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Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Political committees'
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1
Dal, BoÌ Ernesto. "Essays on political influence." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2003. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.273153.
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Dyke, W. T. "The development and strategies of corporate political committees in US politics." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1986. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.371633.
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Edwards, Julia Ann. "Local government women's committees : a feminist political practice." Thesis, University of Hull, 1993. http://hydra.hull.ac.uk/resources/hull:3501.
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Åkerdahl, Helena. "Nationally Initiated Local Peace Committees : On the structure and functioning of the Nakuru Peace Committees in Kenya." Thesis, Umeå universitet, Statsvetenskapliga institutionen, 2013. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-147702.
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With the evolving concept of Infrastructure for Peace as a starting point, and its emphasis on local ownership of peacebuilding initiatives, I analyse the structure and functioning of Local Peace Committees (LPCs) with the focus on one county in Kenya. The thesis explores a gap in the knowledge of these committees by focusing on the friction between a nationally initiated LPC structure and the creation of local ownership of this peacebuilding operation. The case study analysis is conducted by exploring different perspectives regarding the mandate, role, composition and external support of the nationally initiated Nakuru Peace Committees with the aim to contribute to our knowledge of nationally initiated LPCs and their possibilities and challenges.
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Stokes, Wendy. "'Not an encounter group' : democracy and women's committees." Thesis, London Metropolitan University, 1996. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.295573.
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Myers, Brett W. "Effects of the political process on financial topics." Diss., Restricted to subscribing institutions, 2007. http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=1495960301&sid=1&Fmt=2&clientId=1564&RQT=309&VName=PQD.
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Rackaway, Chapman. "Congressional campaigns and congressional campaign committees in the 2000 elections /." free to MU campus, to others for purchase, 2002. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/mo/fullcit?p3074438.
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Hawes, Derek James. "Select committees : an examination of factors determining their influence on the policy process." Thesis, University of Bristol, 1991. http://hdl.handle.net/1983/d8be93d6-d33b-471b-a570-40a53477f5c5.
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Stephan, Yannick. "Parliamentary Standing Committees in the EU policy-making process. : A comparative case study of two committees from the Bundestag." Thesis, Umeå universitet, Statsvetenskapliga institutionen, 2020. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-172046.
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The EU integration process has led to severe changes in policy-making. On the one hand, authority shifted from the national level to the EU. On the other hand, national level executives have gained power relative to the national legislatures. However, since the Treaty of Lisbon entered into force, scholars argue for a comeback of national legislatures. In Germany, parliamentary standing committees have gained considerable power throughout these developments. Nonetheless, their traditional role as policy shaper is contested among scholars. Thus, clarification of their role is needed. While, previous analysis has mainly focused on the Bundestag as a unitary actor. This thesis investigates the role of two standing committees of the Bundestag – Ausschuss für Landwirtschaft und Ernährung and Ausschuss für Gesundheit – in the EU policy-making process across two different competence areas emerging due to the Lisbon Treaty. To answer the research questions, semi-structured interviews with committee members have been conducted. The results of the study show a diverging picture. The members of the Ausschuss für Landwirtschaft und Ernährung are considerably constrained in their ability to act as a policy shaper. The members of the Ausschuss für Gesundheit can secure their policy-shaping powers to a great extent. The former committee lacks these qualities concerning the shift of an increasing amount of policy authority in agriculture to the EU, the restricted use and abilities of the Early Warning Mechanism and the constrained ability to influence the minister’s position in the Council. The members of the latter are more successful in securing policy authority in public health at the national level by making use of the EWM. Nonetheless, the restricted ability to influence the minister’s position in the Council is present, too. We can conclude that the Ausschuss für Landwirtschaft und Ernährung has inherited the role of a scrutiniser and executer meanwhile the Ausschuss für Gesundheit can be described as policy shaper.
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Smith, Cheryl-Anne. "An assessment of public participation in selected ward committees in the City of Cape Town." Master's thesis, University of Cape Town, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/3692.
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Includes abstract.Includes bibliographical references.
This study investigates public participation at local government level in South Africa, namely, the ward committee system. It will look at the extent to which ward committees, as instruments of public participation, can be said to empower citizen involvement in local government decision-making. Therefore the research question is what do the processes of public participation reveal about public empowerment at municipal government level? To realise the objectives of this study, Fung and Wrights Empowered Participatory Governance (EPG) model is applied to five ward committees in diverse-socio-economic areas in the southern suburbs in the city of Cape Town. It should be noted that EPG is a possible model that can be used to enhance participation and facilitate empowerment at municipal government level.
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Karty, Kevin Dean 1973. "Influence and information in U.S. bureaucracy : how agencies, congress, and interest groups use federal advisory committees." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2001. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/8242.
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Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Political Science, 2001.Includes bibliographical references (p. 205-217).
This thesis studies how government in the US gathers and uses information effectively, and the role of federal advisory committees therein. All governments that serve the public interest encounter conflicting needs - on the one hand to gather information to solve important problems, and on the other hand to resist particularistic pressures of special interests both within and outside of government. Many governments choose to reconcile these demands in different ways - through balance of power, direct oversight, and procedural controls, for example - but these control mechanisms are costly. The use of such control mechanisms impacts both the effectiveness of advisory committees as information gathering tools, and how advisory committees are used. The body of the thesis consists of three papers. The first summarizes the available literature on information transmission and influence in complex environments, especially as they relate to delegation of authority. It categorizes the various bodies of theory and identifies the key lines of difference across these theories. The second paper tests hypotheses about meeting closure, government capture, and committee authorization to ascertain which branches of government are most vulnerable to inappropriate influence. Results weakly predict that committees formed cooperatively by Congress and agencies are most vulnerable to special interests. The third paper uses survey data to test how process controls impact the effectiveness of committees,
(cont.) and concludes that although openness does impair committee effectiveness somewhat, balanced membership strongly enhances effectiveness. To explain this apparent contradiction, it notes how balance requirements and other procedural controls enhance a committee's credibility, and reduce the likelihood that important information is dismissed as 'Cheap Talk'.
by Kevin Dean Karty.
Ph.D.
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Kloha, Philip Andrew. "On the structure and composition of legislative committees testing a theory of majority party reliability /." Diss., Connect to online resource - MSU authorized users, 2006.
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Kaye, Robert. "Regulating Westminster : The House of Commons Select Committees on Members' Interests and Standards & Privileges." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2003. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.275744.
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Williams, Joseph Russell. "Three Essays on Congressional Elections and Representation." Thesis, Harvard University, 2013. http://dissertations.umi.com/gsas.harvard:10859.
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Democracy depends upon the competition between candidates or ideas. However, practices or procedures sometimes preclude the consideration of the full range of options. Can campaign spending predict who wins elections? What explains why incumbent electoral security is only rarely threatened? Can committees or individuals in Congress stifle the will of a legislative majority? Essay #1. Politicians spend vast sums of money in order to win or retain a seat in Congress; does it predict who will win? In this essay I present a forecast model for elections to the US House of Representatives that specifically includes a measure of campaign spending.The advantages of the new model are that it relies on publicly available data, its results are easy to interpret, and the forecasts are comparable to other models.Essay #2. For a variety of reasons, incumbents expect to win reelection. There are few explanations for why that advantage occasionally seems to disappear. In this essay, I synthesize the literature on incumbency advantage, congressional redistricting, and voter behavior. I present evidence from the 2006-2010 election cycles suggesting that congressional districts drawn with the expectation of consistent partisan loyalty rates left incumbents susceptible to national tides brought about by temporary asymmetric departures from partisan voting norms. Essay #3. Although there is a large literature devoted to analyses of legislative committee gate keeping, Crombez, Groseclose, and Krehbiel (2006) argued that formal gate keeping is explicitly ruled out in most deliberative bodies. In this essay, I examine the historical development of rules and procedures in the US House of Representatives which explain the lack of formal gate keeping rules. I present evidence of non-majoritarian outcomes in the House despite it being a majoritarian body. I conclude the essay by suggesting a new definition of gate keeping based on the ability to alter the probability of proposal success on the floor instead of the formal ability to kill legislation.Government
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Mattioli, Lauren. "The Committee Advantage: Legislative Effectiveness of New Committee Members." The Ohio State University, 2011. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1308173823.
