei confronti della città diventa modello per gli Ateniesi. Per ogni epigrafe inserita nel catalogo si forniscono le seguenti informazioni: descrizione e tipologia del manufatto, provenienza, stato di conservazione, datazione, testo con apparato critico, edizioni, commento puntuale sugli aspetti paleografici, testuali, linguistici e storico-cronologici ritenuti più rilevanti per l’esegesi del testo. Le iscrizioni, conservate nel Museo Epigrafico di Atene o nel sito archeologico dell’Acropoli, sono state riesaminate tutte autopticamente. Il catalogo è inoltre completato da due sezioni, in cui sono riunite altre epigrafi trovate nell’area del santuario, la cui pertinenza ad esso è tuttavia solo ipotizzabile (sezione VI) o da escludere (sezione VII); le ragioni che hanno determinato l’inclusione di tali iscrizioni in queste due ultime sezioni sono chiarite nelle note che corredano i singoli testi. Alcuni dei decreti raccolti nel catalogo indicano esplicitamente che la decisione varata dalla città e registrata per iscritto sulla stele fu presa durante un’assemblea tenuta nel teatro di Dioniso. Questo aspetto è molto significativo per l’indagine sulla valenza politica del teatro e rappresenta il tema centrale della seconda parte della tesi. L’uso assembleare del teatro è attestato per molte città del mondo greco e deve essere analizzato alla luce di quella pluralità di valenze e funzioni che contraddistinsero la natura stessa dell’edificio teatrale. Tuttavia, l’analisi di questo fenomeno per il caso ateniese è particolarmente interessante, poiché la città era di fatto dotata di un proprio ekklesiasterion sulla collina della Pnice, la cui costruzione vide tre diverse fasi edilizie tra il V e il IV secolo a.C. e la cui attività è documentata dalle fonti. La consuetudine di riunirsi nel teatro – raramente attestata nel V secolo a.C. e poi sempre più di frequente a partire dalla seconda metà del IV secolo a.C. – è testimoniata non solo per il teatro di Dioniso, ma anche per quello di Munichia al Pireo, che fu analogamente usato per le riunioni dell’ekklesia in quel periodo. Dunque la seconda parte della tesi è dedicata ad un dettagliato esame diacronico di tutti i testi letterari ed epigrafici che menzionano l’uso di uno di questi due teatri come luogo di assemblea. Il fine è di indagare sui fattori che determinarono la scelta di questi luoghi per le riunioni al posto della Pnice e di comprendere in che modo nel tempo il teatro arrivò a sostituire il ruolo dell’ekklesiasterion cittadino. In questo senso, è analizzato con particolare attenzione l’uso politico del teatro nel V secolo a.C., periodo in cui la Pnice era ancora in uso come luogo di assemblea e il teatro doveva ancora assumere una forma monumentale. I passi letterari sono analizzati individualmente, mentre le iscrizioni sono catalogate in base alla formula utilizzata per indicare il luogo di svolgimento dell’assemblea. La quantità dei documenti epigrafici che attestano lo svolgimento di riunioni politiche nel teatro è notevolmente più consistente rispetto a quella presentata negli studi precedenti – che non sono numerosi, ma restano essenziali per questa ricerca – grazie soprattutto al consistente incremento di materiale dovuto agli scavi condotti nell’area dell’agorà dall’American School of Classical Studies in Athens dagli anni Trenta del Novecento. Le testimonianze epigrafiche e letterarie sono esaminate parallelamente ai dati archeologici che riguardano la Pnice e il teatro di Dioniso, dati che completano le notizie desumibili dalle fonti scritte, fornendo informazioni su forma e dimensioni dell’auditorium della Pnice e del theatron e, di conseguenza, sul numero di persone che poteva essere ospitato in tali spazi. In conclusione, l’analisi delle fonti e dei dati archeologici induce a concludere che – pur essendo rilevanti i motivi politici e ideologici – si deve dare il giusto peso a diversi fattori di ordine pratico che, dopo il V secolo a.C., furono senz’altro determinanti per il cambiamento del luogo di svolgimento delle assemblee.

