<p>This study is an exploration of why policy outcomes in the sectors of child care and unemployment insurance, between the time period 1972 to 1996, did not meet the policy goals of the National Action Committee on the Status of Women (NAC) in Canada and the National Women's Council of lreland (NWCI). Specifically, this study sought to explain why successive governments in Canada and Ireland persistently resisted the implementation of policy goals put forth by NAC and NWCI in the sectors of child care and unemployment insurance, or when they did respond, policy outcomes had differential impacts on women. With this in mind, the overall research question of this study was: What happened to the policy goals ofNAC and NWCI once they were articulated to government?</p> <p>In order to answer this question, this study merged the theoretics of historical institutionalism with feminist political economy into a theoretical framework I have termed feminist-institutionalism. This framework was applied to argue that policy institutions (as mediators and containers ofgendered social relations) redefine feminist policy goals articulated by women's groups to government into gendered policy outcomes that often undermine the original intent of those goals. I have called this process of redefinition policy transformation. By employing a framework of analysis three spheres of policy transformation -this study comparatively maps out the processes, institutions and factors within the macro-political policy context which contributed to an overall lack of success on the part of NAC and NWCI in the realization of their child care and unemployment insurance policy goals. One of the conclusions of this study is that NAC and NWCI were equally unsuccessful even given stark differences between macro-political institutional structures and interest representation systems in Canada and Ireland.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

This study aims to investigate the policy focus of Swedish parties in the two most recent European Parliament elections through a quantitative content analysis of the parties' election manifestos. The method for this analysis has been inspired by the well-known Comparative Manifesto Project. The information made available through the method has been analyzed within the framework of relevant theories in the field, namely Second-order Election theory and Issue Ownership theory, to examine whether this policy focus aligns with expected outcomes. Descriptive statistics show significant changes between the elections; for example, the length of the election manifestos has more than doubled on average. Theoretically, the statistical results can be said to align with expected outcomes. Each party places a significant emphasis on the issues in which they already have established credibility, which is the expected outcome according to Issue Ownership research. However, one party stands out in this regard: the Liberals. This is likely due to a combination of the fact that education issues are largely not decided within the European Parliament, while the Liberals have ambitious goals to be the most pro-EU party. This combination potentially affects the Liberals' results in the European Parliament elections negatively, given Second-order Election theories that argue the connection to the national arena is crucial for achieving good election results. The issue of the environment and climate stands out in that all parties, except the Sweden Democrats, place a significant emphasis on it, despite many parties not having high credibility in this area. This contradicts both Issue Ownership theory and Second-order Election theory. Potentially, the cross-border nature of the environment and climate issue is starting to change what we think we know about the connection between national and the European election.

