In the past decade, North Dakota has experienced a substantial shift in economic and political activity due to oil. In addition to jobs and revenue, corporate interests have surged into the state with a dominating force. As players in a highly valued industry, oil companies have worked hard to protect and uphold viable markets in the state. These interests are observed in relationships with key politicians, especially among those regulating the oil industry as members of the North Dakota Industrial Commission (NDIC). Critics label this development as misguided, as an example of big business manipulating government. This thesis, on the other hand, contends that such arguments are predicated on prevailing, yet unhelpful standards, and offers an understanding of how ND's government operates in the real world through the use of qualitative and quantitative methods. By testing the relationship between political contributions and oil spills in North Dakota and interpreting the results using three political theories—tliberalism, realism, and elite theory—tthe case study shows the allegations against key politicians and the oil industry are not substantiated. Instead of a case of political corruption, the thesis shows that the case of the NDIC is in fact a paradigmatic example of how liberal-democracy really works. / Master of Arts

As oil bearing country, the issue of development in Nigeria has been a complex one that has attracted attention of both the government and scholars because oil politics appears to shape resource management and the development process. While academic focus has been on the analysis of national development, there is a paucity of academic studies on the internal dynamics at the regional level that shape the development process. This study therefore aims to: “examine the effect of oil resources on Nigeria’s development and the South-South compared with the situation in the South-West”, with an explicit focus on the complex nexus between oil, politics and regional development in Nigeria. The thesis adopts both methodological and theoretical triangulation to generate data to test the main and supporting hypothesis adopted for the study: “the oil industry has had an adverse impact on the development of Nigeria, and, in particular, the Niger Delta region in which it is concentrated”. In so doing, it explores the failure of oil politics to mix effectively to engender both national and regional development; leading to a regional development disparity. The study concludes that oil wealth failed to fuel development in Nigeria but instead, led to leadership failure. This failure is particularly found to have given vent to the negative impact of oil wealth on elite behaviour that is shaped by corruption, made worse by a dis-functional federal system where those with links major ethnic groups, get resource allocation and development advantage. The study consequently recommends that elite induced oil politics and attendant corruption, be tackled to pave way for both national and regional development in Nigeria. The study also recommend replication of this study in a larger scale in other oil bearing developing nations to further explore the relationship between management of resource wealth and regional development.

The purpose of this research is to examine the legislative process that led to the Imported Vehicle Safety Compliance Act of 1988. This research will look at the original intent of the law, as well as its possible irrelevance today. This research will compare the environment that existed during its creation, and compare it to the drastically different landscape that exists now in the new car market. From this comparison, this paper will recommend a route for the United States to better open trade with other countries and allow more consumer freedom. This research will look at the Imported Vehicle Safety Compliance Act from a political science viewpoint. This analysis will take into consideration the legislative process that led to this act and show that it is an example of the legislative process helping large companies while hurting ordinary consumers. The history of this legislation will show that the justification presented represents protecting consumers from a harmful product. However, the recent history will reveal a government that is quick to make assumptions without regard to facts that disprove the reasoning for this act. This research will seek to use the Imported Vehicle Safety Compliance Act as example of a law that is in need of an update, but has not had any meaningful reform. The goal of this research will be to illustrate why laws that are no longer effective remain without reform.

Although a local policy is a necessary issue for a functioning of a democratic political system, it usually does not stand in the center of common interests. This paper deals with its functioning in Prague 16 where the Civic Democratic Party has won the municipal elections since 1994. The aim of this paper is to find the main factors which led to its winning in the municipal elections in 2014. The main text is divided into three chapters. The first theoretical one concerns with a theory of democracy, civil society and elite theory. The second one describes a creation of a local policy in Prague 16 - namely results of municipal elections since 1994, a way in which local political institutions have been created as well as political parties run for the last municipal elections in 2014. The third chapter deals with an analysis of election results and interviews made with local representatives and councilors.

