The project outlined in this thesis examines the ways in which headteachers position themselves as professionals following the shift from communism to neo-liberal markets and the decentralisation of the public education system in post-communist Romania. Following this shift, Romanian headteachers faced new accountability frameworks and witnessed a reconceptualisation of their professional responsibilities. The methodology adopted is policy scholarship because, by looking at decentralisation through a historical-cultural lens, i.e. Romania’s recent history of communism and transition to a more democratic state, it best addresses the three key-research questions. The methods used are official policy documents and interviews with different stakeholders located at three different levels in the Romanian education system. These were: secondary heads and county school inspectors. Four key national policy-makers were also interviewed. In the thesis, the Romanian situation is presented (as captured) in the period 2009-2011. The decentralisation of Romanian education is dichotomous. It is a hybrid between neo-liberalism and communist throwbacks that I call politicised decentralisation. On the one hand, decentralisation and quasi-markets are being introduced into public education at the recommendation of international donors (the World Bank, the European Union). On the other hand, the endurance of communist practices makes it difficult for professionals to adapt to new professional responsibilities and accountability frameworks. A new conceptual framework emerged from the international literature, national policy documents and empirical study and was used to explore the findings. This examines the components, levels and dimensions of decentralisation in education in Romania. The key-findings show the complexities of decentralisation in headteachers’ professional activity. Importantly, the politicisation of the education system is the biggest challenge faced by the interviewees. For example, in 2012 alone there have been three different cabinets and seven ministers of education in the last five years. This has resulted in instability in post at all three levels, not least because with each change in minister both county school inspectors and headteachers are usually replaced. The findings show that new accountability frameworks emerged and impacted upon headteachers’ relationships with different stakeholders such as inspectors, local authorities, as well as parents and students as consumers of education. This thesis is important in showing how policy implementation and enactment differs depending on the socio-economic, political and cultural context. The conceptual framework developed in the thesis and the findings have relatability for educationalists, policy-makers, practitioners and researchers, both nationally and internationally, especially since the existing empirical base predominantly refers to liberal democracies.

Doctor Legum - LLD / South Africa continues to experience one of the highest crime rates in the world. Crime is unevenly distributed, and the police are not trusted by the majority of citizens. The power and responsibility for policing lies with the national government, through South Africa’s negotiated constitutional framework. Only a limited form of policing under local government, severely constrained by onerous requirements, is permitted in the legislative framework. Such centralisation of policing in federal states is theorised to be necessary to avoid partisan policing and armed separatism; to prevent local capture of police by local politicians; to ensure uniformity, equity and democratic change, and to ensure equitable outcomes; and to bring efficiencies of scale to policing.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / Literature on multilevel government is replete with the virtues of decentralisation as a governing model. As a result, the discourse of decentralisation has found its way into the constitutions, legislation and policy documents of most African states, including those that are ostensibly centralised. However, the enthusiasm for the juridical form of decentralisation is not reflected when it comes to the actual distribution of state power. In practice, the distribution of power ebbs and flows as states hover between decentralisation and centralisation. In other words, regardless of juridical commitments, states hardly ever promote decentralisation consistently, but move between cycles of decentralisation and recentralisation. Thus, once reforms that promote decentralisation have been adopted, they are shortly followed by a wave of recentralisation, which lasts until it in turn, is replaced by a further push for decentralisation. Consequently, the cycles are repeated. The central quest of this study is to explain the factors driving this cyclical pattern. It raises the following questions: Why are states seldom consistent with respect to decentralisation? What drives decentralisation? What drives recentralisation? What does this mean for the future of decentralisation? A comparative study of five Anglophone countries in Southern Africa was conducted with a view to analyse the waves of decentralisation and recentralisation both within and across countries over long periods of time. The countries were chosen in terms of their similar historical background and regional concentration. They are the countries of Botswana, Malawi, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe. The study traced the process of decentralisation in these countries from the precolonial and colonial period up until 2019, examining historical, legal, constitutional, economic and political documentation and scholarship. In some cases, in-depth interviews with key informants were conducted to supplement evidence collected through desk-top research. The central argument of this study is that ruling elites are rational actors who make calculated moves based on external and internal pressures, threats to their power, and opportunities to increase it. Evidence from the five countries under study indicate that governments always prefer to centralise power and would maintain the status quo until a political or economic crisis arises. Such crises tend to open up spaces in which other actors are able to negotiate for decentralisation. These other actors include opposition political parties, minority ethnic groups and donors. However, because decentralisation is driven by crisis resolution negotiations, it faces challenges at the implementation stage, and this is always accompanied by a fresh wave of recentralisation. In the wake of this vicious cycle, it is concluded that decentralisation can be sustained if measures are put in place to contain the reverse wave of recentralisation and its unravelling effects. The measures include constitutional protection, the strengthening of the rule of law, good governance at local levels, and support from political parties.