Elected multi-party assemblies have existed in Africa on average for no more than two decades. Consolidating democracy and improving the lives of ordinary citizens demands guardian parliaments. Parliaments are comprised predominantly of politicians and, interconnected with citizens and executives, are perceived as core institutions of representative democracies. This dissertation seeks to contribute to a better understanding of African multiparty parliaments and their role in consolidating democracy. The study seeks to comprehend the links between citizens and their elected parliaments in 18 African countries, in the process attempting to predict the prospects of these new democracies. It also focuses on the Assembly of Mozambique to attempt an understanding of the evolution, capacity and functioning of an emerging parliament. The study investigates the perceptions of Mozambican civil leaders toward their parliament, and it looks at the perceptions of Mozambican parliamentarians concerning their roles and their relations with the electorate, and concerning the Assembly’s capacity and powers. This is critical to understanding how democracy has been and will be exercised, since parliamentarians are at the forefront of the process. Each parliament has distinctive characteristics. However, there are common features based on their age and origin. The development of the Mozambican Assembly since the monoparty regime illustrates the challenges and achievements that African parliaments have undergone in the transition to democracy. The findings reveal that African citizens distinguish between presidents and parliaments, which is important given the legacy in Africa of strong executives led by dominant presidents. They also reveal that citizens value the gains made by the multiparty regimes and that parliaments as lawmakers are preferred to presidents. In most countries surveyed, citizens, on average, gave positive evaluations of their parliaments, especially concerning their trustworthiness. Political characteristics outweigh socio-economic status in influencing how citizens perceived parliaments. Party allegiance and perception of electoral fairness are the factors that most influenced how citizens perceived their parliaments. Interviews with Mozambican MPs revealed their frustration over the influence of the Assembly over the national budget. In the MPs’ opinions, direct foreign aid to the budget reduced parliament’s role to that of a rubber stamp, weakening the role of MPs. Mozambican civic leaders saw parliament as an indispensable and critical institution, and they expressed frustration with the extreme party-centricity of MPs, which is perceived as normal by MPs. Distrust between these groups reinforces the sentiment among ruling party members that the party deserves protection. In democracies, MPs from different parties are political opponents and not enemies. In Mozambique, the transition from enemy to adversary is not yet complete. While fragile, parliament has been the only space in Mozambican society where political parties can interact.

This thesis focuses on liberal peace building in the DRC. The thesis takes a critical approach which emphasises local agencies and their engagements with liberal peace building. However, it seeks to bring this critique back to the institutions with which liberal peace building is preoccupied, by focusing on the hidden local that operates within these institutions. This approach seeks to give new meaning to processes of institution building without rendering institutions irrelevant as a top-down approach. Focusing on the first legislature of the Congolese Third Republic (2006-2011) this thesis provides a case study of how local agencies consume liberal democracy within the National Assembly, and make it their own. It discusses current liberal peace building practices as a process of mutual disengagement, in which both the local and liberal intervention seek to disengage from each other. Although this results in a lack of legitimacy of the peace building project both locally as well as with liberal interventions, it also creates hybrid space in which local agencies consume liberal democracy. The thesis conceptualises these local agencies as being convivial, in other words, they are enabled by people's relations. The thesis therefore focuses on MPs relations with their electorate, as well as with the executive and other MPs in their party or ruling coalition. In through these interactions local agencies consume liberal democracy – it is accepted, rejected, diverted, substituted, etc. The thesis concludes that through these practices of consumption local agencies negotiate liberal democracy. The liberal democratic framework is kept intact, but it is not enabled to function as foreseen, because local agencies are responsive to a moral matrix of the father-family. However, the liberal democratic framework itself provides new tools through which local agencies also renegotiate the unwritten rules of the moral matrix of the father-family.

