Since the independence of Indonesia in 1945, Indonesia has experienced several changes during the last sixty years and is now moving towards democratization. Of these political changes, Indonesia's civil-military relationship has always played a key role. During the era of Cold War, Indonesia¡¦s military were fighting against colonial power and facing the ideological confrontation. As political changes are going on, the military is asked to get out of political system in Indonesia. During the war of Independence, Indonesia¡¦s military played a role to save the country, they fought against the Dutch under the belief of nationalism. Indonesia's parliamentary democracy in the 1950s caused political disorder. Sukarno¡¦s leftist ideology has also caused the military unrest. With both internal and external factors, military coup happened in September 1965, which result in the region of authoritarian rule of Suharto. During the Suharto era, Indonesia's military penetrated in political, economic and social areas in Indonesia. The military became the supreme power that controlled the country. Indonesia's economic growth was claimed to be as a source of legitimacy for Suharto¡¦s regime. Indonesia¡¦s economy was almost collapsed of the financial crisis in 1997. As Mr.Suharto is losing his ruling legitimacy in Indonesia, it¡¦s made Suharto step down in May 1998. Indonesia¡¦s military then began to change. Indonesia has experienced four presidential elections, and regarded as a democratic state. But, if Indonesia wants to achieve a true civilian control over the military still, further military professionalism has to be done.

Reviewing the post-war political history of Taiwan, it is no doubt that Free China and Formosan Magazine events are the key points. Coincidentally, these two antigovernment movements have some similar characters, but there seem no similar effects. Therefore, this article hopes to explore the processes of these two movements by applying the analytic framework among the international political environment, the KMT regime, and the antigovernment movements. Furthermore, this article also hopes to realize the relationship between the movements and the transitions of Taiwan's democracy by comparing the structures of these two movements. The research detects that these two movements exactly exist structural differences. For example, the ethos of Free China event is a sort of integration of elites, but the character of the Formosan Magazine event belongs to the mobilization of civilians. Moreover, the important discovery of this research is that the transition of Taiwan's democracy was not only affected by the changes of the international politics, but also controlled by the unequal power structure built by the KMT regime. Subsequently, the opposition movements converted from the propitious international environment and the KMT's power structure, it gradually forced the KMT toward the reformation of democracy under the power of the Taiwan's masses.

Abstract After the martial law was repealed, Taiwan has been embarked on the transformative process of political democratization and economic liberalization. As the first party turn-over in 2000 election changed radically the strategic environment of social welfare resource distribution, especially impacted the welfare for civil service and teachers, it is worthy of our reexploration furtherly on the status quo of Taiwan¡¦s social welfare resource distribution after democratization. Taking civil service and teachers for example, the author comprehensively worked up, compared and analyzed the allocational transition of social welfare resources respectively in the period of authoritarian rule and the transformative period of democratization, then presented policy and suggestion of social welfare resource distribution for civil service and teachers after democratization. The study surveyed the approaches of allocating social welfare for civil service and teachers by the research methods of analyzing the ideology of each party and the aspect of benefit transference by welfare policy, as well as expounding the supply side of government¡¦s welfare expenditure, then putting all the data above analyzed under the environmental veins of politics, economics and society so as to present an integrated skeleton of research. Moreover, the author chose 8 years before and after democratic transformation in Taiwan as research cases to engage in comparing and analyzing the social welfare resource distribution for civil service and teachers, i.e. the periods of DPP ruling (2000~2008) and KMT ruling (1994~1999). The research found that the social welfare resources laid particular stress on civil service and teachers in the period of authoritarian rule which possessed a savor of favor and grace. Secondly, there were full of variables and uncertainty in reformative policy of social welfare resource distribution for civil service and teachers during transformational period of democratization, but it would only turn the issue of welfare-alloctation to become an instrument among parties for exchanging political loyalty and consolidating their regime. Futhermore, while observing the situation before and after the transformative period of democratization, there was no significant difference in the expenditure items of welfares for civil service and teachers, but the allocation and beneficiary of social welfare tended to be generalized. The thesis suggested that the social welfare resource distribution should follow the principles of democracy and the rule of law, and build up the concepts of legalized welfare as swift as possible, i.e. such issue should be regulated, supervised and controlled by public opinions, then would the reasonable reform of welfares for civil service and teachers would be fulfilled gradually. Key words: Social Welfare Resource Distribution, Civil Service and teachers, Authoritarian Rule, Democratization

<p>The aim of this essay is to investigate the situation for democracy in China. The study raises two main questions. They are as follows: Are there obstacles to a democratization process in China? and Are there openings when it comes to a gradual change for democratization in China?</p><p> </p><p>The theoretical framework consists of Robert A.Dahl´s Polyarchy theory, and in addition , five factors promoting democracy. Also the notion of an MDP-society (a modern, dynamic and pluralistic society) is looked upon. A qualitative case literature study has been the research method used.</p><p> </p><p>The results of the study show that the obstacles consist mostly of the strong rule by the communist party, the CPC. This might even increase with time. And if it should fall, there might be other powerful groups prepared to rule the country. But there are also openings to a more democratic China.  A growing level of education, a growing economy, the existence of village elections, a developing judicial system and a change among values among the Chinese people indicates this direction. Also the emergence of the use of Internet and cellphones add a democracy promoting aspect to the case.</p>

Thesis (M.A.)--Naval Postgraduate School, 2003. / Title from title screen (viewed Mar. 24, 2004). "March 2003." Includes bibliographical references (p. 67-72). Also issued in paper format.

