The goal of this research is to answer a single question. During an urban evacuation, is it advisable for regional planners to allow transit units signal priority in cases where police assisted traffic controls are not an option? Standard practice for emergency evacuation is to place police officers at intersection throughout the evacuation area. However, this is not always an option where environmental factors such as the presence of fire, chemical plume, radioactive fallout (nuclear contaminated wind and dust) do not permit police presence. Results from a case study conducted on Washington D.C. show that it would take four non-prioritized transit units to accomplish the same task as three prioritized vehicles. Furthermore, allowing transit signal priority during an urban evacuation has little to no effect on evacuation clearance time or evacuee travel time. Moreover, when transit signal priority is restricted to operate only on evacuation routes, evacuee travel and delay time decreases. / by Scott A. Parr. / Thesis (M.S.C.S.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2010. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2010. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

As a conclusion, the Chinese state's coercive capacity that has been solidified under enforced "decentralization" in the reform era, does not necessarily coincide with state building theories that are based on Western European countries' historical experiences. Western theories regard "modern state building" as a process within which the state gradually centralizes and monopolizes the coercive power "from top to bottom." However, the development pattern of state coercive capacity in China during the reform era suggests a somewhat different path composed of two stages: decentralization from top to bottom and re-centralization from top to bottom. In this sense, the experience of solidifying state coercive capacity in reform China enriches existing state building theories by adding a new angle for understanding state building. / First, decentralization of coercive force characterizes the institutional arrangement that undergirds state coercion in reform China Enforced decentralization reflects historical continuity of institutional design in state coercion; at the same time, "devolution of power" has been the center's strategy to mobilize resources from localities more effectively, while making localities to cope with challenges rising from transitional local society directly. Based on a panel data of provincial level localities in 1988-2004 period, and a field research in three county-level localities of Shandong province, this study finds out that "enforced decentralization" has contributed to the growth of police force. Though, depending on each locality's specific situation, the degree that decentralization has contributed to the reinforcement of local coercive capacity has some variations. Additionally, through a "two-way fixed effect regression model," I examined existing theories that have explained reinforcement of state coercive capacity. It was found out that the key determinants for the growth of state coercive capacity in reform China includes: crime rate, economic development, revenue, and urban-rural division in localities. / In post-Mao era, the police forces were perceived to be CCP's instrument for controlling society rather than the state's apparatus for guaranteeing crime control and law enforcement. The reform, however, changed Chinas social landscape greatly. Along with the transformation in the functions of the state, the functions of the police forces experienced changes as well. Through an empirical study, this research discusses how variations in institutional arrangement put impact on the state's capability of exerting coercion. By unpacking the development of basic power structure in reform China (state coercion and police forces), and by examining the underlying mechanism of such development, this research attempts to explore how the functions of the state as well as the nature of governance in China has been transformed. / Second, along with the development of state coercion mechanism under decentralization, some negative effects of state-enforced decentralization have also started to come out. In order to maintain a sustainable development of state coercive capability, at the latter period of reform, the state started to re-emphasize central monitoring and administrative centralization. While strengthening the center's monitor and control over local police apparatus through reorganization of public security administrative system, the center also attempted to facilitate its penetration into local society. Nevertheless, it has been found out through my fieldwork that the effort of re-centralizing the coercive power is greatly constrained by decentralized institutions that have been established in the earlier stage of the reform era. / The object of this research is police force in reform China: the context and mechanism that enabled transition in state coercive capacity in the reform era. Three things have been aimed in this research: first, to describe how state coercive capacity has been developed in China; second, to analyze how the establishment of relevant institutional mechanism has affected state coercive capacity and how those institutions work; third, to explore how the state has made a functional transition in governing local society which is getting more diversified. / Third, the growth of police force indicates the growth of fundamental governing capacity of the state. It has influenced the pattern and even the nature of governance in China tremendously. The tradition in Chinese administration, "centralized minimalism" at grassroots level, would be revitalized and strengthened throughout the reform. At the same time, with the changes in external conditions that affect governing capacity, state apparatus under the Chinese Communist Party's control is in functional transition: from "controlling a few dangerous classes in society" to "answering to diversified demands on security within society." / 樊鵬. / Adviser: Shaoguang Wang. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 70-06, Section: A, page: 2231. / Thesis (doctoral)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 312-322). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in Chinese and English. / School code: 1307. / Fan Peng.

