The objective of the research was to assess the trends and forms of community participation to poverty alleviation in Bahir Dar town. The field study was limited to two projects, micro and small scale enterprise activities and credit service, however the finding and recommendation can be applied to all projects aimed to poverty alleviation and community self sustaining projects. In order to achieve the research objectives, a review of relevant literature was done. It began by reviewing definitions and concepts of poverty. The literature also over reviewed the importance of community participation to poverty alleviation efforts of a country and reviews the Ethiopian poverty reduction process. The literature further highlighted the role of community participation in achieving development goals. The data collection was done by means of focus group discussions complimented by face-to-face interviews. The data collected were analyzed thematically with the use of narrative summary and categorization in respect to the objective of the study. The findings of the study showed that there is low participation of community and therefore creating more opportunities for community participation activity and detailed study in the area is recommended.

Community participation is a concept that has been advocated for by bodies such as the World Health Organization (WHO) for over two decades. In South Africa, community participation was included in the National Health Act (61 of 2003). Clinic and Community health facility committees were legislated as a method of involving communities in promoting health and improving health outcomes. During the year 2010, a process was initiated by the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality (NMBM) to establish and train health committees at all health facilities. The purpose of this research report was to evaluate the effectiveness of community health committees within the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality, since 2010. Guidelines given in the Policy on the Establishment and Functioning of Clinic and Community Health Centre Committee (2009) were utilized as a point of reference for this study. The results showed that the community health committees trained in 2010 were functioning effectively as a result of the policy guidelines given. There still needs to be an improvement in the involvement of ward councilors, as stipulated in the National Health Act (61 of 2003), as well as in the implementation of the fundraising role, as set out in the Health Departments policy guidelines for health committees to implement.

My thesis deals with political awareness and participation of students of Faculty of International Relations, University of Economics in Prague. In theoretical part I dealt with models of democracy and the significance of political participation in these models. Afterwards I described political participation tools, especially voter turnout, its decline in Czech Republic and its consequences. In connection with voter turnout I dealt with election campaigns in Czech Republic, especially the negative campaigns, and with the role of mass media in politics. Theoretical part is followed by case study. Its aim is to discover and describe, if the students of Faculty of International Relations are interested in faculty affairs, if they are aware of political situation, if they take part in political participation and what are the factors that influence them the most in decision-making and in their long term political preferences.

The impact of ethnic residential concentration on the process of integration of ethnic minorities into the mainstream society has been increasingly debated among both scholars and policy makers across Europe. This thesis seeks to contribute to this debate by addressing the effect of ethnic residential concentration on the political participation of Black Africans in Britain. The study pursues three main objectives: investigating the marginalising or mobilising impact of co-ethnic residential concentration on political participation; disentangling the processes underpinning this relationship by focusing on the effect of ethnic-based social networks, represented here by voluntary organisations, religious institutions and informal social networks; exploring the influence of the immigration-related heterogeneity that characterises the Black African community on the relationship between residential concentration, ethnic social networks and political participation. A mixed-method approach is adopted. The quantitative enquiry focuses on the Black African community as a whole and relies on secondary data drawn from the 2010 Ethnic Minority British Electoral Survey. The qualitative enquiry is based on primary data collected through face-to-face interviews and participant observation among Ghanaians and Somalis in London. The quantitative analysis shows that, among Black Africans, residential concentration has a mobilising effect on voter turnout but a marginalising effect on non-electoral participation. Ethnic social networks do not seem to mediate this relationship. Residential concentration is significantly, and positively, correlated to individual participation in ethnic places of worship and embeddedness in ethnic informal networks but not to involvement in ethnic organisations. In turn, the latter positively influences non-electoral engagement whereas ethnic places of worship and informal networks are not related to political engagement. The qualitative findings suggest that residential concentration is more relevant for the creation of and participation in ethnic organisations among Somalis than among Ghanaians. However, this relationship is likely to be influenced by other contextual factors such as institutional support, ethnic diversity and tribal homogeneity. Somali organisations also seem to play a more active political role than Ghanaian groups with regard to both electoral and non-electoral engagement. The two communities appear to be more similar when considering the relationship between ethnic religious institutions and informal connections with co-ethnics. These networks are not necessarily dependent on ethnic residential clustering and their effect on political engagement is primarily linked to informal political discussion. Overall, the results suggest that the relationship between residential concentration, ethnic social networks and political participation of Black Africans varies considerably between the two national groups researched, primarily due to their immigration-related characteristics, as well as across modes of political engagement (i.e. electoral, non-electoral) and local contexts.