Thesis (MA (Political Science))--Stellenbosch University, 2010. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study explores public opinion on land reform in South Africa using data gathered by Ipsos-Markinor in nationally representative public opinion surveys conducted in 2004 and 2007, and by an elite survey conducted by Centre for International and Comparative Politics in 2007. This study explores whether public opinion on land reform reveals distinct trends that correlate with the selected socio-demographic variables of race, language, party affiliation and social status. It is hypothesised that there is an identifiable correlation between these independent variables and the opinions of respondents on land reform, with specific groups tending to support land reform whilst other groups tend to reject it. The data analyses yielded results that highlight distinct trends in public opinion on land reform. Responses are clustered around specific characteristics of the independent variables and point towards distinct groups having specific views on land reform. From this set of findings it is inferred that public opinion on land reform illustrates that certain groups of South Africans have contrasting views of how the rule of law and transformation should find expression in a democratic society. These fundamentally differing opinions on key elements of democracy illustrate that South Africans hold diverging opinions of what constitutes democracy, through adherence to either the liberal or the liberationist model of democracy. These models were previously identified as two distinct and diverging interpretations of democracy in South Africa and were labelled as such. These two models uphold sharply divergent normative prescriptions of democracy, as well as contrasting prescriptions for various policies of democratic consolidation, including that of land reform. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Openbare mening oor grondhervorming in Suid-Afrika word in hierdie studie ondersoek. Die ondersoek maak gebruik van data ingewin deur Ipsos-Markinor in nasionaal verteenwoordigende openbare meningsopnames uitgevoer in 2004 en 2007, asook ‘n elite opname wat in 2007 uitgevoer is deur die Sentrum vir Internationale en Vergelykende Politiek (CICP). Hierdie studie ondersoek die moontlikheid dat openbare mening ten opsigte van grondhervorming met geselekteerde sosio-demografiese veranderlikes (ras, taal, politieke affiliasie en sosiale status) korreleer. Die hipotese is dat daar ‘n identifiseerbare korrelasie is tussen hierdie onafhanklike veranderlikes en die menings van die respondente ten opsigte van grondhervorming en dat daar spesifieke groepe is wat grondhervorming ondersteun en ander nie. Analise van die data toon duidelike tendense in openbare mening oor die kwessie van grondhervorming. Menings korreleer wel met die onafhanklike veranderlikes en wys daarop dat bepaalde sosiale groepe uiteenlopende standpunte het oor grondhervorming. Uit hierdie stel bevindinge maak die navorser die afleiding dat daar, binne die Suid- Afrikaanse bevolking, groepe is met uiteenlopende menings oor hoe die oppergesag van die reg en transformasie binne ‘n demokrasie uitgeleef moet word. Hierdie fundamenteel kontrasterende menings ten opsigte van hierdie sleutelelemente van demokrasie, illustreer dat Suid-Afrikaners uiteenlopende menings oor demokrasie het in die vorm van ondersteuning van hetsy die liberale- of bevrydingsmodelle van demokrasie. Hierdie modelle is as twee duidelike en afsonderlike interpretasies van demokrasie voorgestel en beskryf. Hierdie twee modelle verteenwoordig skerp uiteenlopende normatiewe beskouinge oor demokrasie, en bied daarmee saam, botsende beleidsvoorskrifte aan vir demokratiese konsolidering, insluitende beleid oor grondhervorming.

This thesis explores the poverty alleviation and peace-spoiling power of the mineral extraction sector in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to arrive at a set of strategic goals for the country moving forward. Although subterranean minerals are often a source or perpetuator of violence, the potential to lift the country’s rural communities out of extreme poverty makes the mining industry an essential part of the nation’s development strategies. Lessons from Tanzania, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Ghana, Zambia, Uganda and Sierra Leone to arrive at best practices for increasing the multiplier effect of large-scale mining, formalization, beneficiation, capital resource development, stakeholder harmonization and conflict control. The study also finds that in order to smoothly construct and implement new programs, the traditional roles and positioning of government, corporate and community stakeholders must change toward increased inclusion.

Beaucoup ont qualifié la construction de mouvements identitaires à base linguistique de Nouveaux Mouvement Sociaux dans les années 70. S’il est vrai qu’en France ils se sont fait connaitre à ce moment-là, en réapparaissant sous de nouvelles formes, il n’en demeure pas moins qu’ils puisent leurs racines dans une opposition historique aux Etats modernes européens. La longévité et la structuration des réseaux militants des langues basque et catalane, tant en France qu’en Espagne, en sont la preuve. Ainsi, outre les grands cycles de protestation, ce sont surtout les nouvelles formes de l’action publique locale et de la construction européenne qui vont permettre une prise en compte et une mise en œuvre de politiques linguistiques en Pays Basque et en Catalogne. La construction collective de manière transfrontalière des politiques linguistiques de la langue montre combien les acteurs collectifs deviennent des acteurs essentiels à la mise en œuvre de politiques publiques contemporaines. Et ce, non seulement en les cadrant lors des luttes politiques et lors de leurs élaborations mais également en étant des acteurs essentiels à l’expertise et à la mise en œuvre, puisqu’ils en sont la cause et les bénéficiaires à part entière. Finalement, les réseaux d’action politique en faveur de la langue se transforment, une fois la langue devenue enjeu et objectif de politique publique, en réseaux d’action publique local ouvrant ainsi un nouveau cycle d’action. / The construction of language-based identity movements was called New Social Movements in the 70’s. If in France, they make themselves known at that time, reappearing under new forms, the fact remains that they originate from an historical opposition with the Europeans Modern States. The longevity and the structuration of the language-based militant networks of basque and catalonian languages, both in the Basque country and in Catalonia, are the proof. Besides the larges protest cycles, it is above all the new forms of local public policy and of European construction which will permit consideration and implementation of language policies in the Basque country and in Catalonia. The collective construction and across borders of language policies shows how collective actors become key players in the implementation of contemporary public policy, not only framing politics and policy making but also being essentials in the expertise and implementation because they are the cause and the beneficiaries. Finally, policy networks based on language turn, once the language become issue and target of public policy, on local public networks opening a new cycle of action.

