The objective of this thesis is to examine the nature of health care system change in the Czech Republic and Hungary after the collapse of communism. In order to do so, the thesis focuses mainly on Europeanization and New Institutionalism as competing approaches in explaining domestic changes in Central and Eastern European Countries. While doing so, first this study tries to explore whether Europeanization is one of the main determinants in the transition process of the health care systems of the Czech Republic and Hungary and discusses the EU-level policies, laws and regulations related to the health care sector. Second, the study looks through the historical legacy and path dependency theories as branches of the New Institutionalist approaches to investigate the transition of the health care systems of case countries. The review of the related literature and empirical case studies exhibit that the transformation process of the health care systems of the Czech Republic and Hungary were possibly affected by many factors and it would be misleading to attribute all consequences to only one determinant. In this respect, the main argument is that the Europeanization effect is weak compared to the New Institutionalism approach in explaining the transition process of health care systems of Hungary and the Czech Republic / however, there are strong opportunities for EU institutions to shape the future contours v of health care systems and public health programs in Hungary and the Czech Republic.

The Udabno Project is an archaeological fieldwork in Eastern Georgia which includes three settlements from ca. 11th 10th century BC (Udabno I, II and III). The project aims to provide information about the settlement of this period of time. Extensive surveys including geomagnetic prospection took place before the excavations and these are all reveal proto-urban settlement structures. In this project, one of the most important investigations is the pit dwellings, which are located in the middle of the settlement. The primary goal of this thesis is to reveal the construction process of those pit dwelling, House D, at Iron Age Udabno III by studying the excavation reports in order to be able to understand Udabno within its chronological and geographical context as well as shed light on the societal structure.

The aim of the present study was to examine the predictive values of sociodemographic variables, parental variables (parental stress, family functioning, parental adjustment, coping methods), and child variables (coping methods, self concept) for the adjustment of children with spastic cerebral palsy. Transactional stress and coping model was used as the conceptual framework for the study. The sample of the study was composed of 80 children with spastic cerebral palsy and one of their parents. Hierarchical regression analysis was conducted to test the child adjustment by using child gender, parent education, parental stress, family functioning, parental adjustment, parental coping methods, child coping methods, and child self concept as independent variables. Results revealed that parentalstress, parents&rsquo / problem solving/optimistic coping and fatalistic coping predicted the adjustment of children with spastic CP. However, parental adjustment, family functioning, child coping and child self concept were not significantly predicting of child adjustment. The findings, strengths, limitations as well as the implications of the findings were discussed.

The thesis reviews and assesses the role and impact of the United Nations (UN) in the fight against the recent wave of international terrorism, understood as global jihadism, with a view to developing an understanding and awareness of the Organization&#039 / s relevance and distinct position in the global counter-terrorism campaign, while at the same time, providing insight as to how to best combat the phenomenon, through an analysis of the threat posed by al-Qaida and weighing the threat against the real and potential capabilities available at the disposal of the world body. The analysis reveals that while considerable progress has been made with respect to diminishing the organizational and operational capabilities of al-Qaida through the collective mobilization of hard or &lsquo / protective&rsquo / policy instruments in the wake of 9/11, progress has been fairly unsatisfactory in addressing the softer or &lsquo / preventive&rsquo / aspects of counter-terrorism aimed at reducing the conditions conducive to terrorism. Furthermore, while the UN offers unique capabilities in the fields of technical assistance provision and cooperation and coherence building, its efforts are severely undermined by the lack of consensus and commitment on the part of the UN member states, and to a lesser extent, by its own organizational shortcomings. Overall, the analysis of policy responses of the UN and the international community in the context of terrorism is expected to bring perspective to the future of the world organization and its evolution to assume a potentially more proactive and preventive role in dealing with the most pressing and interconnected threats to international peace and security in the early 21st century, one of which is the global jihadist movement.

Flexibilisation of labour markets has been one of the significant outcomes of the neoliberal transformation processes in all over world. This development, which is indeed one of aims of the neoliberal reforms as well, has been comprehended differently by liberal Institutionalist and critical Marxist perspectives. According to the liberal Institutionalists, the flexibilisation of labour can generate positive results for labour, while for the scholars of Marxist tradition the flexibilisation of labouring processes has to be understood in relation to capitalist concerns to ensure better command of capital over labour. This thesis investigates the validity of these approaches by focusing on the working conditions of one of the most flexible parts of world labour, the home-based women workers. On the basis of ten in-depth interviews conducted with the home-based women labourers living in the Tuzlu&ccedil / ayir district of Ankara, it states that liberal Institutionalist arguments on the flexibilization of labour markets are hard to be approved. For the home-based woman labourers in Tuzlu&ccedil / ayir in no way represent a group with autonomy and enhanced skills though their gender has provided their employers with ample opportunities for exploitation, opportunities which are not available in the case of the male workers. In dialogue with the feminist approaches to home-based woman labourers, this thesis shows how in home-based working women&rsquo / s exploitation as labourers has become articulated with their gender-based social subordination vis-&agrave / -vis their husbands, brothers and/or fathers in their families.