O tema de pesquisa do presente trabalho é a participação política nas decisões estratégicas de preservação da biodiversidade – análise do Conselho Nacional do Meio Ambiente. Tal estudo tem como objeto teórico a participação política ativa enquanto aspecto operacionalizador do controle social na delimitação das políticas públicas de conservação da biodiversidade. Para melhor sistematização foram estabelecidas três premissas orientadoras: 1) O controle social sobre as ações do Estado somente é possível com participação política ativa; 2) A efetivação do controle social sobre as ações do Estado encontram entraves na sua operacionalização; 3) O controle social sobre o Estado na questão ambiental, em nível nacional, pode ser identificado via as deliberações efetuadas pelo CONAMA, através dos denominados atos administrativos, que ensejam legalmente, participação ativa de diferentes sujeitos coletivos, representantes do Estado e da sociedade civil. Utilizando-se o método dialético, optou-se por uma abordagem quanti-qualitativa ou mista, empregando a análise de conteúdo via combinação particular entre pesquisas, bibliográfica e documental. Os resultados obtidos tornaram possível inferir que a simples criação de Conselhos de Direitos e Políticas Públicas não garantem a participação ativa uma vez que não possuem o condão de eliminar a herança, os problemas e os desafios gravados na cultura política brasileira. Igualmente, representam outro entrave as reformas estruturais do Estado implementadas a partir dos anos 1990, pois, mesmo com as definições estabelecidas na legislação, essas não são suficientes para reduzir a considerável distância entre o país legal e o país real. As conclusões alcançadas não são definitivas, mas permitem afirmar, a partir da base teórica que norteou este trabalho, que a participação política ativa é realmente imprescindível, ou seja, ela acontece ou não há chance alguma do controle social estabelecido no aparato legal ocorrer de fato. Com o estudo realizado ainda não foi possível indicar qual o caminho a ser trilhado para a consolidação do almejado controle social do Estado uma vez que há a necessidade de maiores aprofundamentos, entretanto, acredita-se que a política é sempre uma forma de compartilhar destinos, não apenas de dominar ou dirigir, e, requer o pleno emprego do recurso democrático ao diálogo, à negociação, à articulação, entre todos os envolvidos, isto é, exige participação política ativa. / The research theme of the present work is a political participation in the strategic decisions of preservation of biodiversity – analysis of the National Council of the Environment. This study has as the theoretical object the active political participation as an operative aspect of social control in the delimitation of public policies for the conservation of biodiversity. For better systematization, three guiding premises were established: 1) The social control over State actions is only possible with active political participation; 2) The effectiveness of social control over State actions find obstacles to its operationalization; 3) The social control over the state in the environmental issue, at the national level, can be identified through the deliberations made by CONAMA, through the called administrative acts, which legally entitle, active participation of different collective subjects, representatives of the State and civil society. Using the dialectic method, we opted for a quantitative-qualitative or mixed approach, employing the analysis of content through a particular combination of bibliographical and documentary research. The results obtained made it possible to infer that the simple creation of Rights and Public Policy Councils don’t guarantee active participation once they don’t have the power to eliminate the inheritance, the problems and the challenges recorded in the Brazilian political culture. In the same way, they also represent another obstacle to the structural reforms of the State implemented since the 1990s, because, even with the definitions established in the legislation, these aren’t sufficient to reduce the considerable distance between the legal country and the real country. The conclusions achieved aren’t definitive, but allow to affirm, from the theoretical base that guided this work, that the active political participation is really essential, that is, it happens or there isn’t any chance of the social control established in the legal apparatus actually occur. With the study accomplished it hasn’t yet been possible to indicate the path to be followed in order to consolidate the desired social control of the State, once there is a need for further investigation, however, it’s believed that politic is always a way of sharing destinations, not just dominating or direct, and, it requires full use of the democratic resource to dialogue, negotiation, articulation among all involved, that is, it requires active political participation.

