The Heads of State and Government Implementation Committee (HSGIC) of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad) acknowledged and recognised the centrality of good governance within the context of the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM), an innovative mechanism acceded to by member states of the African Union (AU) as a self- monitoring mechanism for good governance. South Africa is one of the countries which acceded to the APRM in 2003. Accordingly, South Africa appointed a National Governing Council (NGC) under the chairpersonship of the Minister of Public Services and Administration as the focal point to develop a strategy to manage the national APRM process. The NGC was constituted of business, the disabled, civil society, churches, trade unions, government and women’s coalitions thus ensuring all relevant stakeholders are represented. As part of South Africa’s country assessment, questionnaires dealing with the four core thematic areas of the APRM were sent through to the public by community development workers. In addition, four technical assessment agencies were appointed to assist in conducting research on the four thematic areas. The primary objective of this study is to examine the theoretical approach to the study and the African Peer Review Mechanism’s contemporary relevance to South Africa, its intended beneficiaries and an assessment of South Africa for the period 2006. The study revealed that Proportional Representation (PR) and floor-crossing have an impact on the sustainability, relevance, long term development, vibrancy and profundity of constitutional democracy in the country. Clearly, since the dawn of the democratic dispensation in South Africa the electoral system introduced is such that it had to take into account the challenges the country faced during the apartheid system of governance. In this context, enough space for free political competition in the country was created. On the basis of the findings of the study, it is patently clear that the time allocated for the CSAR was minimal and the country should have been given at least two years so that the self assessment could have been extensively done. On the issue of HIV and AIDS and its relationship to socio-economic conditions, it was revealed that the country has a lot to do in this regard. The debilitating effect that HIV and AIDS has on the lives of the citizens requires clarity of policy and strategy, consistency in public communication and the need for sustained partnerships amongst all relevant stakeholders. At another level, there was a call for a basic income grant although government does not necessarily support it. Based on the research findings above, a new research area outlined under recommendations can be conceptualized for further research and it requires some attention.

Local Government has a critical role to play in rebuilding local communities and environments as the basis for a democratic, integrated prosperous and truly non-racial society and this is enshrined in Chapter 7 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa Act 108 of 1996. The key focus area of this research study is the evaluation of the impact of Public Participation on the formulation and implementation of the Integrated Development Plan in the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality for the period 2004 – 2008. This research study has two aims that are related to public participation in the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality and they are: - To evaluate the impact of public participation in the Integrated Development Plan in the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality and whether public participation is seen as a vehicle to enhance policy formulation and implementation or not especially with respect to community ownership of the Integrated Development Plan. To provide strategies/mechanisms to remedy the situation. The research study is people focused and the methodogical approach that is used in this investigation is qualitative and quantitative. The target groups for this research is the Community residing in the jurisdiction area of the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality, Metro Councillors and Municipal Officials.

Local government is an important level of participatory democracy, where communities play an active role not only as the electorate, but also as end-users and consumers, and thereby holding their municipal councils accountable for their actions. Given the above statement, the interim Constitution of the Republic of South Sudan 2011, entrusts local government with the provision of services to communities in a sustainable manner. It also provides for the promotion of social and economic development and the promotion of a safe and healthy environment. This also entails the need for a commitment to service delivery hence, public representatives and public officials must take seriously their obligation to render services to the people that could be in the form of ensuring that refuse gets collected, electricity being supplied and other services rendered which better the general welfare of citizens. There are several definitions of public participation, but it can be defined as a process of empowering citizens by involving them in making decisions on all issues that concern them, which can be political, social or economic. The main aim of this study was to, investigate and identify the nature and extent of integrated participatory planning in Yei River County and the extent to which opportunities for public participation are accessible to the communities. The study sought to investigate: How different stakeholders in the community in Yei River County make use of public participation opportunities during the integrated participatory planning process? As such, the main objectives of the study were to; to assess the existing integrated participatory planning practices in Yei River County, to examine and evaluate how the existing integrated participatory planning practices influence service delivery in Yei River County and lastly to identify the barriers to effective integrated participatory planning in YRC and advance recommendations for improvement. Purposive and snowball sampling methods were used and data was collected from a sample of two hundred and twenty-six (226) public officials, comprising of Local Government officials, County councillors and members of the public. Results from the data collected using open and close-ended questionnaires, showed that public participation is very important in local government planning as it leads to incorporation of public suggestions and interests in the development strategies. The results further showed that public meetings and workshops were the only public participation mechanisms being used by Yei River County. The study therefore recommended among other things that, Yei River County should strengthen public participation in integrated participatory planning by providing adequate skilled human resources and establishing structures, as well as public participation mechanisms at the Payam and Boma levels. It was also recommended that the communities needed to utilise all available mechanisms of participation to ensure maximum participation during the integrated participatory planning processes.

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.

