Many civil wars are illustrative of wider international tensions and connections that transcend state borders. States often intervene to influence the trajectory and outcome of civil conflicts by providing external support to warring parties. This assistance ranges from direct military intervention to the provision of weapons, training, funds, safe havens, intelligence, logistics and other critical resources. This dissertation contains four individual essays that each seeks to advance our knowledge of state support to rebel movements. The first essays (I and II) add to our understanding of how external state support influences conflict dynamics while the latter (III and IV) begin to unpack the political decision-making process behind decisions that alter the original support commitment. Essay I evaluates whether state support to rebels increases the probability of civil war negotiations being initiated. The findings question a widespread belief among policymakers that support can foster negotiations. Essay II explores if external support influences the risk of conflict recurrence. It finds that state support to rebels can increase the risk of conflict recurrence in the short-term while there is no equivalent effect of support provided to governments. Essay III is the first global analysis of support termination and it thereby opens up an entirely new research field. The results suggest that the causes related to the initiation of support and its termination are largely distinct while the transition from the Cold War and the absence of ethnic kinship ties offer some insights into when states are more likely to terminate support. Essay IV unpacks the political decision-making process of the United States’ support to the armed opposition in Nicaragua in the 1980s and in Syria in the 2010s. The results indicate that adverse feedback functions as a trigger for increasing previous commitments as long as policy failure can be attributed to external actors, while reduced support is often a result of attributing failure to the state sponsor’s own actions. Taken together, the essays make significant contributions to advance our understanding of biased third-party interventions, conflict recurrence, civil war negotiations, foreign policy decision-making and state sponsorship of terrorism.

Varje kommun ska ha en byggnadsnämnd. Byggnadsnämnden består av förtroendevalda poli-tiker som bland annat ansvarar för lovärendeprocessen. Tjänstemännen som jobbar med lovä-rendeprocessen är anställda av byggnadsnämnden. Tjänstemännens huvuduppgift är att ta be-slut i lovärenden via delegation från byggnadsnämnden. I lovärenden där delegation saknas ska tjänstemännen bereda lovärendet och skriva ett förslag till beslut. Förslaget ska sedan redovisas inför byggnadsnämnden, som därefter tar det slutliga beslutet. I denna uppsats har enbart lovä-renden där byggnadsnämnden och tjänstemännen har haft olika bedömningar granskats. Det har även granskats vilken laghänvisning och bedömning som ligger till grund för deras förslag eller beslut. Kommunen ska ge berörda grannar och sakägare tillfälle att yttra sig när det är en avvikelse från en detaljplan, områdesbestämmelser eller utanför detaljplan. Vid ett positivt lovbeslut ska kommunerna kungöra lovärendet i Post och Inrikes Tidningar. Båda dessa uppgifter måste ge-nomföras på rätt sätt för att hanteringen ska vara rättssäker och kvalitetssäker samt för att lo-värendet ska vinna laga kraft. Detta arbete ska undersöka hur kommunerna hanterar rättssäkerheten och kvalitetssäkerheten i lovprocessen för att ett lovärende ska vinna laga kraft. För att få vidare rådgivning, kunskap och information angående lagtolkning gällande granne-hörande och kungörelse togs kontakt med Ulrika Nolåker, Byggutbildarna, Ulf Jensen, profes-sor på Högskolan Väst och Eidar Lindgren universitetsadjunkt på Kungliga Tekniska Högsko-lan. I undersökningen studerades fyra kommuner i Västra Götalands län. Undersökningen delades upp i tre delar som bestod av intervju dels av tjänstemän och sakkunniga samt granskning av lovärenden. I kommunerna var det 1386 lovärenden som kom in och togs beslut under 2015. Av dessa var det 23 lovärenden där byggnadsnämnden inte tog beslut i enlighet med tjänste-männens förslag. Kommunernas lovärendeprocess saknar regelbundet arbetssätt både när det gäller grannehöran och kungörelse av lovärenden. Kommunerna använder en så kallad "tyst accept" vid granne-höran, vilket innebär att grannarna förlorar sin demokratiska rättighet att påverka åtgärden. Genom att hänvisa lagparagraf i ett beslut kvalitetssäkras beslutsunderlag. Att hänvisa till en lagparagraf är något som varken byggnadsnämnden eller tjänstemännen gör regelbundet. Kungörelsen i Post- och Inrikes Tidning gjordes mellan 12-28 dagar efter beslutet togs samt att det förkom lovärenden som inte var kungjorda överhuvudtaget. Endast tre av de 23 grans-kade lovärendena anses ha vunnit laga kraft. / Each municipality in Sweden must have a local building committee. The committee consists of elected politicians responsible for managing the permit process related to construction, dem-olition and ground processing. The committee manages the permit process by delegating the entire task or parts of it to employed officials. If there is no delegation the officials will write a suggested decision to be reviewed and decided by the committee. This essay investigates construction-, demolition- and ground processing permit where the of-ficials and the local building committee differ in their decisions and the assessment which led to these decisions. The examination included studies of four municipalities in the county of Västra Götaland: two smaller, Färgelanda and Munkedal municipalities, and two larger, Trollhättan and Uddevalla. The investigation consisted of two parts. One examination of the permit protocols, and a series of interviews with officials. During 2015 there were 1386 cases of permits within the four municipalities. 