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VIDAL, Guillem. "The political consequences of the Great Recession in Southern Europe crisis and representation in Spain." Doctoral thesis, European University Institute, 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/1814/63265.
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Defence date: 13 June 2019Examining Board: Prof. Hanspeter Kriesi, European University Institute (Supervisor); Prof. Elias Dinas, European University Institute; Prof. Eva Anduiza, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona; Prof. Kenneth M. Roberts, Duke University
The Great Recession constituted a breaking point in several aspects of the cultural, economic and political life of southern European countries (i.e. Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain). This dissertation aims to shed light on the political consequences of the economic crisis in this region —with a specific focus on Spain as a paradigmatic case— by analysing different aspects of the political transformations that took place during the period of crisis. The underlying argument is that, albeit some relevant differences, the four countries experienced a common pattern: the incapacity of national politics to offer differentiated recipes to the deteriorating economic situation triggered a widespread crisis of representation that introduced new issues in the political agenda and drove the political transformations in these countries. The combination of a political and economic crisis at the national and European levels opened new political spaces that new parties capitalised by appealing to the need for democratic renewal and opposition to austerity politics. Furthermore, as illustrated by the Spanish case, and in particular the Catalan experience, the political crisis had far-reaching consequences beyond economic grievances, leading to the activation of different types of conflicts. Overall, the findings suggest that the transformations in the structure of political conflict in southern Europe in the aftermath of the Great Recession are not the by-product of a growing cultural divide —as is the case in several other continental and north-European countries—, but instead respond to the loss of credibility in the political system. Methodologically, the dissertation relies on an original dataset of media content as well as on several sources of survey data to test the empirical validity of the claims.
Chapter 2 'From Boom to Bust : A Comparative Analysis of Greece and Spain under Austerity' of the PhD thesis draws upon an earlier version published as chapter 'From boom to bust : a comparative analysis of Greece and Spain under austerity' (2018) in the book Living under austerity : Greek society in crisis.
Chapter 3 'Old versus new politics: The political spaces in Southern Europe in times of crisis' of the PhD thesis draws upon an earlier version published as an article 'Old versus new politics : the political spaces in Southern Europe in times of crises' (2018) in the journal 'Party politics'
Chapter 4 'Out with the Old: Restructuring Spanish Politics' of the PhD thesis draws upon an earlier version published as an article 'Challenging business as usual? : the rise of new parties in Spain in times of crisis' (2017) in the journal 'West European politics'
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Kharroubi, Safwat. "The foiled state : a critical assessment of western donor aid provision and state-building in Palestine in the post-Oslo period." Thesis, Swansea University, 2012. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.678553.
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Lacouture, Matthew Thomas. "Liberalization, Contention, and Threat: Institutional Determinates of Societal Preferences and the Arab Spring in Tunisia and Morocco." PDXScholar, 2015. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/2130.
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Why do revolutions happen? What role do structures, institutions, and actors play in precipitating (or preventing) them? Finally, What might compel social mobilization against a regime in the face of potentially insurmountable odds? These questions are all fundamentally about state-society (strategic) interactions, and elite and societal preference formation over time. The self-immolation of Muhammad Bouazizi in Sidi Bouzid on December 17, 2010, served as a focal point upon which over twenty years of corrupt, coercive authoritarian rule were focused into a single, unified challenge to the Ben Ali regime. The regime's brutality was publicized via social media activism and satellite television, precipitating mass mobilization across Tunisia and, eventually, throughout the region and beyond. In light of the rapid and unforeseen nature of these events, scholars writing about the causes of the Arab Spring have focused their critiques on scholarship that they felt overemphasized the role of institutions and elite-level actors over 'under the radar' changes within society. This paper essentially agrees with this point of view, but is not content to simply 'throw out' institutionalism. As Timur Kuran (1991) argued in the wake of the unforeseen collapse of communism in Eastern Europe, one cannot understand revolution without understanding the 'true' preferences of social actors. In this way, the inevitability of revolutionary surprises seems a given so long as analysts continue to look from the top-down. Yet, this paper contends that institutions do still matter. They matter because different institutional arrangements incentivize and constrain regime strategies, which, in turn, inform the strategic calculations and preference orderings within society. These two societal variables are determined - in part - by the degree of regime flexibility, and they affect whether, how, and where social actors choose to vent their dissent.
This paper proposes a model for the development of contentious social mobilization under authoritarianism. In order to do so, two models - one game-theoretic, and the other rooted in the contentious politics subfield of political sociology - are synthesized toward elucidating how altered societal preferences affect strategic interactions between the regime and society over time and during acute contentious episodes. The synthesized model is then illustrated through narrative case studies of two North African states that experienced divergent outcomes in the wake of the Arab Spring: Tunisia and Morocco. The limited spaces and institutions for the expression of dissent in Tunisia gradually changed societal preferences over time. In 2010, Tunisians' preferences shifted from various socioeconomic demands and other issue-specific grievances toward a galvanized demand for the fall of the regime. In Morocco, on the other hand, social actors, by and large, continued to prefer limited reforms to a complete upheaval of the political system. This paper contends that this divergence in preferences and therefore outcomes was in part determined by the variation in the two regimes' respective strategic mixes of concessions and/or coercion. To the extent that such strategies and institutions were more flexible - i.e. were more permissive of (limited) political contention and contestation - social movements were less likely to become emboldened against the regime.
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Phaneuf, Caroline. "Why political reform is likely in China : challenges to political stability." Thesis, McGill University, 2003. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=79802.
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This paper suggests that a critical mass of elements is forming in China which, if not better controlled, will lead to some form of political regime change. The paper will (a) elaborate on China's major problems, grouped into "backbone changes" and "catalysts," (b) provide a balance sheet of remedies the government has attempted or proposed to date, and (c) examine the remedies' relative success or failure. Among the "backbone changes": decentralization, corruption, the emergence of interest groups, the government's possible loss of legitimacy, people's increased exposure to procedural democracy, the increase in the number of students receiving a foreign education, the privatization of education and divisions within the Chinese Communist Party. The "catalysts" include: massive urban and rural unemployment, corruption, forced displacement and the gentrification of China's cities.
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Lightowler, Claire. "Policy divergence and devolution : the impact of actors and institutions." Thesis, University of Stirling, 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/1893/16785.
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The creation of the National Assembly for Wales and the Scottish Parliament in 1999 was accompanied with an aspiration that these new institutions would allow Scotland and Wales to develop their own policies, better suited to local needs than those designed in Westminster or Whitehall. This thesis explores policy-making in the first terms of the devolved institutions in Scotland and Wales, focusing on where the policies developed by these institutions diverged from those pursued at Westminster. Policy divergence is examined by studying the development of the financing long-term care for the elderly policies. The aim of this thesis is to identify why policy divergence occurred in the long-term care case, considering the impact of actors (or agents) and the institutional setting in which they operate, as suggested by Scharpf's model of actor-centred institutionalism. As actor-centred institutionalism suggested, both actors and institutions played a major role in shaping policy responses. In the Scottish case a range of actors cooperated and lobbied together for the introduction of free personal care, spurred on by the First Minister, who created an opportunity for those in favour of free personal care to pressurise his government to introduce the policy. In contrast, in Wales, actors were divided and never built up the same momentum to ensure the introduction of a more generous long-term care package. The institutional setting in which these actors operated was a major factor in shaping their policy preferences and the strategies they adopted to achieve them. This thesis considers the impact on policy-making of the devolved institution's electoral system, financial and legislative powers, design of the institutions, and the place of these institutions in a UK setting. The different institutional structures in Scotland and Wales provided different incentives and resources for actors, encouraged different styles of policy-making from Westminster and affected the way in which issues were framed. Examining the roles of actors and institutions in the formation of distinctive policies highlighted that in the real world these two elements are mutually dependent and cannot be separated. As a result it is impossible, and pointless, to determine whether actors or institutions were most influential on the development of distinctive policies. Instead this thesis explores how the difference between the configurations of actors and institutions in Scotland and Wales contributed to the creation of policies which were distinctive both from each other and the UK Government.
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ENA, SANJUÁN Íñigo. "The vertebrae of the Leviathan : municipal debt and state formation in the eighteenth-century Crown of Aragon." Doctoral thesis, European University Institute, 2022. http://hdl.handle.net/1814/74919.
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Defence date: 28 September 2022Examining Board: Prof. Pieter Judson (European University Institute); Prof. Tamar Herzog (Harvard University); Prof. Christopher Storrs (University of Dundee); Prof. Regina Grafe (European University Institute)
Why and how did modern states emerge in Southwestern Europe? These are the main questions that this thesis answers by examining the debt of six municipalities of the Crown of Aragon during the 18th century through a multiscale, transversal, and comparative approach. The ancient practices which constituted the Aragonese polity appeared in the mid-fourteenth century and survived at least until the mid-eighteenth century partially thanks to the debt of the municipalities. Towns and kingdoms were in many cases ruled by assemblies of creditors by virtue of debt restructuring agreements. Debt accounts for the long survival of the Aragonese polity, but also for its sclerosis. The financial situation of the debtholders, mostly ecclesiastical institutions, prevented rulers from defaulting on municipal debt and adopting drastic measures against the Church, as they feared a financial meltdown. The emergence of the modern state was an intricate process which started by 1750, mainly due to the collapse of the ancient mechanisms. The modern state appeared as a set of practices devised and implemented by a myriad of actors who tried to recompose social and political life. State formation was first and foremost a local process in which municipal debt proved crucial too. The examination of local dynamics reveals that modern states in Southwestern Europe followed similar paths during the early phases of their formation.
