<p>Provincial governors constituted an important part of the decentralization package unveiled in Zimbabwe in 1984 and 1985. The President appoints provincial governors among other duties, to coordinate development planning and implementation at the provincial level. This paper seeks to examine the appointment and role of a provincial governor and in that way establish the extent to which such appointment and role hinder or enhance representative and participatory democracy, accountability, devolution and empowerment, as ideals of decentralization. This contribution examines provincial governance in Zimbabwe as part of the local government system.</p>

Magister Philosophiae - MPhil / Provincial governors constituted an important part of the decentralization package unveiled in Zimbabwe in 1984 and 1985. The President appoints provincial governors among other duties, to coordinate development planning and implementation at the provincial level. This paper seeks to examine the appointment and role of a provincial governor and in that way establish the extent to which such appointment and role hinder or enhance representative and participatory democracy, accountability, devolution and empowerment, as ideals of decentralization. This contribution examines provincial governance in Zimbabwe as part of the local government system. / South Africa

[pt] Este trabalho faz uma análise do sistema eleitoral brasileiro a partir de uma perspectiva de gênero e avalia os mecanismos-chave desse sistema para o entendimento do precário acesso das mulheres aos cargos de representação do Congresso Nacional. Ao expor como o sistema eleitoral brasileiro produz desigualdade de representação entre homens e mulheres, demonstra-se que a adoção do sistema proporcional de lista fechada, aliado a um dispositivo de ação afirmativa, é mais adequado para ampliar a participação das mulheres na Câmara dos Deputados. / [en] This study analyzes the Brazilian electoral system from a gender perspective and assesses key mechanisms of this system crucial for the understanding of the precarious women s access to positions of representation in the National Congress. By exposing how Brazilian electoral system produces unequal representation between men and women, it demonstrates that the adoption of closed-list proportional system, associated to an affirmative action is most appropriate mechanism to increase participation of women in the House of Representatives.

Esta tese examina a representação política em arenas extraparlamentares, que são fóruns de deliberação com impacto importante sobre as políticas públicas nas democracias contemporâneas. Para tanto, são analisadas as concepções dos representantes que atuam em nome da sociedade civil nos Conselhos Gestores de Políticas Públicas. Com base em diferentes perspectivas teóricas a respeito da representação, foram pesquisadas as seguintes dimensões empíricas: as regras de composição dos Conselhos, o processo de autorização dos conselheiros, a forma como os representantes tomam decisões e prestam contas das suas ações, o controle sobre suas atividades e a visão dos conselheiros a respeito da legitimidade das suas práticas de representação. O estudo constatou que a composição dos Conselhos, o processo de escolha dos conselheiros, a prestação de contas e o controle sobre as ações dos representantes são restritos aos ativistas de organizações civis que acompanham os Conselhos. Apesar dessa restrição, os representantes consideram que defendem interesses gerais e causas universais. Também foi averiguado que quando os conselheiros são ligados a organizações compromissadas com os espaços de discussão em contextos de alta mobilização popular, eles são mais próximos dos usuários dos serviços públicos e dos militantes da área. / This thesis examines the political representation in extra-parliamental arenas, which are deliberation fora with major impact over public policies in contemporary democracies. To achieve this, we analyze the conceptions of the representatives who act on behalf of the civil society in the Sectoral Policy Councils. Based upon the different theoretical perspectives of representation, the following empirical dimensions were researched: the rules of the Councils composition, the councilors authorization process, the way representatives make decisions and the way they are accountable for their actions, the control over their activities and the councilors visions with respect to the legitimacy of their representation practices. The study verified that the composition of the Councils, the process of choosing the councilors, they way representatives make decisions and the way they are accountable for their actions are restricted to activists from civil organizations that follow the Councils. Despite this restriction, the representatives consider they defend general interests and universal causes. It was also verified that when councilors are connected with organizations committed to discussion spaces in contexts of high popular mobilization, they are closer to public services beneficiaries and activists in the area.

