This dissertation examines the relationship between the Brazilian Women's Policy Agency (WPA), the Secretaria Especial de Politicas para as Mulheres- SPM (the Special Secretariat for Public Policies for Women), and the feminist movements in two policy debates in 2003- 2006. This study analyses the level of policy impact the feminist movements had through the SPM in two contrasting case studies, abortion and Violence against Women (VA W). These cases were selected because they were both considered high priority for the feminist movements, and they both received government attention prior to, and during 2003-2006. However, they differed substantially in the level of contentiousness, which indicated different probabilities for movements' success. Loosely informed by the Research Network on Gender and the State (RNGS) framework, this study explores the interaction between feminist movements and, the SPM through focussing on the policy environment, the characteristics of the feminist movements, and the activities and characteristics of the SPM. My findings are based upon primary and secondary source material, including elite interviews, participant observations and the analysis of academic and activist material. In the abortion debate, feminists gained access to, and impacted upon the policy debates about decriminalization, though the partnership between the SPM and the movements did not result in a change of policy. In the case of VAW however, the SPM facilitated the creation of Brazil's first law regulating V A W. I conclude that although the SPM was less able to enable feminist impact in the abortion debate than in V A W, I nevertheless argue that the SPM secured a high level of feminist impact on policy debates in both cases.

There is a substantial literature that now exists on public policy analysis which recognises a variety of issues surrounding implementation. Studies of the actions of public policy service deliverers or what Lipsky (1980) calls street level bureaucrats (SLBs), reveals numerous examples where they misinterpret or contest the conceived purpose of policies formulated at the central level and, therefore, fail to deliver policy in a manner consistent with the ideals of core policymakers. In the case of Saudi Arabia however, little is known about the factors that contribute to the implementation of public policy there or the degree of political autonomy experienced by Saudi SLBs at the implementation stage. The purpose of this study is to address this lacuna by exploring the nature of power and autonomy in the Saudi political system through a case study of public education policy. The research examines the way in which such policy is implemented by secondary schools principals and education managers (SLBs) in three different local education authorities across Saudi Arabia, namely in Jeddah, Riyadh and Dammam cities, and examined the variable degree of devolved power or political autonomy experienced by these SLBs in the implementation process. The research was drawn from semi-structured interviews conducted with secondary school principals and various managers of education at the local level, as well as with senior officials in the Saudi Ministry of Education (MoE). The issues that emerged were mainly related to key aspects of power relationships between different bureaucratic tiers of the MoE and education policy process within the policy formulation, implementation and monitoring stages. The key finding of the research indicates that SLBs have a considerable degree of discretionary power in the implementation process, leading to variation not only between the central policy formulation stage and the local implementation level but also across the 3 regions. This is explained by the nature of the Saudi governance structure and, more particularly, the education policy itself, which lacks clear objectives, instructions, rules, procedures and mechanisms for monitoring and feedback. These findings challenged the existing literature on the Saudi State that explains the authoritarian, top-down nature of the Saudi political system which assumes policy made by the centre is closely translated further down the policy-chain at the policy implementation stage by SLBs.

The recent history of the German minority in Romania is marked by its mass migration from Romania to Germany, starting roughly in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War and reaching its climax in the early 1990s, following the fall of Communism. Against this background, the present thesis investigates a phenomenon that can be termed “philo-Germanism without Germans”, arguing that the way the German minority in Romania is represented in a wide array of discourses is best comprehended if placed in a theoretical framework in which concepts such as “self-Orientalism”, “intimate colonization” and other related ones play a key role. This dissertation departs from the existence of predominantly positive representations of Germanness in Romanian society. Furthermore, by examining a series of post-1989 Romanian identification/memory discourses, originating from three different discursive fields (politics, mass-media, historiography), it argues that the underlying reasons for this prestige are strongly connected with Romanian Europeanizing endeavours. In other words, the dissertation maintains that “loving the Germans” in post-1989 Romania is strongly connected with the production and reproduction of symbolic geographies aiming to discursively insert Romania into what is perceived to be the “civilized” Western/European World. Thus, Germans in Romania, former 12th and 18th century colonists, become actually a resource for Europeanness, a way of emphasizing Romania’s European belonging. They are “cultural Others”, possessing “all that we lack”, embraced in Romania with “love, ardour, and desire”, a clear case of discursive “selfcolonization”.

No description available.

In their struggles against Zionism, Israeli citizens, both Palestinians and Jews, paradoxically seek to challenge through the law the very laws that institutionalise the hegemony of the state's ideology. Law and resistance are seemingly two contradictory concepts: while the law is instrumental in producing and sustaining the hegemonic order, resistance aims to subvert that very order. Zionism - the formula that Israel is a 'Jewish and Democratic state' - is the structuring ideology of the State of Israel; it shapes and is grounded in Israeli laws, and the apparatus of the law underwrites and protects Zionism. Nevertheless, in resisting Zionism, groups and individuals have utilised the law in struggles to overturn it. This research project interrogates the paradoxical relationship between law and resistance and evaluates the efficacy of different strategies of resistance to Zionism by Israeli citizens, both Palestinians and Jews. It offers an in-depth analysis of the spectrum of resistance practices in Israel, from resistance inside the law using legislation and adjudication, parliamentary and extra-parliamentary work, to resistance that disregards the law. This thesis reveals that an ensemble of resistance that acts simultaneously both inside and outside the legal system, constructing and disrupting, building and dismantling, seems to be most strategically effective in countering hegemonic structures, exposing their weaknesses and internal contradictions and forcing hegemony to reveal its oppressive nature, thereby losing its legitimacy both internally and internationally. In Israel, it is a strategy that exposes the contradictions between the state's Jewish and democratic pretensions, showing its willingness to suspend the one to defend the other, thereby revealing its coercive side.