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Wilson, Rachelle. "Historical Memory and Ethics in Spanish Narrative." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2017. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1062813/.
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This study traces the current status of Spanish ethics as seen through the optics of historical memory. Starting from the Spanish Civil War in 1936, the thesis relates contemporary themes to their proposed origin throughout three additional distinctive eras of the 20th and 21st century in Spain: 1982-1996 (Socialist Spain), 1997-2010 (Post-modern Spain), and 2011-present (current Spain). Spanish narratives ranging from Los Abel by Matute, La magnitud de la tragedia by Monzó, "Fidelidad" of Ha dejado de llover by Barba and Las fosas de Franco by Silva are contextualized through their ethical architecture, in accordance with their socio-political context, and relationship to past historical traumas. This work proposes that the themes of anticlericalism, the pursuit of social equality, anti bureaucracy, and political distrust are trends culminating from Kohlberg's third level of morality. The thesis aims to be an exposition and legitimization of different ethical schemas that might otherwise be polarized as wrong and inferior by others.
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Fattah, Khaled. "Contextual determinants of political modernization in tribal Middle Eastern societies : the case of unified Yemen." Thesis, University of St Andrews, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/10023/1984.
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By all conventional measurements of modernization and development, from communication and education to bureaucracy and urbanization, Arab societies have been undergoing an impressive transformation. There is, however, a wide gap in the Arab Middle East between such a transformation and the political consequences of modernization. In other words, the Arab Middle East exhibits a sharp contrast between its societal and political progress. In the case of Yemen, such a gap looks different from the one that exists in the rest of the region. In addition to being a country with the weakest and most limited bureaucracy in the Arab world, Yemen has, also, the lowest level of urbanization and education in the region. According to United Nations Human Development Report for the year 2004, 73.7 % of Yemen’s population are living in rural areas, and the country has a combined gross enrolment rate for primary, secondary and tertiary schools of 43%. In 2008, Yemen was rated near the bottom of the Human Development Index (HDI) by the UNDP; as number 153rd out of the 177 countries with HDI data, and it ranked as number 82 out of 108 countries in the Human Poverty Index. The United Nations Human Development Report 2006, for instance, indicates that the percentage of Yemeni population who live below National Poverty Line is 41.8%. Yet, Yemen is more democratic than most countries in the Arab Middle East. In light of this paradox, the following central question guides this research: which contextual factors are central in explaining the unique process of political modernization in tribal Yemen?
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Prinsloo, Cyril. "African pirates in the 21st century : a comparative analysis of maritime piracy in Somalia and Nigeria." Thesis, Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/20142.
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Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2012.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study concerned the piratical attacks occurring along the East and West coasts of Africa. Although maritime piracy along the coasts of Africa is not a new phenomenon, recent upsurges in piratical attacks have attracted a great deal of attention. Despite Nigeria being long considered as the hotspot for piratical activity in Africa, the greatest upsurge of piratical activity has been seen in the areas surrounding Somalia, including the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean. The primary objective of this study is to identify the main causes of maritime piracy in Somalia and Nigeria. Also the correlation between state capacity (failed or weak) and the motivations for piracy (greed or grievance) is investigated. The secondary objectives of this study are to investigate the direct manifestations of piracy, as well as the current counter piracy initiatives. This is done in order to evaluate the successes and failures of current counter-piracy approaches in order to create more viable and successful counter measures. It is found that historical factors, as well as political, economic, social and environmental factors contribute greatly to the rise of maritime piracy in both Somalia and Nigeria. Furthermore, it has been found that there are numerous direct causes of piracy in these two countries. These differences and similarities have been investigated using a comparative analysis framework.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie studie het betrekking tot die seerowery wat langs die Oos-en Weskus van Afrika plaasvind. Alhoewel seerowery langs die kus van Afrika nie 'n nuwe verskynsel is nie, het die onlangse oplewing van seerower-aanvalle baie aandag geniet in verskeie oorde. Ten spyte daarvan dat Nigerië lank beskou was as die probleem-area vir seerower aktiwiteit in Afrika, word die grootste toename van seerowery in die gebiede rondom Somalië, insluitend die Golf van Aden en die Indiese Oseaan ervaar. Die primêre doel van hierdie studie is om die oorsake van seerowery in Somalië en Nigerië te identifiseer. Die verband tussen staat-kapasiteit (mislukte of swak) en die motiverings vir seerowery (gierigheid of griewe) word ondersoek. Die sekondêre doelwitte van hierdie studie is om die direkte manifestasies van seerowery te ondersoek, sowel as die huidige teen-seerower inisiatiewe. Dit word gedoen om die suksesse en mislukkings van die huidige teen-seerower benaderings te evalueer ten einde meer lewensvatbare en suksesvolle teenmaatreels te skep. Dit is gevind dat historiese faktore, sowel as die politieke-, ekonomiese-, sosiale- en omgewings- faktore baie bydra tot die ontstaan en opbloei van seerowery in Somalië en Nigerië. Dit is gevind dat daar talle direkte oorsake van seerowery in hierdie twee lande is. Hierdie verskille en ooreenkomste is ondersoek met behulp van vergelykende analises.
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Mason, Anthony, and n/a. "Australian coverage of the Fiji coups of 1987 and 2000: sources, practice and representation." University of Canberra. Communication, 2009. http://erl.canberra.edu.au./public/adt-AUC20090826.144012.
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For many Australians, Fiji is a place of holidays, coups and rugby. The extent to which we
think about this near-neighbour of ours is governed, for most, by what we learn about Fiji
through the media. In normal circumstances, there is not a lot to learn as Fiji rarely appears
in our media. At times of crisis, such as during the 1987 and 2000 coups in Fiji, there is
saturation coverage. At these times, the potential for generating understanding is great. The
reporting of a crisis can encapsulate all the social, political and economic issues which are a
cause or outcome of an event like a coup, elucidating for media consumers the culture, the
history and the social forces involved. In particular, the kinds of sources used and the kinds
of organisations these sources represent, the kinds of themes presented in the reporting, and
the way the journalists go about their work, can have a significant bearing on how an event
like a coup is represented. The reporting of the Fiji coups presented the opportunity to
examine these factors. As such, the aim of this thesis is to understand the role of the media
in building relationships between developed and developing post-colonial nations like
Australia and Fiji.
A content analysis of 419 articles published in three leading broadsheet newspapers, The
Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian and The Canberra Times, examined the basic
characteristics of the articles, with a particular focus on the sources used in these articles.
This analysis revealed that the reports were dominated by elite sources, particularly
representatives of governments, with a high proportion of Australian sources who provided
information from Australia. While alternative sources did appear, they were limited in
number. Women, Indian Fijians and representatives of non-government organisations were
rarely used as sources. There were some variations between the articles from 1987 and those
from 2000, primarily an increase in Indian Fijian sources, but overall the profile of the
sources were similar.
A thematic analysis of the same articles identified and examined the three most prevalent
themes in the coverage. These indicated important aspects of the way the coups were
represented: the way Fiji was represented, the way Australia's responses were represented,
and the way the coup leaders were represented. This analysis found that the way in which
the coups were represented reflected the nature of the relationship between Australia and
Fiji. In 1987, the unexpected nature of the coup meant there was a struggle to re-define how
Fiji should be understood. In 2000, Australia's increased focus on Fiji and the Pacific region
was demonstrated by reports which represented the situation as more complex and uncertain,
demanding more varied responses.
A series of interviews with journalists who travelled to Fiji to cover the coups revealed that
the working conditions for Australian media varied greatly between 1987 and 2000. The
situational factors, particularly those which limited their work, had an impact on the
journalists' ability to access specific kinds of sources and, ultimately, the kinds of themes
which appeared in the stories. The variation between 1987 and 2000 demonstrated that
under different conditions, journalists were able to access a more diverse range of sources
and present more sophisticated perspectives of the coup.
In a cross-cultural situation such as this, the impact of reporting dominated by elite sources
is felt not just in the country being covered, but also in the country where the reporting
appears. It presents a limited representation, which marginalises and downplays the often
complex social, cultural and historical factors which contribute to an event like a coup.
Debate and alternative ways of understanding are limited and the chance to engage more
deeply with a place like Fiji is, by and large, lost.
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BIRNIE, Rutger Steven. "The ethics and politics of deportation in Europe." Doctoral thesis, European University Institute, 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/1814/61307.