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Sanchez, Jose Abel Rivera. "Changing institutions in an evolving political system : committees in Mexico's Chamber of Deputies (1988-1999)." Thesis, University of Hull, 2000. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.343158.
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Jamil, Nurul Nazlia. "The effects of politically connected audit committees on audit fee and audit process : evidence in Malaysia." Thesis, University of Manchester, 2017. https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/the-effects-of-politically-connected-audit-committees-on-audit-fee-and-audit-process-evidence-in-malaysia(15096026-5152-49e5-97fe-7ef52cafd8fb).html.
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This study aims to contribute to an understanding of politically connected audit committees on audit fees and the audit process in an emerging market, using the case of Malaysia. Malaysia offers an interesting and important setting as Malaysian companies are highly concentrated and politically sensitive. In particular, the study seeks to: (i) examine the level of political connections represented in the audit committees associated with the level of audit fees incurred by Malaysian public listed companies; and (ii) examine whether politically connected audit committees have an impact on the audit process. Currently, there is scant evidence on the influence of politically connected audit committees on audit fees and the audit process. The study draws upon agency and resource dependence theories, which suggest that politically connected audit committees serve two important functions: monitoring on behalf of the shareholders, and providing resources to the companies. For the purpose of this study, a mixed method approach (archival data analysis and interviews) has been adopted. Four hypotheses are tested: (1) There is a positive relationship between the proportion of audit committee members who are senior government officers (SGO) and audit fees; (2) There is a positive relationship between the proportions of audit committee members who are politicians and audit fees; (3) There is a positive relationship between the percentage of government shares and audit fees; and (4) There is a positive relationship between audit committee characteristics (independence, size, meeting and financial expertise) and audit fees. In addition, the knowledge obtained from the interviews with Big 4 auditors and members of audit committees from the selected companies provide further insights on the influence of political connections on the audit process. The results of the study indicate that politically connected audit committees (identified by members who are either senior government officers or politicians) have a significant association with the incidence of higher audit fees. This suggests that politically connected audit committees are able to capitalise on their connections to influence companies and create direct demand for the auditors to increase their audit effort, as measured by audit fees. Contrary to expectations, this study did not find a significant relationship between government shares and audit fees. This result may be explained by the fact that government shares are managed by a variety of institutions on behalf of the government, and differences in the objectives and characteristics of the institutions that administer the shares can weaken the demand for higher efforts from auditors. An in-depth analysis of the interviews further reveals that political connections do affect the audit process. It appears that the existence of political connections leads to an increase in audit work such in a variety of ways, such as auditor-client negotiations, private meetings with audit committees and re-engineering the scope and planning of the actual audit work. One of the issues that emerges from these findings is that companies highly value political connections to obtain external resources given the uncertainties in the business environment. Also, the findings highlight the need for stronger corporate governance to mitigate the higher inherent audit risks in politically connected companies.
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Ispas, Ileana Alexandra. "Political accountability in practice : a conversation analytic study of ministerial accountability towards the Scottish parliamentary committees." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/4496.
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This study examines political accountability within the context of ministerial accountability towards the Scottish parliamentary committees. A review of the existing literature on accountability identified striking discrepancies between different disciplinary perspectives. In particular, political science research (e.g. Mayer, 1999) focuses on describing the structural mechanisms available for constraining the behaviour of those being made accountable. This literature includes research on ministerial accountability (e.g. Flinders, 1991), although largely focusing on accountability towards the parliamentary Chamber rather than the committees. By contrast, the psychological literature does not focus on accountability, but rather on developing a classification of accounts (e.g. Scott and Lyman, 1968) doing the kind of work that is examined in political science under ‘accountability’ (i.e. providing excuses and justifications to explain problematic behaviours), and testing these accounts using experimental designs (e.g. Weiner et al., 1987). However, given its focus on classification and experimental designs, the psychological literature on accounts treats language as reified and abstract. A third (discourse and conversation analytic) research tradition uses recordings of real-life verbal interactions to examine the turn-by-turn unfolding of interactions (e.g. Atkinson and Drew, 1979), but few studies focus on accountability, and none specifically investigate political accountability. My study is the first to bridge the gap between these three disciplinary perspectives by examining the practice of political accountability through the turn-by-turn unfolding of interactions between ministers and members of Scottish parliamentary committees. The thesis aims to contribute to an understanding of democracy in action by providing an insight into the practical ways in which accountability is accomplished within this specific real-life setting. The corpus of data was compiled from 27 hours of video recordings of interactions between ministers and members of four Scottish parliamentary committees. I analysed the data using conversation analysis (CA). Use of CA led me to identify indirectness as a pervading characteristic of the ways in which challenges are formulated and attended to in the interactions between committee members and ministers, as well as a number of ways in which committee members and ministers attended to matters of stake and interest in relation to such challenges. In addition, CA has allowed an insight into the limits of accountability by showing how ministers can avoid answering particular questions. These findings stand in stark contrast to the political science literature, which emphasises the adversarial nature of interactions within parliamentary settings and the availability of mechanisms for holding ministers to account (e.g. parliamentary committees) without investigating the way in which these mechanisms are used in practice. Furthermore, these findings contribute to the psychological literature on accounts by investigating their use within a real-life setting, and to the discourse and conversation analytic literature by showing the way in which well-known conversational devices (e.g. footing) are adapted to suit the specific context of parliamentary committee meetings with ministers.
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Kypriotis, Allen Christos. "Interest Group Subsidization of Congressional Work: A Theory of Interest Group Influence Through Legislative Committees." The Ohio State University, 2012. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1337623045.
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Thomas, Marc Anthony. "Assessing the Boundaries of Participatory Democracy within an Emancipatory Political Framework: The Case of Parish Development Committees in Jamaica." Diss., Virginia Tech, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/73600.
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This dissertation empirically expands the existing knowledge on participatory democracy through a study of Jamaica's Parish Development Committees (PDCs). These groups offer an avenue for Jamaicans to inform government policy, and this analysis explored the extent to which supportive institutional, infrastructural and superstructural (referring to the society's culture and power configurations) conditions for robust implementation of this democratization initiative existed. This inquiry involved observing more than one hundred hours of PDC activities at locations across Jamaica and conducting sixty key informant and four focus group interviews with relevant stakeholders. The analysis was bolstered by an appreciation of emancipatory politics employed by the country's general population since slavery not only to survive oppression, but also to influence the nation's political agenda. Riots during slavery and in the present day, for example, have offered citizens an avenue towards self-determination. This study found that the emergence, survival and thriving of PDCs in Jamaica is determined largely by the extent to which emancipatory political tactics are successfully applied by PDC stakeholders to combat a number of continuing challenges in these committee's environments. The democratization initiative symbolized by the PDCs promotes inclusiveness yet is led predominantly by older, educated middle class individuals with talents and capacities garnered from several years of experience in various fields. The dissertation argues that the opportunity cost of a more inclusive order explains this fact, in that Jamaica's finite resources mean there is limited space for a learning curve and the cash strapped committees have only been able to survive when their members could help to defray the cost of their operations. The dissertation explores other central challenges confronting the PDCs and the strategies these participative organizations have employed to address each. Primarily, this analysis provides a micro-scale view of the interaction of the factors that have shaped the power and possibility of Jamaica's democratization initiative.Ph. D.
