Estonian national identity is defined by its centuries-long struggle forindependence and autonomy. This thesis examines this struggle and resulting identity through the lens of the laulupidu, or song festival, and its employment as a vehicle of political mobilization and re-constructor of Estonian history. Regarding folklore, in this case festivals and folk songs, as containers of the soul of the nation, I show how Estonians have produced and reproduced their national identity through the practice which they hold sacred: choral singing. I implemented a critical geopolitical approach coupled with Billig’s concepts of ‘hot’ and banal nationalism, and Paasi’s focus on independence, to study the 2014 song festival, entitled “Touched by Time. The Time to Touch.” Utilizing the song selection from the 2014 festival and comparing it against the programs from festivals ranging from 1869-2009 (from which selections were gleaned for the 2014 event), this thesis shows how Estonian national identity and historical memory are reconstructed through the symbolic choice of song.

The purpose of this study is to determine the effectiveness of the Extended Foster Care (EFC) Program in meeting the needs of emancipating foster youth by assisting them in becoming self-sufficient prior to emancipating out of the foster care system. The research method used for this study was a quantitative study design, using secondary data obtained from the County of San Bernardino, to assess the level of independent living skills foster youth obtain while participating in the program. The information was gathered on youth who were currently participating in the extended foster care program. The results of this study were inconclusive. Although the data showed that youth in the EFC program did seem better prepared to emancipate than those compare to previous research studies, the data sample was small, and more research is needed to determine if Extended Foster care is indeed effective.

East Timor is a former colony of Portugal and one-time province of Indonesia. Portuguese colonization ended in 1975 amid brief civil warring between local political parties that had recently been established. This conflict was followed by an Indonesian military invasion, ushering in a period of domination that only ended in 1999 when the United Nations carried out a referendum by which to determine East Timor's future. But this occupation also ended with much violence, generating bitter sentiments between elites that has hampered democratisation even as independence has been won. One of the conclusions made in this study is that East Timor's transition to democracy fails to correlate fully with any of the modal processes outlined in the literature. Rather, in the case of East Timor, a number of pathways merge. In some ways, it begins with what Huntington conceptualized as bottom-up 'replacement', with local mass publics voting against their oppressors. But one of the factors that quickly distinguished this case is that the voting by which change was organized by an external force, the United Nations (UN), and targeted a foreign power, the Indonesian government. In this way, the processes of independence and democratisation were nearly coterminous. East Timor's progress was also complicated by Indonesia's responding to the referendum's outcome by instigating much violence through the militia groups that it controlled. This summoned yet another external actor, the Australian military. It also greatly extended the role of the UN, geared now to restarting the democratisation process by organising founding elections. But if East Timor's democratic transition is complex, an account of the precariousness of the democracy that has been brought about is straightforward. Put simply, given the weakness of institutions and civil society organization, this thesis restores attention to the autonomy and voluntarism possessed by national elites. The hypothesis guiding this thesis, then, is that elites are disunified, but have avoided any return to outright warring. Further, they are at most 'semi-loyal' in their attitudes toward democracy. Accordingly, democracy persists in East Timor, but is subject to many abuses. Thus, most of the research in this thesis seeks to explain elite-level attitudes and relations. In particular, it shows that cooperation between elites and shared commitments to democracy has been hampered by the diversity of their backgrounds. Some elites gained their standings and outlooks under Indonesian occupation. Others gained their statuses because of the guerrilla resistance they mounted against this occupation. The attitudes of other elites were deeply coloured by their experiences in a multitude of countries, including Indonesia, Portugal, Mozambique and Australia. This thesis then demonstrates that these diverse origins and standings have shaped elite attitudes and relations in ways that are unfavourable for political stability and democracy. Under Portuguese rule, three distinct elite groups emerged in East Timor: top government administrators, business elites and young professionals or intellectuals. In the last years of Portuguese domination, they formed some political parties, enabling them to emerge as political elites. Lacking what Higley et al. label structural integration and value consensus, these elites engaged in violent conflict that peaked in brief civil warring and triggered the Indonesian occupation. This elite-level disunity persisted during occupation, with elites continuing to use violence against each other. National elites were also diversified further, with the administrators and resistors joined by pro-Indonesian groups, the Catholic Church group, and nationalist intellectuals, hence extending the range of social origins and ideological outlooks. East Timor finally gained independence in 2002. However, this thesis shows that elite relations still lack integration and consensus. Their country's political frameworks were negotiated by officials from Portugal and Indonesia under the auspices of the UN. Moreover, even after the referendum sponsored by the UN was held, UN officials in New York overshadowed the preferences and decision making of national elites. This exclusion denied East Timorese elites the opportunity to learn and to habituate themselves in making political decisions based on peaceful dialogue and bargaining. Thus, while the use of overt violence diminished, elites continued to harbour deep suspicions, encouraging their use of manipulations, subterfuge, and violence by proxy in their dealings with one another. In consequence, tensions between elites in East Timor, while stopping short of outright warring, continue to simmer. It is thus uncertain whether, or for how long, these tensions might be contained by the formal institutions and procedures that have been put in place. Analysis is also clouded by the fact that in the wake of independence, still more kinds of elites have appeared on the scene. New fault lines thus stem from generational membership (older and younger), geographic location (diaspora and homegrown), and new kinds of organisational bases (political parties, state bureaucracy, security forces, business, the Catholic Church, and civil society). These elites have only begun to interact with another directly and regularly since East Timor's independence. They find that they possess different outlooks and levels of influence and power. Nonetheless, despite these inauspicious beginnings, it is important to underscore the fact that since independence, elites have refrained from the open warring that they once undertook. This thesis predicts that sustained elite skirmishing, but not open warring, and semi-democratic politics, rather than 'full' democracy or hard authoritarianism will persist. Much should be made clearer, though, by the ways in which the next parliamentary election, due in 2007, is conducted.

