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No description available.

This thesis applies Multiah Alagappa's framework for analyzing civil-military relations in the People's Republic of China (PRC) in the post-Deng era, when several key developments have fundamentally altered the relationship between the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the People's Liberation Army (PLA). These developments include the absence of a powerful paramount leader, the generational shifts in the civilian and military leaderships, the increasing professionalization of the PLA, the decline of communism as a legitimating ideology, the sustained progress of economic development, the emergence of a robust civil society, and the increasing legitimacy of China's political system. Moreover, this thesis undertakes an extensive review of the various explanations and theories advanced in the literature of civil-military relations, asserting that Alagappa's analytical framework offers the most comprehensive tool for analyzing civil-military relations to date. Using Alagappa's analytical framework, this thesis argues that the current trend in civil-military relations in China has brought increasing civilian supremacy, as the political power and influence of the PLA have diminished over time due to the decreasing significance of coercion in governance, the strengthening of non-coercive state institutions, China's sustained high level of economic development, and the increasing legitimacy of China's political system.

The purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which participatory deliberative democracy is being practised in the constitution making process in Zimbabwe. The nature of public participation determines the character, quality and extent of consultations and democratic deliberation in policy formulation Constitution making has inescapably remained an ‘unfinished business’ in Zimbabwe as a consequence of the Lancaster House settlement of 1979. Yet, a national constitution is a biography of the nation, whose crafting must embody legitimacy and credibility. This research sought to examine the processes available for public participation for constitution making in Zimbabwe. The research focused on the constitution making process as a case study against the background of a partocratic policy making system that existed since 1980, and the advent of the Inclusive Government consummated on 13 February 2009 whose policy making architecture is premised on the GPA. The central question of this study was: “What processes are being used to secure deliberative democratic participation in the constitution design process in Zimbabwe? The research relied on documentary evidence, the researcher’s experience and observations as well as targeted semistructured interviews on public participation in the constitution making process in Zimbabwe for data collection, as a case study. The researcher relied on secondary data from published and unpublished literature and tracked newspaper publications to gather data related to the constitution making process. The researcher also visited and observed some of the Constitution Select Committee (COPAC) outreach meetings to gather information relating to the quality of deliberation at the meetings. The main findings were that the COPAC structure did not adequately provide a framework for delivering deliberative democracy as political parties retained decision making at stages of the process. The research concluded that political parties, the Executive and Parliament, dominated the process. Participation was cosmetic and “Executo-partocratic driven” rather than a “people-driven” process. The prevalence of citizen harassment and intimidation as well as the occurrence of violence during the consultative process hampered meaningful participation in deliberative processes by citizens. Similarly the inauspicious operating environment discouraged the free flow of information and debate, alienating citizen views and limiting deliberative participatory democracy. In the main, the policy making approach adopted was ‘Executo-partocratic’ and as such limited the citizens participation in equal, open and free deliberation resulting in a process that lacked legitimacy and credibility.

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No description available.

Sub-state nationalist parties mobilised and saw an increase in electoral support in the 1960s and 1970s. A heterogeneous group of parties, they are united by their claims upon the state in favour of self-government. However, sub-state nationalist parties advance a variety of goals, ranging from more moderate forms of recognition and cultural or political autonomy, to more radical restructuring of the state along federal lines, to even more radical demands for political independence. The language, content, and arguments in favour of these goals varies - both between parties and within individual parties - over time. As a result, we know less than we should about self-government goals themselves. This research asks two core questions. Firstly, what do sub-state nationalist parties want? And more importantly, operating from the assumption that sub-state nationalist parties are strategic actors, how do their goals reflect strategic considerations, understanding of the contexts in which they are expressed, and their historical positions? By comparing three cases, a third question can be explored, assessing the ways in which variation in the empirical contexts in which these goals are articulated may manifest in variation in the framing of self-government goals. In this research, I argue the self-government goal presented by a given sub-state nationalist party can be considered a reflection of the 'art of the possible', a pragmatic articulation of what might be achieved under a system of constraints rather than the single-minded pursuit of self-government, regardless of its costs and consequences. In order to fully capture the complexity of self-government goals and the contexts in which they are expressed, three case studies, in two territorial contexts, are studied in depth. The first is the Scottish National Party, which seeks political independence for Scotland. The other two are parties which emerged in Flanders, the Volksunie, which existed between 1954 and 2001, and its successor, the Nieuw-Vlaamse Alliantie. These cases represent some of the most successful sub-state nationalist parties, both in electoral terms, particularly in recent years, and arguably in making progress towards their self-government goals.

<p>Abstract:</p><p>The aim of this study has been to investigate (theoretically as well as empirically) the problematic notions of state neutrality and political perfectionism and, in particular, the potentially vast continuum existing between these concepts both in theory and in actual political practice. In order to accomplish this, a conceptual analysis has examined (some of) the arguments for and against state neutrality and political perfectionism, different aspects of neutralism and perfectionism as well as the exact definition of the concepts of “neutrality of justification” and “conceptions of the good”. Using a specific (though not entirely uncontested) definition of these concepts, an empirical analysis was made of Swedish parliamentary parties and their cultural policies. The empirical part of the study seemed to confirm one of the basic premises of this study; that state neutrality and perfectionism are often (as has indeed been recognized by critics of state neutrality) intertwined in the business of everyday politics.</p>

Thesis (M.A.)--Georgia State University, 2006. / Title from title screen. Wendy Hamand Venet, committee chair; Glenn T. Eskew, committee member. Electronic text (155 p.) : digital, PDF file. Description based on contents viewed Apr. 25, 2007. Includes bibliographical references (p. 140-147).

Thesis (M.A.)--Ohio University, June, 2006. / Title from PDF t.p. Includes bibliographical references (p. 144-156)