2005年陳水扁總統，針對軍公教退休人員之退休金及公保養老給付，得以18％利率辦理優惠存款、降低所得替代率等，要求相關單位提出改革方案。銓敘部經與教育部、國防部及行政院人事行政局等相關主管機關組成專案小組，在公務人員方面擬具「公務人員退休所得合理化改革方案」報請考試院於同年11月10日確定方案內容；至部分執行內涵則於2006年1月5日決議由銓敘部依權責自行負責處理。案經銓敘部邀集相關主管機關開會研商後，決定軍公教人員改革方案於同年2月16日同步實施。 值此，軍公教退休人員多數表達無法接受，組織退休聯盟進行各項訴求與抗爭行動；同時立法院中國國民黨黨團及親民黨黨團多數委員支持退休聯盟之主張，運用預算審查權為手段，燃起本項改革方案再度討論的關鍵力量。 本文採文獻探討法針對公務人員退休所得合理化改革方案進行研究，筆者從相關文獻及媒體的報導中發現，本項改革方案的政策制訂過程乃是以菁英決策的方式出現，主要涉及行政官員、考試委員、立法委員及軍公教退休聯盟之間的互動過程。 爰此，筆者藉由菁英理論的觀點透過David Easton 所提出的政治系統理論為基礎，將「公務人員退休所得合理化改革方案」相關影響政策制訂過程之參與者納入，提出一整合性的研究架構進行論述，並依參與人員為標準，分為行政菁英、立法菁英、知識菁英及標的團體四類，試圖經由本項改革個案的探討，進一步對菁英理論相應於政策制訂過程有較為深入之瞭解。 本文以2005年9月陳總統對外界作出「政策」宣示，迄至2008年1月立法院第六屆立法委員任期屆滿止，為研究時間範圍。首先對政策制訂過程與菁英理論進行探討，並將四類菁英就其角色與影響政策制訂的方式與策略加以論述；其次對本項改革方案制訂過程及主要爭議作詳細闡述；接續對四類菁英運用之策略進行分析；最後作出結論，整合歸納前述之研究內容，提出研究發現與後續研究之建議。

政治代表著一種權威性的價值分配，政府的工作便是在制訂與執行這些價值分配的政策，其間必然牽涉到權力的形成、分配與運用，而菁英往往比一般人更有權力，因此菁英如何影響政策制訂是一個值得關注的問題。 而「國民身分健保合一智慧卡（簡稱國民卡）計畫」，從相關的報導中，筆者發現國民卡一案的決策過程乃是以菁英決策的方式出現，主要涉及行政菁英、立法菁英、知識菁英與企業菁英間的互動，因而希望藉由國民卡個案的探討，進一步對菁英理論如何應用於政策制訂過程有較為深入的了解。 本文係採文獻探討法與深度訪談法，首先對政策制訂過程與菁英理論進行探討，並將菁英分為行政菁英、立法菁英、知識菁英與企業菁英四類，進而就其角色、影響政策的策略進行說明，在獲得菁英理論如何應用於政策制訂過程的大致輪廓後，接著對國民卡政策制訂過程進行說明，並對國民卡方案中各類菁英運用策略進行分析，最後作出結論。 本文研究發現如下：一、國民卡方案的制訂，深受菁英理念之影響；二、社會大眾對國民卡方案制訂之影響有限；三、少數菁英對於政策有重大影響；四、權力由一元轉為多元。 在研究建議方面，本文除對菁英理論作出建議外，對於實務上亦提供相關政策建議，包括：一、政策綠皮書的公布；二、建立完善諮詢制度，善用吸納策略；三、採取漸進策略；四、強化政黨協商，適度滿足各方需求；五、健全資訊政策相關立法。