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Kuhn, Jennifer Christine. "The movement of money and majorities /." Diss., Connect to a 24 p. preview or request complete full text in PDF format. Access restricted to UC IP addresses, 1999. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/ucsd/fullcit?p9931781.
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Mullery, Colleen Bridget. "A Structural Analysis of Corporate Political Activity: An Application of Euclidean Modeling to the Study of Intercorporate Relations." PDXScholar, 1991. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/1303.
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During the past two decades business has become increasingly active in the political process, and scholars continue to debate the extent to which this activity is organized. This fundamental issue is addressed by examining corporate political activity within the context of resource dependence and class cohesion theories. Political action committee (PAC) campaign contributions, this study's measure for corporate political activity, are structurally analyzed to determine if either resource dependence or class cohesion theory explains the forces which drive business participation in the U.S. public policy process. The rationale which forty-two diverse corporate PACs exercise when selecting which congressional campaigns to support during two election cycles is explored. Resource dependence theory contends .that a firm's behavior is a function of its dependence on the environment for resources. Successful firms attempt to manage this external dependence by controlling or manipulating their environment corporate involvement in politics, therefore, will reflect a firm's dependence on the government for sales, subsidies or regulation. The regulatory environment in which a firm operates is this study's measure of resource dependence. Conversely, class cohesion theory argues that a firm's political activity is a function of its top management's inclusion in a network of corporate elites. Board members and chief executives from the nation's largest corporations coalesce to advance a political agenda which is compatible with the overarching goals of the business community rather than the parochial goals of an individual firm or even industry. Interlocking directorates, professional association memberships, shared educational experience and geographic proximity of headquarters locations are this study's indicators of a corporate elite network. Two categories of analytical methodology are applied. Multidimensional scaling maps corporate patterns of support for congressional candidates based on a PAC contribution proximity measure. These patterns are subsequently subjected to discriminant analysis, canonical correlation, regression and chi-square analysis to test for Resource Dependent and Class Cohesive political behavior. The results are conclusive: Support of selected congressional campaigns is more likely fueled by fragmented business interests, as resource dependence theory suggests, rather than the collective motives of a corporate elite. In fact, no support emerged for class cohesion theory as an explanation for the observed patterns of intercorporate relations. Further, a corollary proposition that PAC activity will vary with the ideology of White House administrations is not supported. Rather, PAC contribution patterns do not vary significantly between the Carter and Reagan administrations. This research renders four significant contributions to scholarship: 1. It provides empirical evidence to clarify a central issue in business-government relations, i.e., the atomistic or collective nature of corporate political activity. 2. It introduces a rigorous mathematical technique to the business-government relations discipline. 3. It indirectly addresses an ongoing scholarly debate over the role of interest groups in a democracy. 4. It indirectly addresses the current public policy debate over campaign finance reform.
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Peter, Zola Welcome. "The role of ward committees in enhancing community participation: a South African perspective." Thesis, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/10948/19938.
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Community participation in municipal affairs is the bedrock of participatory democracy, and it has been hailed as the panacea for most public community programmes in South Africa. High-level public community participation empowers communities, increases self-reliance, self-awareness and confidence in self-examination of problems and seeking solutions for them. Community behavioural changes are promoted and utilisation and support of services is facilitated, which are of great significance to all community efforts, especially in areas where the service delivery rate from municipalities is low. The vehicle for driving community participation is the system of ward committees, legislation that is rooted in the Constitution, the Municipal Structures Act, and the Municipal Systems Act. The study sees community participation as people being involved in government decision-making that affects them directly or indirectly. It involves three types of action, namely facilitating rational deliberation, creating and communicating moral principles, and expressing personal and group affects and needs. This research investigated the role of ward committees in enhancing community participation from a South African perspective. Municipalities are organisations tasked with ensuring the equal distribution of services to local communities. Municipalities were chosen on the basis of commitment to communicate effectively with the community and in turn to encourage the community to participate fully in municipal activities. The study is conducted within the parameters of the Constitution of South Africa (1996), which mandates local government to provide a democratic and accountable local government, and to encourage the involvement of communities in the matters of local government. Section 152(1)(e) of the Constitution stipulates that the objective of local government, amongst others, is to ensure the involvement of communities and community organisations in matters of local government, and section 73 of the Local Government: Municipal Structures Act (Act No. 117 of 1998), further requires municipalities to establish ward committees in a manner that seeks to enhance participatory democracy at the local sphere of government. The study therefore investigated the role of ward committees in enhancing community participation. Ward committees are advisory bodies created at ward level in terms of the Municipal Structures Act (Act No. 117 of 1998), and consist of the ward councillor (who is the chair) and not more than 10 members representing diverse groups within a particular ward. The White Paper on Local Government (1998) further indicates that municipal councils should promote the involvement of citizens and community groups in the design and delivery of municipal programmes. A literature survey was conducted to investigate and conceptualise the role of ward committees in enhancing community participation, and to determine the responsibilities of ward committees in municipalities. A desktop approach was used to track down useful existing pre-published information (also known as secondary research), with the data collection coming from secondary sources, such as municipal records. A number of recommendations regarding the improvement of ward committees were made. Recommendations are provided for enhancing community participation in different municipalities in South Africa. It is envisaged that these changes could impact positively in encouraging community participation and ultimately improve service delivery.
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Law, Chaw-lam. "The role and function of a mutual aid committee /." [Hong Kong : University of Hong Kong], 1993. http://sunzi.lib.hku.hk/hkuto/record.jsp?B13883914.
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Selokela, Thulaganyo Goitseone. "The representation of women in municipal councils and executive structures - analysing the trends in the implementation of the Municipal Structures Act from the results of the 2006 and 2011 South African local government elections." Thesis, University of the Western Cape, 2012. http://etd.uwc.ac.za/index.php?module=etd&action=viewtitle&id=gen8Srv25Nme4_3560_1370595210.
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Prince, David W. "TIMING OF CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS IN STATE LEGISLATURES: AN EXAMINATION OF THE MOTIVES AND STRATEGIES OF CONTRIBUTORS." Lexington, Ky. : [University of Kentucky Libraries], 2006. http://lib.uky.edu/ETD/ukyposc2006d00487/PrinceDissertation2006.pdf.
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Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Kentucky, 2006.Title from document title page (viewed on November 1, 2006). Document formatted into pages; contains: xi, 189 p. : ill. (some col.) Includes abstract and vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 179-186).
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Gumbi, Nkhosivile M. "To evaluate the roles and functioning of community health committees within the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality." Thesis, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/10948/d1020389.
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Community participation is a concept that has been advocated for by bodies such as the World Health Organization (WHO) for over two decades. In South Africa, community participation was included in the National Health Act (61 of 2003). Clinic and Community health facility committees were legislated as a method of involving communities in promoting health and improving health outcomes. During the year 2010, a process was initiated by the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality (NMBM) to establish and train health committees at all health facilities. The purpose of this research report was to evaluate the effectiveness of community health committees within the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality, since 2010. Guidelines given in the Policy on the Establishment and Functioning of Clinic and Community Health Centre Committee (2009) were utilized as a point of reference for this study. The results showed that the community health committees trained in 2010 were functioning effectively as a result of the policy guidelines given. There still needs to be an improvement in the involvement of ward councilors, as stipulated in the National Health Act (61 of 2003), as well as in the implementation of the fundraising role, as set out in the Health Departments policy guidelines for health committees to implement.
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Kuta, Martin. "Parlamentní strany v České republice: funkce, nástroje, stabilita." Doctoral thesis, Vysoká škola ekonomická v Praze, 2011. http://www.nusl.cz/ntk/nusl-264228.