23 of these were cases of the committee not deciding in accordance with the proposition of the officials. A number of errors were also found, such as there not being a stated reason for the decision, or lack of any clear legal reference. This raises the question of whether or not the rule of law is followed during these circumstances. After consulting with Ulrika Nolåker from Byggutbildarna, the issues were expanded further when it was discovered that more errors occur during the municipal management of the con-cerned parties and the announcements of the cases. In order to receive further guidance, knowledge and information on how to interpret the laws handling concerned parties and an-nouncements, contact was made with Ulf Jensen and Eidar Lindgren, professor in real estate science at Högskolan Väst, and lecturer of real estate sciences at Kungliga Tekniska Högsko-lan, respectively. The conclusions of the examination is that the building committee puts a lot of responsibility on the officials through delegations. The cases when there is no delegation and the case is decided by the committee are few. The reasons why the proposition and the final decision not always matches is due to different factors such as different knowledge or different assessments. Neither the committee nor the officials are consistent with the law referencing in the decisions. The municipality cannot guarantee that every concerned party have been given the chance to give their opinion, when some of them use what’s called "silent agreement". Only three of the cases has the municipality received and opinion from every concerned party. None of the cases has been announced in the correct time and two has not been announced at all.

This diploma thesis deals with strategies of promoting Czechs as ambassadors of the EU (HoD) since the launch of the European External Action Service to the present. The main research goal of this thesis is to find out whether the Czech Republic promotes its candidates to the HoD positions in the countries of its priority interests. So far, a Czech citizen has become an HoD in six cases. These cases are confronted with a categorization of priority countries of the Czech Republic which has been elaborated by the author. Then, the Czech activities in promoting citizens are analysed based on interviews with relevant employees of the Czech state organs. These actions are consequently put into categorization of lobbying methods of the smaller states in the EU. Based on the categorization of the Czech territorial priorities, it can be claimed that the Czechs have not been sent as HoDs to the countries of the Czech interests so far. Even their other applications have not been meant to place them to the countries of the Czech interests. On the other hand, there is a bulk of activities embraced by the Czech Republic to reverse this trend. First, the Czech administration exacerbates networking and informal meetings among the Czechs based in Brussels. Second, the Czech state officials have developed formal...

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La délégation en droit civil québécois est difficilement conciliable avec la conception traditionnelle de la délégation puisque le délégué peut opposer au délégataire tous les moyens que le délégant aurait pu faire valoir contre le délégataire. Cette particularité peut confondre la délégation avec la cession de dette et le cautionnement. Afin de concilier le régime de la délégation avec sa nature, la délégation peut se concevoir comme un contrat créant une obligation du délégué envers le délégataire dont l’objet est pris par référence à l’obligation du délégant envers le délégataire. Cela explique que le délégué puisse opposer au délégataire tout ce que le délégant aurait pu faire valoir contre le délégataire. Cette conception est cohérente avec le régime général de la délégation. Certaines spécificités de ce régime s’opposent à l’idée que les débiteurs sont tenus in solidum envers le délégataire, soutenant ainsi l’autonomie du régime de la délégation. La délégation se distingue de la cession de dette et du cautionnement considérant l’obligation du nouveau débiteur. À l’occasion de la cession de dette, l’obligation du nouveau débiteur est identique à celle d’un autre débiteur, tandis que l’objet de l’obligation du délégué est pris par référence à une autre obligation. À l’occasion du cautionnement, le nouveau débiteur possède une obligation dont le caractère accessoire diffère de celui de l’obligation du délégué. L’obligation de la caution a également un caractère subsidiaire qui est absent de l’obligation du délégué. La délégation est alors une notion autonome de la cession de dette et du cautionnement. / Delegation in Quebec civil law is challenging to reconcile with the traditional concept of delegation since the delegate may set up against the delegate all such defenses as the delegator could have set up against the delegatee. This peculiarity may confuse delegation with the assignment of debt and suretyship. To harmonize the delegation regime with its nature, delegation can be conceptualized as a contract creating an obligation for the delegate towards the delegatee, with the object referenced to the obligation of the delegator to the delegatee. This explains why the delegate can assert against the delegatee anything that the delegator could have claimed against the delegatee. This concept aligns with the general delegation regime. Certain specific features of this regime oppose the idea that debtors are bound in solidum towards the delegatee, thus supporting the autonomy of the delegation regime. Delegation is distinct from the assignment of debt and suretyship, considering the obligation of the new debtor. In the case of the assignment of debt, the new debtor's obligation is identical to that of another debtor, whereas the object of the delegate’s obligation is taken by reference to another obligation. In the case of suretyship, the new debtor's obligation has a different accessory nature compared to that of the delegate’s obligation. The surety's obligation also carries a subsidiary character absent from the delegate's obligation. Delegation is, therefore, an independent notion, separate from debt assignment and suretyship.

