This research is a detailed analysis of the Conservative Party leadership's strategy between 1997 and 2005. Through an application of the strategic-relational approach to political analysis, it examines how the party responded to defeat, and seeks to explain why it struggled to return to a position from which it could effectively challenge for power. The particular focus is on how key figures in the leadership elite interpreted and understood the context they faced, how they sought to orientate their strategies towards it, and how ideology shaped their perspective. Three dilemmas for contemporary conservatism are highlighted and considered in depth: European integration; national identity and the 'English question'; and social liberalism versus social authoritarianism. These were chosen as each presents a significant ideological challenge for contemporary conservatism. The thesis explores how the leadership handled each of these, and how they related to the party's efforts to develop a strategy for electoral revival. The research exposes the inconsistent and uncertain nature of Conservative Party electoral strategy in this period. The strategic-relational analysis suggests that this stemmed not merely from the failure of key actors in the leadership, but from the need to address competing and sometimes contradictory contextual demands, and from difficulties inherent in dealing with the legacy of Thatcherism. The thesis argues that an appreciation of the 1997 -2005 period is essential for an understanding of the trajectory of contemporary conservatism under Cameron.

European energy policy is generally regarded as one of the most longstanding failures of the process of integration. However in recent years there has been an intensification of efforts to establish an internal market for gas and work towards a common energy policy. In parallel to these developments, concerns about energy security have reappeared on the political agenda after a long absence, partly due to rising oil prices, energy dependence and the recent disruptions of gas supplies from Russia. This expansion of EU energy policy activity in parallel to increased energy security concerns suggests a possible linkage between the two. The aim of this thesis is to examine this relationship through the perspective of securitisation theory, utilising but also extending the framework of the Copenhagen School. More specifically, it aims to analyse the process through which natural gas supplies in the European Union were securitised and explore its impact on the pace of European integration. Discourse analysis and process tracing, enriched with a set of elite-interviews are used to answer these questions. Two case-studies of energy security, concerning the internal market and the security of supply standards are explored in a comparative manner. The analysis demonstrates that while high levels of securitisation have had a negative impact on negotiations for the former, they have had a positive impact and have accelerated the europeanisation of the later.