No description available.

No description available.

The international community undertakes complex interventions in states emerging from war. These interventions include broad efforts to reform the political and institutional structures of the state. After the United Nations took political control of Kosovo in June 1999, it embarked on such a reform program, extremely ambitious in nature. This thesis examines the efforts to rehabilitate and reform the health sector. The immediate post-conflict environment in Kosovo was extremely chaotic. Hundreds of millions of dollars poured into the province, funding the operations of several hundred non-governmental organisations. The initial efforts of the international community in the health sector were focused on coordinating resources and the activities of these organisations. However, Kosovo' s health system was in clear need of widespread reform. The system had been devastated by years of neglect and months of conflict. A reform program was undertaken, with the objectives of establishing a primary care based system, increasing the quality of secondary and tertiary care, modernizing the public health system, and ensuring a cost-effective, equitable health system. By 2004, the reform program had largely failed to meet these objectives. This study examines the reasons that health reform was so difficult utilizing a combination of methods, i.e. a review of literature on peacebuilding, health and conflict, and health reform; analysis of the implementation of reform utilizing primary evidence such as policy documents and health data; and interviews with key stakeholders. Results show two important lessons for other post-conflict interventions. First, the reform program neglected building the capacity of government institutions. If the state does not have the capacity to implement reforms, the sustainability of the health reform process will be undermined. And second, the Kosovo reform program failed to build the foundation for reform before initiating ambitious projects to modernize the health sector.

In the reconstruction of war-tom societies, the successful reintegration of combatants into the post-conflict environment is recognised to be a vital component in the peacebuilding effort. In order to achieve and sustain such reintegration Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration (DDR) programmes are implemented. DDR literature advocates the importance of economic reintegration due to the fact it provides a focus for ex-combatants and thus the possibility of a secure environment. However, as DDR is studied in greater detail, the limitations of such a narrow focus are becoming apparent. Moreover, the identified need for the effective social reintegration of excombatants is becoming an increasingly more salient issue; particularly when considering the reconciliation of war-affected communities. Nevertheless, whilst the importance of social reintegration may have been recognised, understanding as to the ways in which ex-combatants socially reintegrate, and the effects such reintegration may have on the reconciliation process and the general peacebuilding effort, is in its relevant infancy. This research, through fieldwork involving the life history analysis of 50 ex-combatants and 22 civilians, along with ethnographic studies of four rural communities and 26 elite interviews with policy makers/implementers, sought to investigate this hiatus within the context of Rwanda. Specifically, it examined the obstacles faced by ex-combatants in their social reintegration and the mechanisms through which ex-combatants are successful in their endeavours. It then progressed to an elaborate consideration of the effects of the successful social reintegration of ex-combatants on the reconciliation process within the peacebuilding environment. It does this by applying the c~ncept of social capital as a bridge between ex-combatant social reintegration and reconciliation. The findings from this research identify a number of significant elements that are crucial to the social reintegration of ex-combatants. Additionally, the thesis delineates the importance of such reintegration for the reconciliation and peacebuilding process and thus signifies the need for a significant reconsideration of the way in which DDR programmes are designed and implemented.

This thesis takes its inspiration from the recent 'cultural turn' in Social Theory. The 'cultural turn' calls upon researcher to 'de-naturalise' many of the 'taken for granted' assumptions which sustain institutional practices as legitimate. Instead of studying social institutions <i>within</i> particular <i>interpretative communities</i>, the 'cultural turn' encourages researchers to make the <i>deconstruction</i> of <i>interpretative communities</i> itself the raison d'^etre of research. The project focusses upon the role of the Local state in areas undergoing urban regeneration. Urban regeneration has led the Local State into policy areas it previously had no interest in. This has been accompanied by much debate over what the proper <i>role</i> of this institution ought to be. By deconstructing these debates, one can gain insight into the different <i>interpretative communities</i> which support the Local State. The empirical study examines the debates which took place in Glasgow during 1990 over the city's role as European City of Culture. Four areas of conflict are examined; the cultural substance of the event, the emphasis placed upon cultural as opposed to housing policy, the morality of image building projects, and the financial competence of officials. The thesis advanced is that these four areas of conflict represent attempts by Glaswegians to make sense of a transition from <i>a managerialist</i> Local State to an <i>entrepreneurial</i> one. The managerialist interpretative community operates with a reified concept of wealth redistribution and the provision of items of collective consumption. The entrepreneurial interpretive community, in contrast, operates with a reified concept of capitalism. The conflict generated between both communities is tantamount to a <i>new cultural politics</i> within which the 'proper' role of the Local state is being shaped. Given the pervasiveness of conflict in Glasgow during 1990, it is concluded that <i>entrepreneurialism</i> did not necessarily secure hegemonic status in the city.