<p> The promotion of language is considered to be the one of the ways to increase the state's soft power. Taking this into account, Soviet leaders used the Russian language as a tool to create a new identity to consolidate the Soviet republics. After the collapse of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) in 1991, the majority of the countries started the de-russification process which was a part of their own nation-building process. However, in the case of Central Asia, the variation of language policies is observed: some of the states, such as Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, still use Russian as the official language, while other countries, such as Uzbekistan, adopted strong anti-Russian language reforms. This thesis presents the analysis of the cultural and material factors which may influence the status of the Russian language by testing a hypothesis deduced from the Rational Choice Theory. After examining the data by means of Mill's methods of agreement and difference, the research concludes that the preservation of the Russian language and its use depends mostly on the number of Russian nationals and Orthodox adepts living in the country of the region under analysis.</p>

<p> This thesis aims to determine the effectiveness of the largest corporate social responsibility initiative, the United Nations Global Compact, in the protection of human rights by businesses. Certain scholars critique the Compact's human rights principles and voluntary aspect while others support it. The main critique is that the principles fail to provide adequate direction to businesses. However, my assertion is that the voluntary initiative's human rights principles are effective. I have relied on secondary literature in analyzing the paths of a number of signatory businesses, each from differing sectors, in addressing human rights. It appears that the vagueness of the principles serves a purpose for businesses of different industry types and contexts. In other words, my originally proposed thesis was strengthened after examining how various signatory businesses have sought to support human rights. Rather than turning the principles into a highly structured code of conduct for all businesses as the critics have argued, I argue that the principles should remain general and that more detailed direction must be developed for each individual business according to industry type, geographical location, size, and other particular circumstances.</p>

<p> Although the subject of ethics has been widely studied, no research has addressed the dilemma faced by government procurement professionals in underdeveloped countries, especially Togo. The purpose of this case study was to analyze insiders&rsquo; views concerning ethical dilemmas in public procurement for government contracting professionals in Togo. The study was based on deontological and teleological ethics. Research questions addressed ethical issues that are likely to arise from inappropriate interference by Togo government official in the public procurement process, and perceptions of public acquisition professionals regarding Togo government officials&rsquo; influence on contracting officers&rsquo; decision making. Data collection included interviews, observations, and documents. Findings showed that even though there are regulations in place, most public procurement professionals sometimes make unethical decisions, both because they are pressured to do so and because they are neither well-remunerated nor well-trained. Togo acquisition staff regularly deal with corruption, impunity, deception, and risk of retaliation. Based on results of this study, it is recommended that ethics training be established to improve Togo&rsquo;s public contracting system and that the training be sanctioned by a three-level professional certification similar to the one in the United States. Further research could involve surveying other African nations to determine the extent to which public acquisition staff see interference by government officials.</p>

<p> This study explores the link between democracy and bureaucracy using Japan as the critical case study. The research question is whether competition by multiple principals creates opportunities for bureaucratic drift. This project hypothesizes that policy settings including multiple principals (independent variable) are more likely to manifest bureaucratic drift (dependent variable). At the same time, policy settings excluding multiple principals (independent variable) are more likely to manifest less bureaucratic drift (dependent variable). Variation in agent discretion is the critical effect of the independent variable (i.e., number of principals) on the dependent variable (bureaucratic drift). </p><p> Evaluating the exercise of discretion of administrators is feasible if one's evidence is primarily from the administrators themselves. To test these hypotheses, therefore, this project adopts a research design based on a qualitative case study methodology. The case studies include four of Japan's ministries: the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), the Ministry of Land, Industry, Transportation, and Tourism (MLITT), and the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare (MHLW). Likewise, the role of the National Personnel Authority (NPA) in the administrative system is also evaluated. Research participants include both participants in the Mike Mansfield Fellowship Program along with NPA administrators.</p><p> This study contributes to the extant corpus of research in a number of salient respects. First, this project proposes a different dependent variable in that most studies are focused on administrative reform whereas the focus here is on bureaucratic drift. Second, this project discusses the important effect of bureaucratic discretion. Third, while relevant to the quality of the Japanese democracy in particular, these findings may be leveraged to a larger conversation about the relationship between bureaucracy and democracy in the Asian context and perhaps beyond. Finally, this project provides an explicit policy recommendation for contemporary Japanese politics proposing that greater authority be delegated to administrative agents, albeit supervised by a powerful intermediary, to minimize bureaucratic drift.</p>