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Defence date: 19 February 2019Examining Board: Professor Rainer Bauböck, European University Institute (Supervisor); Professor Matthew Gibney, University of Oxford; Professor Iseult Honohan, University College Dublin; Professor Jennifer Welsh, McGill University (formerly European University Institute)
This thesis explores key empirical and normative questions prompted by deportation policies and practices in the contemporary European context. The core empirical research question the thesis seeks to address is: what explains the shape of deportation regimes in European liberal democracies? The core normative research question is: how should we evaluate these deportation regimes morally? The two parts of the thesis address each of these questions in turn. To explain contemporary European deportation regimes, the four chapters of the first part of the thesis investigate them from a historical and multilevel perspective. (“Expulsion Old and New”) starts by comparing contemporary deportation practices to earlier forms of forced removal such as criminal banishment, political exile, poor law expulsion, and collective expulsions on a religious or ethnic basis, highlighting how contemporary deportation echoes some of the purposes of these earlier forms of expulsion. (“Divergences in Deportation”) looks at some major differences between European countries in how, and how much, deportation is used as a policy instrument today, concluding that they can be roughly grouped into four regime types, namely lenient, selective, symbolically strict and coercively strict. The next two chapters investigate how non-national levels of government are involved in shaping deportation in the European context. (“Europeanising Expulsion”) traces how the institutions of the European Union have come to both restrain and facilitate or incentivise member states’ deportation practices in fundamental ways. (“Localities of Belonging”) describes how provincial and municipal governments are increasingly assertive in frustrating deportations, effectively shielding individuals or entire categories of people from the reach of national deportation efforts, while in other cases local governments pressure the national level into instigating deportation proceedings against unwanted residents. The chapters argue that such efforts on both the supranational and local levels must be explained with reference to supranational and local conceptions of membership that are part of a multilevel citizenship structure yet can, and often do, come apart from the national conception of belonging. The second part of the thesis addresses the second research question by discussing the normative issues deportation gives rise to. (“Deportability, Domicile and the Human Right to Stay”) argues that a moral and legal status of non-deportability should be extended beyond citizenship to all those who have established effective domicile, or long-term and permanent residence, in the national territory. (“Deportation without Domination?”) argues that deportation can and should be applied in a way that does not dominate those it subjects by ensuring its non-arbitrary application through a limiting of executive discretion and by establishing proportionality testing in deportation procedures. (“Resisting Unjust Deportation”) investigates what can and should be done in the face of unjust national deportation regimes, proposing that a normative framework for morally justified antideportation resistance must start by differentiating between the various individual and institutional agents of resistance before specifying how their right or duty to resist a particular deportation depends on motivational, epistemic and relational conditions.
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Novillo, Perez Cecilio Jose, and Perez Cecilio Jose Novillo. "La Movida Madrileña and the Rock Radical Vasco as Political and Social Agents in Post-Franco Spain: Their influence on Popular Musical Practices of 21st-Century Spain." Thesis, The University of Arizona, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/626715.
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In Spain, the era of political transition to democracy known as La Transición during the 1970s and 1980s led to changes in Spanish popular music (i.e., pop, rock, punk) which became the musical representation of the new democracy’s social and political changes. Two different musical movements of that period, La Movida Madrileña and Rock Radical Vasco, established boundaries between official mainstream music and its musical counterculture counterpart, underground, and subversive musical practices within Spanish democracy. This thesis examines the nature of those musical practices, their song lyrics, and their social and political interpretations, including their influence on current musical practices.
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Kapyata, Dennis. "China-African Union relations : 2001 to the present." HKBU Institutional Repository, 2020. https://repository.hkbu.edu.hk/etd_oa/738.
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The increasing engagement of China in Africa after the cold war has steered debates concerning the growing complexion of this relationship. However, the emphasis of assessment has mainly been narrowed to the bilateral relationship between China and African countries. Insufficient consideration has been focused to the increasing relationship concerning China and African Union which is the continental Regional Organization of African states. This study explores the nature and impact of China-African Union relationship and its consequences to the African Union member states generally. The study examines the significance of this relationship and demonstrates how both China and African Union are using this relationship to fulfill their objectives and the ultimate effect to the African Union member states that have bilateral relations with China. By using qualitative design and the lens of constructivism this study has tested the extent of the application of China's objectives under the China African policy and the African Union objectives under the Constitutive Act and Agenda 2063 by analyzing the extent the parties are using this relationship to enhance the fulfillment of their objectives, by testing the study on the objectives of infrastructure development, peace and security, health, and capacity development as the research variables. This study shows the extent at which the parties' relations has led to the achievement of these objectives thus demonstrating the importance of the relationship between China and African Union. This relationship has enhanced peace and security preservation of the African continent, facilitated the development of African Union Centre for Disease Control and Prevention to boost the health objective on the continent, as well as aggrandized skill development through capacity development initiatives on the continent. China has also supported, consistently praised and acknowledged the role of the AU in solving African problems as well as constructing for it the biggest office block hence giving the continental organization a new face. Nevertheless, the study shows that China is using this relationship to project itself as a more active external partner for the AU and the African continent compared to the rest. Similarly, China is trying to use this relationship with the AU to socialize the AU member states towards its own priorities, and the relationship is positioning China to initiate, maintain and increase its Soft power interests on the African continent as well as advance its norms. Equally, China is carefully using its relationship with the AU to promote its geostrategic and political interests on the African continent for instance through its recent establishment of the Chinese military base in Djibouti. The study also highlights how Chinese Africa relations is not only based on interest of exploiting African resources entirely as described by previous authors, but there is also commitment towards increasing its engagement with the African Union basing on each other's policies and priorities in order to fulfill their objectives
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Willi, Victor Jonathan Amadeus. "The fourth ordeal : a history of the Society of the Muslim Brothers in Egypt, 1973-2013." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2015. https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:b54c3cfe-14af-4bf7-8e73-fc27e6ab4ce7.
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This thesis is an internal organisational history of the Society of the Muslim Brothers in Egypt between 1973 and 2013. Based on memoires of Brotherhood leaders, as well as oral history interviews conducted in 2012 and 2013 with different rank-and-file members and dissidents, the thesis situates the life trajectories and personal experiences of these individuals within a larger national and international context. The purpose is to provide a historical account that is able to explain the reasons for the Brotherhood's cataclysmic failure of the summer of 2013. In accounting for the fall, my key argument centres on the internal rivalry between two political factions representing different "schools of thought", or visions, about the kind of organisation the Brotherhood was supposed to be. Representatives of the respective coalitions competed against each other over hegemony and organisational resources, basing their claims on contrasting intellectual traditions, political cultures and organisational values that had co-existed, sometimes uncomfortably, within the ranks of the Society since the times of Hasan al-Banna. The adherents of the "Qutbist" school of thought put forward the idea of a closed, pyramid-shaped and exclusive organisation, while those closer to 'Omar al-Tilmisani's model aspired to a reformed Society that was open to outsiders, and where internal progression was based on meritocracy, transparency and some form of democracy. I argue that it is through the holistic analysis of the complex dynamics between internal organisational politics, the use of ideology, and the personal experiences of key organisational members, that we are best able to grasp the Brotherhood's failed experience in governance in 2013.
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ROMANOS, Eduardo. "Ideologia libertaria y movilización clandestina : el anarquismo español durante el franquismo (1939-1975)." Doctoral thesis, European University Institute, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/1814/10455.
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Defence date: 11 December 2007Examining Board: Prof. Peter Wagner, (Università degli Studi di Trento and former EUI) ; Prof. Donatella della Porta, (EUI) ; Prof. Demetrio Castro, (Universidad Pública de Navarra) ; Prof. Adrian Shubert, (York University)
PDF of thesis uploaded from the Library digital archive of EUI PhD theses
Este trabajo examina el conjunto de creencias, valores e ideas políticas de los libertarios que en España se movilizaron contra la dictadura franquista entre 1939 y 1975. La tesis principal de la investigación es la emergencia de un proceso de cambio en la ideología libertaria durante ese periodo de clandestinidad que cuestionó algunos de los presupuestos esenciales del pensamiento anarquista clásico. Este cambio y la resistencia al mismo serán analizados teniendo en cuenta la experiencia histórica y las expectativas de los actores que compartieron la ideología, el contexto político y social que rodeó su movilización y la tradición política de la que provenían y a la que éstos de una u otra forma se vincularon.
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Rees, Timothy John. "Agrarian society and politics in the province of Badajoz under the Spanish Second Republic, 1931-1936." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1991. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:a9a57d34-b448-434e-ab32-726a19aeffea.
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This thesis analyses rural social and political conflict in the province of Badajoz (Extremadura) during the Spanish Second Republic of 1931 to 1936. It takes a broad approach to social and political change in a province typical of southern Spain, but focusses particularly on the under-explored role of powerful agrarian elites opposed to the reforms introduced by the new liberal-democratic regime. The study begins with two complementary chapters covering the period 1870-1930; they consider the evolution of the autocratic rural order presided over by the elite and discuss the growth of the challenge to agrian power from organised rural labour. In the following chapters covering in detail the period 1931 to 1936 the partial transformat ion of the rural order that accompanied the transition to the Republic, the subsequent processes of social and political struggle, and the polarisation that followed are documented. A final epilogue considers the Civil War as a rural counter-revolution that involved the resurgence of agrarian autocracy in Badajoz. The thesis draws on a wide range of primary materials, from archives and printed sources to memoirs, and utilizes the relevant secondary literature. In general the study forms part of a movement to reach a deeper understanding of social and political change during the Republic and in particular offers new perspectives on the contribution of the 'agrarian question' to the breakdown of the regime and the origins of the Civil War.
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Mbulle-Nziege, Leonard. "Post -war recovery and development in Liberia since 2013." Thesis, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/10948/12361.
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The aims and objectives of this study are notably, to provide an overall understanding of the history of Liberia, from the country’s foundation, through the civil war, up to the present day post-conflict scenario. It intends to identify the strategies and schemes put in place by Liberian officials and other stakeholders, while outlining the importance of attaining the goals attached to these various plans. The difficulties of achieving these post-conflict development goals will also be noted, and finally, It analyses whether the concepts used in Liberia might also be implemented in post-conflict societies not only in Africa, but all over the world.
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Chen, Zetao. "Local organizations and efficiency of state extraction in rural China: a case study of a county in Guangdong Province, 1949-1956 /Chen Zetao." HKBU Institutional Repository, 2016. https://repository.hkbu.edu.hk/etd_oa/360.