This thesis first examines the compatibility of political development and Confucian traditional thought in East Asia, and South Korea in particular, and then suggests an alternative methodology for the study of political theory in regards to culture. In order to accomplish these goals, this research focuses on three concepts: legitimacy, representation, and Confucian virtue. This research proposes political legitimacy as the most fundamental basis in the study of the relationship between political development and culture. Legitimacy is essential in every government and cannot be borrowed externally. Rather, it must be established through the practices and customs of the people and thus, involves culture. From this view, Confucian traditional thought should be considered the foundation of political development in Confucian East Asia. In most cases in modern politics, representation is the only legitimate form of democratic governments. While in principle, representation seems to conflict with democracy, in the sense that not all people participate in the decision-making procedure and representatives are required to have some level of competence, in modern representative democracy, it has been accepted as reasonable by the people. This is possible through an epistemic understanding of democracy whereby democracy is regarded as a system in which people pursue better decisions. Although the concepts of representation and democracy conflict, and the linking of the two in representative democracy shows the double-sided characteristics of representation, this double-sidedness emerges from the conceptual nature of representation in politics—the representation of the people’s interest and will. While representation of will seems to be the intrinsic element in the democratic principle of equality, the epistemic understanding of modern representative democracy implies that the representation of the people’s interest is also important. Based on this view of representative democracy, this thesis argues that Confucian representative theory, that only good people make good representatives, is not in conflict with modern representative democracy. It is often alleged that Confucian virtues do not coincide with the virtues required for modern democracy, even though representative democracy also demands competence in its representatives. However, Confucian virtue is based on the theory of conditional government founded on the Mandate of Heaven. This idea of limited government requires rulers to hear and to respect the people because Heaven only speaks and hears through the people. Therefore, the concepts that are regarded as essential in representative democracy - responsibility, responsiveness, and cooperation - are also important elements in Confucian representative theory, both in principle and practice. The coherence of virtue, one of the characteristics of Confucianism, is not unique to Confucian East Asia. The concept that integrated virtue is necessary in a good representative can also be found in western tradition. Some western theorists have been interested in this topic in regards to whether the good representative in reference to virtue is relevant in modern democracy. For this reason, there seems to be no reason to deny the Confucian view of the virtue of a representative in regards to the coherence of virtue. Although this thesis mainly discusses democratic legitimacy and Confucian virtue, one of the most important implications of this research is the existing methodology used in the comparative research of political theory. This thesis suggests the concept of legitimacy as the foundation of comparative political theory study. Second, this research argues that in comparative political theory research, it is necessary to focus on practice as the accumulation of the people’s behaviours in belief-systems, rather than formal institutions. Third, this thesis proposes that there is a need to find and use more neutral concepts for comparative study, such as representation, which is common in both modern western democracy and Confucian traditional thought. In such neutral categories, an interactive understanding is conceivable in any political system. First, this thesis argues that comparative research of political theory, particularly of different cultures, should start from an understanding of the nature of political legitimacy. This suggests that there should be relative conceptions in political theory and that they should be distinguished from others. For example, while the framework of legitimacy as a belief-system may be common to every government, the contents of the belief-systems are varied, insofar as the way of life is different in different societies. In the same way, though democracy is the only legitimate system of politics, there are varied forms of electoral systems, party systems, and government systems. Second, this thesis suggests that if politics are to be understood in the relationship between legitimacy and culture at a radical level, the practice and custom of the people in each belief-system must also be examined, since legitimacy cannot directly or automatically be established through institutions, nor can it be borrowed from institutions. Although institutions can be established by cultural aliens, a procedure of legitimation created through the practices of the people themselves is necessary. Without practice, the institution cannot be a foundation of political legitimacy. If we focus on institutional aspects, especially those based on the standards of modern values, the comparison may become an unfair one since modern values must be conceptualized in the West first. For this reason, it is necessary to examine the contextual understanding of practice and custom within the belief-system. Third, existing research on different systems of political thought frequently seem to compare different theories on the basis of certain values and ideologies, such as democracy, liberal democracy, or human rights. Based on these standards, theories were compared by statistical indexes in empirical studies, or by institutional or conceptual differences in normative research. Some theorists have tried to clarify whether there is a common idea of equality, liberty, or rights. Some have been interested in institutional similarity and differences. However, since much of the concepts are conceptualized in the context of the modern West, such research easily succumbs to misunderstanding or misjudging non-western theories. Even though we must also be conscious of the prejudice of non-western concepts or ideas, the continued use of western originated standards can lead to unfair comparisons. For this reason, neutral concepts are useful for fair comparison. Along this vein, this thesis offers the concept of representation, a necessary element for legitimate government in both the West and Confucian East. In this case, the main task is to examine the ways in which each tradition is compatible with modern standards of political legitimacy, such as democracy.

This thesis investigates why EU single market legislation sometimes privileges national regulatory authorities ("NRAs") as the authoritative decision-makers while other legislation in the same field privileges EU regulatory Agencies. Most of the literature on both EU regulatory Agencies and independent NRAs has explained their creation in functional terms. While there may be functional benefits to be gained from creating regulatory bodies in EU legislation, the thesis argues that their design is not necessarily determined by the standard functional imperatives – indeed, sometimes such delegates, at least from the perspective of actually meeting functions such as credible commitment, may be designed by principals to be ineffective. The theory advanced in the thesis is that Member States will prefer NRAs to be the bodies controlling implementation in those cases where there is distributional conflict and Agencies and/or the Commission where there is not. The Commission and the European Parliament will usually advocate supranational regulatory institutions but will be unable to overcome collective Council preferences where they are in favour of NRAs. The empirical findings in the thesis with respect to the acts of delegation suggest these hypotheses are correct. In addition, the thesis hypothesises that regulatory outcomes will be consistent with the type of design adopted. Consequently, an examination of regulatory implementation is also undertaken in order to verify whether this is the case. The thesis finds that implementation outcomes also vary depending on the type of institution selected.

