The outputs presented in part submission of a PhD by publication represent the body of my published work over the past ten years. They cover policy, practice and legislative developments during both the New Labour and Coalition Governments that have ultimately led to the demise of the Probation Service as a unified public sector organisation. Two main themes are evident in my writing. The first is a critique of how an ideological commitment to economic neo-liberalism and accompanying social conservatism has shaped contemporary probation policy and public sector provision more generally. The second significant strand has been an exploration of the impact of these developments on the occupational culture and working practices of probation work.

This thesis sets out to examine the capacity of new governments to influence partisan-based policy and legislation. It examines two newly elected Queensland governments - the Nicklin Country-Liberal government in 1957- 1961 and the Goss Labor government in 1989- 1990 and analyses the introduction by those governments of major industrial relations legislative reform. The Nicklin Coalition government was elected to the Queensland parliament in 1957 after the collapse of the Gair Labor government. The Coalition was committed to extensive industrial relations legislative reform but had not prepared for, or anticipated the constitutional, administrative and legal problems associated with such reform. Nor had it taken into account the concessions that would need to be made to the state's trade unions in order to effect its reforms. Consequently it was not until 1961 that it found the time was propitious for the introduction of its major legislative reforms and the restructuring of the state's principal industrial relations legislation. By contrast, in 1989 the Goss government elected as a consequence of the National Party's collapse in the face of the Fitzgerald Inquiry of 1987 had prepared itself for government. As a result it was able to take advantage of its newly elected status and the existence of the Hanger Report (1988) to introduce its legislative intentions quickly, in such a way that it did not alienate the business community. Preparation and circumstances therefore allowed Labor to repeal earlier legislation supported by business and introduce its own changes with little or no opposition. The thesis concludes that their political and economic inheritance and the existing policy environment will in varying degrees limit new governments. But their ability to introduce partisan-based legislative change quickly is also determined by the degree of preparation for the process of government, undertaken prior to their election. This thesis demonstrates that new governments can make a difference and effect changes to the industrial relations environment. However if this potential is to be realised and new governments are to take advantage of their newly elected status it will require a significant degree of administrative preparation or a considerable period of acclimatisation to the rigours of office.

<p>By what means can legislative committees exercise influence on policy outputs? How and why do committees in different countries differ in their abilities to do so? This dissertation argues that legislative committee power is a multidimensional concept. Committee procedures can be distinguished into three analytic dimensions: 1) committees' positive agenda power, their power to ensure the placement of legislative versions preferred by them on the floor; 2) committees' negative agenda power, their power to delay or block the progress of legislation; and 3) committees' information capacity, institutional incentives granted to them to gather and transmit information. These distinct dimensions benefit different legislative actors. Therefore, they reflect different features of a political system, and may not be consistently strong or week.</p><p>Based on an original cross-national data set, the dissertation shows that committee procedures cluster empirically in these three distinct dimensions. Furthermore, the dissertation also demonstrates how legislators' electoral incentives, the composition of multiparty governments, preexisting authoritarian incumbents' uncertainty and bargaining power, and the changes in legislative memberships affect different dimensions of committee power.</p> / Dissertation

The number of political parties in Sweden that are identifying themselves as caring for the labour politics and labour workers is increasing. Due to that and the upcoming Swedish parliamentary election in September 2018, I have investigated fulfillment of election pledges within the field of labour politics during two mandate periods seen to four cases. The questions that binds this thesis together is which of the four cases that have fulfilled the highest number and the highest percentage of the studied election pledges, and to what extent, during the mandate periods of 2006 to 2010 and 2014 to the 1st of May 2018. This is being made through a quantitative literature study which applies theory consuming methods of the responsible party model and the rational choice theory.   This study concludes that the socialist party, Socialdemokraterna, is the party that have fulfilled and started the highest percentage of the studied election pledges. Seen to the number, the socialist and environmental friendly coalition, de rödgröna, had the highest full fulfillment of pledges. However, the liberal conservative coalition, Alliansen, had the highest number of half fulfilled pledges. They also had the highest number of pledges with no fulfillmet, wherease the environmental friendly party, Miljöpartiet, had the highest percentage of election pledges with no fulfillment.