L'objectif de cette thèse est la comparaison de deux partis politiques en France et en Grèce,de l'UMP et de la ND, tous les deux membres du PPE au parlement européen. Ils représentent dans les deux cas le centre droit et couvre la période de 2002 à 2009.Elle comprend quatre volets : celui de la création de l'UMP et de la ND ; celui de leur organisation ; leur volet idéologique, et ces deux partis face à des échéances électorales, en insistant à chaque fois sur leurs similitudes et leurs différences.En même temps, par le biais de ces deux partis politiques, elle permet la comparaison de deux régimes politiques : de la Ve République Française et de la IIIe République Hellénique, ainsi que les systèmes des élites en France et en Grèce. / The subject of this thesis is the comparison of two political parties in France and in Greece, the UMP and the ND, from 2002 until 2009, both members of the EEP in the European parliament and representing, in both cases, the centre-right.This comparison of similarities and differences between the UMP and the ND is based on four main issues: their creation, their organization, their ideology as well as some electoral campaigns.In the same time, the study of two political parties allows the comparison of two political regimes: the Fifth French Republic and the Third Hellenic one, as well as the elite systems in France and in Greece.

This thesis is rooted in the research tradition known as coalition politics, where governments, political parties and political institutions are the central focus. The main emphasis here is on government instability and the question of why governments in modern parliamentary democracies often come to an end before the next regular election. In five distinct but interrelated papers, the thesis explores the issue of early government termination and how it is affected by public support, economic developments and the functioning of the state apparatus. The studies included in this thesis generally take a quantitative approach and make use of a dataset that contains 640 governments in 29 European democracies. Their joint goal is to improve our understanding of when early termination happens by introducing and testing new explanatory factors as well as by improving how previously identified factors are modelled. The first paper focuses on Central and Eastern Europe. It shows that the stability of governments in that region is affected by slightly different factors than those that impact on governments in Western Europe. In particular, ideological factors and political institutions are found to be less important in Central and Eastern Europe while the formal power basis of the government and the country’s economic performance matter more. In the second paper, co-authored with Professor Torbjörn Bergman, the state is brought into government stability research. The paper shows that countries with a lower quality of governance and a less efficient public sector have less stable governments. This is mainly because government parties struggle to achieve their policy goals when the state apparatus is inefficient and corrupt. Paper 3, co-written with Associate Professor Johan Hellström, looks at how different types of governments respond to economic challenges. In particular, this paper demonstrates that the same changes in economic circumstances (e.g. increases in unemployment or inflation) have different effects on cabinet stability depending on which type of government is in charge. Single party governments are better equipped to deal with economic changes, because they are better positioned to devise new policy responses without having to compromise with other parties. Coalition governments, in contrast, become significantly more likely to terminate early when the economy takes a turn for the worse. Finally, over the course of two papers I first explore new techniques for analysing polling data and then use them to empirically test whether governments sometimes choose termination as a way to cope with bad poll numbers. Most of the existing techniques for pooling polls and forecasting elections were explicitly designed with two party systems in mind. In Paper 4, I test some of these techniques to determine their usefulness in complex, multiparty systems, and I develop some improvements that enable us to take advantage of more of the information in the data. In the final paper, I combine the two themes of polling and government stability by looking at how changes in government popularity affect the likelihood of premature dissolution. I find that governments, particularly single party governments, do, in fact, use terminations as a strategic response to changes in their popularity among the public. When support is high, governments tend to opportunistically call an early election, whereas they tend to abandon or reshuffle the government when support is low.