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The thesis deals with activities of Czech parliamentary parties during EU-affairs discussion in the Chamber of Deputies, Parliament of the Czech Republic. The main focus is on three characteristic features of political parties during their activities on the parliamentary level: stability (rhetorical, voting, and programmatic), use of parliamentary oversight tools, and fulfilling their systemic function. The parties are seen through the prism of behavioural approach. EU-affairs are a rather new topic with a variable salience for national parties. EU-affairs influence party competition in extra-parliamentary arena. Conflict, however non-salient topics in parliamentary arena are ousted by governmental parties in order for them to keep governmental stability. The parties do not act according to their party manifestoes (low level of Europeanization); instead, their voting behaviour indicates that the parties follow logic of parliamentary competition between government and opposition. Parliamentarization of EU governance (engagement of national parliaments in broader institutional setting of the EU) leads to spreading of party competition on the national level to a new policy area. Political parties use tools of parliamentary scrutiny in a rather limited extent and according to their actual position within the system. The thesis also deals with party nomination and composition of the Committee on European affairs which holds oversight powers. The empirical analysis is based on the analysis of voting behaviour of parliamentary party groups (roll-call data), stenographic records, Committee and plenary session resolutions and quantitative analysis of composition of the Committee.
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El`Ghaouti, Valerie Rose. "The Changing Role of Soft Money on Campaign Finance Reform.The Birth of the 527 and its Consequences." Digital Archive @ GSU, 2007. http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/political_science_theses/13.
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In a time when record numbers of dollars are being spent on campaigns the unregulated dollars are flowing faster than ever. Hundreds of millions of dollars in independent expenditures are being used for “issue advocacy”, print and broadcast advertising, which does not expressly endorse or oppose a candidate for office. The one-time campaign finance ceiling has become the campaign finance basement. Individuals are able to give unlimited dollars to 527 organizations, which function outside of all campaign finance regulation and provide a new path for the flow of political dollars. Since the passage of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, commonly known as the McCain-Feingold Act, federally regulated lobbyists and PACS are being edged out of the political dollar due to contribution limits. It is in 1996 that we witness the birth of 527 organizations and the flourishing growth of soft money spending in the campaign process.
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Cloete, Jacob. "Public participation, political representation and accountability: the case of violence prevention through urban upgrading (VPUU) in Harare Khayelitsha, in Cape Town." Thesis, University of the Western Cape, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/11394/3790.
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Magister Commercii - MComThe aim is to deepen the South African democracy at all levels of government. However, as local government is “the closest to the people” it is regarded by government as the most appropriate sphere to implement participatory democracy mechanisms. Pertaining to this, ward committees were introduced as the main participatory vehicle of local governance and in addition, the government has also implemented alternative instruments such as izimbizos and the integrated development planning (IDP) process to engage citizens in local governance.
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Stuurman, Sonwabo Happyboy. "The role of the ward committees as an interface between local government and community: a case study of Makana Municipality." Thesis, Rhodes University, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003080.
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The Ward Committee System was introduced in South Africa in 2001 as a tool to bring government closer to the people and to enhance participatory democracy. The Makana Municipality adopted the system in 2002. Previous research on local government indicates that these structures have not been effective due to the lack of resources to sustain them. This study was interested in furthering such research, using the Makana Municipality as a case study during which unstructured, in-depth interviews and focus group discussions were conducted with Ward Councillors, Ward Committee Members and Grade 12 learners. The aim of the research was to investigate whether the ward committees did indeed promote the notion of participatory democracy and to what extent grass roots development has been enhanced by this structure of local government. The findings from both the respondents and the observations indicate that, in addition to the lack of resources, the underutilization of the Ward Committee System is a result of the effect of opposing political affiliations within the ward committee system, affiliations that undermine the goal of collaborative decision-making. Whereas the ward committee system is a positive idea, the findings suggest that the government is not supporting these structures by failing to equip the ward committee members with necessary capacities and skills. Therefore, if municipalities are committed to bridging the gap between local government and the community, and are keen to enhance participatory democracy, then capacity building of the ward committees and respect for their role during the decision-making process need to be taken seriously. At present, ward committee members are not influential and active in the decision-making process. In addition, the youth as prospective future ward committee members seemed disillusioned with the notion of participatory democracy, and instead have adopted the mentality that nepotism and corruption, as displayed by those in power, is the only way of governance. This research suggests that the ward committee system, intended to bring government closer to the people, may in fact not only alienate government from the people, but also the people from each other.
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Arends, Darrin. "An assessment of the effectiveness of public consultation: the case study of selected ward committees in the Northern Bay Municipality." Thesis, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/10948/1535.
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Since 1994, the South African local government has been obligated to consult with its citizenry in respect of the processes of relating to service delivery. The South African Government has developed a wide range of legislation that ensures that communities are consulted on a continuous basis with regard to how services need to be rendered. Communities have a right to be consulted and to give input into issues affecting them. Public consultation as envisaged in the South African legislation has, however, not yielded the desired results which is evident in the spate of service delivery protests over poor or non service delivery. Therefore, this study seeks to analyse the effectiveness and efficiency of pubic consultation in the Northern Areas of the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality. The researcher used qualitative research methods since it would provide the reader with more insight into how public consultation is implemented in the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality. The communities, senior municipal officials, and councillors have been interviewed in a structured manner and a content analysis has been made of the minutes of the ward committees in the Northern Areas, the annual reports of the Municipality’s Oversight Committee and a range of other reading material. A number of findings has been made during this research project with the most pertinent being the non-compliance to certain sections of legislation by the Municipality. The communities in the Northern Areas generally felt that efficient and effective public consultation would reduce the number of service delivery protests in that part of the Municipality. A number of interventions need to be made by the political leadership with regard to public consultation and more resources need to be committed towards those processes.
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Brandt, Madeleinne Lesley. "From the senate to the NCOP : a description of the composition and working of South Africa's second chamber." Thesis, Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2001. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/52275.
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Thesis (MPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2001.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The aim of this study is to provide a structural analysis of the second house of the South African Parliament - the National Council of Provinces (NCOP). The study firstly focuses on the theoretical experience of second chambers in general. It then touches on a comparative study of second chambers of selected countries. The study then provides a description of the composition of the second house in South Africa, the committee system employed as well as the information flow. It also explores the concept of co-operative governance, the powers assigned to the NCOP by the Constitution and discusses the method of selecting delegates in detail. In addition the study focuses on the role that the NCOP is expected to play within the national legislative process. This analysis is descriptive in nature and aims to serve as an educational tool for the South African public as well as in the international arena.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die doel van hierdie studie is om 'n strukturele analise te maak van die tweede kamer van die Suid-Afrikaanse Parlament, die Nasionale Raad van Provinsies (NRVP). Eerstens fokus die studie op die teoretiese ervaring van tweede kamers in geheel. Dit gaan dan verder om sekere vergelykings te tref tussen die tweede kamers van verkose lande. Die studie beskryf onder andere die samestelling van die tweede kamer in Suid- Afrika, hoe die komiteestelsel gebruik word, asook die vloei van informasie binne die NRVP. Die studie gaan ook verder om die konsep van saamwerkende regering en die konstitusionele magte van die instelling te bespreek asook die metode om afgevaardiges te verkies tot die NRVP. Die studie fokus ook op die verwagte rol van die NRVP binne die nasionale wetgewende proses. Hierdie analise is beskrywend van aard en beoog om te dien as 'n opvoedkundige instrument vir die Suid-Afrikaanse publiek asook binne die internasionale arena.
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Pasquarelli, Bruno Vicente Lippe. "Política externa, partidos políticos e relações executivo/legislativo nas democracias presidencialistas do Brasil e do Chile." Universidade Federal de São Carlos, 2015. https://repositorio.ufscar.br/handle/ufscar/7689.