This thesis focuses on one of the least acclaimed novels in Thomas Pynchon’s canon, Vineland. It was reviewed with disappointment by critics like Brad Leithauser, who writes that Vineland falters “chiefly through its failure in any significant degree to extend or improve upon what the author has done before.” I argue against such a reading, and position Vineland as a critical turning point for Pynchon’s work in which his articulation of the relationship between humans and nonhumans is dramatically refigured. I do this by reconsidering the history of American countercultural politics presented in Vineland in two distinct ways. First, attending to Pynchon’s critical interest in landscapes and urban spaces, I argue that the novel’s histories should be read as conceptual objects, materially coded into the landscape in such a way that they speak through these landscapes. Second, continuing to focus on ways in which space and materiality function in this novel, I draw out the nonhuman actors at work in the narrative in order to demonstrate a shift in Pynchon’s conceptualization of the relationship between what he often refers to as the animate and inanimate worlds. While his earlier novels posit an inanimate world that is threatening to humans, Vineland’s human-nonhuman dynamic is far more entangled in terms of its investment in how these actors function in assembly with each other. I pay particular attention to what Jane Bennett calls “agentic assemblages,” groupings of human and nonhuman materialities—a storm or a power grid, a city or a bioregion—that function together to author the spaces that they occupy in this novel. At stake here is a refiguring of historical agency as the product of a web of competing human and nonhuman discursive strategies. I argue that the novel’s narrative politics is one in which nonhumans have an authorial role, and that its form repeats this politics by deploying a spatial and discursive navigational strategy for human actors living in a world which is fundamentally nonanthropocentric. Through this narrative politics, Vineland emerges as a major contribution to late-20th century critical thought on spatiality, political ecology, materialist philosophy, and narrative theory.

This thesis investigates the influence of business on the public policymaking process in the United States. A framework is proposed for categorizing policymaking contexts and mechanisms of influence, synthesized from previous literature on structural versus institutional power, automatic versus instrumental influence, arenas of power, and on the opportunity structures pertaining to distinct varieties of capitalism. Much of the literature on business' influence on policy performs analyses at the corporation level, resulting in the limited consideration of firms as formal-legal entities, as rational "black-box" actors, or as ensembles of resources. This thesis proposes an assemblage-theoretic approach to conceptualizing the firm and its position within political institutions and political-economic structures. It is argued that firms' preferences and capacities for influence are properties emergent from the extrinsic relations among actors and resources within the firm, as well as from firms' extrinsic relations with other actors in broader structural and institutional networks. This framework is demonstrated through an analysis of the Department of Energy's Loan Guarantee Program (LGP), including an institutional and structural history of the program, a quantitative analysis of the program's portfolio, and a qualitative analysis of two high-profile cases: Tesla and Solyndra. The qualitative analysis illustrates the instrumentalization of automatic pathways of influence, the transformation of transactional mechanisms into relational pathways, and the interaction of formal and informal pathways. The multivariate regression analyses show a significant positive relationship between lobbying and loan size, reinforcing the notion that relational pathways are instrumentalized effectively by firms at the stage of distribution. Political contributions were not found to be statistically significant, but were negatively associated with loan size, suggesting that the impact of contributions may be indirect through their transformation into relational pathways over time. It is proposed that additional emergent properties captured by the mapping of firm assemblages, such as mediated relational pathways, may be modeled using the framework developed and quantified using network analysis. It is argued that the conception of firms as assemblages comprising larger institutional and structural networks is a promising inroad to future study of business' influence on policymaking, with broader implications for policy studies and political economy.

It is indeed strange that the Assembly of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), composed of all the present 183 member States, should have no powers in connection with the principal functions of the Organization (that is, the formulation of Standards and Recommended Practices); nor any over the appointment and creation of the Organization's principal officers and sub-organs.
Stranger still is the fact that even the little and insignificant powers that this Assembly might possess can be easily and constitutionally/conventionally "usurped", or interfered with, by the limited 33-member Council of the Organization.
Much more puzzling is the fact that this limited membership Council, which is normally supposed to be answerable to the Assembly, runs the Organization's entire business exclusively as it sees fit: Without the remaining 150 States having any means whatsoever of checking it.
The result of this strange arrangement has been that the majority of States simply cannot contribute to the advancement of the international aviation cause as they might have: had the universal organ had the voice and say that it now lacks.
The entire constitutional and political set-up of ICAO can hardly be justified in both the Schools of Democracy and of its corollary, the Supremacy of the Assemblies of international organizations.
A serious and meaningful re-evaluation of the ICAO framework and working methods to remedy the anomaly is therefore called for in the present study.