Submitted by Marlene Santos (marlene.bc.ufg@gmail.com) on 2016-09-12T16:51:56Z No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Ana Carolina Silva Ramos e Silva- 2011.pdf: 1587872 bytes, checksum: f02017c3585669cd12b6f511daadc111 (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Luciana Ferreira (lucgeral@gmail.com) on 2016-09-15T12:22:53Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Ana Carolina Silva Ramos e Silva- 2011.pdf: 1587872 bytes, checksum: f02017c3585669cd12b6f511daadc111 (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-09-15T12:22:53Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Ana Carolina Silva Ramos e Silva- 2011.pdf: 1587872 bytes, checksum: f02017c3585669cd12b6f511daadc111 (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-06-22 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / This study examines the role of political institutions in Colombia during the term of the National Front (1958-1974) - a coalition government composed of the Liberal and Conservative parties - in order to assess whether the model of democracy in the country walked towards democratic openness, according to the arguments of authors such as Pécaut (2010) and Dahl (2005), or a particular type called democracia restringida, as advocated by Jimenez (2009). This analysis is considered an important explanatory variable regarding the origin and permanence of the armed conflict in Colombia. Thus, during the research a fundamental tool for the analysis of political institutions were the Colombian electoral data, which allowed us to evaluate the degree of consensus, reached by the presidents of the National Front with civil society. Another fact of great importance was the analysis of systematic state of emergency declarations in the country, which ultimately demonstrated the need for the state to use repressive methods in order to impose its domination on the opposition. Finally the study analyses how the arbitrary methods used by governments to keep the coalition government in power reflected in the organizational model of the protest movement whose radicalization of many of them culminated in the Colombian guerrillas that persist until nowadays. / O estudo pretende analisar as instituições políticas colombianas durante o período de vigência da Frente Nacional (1958-1974) – governo de coalizão composto pelos partidos Liberal e Conservador – no intuito de avaliar se o modelo de democracia no país caminhava rumo à uma abertura democrática, como sustenta autores como Pécaut (2010) e Dahl (2005) ou à um tipo particular denominado democracia restringida, como sustenta Jímenez (2009). Por meio desta análise torna-se possível, conforme a hipótese aqui sustentada, obter uma variável explicativa importante a respeito da origem e permanência do conflito armado na Colômbia. Desta forma, no decorrer da pesquisa um dos instrumentos fundamentais para a análise das instituições políticas colombianas foram os dados eleitorais, que permitiram avaliar o grau de consenso obtido pelos presidentes da Frente Nacional junto à sociedade civil. Outro dado de grande relevância foi a análise da sistemática decretação de estado de sítio no país, o que em última instância demonstrou a necessidade do Estado em utilizar métodos repressivos para impor o consenso à oposição. Por fim analisa-se como os métodos arbitrários utilizados pelo Estado para manter o governo de coalizão no poder repercutiram no modelo organizativo dos movimentos de protesto, cuja radicalização de muitos deles deu origem às guerrilhas colombianas que persistem até a atualidade.

Magister Legum - LLM (Public Law and Jurisprudence) / In any democratic society, elections are a significant mechanism for citizens to communicate with their representatives. As a result, elections provide a window of opportunity to every voter to hire or fire any political party or independent representative. As an aggregated measure of popular preference, elections constitute an important means to affirm that people in any society should be free to choose their own government based on the parties political beliefs and policies that appeal to the needs of the electorates. Powell sums up this perspective in two points; first, the voter must be able to identify the prospective future governors and have some idea of what they will do if elected. Secondly, the outcome of the elections should bring into office a coherent government whose inherent powers are clearly defined and limited. However, elections sometimes do not produce a single party with an absolute majority to form a government. In such an instance, a coalition or minority government becomes inevitable. It has been argued that coalitions are formed for two different yet interrelated reasons; first to pursue common goals among coalition partners. Secondly, to enable the coalition partners to share the benefits related with being in power. No matter what the intentions are for forming a coalition by the political parties, coalition governments are bound to encounter challenges. One of the challenges is the need to consult and reach consensus among coalition partners, which may not only result in government decision-making being slower but also more complex. Secondly, conflicts within a ruling coalition can make a government unstable and weak due to conflicting ideologies.

