Thesis (M.A.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1961. / Typescript. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 181-203).

Thesis (M.S.)--State University of Wisconsin at La Crosse.

Magister Administrationis - MAdmin / This study explores the motivations of voters who chose to switch their vote or support from the African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) and the Congress of the People (COPE) to another opposition, the Democratic Alliance (DA) in the 2011 local government election. The study was informed by a qualitative research approach. Accordingly, an interview schedule was utilized as a research tool. This schedule contained questions prepared in order to acquire the necessary insight of voters who previously supported the ACDP and COPE (in the 2009 general elections) and moved to the DA in the 2011 local government election. In addition, interviews were conducted with party representatives from the ACDP and COPE in order to gain further insights into their perceptions of the key reasons for their party’s poor performance in this election. Popkin’s integrated theory is used as a basis to make sense of the behaviour and movement of voters during the 2011 local government election. Popkin (1991) argues that voters utilise low-information rationality or “gut-reasoning” when evaluating political parties, their candidates and the issues they present. As will be shown throughout this thesis, Popkin’s approach, where voters combine various sets of information obtained through daily life, the media and political campaigns, best explains the dynamics in the research findings. Based on the research findings, it appears that Popkin’s approach is the most useful for understanding the reasons for the voter migration to the DA in the 2011 election.

The policy of a political party reflects its philosophy and historical background. Social welfare has become an integral part of our modern society and as a result a major concern of political parties. Therefore, specific political parties will have social welfare policies based on their philosophical views. The subject of this thesis is the philosophy of the New Democratic Party of British Columbia and its social welfare policies. This thesis has examined the historical development of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation-New Democratic Party from its inception. In doing this the history of socialism has been explored from the early 19th century in Europe. The socialist movement began its development in Canada in the early 1900’s and has evolved from a theoretical socialist base (emphasis on the class struggle) to an essentially welfare state focus. The methods used to obtain this information were drawn from a review of historical literature and interviews. The resolutions which were examined from the convention proceedings did not demonstrate this movement to welfare statism so completely, since a large group in the Party gives a higher priority to economic reforms. A questionnaire, sent to a sample of the New Democratic Party membership, indicated that there was a great deal of consistency among them in favor of the welfare state. The thesis is, to our knowledge, the first attempt at providing a comprehensive review which links the philosophy of the New Democratic Party to their social welfare policy. Because political parties play a major role in the genesis and development of welfare programs, it is essential to the public, and to persons directly concerned with social welfare, that accurate descriptions of philosophy and policies of individual parties be available. This thesis has been an attempt to provide such a description with respect to the New Democratic Party. / Arts, Faculty of / Social Work, School of / Graduate

Thesis (M.P.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 1997. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 122-125). Also available in print.

The decline in traditional methods of civic engagement is a cause for concern in many Western democracies. Similarly, studies of American party politics point to a transformation from locally-based volunteer organizations to national ones assisting candidate-centered, professionally-run campaigns, leaving little room for volunteer participants. This thesis analyses the recent resurgence of grassroots participation and organization in the United States. Using interpretive methods, I present a study of grassroots participants in Massachusetts Democratic Party primary campaigns in 2006. Primary documents, interviews with volunteers and paid members of field staff, and observations of canvassing work all detail the personal and organizational contexts of participation, illuminating the meanings individuals found in campaign work. Grassroots participation takes place in a loosely organized set of candidate-based campaigns, local party committees, and civic spheres. When participants first engage in this environment, they become socialized into a community with learned norms, practices, and ways of knowing. While those interviewed shared some of the motivations of party activists in previous studies, the motives and beliefs described by both professional organizers and volunteers were less policy focused than expected, and blurred the distinction between ideological and social categories. Indeed, while organizers and volunteers build distinct identities through their campaign participation, they share many more similarities than the literature on activism and professionalism in parties would suggest. Participants also serve a crucial role as translators between party elites and their fellow citizens, with important implications for linkage and the problem of decoupling. Rather than a return to traditional methods and structures of political engagement, the participants observed take part in and are building communities which have much in common with new forms of non-traditional participation. These findings contribute to the development of party organization theories and point towards the need for greater dialogue between scholars of party politics, organizational studies, and civic engagement.