This study provides evidence between auditors' fees and earnings management in New Zealand. The fee measures used in this study are audit fees, non-audit fees and total fees paid by a client to the audit firm. For each of the three fee measures, I derive client importance fee measures that reflect a client’s economic importance to the auditor relative to other clients of the auditor at the city office and national levels. This study employs both performance adjusted discretionary accruals and current accruals as proxies for earnings management. Using a sample of 224 firm-years comprising firms listed on the New Zealand Stock Exchange (NZX) in fiscal years 2004 and 2005, the results of multivariate tests indicate an adverse association between non-audit fees and earnings management. In other words, non-audit fees paid by a client relative to fees paid by other clients, at the office and national levels, appear to impair the auditor’s independence because clients generating relatively more non-audit fees report greater discretionary and current accruals. Such evidence is more pronounced for income increasing accrual proxies for earnings management. The results also show that audit fee is not related to earnings management. As the results in this study are consistent across both discretionary and current accruals, the validity of the results is strengthened. This study contributes to the literature by providing insight into how auditors’ fee metrics indicating client importance affect earnings management in a legal and institutional environment of a small economy, and where the audit market is largely saturated with little room for growth. This study raises implications for relevant regulatory bodies in New Zealand pertaining to future developments of auditor independence and financial reporting regulations.

Doctor of Philosophy(PhD) / Alongside informal networks of friends and family, formal social groupings such as voluntary associations are valued by older people as opportunities for engagement. In Australia, one such grouping is the licensed social (or ‘registered’) club. Approximately 20 per cent of all older Australians, and 80 per cent of older residents of the state of New South Wales, actively participate in such clubs. Despite this, older people’s registered club participation has received little scholarly attention. This ethnographic study of one particular registered club aimed to discover the nature, meaning and role of club participation for its older members. Social capital existing in club-based networks emerged as a further investigative focus, and its mechanisms and outcomes were examined. Participant observation and in-depth interviewing were the main data collection methods used. Data analysis procedures included thematic analysis (based loosely on grounded theory methodology), as well as the more contextsensitive narrative analysis and key-words-in-context analysis. The study found that club participation enabled older members to maintain valued social networks, self-reliance and a sense of autonomy. Social networks were characterised by social capital of the bonding type, being largely homogeneous with respect to age, gender, (working) class and cultural background. Strong cohesive bonds were characterised by intimacy and reciprocity, and possessed norms including equality and the norm of tolerance and inclusiveness. These helped to minimise conflict and build cohesiveness, while protecting older club-goers from increasing marginalisation within the club. Peer grouping within this mainstream setting may have shielded the older club-goers from stigma associated with participation in old-age specific groups. The nature and scale of registered club participation amongst older Australians points to their unique and important role. The findings of this research indicate that – for at least this group of older men and women - club use is a major contributor to maintaining social connectedness and a sense of self as self-reliant, autonomous and capable. In the context of an ageing population, Australia’s registered clubs feature in the mosaic of resources available to older people, and their communities, for the creation of social capital.

