This research is an evaluation of the addition of a citizen involvement process that has come to be known as "visioning" or "community visioning" to the traditional process of developing a state's transportation plan, a process which has typically been very much an in-government and esoteric province of professionals in transportation planning. The research specifically focuses on the Commonwealth of Virginia and its addition of three citizen participation components the Commonwealth labeled "community visioning" to the traditional transportation planning process. The research examines the three components of "community visioning" with regard to: (1) their impact on the state's transportation plan (VTrans2025); (2) the degree to which they met the expectations of the regulations and best practices requirements of federal oversight; (3) the degree to which they met the expectations of the advocates of visioning and of more "democratic participation" in pubic administrative and policy processes; and (4) the degree to which they could affect the final outcome of transportation policy. Visioning is a relatively new approach to citizen involvement in the planning process. It places the citizen involvement at the beginning of the process instead of the end. Visioning asks citizens key questions about what they envision as a positive future for their community. The purpose or goal of this new visioning is to have the final plans reflect the vision drawn from the citizens and public officials and reached through consensus. This dissertation determined that Virginia put forth a good faith effort to involve citizens of the Commonwealth. Collectively, the citizen involvement activities in VA’s visioning process were reasonable and meaningful. Additionally, Virginia’s vision statement was heavily influenced by the citizen participation activities. However, there are three aspects of Virginia’s vision that are troubling from an implementation standpoint. In short, this dissertation found that the vision is what the people want, but the comprehensive plan does not tell the citizens how the Commonwealth intends on achieving that vision. / Ph. D.

Esta dissertação discorre sobre movimentos sociais e democracia com o objetivo de descrever e analisar o papel dos movimentos sociais na consolidação da democracia participativa no Brasil. Trata-se de um estudo exploratório, conduzido por meio de investigação teórica, mediante pesquisa bibliográfica e documental. Os resultados deste estudo revelaram que os movimentos sociais enfrentam muitas dificuldades, especialmente, em relação ao poder estatal. Dentre as conclusões, pode-se afirmar que, apesar de suas fragilidades, geralmente os movimentos sociais constituem uma resposta eficaz que contribui na consolidação da democracia e na efetivação de direitos fundamentais. / This dissertation discusses social movements and democracy in order to describe and analyze the role of social movements in the consolidation of participatory democracy in Brazil. It is an exploratory study, conducted through theoretical research, in bibliographical and documentary research. The results of this study revealed that social movements face many difficulties, especially in relation to state power. Among the conclusions, it can be said that, despite their weaknesses, social movements constitute an effective response that contributes to the consolidation of democracy and the realization of fundamental rights.

This thesis is a critique and proposed reform of the decision-making process under the European Patent Convention 1973, Article 53(a) as it relates to morality. It postulates that the manner in which the morality bar is currently managed is inappropriate as it relies on patent officials to make the initial decision as to whether the patent application is morally permissible or not. In a pluralistic world, morality is understood differently by a wide variety of people but this is not currently being acknowledged within the patent system. Whilst there is an option to bring opposition proceedings to challenge patent grants, this onus is considerable on the challenger and any debate is then played out by a very small sector of highly specialised experts, often with very differing views on morality. This thesis seeks to broaden the decision-making process to reflect society's pluralism. Officials, it will be argued, should instead of trying to decide what constitutes morality in a realm of such importance for humanity as a whole, administer a system which facilitates public participation and a vote. This will be based on existing models of widespread public deliberation and participation, albeit not ones that currently operate in (or near) the patent world. At present, criticisms in the legal literature tend to suggest more deliberation in the patent field and more participation is recommended in science literature but the logistics are unexplored and will be brought together in this work, making an original contribution to knowledge. In order to achieve its aim, the thesis employs a pluralistic methodology which includes doctrinal, socio-legal and interdisciplinary facets which will enable the construction of a model for reform of the patent system in the domain of morality. This will come from outside of traditional legal mechanisms such as legislative, judicial or patent office reform solutions, as a far-reaching paradigm is envisaged. The claim to originality lies in the extraction of principles from deliberative and participatory models of democracy and their application to the decision-making process in morally controversial biotechnological patents.

