In the context of a global crisis, it is necessary to ask what are the philosophical limitations of political critique? This thesis addresses this broad question through a critical reading of the work of Richard Rorty and his theorization of the connection between philosophy and politics. Rorty’s philosophy dissociates philosophical questioning and political thinking. Through a critique of foundationalism, Rorty establishes new limits to philosophy which prescribe its involvement in politics. However, the critical literature fails to connect these two aspects. They accept Rorty’s position that his philosophical pragmatism is unconnected to his political liberalism. In contrast, this thesis is a critical account of Rorty’s theorization of the connection between philosophy and politics that explicitly links his pragmatism to his liberalism. It refutes Rorty’s wider philosophical claim from within a reading of his own work. By situating Rorty within his critique of epistemology and his relation to the philosophy of John Dewey, and confronting him with an alternative, ontological line of thinking that runs from the work of Martin Heidegger to that of Herbert Marcuse, this thesis exposes the mechanisms by which Rorty reduces philosophical and political thinking. It reveals that rather than opening thinking and providing a basis for political criticism, Rorty’s political pragmatism restricts thought to the present range of options. What Rorty offers is not a method for cultural change, as he claims, but a self-reinforcing mode of thought for contemporary liberalism. The implications of this analysis exceed Rorty scholarship. Rorty attempts to theorize the implicit assumptions of the liberal West. While he could never exhaust that culture, he does reveal a real set of pragmatic assumptions and justifications for liberal democracy. As such, he offers a opportunity to critically engage a particular form of liberalism that informs much of the dominant discourse about democracy today.

Explanations of the enduring Greek-Turkish rivalry found upon neorealist and neoliberal assumptions, undercut by epistemological limitations, have been repeatedly falsified by empirical evidence while culturalist accounts emphasizing the centrality of prevailing norms related to identity and ethnocentrism fail to predict social change. An alternative explanation relying on a thick rational choice approach focusing on the two states‟ domestic scenes and exploring their interaction with interstate bargaining is offered. Methodologically, two analytic narratives of their institutional evolution are constructed by identifying key actors, mapping out their incentives and exploring their strategic interaction. Two policy shifts, namely the Greek Helsinki strategy and the Turkish acceptance of the Annan Plan are selected to explore domestic mechanisms of preference formation and expose the limitations of alternative accounts. In the Greek case the impact of international diplomacy on policy equilibria through its linkage to domestic institutional structures is explored, while in the Turkish case policy equilibria are contingent upon the relative success of anti-Kemalist collective action. These policy equilibria inform negotiators‟ utility functions during interstate bargaining. The thesis, emphasizing the analytical importance of parallel exploration of domestic sources of foreign policy and interstate bargaining, strives to model the interaction over the Aegean Sea dispute using negotiator preferences exposed by the analysis of two shifts on issues only indirectly related to the Aegean Sea dispute. The thesis focuses on two normative constructs, rigidity and Kemalism, as informal institutions which define available strategies on all issues of bilateral interest. Overcoming problems with assigning preferences, the approach demonstrates how the two states are unable to communicate honestly under incomplete information, in order to switch from a non-cooperative to a cooperative equilibrium, despite domestic institutional change. Although realist accounts predict the difficulties with international cooperation, this approach offers a more realistic image of the bilateral relation and is able to account for a broad range of policy shifts.

This thesis examines the impact of economic liberalism on the dominant source of legitimation in Mexico - nationalism - during the presidency of Carlos Salinas de Gortari (1988-94). It asks whether national ideology remained of value as a legitimising force given the ways in which neoliberalism challenged its social rationale and looks at the search for a new basis of consensus. The thesis argues that salinismo continued to find nationalism valuable to maintaining consensus by providing a formula which could mediate rival individual and social claims. It analyses nationalism through the content attributed to the individual and the social in political discourse of the period. Chapter 1 argues that a relationship has existed between political economy and national ideology since Mexico's independence. This has been determined by elites seeking to establish a state sufficiently stable to enable economic development. In the 20th century, conceptions of nationality provided criteria for "nation-building", the creation of an integrated citizenry free of divisions which threatened stability. Chapter 2 argues that Salinas continued to find nationalism of legitimising value to his own state reforms, but adapted it to neoliberal priorities. Chapters 3 and 4 focus on how Salinas dealt in two instances - landholding and free trade - with conflicts generated by rival conceptions within nationalism and neoliberalism of the individual and sovereignty. Chapter 5 examines how intellectuals reassessed nationalist ideology, and how the new models of community they imagined reflected the search for a legitimising formula functional to the new political economy. Chapters 6 and 7 argue that opposition parties on Left and Right also sought such a formula and assessedth e need to mediate individual and social claims. The thesis contributes to an understanding of the role nationalism has played in Mexico's capitalist development, shedding light upon its fate within accelerated modernisation.