La thèse compare l’Assemblée nationale et le Bundestag en ce qui concerne l’évolution dans le temps des pratiques des affaires européennes qu’ont les députés, et de leurs discours sur le rôle des parlements dans l’UE. Elle met en lumière une évolution paradoxale : A mesure que les députés se saisissent de l’Europe, les pratiques parlementaires nationales imprègnent de plus en plus leurs discours sur la démocratie parlementaire dans l’UE. L’analyse se fait à travers une « description dense » (« thick description») fondée sur des documents, de la littérature secondaire et des entretiens avec des acteurs parlementaires, en activité aujourd’hui ou dans le passé. Les débats parlementaires sont analysés à l’aide d’une méthode qualitative-quantitative qui compare les clivages des discours dans le temps. La thèse soutient l’argument selon lequel les néo-institutionnalismes, qui prévalent actuellement dans les études européennes, ne suffisent pas pour comprendre les processus d'institutionnalisation, qui ont lieu dans les parlements nationaux, parallèlement à l'évolution de la législation européenne. En intégrant des éléments de la « practice theory », du social-constructivisme de Peter Berger et Thomas Luckmann et de l’« ancien » institutionnalisme de Max Weber, on peut comprendre les observations comme le fruit d’un changement des « motifs d’action » discursive des acteurs. A mesure que leur expérience de l’UE s’accroit, les députés évaluent la démocratie européenne de moins en moins sur la base de réflexions a priori sur le futur de l’intégration européenne, mais en fonction des pratiques qu’ils expérimentent tous les jours. / The thesis compares EU practice and discourse on the role of parliaments in the EU across time, in the Assemblée nationale and the Bundestag. The thesis brings to light the presence of a European Integration Paradox: Members of Parliaments’ rising experience in EU participation has led to an increasing importance of domestic roles for MPs’ ‘word and deed’ in EU affairs. EU practice is analysed through ‘thick description,’ which is based on primary and secondary interview evidence with current and historical parliamentary actors as well as the study of documents and secondary literature. Assessments of discourse on the role of parliaments are conducted through a systematic deductive-inductive analysis of debates on selected EU treaty changes. This thesis argues that neo-institutionalisms currently prevalent in EU studies are inadequate for understanding the institutionalisation processes at work in national parliaments with increasing EU legislation. Integrating elements of practice theory, of the social-constructivists Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckmann and the ‘old’ institutionalism of Max Weber, the observations can be interpreted as change of ‘motives’ of discursive action of the actors. With rising experience of ‘doing EU’, Members of Parliament evaluate the role of parliaments in the EU less on the basis of a priori considerations but depending of their day-to-day parliamentary practice.

A few ruling individuals from party organizations overpowered Indonesia's post-authoritarian, representative democracy. The legislative process of the 2017 Election Act was the case study employed to examine this assumption. The underlying thinking was that there was a contest between “wealth power” (oligarchy) and “participation power” (democracy). The power of wealth controls the party and government institutions. Notwithstanding the presence of participation power, there was, however, no balance between wealth power and participation power, because the formal control of politics was in the hands of party oligarchs. The study purpose was to bridge the gap in knowledge by exploring how the party oligarchs maintained the policymaking, reputedly using cartelized strategies, to defend the status quo. By employing the oligarchy and cartelization theories, the central research question of this inquiry focused on how the party oligarchs, allegedly using cartel work-patterns, mastered the policy process in post-Suharto Indonesia. A qualitative case-study was used with in-depth interviews with 15 participants for data collection and the N-Vivo program for data analysis. Qualitative findings indicated that the party oligarchs engineered the legal process in parliament applying cartelized strategies to defend privileges they obtained from collusive interpenetration with the state. The implications for social change include informing members of parliament, other policymakers, and civil society groups of the cruciality of comprehending the modus operandi of oligarchic cartels. Understanding the “oligarchic cartelization” theoretical postulate is a fundamental step for party members to improve their performance in public offices. The results of this study can also be a useful reference for pro-democracy activists to defend the ontological essence of public participation in implementing representative democracy at an appropriate level.