<p> Economic models generally fail to adequately measure positive and negative growth paths in development through agrarian, industry, and service economies. The purpose of this grounded theory study was to design a new model that could accommodate both directions of growth and better measure development paths with particular attention to labors contributions. The theoretical foundation for this study was Walt Whitman Rostow's 5 economic stages of growth classifications. This Study attempted to find the most common economic growth path. While most development models use three to five classifications, this study used nine new classifications giving it a unique and specific look at international development. The two model indicators used were gross domestic product composition by sector (the economic success of the system) and labor force occupation by sector (labors activity to help define behavior of the system). The sample included data from 279 nations from the CIA World Factbook. A systematic method of analysis was used in the open, axial, and selective theoretical coding phases. The key findings reveal 9 distinct growth phases, 15 identified growth paths, and 4 distinct path clusters which helps measure and define development behavior. This analysis resulted in building upon Rostow's original observations. The implications for social change show that policy makers can benefit from using this new model, named the behavioral international economic development growth path model, to provide improved decision making measurements related to agrarian, service, and industry sectors of the economy. In addition, public administrators in developing nations may benefit from a better understanding of more specific development paths, probabilities of path movement, and comparison of policies from same classification nations.</p>

<p> The purpose of this research is to contribute to the studies of cultural racism in contemporary Europe by observing the effects of securitization of immigration and assumed confusion between terms `radical' and `radicalization' on the rise of this phenomenon. Within the framework of securitization theory developed by the Copenhagen school and its connection to the integration approaches, I firstly hypothesize that the security and integration policies show divergence in the equality protection of minority immigrant groups. Then, by treating the securitization of immigration as a fluctuating political opportunity structure, I also hypothesize that such divergence created favorable conditions for radical right-wing parties to emphasize their xenophobic and ethnocentrist appeals and target Muslim immigrant communities as a particular out-group. This is grounded in the theoretical arguments about the construction of a master frame by the radical right-wing parties which involves diffusion processes across various European countries. The research applies fuzzy set Qualitative Comparative Analysis and observes the levels of immigration, ethnic profiling of immigrant groups in security and integration policies, and the political discourse of radical right-wing parties as conditions for the surge of cultural racism. The conditions are observed in the cases of Austria, Bulgaria, Sweden and Switzerland in the period between 2000 and 2013. The main findings are that ethnic profiling and portraying minority immigrant groups as security threats are the most relevant conditions for the surge of cultural racism. On the other hand, the levels of immigration alone cannot always be claimed as sufficient constitutive condition for the increase in racist practices in Europe. The research also concludes that radical right-wing parties not only constructed Muslim immigrant minorities as particular out-group incompatible with European values but also shifted their political rhetoric to the fit the arguments of individualism, gender equality and human rights. Thus the radical right-wing parties portray themselves as defenders of the national identities and culture by incorporating arguments that have traditionally been at the opposite of their political discourse. The incomplete equality protection framework in security and integration policies created by the mainstream parties and the changing political rhetoric of radical right-wing parties produce favorable conditions for the emergence and rise of the cultural racism in selected cases. </p>

<p> In just 30 years microfinance has transformed from a credit-based rural development scheme that has claimed to reduce poverty and empower poor women, to a $70 billion financial industry. In the process, the traditional NGO-led model has given way to commercialized institutions, resulting in an increased emphasis on profitmaking. This has also led to confusion in the sector around its mission: is it to alleviate poverty and empower poor women or simply to provide the "unbanked" with access to formal sources of finance? This research considers the main debates in microfinance with regard to its mission and presents empirical evidence on the effectiveness of microfinance. The study is based on the Pakistani microfinance sector, which provides an ideal opportunity for a comparative analysis of two distinct models of microfinance &ndash; the nonprofit microfinance institutions (MFI) and the microfinance banks (MFB). The research compares the depth of outreach, mission, practice, and borrower experiences of MFIs and MFBs, employing a political economy framework. The data includes 140 interviews with policymakers, donors, senior, mid and low-level microfinance officers, and their clients; as well as observations of practitioner-client interactions, including the process of disbursement and collection, group meetings, and field visits with loan officers in urban Pakistan. It also comprises two district-level surveys: the microfinance outreach survey from the Pakistan Microfinance Network (PMN) and the Government of Pakistan's Social and Living Standards Survey (PSLM). The surveys are analyzed econometrically to test whether district-level socioeconomic differences affect patterns of outreach. This study broadens our understanding of the extent to which the local political economy shapes the outcomes of a market-based intervention, such as microfinance. It also provides an insight into the evolution of microfinance, specifically as framed by the global development discourse and subsequent public policy choices. Finally, the study provides an authoritative account of how institutional structure affects microfinance's effectiveness as a tool for poverty alleviation, empowerment and financial access.</p>

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, School of Public and Environmental Affairs, 2007. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 68-07, Section: A, page: 3141. Title from dissertation home page (viewed April 8, 2008). Adviser: James L. Perry.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, School of Public Environmental Affairs, 2006. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed Nov. 17, 2008). Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-12, Section: A, page: 4698. Adviser: Robert Agranoff.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of Political Science, 2007. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 68-10, Section: A, page: 4469. Adviser: Karen Rasler. Title from dissertation home page (viewed May 20, 2008).