No início dos anos 1980, em meio ao efervescente contexto político-social nacional, um grupo de professores e alunos da E.E.S.G. Professor Ayres de Moura, localizada na Vila Jaguara, Lapa, zona oeste da capital paulista, iniciou um movimento que culminou no afastamento do diretor e na apropriação daquele espaço pela comunidade escolar, propiciando condições para práticas didático-pedagógicas arrojadas que ocorreram por aproximadamente dez anos, entre 1984 e 1994. O presente estudo pretende analisar a extensão dessas práticas e seus limites - que subsistem e reclamam para si o direito à memória -, deixando registrado um exemplo alternativo no campo da Educação ocorrido na década de 1980, questionando, dessa forma, o binômio \"escola pública/má qualidade\". A análise do processo de auto-gestão instaurado naquela escola busca também refletir acerca da participação direta e efetiva nas decisões dentro do espaço escolar, do significado de participação política, democracia e cidadania, assim como nas relações de poder existentes no cotidiano. Especificamente no tocante às questões didático-pedagógicas, procura entender como o currículo real dessa escola foi trabalhado ao longo desses dez anos em que ela foi gerida pela comunidade. Em outras palavras, procura entender a dinâmica existente entre as esferas política e pedagógica. Para tanto, utilizou como fontes entrevistas com ex-professores e ex-alunos, artigos de jornais e documentos de natureza diversa produzidos pela escola. Atualmente, a E.E.S.G. Professor Ayres de Moura não difere da média das escolas públicas da periferia da cidade de São Paulo, pouco se assemelhando ao que foi durante o período referido por essa pesquisa. Nesse sentido, também se buscou compreender as razões que levaram aquela experiência ao seu esgotamento. / In the beginning of the 1908s, amidst a roaring social-political national environment, a group of professors and students of the E.E.S.G. Professor Ayres de Moura (located in Vila Jaguara, Lapa, west of Sao Paulo) initiated a movement which had its height with the deposition of their Headmaster. The schooling community then took possession of that space allowing for the appropriate teaching practices to be applied between 1984 and 1994. This work aims at analyzing the extension of such practices and their limits which exist and claim for themselves the right to memory leaving as a mark an alternative example in the education field which took place in the 1980s decade, questioning the alleged correlation between state schools vs. poor quality. The analysis of the self management process adopted by that school looks to reflect over the direct and effective participation within the school space on the meaning of political participation, democracy and citizenship, as well as of the relationships of the existing power of daily life. Specifically on the teaching methodology questions, it looks to understand how the real curriculum was worked during the school creation process undertaken by the community. In other words, the existing dynamics between the pedagogical and political spheres. To that end, interviews with ex-teachers, ex-students and newspaper clippings and documents produced by the school were used. Currently, E.E.S.G. Professor Ayres de Moura does not differ from the average nearby state schools in the outskirts of Sao Paulo, with little resemblance of what was until the mid 1990s. This way, there was also the need to understand the reasons which led to comprehend such experience to come to an end.

Perspectiva convencional na Ciência Política prevê associação forte entre educação e comportamentos políticos desejáveis para a convivência democrática. Essa abordagem também infere que aumentos no nível de escolaridade de uma nação serão acompanhados por ganhos sustentados em participação e apoio a princípios democráticos, além de impactos na confiança nas instituições. Essas hipóteses foram revistas e testadas para o Brasil, com análise de surveys aplicados entre 1989 e 2006. As evidências encontradas confirmam a perspectiva convencional, observado um só ponto no tempo e ressalvadas dimensões de associativismo. A análise longitudinal, entre as duas pontas do período, revelou retornos declinantes para a escolaridade adicionada por diferentes níveis de instrução, sobretudo o ensino médio. Fatores relativos ao ambiente educacional, às gerações e às capacidades cognitivas foram investigados para compreender esse achado. A capacitação cognitiva do cidadão indicou ter efeito independente da escolaridade na conformação dos comportamentos políticos, sugerindo que é na perda de qualidade da escolarização brasileira recente que devem ser buscadas explicações. / Conventional wisdom in Political Science predicts strong association between education and political behavior favorable to democracy. This perspective also infers that increases in educational attainments levels of a nation bring sustainable gains in terms of civic and political participation and democratic principles support, as well as impacts on trust in institutions. These hypotheses were reviewed and tested on the Brazilian context, with analysis of surveys from 1989 to 2006. The evidence gathered confirm the conventional wisdom, when a single point in time is observed and with the exception of dimensions of civic engagement. The longitudinal analyses between the extremes of this time span revealed decreasing rewards to the education added up by different educational levels, specially the upper secondary (ensino médio). Factors related to the educational environment, generations and cognitive skills were then investigated in order to understand the findings. The development of cognitive skills showed effects on political behavior independent from education, suggesting that explanations must be searched for on the loss of quality of the Brazilian educational system.