Exclusion has become a popular term in the recent two decades which is used to designate to the relatively disadvantageous people, groups, parties in different societies. Given the fact that concepts are not innocent, there is a need to think on the question of what &ldquo / exclusion&rdquo / as a concept excludes and includes different from other relevant concepts such as poverty, marginalization, and/or underclass. This thesis will try to answer these questions by focusing on the Inter- American Development Bank&rsquo / s (IDB) discourse on exclusion in Latin America. It will argue that the IDB&rsquo / s discourse on exclusion aims to reproduce the dominant neoliberal ideology in its post-Washington version. For by differentiating &ldquo / exclusion&rdquo / from &ldquo / poverty&rdquo / by associating the former with the practices, acts and cultures of social and political institutions specific to particular societies and states, IDB&rsquo / s exclusion discourse creates a legitimate ground to proceed with the neoliberal transformations of states and societies in line with good governance. Keywords: Exclusion, Inclusion, New Poverty, Inter-American Development Bank

This thesis examines the development of a national identity and the ideology of nationalism, and the formation of nation-state in Iraq under the British Mandate from 1920 to 1932. The study focuses on the influences of the early Arab nationalist movements during the last decades of the Ottoman Empire and under the British Mandate over Iraqi nationalism and nation-state process. The study specifically examines the Mosul question and its effects on the formation of the territorial unity of the state in Iraq. The study also explores the successive civil administration during Mandate period while making Iraq a &ldquo / nation-state&rdquo / by taking actions concerning the politics, social structure, the government, army and economy. The British Mandate period in Iraq witnessed many important developments such as the drawing of Iraq&rsquo / s boundaries and the shaping of the foundations of the state structure. These developments continue to affect the country in a variety of ways even today. In the final part of the thesis, it is pointed out that understanding some of the policies and strategies implemented in Iraq by the British can help to make meaningful interpretations of current affairs in this country.

This thesis aims to analyze Cyprus issue in the context of the principle of conditionality in Turkey &ndash / EU relations. In this regard, the conditionality principle is examined both in international level and in European Union&rsquo / s approach. The implementation of conditionality by the European Union in relation with the Cyprus question is the second point of analysis. Finally, the evaluation of the conditionality and its implications in Turkey-EU relations regarding the Cyprus issue is overviewed. The assessment is made through historical periods of the relations between Turkey and EU. Finally, the comparison between the theoretical framework and practical application of conditionality in Cyprus issue is done as part of assessment.

This study deals with the question of what governmental policies and military methods were adopted in the 1990s in order to overcome the PKK (Partiya Karkaren Kurdistan, or Workers Party of Kurdistan) that was regarded mainly as a terrorist organization against national security for it challenged Turkish state establishment via its ethno-political discourse. Based on this question, this thesis analyses each government&rsquo / s approach and counterinsurgency policies as well as Turkish military&rsquo / s tactics and operations in order to curb the PKK threat that complicated the Turkey&rsquo / s Kurdish question, and challenged Turkish state from three directions / namely southeast Turkey, northern Iraq, and Western Europe. Therefore, the thesis evaluates the PKK&rsquo / s armed and political activities / anti-terror measures in the southeast region and throughout Turkey / the social, political, and economic impact of these measures over the southeastern population / human-rights violations / each government&rsquo / s southeastern policies / the impact of the counterinsurgency policies on Turkey&rsquo / s foreign relations, particularly with Iraq, Syria, and the European Union. Although the anti-PKK policies during each governmental period did not differentiate much from each other, the aim is to show that Turkish civilian authorities failed to take the initiative on, and the military-dominated approach aggravated the social and political circumstances in the region, hence, strengthened the PKK&rsquo / s anti-state discourse that led to the rise of Kurdish nationalism.

Studying on civil-military relations requires a multi-dimensional approach that analyzes both domestic and external factors. In this study which aims to compare the civil-military relations in Greece and Turkey and to indicate how European Union re-shapes the nature of these relations, the emphasis will be given to two important factors. The domestic factor is democratization processes of the states in question, that depend not only on domestic politics, but also the international environment. The other factor is an external one: the EU as a promoter of democracy through civilianization in politics. The general picture of the nature of civil-military relations in Greece and Turkey indicates a parallelism during 1950s and 60s. However, the 1970s, characterized by centrifugal tendencies of states in Cold War conditions as well as the EU accession perspective, has brought about an alteration in the role of military in politics in Greece, whereas Turkey did not do much towards reducing the role of army. Since late 1990s, EU has been the prominent goal in Turkish Foreign Policy. The conditions for membership include democratization through civilianization and declination of military&rsquo / s role in policy making. Making a projection of how EU will influence civil-military relations in Turkey might be possible in the light of the outcome of this study that utilizes the Greek case as an example.