by Pak Chui Mei, Pat. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1997. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 42-44). / ABSTRACT --- p.ii / TABLE OF CONTENTS --- p.iii / LIST OF TABLES --- p.vi / ACKNOWLEDGMENTS --- p.vii / Chapter / Chapter I. --- INTRODUCTION --- p.1 / Automobile Industry in China --- p.1 / Passenger Car --- p.2 / Outlook --- p.3 / Research Objectives --- p.4 / Chapter II. --- METHODOLOGY --- p.5 / Chapter III. --- LITERATURE REVIEW --- p.7 / The Current Passenger Car Market Players --- p.7 / The Overall Market/ Industry --- p.13 / Chapter IV. --- HINDERING FACTORS --- p.18 / Demand Not Encouraging --- p.18 / Impact of WTO Membership --- p.18 / Neglected Component Sector --- p.19 / Aftermarket Is In Disorder --- p.19 / Policy Loophole/Conflicts --- p.20 / Local Protectionism --- p.21 / Smuggling --- p.21 / Debt Default Dilemma --- p.22 / Chapter V. --- GLOBALIZATON POTENTIAL AND VALUE --- p.24 / Market --- p.25 / Cost --- p.27 / Competitor --- p.29 / Government --- p.32 / Chapter VI. --- AREAS FOR CONSIDERATION --- p.34 / Facilitating Consolidation --- p.34 / Promoting Long-term Market Hype --- p.35 / Building Faith in the Beijing Government --- p.36 / 50/50 --- p.37 / Chapter VII. --- LIMITATIONS --- p.38 / APPENDIX --- p.40 / BIBLIOGRAPHY --- p.42

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Political Science, 1982. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND DEWEY. / Vita. / Bibliography: leaves 398-409. / by James Allen Cooney. / Ph.D.

This thesis concerns the relationship between ideology, values, beliefs, politics, language, discourses, public policy and health outcomes. By examining the origins of federal health policy concerning Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples 1972-2001 I have explored the idea that the way a problem is constructed through language determines solutions enacted to solve that problem, and subsequent outcomes. Despite three decades of federal policy activity Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children born at the start of the 21st Century could expect to live almost 20 years less than non-Indigenous Australians. Explanations for the gap include that the colonial legacy of dispossession and disease continues to wreak social havoc and that both health policy and structures for health services have been fundamentally flawed. The research described in this thesis focuses on the role of senior Federal politicians in the health policy process. The research is grounded in theory which suggests that the values and beliefs of decision makers are perpetuated through language. Using critical discourse analysis the following hypotheses were tested: 1. That an examination of the language of Federal politicians responsible for the health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples over three decades would reveal their beliefs, values and discourses concerning Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples and their health 2. That the discourses of the Federal politicians contributed to policy discourses and frames in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health policy environment, and 3. That there is a relationship between the policy discourses of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health policy environment and health outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples. The hypotheses were proven. I concluded that there was a relationship between the publicly-expressed values and beliefs of politicians responsible for health, subsequent health policy and resulting health outcomes. However, a model in which theories of discourse, social constructions of people and problems, policy development and organisational decision-making were integrated did not adequately explain the findings. I developed the concept of &quotpolicy imagination&quot to explain the discrete mechanism by which ideology, politics, policy and health were related. My research suggests that the ideology and values which drove decision-making by Federal politicians responsible for the health of all Australians contributed to the lack of population-wide improvement in health outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples in the late 20th Century.