Despite evidence to support ‘what works’ in HIV prevention, new infections remain unacceptably high, particularly where epidemics are generalized, amounting to a ‘puzzle’ in HIV prevention. This research will examine the extent to which a gap exists in the actual substantive underpinnings of prevention programmes, and/or in the design and effectiveness of the governance of HIV. A persistent critique of prevention efforts is the inattention paid to structural risks, vulnerabilities that predispose individuals, and populations, to engaging in high-risk behavior. Structural approaches to HIV prevention have not yet been incorporated in a widespread manner. Reasons include a lack of expertise among health professionals, complications inherent to multi-sectoral coordination, a lack of evidence to support their efficacy, and resources. Another explanation is that the network of organizations, funding and implementing HIV prevention, prefers behavioral and biomedical approaches, making it difficult for structural approaches to make their way onto the agenda. A network approach is premised on the idea that organizations are likely to act in accordance with those to whom they are closely connected. This research provides an analysis of the structure of relations between prevention organizations in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, and will assess whether position within this network determines organizational preference for structural (or other) approaches to HIV prevention. Data was collected using a survey and interviews, and analyzed using formal network analysis methods, and interpretive content analysis. There are a number of findings of note. While extensive networking opportunities exist, many CBOs remain isolated from such support structures. Where greater connectivity did exist, organizations provided an impressive range of services. An unexpectedly high proportion expressed a preference for structural approaches to HIV prevention. However, the translation into policy was mixed. Crucially, dedicated resources for HIV prevention among implementers were severely lacking, be they for structural, behavioral or biomedical approaches. A re-commitment to ‘Universal Access to HIV prevention’ is therefore most timely.

Following independence and building on Gorbachev’s policy of perestroika, the democratic process in the Central Asian states has stalled. This thesis presents a detailed study of political developments in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan and argues that, contrary to recent studies on region, the failure to democratise is a result of the employment of a form of nationalism focused on their respective Presidents by the newly empowered elites of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Previous scholars have argued that the development of authoritarianism in the Central Asian republics was a result of the legacy of the Soviet rule, especially issues of regionalism, clan politics, and the role of Islam in the area. This thesis argues that the concerns with stateness, which have in turn led to the development of authoritarianism in Central Asia, are of greater importance when considering the stalling of transition. This thesis also argues that after the sudden collapse of the Soviet Union and the declaration of independence, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan like many other former Soviet national republics, were faced with the issues of nationalism, ethnicity, identity and territorial delineation. These were the concerns that brought the issue of stateness to the fore, as many post-Communist nation-states made claims and counterclaims on each other’s territories. Many post-Soviet countries faced issues of stateness, identity, nationalism and ethnicity, but Tajikistan and Uzbekistan experienced different problems resulting from the Bolshevik policy of the national delineation of Soviet Central Asia in the 1920s. The employment of personalised nationalism in post-Communist Tajikistan and Uzbekistan has been the elites’ strategy to address all these issues: to maintain the stateness of their respective countries, as well as the unity of their nation; to fill the ideological void of post-Communism; to prevent the rise of Islam; and to legitimise their authoritarian practice. In this context, the elites promoted and imposed on their native countries a titular form of identity, grounded around the persona of the president, with the purpose of maintaining the stateness and national unity of their countries. This has helped the Presidents to acquire enormous power, which they have used to further their personal interests, develop authoritarian rule and stall democratisation. This thesis concludes that an analysis of the factors contributing to the development of authoritarian rule in Central Asia as a tool to preserve the nation’s stateness allows a better understanding of the reasons behind the stalling of the transition to democracy in the region.

The modernisation reform is the most important policy development in the European competition history. Council Regulation 1/2003 has replaced longlived Council Regulation 17/62 with three main changes in the competition enforcement. First, the reform decentralises the enforcement by introducing national competition authorities (NCAs), alongside Directorate-General for Competition (DG COMP), to apply Article 81 and 82 (now 101 and 102). Second, a quasi-binding European Competition Network (ECN) is established for the purpose of better allocation of cases and the consistent enforcement. Third, competition authorities are further equipped with the substantial power of enquiry and punishment to tackle the most serious infringements. These changes draw the attention to the possibility of paradigm shift and the relationships between DG COMP and NCAs. As the reform in many ways changes the enforcement of competition rules, the role of DG COMP would be very important to the studies of modernisation reform and to resolve the puzzles regarding the impact of reform and the actual enforcement of Council Regulation 1/2003. Therefore, the aim of the thesis is to assess the autonomy change of DG COMP and to reconfigure the role of DG COMP in the modernised European competition regime. In this regard, this research has to draw on a large body of literature, in particular, the principal-agent theory and the bureaucratic autonomy approach, to assess the bureaucratic autonomy of DG COMP in six aspects: political differentiation, organisational capacity, personal capacity, multiple networks, financial capacity and changes in legal status. Overall, this research has three main findings. First, DG COMP has increased its bureaucratic autonomy, with some reservations. Second, DG COMP holds a new ʻsupervisoryʼ role, along with its administrative and ʻjuryjudge- prosecutorʼ role. Third, two levels of principal-agent relationship have emerged and the leading role of DG COMP in the ECN is confirmed. As this research adapts the U.S. bureaucratic autonomy model to the EU context, the assessment may further be applicable to other public policy studies about institutional changes or competence reforms.