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The present study focuses on the local organizations and state extraction in rural China from 1949 to 1956. But in order to provide an understanding of context and processes the thesis at the same time examines the secular changes in local organizations and the historical experience of state extraction in rural China during a relatively long period from the fourteenth century to 1956. Specifically, the present study focuses on the relationships between local organizations and the efficiency (transaction costs) of state extraction in rural China from the fourteenth century to 1956, and finds that the actions and interactions of the state (or rulers), state agents (recorders in lijia organization and lineage leaders before the twentieth century, local bosses during the first half of the twentieth century, and heads and recorders in the collectives after 1949), and constituents (the common peasants) led to the changes of institutions in state extraction (forms of taxation, forms of contract between the state and state agents, structures of local organizations) and institutions in broader social context (informal institutions), and the changes in the efficiency (transaction costs) of state extraction, by using the historical experience of state extraction from villages in A County (a County in southeast China) from the fourteenth century to 1956 as a case study. The thesis therefore revises key aspects of the new institutionalism model (Williamson 1975; North 1981, 1991; Kiser 1994; Levi 1988), and develops a new model for understanding organizations, what might be called the process institutionalism model. In contrast to the new institutionalism model which emphasizes the efficiency properties of alternative forms of organization, and their centrality to the actions and interactions of organization participants and the other actors in broader social context, the process institutionalism model focuses on the processes whereby the organizational participants and the other actors in broader social context, having different interests and valuing various inducements, take actions and interact with each other, and emphasizes that the processes of the actions and interactions of organization participants and the other actors in broader social context are fundamentally important to the changes in organization structures and the other institutions in broader social context, and the changes in the efficiency of institutional patterns. Secondly, the present study follows the research approach opened by Schumpeter (1991) and develops a relatively complete framework to understand the changes in state institutions, and the efficiency of state extraction, not only in China, but also in the other countries after the fourteenth century (including the development of a relatively strong central representative institution in England in the seventeenth century and the establishment of bureaucratic monarchy in the major European continental countries in the eighteenth century).
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Harty, Siobhán. "Disputed state, contested nation : republic and nation in interwar Catalonia." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1998. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk1/tape11/PQDD_0027/NQ50182.pdf.
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Albers, Andrew D. "Ethno-nationalism and the Spanish state : a comparison of three regions in Spain /." Thesis, This resource online, 1992. http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd-12042009-020026/.
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Win, Chit. "Explaining Myanmar's hluttaw, 2011-2016 : transitional legitimacy and the politics of legislative autonomy." Phd thesis, Canberra, ACT : The Australian National University, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/1885/155530.
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Transitional legislatures are essential institutions for entrenching democracy by providing legitimacy and by constraining the executive. This research examines the role of Myanmar{u2019}s legislature (the Hluttaw) during the country{u2019}s transition from the direct military rule. When it first met in January 2011, there was little disagreement that Myanmar{u2019}s legislature would serve as a rubber stamp because of the overwhelming majority of representatives from the ruling pro-military party and the military itself. Yet the Hluttaw emerged as a reform-minded lawmaking body as well as a forum for oversight of the executive. Lawmakers from the minor and ethnic parties actively engaged in the legislature alongside lawmakers from the ruling party, especially those who were pressured to contest the 2010 election.This research analyses the role of Myanmar{u2019}s legislature against four major transitional functions: (i) achieving legislative autonomy; (ii) a driving force in political and structural reform; (iii) realising democratic norms; and (iv) tackling transitional conflicts. Based on this conceptual framework, the dissertation asks, what role did Myanmar{u2019}s first legislature play during the transition from the military rule? And what were the determining factors? It argues that the Hluttaw provided transitional legitimacy by achieving legislative autonomy but its authoritarian form, and its political competition with the executive, stopped the Hluttaw from becoming a driving force in Myanmar{u2019}s transition. The dissertation also introduces the three major factors responsible for the shift from a rubber stamp to a robust legislature: (i) the speakers; (ii) non-partisanship; and (iii) co-opted lawmakers. The nexus between these factors explains what influenced the Hluttaw as well as how the Hluttaw became institutionally stronger.This research contributes to the scholarly understanding of transitional legislatures by developing a conceptual framework about how legislatures play a role in political transition as well as an explanation about how institutional rivalry can create authoritarian splits. This analysis is based on five months of fieldwork in the national legislature in Nay Pyi Taw, and the sub-national legislatures in Myanmar{u2019}s States and Regions, and content analysis of the records of the legislative plenary sessions (2011-2016). Keywords: Myanmar, Hluttaw, legislature, democratic transition
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Krawatzek, Félix. "Youth and crisis : discourse networks and political mobilisation." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2015. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:80a45271-f04d-4c1d-abff-6ee6c6478941.
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This thesis explores the meaning of "youth" and the political mobilisation of young people in key moments of crisis in Europe. Between 2005 and 2011, youth became critical for the consolidation of the authoritarian regime structures in Russia. I show that this process included the restructuring of the discourse about youth, the physical mobilisation of young people, and the isolation of oppositional youth. How valid are these findings for regime crises more generally? I answer this question through an analysis of the breakdown of the authoritarian Soviet Union during perestroika, the breakdown of unconsolidated democracy during the last years of the Weimar Republic, and the crisis of the democratic regime in France around 1968. The cross-regional and cross-temporal comparison of these episodes demonstrates that regimes lacking popular democratic support compensate for their insufficient legitimacy by trying to mobilise youth symbolically and politically. By developing a new method of textual analysis which combines qualitative content analysis and network analysis, the thesis offers a novel social science perspective on the meaning of youth in the four cases. My study shows how discursive structures about youth condition the possibility of political mobilisation of young people. The thesis makes three contributions to comparative politics. First, on an empirical level, my study offers new insights into social movements at moments of regime crisis in different political settings. Second, on a conceptual level, I refine our understanding of the symbolic significance of the terms "youth" and "generation" in moments when society is reorienting itself. I also examine the significance of "crisis" and argue that the term expresses openness and the possibility to remake the past and future. Third, on a methodological level, my thesis builds on the growing interest in textual analysis by developing a novel multi-level approach in three linguistic contexts, which offers insights into the structure of public discourse and the actors involved.
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Lam-Knott, Sonia Yue Chuen. "The protesting youths of Hong Kong : post-80s reimaginings of politics through self, body, and space." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2015. https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:ae079ba9-2025-40a0-bf3f-54d9197eb6b0.
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This thesis examines the political activism of Hong Kong youths known as the Post-80s. In contrast to dominant discourse in Hong Kong claiming that these youths are driven by economic concerns, based on 18 months of fieldwork, I suggest that the Post-80s are instead striving to reimagine what politics means as a part of life in the postcolonial city. It is emphasised that youths are 'protesting' as an act of rejecting mainstream politics, and as a means to realise their desire for a different form of politics to emerge in the city. By bringing youth voices to the forefront, this thesis addresses two broad themes - why and how the Post-80s protest. The thesis first provides an overview of Hong Kong politics, arguing that youths express a deep sense of dissatisfaction towards the political culture in society dictated by financial interests, and towards the hierarchical structures within the political domains that stifle the public voice. The thesis then reviews how the Post-80s challenge these conditions by positing a form of alternative politics predicated on individualistic self-representation manifesting through the self, body, and space. I look at youth claims that becoming political is an 'individual choice', and the ways in which their strong sense of individuality interacts with/counteracts the limitations on their political participation imposed by familial ties and gender roles. I then explore Post-80s attempts to dispel bodily passivity in protests through the incorporation of performance art into their political actions to empower the individual activist, and analyse youth attempts to reconfigure urban space into political sites of individualistic experimentation. The conclusion reviews the impact Post-80s activism has had on the realpolitik of the city, noting the inherent contradictions within the political efforts of the Post-80s and their limited ability to inflict widespread structural changes in Hong Kong politics.
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Njoloma, Eugenio. "A study of intra-African relations an analysis of the factors informing the foreign policy of Malawi towards Zimbabwe." Thesis, Rhodes University, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003028.
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There has been only limited scholarly analysis of Malawi’s foreign policy since its independence in 1964 with key texts focusing primarily on the early years of the new state. Perhaps due to its relatively small stature – economically, politically and militarily – in the region, very little attention has been paid to the factors informing Malawi’s apparently uncritical foreign policy response to the Zimbabwe crisis since it began in the late 1990s. This thesis addresses this deficit by locating its understanding of Malawi’s contemporary foreign policy towards Zimbabwe in the broader historical and contemporary context of bilateral relations between the two states and the multilateral forum of SADCC and SADC. It is argued that the Malawi’s long-standing quest for socio-economic development has forced it to manoeuvre a pragmatic but sometimes contentious foreign policy path. This was also evident until the end of the Cold War and the concomitant demise of apartheid in South Africa in the early 1990s. Malawi forged deliberate diplomatic and economic relations with the region’s white-ruled Zimbabwe (then Southern Rhodesia) and South Africa in pursuit of its national economic interests while the majority of southern African states collectively sought the liberation of the region by facilitating the independence of Zimbabwe and countering South Africa’s apartheid and regional destabilization policies. In the contemporary era, there has been a convergence of foreign policy ambitions in the region and Malawi now coordinates its regional foreign policy within the framework of SADC, which itself prioritizes the attainment of socio-economic development. However, to understand Malawi’s response to the Zimbabwe crisis only in the context of SADC’s “quiet diplomacy” mediation efforts obscures important historically rooted socioeconomic and political factors that have informed relations between Malawi and Zimbabwe and which cannot, it is argued, be ignored if a holistic understanding of Malawi’s position is to be sought. This study argues that the nature of historical ties between Malawi and Zimbabwe and the role of Malawi’s leaders in driving its long-standing quest for socioeconomic development have not only informed its overall foreign policy behaviour in the region but underpin its contemporary relations with Zimbabwe.
