This dissertation reevaluates the collapse of the USSR and the reform project of “perestroika” that preceded it from the perspective of Tajikistan. As one of the most peripheral republics in the Soviet Union, Tajikistan found its economy and society shaken to the core by the economic and political reforms passed between 1985 and 1991. Tracking the development of Soviet reform legislation in Moscow and its implementation in Tajikistan, this dissertation shows how perestroika was intimately linked to the breakdown of economic order and social ties that occurred during the final years of the USSR. Rejecting narratives focused on rising nationalism and long-suppressed regional frustrations, this dissertation outlines how Moscow-designed marketizing reforms were the main driver of strife in the Tajik SSR. As the economy disintegrated, so did the fabric of society: by February 1990 Tajikistan’s capital was subsumed by riot, and by May 1992 the entire country was aflame with civil war. By reorienting the history of the Soviet collapse to a peripheral republic that was engulfed by economic disorder and sectarian war, moreover, this dissertation problematizes the established historical discourse about the end of the USSR. Rather than the wave of democratization and free speech seen from the perspective of Moscow and Eastern Europe, for many millions of Soviet citizens the collapse of the USSR was a deeply frightening and violent event. Crime rates rose across the former USSR; local conflicts sprung up; wars flared in more than one republic. Much more than an outlier, Tajikistan was simply one extreme along this spectrum, and its experience of economic collapse leading to civil war complicates simple arguments about how glasnost led to the peaceful end of the USSR. This dissertation demonstrates that economics remained at the heart of the Soviet collapse and the violence that followed.

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This thesis is a rigorous academic study of a museum which has previously not been subject to theoretical examination: that is, the Galicia Jewish Museum in Kraków, Poland. It analyses the relationship between the museum’s permanent exhibition, Traces of Memory, and the broader museum from its establishment in 2004 until the end of the research period for the thesis, 2011. Through a case study methodology and detailed analysis of the resulting observations, conducted by the ultimate participant observer – a former director of the museum – and informed by extensive bibliographic research, the thesis provides a unique contribution to knowledge in the fields of museum studies, Polish-Jewish relations and Jewish cultural studies. Through a close, micro-level reading of Traces of Memory and the Galicia Jewish Museum, and with a concluding that chapter draws together the threads of the thesis – considering them in relation to the broader contexts of the Kazimierz Jewish quarter in Kraków and the European Jewish Space – the thesis provides a Jewish museum contribution to the discipline of ‘new museology’, and finds that the Galicia Jewish Museum can be seen as the embodiment of what a ‘new museum’ might be within the defined context of an east European, Jewish framework.

This thesis examines daily life in the city of Prague during the First World War and in its immediate aftermath. Its aim is twofold: to explore the impact of the war on urban space and to analyse the relationship of Prague’s inhabitants to the Austro-Hungarian and then Czechoslovak state. To this end, both the mobilization for the war effort and the crisis of legitimacy experienced by the state are investigated. The two elements are connected: it is precisely because of the great sacrifices made by Praguers during the conflict that the Empire lost the trust of its citizens. Food shortages also constitute a major feature of the war experience and the inappropriate management of supply by the state played a large role in its final collapse. The study goes beyond Czechoslovak independence on 28 October 1918 to fully grasp the continuities between the two polities and the consequences of the war on this transitional period. Beyond the official national revolution, the revolutionary spirit in Prague around the time of regime change reveals the interplay between national and social motives, making it part of a broader European revolutionary movement at the time.

The thesis investigates the role of governance networks in advancing sustainable energy transitions in the cities of Europe. By doing so, it aims to provide insights about the practical applicability of the Transition Management framework in different urban settings. Exploring this issue is timely as well as important due to parallel processes of the rising profile of cities in transition governance; and the perceived need in city authorities to develop new governance mechanisms to support low-carbon transitions on the urban scale. The main contribution to knowledge is the empirical evidence provided for the context-dependency of the connections between technological change required for urban low-carbon energy transitions and organisational change in local governance arrangements. The findings' consequence for theory is that the implicit assumptions built into Transition Management about the functioning of collaborative governance networks limit its applicability in different cities. The evidence collected through the study also highlights problems with scaling down the Multi-Level Perspective to the urban scale. The findings are derived from a comparative study of three cities from across Europe with diverse characteristics in terms of historical sustainability agenda development, locally relevant rationales for transitions, and patterns of organisational fragmentation and power-distribution in local governance arrangements.