The documentary letters of credit transaction is the most common method of payment for goods in international trade. Its use has been considered so important that it is referred to as the �lifeblood� of international commerce. The purpose of this thesis is, through analysing the present regime of documentary credit established under the The Uniform Customs and Practice for Documentary Credits, 1993 Revision (�UCP�), to identify the rights and duties of all parties in such transactions and the reasons for the frequent occurrence of fraudulent activities associated with the documents required under the credits. It identifies that the present system fails to either encourage or implement substantial realisation of �reasonable care� or �good faith� on the part of the banks, or realisation of the requirement of �good faith� from beneficiaries. As a result, the independence principle has been left without substance, with resulting huge opportunities for fraudsters to cheat on the documents and obtain payment without the need to actually perform their duties to banks and buyers. Such issues have become more acute against the background of an underlying shift in the allocation of risk between the respective parties to letters of credit. There has been a depreciation in the value of the primary document of title and security held by the issue, the bill of lading, with the advent of container shipping. As the letter of credit system is wholly dependent on the integrity of the documents, it is being undermined by these developments. This has represented a shift in the traditional scheme of risk allocation from the seller to the bank. In practice, banks have taken countermeasures by insisting that applicants provide other types of collateral, and by subjecting applicants to rigorous credit checks. Thus, applicants ultimately have had to bear the brunt of costs associated with this reallocation of risk. It will be demonstrated that the UCP does not incorporate adequate or clear enough duties to be exercised on the part of issuers toward applicants, and severely restricts the applicant�s right to sue if the issuer has wrongfully honoured. Ultimately, a balance must be struck between the desirability of protecting the applicant from the beneficiary�s fraud against the benefits gained by maintaining the letter of credit as a commercial instrument and business device. Obviously, there is public interest in protecting both of these commercial values. This thesis advocates that a mechanism in addition to the fraud exception must be introduced to safeguard the system against the ramifications of these changes � increased fraud. The thesis is structured into five chapters. Chapter 1 sets out to demonstrate the circumstances under which the respective risks are borne by each participant in the letter of credit transaction, and how developments in trade practice have caused the burden of certain of these risks among the parties to a letter of credit transaction to shift. Chapter 2, after briefly visiting the historical origins of the letter of credit and the birth of the UCP, explores the implications of the dominance of banking interests over the drafting and interpretation of the UCP, how the UCP has in practice excluded the intrusion of other sources of law and the general reluctance of courts to intervene by applying non-letter of credit principles, the implication of the UCP�s assumption of the law in practice, the resulting marginalisation of local laws, and the inequality in bargaining power between banks and applicants that precludes a choice of law other than the UCP. Chapter 3 explores the independence principle and question of documentary compliance, why the system is ridden with non-compliant documents and the lack of incentive and meaningful duty for the banks to check for �red flags� that may indicate fraud on the documents or in the transaction. It will be emphasised that documentary validity, rather than mere documentary compliance, should be the focus under the letter of credit. Chapter 4 examines the fraud exception to the independence principle, the typical high thresholds of proof that applicants had to overcome to estopp payment, and explores recent trends towards the gradual lowering of such thresholds. Finally, Chapter 5 considers practical measures and proposals for reform that would help to redress the imbalance in the allocation of risk identified in the thesis.

<p><strong>Syfte:  </strong>Syftet med studien är att belysa och analysera hur revisorn arbetar för att eliminera risken för att göra väsentliga fel i årsredovisningen. Studien ska även beskriva och skapa förståelse för Revisorsnämndens och små revisionsbyråers arbete och ställningstagande till kvalitetssäkring.</p><p><strong>Metod: </strong>Utifrån ett<strong> </strong>hermeneutiskt synsätt och med en kvalitativ metod utfördes personliga intervjuer med tre små revisionsbyråer och Revisorsnämnden. Vid val av informanter tillämpades ett strategiskt urval. I studien har en abduktiv ansats använts. </p><p><strong>Slutsatser: </strong>Åtaganden för att god kvalitet ska uppnås i revisionen är revisionsprocessen, rotation på revisionsuppdrag vart sjunde år, tillämpning av analysmodell och etiska normer, FAR SRS:s kvalitetskontroller, internt kontrollsystem och kvalitetssäkring från RN.</p> / Revisionskvalitet, kvalitetssäkring, etik, moral, trovärdighet, självständighet, oberoende, objektivitet, opartiskhet

<p>A non-corrupt judiciary is a fundamental condition for the endorsement of rule of law and the ability to guarantee basic human rights in society. The judiciary must therefore be an independent and fair body that fights corruption, not the other way around. This essay systematizes different binding and non-binding international, and to some extent regional, norms and standards regarding corruption in the judiciary and judicial independence, and presents potential factors and effects of judicial corruption, through an inventory of documents recognized by organizations such as the United Nations and the Council of Europe. Further, the essay presents different anti-corruption strategies and the dilemma of implementing such strategies with regard to judicial independence. The advantages and disadvantages of different anti-corruption strategies are reviewed through the study of some successful and unsuccessful examples.</p><p>There are several definitions of corruption, this essay emanates from the definition of ‘abuse of office for personal or private gain’, a definition that is wide but yet well recognized. The factors of judicial corruption are many and often overlapping, but they vary from state to state and must hence be analyzed individually to find the factual reasons for what generates corruption. The effects are detrimental and break down the very core of rule of law and corrupt judges neglect fundamental principles such as equality, impartiality, propriety and integrity. With regard to the different factors and effects, the norms and standards, and the anti-corruption strategies, a discussion follows about how to rid the judiciary from corruption with preservation of the respect of judicial independence. The discussion also raises the predicament that malpractice of various fundamental principles e.g. judicial independence can occur and further distort unhealthy judiciaries. The main conclusion regarding anti-corruption strategies is that they must be carefully weighed against the principle of independence.</p>

Using a broad sample of the largest European companies, I examine whether the two governance mechanisms, namely (i) independent monitoring by a board of directors and (ii) grants and disclosures of incentive-based executive pay, are substitutes for one another. I find that companies with proportionately more executives on their boards of directors grant greater incentive-based pay to their executives, and improve the transparency of their pay disclosure. The findings are consistent with the efficient contracting argument, which predicts that greater incentive-based pay and pay disclosure transparency mitigate agency problems generated by boards dependent upon management

Thesis (M. Phil.)--University of Hong Kong, 2006. / Title proper from title frame. Also available in printed format.