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Xi, Jinrui. "The King Arrives: Chinese Government Inspections and Their Effects." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2017. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1011819/.
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This dissertation studies a critical facet of Chinese politics, inspections by higher Chinese government to villages. Principally, it looks at how village economic development determines government inspection decisions and how inspections, once conducted, impact village politics. Specifically, I argue that villages perceived as destabilizing to the Chinese regime, villages with higher levels of economic inequality and villages located at the two extremes of economic development, should see more inspections. In addition, I argue that inspections, in return, drive village politics: they increase village leaders' governing efficacy and raise villagers' political awareness. This theory has received strong support from both field work and quantitative empirical tests using the Chinese Household Income Project (2002) dataset.
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Chukwunaru, Charles Obinna. "Conflict prevention, management and resolution in Africa: a case study of the conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan (2003 – 2013)." Thesis, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/10948/14818.
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Africa has witnessed some of the most horrific and devastating conflicts in the world in recent times. This study, concerned about the problem of these seemingly intractable or endemic violent conflicts ravaging the continent of Africa since decolonisation; resulting in poverty, hunger, diseases, massive killing, rape, permanent disability and underdevelopment, examined the issues relating to conflict prevention, management and resolution in Africa. In doing so, it used the conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan as a case study. It examined the role of international organisations, especially that which the African Union and the United Nations played in the prevention, management and resolution of the conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan, as well as the remote and immediate cause of the Darfur conflict and major parties to the Darfur conflict. Other issues examined by this study include the outcome of the United Nations Commission of Inquiry into the violations of international humanitarian law and human rights law, including acts of genocide in Darfur; and the Sudanese government’s response. Moreover, it analysed the implication of the Darfur conflict in the problem of preventing, managing and resolving violent conflict in Africa while drawing some lessons for the African Union, as well as the government of Sudan. However, this research, which adopted the qualitative case study methodology in data collection, presentation and analysis, posits that the protracted violent conflict, which was triggered by some rebel leaders with doubtful motives in the Darfur region of Sudan, who capitalised on the age-long problem of underdevelopment in the Darfur region, as well as low intensity disputes among the tribes over ownership of land and water resources, was avoidable. It further asserts that the African Union lacked the capacity to engage in an effective peace support operation in Africa as witnessed in the failure of its mission in Darfur, which eventually got rescued by the United Nations through the UN-AU Hybrid Mission in Darfur (UNAMID). Further, this study has contributed in narrowing the existing gaps in academic literature on the aspect of conflict prevention management and resolution especially in Africa, even as it introduced the conspiracy theory in the understanding of the issues relating to the conflict in the Darfur region while recommending the immediate operationalisation of the African Union standby force to avert the reoccurrence of the Darfur conflict in Sudan and other parts of Africa, among other strategies aimed at enhancing the capacity and capability of the African Union to prevent, manage and resolve violent conflicts in Africa with or without the intervention of foreign powers. Moreover, this study recommends good governance that will promote political, social and economic justice as well as adherence to the rule of law; against all forms marginalisation, discrimination and other forms of structural violence in Africa. Essentially, this research has made an original contribution to the conflict studies literature with the formulation of the “Violent Intrastate Conflict Model” which explains the conflict dynamics and processes in most violent intrastate conflicts or civil war.
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Konik, Inga. "Whither South Africa – neoliberalism or an embodied communitarian indigenous ethic?" Thesis, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/10948/21656.
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This thesis offers a critique of neoliberal transformation in South Africa, which process results in growing social inequality and political apathy among citizens. Many scholars have made political-economic and historical analyses of the neoliberal transition, emphasizing structural changes at work at a ‘macro’ level. However, little attention has been paid to changes that have taken place in South Africa at the ‘micro’ level – changes to individual subjectivity and gender codes. That said, the thesis opens by summarizing the above mentioned political-economic accounts of neoliberalism in South Africa, because such works are indispensable to understanding how the regime is embedded within and buttressed by major global institutions. Yet, to achieve a holistic grasp of ‘neoliberal South Africa,’ more is needed. A sociological investigation into the impact of neoliberalism on ordinary people’s self-identification uncovers deep cultural reasons for the continued perpetuation of this unjust political-economic system. Only if it can be understood why people comply with the system in the face of suffering, can effective counter-measures be proposed and implemented over time. This thesis is inherently transdisciplinary. The approach rejects the privileging of one discipline over others, and likewise cautions against collapsing or dissolving disciplines into one another. Instead, recognizing the valuable contribution that each discipline can make to critical scrutiny of a particular issue, a form of methodological transversalism is used to bring different disciplines into dialogue with one another. Following this interplay of structural and subjective analysis, the thesis uncovers the role that consumerism plays in the political neutralization of South Africans. Consumer culture, tied as it is to profitable accumulation, instigates the neoliberal ‘values’ of economistic calculation, competition, and social atomization. This ethos is inculcated in individuals, both at work and during leisure hours. Moreover, consumerism derives much of its power from its ‘sexual sell,’ the creation of fashionable and ‘exemplary’ models of masculinity and femininity. In South Africa, these hegemonic gender models serve to instill competitive individualism while derogating indigenous values. The thesis proposes that in order to counter neoliberal hegemony in South Africa, and begin reclaiming the cultural autonomy of its peoples, it is important to invigorate indigenous communitarian practices and norms. The original contribution of this thesis consists in placing the African ethos of ubuntu in transversal dialogue with global ecological feminist voices. Both political perspectives reinforce a liberatory alternative vision for a future based on principles of embodied relationality, care giving and protection of community.
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Djerasimović, Sanja. "Formation of the civic education policy as a discursive project in post-2000 Serbia." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2014. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:2a15894a-8189-44e5-a6b6-edcc14bf5c54.
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The introduction of civic education to Serbian primary and secondary schools in 2001 marked a beginning of an all-encompassing education reform that followed the country's 2000 'democratic revolution'. In the context of a socio-political shift from various authoritarian regimes, including the 1945-1990 state socialism and 1990-2000 nationalist authoritarianism, the policy set the tone for future changes that were designed to support democratisation of Serbia, and assist its return to Europe (Birzea, 1994). A part of the broader programme for democratisation of education and education for democracy in Serbia, the policy enabled various discursive elements constitutive of the desired post-2000 ideology to enter the national educational discourse. This thesis explored its formation. I approached the policy as a way to explore the beginning of Serbia's first proper post-communist reform, and analyse the actors and ideologies that had shaped it. I used Ball's notion of policy-as-discourse and conceptualised civic education policy as a part of a discursive project of creating a 'new Serbia'. Using elite interviews and documentary analysis, I explored its formation and development, its place in the wider reform, and its relation to religious education, (re)introduced at the same time. Combining the elements of Fairclough's critical discourse analysis, and elements of Bourdieu's social theory, I looked into the meaning and function of civic education as a part of the ideological construction of the future Serbia, as well as capital used to position Serbia favourably in the global field in the early days of its educational transition. Within the wider transition literature, I attempted to establish a comparison between Serbia's 'belated' post-communist transition, and educational changes happening across formerly communist countries of Central and Eastern Europe in early-to-mid 1990s. I also explored the applicability and usefulness of the recent theoretical developments in the transition literature that go against the conceptualisation of post-communist transitions as modernising projects, and argue instead for a focus on unique transformations that happen as a result of a meeting between globally dominant and desirable discursive elements and local contexts. I conclude that the discursive elements of the Serbian civic education policy were used as capital by Serbian policy actors to ensure their better positioning not only in the global, but also in the national field, as suggested by differences in the ideological construction of the policy discourse in different fields. This prompts a concern with the concept of various 'policyspeaks', as recently explored by Halász (2012) and Steiner-Khamsi (2014). I argue that as a part of a discursive project intended to construct post-2000 Serbia, civic education policy worked more towards eradicating the undesirable ideology of violent nationalist authoritarianism, than towards eradicating the ideology of communist authoritarianism. In this sense, the specificity of the context proved important for the shape and meaning of a post-communist reform and ideologies that it was designed to propagate. However, instead of rejecting modernist concepts of transition and democratisation, I advise a future focus on careful unpacking of their context-dependent ideological-discursive constructions.
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Majavu, Phumlani. "Beyond black and white: black solidarity in post-apartheid South Africa." Thesis, Rhodes University, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1016359.
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Almost 20 years after the white Nationalist government was voted out, some black South Africans believe that black solidarity is still necessary in South Africa. These people argue that since post-apartheid South Africa is still marred with racial injustice, it makes sense for blacks to advocate for black solidarity. Although it is true that black solidarity played an important role in the struggle against apartheid, in this thesis I argue that the struggle against current forms of racial injustice does not necessarily require black solidarity. This is not to deny the prevailing racialized oppression in the post-apartheid era, nor to deny the importance of black solidarity in the past; rather the point I am making is that the current form of racial oppression is somewhat different from the one before 1994. Hence I argue in this thesis that the current form of racial oppression requires us to do certain things differently. Doing things differently means improving upon the strategies of the past. For this to happen, I argue that every human being who believes in and is committed to racial justice ought to be included in the struggle for justice. Change, after all, is brought about when committed human beings work together for liberation and justice.
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Escher, Tobias. "Does the use of the Internet further democratic participation? : a comparison of citizens' interactions with political representatives in the UK and Germany." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2013. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.669872.