Government is constantly attempting to balance the competing interests within society, and is itself active in a variety of different roles. The conflict between these roles becomes particularly clear when an attempt is made to implement a "regulatory market" - that is a market that exists only because of government action- such as an electricity or environmental market - to implement some policy objective, since it is the nature of markets to candidly reveal weaknesses that in a non-market management framework may have remained hidden for some time. This thesis examines the difficulty that government has in setting market rules that implement an efficient market design for such markets. After examining the history and development of the Australian Electricity Industry market reform process, we examine more closely some of the electricity related environmental markets developed specifically to drive a policy outcome in Australia -- in particular the Australian Mandatory Renewable Energy Target Market (MRET) and the New South Wales Greenhouse Gas Abatement Scheme. By comparing these environmental markets with established financial markets, and using the techniques of experimental economics, we show that these environmental markets have significant inefficiencies in their design. We argue that these come about because lessons from the financial markets have not be learned by those implementing environmental markets, that stakeholders are lobbying for market design characteristics that are not in fact in their own best interests, and that governments struggle to manage the divergent pressure upon them. For example, in MRET we show experimentally that one of the market design characteristics most fought for by generators (the ability to create renewable energy certificates from qualifying energy without declaring the certificates to the market until a later time of the creator's choosing) in fact leads to market volatility, and ultimately inefficiently low prices. We also examine the impact on the overall MRET market of simple rule changes upon market performance. Key conclusions of this thesis are that it is more difficult than has been appreciated to successfully use a market to implement public policy and that important lessons have not yet been learned from the existing financial markets.

Public water policy decision making tends to be too complex and dynamic to be described fully by traditional, rational models. Information intended to improve decisions often is rendered ineffective by a failure to understand the process. An alternative, holistic description of how such decisions actually are made is presented here and illustrated with a case study. The role of information in the process is highlighted. Development of a Regional Recharge Plan for Tucson, Arizona is analyzed as the case study. The description of how decisions are made is based on an image of public water policy decision making as 1) a structured, nested network of individuals and groups with connections to their environment through their senses, mediated by their knowledge; and 2) a nonlinear process in which decisions feed back to affect the preferences and intentions of the people involved, the structure of their interactions, and the environment in which they operate. The analytical components of this image are 1) the decision makers, 2) the relevant features of their environment, 3) the structure of their interactions, and 4) the products or outputs of their deliberations. Policy decisions analyzed by these components, in contrast to the traditional analysis, disclose a new set of relationships and suggest a new view of the uses of information. In context of information use, perhaps the most important output of the decision process is a shared interpretation of the policy issue. This interpretation sets the boundaries of the issue and the nature of issue-relevant information. Participants are unlikely to attend to information incompatible with the shared interpretation. Information is effective when used to shape the issue interpretation, fill specific gaps identified as issue-relevant during the process, rationalize choices, and reshape the issue interpretation as the issue environment evolves.

M. Tech. Comparative Local Development / Small Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs) play a critical role in the economic development. Indeed, SMMEs have been recognised as major sources of poverty reduction, employment creation and incomes. It is therefore not surprising that policy makers and researchers, particularly in developing countries have acknowledged SMMEs as an important topic in development policy. Despite their belated discovery by policy makers and their contribution to the economy, their growth remains constrained by a number of key constraints including access to finance. Access to finance has a significant impact on the development or failure of SMMEs. That is to say, finance has increasingly been recognised as a major obstacle in the development of SMMEs. Without finance, SMMEs may not able to develop and sustain their businesses through innovation, hiring of additional staff and the addition of more facilities. The SMMEs sector is known to be very diverse. Indeed, Studies point that there is no single definition of SMMEs, they are defined differently in different contexts and most of SMMEs in Africa operate in the informal sector. This situation has challenged policy makers, making difficult the development of one size fits all policies. The objective in this study is to examine the problem of finance in SMME development and promotion in Africa and more particularly in Gabon and South Africa. The study examined the existing literature on SMMEs in general and more particularly the problem of access to finance in SMME development. The study highlights that SMME's access to finance is constrained by factors such as a lack of information, high interest rates, financial sector policy distortion, the high risk of SMME operations, blacklisting of SMME owners and a lack of government support awareness. In addressing this problem, a number of policies have been developed and include the market developing policies, the market enabling policies and the market harnessing policies.

published_or_final_version / Housing Management / Master / Master of Housing Management

published_or_final_version / Public Administration / Master / Master of Public Administration