Thesis (MBA) --University of Limpopo, 2010 / There is enough evidence and common consensus in literature that although strategy implementation is a challenge to many organisations, it is strategy formulation that continues to receive more attention. It is also evident that municipalities In South Africa, let alone Limpopo Province, experience certain barriers to strategy implementation. Given this situation, this study highlights the most frequent barriers to strategy implementation in general and attempts to identify and describe barriers that impede strategy implementation in a municipal context. It further recommends, from a systems theory point of view, a strategy implementation framework that recognises the importance of multiple strategy implementation factors as well as participatory democracy in local government.

AN ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS OF UMIT KARTAL, for the Master of Arts degree in PHILOSOPHY, presented on September 29, 2011, at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. TITLE: PUBLIC SPACE MUST BE DEFENDED. HANNAH ARENDT'S CONCEPTION OF POLITICS AND THE PUBLIC SPACE: ITS PROMISES AND LIMITS MAJOR PROFESSOR: Dr. Kenneth Stikkers This thesis is an examination of Hannah Arendt's reconsideration of the meaning of politics and her systematic search for the recovery of the public spaces. Her scrutiny of the meaning of politics is determined by the disastrous outcomes of totalitarian experiences from both ends of the political spectrum, namely, Nazism and Stalinism. For Arendt, the phenomenon of totalitarianism deserted the human world and brought new issues forth, such as statelessness, rightlessness, homelessness, and worldlessness. These phenomena, Arendt holds, run parallel to the collapse of the essential articulations of the human condition, which can be distinguished in sheer thoughtlessness, speechlessness, and lack of judgment. It is due to these unprecedented and unanticipated issues, which cannot be addressed by traditional political categories, Arendt invites us to grapple with the meaning of politics anew. The basic definition of politics, for Arendt, is human plurality, namely, our coexistence in a common world which enables differences and diversities of perspectives to appear. The question what politics means, for Arendt, is inextricably tied to what its distinctive locus is, namely, the public space or space of appearances. The emergence of the social resulted in blurring the distinctive line between the public realm and the private realm. Then, the recovery of the public space is of a central place in Arendt's political theory. Through Arendt's reconsideration of the meaning of politics and the recovery of the public space we are provided a comprehensive framework to think about a more inclusive and democratic politics. Nevertheless, we are challenged by a set of problems: a very sharp distinction between the public realm and the private realm, a contrast between the social and political, and a lack of systematic interest in democracy. First, I concentrate on Arendt's insightful analysis of politics and the public space in turn. Then I focus on the problematic aspects of her political theory. Finally, I argue that these problematic aspects can be complemented by a comparative reading of Arendt with John Dewey. I conclude that Dewey offers us a more dynamic criterion to decide the line between the private realm and the public realm. Instead of opposing the social to political, Dewey extends the scope of politics by taking every aspects of social life into consideration. The recovery of the public, for him, depends essentially on democracy, which is identified to the experience of local community.

Esta dissertação discorre sobre movimentos sociais e democracia com o objetivo de descrever e analisar o papel dos movimentos sociais na consolidação da democracia participativa no Brasil. Trata-se de um estudo exploratório, conduzido por meio de investigação teórica, mediante pesquisa bibliográfica e documental. Os resultados deste estudo revelaram que os movimentos sociais enfrentam muitas dificuldades, especialmente, em relação ao poder estatal. Dentre as conclusões, pode-se afirmar que, apesar de suas fragilidades, geralmente os movimentos sociais constituem uma resposta eficaz que contribui na consolidação da democracia e na efetivação de direitos fundamentais. / This dissertation discusses social movements and democracy in order to describe and analyze the role of social movements in the consolidation of participatory democracy in Brazil. It is an exploratory study, conducted through theoretical research, in bibliographical and documentary research. The results of this study revealed that social movements face many difficulties, especially in relation to state power. Among the conclusions, it can be said that, despite their weaknesses, social movements constitute an effective response that contributes to the consolidation of democracy and the realization of fundamental rights.

Esta dissertação discorre sobre movimentos sociais e democracia com o objetivo de descrever e analisar o papel dos movimentos sociais na consolidação da democracia participativa no Brasil. Trata-se de um estudo exploratório, conduzido por meio de investigação teórica, mediante pesquisa bibliográfica e documental. Os resultados deste estudo revelaram que os movimentos sociais enfrentam muitas dificuldades, especialmente, em relação ao poder estatal. Dentre as conclusões, pode-se afirmar que, apesar de suas fragilidades, geralmente os movimentos sociais constituem uma resposta eficaz que contribui na consolidação da democracia e na efetivação de direitos fundamentais. / This dissertation discusses social movements and democracy in order to describe and analyze the role of social movements in the consolidation of participatory democracy in Brazil. It is an exploratory study, conducted through theoretical research, in bibliographical and documentary research. The results of this study revealed that social movements face many difficulties, especially in relation to state power. Among the conclusions, it can be said that, despite their weaknesses, social movements constitute an effective response that contributes to the consolidation of democracy and the realization of fundamental rights.

Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-01T23:39:46Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 tese_11835_Dissertação - André Luiz Souto Tavares.pdf: 1375955 bytes, checksum: af1f072ad3dca59dab9b3b6c1108be6b (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-02-27 / A figura dos Orçamentos Participativos (OP), enquanto instrumento de deliberação e participação pública, é saudado não apenas por ser capaz de viabilizar alguns dos pressupostos mais centrais das perspectivas normativas das democracias, mas também como objeto de inclusão política e promoção de justiça social. A partir das principais variáveis apontadas na literatura como fatores determinantes no êxito dos OPs (desenho institucional, associativismo e compromisso governamental), o objetivo da presente pesquisa é compreender, a partir da relação entre as referidas variáveis, a experiência de elaboração do Orçamento Participativo no Município de Vila Velha (OPVV) no biênio 2017-2018. Para tanto, foram utilizadas informações a partir de trabalhos acadêmicos, documentos oficiais, entrevistas com os atores do OP e, como complemento destas fontes, o emprego do método da observação participante nas assembleias e reuniões do OPVV. Em que pese a ausência de clareza na definição dos critérios de filtragem das ações viáveis entre as etapas do OPVV, a análise da variável compromisso governamental mostrou que a administração empenhara-se em todas as fases do processo de elaboração do OPVV, de modo a haver um significativo esforço na realização das assembleias microrregionais nos bairros, bem com a tentativa de incluir a população não presente nas reuniões no processo de participação com a implementação do Orçamento Participativo on-line. Já com relação ao associativismo local, este mostrou-se, no contexto do OPVV, com um baixo nível de organização comunitária, apesar da histórica e relevante tradição associativa no município, principalmente nas décadas de 1970 e 1980, com os movimentos populares que reivindicavam melhorias nas condições de vida da população. Diante de um contexto em que o vetor governamental suplanta as forças oriundas da sociedade civil, há um processo de construção do desenho institucional que nem sempre é permeável por relações democráticas que favoreçam a igualdade e a equidade em todas as etapas do processo de elaboração do OPVV. / The figure of Participatory Budgets (PB) as an instrument of public deliberation is hailed not only for being able to make feasible some of the most central assumptions of the normative perspectives of democracies, but also as an object of political inclusion and. promotion of social justice. Based on the main variables mentioned in the academic as determinants of the success of PBs (institutional design, associativismo and government commitment), the objective of this research is to analyze the relationship between these variables to understand the experience of elaborating the participatory budget in the municipality of Vila Velha for the biennium 2017-2018. In order to do so, it used information from academic papers, official documents, interviews with OP actors and, as a complement to these sources, the use of participatory observation method at OPVV assemblies and meetings. Despite the lack of clarity in the definition of criteria for filtering viable actions between the OPVV phases, the analysis of the variable government commitment showed a commitment of the administration with all phases of the process of preparing the OPVV, so that there was a significant effort in the realization of the micro-regional assemblies in the neighborhoods, as well as the attempt to include the population not present in the meetings in the process of participation with the implementation of the Participatory Budget online. With regard to local associativism, it was a low level of community organization at the context of OPVV, despite the historical and relevant associative tradition in the municipality, especially in the 1970s and 1980s, with popular movements that demanded improvements conditions for population in general. Given a context in which the government vector supplants the forces originating from civil society, there is a process of construction of the institutional design that is not always permeable by democratic relations that favor equality and equity in the process of elaboration of the OPVV.

Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-01T23:39:46Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 tese_11835_Dissertação - André Luiz Souto Tavares.pdf: 1375955 bytes, checksum: af1f072ad3dca59dab9b3b6c1108be6b (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-02-27 / A figura dos Orçamentos Participativos (OP), enquanto instrumento de deliberação e participação pública, é saudado não apenas por ser capaz de viabilizar alguns dos pressupostos mais centrais das perspectivas normativas das democracias, mas também como objeto de inclusão política e promoção de justiça social. A partir das principais variáveis apontadas na literatura como fatores determinantes no êxito dos OPs (desenho institucional, associativismo e compromisso governamental), o objetivo da presente pesquisa é compreender, a partir da relação entre as referidas variáveis, a experiência de elaboração do Orçamento Participativo no Município de Vila Velha (OPVV) no biênio 2017-2018. Para tanto, foram utilizadas informações a partir de trabalhos acadêmicos, documentos oficiais, entrevistas com os atores do OP e, como complemento destas fontes, o emprego do método da observação participante nas assembleias e reuniões do OPVV. Em que pese a ausência de clareza na definição dos critérios de filtragem das ações viáveis entre as etapas do OPVV, a análise da variável compromisso governamental mostrou que a administração empenhara-se em todas as fases do processo de elaboração do OPVV, de modo a haver um significativo esforço na realização das assembleias microrregionais nos bairros, bem com a tentativa de incluir a população não presente nas reuniões no processo de participação com a implementação do Orçamento Participativo on-line. Já com relação ao associativismo local, este mostrou-se, no contexto do OPVV, com um baixo nível de organização comunitária, apesar da histórica e relevante tradição associativa no município, principalmente nas décadas de 1970 e 1980, com os movimentos populares que reivindicavam melhorias nas condições de vida da população. Diante de um contexto em que o vetor governamental suplanta as forças oriundas da sociedade civil, há um processo de construção do desenho institucional que nem sempre é permeável por relações democráticas que favoreçam a igualdade e a equidade em todas as etapas do processo de elaboração do OPVV. / The figure of Participatory Budgets (PB) as an instrument of public deliberation is hailed not only for being able to make feasible some of the most central assumptions of the normative perspectives of democracies, but also as an object of political inclusion and. promotion of social justice. Based on the main variables mentioned in the academic as determinants of the success of PBs (institutional design, associativismo and government commitment), the objective of this research is to analyze the relationship between these variables to understand the experience of elaborating the participatory budget in the municipality of Vila Velha for the biennium 2017-2018. In order to do so, it used information from academic papers, official documents, interviews with OP actors and, as a complement to these sources, the use of participatory observation method at OPVV assemblies and meetings. Despite the lack of clarity in the definition of criteria for filtering viable actions between the OPVV phases, the analysis of the variable government commitment showed a commitment of the administration with all phases of the process of preparing the OPVV, so that there was a significant effort in the realization of the micro-regional assemblies in the neighborhoods, as well as the attempt to include the population not present in the meetings in the process of participation with the implementation of the Participatory Budget online. With regard to local associativism, it was a low level of community organization at the context of OPVV, despite the historical and relevant associative tradition in the municipality, especially in the 1970s and 1980s, with popular movements that demanded improvements conditions for population in general. Given a context in which the government vector supplants the forces originating from civil society, there is a process of construction of the institutional design that is not always permeable by democratic relations that favor equality and equity in the process of elaboration of the OPVV.

This dissertation empirically expands the existing knowledge on participatory democracy through a study of Jamaica's Parish Development Committees (PDCs). These groups offer an avenue for Jamaicans to inform government policy, and this analysis explored the extent to which supportive institutional, infrastructural and superstructural (referring to the society's culture and power configurations) conditions for robust implementation of this democratization initiative existed. This inquiry involved observing more than one hundred hours of PDC activities at locations across Jamaica and conducting sixty key informant and four focus group interviews with relevant stakeholders. The analysis was bolstered by an appreciation of emancipatory politics employed by the country's general population since slavery not only to survive oppression, but also to influence the nation's political agenda. Riots during slavery and in the present day, for example, have offered citizens an avenue towards self-determination. This study found that the emergence, survival and thriving of PDCs in Jamaica is determined largely by the extent to which emancipatory political tactics are successfully applied by PDC stakeholders to combat a number of continuing challenges in these committee's environments. The democratization initiative symbolized by the PDCs promotes inclusiveness yet is led predominantly by older, educated middle class individuals with talents and capacities garnered from several years of experience in various fields. The dissertation argues that the opportunity cost of a more inclusive order explains this fact, in that Jamaica's finite resources mean there is limited space for a learning curve and the cash strapped committees have only been able to survive when their members could help to defray the cost of their operations. The dissertation explores other central challenges confronting the PDCs and the strategies these participative organizations have employed to address each. Primarily, this analysis provides a micro-scale view of the interaction of the factors that have shaped the power and possibility of Jamaica's democratization initiative. / Ph. D.