As the European Year of Citizens (2013) dawns, the European Union (EU) finds itself at a crossroads. One of the largest international organisations in the world, it has built a reputation as an international community model and democratic figure judged in the context of a multi-level system. However, the EU has recently departed from both roles, as its economic practices suffer dramatically from a lack of political pressure and regulation. The EU now faces an uncertain future: should it break apart or move forward with deeper integration and a “more Europe” attitude? In contrast to public and scholarly concern, this thesis does not treat the crisis as abstract evidence of a structural democracy deficit. This thesis instead attempts to draw attention to the point of departure, the European citizen, and a social cleavage that can be easily addressed despite ongoing economic insecurity. In this sense, this thesis differs from current academic thought in that it focuses less on understanding how democracy can be achieved and more on understanding how democracy, which already exists, can be enhanced. This paper looks at how two discourses identified in the literature (civil society and cosmopolitanism) could be combined in a governance framework that would support the EU to become a civilian power. It will complete this investigation through the use of case studies on two civil society organisations based in Spain and primary data collected from within the European Parliament (EP). The case studies will be used to understand how local civil society can improve the democratic quality of EU governance whilst meeting individuals’ needs and rights. This paper will conclude that, in the case of Spain 2012, local civil society creates three core conditions for active citizen participation that the EU can benefit from, despite the challenging environment surrounding it.

A lack of historical perspective sustained the widespread view that participatory initiatives in Brazil represented a marked rupture from traditional forms of political engagement to radically new democratic practices. This view overlooks both incremental steps towards broader political participation taking place throughout the 20th century and setbacks restricting participation in the 1980s. This dissertation offers a historical account of the emergence of participatory democracy in Brazil that challenges this dominant view and calls attention to the importance of structural factors and national-level political-institutional contexts. Three case studies of municipal administrations in the late-1970s and early-1980s shine light on the impact of structural factors in the emergence, design, and outcome of participatory initiatives, and the contrast of these precursory experiences with the internationally known 1990s participatory models shows how participatory ideals and practices responded to the changing institutional context of the 1980s. This dissertation puts forward three central arguments. First, research should not treat citizen participation as a normative imperative but instead examine how it emerges through social and political struggles fueled by structural inequalities. Second, it is unfounded to assume that citizen participation will lead to profound transformations of national-level institutions, but it is equally erroneous to suppose that citizen participation is always intended to strengthen representative institutions; the long-term impact of direct citizen participation is an empirical rather than analytical or normative question. Third, a key challenge of participatory democracy today is to free itself from the inflated expectations imposed on it by its own enthusiastic supporters.

A lack of historical perspective sustained the widespread view that participatory initiatives in Brazil represented a marked rupture from traditional forms of political engagement to radically new democratic practices. This view overlooks both incremental steps towards broader political participation taking place throughout the 20th century and setbacks restricting participation in the 1980s. This dissertation offers a historical account of the emergence of participatory democracy in Brazil that challenges this dominant view and calls attention to the importance of structural factors and national-level political-institutional contexts. Three case studies of municipal administrations in the late-1970s and early-1980s shine light on the impact of structural factors in the emergence, design, and outcome of participatory initiatives, and the contrast of these precursory experiences with the internationally known 1990s participatory models shows how participatory ideals and practices responded to the changing institutional context of the 1980s. This dissertation puts forward three central arguments. First, research should not treat citizen participation as a normative imperative but instead examine how it emerges through social and political struggles fueled by structural inequalities. Second, it is unfounded to assume that citizen participation will lead to profound transformations of national-level institutions, but it is equally erroneous to suppose that citizen participation is always intended to strengthen representative institutions; the long-term impact of direct citizen participation is an empirical rather than analytical or normative question. Third, a key challenge of participatory democracy today is to free itself from the inflated expectations imposed on it by its own enthusiastic supporters.

Zugl.: Frankfurt (Main), Univ., Habil.-Schr., 2005

Calif., Univ. of California, Diss.--Berkeley, 2002. / Kopie, ersch. im Verl. UMI, Ann Arbor, Mich.

Diss. Univ. München.

Diplomarbeit - Universität, Linz, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 146-156).

This thesis is about Global Water Governance (GWG) – an overarching normative framework by which water management practices across all scales may be guided. More specifically, it seeks to develop an understanding of how Corporate Water Stewardship (CWS), and its facilitation of the inclusion of companies’ perspectives to address water issues, affects GWG. Understood as a form of market environmentalism – a doctrine premised on mutual synergies between environmental conservation and economic growth – CWS provides a channel for companies to participate in, as well as spearhead, a quest for more sustainable water management within and beyond their own operations. Despite a proliferation of activities undertaken by companies, CWS has attracted limited scholarly attention, and an overarching analysis of the effects that mounting corporate involvement has had on the global water discourse has so far been absent from scholarly debates. This research draws on over 500 documents published by companies, NGOs, and other organisations, alongside 50 interviews with key practitioners. It specifically questions: (i) the empirical context through which CWS emerged; (ii) the manner in which companies from various sectors conceptualise water and its management; (iii) the way CWS endeavours are legitimised and; (iv) the mechanisms through which companies exert influence. Chapters 4 to 8 comprise an analysis of the main research findings. Chapter 4 investigates why companies are interested in water issues, how companies frame them, and how CWS could materialise. Chapters 5 and 6 address how companies from different sectors engage in CWS in the contexts of water resources management, and Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH). Chapter 7 turns attention to how companies draw on non-conventional sources of authority to legitimise their activities, and Chapter 8 analyses how CWS influences GWG. When taken holistically, the thesis attests to the key point that the inclusion of companies in solving water issues matters; their presence changes the status quo of water governance. More importantly, the thesis goes beyond such assertions by pointing towards how it matters. It finds that, as a result of corporate involvement, water is being reconceptualised from an environmental and social risk to society, to an economic risk for businesses. Moreover, although companies may not be doing this in an ill-intentioned way, the research suggests that when they participate in water interventions, they alter GWG by promoting the commercialisation of water management, the valuation of water risk, and the liberalisation of water governance. Thus, although the involvement of companies may contribute to improving the management and governance of water across all scales, their involvement has to be matched with proper ‘checks and balances’ to ensure that CWS serves the public good, rather than simply contributing to private profit.