The thesis investigates the development of women's employment policy in Italy in the decade 1996-2006 with specific focus on the European Structural Fund Programme (ESF) 2000-2006. The Italian case is considered in a comparative perspective. Therefore, albeit the research is centred on a single-country study, Italy is identified as a welfare state that belongs to the Mediterranean type, according to the relevant literature. The case study focuses on the different experiences of Basilicata and Apulia in creating public policy promoting female employment, as revealed by the evaluation of their different experiences in the 2000-2006 (ESF) programme and the subsequent 2007-2008 twinning project which resulted from this. The case study examines a specific policy activity in Italy, the 2005 Voucher Grant Scheme of the Basilicata Region, in comparison with the experience of the Apulia Region. In fact, the Basilicata Scheme won the "EU Best Practice Model" award. The thesis investigates whether, using the concept of 'policy' as defined by Colebatch, policy was developed in the Basilicata Voucher Grant Scheme whereas policy was not developed in Apulia's similarly intended scheme. Colebatch argues that for policy to be constituted as policy in practice, rather than as the mere idea of it, it must have three "attributes" and "distinctive elements". These attributes are: a) authority, b) expertise and c) order. Their respective distinctive elements are: a) hierarchy, b) instrumentality and c) coherence. When these criteria are met, then a chosen government course of action can be framed as a process generating policy. The thesis demonstrates that these criteria were met in the Basilicata Region, but not in Apulia. The thesis thereby also probes and confirms the value of Colebatch's constructivist theory of public policy.

Boston University. University Professors Program Senior theses. / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / 2031-01-02

Since the end of the Cold War, the political development and democratisation of the post-communist countries to the east of the EU has drawn considerable attention from academic scholars. Initially, this was characterised by optimism, with scholars praising the EU for exporting institutional democracy through its mechanism of conditionality. This research, however, has given little attention to the micro-level foundations of the process. Yet the recent increase in Euroscepticism and anti-democratic, extremist tendencies have pointed to the importance of individual attitudes, even leading academics to argue that a democratic backsliding is taking place in Central and Eastern Europe. This thesis intends to re-examine the case of the EU's transformative power, focusing specifically on its micro-level impact on the political attitudes of citizens and elites. The research question thus asks: to what extent does the EU have a transformative power on political attitudes? The thesis consists of three research papers that use quantitative and qualitative methods to examine EU influence on two types of actors, the general population and bureaucratic elites, focusing on two types of attitudes: support for democracy and support for the EU. The overall findings show that the Union does have a micro-level impact on attitudes both at the elite and citizen levels, though this is contingent on the nature of the relationship with the EU, as well as individuals' support for the Union. In the first paper, the thesis demonstrates that the EU can affect attitudes towards democracy among the post-communist population, although this is contingent on the state's association with the Union: when this is simply economic or political, the effect is positive; however, when the association involves integration as a candidate or member state, a rise in Euroscepticism among the population can in fact lead to lower levels of democratic support. This finding shows that Euroscepticism has an important role in altering the EU's transformative influence on individuals in states integrated within the EU. Indeed, the consequences of this could be highly significant, especially when it comes to political and bureaucratic elites whose daily job affects the politics and policy of their countries. As a result, the second paper examines the EU's effect on the attitudes of civil servants working in the national bureaucracies of the new member states. Using international socialisation theory, the paper shows that civil servants generally tend to support the EU, and this is higher among officials whose daily work brings them into contact with it. In addition, the analysis further explores the scope conditions that facilitate socialisation, revealing that both the quantity and quality of contact with EU-related issues - in terms of prolonged exposure as well as interpersonal contact - matter in explaining the sources of variation in levels of support. Lastly, to examine more closely how bureaucrats see the EU, the third paper uses a more in-depth qualitative study to explore the perceptions of Brussels-based diplomats on the economic, political and security dimensions of the Union. Through a comparative analysis, the paper once again shows that the state-level relationship with the EU can affect the perspectives formed by elites. Using original interview data, the research develops a typology of four types of "perspectives of the EU", based on two dimensions: expectations from the EU and evaluation of the EU. The paper's main argument is that the state-level relationship between the Union and the home country can greatly affect how elites representing those states perceive the Union. The main contributions of the thesis relate to a deeper understanding of the EU's individual-level transformative power, through a discussion of its objects (citizens and elites), its mechanisms (direct and indirect), its scope (internal and external) and its outcomes (attitudes towards democracy and the EU). First, it demonstrates that the EU has a real and measurable effect in changing the perceptions of both citizens and elites in post-communist states. Second, it highlights that its impact works both through indirect mechanisms of a state-level political association, as well as direct mechanisms of international socialisation. In addition, it also reveals that Euroscepticism can act as a moderator, turning the EU's positive democratising effect into a negative one, thus bringing together the literature on the transformative power of Europe with research on attitudes towards the EU and Euroscepticism. Third, it demonstrates that the EU has a transformative power both internally and externally, including non-accession third states. Lastly, it shows that the EU's transformative power can influence attitudes towards democracy and the EU. Ultimately, the overall findings show that the Union has an impact on the attitudes of both elites and citizens, though this is contingent on the nature of the relationship with the EU, as well as individuals' support for the Union.