自第二次世界大戰結束後，日本眾議院選舉制度從1947年以來採用中選舉區制度，直到1993年眾議院大選後，除了日本共產黨以外的7個在野政黨一同組成聯合政府，結束了自由民主黨自1955年以來的長期執政，情況開始所轉變。日本新黨黨魁細川護熙就任日本首相後，為了兌現選舉承諾，而在任內推動了選舉制度改革，將選制改為小選舉區比例代表並立制，期望能以此改善國內政治獻金醜聞頻傳的金權政治弊端。而實施新選舉制度後所帶來的諸如小選舉區制有利於大型政黨但一黨難以過半、小黨在國會生存難度增加卻也有比例代表區維持其存在等效應，導致聯合政府從1990年代開始不再只是為了達成某種政治目標而形成的少數特例。自此以後，日本政黨結盟組成聯合政府便形成一種常態。因此本研究認為，1990年代選舉制度改革與聯合政府的形成，兩者可說是相輔相成。 為了進一步分析選舉制度改革對1990年代的日本聯合政府、乃至於日本政壇造成何種影響，本研究將以1996年小選舉區比例代表並立制首度實踐於眾議院選舉作為分水嶺，將1996年以前成立的細川、村山聯合政府定義為「選舉制度改革前的聯合政府」，1996年到2000年成立的橋本、小淵與森聯合政府定義為「選舉制度改革後的聯合政府」，並從政黨規模、意識形態、政黨穩定狀況與政治資金規正法修正案的實施等角度進行觀察與比較。本研究發現，選舉制度改革後的聯合政府在政黨規模上已形成一個大型政黨加上兩個小黨的合作模式，意識形態也趨向右派主導而多元。就政黨穩定狀況而言，經過選舉制度改革所帶來的政黨重組，使日本政黨正走向稍無定型的一強，或是二強n弱體制。而在政治資金規正法修正案與選舉制度改革雙管齊下實施後，日本選舉也已由過去的派閥主導，開始向政黨主導模式邁出了第一步。 / After the end of World War II, SNTV-MMD system (single non-transferable vote with multi-member district system) was adopted by the Lower House in Japan since 1947. However, the electoral system of Lower House has been adapted after the Japanese general election in 1993. The Liberal Democratic Party, generally abbreviated to “LDP,” has been the ruling party of Japan since it was founded in 1955, but the LDP lost its overall majority after the Japanese general election in1993. A coalition government was created by seven opposition political parties, and Morihiro Hosokawa, the leader of Japan New Party, was elected prime minister. Hosokawa promoted electoral reform, he adapted the electoral system of Lower House for single member district with proportional representation system, because he promised to eradicate the plutocracy in Japan. The new electoral system causes several conditions, including the major parties are superiors in election, but it’s difficult for them to win the majority seats in Lower House. Besides, it’s difficult for the minor parties to win the seats in single member district, but there is an opportunity for them to win seats in proportional representation. Those conditions cause that Japanese political parties form coalition government become normality. Therefore, the electoral reform and the forming of coalition government are complementarity in the 1990s. In this research, the coalition governments in the 1990s are divided into two groups by the executing of single member district with proportional representation system in Japanese general election of 1996. The Hosokawa government and the Murayama government are defined as “the coalition governments before the executing of new electoral system.” The Hashimoto government, the Obuchi government and the Mori government are defined as “the coalition governments after the executing of new electoral system.” Those two group are contrasted with each other from the scale of political parties, the ideology, the stability of political parties, and executing of the Political Funds Control Law. There four major findings in this research. The first one is the coalition governments after the executing of new electoral system are formed by one major party and two minor parties. The second one is even the coalition governments after the executing of new electoral system are leading by the right-wing parties, the ideology of them is multivariate. The third one is electoral reform causes the party realignment and the Japanese political party system become one unstable major party or two major parties with several minor parties. The last one is the leader of Japanese election is turning to the parties from factions, because the new electoral system and the Aamendment to the Political Funds Control Law are executed.