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The theological teaching in the Assemblies of God began in the midst of the division of groups, who defended the formal education and who disagreed with the application of this scientific teaching modality. In 2011 the Assembly of God did 100 years of existence, and in the 2000s there was an increased demand for courses in Theology, as a mandatory and necessary tool for development within the institution of the believer as a minister of the Gospel. The Assembly of God had received the interest of researchers, who presented works about the institution, but not about the education in that Institution. This work search to offers a preliminary contribution to the institution and to a better understanding of that Christian denomination in the Brazilian society.
O ensino teológico nas assembleias de Deus começou em meio à divisão de grupos, dos que defendiam o ensino formal e os do que não concordavam com a aplicação desta modalidade de ensino. No ano de 2011 a Assembleia de Deus fez 100 anos de existência, e na década de 2000 houve uma procura acentuada em cursos de teologia, por ser uma ferramenta necessária e obrigatória para o desenvolvimento do fiel dentro da instituição como ministro do evangelho, o que traduzindo seria o mesmo que a promoção dentro de uma empresa, subindo na hierarquia. A Assembleia de Deus despertou o interesse de pesquisadores, havendo muitos trabalhos desenvolvidos sobre a instituição. Mas falta acúmulo sobre como tem se dado a educação nas Assembleias de Deus. Um dos métodos de pesquisa foi o da pesquisa bibliográfica e as referências utilizadas na pesquisa são bem conhecidas no meio acadêmico como: Max Weber, Peter Berger, Paul Freston, Antônio Gouveia de Mendonça, entre outros. O levantamento desses trabalhos, relacionados à educação e a Assembleia de Deus no Brasil, possibilita comparações, oferecendo resultados e divisando tendências. Este trabalho apresenta, assim, uma breve história da Assembleia de Deus, fundação, implantação e desenvolvimento, propondo por onde realmente começou essa instituição eclesiástica e principalmente a classe social que teve maior participação em sua gênese na história brasileira. Após o levantamento histórico, destacamos a análise das pesquisas que correspondem às exigências desse trabalho. Procura-se, assim, encontrar subsídios para uma contribuição à Instituição, compreendendo os diferentes aspectos da educação na Assembleia de Deus, como também para uma melhor compreensão dessa instituição religiosa no contexto da sociedade brasileira.

This dissertation analyzes processes of globalization, through a critical examination of the dynamics of neoliberalism in the Americas. It employs and also develops a Foucauldian governmentality analytical framework, demonstrating how such a framework contributes to our understanding of world politics. This dissertation also develops the concept of a liberal political imaginary—consisting of the market, society, and the state—and utilizes this as an analytical framework for understanding the globalization of neoliberal forms of governance. The research suggests that discourses and practices of globalization, global civil society, and global governance represent a fundamental transformation in the way that contemporary social and political reality is understood, and that this has significant consequences for the kinds of political practices and relations that are possible. Moreover, the research suggests the globalization of a neoliberal form of competitive subjectivity that can be applied to a broad range of actors—from individuals to nation-states and international organizations—is reshaping contemporary world politics. The dissertation concludes by suggesting how Foucauldian IR can move forward by incorporating studies of contemporary transformations in capitalism into their analyses.

In recent years, the ‘right to the city’ has emerged as a key concept and practice amongst both academics and social movements around which to organise a response to the crisis of Fordist production and political representation. In Spain this response has taken to the streets, with millions of people coming together and shouting ‘They don’t represent us!’. As a key site of both neoliberal urban governance and political insurgency, Barcelona provides a powerful site through which to examine the relationships between urban social movements, urban governance and struggles around the right to the city. In this thesis I build a (partial and provisional) genealogy of the right to the city, examining the relevance of those struggles that have emerged inside and against neoliberal governmentality since the early 1980s in an effort to assemble the right to the city through the material combination of struggles around urban production and citizenship rights. To do this, I return to the relation between genesis and management as an uneven dialectic in the production of rights; drawing on and building new connections between post-colonial studies, autonomous marxist debates, critical studies of citizenship and urban studies to investigate how strangers, outsiders and the governed challenge European capitalism from inside and assert a different imagination of contemporary urban life. I also explore my own role in these dynamics. In contrast to an understanding of academic knowledge as analytical and objective representation, my position as both a militant and a researcher provides the ground upon which I analyse social movements as a factory of concepts and practices capable of assembling an instituent politics against neoliberal governmentality.

Thesis (MPA (School of Public Management and Planning))--University of Stellenbosch, 2005.
Soon after independence in 1964 the Malawi government made an attempt to decentralise some of its activities through the creation of district development committees. However, in practice local-level institutions were not fully operational as the one-party system of government (led by the Malawi Congress Party) tended to manipulate the autonomy and operations of these institutions. Accordingly, there was no manifestation of local participation and representation. The period of one-party rule in Malawi came to an end in 1994 with the introduction of multi-party democracy. The new government revitalised the idea of decentralised governance by passing the Local Government Act of 1998, which saw the establishment of local assemblies. Thus officially Malawi has a very supportive system in relation to citizen participation and representation through decentralised local institutions. However, in practice, there is no clear evidence that this is actually being realised. Consequently, this study was undertaken to examine the role of party politics on local participation and representation. The study was conducted in three district local assemblies of Malawi ...