The thesis examines the conditions and limitations of mutual recognition and seeks to identify the lacunae in the governance mechanism and the regulatory framework applicable to undertakings in collective investment in transferable securities (‘UCITS'). It assesses the regulatory and supervisory mechanisms that may be applied to address the identified weaknesses. For this purpose, the thesis formulates a theoretical framework for effective mutual recognition based on quasi-maximum harmonisation, reflexive governance of financial supervision and a mechanism for the strengthening of mutual trust between national financial supervisors. The technique for financial regulation in the field of UCITS should create the right balance between implementing a policy designed to attain a high degree of harmonisation of investor protection regulation and making exceptions to address national differences. The picture that emerges is one where a model based on minimum harmonisation causes serious limitations to mutual recognition in the form of inconsistencies in the implementation of EU Law and the application of national discretions. Quasi-maximum harmonisation becomes the optimal technique for UCITS. However, the limitations of a model based on minimum harmonisation of regulation resurface, although to a lesser extent, even in a framework based on quasi-maximum harmonisation. The solution is not one where an even higher degree of harmonisation (the single rulebook mechanism) is required, but lies in reflexive governance of financial supervision combined with a framework for the strengthening of mutual trust between national financial supervisors. This framework can form the basis for overcoming the remaining obstacles to the cross-border activity of UCITS, including the barrier to the depositary passport which is the last major bastion that stands in the way of a complete internal market for UCITS.

This thesis focusses on litigation for migrants' rights in the UK, and in particular litigation conducted by lawyers and activists motivated by the cause of promoting and protecting migrants' rights. The thesis conceptualises this form of migrants' rights activism as ‘cause litigation'. The thesis asks the question, what happens when immigration and migrants' rights questions are litigated for political purposes in the UK? In answering this question the thesis shows that cause litigation has in some circumstances been able to develop some highly significant forms of rights-protecting systemic change. However, the thesis also shows that cause litigation is vulnerable to adverse Executive reactions. Executive conduct in the area of immigration and migrants' rights is governed by an overarching imperative to exercise and be seen to be exercising control. Cause litigation presents direct challenges to this imperative. In response to these challenges the Executive has engaged in both evasion and an increasingly aggressive backlash against changes secured through cause litigation and the activity of cause litigation itself. This backlash has succeeded in undermining many of cause litigation's achievements and has ultimately diminished the role of cause litigation and the rule of law in regulating immigration control in the UK. This is not to argue that the advancements obtained through cause litigation are irrelevant; those that survive, albeit in a reduced form, are non-negligible in the otherwise highly adverse context of the UK's immigration politics. Cause litigation is, therefore, one of the few avenues open for migrants' rights to be protected and advanced, even if it is in a compromised and vulnerable form. It is argued, though, that an activism technique that was a response to the political disadvantage migrants' rights campaigners face, by securing practical change without mainstream political support, has ultimately not been able to escape from the UK's adverse immigration politics.