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This thesis explores the implications of the Internet for democracy, re-evaluating the various claims and counter-claims that have been made for the Internet's democratic potential. Based on a framework to measure democracy that emphasises popular control and political equality, it assesses whether the Internet gives a greater and more representative share of the population the opportunity to participate in the political process by focusing on use of the Internet to contact political representatives. The analysis combines secondary analysis of population surveys with original data collected in two online surveys from more than 14,000 users of successful contact facilitation platforms in the UK (WriteToThem.com) and Germany (Abgeordnetenwatch.de) that enable sending messages to representatives. The results show that in both countries the Internet in general has only marginally increased the number of people engaged in contacting. At the same time, contact facilitation platforms as specific online applications have attracted large numbers of people who have never before contacted a representative. While all online means of contacting primarily amplify traditional participatory biases, such as for gender and education, they can at least selectively engage traditionally under-represented parts of the population, for example young people or low-income groups. The processes that shape these patterns are identified by developing a basic theory of contacting and using the similarities and differences between the findings for the two countries. It demonstrates not only that participation continues to be dominated by traditional determinants that cannot be completely overcome by technology, but also that Internet applications can shape participation patterns – if designed to appropriately adapt to the context in which they operate, which is rarely the case. This highlights the need to think carefully about how online platforms can be used, building on the – albeit limited – gains identified here, to strengthen them as a means of ensuring democratic participation.
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Brewer, Angela. "Beyond Rocking the Vote: An Analysis of Rhetoric Designed to Motivate Young Voters." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2007. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc5209/.
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Attempts to solve the continued problem of low youth voter turnout in the U.S. have included get out the vote drives, voter registration campaigns, and public service announcements targeting 18- to 25-year-old voters. Pay Attention and Vote added to this effort to motivate young voters in its 2006 campaign. This thesis analyzes the rhetorical strategies employed by the Pay Attention and Vote campaign advertisements, measures their effectiveness, and adds to the limited body of knowledge describing the attitudes and behaviors of young nonvoters. This thesis applies a mixed method approach, utilizing both rhetorical criticism and quantitative method. The results of both analyses are integrated into a discussion which critiques current strategies of addressing the youth voter turnout problem and offers suggestions for future research on the topic.
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Leong, Chi Ian. "National power, international interdependence and state socialization : explaining China's diplomatic behaviour in climate change politics." Thesis, University of Macau, 2011. http://umaclib3.umac.mo/record=b2554612.
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Hollands, Glenn Delroy. "The politics of planning in Eastern Cape local government: a case study of Ngqushwa and Buffalo City, 1998-2004." Thesis, Rhodes University, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1008199.
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This thesis examines the political implications of the integrated development planning process embarked upon by South African municipalities in the period 1998-2004. Through the use of case study methodology that focuses on the Eastern Cape municipalities of Buffalo City and Ngqushwa, the conventions of municipal planning are examined. This inquiry into municipal planning draws upon official government documents and reports and publications from the nongovernment sector. The thesis is particularly focused on the claims made in policy documents and related secondary sources and compares these to more critical reports and publication as well as the author's personal experience of the integrated development planning process. Of key interest is the possibility that planning serves political interests and the material needs of an emerging municipal elite and that this is seldom acknowledged in official planning documentation or government sanctioned publications on the topic. The primary findings of the thesis are as follows: • That the 'reason' of expert policy formulations that accompanied integrated development planning has weakened political economy as a prism of understanding and separated itself from the institutional reality of municipal government • That the dominant critique of planning and other post-apartheid municipal policy is concerned with the triumph of neoliberalism but this critique, while valid, does not fully explain successive policy failures especially in the setting of Eastern Cape local government • That function of policy and its relationship to both the state and civil society is usually understood only in the most obvious sense and not as an instrument for wielding political power • That planning still derives much of its influence from its claim to technical rationality and that this underpinned the 'authority' of the integrated development planning project in South Africa and reinforced its power to make communities governable.
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King, Marvin. "A Black/Non-Black Theory of African-American Partisanship: Hostility, Racial Consciousness and the Republican Party." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2006. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc5264/.
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Why is black partisan identification so one-sidedly Democratic forty years past the Civil Rights movement? A black/non-black political dichotomy manifests itself through one-sided African-American partisanship. Racial consciousness and Republican hostility is the basis of the black/non-black political dichotomy, which manifests through African-American partisanship. Racial consciousness forced blacks to take a unique and somewhat jaundiced approach to politics and Republican hostility to black inclusion in the political process in the 1960s followed by antagonism toward public policy contribute to overwhelming black Democratic partisanship. Results shown in this dissertation demonstrate that variables representing economic issues, socioeconomic status and religiosity fail to explain partisan identification to the extent that Hostility-Consciousness explains party identification.
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Haasbroek, Mart-Marie. "Suid-Afrika, Maleisie en post skikkingsgeweld : konstitusionele wysigings as oplossing vir geweld?" Thesis, Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/3031.
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Thesis (MPhil (Political Science))--Stellenbosch University, 2008.This study undertakes to look at the relationship between peace agreements and the violence that follows these agreements. Throughout modern history, there are examples of peace agreements between two warring internal factions that ended in post-conflict violence and in extreme cases, to the end of the peace agreement. It does not necessarily lead to full out war, but can manifest in riots, like Malaysia and criminal violence in South Africa. This study attempts to compare both South Africa and Malaysia by looking specifically at the reasons for post conflict violence. South Africa has faced a growing problem with violent crime after the negotiations of the early 1990’s and its result, the new constitution of 1993, that functioned as the peace agreement. Malaysia moved through several constitutions to arrive at their constitution of 1957 that which viewed as their constitutional agreement. This constitutional agreement went to great lengths to protect the sons of the soil, the bumiputra. The uneasy peace only lasted until 1969, when race riots followed the general elections and left hundreds dead or injured. By studying South Africa and Malaysia and looking at the underlying factors of violence, with special focus on ethnic factors and especially poverty, can we move closer to the underlying causes of post conflict violence. Malaysia tried to address these problems by making constitutional amendments, following the 1969 riots. These amendments were implemented in 1972. Since then the problem of post conflict violence has been addressed to some extent. There are however, still factors of violence that have not been completely eradicated, that might lead to a flaring of violence again one day. The question that this thesis tries to address in the end is, if we need to consider and implement constitutional amendments, like Malaysia, to address our growing problem of post conflict violence. I attempt here to answer this question, comparing the histories of South Africa and Malaysia and the underlying factors of violence to see exactly how similar these states are and if the same solution can work for both.
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Tanrikulu, Osman Goktug. "A Dissatisfied Partner: A Conflict - Integration Analysis of Britain's Membership in the European Union." PDXScholar, 2013. http://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/1064.
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Since 2009, the European Union has faced the worst economic crisis of its history. Due to the devastating impact of the Eurozone crisis on their economies, European countries realized the need to deepen the integration. Without a fiscal union, the Monetary Union would always be prone to economic crises. However, the efforts to reinforce the Union’s economy have been hampered by the UK due to its obsession with national sovereignty and lack of European ideals. In opposing further integration, the UK officials have started to speak out about the probability of leaving the EU.
The purpose of this paper is to present benefits and challenges of Britain’s EU membership and to assess the consequences of leaving the Union both for the UK and for the EU. This study utilizes Power Transition theory to analyze British impact on European integration. With the perspective of this theory, the UK is defined as a dissatisfied partner. By applying the conflict– cooperation model of Brian Efird, Jacek Kugler and Gaspare Genna, the effect of the UK’s dissatisfaction is empirically portrayed.
The empirical findings of the conflict– integration model clearly show that Britain’s dissatisfaction has a negative impact on European integration and jeopardizes the future of the Union. Power Transitions analysis indicates that the UK would become an insignificant actor in the international system and lose the opportunity for the Union’s leadership if it leaves the EU. On the other hand, although Britain’s departure would be a significant loss in terms of capability, economic coherence is more important for the EU. Without enough commitment for the Union, increasing the level of integration with the UK would raise the probability of conflict with the integration process in the future.
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Laochankham, Sirisak. "The Antecedents of Local Government Service Delivery Under Crisis Conditions: the Case of Khon Kaen Province, Thailand." PDXScholar, 2018. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/4188.
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The aim of this research is to understand local service delivery in Thailand's post-2006 national political crisis. The researcher collected qualitative data in four municipalities in Khon Kaen Province. The analytical framework covered five moderating variables: political institutions, civic engagement, political leadership, governance, and political economy. The results were mixed. Local service delivery suffered from weakening electoral mechanisms, suspended local autonomy, weakened civic participation and policy networks, insecure local administrators, worsened central-local trust, and the detrimental effect on local economies. However, there were opportunities for improved, or maintained, local service delivery through the lessening of administrative procedures, a fast-track mechanism for citizen complaints, stronger collaboration among local governments and with the private sector, local citizen initiatives, effective local leadership, and increasing trust between local governments and their constituents. In conclusion, national political crisis caused not only negative impacts, but also created opportunities for improving or maintaining local service delivery.
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Tenshak, Juliet. "Bearing witness to an era : contemporary Nigerian fiction and the return to the recent past." Thesis, University of Stirling, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/1893/27349.