China's media have undergone significant commercialisation since the introduction of the economic reforms initiated three decades ago. But how this process is unfolding is still not well discussed. Book publishing, the oldest media sector but the one least studied, has been in the forefront of media commercialisation and provides a useful vantage point for the investigation of this transformation. This thesis will examine the role of the party-state and the market during the commercialisation of state publishing, paying particular attention to the core processes of conglomeration and corporatisation and, since the party-state has also been decentralised, to the role of regional government. Drawing on original documentary research and primary data generated in an internship in a provincial publishing group, this thesis advances three main arguments. Firstly, that the process of commercialisation in publishing cannot be fully understood outside of the transformation of the wider economic and political context, especially the shift in the general organisation of industry and the evolution of party ideology. Secondly, that this process has been marked by persistent tensions and contradictions. And thirdly, that despite the ongoing commercialisation the publishing industry remains controlled predominantly by the party-state and is far from being a market-driven business. Decentralisation may have enabled local governments to gain strong control over the economics of local publishers, but the central party-state remains dominant on political issues.

Cette thèse s'attache à analyser les dynamiques suscitées par l'avènement de la décentralisation dans ces territoires. Il s'agit de réfléchir, à travers une analyse croisée des réalités du Congo et du Sénégal. / This thesis seeks to analyze the dynamics generated by the decentralization in Congo and Senegal. Consideration should be given, through a cross analysis of Congo and Senegal facts, on how some politicians are positioned to have control of their territory.

La subsidiarité joue, dans le registre du droit public européen, sur deux paliers : celui de la répartition des compétences entre l'Etat et les collectivités territoriales et celui des relations entre les pouvoirs publics et les personnes privées. Applicable à la répartition des compétences entre les autorités centrales et décentralisées d'un Etat, la subsidiarité territoriale est susceptible de justifier la politique de décentralisation et les transferts de compétences subséquents, et de renforcer ainsi l'autonomie locale. Notre thèse cherche à vérifier cette hypothèse, dans le contexte engendré par l'introduction du principe de subsidiarité dans le texte constitutionnel français, à la suite de la révision constitutionnelle de l'année 2003. Le concept d'autonomie locale est, d'abord, circonscrit. Ensuite, sont analysés les changements que la subsidiarité apporte aux limites et au contenu de l'autonomie locale française. Une démarche similaire est appliquée à l'analyse du système juridique roumain, dans le contexte où le principe de subsidiarité est présent dans certains textes normatifs infra constitutionnels régissant les services publics et l'administration publique locale. / In European public law, subsidiarity plays its role at two levels : that of the distribution of competences between the State and the local government units and that of the relations between public authorities and individuals. Applicable to the distribution of competences between central and local decentralized authorities in a State, territorial subsidiarity is likely to justify the decentralization policy and the transfers of competences implied by it, and to enhance, therefore, local autonomy. Our dissertation aims at checking this hypothesis, in the context generated by the introduction of the principle of subsidiarity in the French Constitution, subsequent to its revision in 2003. First, the concept of local autonomy is circumscribed. Then, the limits and the content of French local autonomy are analyzed, from the point of view of the ways in which they have been influenced by subsidiarity. A similar approach follows for the Romanian legal system, in the context in which the principle of subsidiarity appears in certain statutes governing the public services and the local public administration.