Did the new Bolivian Constitution of 2009 influence a change on its democratic model? The thesis of the article claims that as a result of how the Constitution elaboration process was carried out on a frame of certain historical conditions, the product elaborated –The Constitution- by the Constituent Assembly had little substantial change in contrast to former Constitutions. Historical constrains of the Bolivian economy and the polarization of the actors involved on the elaboration process of the new Constitution had a great influence to prevent a substantially different new one. Progressive’s elements were introduced as a matter of result of the Bolivian revolution as Human Rights, Plurinationality, and Regional Autonomies, but certain constitutional prerogatives remained unchanged to preserve the status quo. The presence of corporatists, rentist and statist actors has been a trend along Bolivian history, which does allow the reproduction of the internal political relationships of the Bolivian model and inhibits the possibility of a substantial change or re-foundation. Furthermore, the pos-contitutional situation will consolidate a democracy that hardly would break the historical constrains thatrules its hybrid character.
¿La nueva Constitución Boliviana del 2009 motivó un cambio sustancial en su modelo democrático? La tesis del artículo argumenta que la poca variación sustancial en el producto elaborado –la Constitución- por la Asamblea Constituyente, en comparación a Constituciones anteriores, fue fruto de cómo se llevó a cabo el proceso de elaboración de la misma aunque se debe resaltar algunas consideraciones históricas. Las constricciones históricas de la economía boliviana así como la polarización de actores en la elaboración de la nueva Constitución tuvieron una gran influencia al impedir una refundación de la misma. Si bien hubo un gran recojo de elementos progresistas fruto de la revolución boliviana como Derechos Humanos, Plurinacionalidad y Autonomías Regionales, aún se mantuvieron ciertas prerrogativas constitucionales a actores que protegían el status quo. La presencia de actores corporativistas, rentistas y estatistas se ha mantenido a lo largo del tiempo, por lo que se permite la reproducción de las relaciones políticas internas del modelo boliviano y se inhibe la posibilidad de su reemplazo o refundación. Esto derivó en una situación posconstitucional que consolidará una democracia que dificultosamente podrá quebrar las ataduras de un pasado que condiciona su carácter híbrido.