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Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)
This study analyzed the decision-making process in foreign policy from the presidential messages sent by the Executive Branch to the National Congress, examining comparatively the center-left governments of the Workers Party (2003-2010) in Brazil, and the Socialist Party (2000-2009) in Chile, investigating how the decision-making process of international acts may be the object of legislative and partisan action and, most important, that is subject to conflict/consensus between government and opposition from the ideological structure of coalitions that affects the negotiation of the agreement at the international level and especially in domestic context. Therefore, the ideological factor present in coalitions is a variable that affects the decision-making process in foreign policy. The higher the ideological heterogeneity and the size of the coalition, the greater the partisan conflict in foreign policy. On the other hand, the greater the ideological homogeneity and the smaller the size of the coalition, the lower the partisan conflict in international acts. In Chile, the role of the Socialist Party in foreign policy, based on the continuity of international integration paradigms, occurred in an environment marked by moderation and by partisan commitment and building consensus around government objectives, namely, trade agreements and free trade agreements, emphasizing the partnership with Latin America. The party activity in this way was guided by consensus, with few changes in trade agreements and FTA's, seeking to speed up the decision-making process of international acts. In Brazil, in turn, the Workers Parties undertook to form broad and heterogeneous coalitions and not as stable as the Chilean ones, considering various partisan and ideological preferences and increasing therefore the conflicted component of the decision-making process showing the largest internal ideological fight, in the coalition, and external, in relation to the opposition parties. In short, due to the importance of the domestic component in international agreements, the findings of this study are important to articulate an explanation of the reasons why countries administered by center-left political parties to act differently/similarly in foreign policy, considering previous governments and even the countries themselves in similar periods, because there were important differences between the two styles of government, considering the overall and partisan objectives in foreign policy of each one, as well as the composition and ideological preferences of the government coalition government.
O presente estudo analisou o processo de tomada de decisão em política externa a partir das mensagens presidenciais enviadas pelo Poder Executivo ao Congresso Nacional, examinando comparativamente os governos de centro-esquerda do Partido dos Trabalhadores (2003 a 2010), no Brasil, e do Partido Socialista (2000 a 2009), no Chile, investigando como o processo decisório de atos internacionais pode ser objeto de atuação legislativa e partidária e, mais importante, que está sujeito ao conflito/consenso entre governo e oposição a partir da estruturação ideológica de coalizões que influenciam a negociação do acordo no plano internacional e principalmente no contexto doméstico. Por conseguinte, o fator ideológico presente nas coalizões é uma variável que afeta o processo decisório em política externa. Quanto maior a heterogeneidade ideológica e o tamanho da coalizão, maior o conflito partidário em política externa. Por outro lado, quanto maior a homogeneidade ideológica e quanto menor o tamanho da coalizão, menor o conflito partidário em atos internacionais. No Chile, a atuação do Partido Socialista em política externa, baseada na continuidade de paradigmas de inserção internacional, ocorreu em um ambiente pautado pela moderação e pelo compromisso partidário e construção do consenso em torno dos objetivos governamentais, quais sejam, os acordos comerciais e os tratados de livre-comércio, enfatizando a parceria com a América Latina. A atuação partidária, dessa maneira, ocorreu pautada pelo consenso, com poucas modificações em acordos comerciais e tratados de livre-comércio, e procurando acelerar o processo de tomada de decisão dos atos internacionais. No Brasil, por sua vez, o Partidos dos Trabalhadores obrigou-se a formar coalizões amplas e heterogêneas e não tão estáveis quanto as chilenas, considerando diversas preferências partidárias e ideológicas e aumentando, por conseguinte, o componente conflituoso do processo de tomada de decisão, evidenciando o maior combate ideológico interno, na própria coalizão, e externo, em relação aos partidos oposicionistas. Em suma, devido à relevância do componente doméstico em acordos internacionais, as conclusões desse estudo são importantes para articular uma explicação das razões que levam países administrados por partidos políticos de centro-esquerda a atuarem de maneira diferente/similar em política externa, considerando governos anteriores e até mesmo os próprios países em períodos semelhantes, pois houve diferenças importantes entre os dois estilos de governo, considerando os objetivos gerais e partidários de política externa de cada um, assim como a composição e preferências ideológicas das coalizões de governo.
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Malapane, Anthony Tshwarelo. "The effects of the oversight role of legislatures in promoting good governance in South Africa with specific reference to the Gauteng legislature." Thesis, University of Limpopo, 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/10386/2918.
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Thesis (Ph. D. (Public Administration)) --University of Limpopo, 2019South Africa continues to experiment with democracy after 23 years since its rebirth in 1994. The country‘s democracy is still developing towards greater transparency, full participation and accountability. Development depends on the existence of strong and vibrant institutions of accountability in the face of the challenges that threaten to reverse the gains made since the advent of democracy. Among such institutions is the legislature, which is the focus of this study. The study probes the oversight role of legislatures in South Africa. Oversight has become a subject of interest in the field of Public Administration as it is viewed as the mandate of legislatures to hold the government to account for managing public resources in the course of conducting public affairs. This study broadens the understanding of oversight by examining crucial relations between the legislature and the executive, and by providing insight into the legislature‘s ability and capacity to carry out the oversight mandate. This is mainly because in most developing countries, the legislative sector, and particularly African legislatures have been categorised as weak. They are generally censured to have institutional weaknesses and limited decision-making role. There are, however, common challenges, including but not limited to lack of capacity, the dominance of the executive and its reluctance to cooperate, and lack of political will attributed to various factors. These challenges are intensified by the legislature‘s perceived inability to deal with emerging issues. Studies previously conducted in the Gauteng Legislature have affirmed some of these challenges, including among others, lack of independence and capacity issues when exercising its oversight role. However, the literature pointed to increased oversight activities in democratic legislatures over the years. Although increase in oversight activities is acknowledged in the study, literature on oversight effectiveness is scant. From the foregoing, the aim of the study was to examine whether the oversight role of legislatures has effects in terms of the promotion of good governance, particularly executive transparency and accountability as well as public involvement. In addition to focusing on the relationship between the executive and the legislature, ability and capacity of the legislature, the study also set out to determine the extent to which the public participates in oversight processes of legislatures. The study concentrated on the Gauteng Legislature, and focused on the work of Portfolio Committees as they are responsible for the day to day oversight work of legislatures. The literature reviewed points out to the complex nature of the legislative oversight setting based on the systems of governance adopted in a country, which has an influence on the relationship between the executive and the legislature, and in turn, on oversight. The study has employed a qualitative approach, with the data collected utilising semistructured in-depth personal interviews, participant observation and document analysis. Semi-structured personal interviews were the main data collection tool utilised to collect primary data from the participants. The participants were selected utilising non-probability (purposive) sampling to target participants with knowledge and experience on the subject matter to attain the objectives of the study. In addition, the participant observation and document analysis were used to collect both primary and secondary data to supplement the interviews with the respondents. This was mainly to respond to the contention of this study. The study argues that the legislature through its oversight role has the ability and capacity to promote transparency and accountability as well as public involvement. The findings of this study suggest that to a certain extent, the oversight role might have positive effects on promoting executive transparency and accountability. However, the findings have pointed out some serious shortcomings regarding the extent to which the public participates in the oversight work of the legislature. This is regardless of the efforts made by the legislature to establish platforms to ensure that the public participates in the oversight role to hold the executive accountable. Furthermore, the study has found that Portfolio Committees are a suitable mechanism to hold the executive to account as among others, the Members of the Provincial Legislature (MPLs) work well together. There are improved relations between the Gauteng government departments and committees. The departments are responsive; yet there are still challenges leading to the elusion of accountability, with limited or no consequences. The study recommends inter alia, follow-up on oversight activities; committee action against the executive‘s reluctance; strengthening the role of research; and regular interactions between the executive and the legislature. Keywords Accountability, Committees, Democracy, Executive, Government, Governance, Good Governance, Legislature, Performance, Public Participation, Service Delivery, Transparency, Political Parties, and Oversight.