Orientador: Bruno Wilheilm Speck / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-22T08:20:54Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Coelho_RonyGleisondaSilva_M.pdf: 5271912 bytes, checksum: 2875209e55dcdd1392a076176af55d9c (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013 / Resumo: Esta pesquisa trata dos atores, iniciativas e processos envolvidos na concepção de legislação participativa implícita no referencial empírico trabalhado nesta dissertação, a Comissão Permanente de Legislação Participativa da Câmara dos Deputados (CLP). Comissões permanentes são órgãos colegiados, compostos por deputados, integrantes do processo legislativo, que têm por finalidade apreciar os assuntos ou proposições submetidos ao seu exame e sobre eles deliberar. Com efeito, foi atribuída à CLP, como principal competência, a capacidade de i) receber diversos tipos de sugestões legislativas - leia-se, de iniciativas - oriundas de associações civis legalmente constituídas; ii) deliberar sobre as sugestões acatadas, manifestando-se por meio de parecer; iii) encaminhar as sugestões de iniciativas de leis aprovadas para iniciarem a tramitação no processo legislativo. A investigação procurou responder, por um lado, qual a capacidade do mecanismo de incluir iniciativas de lei no processo legislativo. Por outro lado, elaboramos uma discussão, sem pretender uma análise exaustiva, sobre um dos possíveis efeitos do modelo institucional do mecanismo em ter credenciado organizações civis para proporem iniciativas de lei no âmbito federal. Os resultados em relação ao primeiro ponto sinalizam para uma real e alta capacidade de inclusão de iniciativas no processo legislativo. Porém, ao iniciarem a tramitação, essas iniciativas encontram uma série de entraves que escapam à alçada da comissão e que se inserem em um problema maior, da relação entre legislativo e executivo mesmo no que diz respeito à produção legislativa no Congresso. Em relação ao segundo ponto, a discussão levantada sugere que organizações civis estão a exercer função de representação no lócus que, por excelência, é o da representação política tradicional. Ademais, e anterior a essas discussões, intentamos fornecer interpretações analíticas sobre o surgimento de um mecanismo como a CLP no interior do processo legislativo. Para tanto, observou-se, em meio a uma recente onda de reformas institucionais, possíveis processos de abertura das instituições tradicionais mundo afora; além de um contexto nacional de crescente proliferação das chamadas instituições participativas / Abstract: This research deals with the actors, initiatives and processes involved in the concept of participatory legislation implicit in empirical referential used in this dissertation, the Standing Committee of Participatory Legislation the House of Representatives. Standing committees are collegiate bodies, composed of deputies, members of the legislative process, which aim to analyses the issues or proposals submitted for its examination and deliberate on them. Indeed, it was attributed to CLP, as major competence, the ability to i) receive various types of legislative suggestions, in other words, initiatives, deriving from civil associations legally constituted ii) deliberate on the suggestions accepted, manifesting by through sight iii) submit the initiatives of laws suggestions approved to started the conduct in the legislative process. The research sought to answer the one hand, which include the ability of the mechanism of law initiatives in the legislative process. Moreover, we intended discuss, without attempting an exhaustive analysis about the possible effects on a model institutional of mechanism having allowed civil organizations to propose initiatives under federal law. The results from the first topic point to a real and high capacity inclusion initiatives in the legislative process. However, as they start the conduct in the legislative process a great number of obstacles are found, that cannot be misled by CLP and part of a bigger problem, of relationship between the legislative an executive powers even as regards the legislative production in Congress. Regarding the second topic, the raised discussion suggests that civil organizations seem to be exerting the function of representation that locus par excellence is the one of traditional political representation. Moreover, prior to those discussions, we seek analytic interpretations about the emergence of a mechanism like the CLP within the legislative process, noting, amid a recent wave of institutional reforms, opening processes of traditional institutions, worldwide, plus a national context of growing proliferation of so-called participatory institutions / Mestrado / Ciencia Politica / Mestre em Ciência Política

Este trabalho busca analisar como o projeto Sementes de Primavera contribuiu para promover a cidadania planetária desde a infância por meio da participação da comunidade escolar no processo de construção do Projeto Eco-Político-Pedagógico nas escolas da Rede Municipal de Osasco (2007 a 2009). O texto está estruturado em três capítulos: no primeiro é apresentado o quadro teórico do movimento da educação ambiental e do desenvolvimento sustentável; no segundo é tecida uma reflexão sobre o princípio da Gestão Democrática na política educacional de Osasco (2007 e 2008), com ênfase na participação das crianças; no terceiro é feita uma reflexão sobre como a participação infantojuvenil da gestão escolar para ampliar o conceito de escola sustentável que vem sendo construído no Brasil e no mundo na última década. / This Masters of Arts Thesis analyzes how the project Spring\'s Seeds (Sementes de Primavera) contributed to promote planetary citizenship since childhood in the educational units of Osasco\'s Municipal School System (2007-2009). The text is structured in three chapters: in the first, the theoretical framework of environmental education movement and sustainable development is presented; in the second, there is a consideration on the democratic management in the educational policy of Osasco, specially from the experience of children\'s participation in the schools\' planning process and in the elaboration of the Eco-Political-Pedagogical Projects; in the third, there is a reflection on how the views of the children of Osasco contributed to expand the concept of a sustainable school that has been cons tructed in Brazil and in the world in the past decade.