Dans le système politique d‟un État, le rôle que joue la haute fonction publique constitue une problématique centrale, en ce que l‟efficacité de l‟action gouvernementale et la réalisation du principe démocratique en dépendent. À partir des années 1990, la haute administration japonaise fut la cible de critiques fustigeant ses échecs et son autonomie jugée excessive vis-à-vis du pouvoir politique élu. Aussi, au début des années 2000, plusieurs réformes inspirées du courant de la nouvelle gestion publique furent mises en oeuvre, afin notamment de renforcer le leadership des responsables politiques et leur contrôle sur les hauts fonctionnaires. Notre travail examine ces réformes et analyse les évolutions perçues dans le processus décisionnel et les relations politico-administratives au cours de ces quinze dernières années, en prenant soin de nous défaire de la grille de lecture simpliste opposant les élus aux agents de la fonction publique. L‟étude approfondie du gouvernement Koizumi (2001-2006) et du passage au pouvoir du Parti démocrate (2009-2012), qui révèle des transformations de nature incrémentale, mais également la persistance de certaines pratiques, nous amène à envisager d‟autres variables explicatives que le simple changement institutionnel. Pour ce faire, nous faisons appel aux outils théoriques proposés par les divers courants néo-institutionnalistes, insistant sur le poids du passé et l‟influence des différentes idées partagées par les acteurs. Nous nous basons sur un important corpus de sources primaires et secondaires, notamment en langue japonaise, sur des données quantitatives, ainsi que sur plusieurs entretiens réalisés auprès de hauts fonctionnaires japonais. / In a State's political system, the role that the bureaucracy plays constitute a central issue, as the efficiency of the government's policies and the realization of the democratic principle are at stake. From the 1990's on, the bureaucracy has suffered a lot of criticisms blaming its failures and its allegedly excessive autonomy from the elected political power. Thus, at the beginning of the 21st century, many reforms inspired by the New Public Management movement were implemented, in order to – among other things – reinforce the political leadership and control over the senior civil servants. Our work examines these reforms and analyses the evolutions perceived in the decision-making process and in the politico-administrative relations during the last fifteen years, while rejecting the oversimplifying approach that necessarily brings in opposition elected politicians and civil servants. The case studies of the government Koizumi (2001-2006) and the Democratic Party of Japan‟s governments (2009-2012), which revealed incremental transformations but also the persistence of some pre-existing practices, invite us to consider other explanatory variables than the mere institutional change. In order to do so, we use theoretical tools created by the multiple neo-institutionalisms, insisting on the „weight of the past‟ and on the influence of the different ideas shared by the actors. We base our work on a corpus of primary and secondary sources, especially written in Japanese, on quantitative data, and also on some interviews conducted with Japanese senior civil servants.

This thesis argues that the 1938 Kentucky Democratic primary was a critical moment for the New Deal and the Democratic Party. Furthermore, it demonstrates the fractures forming within the southern wing of the party. Through this primary the paper examines peoples’ perceptions of a changing democracy. One that they believed included a much more powerful president and meddling bureaucracy. It details the major points of the campaign, including Franklin Roosevelt’s visit to the state the famous poisoning accusations, and the corruption within the Works Progress Administration.

<p>This study focuses upon the adaptation of the Swedish Social Democratic Party and Moderate Party towards the European Union. Adaptation is explored by examining attitudes the political parties have on different issues related to the EU. In other words it is assumed that adaptation is dependent on attitudes, amongst other things, and the attitudes are examined by studying officially expressed opinions by the parties in party programmes and in parliamentary protocols. By expanding the study to three years possible alterations in the attitudes can be detected and something can be said on the level of adaptation the parties show towards the EU in each research question. The questions are (1)<em> Should Sweden take an active part in developing the European integration process?, </em>(2)<em> Is it believed that participation in international collaboration provides output benefits that the nation state no longer can provide?, </em>(3)<em> Is pooling of sovereignty problematic?, </em>(4) <em>Is military non-alignment important for Sweden? </em>and (5)<em> Is it important that Sweden participates in a common European security policy? </em>The three years of research are 1995, 2006 and the first half of 2010. Two of the questions are developed by utilising the fusion perspective, that is a part of the fusion approach, which is also the theoretical framework of this study.</p><p>The findings of this study show that both the Social Democratic Party and the Moderate Party experience attitudinal alterations in almost all the questions investigated. This causes some shifts in their level of adaption towards the European Union. Furthermore the results show that the Social Democratic Party and the Moderate Party are adapted towards the Union in most of the years researched.</p>

The aim of this study is to investigate and analyze the views that the three metropolitan Swedish newspapers Aftonbladet, Dagens Nyheter and Svenska Dagbladet had on the Vietnam issue between 1969 and 1973. The source material consists of clips from Swedish newspapers from press archives at the Department of Government at Uppsala University, which is in the form of microfilm at Umeå University Library. The source material has been studied using quantitative content analysis with qualitative elements.The results shows that there is a difference in the perception of Vietnam issue between, on the one hand, social-democrat Aftonbladet and liberal Dagens Nyheter and conservative Swedish Dagbladet on the other hand, during the whole investigation period. Aftonbladet and Dagens Nyheter denounced the American war and presence in Vietnam and took a stand for North Vietnam; The United States was regarded as a great power which had goat on a small and poor country. From this perspective, small Nations had the right to independence from the great powers, regardless of social system. The two newspapers regarded the United States as the party to the conflict who did not want to negotiate and instead wanted to continue the war. Svenska Dagbladet regarded the United States instead as the guarantor of freedom and democracy in South-East Asia. The United States would defend South Vietnamese people from Communist North Vietnam, which was regarded as the offending party in the conflict: from this perspective United States deserved thus support. Svenska Dagbladet's view of the conflict was thus marked by the cold war. The newspaper regarded the United States as the party of the conflict who wanted peace and wanted to negotiate, in contrast to North Vietnam.The investigation also shows that Aftonbladet and Dagens Nyheter supported the Swedish Government, who supported North Vietnam and condemned the American presence in Vietnam; the Government's policy on the other hand, got a harsh criticism from Svenska Dagbladet, that considered that the Government's stance towards the United States would be harmful to the Swedish neutrality policy. Keywords: Vietnam War, Cold War, Swedish press, Social-democratic Party, Liberal Party, Conservative Party, negotiations, Swedish Government, Unites States, Communism