My aim in this thesis is to examine two sources of plausibility for moral anti-realism. First, I address some popular arguments that appeal to moral disagreement, ultimately finding that the route from disagreement to anti-realism is less clear than it might seem. Second, I outline one particular argument from moral luck, which highlights the inexplicable coincidence of our moral beliefs and objective moral fact. In response to this argument, I show how our moral sentiments can serve as a specific kind of evidence for moral knowledge, namely evidence that connects our moral opinions non-accidentally with objective moral fact. In that way, on the view developed in this thesis, our moral sentiments make objective moral knowledge possible.

As the popularity of continued involvement in Afghanistan begins to decline and talk of a coordinated exit becomes more prevalent, international efforts to contain Afghanistans health crisis develop a new sense of urgency. Despite struggles to improve health, there has been significant progress in certain areas. Programs that target specific diseases have boosted immunization rates. Tremendous strides have also been made in expanding access to care in rural areas. But serious challenges remain, in particular maternal health. If not properly addressed, Afghanistan will remain at the bottom of the rankings on maternal mortality. Given the conditions for women in Afghanistan, a health issue in such urgent need cannot afford to be ignored. In this paper, I argue that comprehensive delivery of health services must include a stronger commitment to lowering mortality rates through innovative and targeted methods. Efforts to improve the health sector must take a diagonal approach, using low-skilled health workers as community-level representatives while working to continue the sector-wide improvements currently underway. While the sector-wide approach has expanded access to care and improved oversight of services delivered, it has not produced improvements in key health indicators such as maternal health. Health experts must work to bridge the divide between vertical approaches that target particular indicators and horizontal approaches that focus on the health system as a whole. Mortality rates will remain high and improvements in the health sector will go unnoticed if further efforts are not made to promote the utilization of health services, especially by pregnant women. Working to further incorporate pregnant women into the health sector will result in declining mortality rates and will further legitimize the efforts of the central government by demonstrating its capacity to provide essential public services. Keeping in mind Afghanistans immense health crisis and the need to improve its deficient managerial capacity, the most sensible approach to improving the health system should be neither exclusively vertical nor horizontal but rather a combination of both, with a focus on vertical efforts to educate pregnant women about the need to utilize health services and promote healthy lifestyle choices relating to breastfeeding and nutrition.

Thesis (M.A.)?--Guo li zheng zhi da xue. / Reproduced from typescript. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (doctoral)--University of Kent, 1996. / BLDSC reference no.: DX202949.

 Up to now, in the field of translation studies, late Qing translated fictions have still been termed by many scholars as “liberal translation” or “domesticating practice” lacking literary values, or generalized by some others as “rewriting” or “manipulation” completely distorting the originals, which has led to an undervaluation of those works. In the field of historical studies, although researchers have attached much importance to late Qing translations like Yan Fu’s renditions of social and political theories which had profound impact on Chinese intellectual history, translated fictions are still beyond their sight. Based on my critique of previous studies, this research attempts to study five late Qing Chinese translations of Robinson Crusoe from the perspective of intellectual history to explore the historical significance of those works. As one of the most frequently translated fictions at that time, Robinson Crusoe drew the attention of many Chinese intellectuals because of its ideological significance rather than literary values. On the one hand, aiming at publicizing new ideas to readers under influence of Chinese tradition, late Qing translators tried to deal with the contradictions between new ideas and traditional ideas, thus showing their cultural stance. On the other hand, influenced by the elites’ proposal of enlightening common people with fictions, translators endeavored to bridge the gap between elite discourse and popular culture, thus reflecting the extent of the reception of elites’ ideas. Based on textual and contextual comparisons, it is easy to see that the translators all looked to the novel, Robinson Crusoe, for national salvation, believing that their renditions would be able to arouse adventurous spirit among Chinese people, and tried to reshape the relation between citizen, nation, family and the self in their renditions. First, they either made Crusoe a patriot or linked the adventure with national salvation although in the original, Crusoe’s adventure has no relation with nationalism. Second, the translators all advocated a new ethical idea by, on the one hand, defending Crusoe’s disobedience to his father and, on the other hand, changing his lack of filial affection. Third, as the economic and puritan individualism Crusoe embodied in the original conflicted with Chinese ethics, all translators transformed the individualist into either Confucian or altruist. Thus the translators’ changes, additions, deletions and explanations in and out of the renditions fully showed the trend of thought in late Qing from the perspective of intellectual history. Obviously, different late Qing translators of Robinson Crusoe tackled the same cultural conflicts in similar ways, which offers us an opportunity to study late Qing translated fictions systematically. In so doing, the new mode of study enhances our understanding of the general trend of thought in late Qing and the historical significance of late Qing translated fictions. / published_or_final_version / Chinese / Master / Master of Philosophy

This thesis analyzes a gradual political transformation in Texas during the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. It specifically analyzes the political climate following the 2014 Midterm Elections by using the valuable context of past Texas political history. In spite of the massive setbacks of the 2014 election cycle, the Democratic Party may actually have a bright future in the state of Texas. Demographic and economic trends provide the party with an opportunity to make steady gains. But such progress will not happen automatically: Democrats have to run candidates and take positions that appeal to the emerging Texas electorate.

