This thesis analyzes the evolution of European social policy via focusing on the unfolding contentions between two different notions that disagree over Europe&rsquo / s direction regarding the best social-economic system in Europe. Taking its point of departure in the ratification crisis and the impasse surrounding the Constitutional Treaty, the thesis argues that the contrasting interpretations of the Treaty and the attendant cleavages in the European polity are illustrations of such ongoing ideological struggles among alternative paradigms and approaches. Naming these contending approaches as &ldquo / project of neoliberalism&rdquo / and &ldquo / project of regulated capitalism&rdquo / , the evolution of European social policy is investigated with a focus on interplays between these projects / the self-transformation of the projects in the course of integration / and the relations between economic and social governance in the construction of an &ldquo / ever closer Union&rdquo / . To this purpose, the thesis theoretically employs Polanyian conceptual framework of &ldquo / double movement&rdquo / alongside theoretical approaches of Streeck, Hooghe&amp / Marks, and Pochet that view the evolution of European social policy in conflictual encounters between two opposing notions. Against this theoretical background, the thesis surveys the integration history from the Treaty of Rome until the Lisbon Treaty of 2007. It concludes that the European social policy has evolved within interplays among projects of neoliberalism and regulated capitalism and there has always been an asymmetric relationship between the economic and social governance in Europe as the social governance has always had a secondary and even a subservient position with regard to economic governance in the European polity.

The present study investigated the role of gender, sense of coherence and total physical activity in positive and negative affect. The participants were 376 (169 female, 206 male, and 1 missing value) volunteered students from different faculties of Middle East Technical University. Three questionnaires, namely, Sense of Coherence Scale (SOC), Physical Activity Assessment Questionnaire (PAAQ), and Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) were administered to the students together with the demographic information sheet. Two separate stepwise multiple linear regression analyses were conducted to examine the predictive power of gender (coded as dummy variable), sense of coherence and total physical activity on positive and negative affect scores. Results revealed that, sense of coherence and total physical activity predicted the positive affect whereas sense of coherence predicted the negative affect of university students. Findings are discussed in the light of sense of coherence, physical activity and positive and negative affect literature.

This thesis aims to provide an evaluation of the property aspect of the Cyprus problem. The &#039 / property issue&#039 / is an important aspect of the problem because it concerns the individual human rights and interests of a large population on both sides of the island. Following an introduction and a description of the historical backgroundof the island, there will be a basic account of the Cyprus conflict in order to have a perspective on the disagreement. The bulk of the thesis is then formed by the problem of property in the overall disagreement and both sides&rsquo / arguments towards the issue. After detailing various peace negotiations in relation to the property issue, the involvement of the European Court of Human Rights in the issue will be discussed, including the most recent developments which have since emerged

This thesis analyzes the relationship between the capitalist system and the individual in Edward Bond&rsquo / s plays, Saved, Lear, Red, Black and Ignorant and The Tin Can People. Bond argues that the capitalist system is irrational and cruel since it violates the individual&rsquo / s inherent right to freedom, to dignity and to the pursuit of happiness. The capitalist system in Bond&rsquo / s mind shares some certain features with Karl Marx&rsquo / s analysis of the capitalists system. These features are the class conflict, inequality and inhumanity. The study aims to detect these features in the aforesaid four plays. Also, the study focuses on the function of social institutions in the plays. According to Edward Bond, social institutions in the capitalist system contribute to the continuation of the system because they preserve the interests of the ruling class, and induce injustice. The capitalist system and its institutions create alienated and dehumanized individuals. Individuals&rsquo / certain existential needs are not fulfilled in the capitalist system. In Erich Fromm&rsquo / s theory, the existential needs of individuals presented in Bond&rsquo / s plays are a frame of orientation and devotion, rootedness, and effectiveness. This study will show that these needs are denied within the given systems. As a result, Bondian characters develop some defensive strategies in order to be able to survive / they turn to violence, comply with the system or revolt against the system.

This thesis analyzes Turkey&rsquo / s energy security and its energy cooperation with the European Union and Russia. The thesis argues that Turkey&rsquo / s energy cooperation with Russia and the European Union&rsquo / s energy dialogue between Russia contradict with Turkey&rsquo / s claim to be an exclusive energy corridor between the Caspian Sea region and the European Union. The first part of the thesis deals with the energy security issue in terms of the diversification of energy routes and pipeline politics. In the second part, Turkey&rsquo / s energy needs and its potential to become an energy corridor will be discussed. Turkey&rsquo / s energy cooperation with the European Union and Russia will be explored in the following parts of the thesis. Energy cooperation between the European Union and Russia will be analyzed in the fifth chapter. The last chapter is the conclusion.

Machiavelli&rsquo / s uniqueness and originality renders his educational direction as pertinent for times and conditions that are similar to and prevalent in ours. On the grand scale, his thought process disrupts the classical sense of philosophy, metaphysics, and religion. This disruption of the classical Western consciousness is an aim in the contemporary realm of political thought, which, starting with the extensive criticism of modernity found in the works of Nietzsche, has been developed in the realm of political thought throughout the twentieth and onto the twenty-first century. Therefore, Machiavelli &ndash / who lived 500 years ago &ndash / is nevertheless the source for productive knowledge, analysis, and prognosis for the contemporary political crisis, a crisis due to the downfall of modernity. The presupposition of latter-day modernity, as being considered the best of all possible worlds, is no longer believable. Modernity, what was once considered as being utterly unique and superior in human history, is responded to today by critiques on class domination, Western imperialism, the dissolution of community and tradition, the rise of alienation, and the impersonality of bureaucratic power. Machiavelli supplants the dominant modern consciousness through being a source for a new artistic revolution, a revolution of consciousness through a humane call for strength in facing reality, in order to re-constitute a divergent set of epistemological and ontological discoveries, which are better aligned to the condition of the present-day than those formulated by the dominant Western modern consciousness.