La doctrine constitutionnelle française a reconnu, à la suite des traités de Jules Poudra et d’Eugène Pierre, que le droit parlementaire représentait une réalité juridique positive qui méritait d’être conceptualisée et d’accéder au rang de discipline universitaire. Paradoxalement, aucune étude approfondie du Gouvernement n’a jamais été menée pour déterminer s’il existait un droit gouvernemental.En procédant au récolement et à l’analyse des règles relatives à l’ordonnancement intérieur du Gouvernement de la Ve République, cette thèse entend précisément démontrer que le Gouvernement régit de manière autonome sa propre organisation et son fonctionnement internes au même titre que le Parlement. D’une part, elle permet de soutenir que le Gouvernement dispose d’une autonomie de portée variable (résiduelle, partagée ou pleine) lorsqu’il élabore le droit régissant son organisation politique. D’autre part, elle établit qu’il jouit d’une pleine autonomie pour réglementer l’organisation de son administration gouvernementale (cabinets ministériels, administrations chargées de la coordination interministérielle et administrations centrales).Cette thèse ne prétend pas pour autant constituer une théorie générale du droit gouvernemental. Elle se veut une première recherche de droit constitutionnel destinée à susciter un débat doctrinal au sujet de l’existence juridique du droit gouvernemental et de son utilité pour la démocratie. / French constitutional doctrine, following the treaties of Jules Poudra and Eugène Pierre, acknowledged that Parliamentary Law represented a positive reality which deserved to be conceptualised and take its full place as a university discipline. It is paradoxical that no in-depth study has ever been carried out on Government to determine if Governmental law really existsBy collecting, gathering and analysing the rules concerning the internal organisation of the Government of the Fifth Republic, this thesis wishes to prove that the Government regulates its own organisation and internal operations in an autonomous manner in much the same way as the Parliament. On the one hand this thesis defends the fact that the Government has a variable scope of autonomy (Residual, shared or complete) when drawing up laws governing its own organisation policy. On the other hand, it points out that the Government exercises full autonomy to regulate the organisation of its administration (Ministries, Offices in charge of coordinating the different Ministries and the Central Administration).The intention of this thesis is not to put forward a general theory on Governmental Law. It is an initial research into constitutional law with a purpose of stimulating doctrinal debate on the existence of Governmental Law and its utility for Democracy.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / This research explores what roles nonprofits play in political representation by applying the concept of the representational role to nonprofits. The representational role consists of representational focus and style. Representational focus shows those whom nonprofits aim to serve: members, constituents, or the general public. Representational style denotes the ways nonprofits advocate for their focal groups: the delegation, trusteeship, and educational styles. The survey and regression analysis results demonstrate that nonprofits serving their members are most likely to convey their members’ voices directly to policy makers: the delegation style. In contrast, nonprofits advocating for their constituents are likely to pursue what they independently identify as the interests of their constituents: the trusteeship style. Finally, nonprofits speaking for the general public are most likely to work toward educating the general public: the educational style. These results suggest that nonprofits play different roles in political representation, depending on the types of their focal groups.

