Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 1994. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 75-78) Also available in print.

Mexico's cultural norms have been the subject of repeated inquiries because democratic and authoritarian patterns appear concomitantly. However, few have focused on the potential demographic and contextual sources of these divergent results. This study attempts to clarify the sources of Mexico's political culture, and then determine the extent to which these factors affect political participation. Statistical analysis of a LAPOP dataset from 2006 makes limited progress to this end. The sources of Mexican political culture remain somewhat a mystery, although some intriguing results were found. Most notably, demographic traits appear to have little influence on political culture variables and political participation rates in Mexico. In fact, political culture norms and political participation appears consistent across Mexico's infamous social and economic lines.

The following premise is based on the ideas of social theorists who have contributed to understanding the importance of image in society. This proposal argues that political participation is susceptible to exploitation in the form of conspicuous consumption as defined by Thorstein Veblen. The analyses that follow will test the degree to which Americans who demonstrate more traditional forms of conspicuous consumption also tend to show more activity in political venues. While the correlation of these two variables is not sufficient to demonstrate cause and effect, it may be significant enough to attract more researchers to this question: are Americans using political involvement to positively influence the way that their social status is perceived by others?

No description available.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of budget management and planning in the · Mafikeng Local Municipality with a view to determining the implementation of performance budgeting. Structured interviews in the form of self-administered questionnaires were utilised as the measuring instrument. Information on the annual reports was also utilised to understand the situation at the Mafikeng Local Municipality. The municipal manager, the chief financial officer and the members of the municipal council were the selected participants in the study. Representatives of the labour unions were also selected to participate in the study. The study employed two methods of data analysis, the quantitative and qualitative data to determine the empirical and theoretical findings of the study. The findings of both the qualitative and quantitative analyses were similar as they revealed that the municipality had plans and budget in place. However, what was lacking was the alignment of the budgeting with the planning. The non-alignment of the budgets with the plans resulted in the municipality under-performing in terms of planned activities as well as spending patterns. Gaps in the planning and budgeting systems of the municipality were evident, as the findings indicated that budgeting was done separately at the finance department and planning was done elsewhere. Comparative studies of international countries indicate that with proper implementation of performance budgeting, organisations are in a better position to plan and budget at the same time. The recommendations from the study indicated that there was a lot that needed to be done by the Mafikeng Local Municipality to ensure that plans are aligned with the budget. The key recommendation of the study is that further research be conducted beyond 2011 in order to examine how far performance budgeting has progressed and to establish the opinion of the auditor general since the time of the study. / Thesis (MBA) North-West University, Mafikeng Campus, 2012

This mini-dissertation examines the role of community participation in the Integrated Development Planning (lDP) Process in the Makhuduthamaga Local Municipality; and to establish how the Municipality seek to facilitate community participation. Furthermore, the study examines whether citizens are provided with genuine opportunities to influence decision-making at the local level from the stages of prioritizing, allocation of operational expenditure and implementation of developmental projects in their municipality. In addition, constraints hindering community participation in the lDP process are also examined. Finally, the study concludes that the nature and extent of community participation in the Integrated Development Planning Process of Makhuduthamaga Local Municipality is that of consulting and informing the community but lacks effective bottom-up input from the citizens. Even though the municipality holds frequent public hearings and neighbourhood meetings with various stakeholders, the councillors and community representatives are just co-opted in the lDP Forums without any power to influence the council, while the officials retain the right to make final decisions . / Thesis (Soc.Sc.(Developmental Studies) North-West University, Mafikeng Campus, 2012

This research project uses the 2010/11 student protests in the UK as a case study to understand why certain individuals mobilise for forms of political participation and activism and why others do not. The student protests are ideal as a case study of participation and non-participation for a number of reasons. The UK Government’s proposal to treble the cap tuition fees for students in England represented an issue of widespread grievance for the student population, a grievance which was compounded for many by the Liberal Democrats’ decision to u-turn on its 2010 election campaign pledge. The student response featured large-scale regional and national demonstrations, as well as the formation of a network of simultaneous campus occupations across the UK, arguably presenting a greater scale and diversity of protest than had been seen for a generation. Despite these multiple participatory opportunities, however, student participation did not come close to matching the scale of opposition to trebled fees and university funding cuts as articulated in surveys. This raises fundamental questions about the social and political differences between participants and non-participants. Using original survey data of students from 22 UK universities, and 56 in-depth interviews with students from 6 universities, this research examines social and political patterns and relations between high, medium and low-cost/risk participants, and non-participants. Taking into account the idea of the university campus as a network of actors, the research posits that networks may preclude as well as facilitate participation. The research studies in detail the formation and maintenance of student activism networks – including their collective identifications and dis-identifications. Conversely, the study also looks at the social networks of non-participants, and how these may help to socially produce and sustain non-participation at an agency level. Finally, the research considers whether the protests against fees and cuts should be seen as a unified movement, and whether student attitudes taken together reveal a broadly-identifiable ‘participatory ideal’.

published_or_final_version / Social Work / Master / Master of Social Work

<p> </p><p>Det talas idag om ett minskat stöd och identifikation till politiska partier. Forskning visar att unga människor spenderar mer tid och är mer benägna än äldre att använda Internet för att skaffa politisk information. I en enkätundersökning med 125 deltagare i fyra åldersgrupper undersöktes om unga i större utsträckning än äldre identifierar sig med icke-parlamentariska rörelser som för fram sina budskap på Internet. Hos deltagarna mättes graden av parlamentarisk och icke-parlamentarisk identifikation som funktion av ålder och Internettid. Unga hade en signifikant högre Internettid än äldre. Dock påvisades inga andra signifikanta skillnader mellan åldersgrupperna avseende identifikation. Området kring Internetmediet och dess effekt på politisk identifikation förefaller vara relativt begränsad, varför det skulle vara intressant att utveckla denna forskning i Sverige</p>

<p>This paper gave an insight into the novelties as well as the deficiencies of the provisions related to democratic elections and their implementation framework. It examined the potential effectiveness or otherwise of a binding treaty which is not yet enforced on the basis of past experience. In effect, it shed light on the possible measures that could be taken to guarantee its realisation and to circumvent the shortcomings in ensuring its effective implementation.</p>