This study aimed to verify the propositions regarding the application procedures indicated in the cinematherapy literature. Moreover it was also aimed to frame the rationale of cinematherapy on a theoretical basis by integrating the procedures of cinematherapy intervention technique into Transtheoretical Model (Prochaska &amp / Norcross, 2003) and to discover the mechanisms that the applications function through. Finally, it was also aimed to apply cinematherapy intervention technique to the domain of relationship problems. For this study, university students who were in an on-going relationship and were in need of professional help due to their relationship problems were included. Content analyses were conducted for reaching the aims of the study. According to these results, in viewing stage the four-stage process was not attained by all participants, while all stages, except catharsis, were reached in one movie during discussion stage. These results suggest that viewing alone does not induce change, but discussions lead to attaining the stages that would expected to induce change. Moreover, the results revealed that during movie discussions a three-phase process was followed / namely identification, awareness, and solution. Based on the results, it could be assumed that the first phase functions through projection processes / whereas the second phase functions through metaphors and the final stage functions as the projections resolved by using metaphors. Furthermore, according to the outcome monitoring results two participants were grouped in &ldquo / meaningful outcome&rdquo / category, three participants were grouped in &ldquo / ambivalent outcome&rdquo / category, and one participant was grouped in &ldquo / negative outcome&rdquo / category. The results were discussed in accordance with the Transtheoretical Model.

Present dissertation aims to achieve three related objectives. First, it is aimed at investigating the theoretical view of Reicher and Hopkins (2001) that some people called &lsquo / identity entrepreneurs&rsquo / actively try to re-define the limits and the contents of the social categories. For this purpose social political milieu of Northern Cyprus is chosen as it is intended to achieve the ingroup members&rsquo / support by portraying national/ethnic identity constructions of National Unity Party, which acknowledges supporting the independence of Turkish Republic of North Cyprus and the Republican Turkish Party, which acknowledges supporting the unification of Cyprus. In accordance with the first objective, the official documents of two parties were analyzed by Structural Analysis of Group Arguments (SAGA) technique. The results confirm that the definitions of Northern Cypriots, the Cyprus Problem, the solutions of the problem, and collective threats and interests were constructed by these parties in the service of their own political projects. Second study purposes to explore the identity constructions of lay Northern Cypriots in order to investigate the relationship between political and lay constructions. By the second objective 19 Turkish Cypriots who were not involved in politics actively (classified as anti and pro-integrationists iv based on their votes at the Referenda of Annan Plan) were interviewed. The results indicate that the lay Northern Cypriots narrated three identities when defining themselves as &lsquo / Turkish&rsquo / , &lsquo / Turkish Cypriots&rsquo / and &lsquo / Cypriots&rsquo / , each of which implicated different constructions of the Cyprus problem, its possible solutions, and perceptions of collective threats and interests. All the constructions were made in accordance with their identity definitions and their votes at the referenda. The analysis also shows that the political and lay constructions are convergent at a great extent. Lastly, present work aims at investigating the relationship between national/ethnic identities and collective projects, quantitatively. Regarding the third objective a questionnaire study was conducted in North Cyprus, with 206 participants. The data confirmed the model, which proposed that social identities (Turkish, Turkish Cypriots and Cypriots) influenced attitudes towards unification through perceived collective interests and threats.

The main aim of this dissertation is to analyze the idea and practice of handing over the administration of a territory to the United Nations on a temporary basis in response to manage and settle the consequences of a dispute concerning the future status of that territory. The United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) and the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) are novel examples in this respect since they present both the opportunities offered and the challenges experienced by the international administrations and give clear guidelines for the future state-building engagements. Since the end of the Cold War, there emerged a definitive trend toward accepting a more interventionary role for the UN. Taking the changing nature of interventionism into account, within the scope of this dissertation, the foremost focus will be on the post-intervention period where peacebuilding and state-building processes take place in war-torn societies. Thereby, international transitional administrations which represent the most complex and comprehensive peace operations attempted by the United Nations will be the focal point of the study. Since such administrations assume some or all of the sovereign powers of an independent state, in a period when neo-interventionism and suspended or conditional sovereignty are debated, the degree of executive, legislative and judicial authority assumed by transitional administrations is worth to consider.

The aim of this thesis is to focus on the concept of flexicurity, accepted as the new labour market model balancing the needs of employers for greater flexibility in order to adapt to market forces, and the need of employees for security, which has recently been one of the most popular concepts of the debate on labour market reforms in the European Union. While doing so, this thesis discusses the position of key European institutions, especially of the Commission of the European Communities. The main argument is that the concept is still very open to alternative interpretations at the European Union level. Related to this openness is the fact that the Commission has deliberately instrumentalized the concept&rsquo / s ambiguity in order to absorb all the main actors into the debate in line with its own policy preferences.