Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1923. / Typescript. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 252-263).

The pivotal figures in the district administration of British Columbia have been the Government Agents. For over a century, isolated citizens received the services of the state from their local agent. The tasks they performed changed but, like the British District Officer and the French Prefect, their primary supervisory and controlling roles remained intact. Civil service reform, however, broke the 'contract' between the agent, district and the government, and diminished their effectiveness. By 1958, the agent was less a unifying and more a coordinating figure. The agents evolved from prominent persons acting alone, then collegially with other civil servants, to weak agents with reduced status. As the primary objective of government altered from the maintenance of law and order to economic and social development their behaviours changed. Their prestige was also reduced as politicians replaced them as guardians of the public interest. Improvements in transportation and communication made them less independent. Continuity, however, has been an equal characteristics of the agents. They have exercised central control through three functions: maintenance of law and order, advocating and executing government policies, and representing provincial interests. Since 1858, the agents have embodied the power of the state and fulfilled Victoria's wish to control local events. The 1945 civil service reforms, which emphasized standardized procedures and merit in hiring practices, altered irrevocably the character of the agents. Technical skills, not local prestige and knowledge, became the critical factor in new aspirants. Their relationship with government was de-personalized and they identified more with their organization. These personnel processes and a dramatic growth in bureaucratic structures eroded the agents' power base in their districts and the capital and their ability to act as a trustworthy link between Victoria and the regions. The political advantages that saved the agents for decades were missing and they were forgotten. This study is about government decentralization. It chronicles the evolution of unique Canadian public servants who maintained the bond between the governed and the government from colonial to modern times. Finally, it suggests that contemporary observers must consider carefully the expectations politicians have of district public servants. / Graduate

Made available in DSpace on 2015-04-01T11:58:35Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivototal.pdf: 9895320 bytes, checksum: df7252cc03f7f058ce75a4c24c03427b (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-10-18 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / This dissertation investigates the formation of the urban network in the Hinterland of Piranhas and Piancó throughout the eighteenth century. The urban network is understood from the urbanizing policy implemented by colonial agents, the State, the Church and the economic agents, that sparked the occurrence of fixed points (villages to indoctrinate the natives, barracks, villages, towns and cities) and communication routes, linked to the flows generated by the expansion process of cattle ranching. The main objective is to check how was the structure of this urban network in the Hinterland of Piranhas and Piancó in the eighteenth century, through the activities of colonization agents. This is a research of historical synthesis that adopted, as the main procedure, an analysis of historiography and written documentation and cartographic on the issue. Was concluded that the formation of an urban network, in Hinterland of Piranhas and Piancó, occurred in the first half of the eighteenth century, linked to the process of War of the Barbarians", resulting in barracks and in villages to indoctrinate the natives; and, in the second half of the eighteenth century, marked by post-war, was implemented a policy of forming villages, initially established in Pombal's Period (1750 - 1777) and conducted to the rest of the century. In parallel, throughout the eighteenth century, was verified a formation of chapels for the installation of settlements, as a result of the interests of landowners in their local setting, through donations of land assets, which gave the initial apparatus for its existence. It is intended to contribute to the study of eighteenth-century urban history of Paraíba from these findings. / A presente dissertação tem por objeto de investigação a formação da rede urbana no Sertão de Piranhas e Piancó ao longo do século XVIII. A rede urbana é entendida a partir da política urbanizadora executada pelos agentes coloniais, o Estado, a Igreja e os agentes econômicos, que proporcionou o surgimento de pontos fixos (aldeamentos, arraiais, povoações, vilas e cidades) e de vias de comunicação, vinculados aos fluxos gerados pelo processo de expansão da pecuária. O objetivo central é verificar como se deu a estruturação dessa rede urbana no Sertão de Piranhas e Piancó no século XVIII, através da atuação dos agentes da colonização. Trata-se de um trabalho de síntese histórica que adotou, como procedimento principal, uma análise da história e da documentação escrita e cartográfica sobre o tema. O resultado identificou que a formação de uma rede urbana, no Sertão de Piranhas e Piancó, ocorreu na primeira metade do século XVIII, vinculada ao processo de Guerra dos Bárbaros , tendo como resultado os arraiais e os aldeamentos de índios em missões; e, na segunda metade do século XVIII, marcada pelo pós-guerra, houve a realização de uma política de formação de vilas, instituída inicialmente no Período Pombalino (1750 1777) e conduzida ao restante do século. Em paralelo, ao longo de todo o século XVIII, foi verificada a formação de capelas para instalação de povoações, pelos interesses dos proprietários rurais em definir seu poder local, através de doações de patrimônios de terras, que dava o aparato inicial para a sua existência. Busca-se, a partir de tais constatações, contribuir para os estudos da história urbana na Paraíba setecentista.