The subject of this thesis is the transition from de facto military rule to constitutional civilian government in Guatemala between 1963 and 1970. The focus is upon the limits to democratisation inherent in this process at a time of intense political polarisation and increasing militarisation. The work opens with a consideration of the debates that emerged in the context of the political transitions in Latin America during the 1980s. The second chapter charts the central characteristics of a foundational period in Guatemalan politics between 1944 and 1954 and argues that later political developments can only be fully understood with reference to this earlier period. Chapter Three addresses the military coup of 1963 and the period of military government which followed. The emphasis is on the effort to define the parameters of the Guatemalan political process and the military response to the guerrilla challenge which emerged after 1962. Chapter Four examines in detail the elections of March 1966 and the political campaign which preceded them. Particular consideration is given to the origins and character of the pact signed with the military establishment before the new government was permitted to take office. The following two chapters present a case study of the civilian government between 1966 and 1970. Chapter Five addresses the rhetoric and reality of the government programme with respect to three key policy areas and suggests that the failure to make progress in each was indicative of the true limits to this democratic experiment. The thematic focus of Chapter Six is insurgency and counterinsurgency and the extensive political violence which became the overarching feature of this period. The thesis concludes with a brief examination of the 1970 elections and goes on to argue that the failure of democratisation between 1963 and 1970 derived from the historic absence of a liberal democratic consensus and the predominant role of the military in the political process.

In Australia, there is growing interest in the potential for voluntary initiatives by industry to contribute to environmental policy objectives. This dissertation reviews the manner in which three different voluntary approaches (environmental management systems, the Greenhouse Challenge and the mining industry's Code for Environmental Management) have functioned, to assess whether or not voluntary approaches can lead to improved environmental outcomes compared to other policy instruments, and to define the conditions under which these improved outcomes can be achieved. The research indicates that the contribution of voluntary approaches is likely to be limited in situations where voluntary approaches are adopted as the sole policy instrument. That is, there is a need for other policy instruments such as command and control or economic instruments to ensure that organisations meet minimum standards of performance. However, voluntary approaches can make a significant contribution in situations where they provide a transitional function (for example, as a precursor to the implementation of legislation) or where they are used as a tool to assist organisations meet the goals specified in policy or regulations. While the proponents of voluntary approaches have argued that voluntary approaches offer the potential for economic efficiency, reduced administration costs, competitive advantage and innovation, there is limited evidence from the three case-studies to suggest that these benefits are achieved in practice. Soft effects such as education, placing environmental issues on the business decision-making agenda, and improving relationships between business and regulatory authorities appear to be the most important direct outcomes from successful voluntary approaches. The research indicates that, for voluntary approaches to be effective policy instruments, they should contain specific objectives and targets, clearly define the business as usual scenario, include credible monitoring and measuring processes, and be underpinned by suitable enforcement mechanisms.

This study focuses on the particular course taken by the theory of sexual difference (il pensiero della differenza sessuale) in Italy. It examines Italian feminism as a current which has received hitherto little international attention. The first part of the thesis situates Italian feminism in relation to the more familiar French and Anglo-American contexts in order to consider its distinctiveness. The main body of the study then considers the historical and political emergence of contemporary Italian feminism, the elaboration of a social-symbolic practice called "entrustment" ("afdamento "), beginning in 1983, and the hegemony achieved by the theory of sexual difference amongst the majority of feminist groups. Here, I develop the central argument of the thesis: it is the elaboration of entrustment which has first occasioned contemporary Italian feminism, as a whole, to engage with a theory of sexual difference adapted to the highly politicised Italian context. The last section of the thesis critically evaluates entrustment and the symbolic order of the Mother created by it, and considers the debates surrounding such a social-symbolic practice. Adriana Cavarero provides an original point of view on contemporary Italian feminism since she is both a fierce critic of entrustment and one of the leading exponents of il pensiero. The final chapter thus utilises Cavarero's theory in order to postulate that entrustment is best considered as part of a plural but common Italian strategy of "practising" relationships between women. Sexual difference now becomes the political practice of restructuring the order of representation so that feminine sexual difference can be included.

