Many civil society organisations (CSOs) worldwide today face declining memberships, mission-drift or that they no longer are seen as relevant in society today. Several researchers warn that this development may lead to diminished democracy on both the national level and on the organisational level. This dissertation presents a longitudinal case study of the evolving strategy formation processes as they play out within a group of organisations surrounding one of the oldest nonprofits in Sweden, the IOGT-NTO. This membership-based federation and its sister organisations are treated in the analysis as a non-profit group, or interorganisational domain, held together by a shared system of values. The group has been able to retain and even develop much of its character as well as remain true to its original mission. This study demonstrates the importance of a membership-based governance system, which is able to stay true to the organisation's ideological core. It also points at the importance of having processes that enable the organisation to change along with society, while also preserving a certain distance from its surrounding environment so that it can maintain its distinctiveness. By doing this, the organisation is not just staying true to its original mission, but also actively contributing to democracy by including new groups of members in the decision-making process. Finally, the IOGT-NTO case highlights how crucial it is to keep the ideological discussion alive within the governance system. In combination, these structures and mechanisms might enable a CSO to mitigate the iron law of oligarchy and revitalize itself. Stefan Einarsson is a researcher at the Stockholm Center for Civil Society Studies at the Stockholm School of Economics Institute for Research (SIR) in Sweden. / <p>Diss. Stockholm : Handelshögskolan, 2012.</p>

Canadian federalism has experienced pressure for change in recent years. By the end of the twentieth century, collaboration became the catch word and federations throughout the world, including Canada, witnessed an emergent movement toward collaborative governance, collaborative public service delivery, collaborative management and collaborative approaches to addressing social and economic issues. But even if the number of collaborative arrangements has grown since the 1990s, the understanding of the design, management and performance of collaborative arrangements in the Canadian federation remains weak. Accordingly, this dissertation argues that, in order to understand and open the black box of intergovernmental collaboration, it is necessary to put collaboration in a historical context and explore the roles of elites and political institutions in shaping intergovernmental collaborative practices. The role of the former provides the necessary complement of agency, while that of the latter represents a perspective that gives theoretical importance to political institutions. The integration of the two theoretical schools, elite theory and historical institutionalism, into one approach constitutes an attractive solution and offers the tools necessary to explore the complex processes of intergovernmental collaboration. The theoretical framework constructed in this dissertation is then applied to analyze whether the Agreement on Internal Trade, the Social Union Framework Agreement and the Council of the Federation can be considered in reality as examples of collaborative federalism.

This thesis compares franchising regulation in the Russian Federation with that of Canada. In order to be the most profitable, and function in the most efficient way, franchising must be properly regulated. Russia is currently experiencing a stagnation of franchising. This is partly because of the inefficient and outdated nature of the legislation that governs franchise relations in the country. In comparison, franchising business is flourishing in Canada. Canadian franchising legislation, reinforced by Canadian case law, represents a more developed system of regulation. The goal of this study is to reveal the strengths of Canadian franchising regulation as well as the weaknesses of Russian franchising regulation. This thesis also suggests ways to improve Russian franchising law and practice.

This thesis compares franchising regulation in the Russian Federation with that of Canada. In order to be the most profitable, and function in the most efficient way, franchising must be properly regulated. Russia is currently experiencing a stagnation of franchising. This is partly because of the inefficient and outdated nature of the legislation that governs franchise relations in the country. In comparison, franchising business is flourishing in Canada. Canadian franchising legislation, reinforced by Canadian case law, represents a more developed system of regulation. The goal of this study is to reveal the strengths of Canadian franchising regulation as well as the weaknesses of Russian franchising regulation. This thesis also suggests ways to improve Russian franchising law and practice.

<p>"Co-operative and State Ownership in Northern Saskatchewan Under the CCF Government" examines the use of social ownership as a policy instrument by the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) government in Northern Saskatchewan from 1944 to 1964. Led by Tommy Douglas, the new government defined numerous policy problems in the North stemming from both an economy dominated by private ownership and unstable natural resource based industries. Using two types of social ownership, crown corporations and co-operatives, the CCF sought to rectify these problems and improve the standard of living in Northern Saskatchewan. This study intends to determine whether the CCF government achieved its policy goals in Northern Saskatchewan and concludes that it accomplished its policy-specific goals. Although the CCF may not have revolutionized the Northern economy, it did realize some of its policy goals in the North.</p> <p>This study is significant because it is the first to focus solely on the program of social ownership that the CCF government implemented in the North and assess the success of the program on the CCF's terms. Moreover, this thesis offers a comprehensive review of the political origins and development of co-operatives in Northern Saskatchewan.</p>

<p>"Co-operative and State Ownership in Northern Saskatchewan Under the CCF Government" examines the use of social ownership as a policy instrument by the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) government in Northern Saskatchewan from 1944 to 1964. Led by Tommy Douglas, the new government defined numerous policy problems in the North stemming from both an economy dominated by private ownership and unstable natural resource based industries. Using two types of social ownership, crown corporations and co-operatives, the CCF sought to rectify these problems and improve the standard of living in Northern Saskatchewan. This study intends to determine whether the CCF government achieved its policy goals in Northern Saskatchewan and concludes that it accomplished its policy-specific goals. Although the CCF may not have revolutionized the Northern economy, it did realize some of its policy goals in the North.</p> <p>This study is significant because it is the first to focus solely on the program of social ownership that the CCF government implemented in the North and assess the success of the program on the CCF's terms. Moreover, this thesis offers a comprehensive review of the political origins and development of co-operatives in Northern Saskatchewan.</p>