This thesis explores the relevant impact of three influences - policy, personality and opportunity - on New Zealand governments since 1996. The Mixed Member Proportional electoral system (MMP) was adopted by New Zealand for the 1996 general election. The various coalition government arrangements since then have been analysed using a series of case studies of identified events during coalitions’ crucial pre-election, formation, duration and termination stages. The roles assumed by, or perceived of, small parties have been important as have the actions of the pivotal party in each government. My interest in this topic springs from my service as an Alliance MP. I was an Alliance party list Member of Parliament during the 45th and 46th Parliaments (1996-2002). Systems theory was relied upon as the methodology with which to study relevant political processes. Key informant interviews and participant observation were the main research methods. This research investigates the traits, apparent in the coalitions formed from 1996 until 2002, which contributed to each government’s continuation or termination. Each stage reflected the parties’ competing interests as argued by theorists such as Muller and Strøm. Wolfgang Muller and Kaare Strøm knitted together theoretical approaches and concluded that politicians are motivated by competing goals. This seminal work provides the theoretical guideline for explaining events in New Zealand and was adopted as a framework to develop this research. Coalitions faced policy shocks, adverse polls and other critical events during the three coalition governments included in this study. Politicians adapted the formal and informal constraints. In this way, they attempted to strengthen the attributes of both the Parliaments and Cabinet to ensure that they were robust enough to withstand adverse incidents. Politicians’ ambitions fluctuated between seeking office, policy objectives or electoral support depending upon the circumstances of the time. Stable and durable coalitions, as desired by the 1986 Royal Commission on the Electoral System, were those where the relevant parties’ leadership enjoyed positive relationships with each other. However, parties could not be considered to be unitary actors. Intra-party relationships were important factors. Intra-party dissension contributed to inter-party conflict and vice versa. Governments that were terminated earlier than constitutionally required suffered from deteriorating intra-party and/or inter-party relationships. The crucial component identified as an important consideration for the success or otherwise of any coalition government can be summed up as that pertaining to ‘relationship issues’ as affected by policy, personality and opportunity.

There is a large part of the population today whose perception of Swedish political parties assumes a pronounced distrust. Often, this mistrust is linked to whether politicians act on the election promises made during the election campaigns. This is a view that opposition parties often encourage through negative criticism during election campaigns and media platforms. The paradox that arises then becomes markedly confusing because research actually shows that parties almost fulfill most of the election promises made.   Furthermore, a society characterized by widespread distrust of political activity risks gradually undermining the representative democracy system, which may lead to diminished democratic legitimacy. In the field of research, therefore, there is often talk of making knowledge regarding election promises more accessible to voters, who then may examine political activity more effectively themselves. The study has analyzed the Alliance's and the Social Democrats' election promise fulfillment during the mandate periods 2006-2010 and 2014-2018, through qualitative analysis of the election manifesto and data collection from the Riksdag's website. The aim was to investigate and compare which of these party organizations best achieved good representation during the alternative government periods through clear method choices that could present data in an easily accessible way.   The study arrives at a result that shows a balancing election promise fulfillment between the Alliance and the Social Democrats, with a small statistical advantage for the Alliance. It also shows how the Alliance has achieved a slightly better representation by succeeding in fulfilling more election promises in key policy areas that the party organization has given higher priority to during the election campaigns and election manifestos.

In 2017 an old law recirculated in Germany which illegalized doctors from informing about abortion other than verbally in person. According to previous research on feminist policy change, a removal (liberalization), of the law hinges on: the presence of an autonomous feminist organization, if civil society, norms and a political majority supports the removal. The more of these factors are present the higher the likelihood of liberalization. All these factors were present in the German case but the outcome of the debate and policy process that occurred, a preservation of the law after a one-year long struggle, was highly unexpected. This thesis aims to understand and explain the outcome focussing on the struggle between the confessional and secular government coalition members CDU/CSU and SPD, as the latter, as expected, supported the removal but then unexpectedly voted for preservation. The study is conducted as an abductive explanatory process tracing, concentrates on the factions within the SPD as well as the CDU/CSU throughout the different stages of the process. The main findings are that confessional parties can utilize formal and informal institutions in a parliamentary setting to avoid a substantial liberalization of abortion regulatory laws. The SPD was split on the issue where its leadership, who compromised to keep the government running, overrun the large faction within the party supporting revocation.