The thesis examines the linkage between ontology and politics in Spinoza, and considers the extent to which his philosophy discloses novel materialist conceptions of nature, history and society. It explores the distinct paradigm of the individual proposed by Spinoza emerging from his materialist ontology, and the ways in which this impacts effectively upon the constitution of the multitude as a political category. Arguing that Spinoza’s ontology unveils a more complex process of vital and psychic individuation, I develop a contemporary interpretation of Spinoza’s writings through Simondon’s notions of collective being, disparation, emotions and transindividuality. The study of Spinoza’s ontology in the light of Simondon is crucial for re-considering the central role of affectivity within the genesis and development of human beings. This refers to the redefinition of affectivity as a powerful source of psychic and political individuation, which is the cornerstone of relation, power and transformations. The understanding of Spinoza’s process of affective and collective individuation constitutes the basis for analysing his political theory. The inquiry focuses to the emergence of the political status of the multitude from this complex process of collective and affective individuation, and considers the extent to which the multitude impacts concretely upon the realm of the political. Specifically, the discussion draws attention to the affective state of the multitude, and the ways in which this produces fundamental relational events, meanings, power and problematic political individuals. The argument then turns to examine the model of democracy proposed by Spinoza and the role of the multitude within the constitution of the democratic body. It sheds light on the pivotal part played by the multitude within the production of democracy, and investigates the interface between affectivity and democracy more broadly.

Throughout the eighties, and particularly from 1986, British broadcasting has been understood as undergoing a fundamental change. Consequently, this thesis will analyze, explain and assess the major developments which have taken place in the wake of what has been widely perceived as an on-going transition within the British broadcasting system. This reform has often been identified as a shift from a system orientated around the concept of public service to one in which alternative core tenets such as free enterprise, competition and commercialization have emerged alongside the traditional paradigm. It has been motivated by a number of imperatives; the 'push' of technology, convergence between the telecom and broadcast industries, the emergence of new media actors, market-liberal ideologies and the political will of the Thatcher government. This thesis will test the relative importance of these factors and consider the crucial questions which are shaping the debate over the future of British broadcasting into the second millenium.

Against the background of a proliferation of large non-English-speaking ethnic linguistic communities in Britain and the United States, this thesis examines the provision of English as a Second Language (ESL) and bilingual education policies in London and New York City respectively. The thesis is divided into three parts. Part I traces the transformation of English into an international linguistic phenomenon and the significance acquired by ESL and bilingual education policies. In particular, attention is focused on the educational challenges faced by English-speaking nations that are home to sizeable non-English-speaking communities. After this introductory overview, the interpretive theoretical framework, in which the thesis is based, is then presented. Drawing from the works of Yanow, Hajer and others, both ESL and bilingual education are understood as taking place within a multi-organisational context, where different players attribute different meanings to this policy. Part II goes on to explore the contrasting ways in which ESL and bilingual education policies have been framed both in Britain and in the United States. While in the UK ESL tuition has evolved as a by-product of immigration and racc-relations policies, in the USA bilingual education has however been construed as a linguistic right. Part III then introduces an empirical analysis of the provision of ESL and bilingual programmes in the context of London and New York City. This section specifically deals with the educational needs of two non-English-speaking groups: the Bangladeshi community in Tower Hamlets and the Hispanic community in Manhattan. Following from these players' language experiences, the fieldwork is used to - identify three distinctive ESL/bilingual, education discourse coalitions, namely the assimilationists, exclusivists and social integrationists. Based on different value-systems, each of these 'policy frames' represents their advocates' particular understanding of ESL and bilingual education policies. Having finally ascertained the impact of multiple meanings on the second language education policy process, the thesis concludes by advocating further interpretive research in the analysis of public policy.

This thesis studies the influence of the political party group on the processes of local political representation. It sets out to discover how party groups are able to position themselves between councillor and the electorate, to demand the loyalty of councillors, and to ensure that they act publicly in a cohesive fashion in respect of local issues. The study distinguishes between different theatres of representation, the more or less open arenas within which councillors speak and act. This distinction is used to investigate the actual and likely behaviour of councillors in a range of situations from the closed and private to the open and public. The study also introduces the concept of crises of representation, which arise when a councillor experiences the competing pulls of party group loyalty and local feelings on contentious issues affecting his or her ward or division. To explore this tension, the study introduces the concept of event-driven democracy to describe those situations which motivate the community to protest council decisions and compete with the party group for councillors' loyalty. Evidence from a survey of 629 councillors in 20 authorities in the Midlands and surrounding area was gathered in order to compare and contrast reports of past and hypothetical actions in open and closed theatres of representation. Interviews were used to supplement and illuminate these data. Three case studies examine the actual responses of councillors faced with crises of representation. Comparison is made with national data. Differences between the political parties are explored and political affiliation examined as a factor in party group influence on local representation.