Thesis (Ph. D.)--Columbia University, 1939. / Vita. "This study is limited to that portion of the Congo known as the Bas-Congo, located near the mouth of the Congo River."--P. 7.

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Theoretical and ‘real world’ research into democratic engagment concentrates on larger-scale contexts. There is an accompanying tendency to focus on participation, neglecting other aspects of engagement. The thesis rethinks the notion of democratic engagement by dividing it into three analytically distinct, but interwoven, aspects namely communication, participation and representation, and drawing attention to small-scale or micro-level contexts. Understanding the communicative, participative and representative aspects of engagment in micro-level settings favours a case study approach and a research strategy designed to capture the minutiae of experiences of engagement. ‘Mossbank’, a neighbourhood in a small-to-medium sized Scottish town, has been chosen as an appropriate case. Mossbank is undergoing a physical and social regeneration initiative that has created new sites of democratic activity centred on Mossbank-related issues. It is also a setting where democratic engagement is likely to be constrained. A flexible mixed methods approach to data collection has been adopted using questionnaires, interviews, documentary analysis and non-participative observation, enabling the generation of ‘rich’ and ‘thick’ data. A theoretically informed analytical framework is used to explore the different aspects of democratic engagement in Mossbank. Here, Iris Marion Young’s theorising on communication in deliberative settings has been particularly influential. Democratic engagement in Mossbank is dominated and constrained by formal, familiar and broadly conventional institutions, processes and roles ‘imported’ from established larger-scale democratic settings. Less visible, context-specific factors also have an influence. ‘Messy’ practices and asymmetry affect the ‘quality’ of communication. Participation in democratic processes has its own particular constraining characteristics related to individual motivations and abilities to ‘fit in’ and ‘succeed’ within pre-existing processes. Representation in Mossbank is distant and sporadic, culminating in the evolution of an increasingly brokered approach to the relationship, administered by an intermediary. The thesis contributes to ‘empirical’ debates relating to the scope and nature of democratic engagement. This is especially relevant given the continued growth and development of micro-level democratic institutions and processes in developed democracies. The thesis also contributes to debates concerning the nature and extent of the ‘dialogue’ between normative ideals of democracy and engagement, and research into ‘real world’ democratic engagement.

This essay explores the question of what role does the public play in the operations of government, especially considering the bureaucracy of a democratic government.

This thesis is a study democratic transition paradigm in Mongolia from its communist past to its present status as a democratic country. The study is informed by the democratic transition paradigm by Guillermo ODonnell and Philippe Schmitter and by the work of Thomas Carothers, a critic of that paradigm. It examines the effectiveness of this theoretical work in guiding the study of an emergent democracy and in that context focuses on the role of elections as well as other internal factors, as well as historical and external factors relevant to democratic transitions. <p>The study finds that both transition paradigm and Carotherss work are useful guides to understanding the Mongolian case but also it finds flaws in each of them.

This thesis is a case study of the transformation between democratic transitions and electoral processes. The central concern of this thesis is democratic transition, and, in particular the impact of internal and external factors on the shape and goals of democratic transition in Mongolia. The purpose here is to examine the impact of these factors on the direction of the democratic transition in Mongolia, and assess the importance of doing so. This study has found that analyzing the influence of internal and external factors on the shape and goals of democratic transition in Mongolia is absolutely crucial in order to understand the transition process and how democracy is developed in this country. While scholars have acknowledged the importance of studying third world country transitions, the majority of the academic literature focuses on its process and types of transition countries go through. Choosing Mongolia as a case, this thesis had discovered fascinating facts that Mongolia can be a powerful example in the Central Asian region of a consolidating democratic system. The findings in this study are significant because this reveal a deficiency in the literature regarding transitions with democratic elections, and call for a more thorough examination of democratic development in order to improve our understanding of how Mongolia is doing in its democratic transition.