[From the introduction]: Despite taking place in the mid-nineteenth century the U.S. Civil War still offers numerous crucial insights into modern armed conflicts. A current or future federation or new ‘nation’ may face fundamental political differences, even irreconcilable difficulties, which can only be settled by force. In future states will inevitably face both separatist issues and polarised argument over the political development of their nation. It is probable that a civil war may again occur where the world may watch and consider forms of intervention, including military force, but be unwilling to do so decisively. This type of Civil War therefore remains historically significant, offering lessons for approaching the problems of strategy in a politically complex environment. Equally it offers insights into civil-military relations in highly complex conflicts where loyalties are not always clear. Success and ultimate triumph in the U.S. Civil War relied a great deal on the efficiency of civil-military relations and a willingness to approach each in a flexible, innovative manner. Within grand strategically vital regions where loyalties were uncertain and political complexity was very high, success in the realm of civil-military relations became the decisive factor in securing political control. Success in this dynamic and fluid realm of civil-military relations directly enabled military potential to be maximised, accelerating the implementation of the initial stages of a war winning strategy. This strategy would ultimately preserve the Union and propel the United States towards world power status. Theories of civil-military relations from and based around the thoughts and methods of Samuel Huntington argue for the separation of the professional military and their political leadership. Huntington’s theories as first laid out in ‘The Soldier and the State’, developed from the American historical experience, with the United States’ civil-military relationships present and future in mind, often ignored the complex and unique nature of some conflicts. Huntington at times ignored what the he considered to be historical factual anomalies in favour of theoretical framework. It would be unwise to analyse civil wars and complex conflict in this manner, these are often fought out on many levels with local and regional conflicts tied up in the wider struggle. What may be appear to be a very clearly defined conflict at this wider level can be in fact be far more complex regionally and indeed locally.

No description available.

This research focuses on the Open Method of Coordination (OMC) on social inclusion over a period of ten years. It analyses the participation of people who experience poverty and/or social exclusion and anti-poverty associations in the OMC. The main objective is to explore whether such participation triggers the redirection of participants’ expectations, political activities and loyalties from the national to the EU level. The research focuses on participation at domestic and EU level. It identifies the core responses (or non-responses) of British and Greek governmental and non-governmental actors to the EU pressures for participation. National responses to EU pressures help understand the participation of the above mentioned stakeholders in the domestic policy-making process. Additionally, by focusing on the participation of British and Greek delegates to the European Meetings of People Experiencing Poverty, this research seeks to understand whether participation through the OMC, at EU level, influences expectations, political activities and loyalties. The empirical findings of the research show that participation in the OMC indeed influences redirection of expectations, political activities and loyalties. However, the differences between the UK and Greece, and the differences between participation domestically and at EU level were found to be significant. This research contributes to existing theory by analysing the effects of participation of wider numbers of citizens in EU processes. It addresses the lack of empirical data regarding the participation of non-traditional stakeholders.

Public bill committees in the British House of Commons play a crucial role in the scrutiny of government legislation. The reform of the bill committee system in 2006 and the introduction of oral evidence taking as a standard procedure significantly raised the profile of this stage of the legislative process and had the potential to increase the power of bill committees to constrain the government in the passage of legislation. Yet there remains no detailed analysis of the work of these modern bill committees and of their impact on government bills. This thesis seeks to address this gap, with the most comprehensive quantitative analysis of bill committee work since that of John Griffith in 1974. It analyses 139 bill committees and report stage debates over a ten year period in great detail and supplements this with a series of interviews with Members of Parliament and parliamentary officials. The thesis finds that the context in which bill committees are working is very different from that identified by Griffith. Whilst the majority of bills leave committee with amendments, a culture of resistance among government ministers means that 99 per cent of all successful amendments are government amendments. The real impact of committee stage is then identified as taking place at the report stage of bills. It is here that committees can – and do – make a difference to government legislation, with an average of ten changes being made at the report stage of every bill on the basis of undertakings ministers have made in committee. Ultimately the thesis finds when the MPs appointed to committees have specialist knowledge of the subject and when good use is made of oral evidence sessions, the capacity of committees to make a difference to government legislation increases considerably.