This thesis investigates how and why U.S. policies and agencies are ill-equipped to respond to narco-terrorism and offers some policy recommendations for remedying that. Narco-terrorism is the merging of terrorism and drug trafficking. Terrorist organizations and narcotics traffickers each have much to offer the other; there is potential for symbiosis in the form of cooperation and even hybridization. Examination of the dynamics between terrorist organizations and drug traffickers, combined with an evaluation of the US responses to narcoterrorism in Colombia and Afghanistan, makes it clear that current US policy responses fail to recognize narcoterrorism as a unique challenge, and instead attempt to deal separately with terrorism and drug trafficking. This approach has the potential to actually worsen both situations. The US needs a narcoterrorism strategy and institutions in place to implement it.

This dissertation examines the relationship between resource nationalism and energy integration, and uses Bolivia and Brazil as a test case. Essentially, does resource nationalism affect energy integration? The findings nest within more expansive questions on international political economy and export-driven models of development. Why do populist regimes, historically operating under an economic nationalist cum protectionist paradigm, simultaneously pursue policies of economic integration? What is the relationship between resource nationalists and open markets, especially in the hydrocarbons sector? What is the relationship between populists, who are typically resource nationalists, and their decision to choose policies of energy integration? The most common responses to the above are that resource nationalists pursue protectionist policies in the hydrocarbon sector. This dissertation demonstrates that once in power, resource nationalists do not always pursue protectionist policies in the hydrocarbon sector, but instead rely on market forces. Another common response is that populists pursue policies of resource nationalism in the hydrocarbon sector. This dissertation demonstrates that populists do not always pursue policies of resource nationalism in the hydrocarbon sector, but instead choose policies of integration. Policies of integration are compelled by market forces, and at times ironically provide the foundation for resource nationalism to later flourish. This dissertation develops a case-study of Bolivia and Brazil to assess the relationship between resource nationalism and energy integration. The case is selected based on each country having energy resources or derivative products for exploitation and use, an energy trade relationship between the countries, the presence of government-run natural resource firms in each country, and a specific period where resource nationalism is present. Bolivia and Brazil are important for this study because of their proximity, particularly where the supply of natural gas is concerned. Proximity is of great importance as natural gas infrastructure is concomitant with energy integration, particularly supply.

The purpose of this study was to examine the peculiarities of framing of the United States in selected Belarusian newspapers during first six months of the Obama administration. The concepts of anti-Americanism, authoritarian model of mass media and framing were chosen as a theoretical framework. This study was focused on the two main questions: first, what is the difference in how Belarusian state-run and independent newspapers frame the U.S., and second, what is the mechanism of creating negative image of the U.S. in Belarusian newspapers. In order to provide comprehensive answers to both questions the multi-method approach (involving methods of content and framing analysis) was chosen. As this study demonstrated, the state-run and independent newspapers present a very different image of the U.S.: state-run newspapers present the U.S. within a scope of strong negative frames. However, the picture in the independent newspapers is the opposite: out of four general frames three were positive and one was neutral-positive. The results of the content analysis showed that negative images of the United States do not necessarily have to be promoted through direct judgmental statements, but could rather be initiated by means of selecting certain negative facts for publication, often from unidentified sources. By concentrating their attention on crime, natural catastrophes, manipulating statistical data, omitting sources of information and selecting foreign experts who are critically inclined against the U.S media create a negative image of the United States.