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Peoples, Clayton D. "Power and class conflict in capitalist democracy business contributions, labor contributions, and two decades of legislative influence in the U.S. /." Connect to this title online, 2005. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc%5Fnum=osu1116602044.
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Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2005.Title from first page of PDF file. Document formatted into pages; contains x, 124 p.; also includes graphics Includes bibliographical references (p. 118-124). Available online via OhioLINK's ETD Center
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Pasquarelli, Bruno Vicente Lippe. "Formação de coalizões, apoio legislativo e atuação partidária no presidencialismo brasileiro." Universidade Federal de São Carlos, 2011. https://repositorio.ufscar.br/handle/ufscar/985.
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Previous issue date: 2011-03-01Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais
The interaction between the Executive and the Legislative in the Brazilian presidential system has been ruled by two antagonistic approaches. The first one examines that the relations between both powers would be ruled by confronting each other and by irreconcilable interests. This is because a combination of the presidential system, multipartidarism, open-list proportional representation system and federalism would induce to the formation of a clientelistic Congress, which would be undisciplined and dominated by weak political parties. The second perspective reinforces the high level of cooperation in the relations between those powers due to the centralization which rules the legislative work, and due to the executive and the partisan leaders´ preponderance in the ruling process, allowing the establishment of an enduring coalition. From these considerations, this study analyzes how the Brazilian presidential system was run during Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva government (2003-2010) by two main aspects: firstly, the notable cooperation between the Executive and the Legislative powers visualized in the formation of coalitions, in the allocation of ministry positions and in the election for the main legislative positions, such as the presidencies of the House of Representatives, Federal Senate and Permanent Committees; and, secondly, the evident participation of the political parties of the situation and the opposition through reports by the legislators of the National Congress Committees, as well as the action throughout amendments and replacements. Thus, it has been proved that Lula government was supported by enduring and disciplined coalitions which, then, had the main executive and legislative positions. Furthermore, it has been verified that the Legislative power does not ratify all the propositions derived from the Executive power, because it has actuated in the committees by altering them. Consequently, cooperation was constant in the ruling process, but the negotiation and conflict were also indispensable factors for a better performance of the system official duties.
A interação entre Executivo e Legislativo no presidencialismo brasileiro é pautada por duas abordagens antagônicas. A primeira abordagem observa que as relações entre os poderes seriam pautadas pelo confronto e por interesses irreconciliáveis, pois a combinação de presidencialismo, multipartidarismo, sistema proporcional de lista aberta e federalismo induziria à formação de um Congresso clientelista, indisciplinado e dominado por partidos políticos fracos. Por sua vez, a segunda perspectiva ressalta o elevado grau de cooperação nas relações entre os poderes devido à centralização que pauta os trabalhos legislativos e à preponderância do Executivo e dos líderes partidários no processo decisório, permitindo o estabelecimento de uma coalizão estável. A partir destas considerações, o estudo analisa o funcionamento do presidencialismo brasileiro durante o governo de Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (2003-2010) através de dois aspectos principais: em primeiro lugar, destacando a cooperação entre Poder Executivo e Poder Legislativo, visualizada na formação de coalizões, na distribuição de pastas ministeriais e na eleição para os principais cargos legislativos, como as presidências da Câmara dos Deputados, do Senado Federal e das Comissões Permanentes; e, em segundo lugar, evidenciando a participação dos partidos políticos da situação e da oposição nas relatorias das Comissões do Congresso Nacional, assim como a atuação por meio de emendas e de substitutivos. Com isso, ficou constatado que o governo Lula foi apoiado por coalizões estáveis e disciplinadas que, por sua vez, obtiveram os principais cargos executivos e legislativos. Ademais, verificou-se que o Poder Legislativo não foi um mero ratificador de proposições oriundas do Poder Executivo, pois atuou nas comissões por meio de alterações nas proposições. Por conseguinte, a cooperação foi uma constante do processo decisório, mas a negociação e o conflito também foram fatores imprescindíveis para o bom-funcionamento do sistema.
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Johansson, Anna. "En avdemokratisering av förvaltningen? : - En analys av socialförsäkringsnämndernas avveckling och dess effekter." Thesis, Växjö University, School of Social Sciences, 2008. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:vxu:diva-1913.
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Swedish public administration has for the last few decades undergone reforms aimed at making it more efficient. A substantial part of these reforms have concerned creating clearer roles for politicians versus officials in the public sector, i.e. giving politicians a responsibility for setting goals and steering activities and public officials the role of implementing them.
This study aims to examine one reform following this path that is under implementation in a Swedish public authority; Försäkringskassan, the Social Insurance Agency. The purpose of the reform is to increase the organization’s effectiveness and the rule of law. The reform means that decision-making committees, Social Insurance Committees, consisting of political appointees are being replaced by public officials as decision-makers in complex social insurance cases. The purpose of this study is to see if, and how this reform could affect the democratic foundation of these decisions.
The study concludes that the reform will have a negative impact on the democratic support and the legitimacy of the decisions made, as it indirectly removes the citizens’ possibilities of expressing discontent through elections. This reform could also have a negative impact on the quality of rule of law if the new roles for public officials as decision-makers are not properly exercised.
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Hames, Tim. "Power without politics : the Republican National Committee in American political life and the debate over party renewal." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1990. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.670307.
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Takagi, Yuki. "Political Economy of Committee Voting and its Application." Thesis, Harvard University, 2013. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=3567087.
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This dissertation consists of three essays on information aggregation in committees and its application.
The first essay analyzes how the distribution of votes affects the accuracy of group decisions. In a weighted voting system, votes are typically assigned based on the criteria that are unrelated to the voters' ability to make a correct judgment. I introduce an information aggregation model in which voters are identical except for voting shares. If the information is free, the optimal weight distribution is equal weighting. When acquiring information is costly, by contrast, I show that the accuracy of group decisions may be higher under some weighted majority rules than under unweighted majority rule. I characterize the equilibrium and find the optimal weight distribution to maximize the accuracy of group decisions. Asymmetric weight distributions may be optimal when the cost of improving signal is moderately high.
The second essay analyzes how intergenerational family transfers can be sustained. Why are generous transfers from the younger to the older generations made in some families and not in others? My paper argues that differences in intergenerational dependence are due to variation in community networks. My analysis of the sustainability of intergenerational transfers posits game theoretical models of overlapping generations in which breadwinners make transfers to their parents and children. A novel feature of my models is that there is a local community that may supply information about its members' past behaviors. I demonstrate that an efficient level of intergenerational transfers can be sustained if neighbors "gossip" about each other.
The third essay, co-authored with Fuhito Kojima, investigates a jury decision when hung juries and retrials are possible. When jurors in subsequent trials know that previous trials resulted in hung juries, informative voting can be an equilibrium if and only if the accuracy of signals for innocence and guilt are exactly identical. Moreover, if jurors are informed of numerical split of votes in previous trials, informative voting is not an equilibrium regardless of signal accuracy.
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Takagi, Yuki. "Political Economy of Committee Voting and Its Application." Thesis, Harvard University, 2012. http://dissertations.umi.com/gsas.harvard:10910.