La démocratie représentative souffre de nombreuses lacunes qui remettent en question la légitimité même des gouvernements démocratiques modernes. Tandis que la représentation directe pourrait théoriquement éliminer ces incongruités, elle a jusqu'à présent été considérée comme irréalisable en raison de limitations spatio-temporelles. Cette thèse adresse ces problèmes en introduisant le concept de Démocratie Internet - distinct de l’e-démocratie et de l’e-gouvernement existant. La Démocratie Internet consiste à cerner la représentation démocratique de telle manière qu’elle puisse être opérationnalisée par le biais de l’informatique. Pour ce faire, cette thèse remonte d'abord aux problèmes de la démocratie et de la représentation indirecte dans ses principes premiers, et propose une nouvelle approche (structurelle symbiotique) à l'application de l'Internet pour la démocratie. Ensuite, elle montre que la Démocratie Internet peut fonctionner grâce à l'analyse des données collectées passivement sur l'accès et la production de l’information. Enfin, elle offre de nombreuses contributions à l’informatique, qui jusqu’alors était limitée dans la précision de l'analyse des sentiments. La thèse développe une Proposition d’Opinion Asymétrique (AOP) et l’applique à un nouveau concept de ‘Espace des Sentiments’; elle développe également la première base de données assez nuancée pour l'analyse des sentiments; et elle utilise l'Espace de Sentiment afin de développer la méthode de calcul originale «Split-Fit » qui accroît la précision de l’apprentissage automatique. / Representative democracy suffers from numerous shortcomings that are so significant they bring into question the very legitimacy of modern democratic governments. While direct representation might theoretically eliminate these multiple defects, it has until now been considered unworkable due to limitations of space and of time. This thesis addresses these deficiencies by introducing Internet Democracy, which is distinct from existing e-democracy and e-government. Internet Democracy is an operational, computational formulation of democratic representation. To support this contribution, this thesis first derives the problems of democracy and indirect representation from first principles. It then proposes a new approach (the symbiotic structural approach) which applies the Internet to democracy. It then supports the proposition that Internet Democracy can operate through the analysis of passively collected data on information access and on information production (for instance, using sentiment analysis). Finally, it makes numerous topical contributions to computer science based on the observation that sentiment analysis hits a ceiling of accuracy which cannot currently be transcended. These contributions range from suggesting an Asymmetric Opinion Proposition (AOP) and applying this to a Sentiment Space describing the computational structure of sentiment; developing the first extremely fine-grained dataset for sentiment analysis; and applying Sentiment Space to develop the original ‘Split-Fit’ computing method which increases the accuracy of machine learning based Sentiment Analysis.

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The purpose of this study is to examine why the media has a more negative attitude towards lobbyism in 2014 compared to earlier years since the 1970s in Sweden. This study examines first if a change of attitude has occurred between the given years and whether the attitude is more positive, negative or neutral towards lobbyism in recent years compared to earlier years and lastly if the media are comparing different contexts in which lobbying takes place. The method of this study is based on quantitative content analysis, and on Kanol’s ideas that by implementing theories from different disciplines one can develop theories on comparative lobbying in order to increase and improve our knowledge on the phenomenon of lobbyism as the contemporary research on the subject are scars and underdeveloped. The material in this study are news articles that have been collected between 1970 to 2000 and every second year from 2000 up until 2014. This study also provides a comprehensive picture of the Swedish context in which lobbying takes place by gathering information from multiple sources and earlier studies as this information has as of yet not been gathered in a single study up until now. The conclusion is that there has been a change of attitude towards lobbyism in Sweden, however, the dominant attitude is not a negative but rather a more skeptical/cynical one which has increased since 1992. The term lobbying is controversial because it’s being mentioned in various topics that could be considered negative by the reader as the decision making whether the news article is negative or positive is subjective. Because the media has increased its negative news reporting overall and that the unconscious mind of the reader is also attracted to negative news reporting, the term lobbying can be considered “negative” overall as it is constantly being mentioned in negative contexts even when the article is not about lobbying. A reasonable explanation why the media has a more negative / skeptical attitude to lobbyism is because of previous scandals related to lobbying either in Sweden or outside the country's border, but also because the media can’t hold the elected officials responsible for their actions as transparency and accountability is absent. Because of the increased reporting in Sweden on lobbying from all over the world, the subject will most likely become more relevant on the Swedish political agenda.