Sociologen Colin Crouch beskrev i sin bok ”Post-democracy” från 2004 om en demokrati i förändring, i rörelse bort från den dialogen mellan samhällsaktörer som demokratin tidigare byggt på, för att i ett postmodernt samhälle istället hamna i händerna på en politisk- och företagselit. Denna kvalitativa fallstudie tar sin ansats i begreppet postdemokrati för att studera datainsamlingen av samspelet mellan svenska staten, spelbolag och andra aktörer kring genomförandet av en ny spellag som började gälla i Sverige 1 januari 2019. Studiens syfte var att undersöka om, och i så fall på vilket sätt, empirin kunde ses som ett exempel på postdemokratiska processer i svensk politik. Processen mellan aktörerna belystes genom en granskning av dokument upprättade av regering, riksdag och dess myndigheter, spelbolagen, representanter för spelberoende, spelforskning samt medierapportering. Studien genomfördes med utgångspunkt i Colin Crouchs beskrivning av postdemokrati inom företagande, politik och medborgarskap samt statsvetaren Chantal Mouffes begrepp om ”politik” och ”det politiska”. Resultatanalysen visar på att delar av beslutsprocessen och efterspelet kan benämnas som postdemokratiska, samt att den bedrivna politiken utgår enligt Mouffes definition mer från de demokratiska principerna som handlar om frihet snarare än om jämlikhet. / Colin Crouch wrote in his book Post - democracy (2004) about democracy in crisis, the dialogue in the society was no longer between the citizens and politicians, but on its way back to the hands of the politics and business elite. This qualitative case study takes position in the concept post-democracy to study the interaction between the Swedish state, gambling companies and other actors, when the implementation of a new law regarding gambling began to apply as a law in Sweden 1 January 2019. The aim of the study was to investigate whether, and if so in what way, the data collection could be seen as an example of post-democratic processes in Swedish politics. The process between the actors is highlighted by a review of documents drawn up by the government, parliament and its authorities, bookmakers, representatives of gambling addiction, gambling research and media reporting. The study was carried out on the basis of Colin Crouch's description of post-democracy in business, politics and citizenship, as well as political scientist Chantal Mouffe's concept of "politics” and "the political". The results of the analysis show that parts  of  the decision-making process and the aftermath can be referred to as post-democratic, and that, according to Mouffe's definition, the policies pursued by Mouffe are more concerned with democratic principles that are about freedom rather than equality

The diploma thesis focuses on ethical consumerism and its impact on the civic engagement of young women. Ethical consumerism, which includes, for example, boycott and buycott of products and services, is gaining momentum in the downfall of formal civic engagement. Citizens move to the market where they apply their ethical principles of noneconomic character. Their consumer choices are motivated by publicly beneficial motives. The theoretical part of the diploma thesis defines both civic society and its civic participation, and ethical consumerism. The theory of ethical consumerism addresses the definitions of basic concepts, the change in the political climate, which has allowed the expansion of ethical consumerism and the gender aspect of this phenomenon. The research focuses specifically on young women who live in Prague and regularly shop ethically, and their participation in civic engagement before and after becoming ethical consumers. From the data gathered, it was found out upon which products the informants exercised their ethical consumption, the representation of socio-economical, environmental and political motives and how they formally and informally engage in civil society. Choosing products is just like casting a vote. The consumer choice gives citizens a sense of who they are, it is...

This thesis deals with the topic of low civic and political participation of children and youth in the Czech Republic. Participatory democracy theory and theory of civil society are used as starting values. The work deals mainly with organized civic and political participation of children and youth. It is shown, based on several international studies, that in comparison with other states the civic and political participation of Czech children and youth is of the significantly lower level. Area of youth participation falls within the national policy on youth and therefore this work describes basic public-policy documents that are related to the topic of participation of children and youth. In the frame of this work, analysis of the actors involved in the czech youth policy-making, was done. Possible ways of civic and political participation of children and young people, such as children and youth associations, school parliaments, political parties, academic senates, etc, are discussed as well The work identified the main causes of low civic and political participation of children and youth and also proposed specific measures which can help to increase the level of civic and political participation of children and youth in the Czech Republic.

The civic participation is an active approach of the citizen who has possibility of using more or less formalized tools to influence public affairs. This diploma thesis "Citizens participation in the town life on a case study in Mnichovice" will deal with civic participation in a small town close to Prague - Mnichovice. The level of participation will be analyzed by the OECD (information, consultation, active participation) town hall uses, what factors influence participation rates, what motivates people to engage in participation and what discourages vice versa and which particular forms of cooperation with citizens are effective for local public administration. The theoretical part of this diploma thesis deals with the historical development of civil participation in decision making processes, analyzes legislation of the Czech Republic to describe the theoretical participation and engagement in different types of participation in the various approaches and finally explores options of participation in a small town with 3200 residents, which is located in the suburbia of Prague, 30 km south-east from the center of the capitol city. The practical part of this diploma thesis will be to analyze the various stakeholders in the community, analyze town hall attitude towards civic participation and...