(in English): Main goal of this diploma is to analyze the relationship between populism and representative democracy. The theoretical part of my work is researching populism as a vague concept and determining its minimal definition and esential constituents (I have declined the possibility that populism is only anti-essentialy formed attitude/phenomenon). In the analytical part I've studied the relationship between populism and representative democracy, and defined drawbacks of this uneasy coexistence. However I believe that representative democracy can't be successfully fulfiled without this phenomenon and I have also found not only positive moments of this relationship - I assume that populism is necessary supplement of representative democracy.

(in English): Main goal of this diploma is to analyze the relationship between populism and representative democracy. The theoretical part of my work is researching populism as a vague concept and determining its minimal definition and esential constituents (I have declined the possibility that populism is only anti-essentialy formed attitude/phenomenon). In the analytical part I've studied the relationship between populism and representative democracy, and defined drawbacks of this uneasy coexistence. However I believe that representative democracy can't be successfully fulfiled without this phenomenon and I have also found not only positive moments of this relationship - I assume that populism is necessary supplement of representative democracy.

Since the early 1990s, increasing academic attention has been devoted to party membership. Numerous studies have evidenced a long-term declining trend affecting almost all traditional parties in Western Europe (Mair and Van Biezen, 2001; Van Biezen et al. 2012b). Yet, in recent years, there have been some signs of a revival of party membership (Whiteley et al. 2019). What are the main factors accounting for fluctuations in party membership levels across Western Europe from the 1990s until 2014? This is the main question this dissertation seeks to answer. The main objective of this dissertation is to identify the factors that significantly affect the ability of political parties to recruit members in Western Europe. So far, the academic literature has mainly focused on micro- and macro-level determinants of membership fluctuations and have involved long-term explanations of shifts in party membership. Their general focus has been to ask why citizens join political and not so much why and in which conditions political parties are able to recruit members. The impact of meso-level and short-term factors on party membership variations has been largely underexplored. To shed new light on these issues, this study proposes to apply theoretical perspectives and empirical tools developed by sociological and economical organization studies. Four main theoretical perspectives have been developed by organizational theories to explain variations in organizations’ size and structure: the evolutionary system perspective (ES), the sociological neo-institutionalism (SI), transaction cost theory (TCT) and the resource-based view (RBV). Explanatory insights from each of these perspectives were identified and explored in each of the four empirical chapters of this dissertation. Overall, this dissertation evidences several transformations in party membership. By diversifying temporal perspectives, units of analysis and levels of observation, it shows that the decline of party membership levels is not as universal and as linear as it is often assumed. Membership levels are affected by electoral and organizational lifecycles. Not all parties have been affected by the general decrease in membership levels and some new parties have managed to attract an increasing number of members. Besides, parties that have given their members a greater say in their internal decision making have generally managed to attract new members. By looking at infra-national dynamics of party membership, this dissertation also shows the importance of regional and local context and the heterogeneity of membership trajectories within the same party. It underlines the importance of electoral mobilization at the local level and the importance of individual recruiters for the composition of the membership. By reflecting on the causes of party membership fluctuations, this dissertation sheds light on some important challenges for the future of our representative democracies. / Doctorat en Sciences politiques et sociales / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Magister Legum - LLM / An environment, which is not dangerous to the health or well-being of individuals, is every South African's basic Human right.1 In addition.it is every South African's basic human right to have the environment protected for the · "benefit of present and future generations, through reasonable legislative and other measures".2 These measures must aim at preventing pollution and ecological degradation. The measures must further advance. conservation, and guarantee ecologically sustainable development and use of natural .· resources. 3 Stakeholders, such as, non-governmental, organizations (henceforth NGOs), and the community as a whole have important roles to play.4