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The body of writing collectively referred to as third generation or contemporary Nigerian literature emerged on the international literary scene from about the year 2000. This writing is marked by attempts to negotiate contemporary identities, and it engages with various developments in the Nigerian nation: Nigeria’s past and current political and socio-economic state, different kinds of cultural hybridization as well as the writers increasing transnational awareness. This study argues that contemporary Nigerian fiction obsessively returns to the period from 1985-1998 as a historical site for narrating the individual and collective Nigerian experience of the trauma of military dictatorship, which has shaped the contemporary reality of the nation. The study builds on existing critical work on contemporary Nigerian fiction, in order to highlight patterns and ideas that have hitherto been neglected in scholarly work in this field. The study seeks to address this gap in the existing critical literature by examining third-generation Nigerian writing’s representation of this era in a select corpus of work spanning from 2000-06: Okey Ndibe’s Arrows of Rain (2000), Helon Habila’s Waiting for an Angel (2002), Sefi Atta’s Everything Good will Come (2005), and Chimamanda Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus (2006). The four novels chosen were written in response to military rule and dictatorship in the 80s and 90s, and they all feature representations of state violence. This study finds that, despite variations in the novels aesthetic modes, violence, control, silencing, dictatorship, alienation, the trauma of everyday life and resistance recur in realist modes. Above all, the study argues that contemporary Nigerian fiction’s insistent representation of the violent past of military rule in Nigeria is a means of navigating the complex psychological and political processes involved in dealing with post-colonial trauma by employing writing as a form of resistance.
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SCHULTE-CLOOS, Julia. "European integration and the surge of the populist radical right." Doctoral thesis, European University Institute, 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/1814/63506.
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Defence date: 2 July 2019Examining Board: Professor Hanspeter Kriesi, European University Institute (Supervisor); Professor Elias Dinas, European University Institute; Professor Liesbet Hooghe, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Professor Kai Arzheimer, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz
Does European integration contribute to the rise of the radical right? This dissertation offers three empirical contributions that aid understanding the interplay between political integration within the European Union (EU) and the surge of the populist radical right across Europe. The first account studies the impact that the European Parliament (EP) elections have for the national fortune of the populist right. The findings of a country fixed-effects model leveraging variation in the European electoral cycle demonstrate that EP elections foster the domestic prospects of the radical right when national and EP elections are close in time. The second study demonstrates that the populist radical right cannot use the EP elections as a platform to socialise the most impressionable voters. The results of a regression discontinuity analysis highlight that the EP contest does not instil partisan ties to the political antagonists of the European idea. The third study shows that anti-European integration sentiments that existed prior to accession to the EU cast a long shadow in the present by contributing to the success of contemporary populist right actors. Relying on an original dataset entailing data on all EU accession referenda on the level of municipalities and exploiting variation within regions, the study demonstrates that those localities that were most hostile to the European project before even becoming part of the Union, today, vote in the largest numbers for the radical right. In synthesis, the dissertation approaches the relationship between two major current transformations of social reality: European integration and the surge of the radical right. The results highlight that contention around the issue of European integration provides a fertile ground for the populist radical right, helping to activate nationalistic and EU-hostile sentiments among parts of the European public.
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Wenhold, Marece. "The Black Sash : assessment of a South African political interest group." Thesis, Link to the online version, 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/10019/1304.
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Leistner, Paul Roland. "The Dynamics of Creating Strong Democracy in Portland, Oregon : 1974 to 2013." PDXScholar, 2013. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/1521.
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Communities across the United States are experiencing a "civic revival" that is reconnecting community members with local decision-making and civic life in their communities. Since the 1980s, academic researchers and local governance reformers have advocated for a shift away from the traditional top-down, expert-driven approach to governance and toward a governance model in which government leaders and staff and community members work as partners to shape the community and make local decisions. Portland, Oregon, since the 1970s, has been known nationally and internationally as a city with a tradition of strong community involvement. Portland's successes and failures offer a valuable case study into what it takes to develop, implement, and sustain policies, structures, and programs that encourage greater participatory democracy.
This dissertation reviews the evolution of Portland's community and neighborhood system from its creation in the 1970s through 2013 through an examination of the many reviews of the system over the years supplemented by reviews of newspaper accounts and informal, unstructured interviews with individuals who were involved in different processes and programs. This dissertation investigates which elements are important to the success of a city-wide community and neighborhood involvement system, the factors that help or hinder the adoption and implementation of system reforms, and strategies that help embed system advances to prevent them from being eroded or undone.
This dissertation argues that a community that wants to move toward much greater participatory democracy and community governance must develop and implement a comprehensive strategy that accomplishes three goals: involving many more people in the civic life in their community, building community capacity to organize and be involved in local decision making, and significantly improving the willingness and ability of city leaders and staff to work in partnership with community members and organizations. This dissertation also argues that community and neighborhood involvement systems need to include not only traditional geographic-based neighborhood associations but also communities of people who find their community through shared identity.
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Roto, Khanyile. "Donor funds and economic dependence: an investigation of community-driven development in the Eastern Cape, Chris Hani District Municipality." Thesis, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/10948/19982.
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This research focused mainly on the progress of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and community-driven development projects (CDDs) in assisting the Chris Hani District Municipality (CHDM) community. The research identified the main types of CDDs that are found in the CHDM as agricultural, caregivers, manufacturing, tourism, performing arts, and education services. Thirty-eight NGOs participated in this project with two participants representing each NGO. These NGOs were looked at from a thematic perspective. Three main themes emerged, namely; a) the quality of life in CHDM or specifically in the areas of operation of the NGOs, b) operations of the NGOs where the name and main objectives CDDs were identified, and c) challenges, funding and impact of the CDDs. This research set out to ask the following questions: What is the nature and origin of projects operational in Chris Hani District? What is the impact and sustainability of donor-aided projects on CDD in the Chris Hani District? Can NGO projects be sustained without donor aid? Are there any alternative forms of funding apart from donor funds? To answer these questions, a number of qualitative methods and techniques were used to collect and analyse data. These included focus group discussions with project beneficiaries, observations of projects, activities and individual project participants, and key informant interviews with different categories of respondents depending on their roles and level of involvement in the implementation of projects as well as their experience in the implementation of donor-aided programmes. These discussions were guided by different interview schedules with respective respondents. Random and snowball sampling methods were used to choose the respondents as well as groups that participated in the study. The research also focused on assessing the survivability of donor-aided NGO projects if the donor funds were discontinued for any reason. It sought to determine the continuity and feasibility of developmental projects and their impact on the socio- economic welfare of the rural poor in the Chris Hani District without donations. This research found evidence indicating that, by and large, NGOs in the Chris Hani District play a crucial role in CDD. Be that as it may, this research established that on average, 98 per cent of NGOs had been economically and socially affected by the donor-funded projects. It was established that, on average, the donor dependency ratio was 74 per cent. It was also seen that most donor-funded projects could only survive for 12 days if the funding was withdrawn. However, this hypothetical withdrawal of funds does not cause much concern because of the security found in the funding types of the NGOs in the Chris Hani District. In practical terms, these community-driven projects are likely to continue for decades ceteris paribus.
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Thackwell, Nicola Donna. "“We waited for our turn, which sometimes never came” : registrars negotiating systemic racism in Western Cape medical schools." Thesis, Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/86641.
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Thesis(MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2014.ENGLISH ABSTRACT; In order for the transformation objectives of racial and gender diversity to be adequately reflected in the South African medical profession, it is crucial to understand how Black medical registrars experience the training environment. This qualitative study presents the experience of ten Black African medical specialists who completed their registrar training in the Western Cape in the past five years. Using both thematic and discourse analysis the study aimed to identify and describe the interpersonal, structural and institutional factors that may impede or promote Black advancement during registrar training. Participant experiences where contextualised in relation to discourses around the medical profession as a site of cultural reproduction that has been historically constructed as the exclusive domain of the White male. The analysis unearths experiences of systemic racism where the organisational culture of training institutions is experienced as alienating and unwelcoming to Black professionals. The findings raise the need for a more thorough evaluation of how transformations efforts are being received in specialist medical education. Key Words: Black doctors, Transformation in Higher Education, Systemic Racism, Medical training
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Met die oog op die realisering van die transformasiedoelwitte rakende ras- en geslagsdiversiteit in die Suid-Afrikaanse mediese professie, is dit deurslaggewend om te verstaan hoe Swart mediese spesialis studente die opleidingsomgewing ervaar. Hierdie kwalitatiewe studie gee die ervaring weer van tien Swart Suid-Afrikaanse mediese spesialiste wat die afgelope vyf jaar hulle opleiding in die Wes-Kaap voltooi het. Deur gebruik te maak van beide tematiese- en diskoersanalise, poog die studie daarin om die interpersoonlike, strukturele en institusionele faktore wat Swart bevordering tydens professionele opleiding kan belemmer of bevorder, te identifiseer en te beskryf. Deelnemers se ervarings is gekontekstualiseer in verhouding tot die diskoerse rondom die mediese professie as terrein van kulturele voortsetting van wat histories as eksklusiewe domein van Wit mans gegeld het. Die studie ontbloot ervaringe van sistemiese rassisme, waarin Swart professionele beroepspersone vervreem en onwelkom voel in die organisasiekultuur van opleidingsinstansies.Die bevindinge beklemtoon die behoefte aan ‘n meer diepgaande evaluasie van hoe transformasie-pogings ontvang word in mediese spesialis opleiding. Sleutelwoorde: Swart dokters, transformasie in tersiêre opleiding, sistemiese rassisme, mediese opleiding
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Maršić, Tomislav. "Controlling the party or controlling the media? : how intra-party dynamics moderated, and reinforced, particularism in Croatia, 2000-2014." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2016. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:834082e1-abef-420f-9842-e8185626e9f5.