Diss. Uppsala : Univ., 2004.

Ghana and South Korea have experienced regime changes from politically closed regimes to liberal democracy since their independences from Britain and Japan. This study elaborates on important factors that affect regime shifts in both countries. After reviewing a vast array of literatures, I argue that economic reform and civil society directly influenced democratization in Ghana. Neo-liberal economic reform led by international forces created decentralization and social movements that gave pressures to President Jerry Rawlings to consider running for a democratic presidential election. Social movements from below directly caused the democratization in South Korea. The dictator Chun gave up his power in the face of massive demonstrations of students, labor, and oppositions and so on. Modernization indirectly contributed to democratization with social changes such as increasing level of education and urbanization in both countries. Political culture has affected democratic consolidation rather than democratic transition. / text

The dissertation analyzes why legislators fail to use their oversight powers over bureaucracy in democratic Mexico. While dominant institutional theories assume a unidirectional flow of authority from politicians to bureaucrats, in Mexico there is a bidirectional negotiation process; as such, principals have formal rights to control the agents, but agents have informal leverage over principals, as well. Due to the absence of a Weberian state and extensive state intervention, bureaucrats are able to control resources that legislators require in order to advance their careers. By distributing resources that politicians can use for patronage purposes, bureaucrats obtain legislators’ consent to design and implement programs as they wish. Consequently, members of Congress renounce their control powers in exchange for securing resources for their constituents or cronies. Furthermore, informal mechanisms of influence neutralize the formal control powers that legislators have over bureaucrats. Public officials’ power and the lack of legislative control over bureaucracy are documented by analyzing the budgetary process and health policy in Mexico between 1997 and 2006. The main implication of the dissertation is that although democratization produced changes that gave more formal powers to Congress, it has not eliminated the informal mechanisms used by bureaucrats to influence legislators. As a result, public officials continue to enjoy ample leeway in implementing public policies and programs. / text

This thesis examines if and how Twitter can be used to organize protests by activists. Theoretically, it addresses several debates about Internet technology in approaches to Social Movement Theory, Network Theory, and Digital Politics Theory and synthesizes them to create an analytical framework to address Internet technologies effects, or lack thereof, on civil society. Through a case study examining protests in Kuwait empirical results indicate that Twitter does not have a significant impact on collective action efforts as it is not used to connect activists or create a forum for dialogue. Instead it is used to promote slogans and provide on-the-ground-reports of events, which do not have significant effects on organizing collective action. The reason for its relative insignificance is largely due to political, social and economic obstacles that polarize and fragment online collective action efforts.

Scholars and policy makers alike argue that leaders of democracies should find it in their interest to provide high levels of social services due to a fear of being voted out of office. Yet, I find that Africa's newer democracies provide levels of social services strikingly similar to what the continent's existing non-democracies supply. This dissertation seeks to explain why this is the case. I start by exploring the determinants of Africa's most recent wave of democratization, and find that much of Africa's 1990s democratic wave can be attributed to changes in foreign circumstances rather than from pressures from domestic democratic movements. I argue democratization has become disassociated with social services on the continent because of this exogenous nature of political liberalization. Rather than institutionalizing electoral incentives to provide social services, leadership of exogenously derived democracies become principally accountable to the foreign actors for whom political change was meant to appease. However, foreign actors are effectively unable and unwilling to demand political reforms that will institutionalize a more responsive democracy. This dynamic threatens any electoral incentive a ruling party might have to produce higher levels of social services. I test this argument quantitatively and find support for the notion that exogeneity of political change has dampened the impact that democratization has had on social service delivery in Africa. Additionally, through in-country, qualitative fieldwork I examine how citizens demand social services and how the government responds to such demands in Zambia, a country whose democratization was heavily influenced by foreign pressure. There, I found that while there were important initial strides made by Zambia's post-transition government to institutionalize a higher level of responsiveness in social services, later erosions in Zambia's checks and balances undermined these gains. Finally, using Afrobarometer's cross-national survey data, I explore what impact foreign influenced democratization has on citizens' attachment to and satisfaction with democracy. I find that exogenously derived democratization has a small negative impact on people's attachment to democracy and satisfaction with the way democracy works in their country. I conclude by discussing some of the policy implications of these findings.