How the state controls village cadres greatly shapes state-peasant relations. This study attempts to examine the relative and varying strengths of state power, village democracy, and social forces in structuring behavior patterns of village cadres in contemporary China. Particularly, three dimensions of state penetration into the countryside, Party organization, the bureaucratic system, and policy campaigns, are highlighted. It is widely accepted that village cadres are structured by top-down Party and bureaucratic control, bottom-up village elections, and informal accountability embedded in rural solidary groups. However, the conditions under which one particular mechanism plays a dominant role need to be further examined. It is also well known that local states seek to control village cadres by routine mechanisms such as Party organizations and the bureaucratic system. However, non-routine policy campaigns are not fully studied. By examining village cadre behavior in land transfers in agricultural rural areas and land expropriation in industrializing rural areas in Shandong province, this research has several findings. First, state penetration is the most powerful explanatory mechanism among others, and village democracy and societal groupings are undermined by state intervention and market forces. Second, local states in agricultural rural areas seem more developmental in land transfers while their counterparts in industrializing rural areas have more predatory elements in land expropriation. Third, village-level controlled comparisons indicate that varying strengthens of state penetration, depending on the implementation of Party organization, the bureaucratic system, and policy campaigns, greatly shape the degree of involvement in land tenure by village cadres. This study has implications for theories in comparative politics. First, the relative explanatory strength of state power, democracy, and social forces needs to be examined in specific contexts: varying issues, regions, sectors, timing and so forth. Second, the state has to be unpacked and differentiated. Third, policy campaigns characterized by ideological control and mass mobilization are powerful policy instruments and a useful remedy for rigid bureaucracy. It indicates that China’s distinctive state penetration can provide a new perspective in conceptualizing the state and studying state infrastructural power. / published_or_final_version / Politics and Public Administration / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

M. Tech. Business Administration / This is a study about perceptions, attitudes and behaviours held by employees of the South African Department of Defence (DOD) on the fairness of the Tobacco Control Policy (TCP) at the workplace in DOD. It was based on a stratified random sample of n=125 individuals selected from 1, 000 employees. The study was also predominantly quantitative in nature, where data was collected with a pre-tested and validated structured questionnaire. Pearsons chi-square tests of association and factor analysis were used for identifying factors that significantly influenced perception on the TCP adopted by DOD. The Cronbach Alpha test and face validation were used for ensuring internal consistency and validity.

published_or_final_version / Public Administration / Master / Master of Public Administration

published_or_final_version / Housing Management / Master / Master of Housing Management

published_or_final_version / Public Administration / Master / Master of Public Administration

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

published_or_final_version / Public Administration / Master / Master of Public Administration

published_or_final_version / Public Administration / Master / Master of Public Administration

published_or_final_version / Public Administration / Master / Master of Public Administration

published_or_final_version / Public Administration / Master / Master of Public Administration