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This dissertation consists of three essays on information aggregation in committees and its application. The first essay analyzes how the distribution of votes affects the accuracy of group decisions. In a weighted voting system, votes are typically assigned based on the criteria that are unrelated to the voters’ ability to make a correct judgment. I introduce an information aggregation model in which voters are identical except for voting shares. If the information is free, the optimal weight distribution is equal weighting. When acquiring information is costly, by contrast, I show that the accuracy of group decisions may be higher under some weighted majority rules than under unweighted majority rule. I characterize the equilibrium and find the optimal weight distribution to maximize the accuracy of group decisions. Asymmetric weight distributions may be optimal when the cost of improving signal is moderately high. The second essay analyzes how intergenerational family transfers can be sustained. Why are generous transfers from the younger to the older generations made in some families and not in others? My paper argues that differences in intergenerational dependence are due to variation in community networks. My analysis of the sustainability of intergenerational transfers posits game theoretical models of overlapping generations in which breadwinners make transfers to their parents and children. A novel feature of my models is that there is a local community that may supply information about its members past behaviors. I demonstrate that an efficient level of intergenerational transfers can be sustained if neighbors gossip about each other. The third essay, co-authored with Fuhito Kojima, investigates a jury decision when hung juries and retrials are possible. When jurors in subsequent trials know that previous trials resulted in hung juries, informative voting can be an equilibrium if and only if the accuracy of signals for innocence and guilt are exactly identical. Moreover, if jurors are informed of numerical split of votes in previous trials, informative voting is not an equilibrium regardless of signal accuracy.Government
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Coelho, Rony 1984. "Legislação participativa : atores, iniciativas e processo legislativo . um estudo de caso da comissão de legislação participativa da Câmara dos Deputados (2001-2011)." [s.n.], 2013. http://repositorio.unicamp.br/jspui/handle/REPOSIP/281730.
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Orientador: Bruno Wilheilm SpeckDissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas
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Resumo: Esta pesquisa trata dos atores, iniciativas e processos envolvidos na concepção de legislação participativa implícita no referencial empírico trabalhado nesta dissertação, a Comissão Permanente de Legislação Participativa da Câmara dos Deputados (CLP). Comissões permanentes são órgãos colegiados, compostos por deputados, integrantes do processo legislativo, que têm por finalidade apreciar os assuntos ou proposições submetidos ao seu exame e sobre eles deliberar. Com efeito, foi atribuída à CLP, como principal competência, a capacidade de i) receber diversos tipos de sugestões legislativas - leia-se, de iniciativas - oriundas de associações civis legalmente constituídas; ii) deliberar sobre as sugestões acatadas, manifestando-se por meio de parecer; iii) encaminhar as sugestões de iniciativas de leis aprovadas para iniciarem a tramitação no processo legislativo. A investigação procurou responder, por um lado, qual a capacidade do mecanismo de incluir iniciativas de lei no processo legislativo. Por outro lado, elaboramos uma discussão, sem pretender uma análise exaustiva, sobre um dos possíveis efeitos do modelo institucional do mecanismo em ter credenciado organizações civis para proporem iniciativas de lei no âmbito federal. Os resultados em relação ao primeiro ponto sinalizam para uma real e alta capacidade de inclusão de iniciativas no processo legislativo. Porém, ao iniciarem a tramitação, essas iniciativas encontram uma série de entraves que escapam à alçada da comissão e que se inserem em um problema maior, da relação entre legislativo e executivo mesmo no que diz respeito à produção legislativa no Congresso. Em relação ao segundo ponto, a discussão levantada sugere que organizações civis estão a exercer função de representação no lócus que, por excelência, é o da representação política tradicional. Ademais, e anterior a essas discussões, intentamos fornecer interpretações analíticas sobre o surgimento de um mecanismo como a CLP no interior do processo legislativo. Para tanto, observou-se, em meio a uma recente onda de reformas institucionais, possíveis processos de abertura das instituições tradicionais mundo afora; além de um contexto nacional de crescente proliferação das chamadas instituições participativas
Abstract: This research deals with the actors, initiatives and processes involved in the concept of participatory legislation implicit in empirical referential used in this dissertation, the Standing Committee of Participatory Legislation the House of Representatives. Standing committees are collegiate bodies, composed of deputies, members of the legislative process, which aim to analyses the issues or proposals submitted for its examination and deliberate on them. Indeed, it was attributed to CLP, as major competence, the ability to i) receive various types of legislative suggestions, in other words, initiatives, deriving from civil associations legally constituted ii) deliberate on the suggestions accepted, manifesting by through sight iii) submit the initiatives of laws suggestions approved to started the conduct in the legislative process. The research sought to answer the one hand, which include the ability of the mechanism of law initiatives in the legislative process. Moreover, we intended discuss, without attempting an exhaustive analysis about the possible effects on a model institutional of mechanism having allowed civil organizations to propose initiatives under federal law. The results from the first topic point to a real and high capacity inclusion initiatives in the legislative process. However, as they start the conduct in the legislative process a great number of obstacles are found, that cannot be misled by CLP and part of a bigger problem, of relationship between the legislative an executive powers even as regards the legislative production in Congress. Regarding the second topic, the raised discussion suggests that civil organizations seem to be exerting the function of representation that locus par excellence is the one of traditional political representation. Moreover, prior to those discussions, we seek analytic interpretations about the emergence of a mechanism like the CLP within the legislative process, noting, amid a recent wave of institutional reforms, opening processes of traditional institutions, worldwide, plus a national context of growing proliferation of so-called participatory institutions
Mestrado
Ciencia Politica
Mestre em Ciência Política
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Mbane, Masibulele. "Community participation in the decision-making process in Mnquma Local Municipality." Thesis, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/10948/d1018501.
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The study investigates community participation in the decision-making processes in Mnquma Local Municipality. The issue of community participation in decision making is receiving attention in South Africa, from both government and civil society sectors. Governments in many parts of the world have begun to take a fresh look at the need for public participation in decision-making processes. The main problem to be addressed in this study is the extent to which the community can be involved in decision making processes in Mnquma Local Municipality. To address the research problem and to achieve the aims of this study, an in depth review of the literature on decision making was done. The empirical search was done by distributing self-administered questionnaires to the participants in Mnquma Local Municipality. The research findings revealed that in Mnquma Local Municipality community participation in decision-making is not effective. Consequently, the delivery of services in this municipality is poor. Another factor that inhibits community participation in the decision making processes in the municipality is that most of the municipal documents are written in English a language in which the majority of the members of the community are not competent in because they are Xhosa speaking people. Recommendations for improved satisfaction in service delivery, communication, consultation, regular meetings, and language were made with regard to community participation in decision making. If these recommendations are implemented, they will assist Mnquma Local Municipality in the area of decision making.
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Williams, Elizabeth-Ann. "Improving political oversight in municipalities: examining the law and practice surrounding oversight by the council over the municipal Executive and the municipal administration." Thesis, University of the Western Cape, 2012. http://etd.uwc.ac.za/index.php?module=etd&action=viewtitle&id=gen8Srv25Nme4_9918_1370594957.
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Thompson, Louise. "Do committees make a difference? : an examination of the viscosity of legislative committees in the British House of Commons." Thesis, University of Hull, 2013. http://hydra.hull.ac.uk/resources/hull:7088.
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Public bill committees in the British House of Commons play a crucial role in the scrutiny of government legislation. The reform of the bill committee system in 2006 and the introduction of oral evidence taking as a standard procedure significantly raised the profile of this stage of the legislative process and had the potential to increase the power of bill committees to constrain the government in the passage of legislation. Yet there remains no detailed analysis of the work of these modern bill committees and of their impact on government bills. This thesis seeks to address this gap, with the most comprehensive quantitative analysis of bill committee work since that of John Griffith in 1974. It analyses 139 bill committees and report stage debates over a ten year period in great detail and supplements this with a series of interviews with Members of Parliament and parliamentary officials. The thesis finds that the context in which bill committees are working is very different from that identified by Griffith. Whilst the majority of bills leave committee with amendments, a culture of resistance among government ministers means that 99 per cent of all successful amendments are government amendments. The real impact of committee stage is then identified as taking place at the report stage of bills. It is here that committees can – and do – make a difference to government legislation, with an average of ten changes being made at the report stage of every bill on the basis of undertakings ministers have made in committee. Ultimately the thesis finds when the MPs appointed to committees have specialist knowledge of the subject and when good use is made of oral evidence sessions, the capacity of committees to make a difference to government legislation increases considerably.