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This thesis explores the shape, the dynamics, and the main reasons for media capture and collusion in Croatia since the second transition in 2000. Using principal-agent theory to refer to the basic relation-ship between politicians, media and citizens, I intend to explain why politicians make use of particularism - behaviour aiming at the limitation of horizontal accountability - to force the media into cooperation with politicians (media capture) or to engage in an illicit, mutually agreed deal (collusion). Located in the literatures on democratization, party research and media studies, I aim to connect these fields in arguing that intra-party dynamics such as party leaders' rootedness, contestation and the institutionalization of rules play an important role in incentivizing executive politicians to capture or collude with media outlets. The empirical outcome of the study showing drastic failures of horizontal accountability contradicts dominant narratives of Croatia's high level of democratic consolidation between 2000 and 2014 and therefore challenges the suitability of indicators primarily designed to capture the institutionalization of institutions rather than the institutionalization of particularism. Croatia is a particularly appropriate case to study in this context since none of the traditional incentives such as Europeanization, inter-party competition, a strong civil society or economic modernization can fully explain shifts in the way politicians limit or reinforce horizontal accountability of the media. In order to address this puzzle I adopt a two-pronged research strategy based on both qualitative and quantitative elements in order to reliably and validly measure the shape and development of media capture and collusion.
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Stewart, Brandon. "Crossing Over: Essays on Ethnic Parties, Electoral Politics, and Ethnic Social Conflict." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2017. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1011838/.
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This dissertation analyzes several topics related to political life in ethnically divided societies. In chapter 2, I study the relationship between ethnic social conflict, such as protests, riots, and armed inter-ethnic violence, and bloc partisan identification. I find that protests have no effect on bloc support for political parties, riots increase bloc partisan identification, and that armed violence reduces this phenomenon. In chapter 3, I analyze the factors that influence the targeting of ethnic groups by ethnic parties in social conflict. I find some empirical evidence that conditions favorable to vote pooling across ethnic lines reduce group targeting by ethnic parties. In chapter 4, I analyze the effects of ethnic demography on ethnic party behavior. Through a qualitative analysis of party behavior in local elections in Macedonia, I find that ethnic parties change their strategies in response to changes in ethnic demography. I find that co-ethnic parties are less likely to challenge each other for power under conditions of split demography. In fact, under conditions of split demography, I find that co-ethnic parties have political incentives to unite behind a single party because intra-group competition jeopardizes the group's hold on power.
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PORTOS, GARCÍA Martín. "Voicing outrage, contending with austerity : mobilisation in Spain under the Great Recession." Doctoral thesis, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/1814/45426.
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Defence date: 17 January 2017Examining Board: Professor Donatella della Porta, Scuola Normale Superiore/ formerly EUI (supervisor); Professor Hanspeter Kriesi, EUI; Professor Eva Anduiza, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona; Professor Robert M. Fishman, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid
This thesis deals with the Spanish cycle of protest in the shadow of the Great Recession. It has a twofold aspiration. On the one hand, from a process-based approach, it seeks to unravel the timing of the cycle of contention that evolved in light of the recession scenario between 2007 and 2015. I argue that the peak of protest persisted for a long time (from mid-2011 until 2013) because institutionalisation was postponed and radicalisation contained. Specifically, I focus on three aspects, key to understanding the trajectory of collective actions: 1) issue specialisation of protest after the first triggering points, 2) alliance building between unions and new actors, and 3) the transition process towards more routinised repertoires of action that came about as protests declined. On the other hand, the thesis aims at shedding light on the role that grievances play for mobilisation dynamics in a context of material deprivation. Covering multiple levels of analysis, the main argument developed here is that the effects of objective-material aspects and socioeconomic grievances are mediated by political attitudes, especially political dissatisfaction. To empirically test my arguments, I use qualitative data from semi-structured interviews, which are combined with information from a self-collated protest event analysis and different statistical analyses based on time series, panel data and other survey materials.
Chapter 3 of the thesis is based on an article published in Partecipazione e conflitto (2016)
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XANTHOPOULOU, DIMITRIADOU Parthena. "Discursive movement politics of the crisis : frames, 'subjects' and cultures of sociopolitical contestation : a comparative analysis of the anti-austerity and pro-democracy mobilizations of Greece and Spain." Doctoral thesis, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/1814/54664.
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Defence date: 17 May 2018Examining Board: Prof. Donatella della Porta, SNS Florence (former EUI) | Supervisor; Prof. Olivier Roy, EUI; Prof. Maria Kousis, University of Crete; Prof. Cristina Flesher Fominaya, Loughborough University
The financial crisis of 2008, which plunged the global economy into unprecedented recession caused a dramatic downturn in economic activity and exceptionally increased political instability. In the years of the crisis civil unrest became part of the daily routine of afflicted countries around the world, reaching its peak in the global wave of anti-austerity and pro-democracy mobilizations of late 2010-2011. Protesting the politics of austerity and the diminished solvency of the political system, the mobilizations rose above the business-as-usual type of protesting and summoned an exceptionally heterogenous population raising strong demands for democratization and the political empowerment of the people. The characteristically heterogeneous constituency of the mobilizations, the characteristically broad demand for democratization and the fact that in many instances this demand was raised in sociopolitical contexts of consolidated democracies highlighted a central puzzle with three angles: What does the demand for democratization mean, when it is raised in already democratic contexts? What does the mobilizations’ demand for democracy practically imply? Who constitute the ‘subject’ of the mobilizations and through what processes have they been ‘constructed’ as a collective demanding democracy? Narrowing down the focus on the European wave of mobilizations, this research seeks to find answers to these questions by examining comparatively the antiausterity mobilizations of Greece and Spain. The hypothesis of this comparative examination is that the mobilizations’ commonly raised demands for democratization and their similar advocacies -for ‘Direct Democracy’ in Greece and ‘Real Democracy’ in Spain- are effectively filtered through the lens of nation-specific cultures of contestation. Relying on qualitative methods of analysis, this research examines patterns of contestation and relationships in the Greek and Spanish anti-austerity mobilizations and demonstrates that the Greek and Spanish movement politics of the crisis represent distinct examples of contemporary sociopolitical contestation that cannot be comprehensively understood on the basis of some sort of European -or for that matter Southern European- sameness, despite their firm embeddedness in the European wave of anti-austerity and pro-democracy mobilizations of late 2010-2011.
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Schlosar, Jay Matthew. "Myth, alienation, and the western trinity : seeking new connections and positive identity in the new West." 2004. http://hdl.handle.net/1828/376.
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TERRASA-LOZANO, Antonio. "Patrimonios aristocráticos y fronteras jurídico-políticas en la Monarquía Católica : los pleitos de la Casa de Pastrana en el siglo XVII." Doctoral thesis, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/1814/25417.
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Defence date: 27 February 2009Examining Board: Prof. Bartolomé Yun Casalilla (European University Institute, Florence) - supervisor; Prof. Carmen Sanz Ayán (Universidad Complutense de Madrid)- external supervisor; Prof. Diogo Ramada Curto (European University Institute, Florence); Prof. Gérard Delille (CNRS-EHESS, Paris)
PDF of thesis uploaded from the Library digital archive of EUI PhD theses
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DALMAU, PALET Pol. "Clientelism, politics and the press in modern Spain : the case of the Godó family and the founding of 'La Vanguardia'." Doctoral thesis, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/1814/40884.
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Defence date: 28 September 2015Examining Board: Professor Bartolomé Yun Casalilla, EUI/Universidad Pablo de Olavide; Professor Lucy Riall, EUI; Professor Isabel Burdiel, Universitat de València; Professor Renato Camurri, Università degli Studi di Verona.
This thesis investigates the links between politics and the press during the crisis of the liberal state in Europe. During the 19th century, one of the biggest challenges facing the liberal state was how to give voice to local concerns. In countries with a centralised state-model and where liberal principles coexisted with other forms of authority that originated in the Old Regime, local elites (or notables) emerged as intermediaries between the state and the territory. However, while the literature has emphasised that these elites secured their position via patron-client relationships, little is known about how they also used the public sphere as a way to reinforce their legitimacy. Focusing on the press as one of the strategies used by elites to secure their advantaged position in society and embrace new spheres of influence, this thesis will focus on the Godó family, a dynasty of politicians, manufacturers and press proprietors who founded what is Spain's oldest (still active) newspaper and Barcelona's top-selling paper today: La Vanguardia. Divided into three parts, the thesis will first examine the role of newspapers in political systems where clientelism was the main means of distributing public office. The case of the Godó family and La Vanguardia is used to throw light on this, and on the importance of transnational media transfers in transforming the newspapers' raison d'être. The second part explores how the Godó family tried to engineer public opinion to advance their private agenda during the colonial wars in Morocco and Cuba. The family underwent a serious reversal of fortune in the early 20th century, when the demise of the Spanish empire and the ensuing climate of national introspection led journalists to be accused of wilfully misguiding the public and denounced as collaborators in the corrupt regime of elections. Yet contrary to the downfall of the notables narrative, which sees the demise of Europe's traditional elites as the outcome of the crisis of liberal politics, this thesis shows that elites had a wide room for manoeuvre to maintain their influence in the new mass society. The final part of the thesis examines the strategies the Godó family designed to adapt to this new scenario, and the function that the press played in them. Drawing on the emerging field of media history, the interdisciplinary perspective adopted here will redress the traditional lack of dialogue between historians and media scholars, providing a novel perspective on the crisis of liberalism in Europe – where press editors are interpreted as political actors, and changes in communicative channels are understood as intricately connected to changes in the nature of power.