Cette thèse s’articule en trois essais qui contribuent à la littérature en économie politique des pays en voie de développement. Le premier chapitre étudie l’impact des distorsions dans la representation législative des provinces au sein du Congrès argentin dans la distribution des revenus fédéraux. Le chapitre 1 est coécrit avec Sebastián Galiani (University of Maryland) et Gustavo Torrens (University of Indiana). En utilisant trois types de variations exogènes dans la representation legislative des provinces on montre que des changements dans le nombre de sièges n’a aucun effet sur le montant de révenus fédéraux que chaque province reçoit. Le deuxième chapitre (co-écrit avec S. Galiani et G. Torrens) analyse la dynamique des réformes structurelles dans les pays en voie de développement, en présence d’organisations internationales pourvoyeuses de fonds. Nous développons un modèle dynamique où on montre que ces organisations modifient l’équilibre politique et peuvent induire des pays à sur-reformer et les exposer à un cycle de réformes et contre-réformes. Le troisième chapitre de cette thèse étudie l’impact des nouvelles technologies d’information sur le comportement politique des jeunes en Argentine. J’analyse l’impact d’un programme de distribution d’ordinateurs portables ciblé aux étudiants des écoles secondaires, qui ont voté pour la première fois après une baisse de l’age du droit de vote à 16 ans. Je trouve que l’accès au programme a un effet négatif dans leur taux de participation aux élections; des données complementaires montrent que l’utilisation qu’ils donnent aux ordinateurs est plutôt de divertissement, un fait qui conduit au désintérêt en politique. / This thesis consists of three essays on the political economy of developing countries. Chapter 1 « Fiscal Federalism and Legislative Malapportionment: Causal Evidence from Independent but Related Natural Experiments » (cowritten with S. Galiani and G. Torrens) investigates the impact of distortions in districts' representation in the Argentine Congress on the distribution of federal tax resources. Exploiting exogenous variations in the provinces' legislative representation, we show that changes in the share of seats do not result in changes in the share of federal tax resources each district gets. Chapter 2, entitled « International Organizations and Structural Reforms » (co-written with S. Galiani and G. Torrens), we analyze the dynamics of structural reforms in developing countries in the presence of international organizations that fund reforms. We develop a dynamic model in which we show that these organizations alter the local political equilibrium and may incentivize countries to over-reform. This, in turns, leaves countries prone to suffer violent cycles of reform and counter-reform. In chapter 3, « Computers and Youth Political Participation », I study the impact of new information technologies on the political behavior of young people in Argentina. I analyze the effect of a laptop distribution program aimed at high school students who voted for the first time after voting age was lowered to 16. My analysis show that exposure to the program is associated with a decrease in turnout rates of teenagers, and I present evidence that suggests that this may be due to increased entertainment use of computers, which eventually leads to apathy in politics.

abstract: Over the past twenty years, the state of Arizona has increasingly become a key location for the debate surrounding immigration and border policy in the United States. Its geographical position within the Southwest North American Region (SWNAR) of the United States and shared physical border with México has forged an extensive history of complicated interconnectedness for the Latino community residing in this borderland (Vélez-Ibáñez, 2017). This dissertation examines Arizona’s anti-immigration legislation, focusing on the years between 2000 and 2018, and how, or if, this legislation affected the political participation of Latinos in the state. This research argues that Latinos, both citizen and undocumented, have galvanized across citizenship lines in response to the anti-immigration legislation aimed at criminalizing Latinos, marginalizing their families, and hindering their access to education, public services, and employment opportunities (Philbin & Ayón, 2016). Using theoretical foundations of political mobilization, this work explores the use of anti-immigration legislation as a mobilizing factor for Latino political participation. Further, the findings suggest that the traditional definition of political participation is not sufficient for the wide-ranging activities of the Latino community. This work, therefore, re-contextualizes the term political participation and establishes Latino political participation by incorporating the concept of “funds of knowledge” to account for Latino political practices that have previously been ignored by the traditional definition. For this study, a series of observations of trends in Latino voting and registration and a descriptive historical analysis of Latino political practices led to the creation of questions for the qualitative interview process. Interviews were conducted with fifteen key Latino informants, and their testimonios provide an explanation for the noted trends in Latino political participation during the election years, highlight the political mobilization that incorporated both the undocumented Latinos and Latino citizens, and provide clarification for a recontextualization of Latino political participation. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Transborder Studies 2020

Social media use is a pivotal driver for political engagement. The present study extended previous research by exploring the simple and serial mediating roles of narcissism, perceived anonymity, descriptive norms, and subjective norms in this relationship. Structural equation modeling (SEM) with bootstrapping estimation was conducted for hypothesis testing using data from 579 Hong Kong university students. Modeling results revealed that perceived anonymity, descriptive norms, and subjective norms are significant mediators of the relationship between social media use and political participation. Moreover, descriptive norms, together with perceived anonymity, were found to mediate the relationship. Likewise, narcissism combined with descriptive norms proved to be significant mediators of the relationship. Additionally, a distal mediation effect of descriptive norms and subjective norms proved to be significant. Based on these results, a subsequent parallel mediation analysis was conducted, revealing that perceived anonymity is the most influential indicator among perceived anonymity, subjective norms, and descriptive norms of the relationship of social media use and political participation. The study concluded by comparing male and female respondents in terms of political participation. The result showed that male respondents were generally more active than female respondents in both online and offline political activities, which agrees with prior research findings. Collectively, the current study provides a new perspective from which we can further understand the effects of social media use on political engagement.