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Alexander, David Alisdair. "The sources of committee influence in the European Parliament." Thesis, University of Glasgow, 2016. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/8281/.
Full textAbstract:
The European Parliament (EP) has evolved into a powerful legislative actor over the past 40 years. In order to exercise its hard won legislative competencies in an efficient and effective manner the EP has developed an extensive and influential committee system. The Treaty of Lisbon (ToL) recognised its equal status as co-legislator with the Council of the EU and introduced the Ordinary Legislative Procedure (OLP) as the default EU legislative procedure. Despite the fact that after the introduction of the OLP all EP committees formally operate under the same legal procedure, disparities remain in the levels of influence that each committee commands. This state of affairs demonstrates that if we are to understand what drives committee influence we need to explore the informal sources of influence that committees draw on in addition to the formal rules. This project addresses the lack of understanding of how the committees establish legislative influence by identifying and testing the different resources which committees may be utilising to establish their influence. The thesis puts forward four hypotheses concerning the factors that can account for how committees establish influence. These are developed and tested within three case studies. The case studies comprise the highly influential committees on, firstly, the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety Committee, secondly, the Budget Committee and, thirdly, the International Trade Committee. The research project adopts a qualitative approach to complement and create a different perspective from the quantitative studies which dominate the field. It draws on extensive primary material from thirty semi-structured interviews held with MEPs, advisers, EP staff and party officials active in the 7th legislative term (2009-2014). A number of the current conventions concerning the way in which expertise, partisan dynamics, and policy outputs affect how committees establish legislative influence are challenged and new insights regarding their relative importance are offered. Overall, these original findings, contained within this dissertation, have highly significant implications, not only with regard to the committee system of the EP but, also, for the wider field of legislative politics.
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Edwards, Keith Malcolm. "Professionalism, institutionalization and committee services in US. state legislatures." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/43194.
Full textAbstract:
Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Political Science, 2007.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 53-57).
This thesis examines the relationship between legislative professionalism and institutionalization in the committee systems of six U.S. states. I examine whether increased professionalization, as defined by increases in levels of member salary, legislative staffing, and time in session, causes legislatures to institutionalize in a manner similar to the U.S. Congress. Specifically, this thesis focuses on the use (or lack thereof) of seniority as an automatic procedure for the assignment to, and transfer between, committees. I find that while it appears that all state legislators value service on committees, legislative professionalization is not an adequate explanatory variable to describe the variation in the institutionalization of committee systems that we see across states in the United States. This finding is especially evident in the analysis of California, the most professionalized state legislature in the U.S.
by Keith Malcolm Edwards.
S.M.
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Almbjär, Martin. "The voice of the people? : Supplications submitted to the Swedish Diet in the Age of Liberty, 1719–1772." Doctoral thesis, Umeå universitet, Institutionen för idé- och samhällsstudier, 2016. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-124423.
Full textAbstract:
This dissertation is devoted to the study of who used the formal channels of interaction in the early modern era and why. It examines the full range of the political conversation in early modern Sweden, as seen in the supplications to the Diet in the Age of Liberty (1719–1772), and more specifically the supplications submitted to the parliamentary committee tasked with handling them, the Screening Deputation. The literature yields few systematic studies of this official channel, and supplications have long been terra incognita in the early modern political landscape. Their exact importance is uncertain, to say the least. Using a database built on three samples from the beginning, middle, and end of the Age of Liberty, the Diet's supplication channel is shown to have been used by two groups: supplicants from state-affiliated households primarily tried to use it to pursue their claims on the state, to settle various issues related to employment, or to receive some sort of support through hard times; and, increasingly, commoners, especially delegates in the Estate of the Burghers, used the channel for their gravamina concerning commerce, taxation, and the like, and state support for public amenities, a group for whom the Screening Deputation offered an alternative route to getting their grievances heard by the Diet. Both groups increasingly used the Diet's supplication channel was appeal the verdicts of the King in Council (Kungl. Maj:t). Although most were not appeals against the Judicial Audit, the results reveal an active use of appeals, and thus a de facto erosion of Kungl. Maj:t's supremacy. The results also show that as many as three-fifths of all supplicants had their supplications accepted by the Screening Deputation for further examination by the Diet. Although the acceptance rate was definitely lower in the 1730s and 1740s, the committee seems to have been fairly benevolent in its interpretation of the rules on petitioning. The results, lastly, show that although the Diet's supplication channel allowed excluded groups direct access to the Diet - including women of all classes, commoners of rank, and unrepresented groups - it mainly catered to men with the social status or wealth that put them in the middle and upper strata of society. Although this supplication channel stood open to anyone, its egalitarian potential was seemingly never realized. The use of March and Olsen's institutional theory about the logic of appropriateness, has revealed that certain institutional templates and norms that would have enabled these groups more access to the channel succumbed and made room for other institutional foundations. Supplications were part of the medieval and early modern centralization of legal and political power, the formation of the state, the protection of the privileges of Swedish subjects, and, during the Age of Liberty, the power struggle between the Diet and the kings. Each supplication viewed by itself might seem trivial, but nonetheless played a part in each and every one of these major processes. An ordinary Swede could have an impact on early modern politics when acting in concert with other supplicants, like rain eating away at rock.
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Blomgren, Mattias. "Inkluderande och exkluderande strategier och förhållningsätt mot Sverigedemokraterna i tre av riksdagens utskott." Thesis, Stockholms universitet, Statsvetenskapliga institutionen, 2018. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-176482.
Full textAbstract:
Many studies have focused on whether or not different kinds of strategies used towards radical right parties give them more or less electoral support and power. This study, however, sets out to center the MP’s subjective views on how the strategies and different approaches are being used and experienced in parliamentary committees in the Swedish Riksdag. The purpose of the study is to gain new and more detailed information of the motivations used for the strategies from the MPs subjective views of the Swedish Democrats (SD). The different types of strategies studied are excluding strategies such as ignore, cordon sanitaire, demonise and defuse. The including strategies which are examined are adapt and collaborate. Vote technical disidentification is a theoretical contribution to strategies being used from this study and shows how MPs blame other parties for voting more on SD than their own. Semi- structured interviews with MPs from five parties, including SD, in three different parliamentary committees with a total number of 15 participants, which are used as the material. The result of the study suggests that there are some differences in the approaches of the different MPs, and the difference lies mostly in between and within parties and not so much among the different committees. The MPs have some differences in their subjective conception of the SD where some have a tough approach against them while others have a softer understanding to them socially but none except for one MP want formal collaboration with them. In broad terms, the political right has some tendencies to use inclusion strategies and the political left uses the exclusion strategies more broadly and not the inclusion at all, according to the result. Informal approaches to take distance from SD, used more by the political left. The perception of the strategies and approaches being used differs a lot from between the MPs from SD and the rest of the MPs in the study. A more hard, unfair and undemocratic is the perceptions of the MPs from SD of the strategy and approaches while the others do not see them as commonly used.
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Trzaskowski, Niklas. "From the Committee of 100 to the Committee to Re-Elect the President: The Political Campaigns of Richard M. Nixon." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2013. https://dc.etsu.edu/etd/1139.
Full textAbstract:
From the Committee of 100 to the Committee to Re-elect the President: The Political Campaigns of Richard M. Nixon offers the reader a comprehensive biography of Richard M. Nixon through the lens of his political campaigns. This thesis illustrates how Richard Nixon became one of the fiercest campaigners in 20th century American political history. This thesis, furthermore, examines the key staff and strategy of each campaign Nixon waged. This thesis, additionally, presents to the reader insight on how Nixon often fought his campaigns independently from the Republican Party and how he relied on the help of a few dedicated men.