Magister Philosophiae - MPhil / Zambia has, since independence in 1964, endeavoured to build an effective local government system anchored on decentralisation in an effort to attain the values and principles of democracy, autonomy and transparency. These values and principles are essential in enhancing service delivery and development. Within the South African context, De Visser and May argue, in keeping with the developmental imperatives for decentralisation, that local governments should be entrusted with fundamental powers and functions related to basic service delivery. A local government entrusted with fundamental powers is said to be the best foundation for building democracy, social and economic development. Therefore, the desire to build a strong foundation for an effective local government system is what motivates the design of local government administrations in many countries. One of the essential aspects in the design of a local government system is administrative autonomy. Administrative autonomy is important because it plays a complementary role to the realisation of political and fiscal autonomy. Administrative autonomy refers to the discretion to appoint, remunerate, discipline and dismiss staff as well as determining internal administrative procedures. It further ensures that the implementation of local policies is locally directed and driven by promoting accountability of local administrative officials to sub-national governments. In an effort to have a local government system that promotes accountability of local administrative officials to sub-national governments, Zambia has over the years employed three systems of local government administrations from 1964 to 2016 namely, the separate, unified and integrated systems.

Master of Public Health - MPH / Decentralisation of multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) services has resulted in improved access to care, with community-based treatment of MDR-TB shown to be more effective than centralised hospital-based care. Furthermore, increasing bed shortages resulted in the National Department of Health establishing MDR-TB policy guidelines in 2011. However, the extent to which this policy has been implemented by the decentralised MDR- TB sites and the factors influencing implementation of the policy from a management perspective were not well described. The aim of this study was therefore to explore and compare the actual and ascribed roles and responsibilities of key management-level role players at the decentralised MDR-TB sites, and to explore the factors influencing implementation of the MDR-TB decentralisation policy (2011).

Student No :9712664T MEd School of Education Faculty of Humanities / After the establishment of the first democratic government in South Africa, the Education Ministry committed itself to transforming the education system through developing new policies and legislation aimed at achieving equitable access to education and improving the quality of education. One of the school reform policies is the South African Schools Act (SASA), which is aimed at democratising and improving school education. It does so by devolving responsibilities and powers on schools, thereby promoting more democratic governance of schools by school governing bodies (SGBs), which are comprised of parents, educators, non-teaching staff and learners. The main thrust of this study was to investigate the factors that explain how different rural schools in Bolobedu district (Limpopo Province) interpret and implement the newly-granted SGB powers and responsibilities regarding school finances and budgeting. Four schools, two primary, one junior secondary and one senior secondary, were sampled. At some of them SGBs appeared to be doing well, while at others the SGBs appeared to be overwhelmed by the new task of managing school finances and budgeting. The research instruments used in carrying out this study were interview schedules, documentary data analysis and non-participant observation of SGB meetings. Interviews were conducted with educators, principals, parents and learners (members of SGBs and nonmembers). Triangulation of data is essential for the validity and reliability of a study. This study is regarded as valid and reliable, as there was strong correlation among the responses to most of the questions posed. The interviewees participated willingly in the study and showed complete understanding of the questions. The major deduction from this study is that not all SGBs in disadvantaged rural areas are unable to execute their duties and responsibilities regarding school finances and budgeting, despite being dominated by illiterate parents who have not had the administrative and financial experience to oversee school affairs. The findings indicated that some poorly resourced SGBs were able to execute their duties and responsibilities regarding school finances and budgeting, though there were some constraints. The following factors that assisted and undermined the capacity of schools to assume their financial powers effectively were identified: • School-Community relationship; • SGB capacity; • Internal social capital; and • Leadership strategies.

Cette thèse s'attache à analyser les dynamiques suscitées par l'avènement de la décentralisation dans ces territoires. Il s'agit de réfléchir, à travers une analyse croisée des réalités du Congo et du Sénégal. / This thesis seeks to analyze the dynamics generated by the decentralization in Congo and Senegal. Consideration should be given, through a cross analysis of Congo and Senegal facts, on how some politicians are positioned to have control of their territory.