This thesis poses two challenges to the division of normative labour (DNL) between political institutions and private agents, in relation to social justice -- an important feature of political liberalism. By DNL I mean the idea that the principles and kind of responsibilities of social justice that apply to the basic institutions of a state do not directly apply to the individuals and secondary associations acting within it. Whereas state institutions have a primary duty to directly fulfill the background conditions of justice, private agents have a limited secondary duty to support and comply with just institutions. In line with liberals, I defend DNL against scholars, most notably G.A. Cohen and Liam Murphy, who advocate for the extension of the same principles of justice that apply to institutions directly to the conduct of private agents. However, I then subject the liberal account of DNL to two challenges. Firstly, I argue that the way in which liberals define private agents’ duty to support just institutions is too narrow and insufficient to provide institutions with the support they need to maintain background conditions. I call this the support challenge. I thus advocate for enlarging private agents’ secondary duties of support, without extending primary duties of fulfillment directly to them. Secondly, I argue that the liberal DNL is further challenged by the phenomenon of privatisation, properly understood as the state dischargement of public responsibilities through private actors. I call this the privatisation challenge. I argue that, by blurring the division of institutional labour and social roles between institutions and private agents, in particular associations, privatisation blurs the division of normative labour between the two. I thus clarify the circumstances of privatisation in which private action becomes state action and private associations acquire primary duties to directly fulfill the conditions of justice.

As a result of an arbitrary drawing of borders, most states today have forcefully incorporated groups which identify by culture and history with the states that border their 'new' home-states. For this reason, such groups are referred to as kin-minority groups. What distinguishes some European kin-minorities from those around the world is the response of their kin-states to their living situations. In the last decades, many European kin-states adopted policies known as Status Laws. Even though there are substantive differences among them, many of these states assumed an obligation to support the cultural flourishing of their kin-minority groups. The case-study of my dissertation is the Hungarian Status Law, which represents the response of the Hungarian state to its kin-minority groups. This dissertation examines the relationship between a state's duty and individuals' cultural membership in the context of kin-minority groups. Precisely, it assesses the importance of culture and history for allocating a kin-state's responsibility and defining the standard of care for its kin-minority groups. The inquiry shows that a kin-state's obligations challenge the liberal responses to the accommodation of cultural minorities in plural societies, disputing the allocation of responsibility, the standard of care and the relationship between a state's cultural duties and citizenship. First, I explore the role of history and culture in generating culture-related responsibilities beyond the borders of a state. Liberal theories unanimously contain such duties within a state's borders and tie them to citizenship. Contrary to such theories, I argue that history and cultural membership may generate obligations beyond a state's borders in the case of kin-minority groups. Second, the enquiry focuses on the impact of the kin-state's involvement upon the accommodation of minority cultural groups. The analysis shows that a kin-state's involvement fosters a better accommodation of its kin-minority groups within their home-states. I argue that a kin-state's obligations complement the home-state's multiculturalism.

This thesis argues that the counterintuitive decision by some U.S. states to adopt significant climate-friendly policies in the absence of federal leadership on the issue can be explained as the result of a successful (re-)framing of the debate on climate and energy policy by policy change advocates. Critiquing mainstream theoretical accounts of policy change, the thesis advances a model of change that both builds on existing insights into change and goes beyond them by emphasising the crucial role of strategic framing in persuading target audiences of the benefits of policy proposals. It does so by introducing the concept of „framing coalitions‟ understood as coalitions of convenience assembling around shared frames rather than shared interests and values. The first part of the thesis locates the research within the scholarly literature on global environmental governance and, more specifically, the extant literature on multilevel climate governance focussed on subnational units of political authority. It shows that although low-carbon, climate-friendly policies have been mapped and compared, the reasons for why these policies were pursued in the first place have not been thoroughly explained and have thus remained elusive. The second part of the thesis tests the proposed model by closely tracing policy processes in the energy and climate field in three case studies: Pennsylvania, Florida and West Virginia. In each case, policy advocates strategically drew on change frames to reorient the state's energy policy. However, this thesis argues that the differences in outcome between the states can best be explained with differences in the size and diversity of in-state framing coalitions. The thesis concludes with a brief discussion of how elements of the proposed model of change lend themselves to further empirical and theoretical research.