Co-operative and State Ownership in Northern Saskatchewan Under the CCF Government examines the use of social ownership as a policy instrument by the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) government in Northern Saskatchewan from 1944 to 1964. Led by Tommy Douglas, the new government defined numerous policy problems in the North stemming from both an economy dominated by private ownership and unstable natural resource based industries. Using two types of social ownership, crown corporations and co-operatives, the CCF sought to rectify these problems and improve the standard of living in Northern Saskatchewan. This study intends to determine whether the CCF government achieved its policy goals in Northern Saskatchewan and concludes that it accomplished its policy specific goals. Although the CCF may not have revolutionized the Northern economy, it did realize some of its policy goals in the North. <p> This study is significant because it is the first to focus solely on the program of social ownership that the CCF government implemented in the North and assess the success of the program on the CCFs terms. Moreover, this thesis offers a comprehensive review of the political origins and development of co-operatives in Northern Saskatchewan.

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union and especially during the last decade, a multitude of changes and reforms affecting the business environment of the Russian Federation were observable. This thesis discusses already existing findings and theories dealing with business-impacting changes in the Russian market and investigates their impact on companies operating in the medical technical sector. Moreover, it is examined to what extent networks serve as a mediator between recent and upcoming business-impacting changes and medical device companies. For this purpose, an explanatory multiple case study is conducted which comprises two cases of medical technical companies as well as two institutions which are very familiar with the Russian market. The empirical analysis is based on a framework which summarizes in literature identified business-impacting changes. These are the membership of the WTO, the increasing overall wealth of the Russian population, different political programs to fight corruption and to decrease the extent of bureaucracy as well as various kinds of health care reforms which are launched to deal with the poor health care outcomes of the Russian Federation. Contrary to findings in literature, it is found that the WTO membership as well as the launch of different political programs has no notable impact on companies operating in the medical technical sector. Different health care reforms and an increasing overall wealth of the Russian population, on the other hand, have positive impacts on the demand for medical device products. Moreover, access to well-established networks in the Russian market is a possibility for medical device producers to evaluate the actual effect of business-impacting changes and to initiate corresponding activities. It was found that a clear distinction between different kinds of networks, such as business and social networks, cannot be clearly made for the case of the Russian market.

This bachelor thesis is the result of a minor field study which took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). The purpose of this bachelor thesis is to contribute to the understanding and improvement of Security Sector Reform (SSR), which could be explained as a process of reformation applied in post-conflict scenarios aimed at the military, police and/or judicial sector which might be an element of insecurity, particularly the police, and very particularly in post conflict scenarios where conflict resolution resulted in a divided police force, by using the BiH as a case study. We have used the theoretical framework/process of SSR and more specifically the part of SSR which touches upon police reform. However, SSR entails reformation of the security sector including military-, police- and judicial sectors, as mentioned our focus will be the police sector. This serving as a foundation for the thesis, we asked the following questions; Taking the point of departure in the Dayton Accords and its complex power sharing structure, which are the underlying factors/reasons why the Security Sector Reformation of the police force has been so problematic and why is there such inability to reach an agreement on this issue, especially in terms of structure? In terms of methodology, this is a qualitative study based on semi-structured interviews in combination with previous research. Concluding remarks, progress has been made, however, the reformation of the police is to a large extent dependent on the political will not to do so, not much indicate a change related to this. The status of the BiH police force continues to be de-centralized in terms of structure due to the Dayton Accords which has still serves a fertile ground for the continuation of inefficiency, especially in terms of cooperation, information exchange, administrative issues, war-criminals within the police etc related to the different police forces.

Since the economic reform and opening up in 1978, the social environment on the Mainland of China has been changed. A golden opportunity was created for the development of the Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) which have been growing rapidly in recent years. Before the reform carried out throughout China, the Government had an overall and exclusive control of and thus took full responsibilities for all affairs. Under such a circumstance, community organizations and market factor were subject to the country, and short of independence and autonomy. After the reform, market-oriented economy has been creating an advantageous social environment for NGOs; in the meanwhile, a great number of NGOs have risen and developed bringing more vitality to the market economy. It is in this way that the shape of the civil society and the stability of market economy have become a whole, inseparable life community. Following Corporatism, this dissertation highlights the idea that the relationship between a country and a society is not only a vertical one, but also one of mutual benefit, cooperation and exchange. This paper will explore Chinese women¡¦s NGOs¡¦ systematic management, diverse situation, and existing problems in the post-reform China, which had undergone multiple major impacts, including the Government Party¡¦s (PRC) loosened control over community organizations, dramatic changes in party relationship and official functionality, the awakening of women¡¦s self consciousness of their own rights as a result of international women¡¦s movements and UN World Conference on Women, and the raised socio-economic level over the country. This dissertation will focus on the development of women¡¦s NGOs in 1990s in China, and be supported by cases of the All-China Women¡¦s Federation (ACWF) and other kinds of female NGOs current situations. This paper will also discuss how the ACWF has been changed from a regular governmental organization into a significant NGO. With the spreading concept of civil society on the mainland, Chinese women¡¦s NGOs have also bloomed step by step into a more diversified entity, especially those build up from the community.