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This study was undertaken in order to investigate mentoring as a dynamic factor in leadership development. Although the subject matter is broad, - this particular study focuses on mentoring in ”Living Word Ministries” as part of leadership development. Methodology consisted of a theoretical and qualitative interviewing process. During the informal interviews, ”Living Word Ministries” was used as target group to investigate mentoring, discipleship, development time line, succession and development of leaders. In conclusion this study unanimously identified the lack of mentoring as crucial factor in ”Living Word Ministries”. Mentoring and discipleship as two related concepts in leadership development need to be incorporated into ”Living Word Ministries” and the body of Christ. Discipleship can therefore be used as a conduit for the mentor to develop leadership abilities of the prospective leader. / Practical Theology / (M. Ed.(Practical Theology))

Text in Afrikaans / Suid-Afrika het as gevolg van apartheid vir etlike dekades oor 'n gedeeltelik legitieme plaaslike regeringstelsel beskik. Die probleem is dat die land se apartheidsregering afsonderlike stelsels vir blankes en swartes in aparte woongebiede in stand gehou het, welke beleid vir meeste Suid-Afrikaners onaanvaarbaar was. Swart plaaslike owerhede wat swart plaaslike regering moes bedryf, was nog polities nog ekonomies lewensvatbaar. Die rede hiervoor is dat hul enersyds deur die gemeenskap verwerp is en andersyds nie voldoende inkomstebronne gehad het om plaaslike owerheidsdienste finansieel onafhanklik te lewer nie. Stedelike swart gemeenskappe was aan 'n, vir hulle, onaanvaarbare apartheidsgestruktureerde swart plaaslike regeringstelsel onderworpe. Swart plaaslike owerhede was voorts as gevolg van hul ekonomiese nie-lewensvatbaarheid, gekniehalter in die lewering van plaaslike owerheidsdienste asook die daarstelling en instandhouding van kapitale ontwikkelingsprojekte. Stedelike swartes was dus blootgestel aan gebrekkige dienslewering in aparte, onderontwikkelde "slaapdorpe" waar hulle noodgedwonge moes woon. 'n Vraag waarna gevolglik gekyk word, fokus op die kenmerke van 'n ideeeltipiese model van plaaslike regering wat die gedeeltelik legitieme stelsel behoort te vervang. As gevolg van die onaanvaarbaarheid van die swart plaaslike regeringstelsel was swart plaaslike owerhede sedert die vroee tagtigerjare die teikens van aksioniste teen hierdie apartheidsproduk. Aksioniste het nie-gewelddadige aksie (NGA), geskoei op die Gandhiaanse filosofie en metodiek van Satyagraha, aangewend ten einde swart plaaslike owerhede te vernietig. NGA (wat dikwels ook tot gewelddadigheid gelei het), het tot gevolg gehad dat die owerheid later noodgedwonge 'n nuwe plaaslike regeringstelsel vir die totale Suid-Afrikaanse samelewing, met alle deelvennote moes beding. Onderhandelings het vervolgens meegebring dat 'n oorgangsproses na legitieme (demokratiese) plaaslike regering vir alle Suid-Afrikaners ingevolge die Oorgangswet op Plaaslike Regering, 1993 (Wet No. 209 van 1993) geaktiveer is. In hierdie proefskrif is gevolglik vasgestel: (1) welke invloed die politieke bedeling (apartheidsbedeling) op die ontwikkeling van stedelike swart gemeenskappe en die bedryf van swart plaaslike regering gehad het; (2) wat die aard en effek van NGA op die ontwikkeling van swart plaaslike regering was; en (3) hoe geldig die onderhandelde plaaslike regeringstelsel is, vergeleke met die ideeel-tipiese model wat geidentifiseer is. / As a result of apartheid South Africa possessed a partially legitimate local government system for several decades. The problem is that the country's apartheid government maintained separate systems for whites and blacks in separate residential areas, a policy that was unacceptable to the majority of South Africans. Black local authorities who had to maintain black local government were neither politically nor economically viable because they were rejected by the community and lacked sufficient sources of revenue to render financially independent local government services. Urban black communities were subject to what, for them, was an unacceptable apartheid-structured black local government system. Black local authorities were also prevented by their economic nonviability from delivering local government services effectively and from instituting and maintaining capital development projects. Urban blacks were therefore subjected to poor service delivery in separate, underdeveloped "dormitory towns" where they were forced to live. An issue to be considered in this regard concerns the characteristics of an ideal-typical model of local government that should replace this partially legitimate system. As a result of the unacceptability of the black local government system local authorities became the targets of activists who waged a campaign against this product of apartheid since the early eighties. Activists used non-violent action (NV A), based on the Gandhian principle of Satyagraha, to destroy black local authorities. As a result of NVA (which often led to violence) the central government was eventually forced to negotiate a new local government system for the whole of South African society with all stakeholders. Negotiations led to a process of transition to legitimate (democratic) local government for all South Africans as promulgated in the Local Government Transition Act, 1993 (Act No. 209 of I 993). Consequently the following has been established in this thesis: (1) the influence of the political dispensation (apartheid dispensation) on the development of urban black communities and the maintenance of black local government; (2) the nature and the effect of NV A on the development of black local government; and (3) how valid the negotiated local government system is, compared to the identified ideal-typical model. / Development Studies / D. Litt. et Phil. (Ontwikkelingsadministrasie)