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Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES
Based on the analysis of a diversified documentary corpus, which includes the Annals, Minutes and the Internal Regiment of the Provincial Legislative Assembly of Paraíba´s province, Reports of the Presidents of Provinces and newspapers from the 19th century, so, in this study we aimed to understand the performance of the provincial deputies from Paraíba in the Second Reign, specifically between 1855 and 1875, a period in which there was a reconfiguration of national politics. Departing from the presupposition that the Provincial Legislative Assemblies, created by the Additional Act (1834), were constituted as important spaces of power where its members could discuss and legislate about the most varied issues, thus, enjoying considerable autonomy and contributing for the Brazilian national state construction. Based on the concept of Political Cultures and Sociability Networks, we have analyzed the functioning of Provincial Legislative Assembly of Paraíba, ruled by a series of "rituals", and elaborate a prosopographic study of the provincial deputies who acted in the adopted temporal cut, especially those who graduated in Law by the Faculty of Olinda/Recife, where a considerable part obtained the diploma of superior course. Corroborating with the historiography, we identified that this type of formation was configured as one of the national political elite distinctions, since the majority of the provincial deputies that managed to reach the Chamber of Deputies were composed of bachelors in Law, as exemplified by the trajectories of paraiban politicians as Felizardo Toscano de Brito and Father Lindolfo Correia das Neves. In view of the relationship of provincial deputies and other agents of the political elite, such as provincial councilors and presidents, we also discussed municipalities and public instruction in Paraíba, issues which were often at the heart of the debates and that, being constituted as one of the fields of action of the provincial deputies, can be considered relevant spaces of autonomy.
A partir da análise de um corpus documental diversificado, que inclui os Anais, Atas e o Regimento Interno da Assembleia Legislativa Provincial da Paraíba, os Relatórios dos Presidentes de Província e jornais do século XIX, buscamos no presente estudo compreender a atuação dos deputados provinciais paraibanos no Segundo Reinado, mais especificamente entre 1855 e 1875, período em que houve uma reconfiguração da política nacional. Partimos do pressuposto de que as Assembleias Legislativas Provinciais, criadas pelo Ato Adicional (1834), constituíram-se como importantes espaços de poder nos quais seus membros puderem discutir e legislar sobre as mais variadas questões, usufruindo, desta forma, de uma considerável autonomia e contribuindo para a construção do Estado nacional brasileiro. Com base no conceito de Culturas Políticas e de Redes de Sociabilidade, analisamos o funcionamento da Assembleia Legislativa Provincial da Paraíba, que era regida por uma série de “rituais”, e elaboramos um estudo prosopográfico dos deputados provinciais que atuaram no recorte temporal adotado, sobretudo dos indivíduos formados em Direito pela Faculdade de Olinda/Recife, onde parte considerável obteve o diploma de curso superior. Corroborando com a historiografia, identificamos que este tipo de formação se configurou como um dos distintivos da elite política nacional, uma vez que a maior parte dos deputados provinciais paraibanos que conseguiu chegar à Câmara dos Deputados era composta por bacharéis em Direito, conforme exemplificam as trajetórias dos políticos paraibanos Felizardo Toscano de Brito e padre Lindolfo Correia das Neves. Tendo em vista a relação dos deputados provinciais e outros agentes da elite política, como os vereadores e os presidentes de província, discutimos também acerca das municipalidades e da instrução pública na Paraíba, assuntos que frequentemente se encontravam no cerne dos debates e que, ao se constituírem como um dos campos de atuação dos deputados provinciais, podem ser considerados relevantes espaços de autonomia.

Magister Legum - LLM (Public Law and Jurisprudence)
With approximately 450 tribes and 250 ethnic groups in a territory of 2 345 095 km2,1the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is one of the world's largest, populous, and multiethnolinguistic countries. Since the departure of the Belgian coloniser in 1960, this Member State of the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) is facing a myriad of institutional crises, bloody conflicts and wars, mainly caused by the design of political institutions and the side-lining of some ethnic groups from political institutions. For many decades, Congolese provinces have seen numerous violent ethnic-driven conflicts, which led to institutional instability, political crisis, secessions, massacres and wars. The bloodiest of them all were the first and second Congolese wars. From 1996 to 2002, these so-called "African first world war" cost the DRC the lives of millions of people, divided it into many small "republics" and destroyed the few political and economic infrastructures that survived four decades of institutional instability and dictatorship.

Notions of connectivity and relationality increasingly pervade theories, discourses and practices of environmental governance. Recently, the concept of the 'resource nexus' has emerged as an important new framework that emphasises the interconnections, tensions and synergies between sectors that have traditionally been managed separately. Part of a broader trend towards integrated environmental governance, nexus thinking rests on the premise that the challenges facing water, energy, food and other resources are inexorably connected and contingent. Although presenting itself as a radically new framework, the nexus discourse in current form is techno-managerial in character, profoundly de-politicising, and reinforces neoliberal approaches to environmental governance. At the same time, the 'material turn' in social science research has re-engaged ideas of social, political and material relationality to understand the complexity and heterogeneity of the socio-natural condition in the twenty-first century. Although theoretically and ontologically diverse, the fields of political ecology, assemblage thinking and infrastructure studies all critically interrogate the politics of relationality. Mobilising an urban political ecology framework, and drawing on notions of emergence and distributed agency from assemblage thinking, this research examines the politics of the water-energy nexus through a critical analysis of the extraordinary emergence of seawater desalination as a significant new urban water supply for Southern California, USA, and Baja California, Mexico. Research was conducted in the San Diego-Tijuana metropolitan region, where a large desalting facility has recently been completed to supply San Diego with purified ocean water, and a larger 'binational' facility is planned in Mexico to supply both sides of the border. The research makes three broad contributions. First, to understand desalination as emerging from the historical coproduction and urbanisation of water and energy in the American West. Second, to examine the transitioning environmental politics concomitant with calls for greater understanding of interrelationality. And third, to interrogate the efficacy of technology in reconfiguring the co-constitution of water, energy and society.