Submitted by Simone Maisonave (simonemaisonave@hotmail.com) on 2016-11-30T14:19:37Z No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) Juliano Oliveira Pizarro_Dissertacao.pdf: 687212 bytes, checksum: 03cfd2ce22238b98ee39ab177725d3b4 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-11-30T14:19:37Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) Juliano Oliveira Pizarro_Dissertacao.pdf: 687212 bytes, checksum: 03cfd2ce22238b98ee39ab177725d3b4 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-11-05 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / A presente dissertação analisa a inserção da FIFA no cenário internacional no contexto globalizado, observando-a na dinâmica da governança global, com relações e disputas com outros atores, fazendo uso do soft power através de seus discursos e práticas. A pesquisa parte temporalmente da década de 1990, tendo em vista a ascensão dos processos de Globalização após a queda do muro de Berlim, a multipolarização de atores no cenário internacional e o surgimento do conceito governança global. Sendo o esporte um mecanismo cultural utilizado ao longo do século como incentivo à paz e à união dos povos, a FIFA possui um papel fundamental na sua organização em escala mundial. Através de duas dimensões de análise - governança global e soft power – partindo do pressuposto que a FIFA é um ator da governança global, busca responder como ela se utiliza do soft power. A pesquisa baseia-se em fontes secundárias bibliográficas, documentais, sites e pesquisas já realizadas sobre o objeto. Os procedimentos metodológicos que norteiam a presente pesquisa são de caráter exploratório-descritivo, estudando-se o caso da FIFA com uma abordagem qualitativa, com o objetivo de identificar a FIFA como uma organização que possui o monopólio internacional do futebol, constituída juridicamente como uma ONG, cujo comportamento expressa características híbridas na dinâmica da governança global – ora como empresa multinacional, ora como organização do Terceiro Setor, ora como instituição internacional. Sob a ótica do soft power, percebe-se que o comportamento contemporâneo da organização procura alinhar-se a discursos democráticos e de accountability, utilizando estratégias de popularização do esporte, ampliando e diversificando as competições e os campeonatos regionais e internacionais, implementando projetos sociais, aumentando parceiros comerciais, entre outras. Para consolidar sua hegemonia internacional pelo controle da organização do futebol em escala global, a FIFA tem utilizado uma série de práticas, discursos e ações estimuladas e incentivadas pela lógica da governança global em geral e governança desportiva em particular. / This thesis analyzes the inclusion of FIFA on the international stage in the globalization context, observing the dynamics of global governance, relationships and disputes with other actors, using the soft power through its speeches and practices. The research begin temporally of the 1990s, in view of the rise of globalization processes after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the multi-polarization of actors on the international scene and the emergence of global governance concept. The sport is a cultural mechanism used throughout the century as encouraging peace and unity of peoples, and the FIFA has a key role in your organization worldwide. Through two dimensions of analysis - global governance and soft power - starting the assumption that FIFA is an actor of global governance, seeks to answer how she uses soft power. The research is based on secondary sources bibliographical, documentary, websites and research already carried out on the object. The methodological procedures that guide this research are exploratory and descriptive character, studying the case of FIFA with a qualitative approach, in order to identify the FIFA as an organization that has the international monopoly of football, legally constituted as an NGO, whose behavior expressed hybrid features in the dynamics of global governance - sometimes as multinational company, sometimes as Third Sector organization either as international institution. From the perspective of soft power, can see that contemporary performance of the organization seeks to align the democratic and accountability discourse, using popularization strategies of the sport, expanding and diversifying competitions and regional and international championships, implementing social projects, increasing trading partners, among others. To consolidate its international hegemony by controlling the football organization on a global scale, FIFA has used a number of practices, discourses and actions initiated and encouraged by the logic of global governance in general and sport governance in particular.

The concept of global governance is nowadays commonly used for studying international relations. The goal of this thesis is to analyze the nature of global governance in health sector, to discover how the main participants involved in international relations react to new challenges that arise, specifically how they react to the case of obesity. Global governance occurs on multiple levels; WHO occurs at the global level whereas individual national states occur at the lower level. This thesis answers the questions to topics such as: how the global health governance's politics are made, whether obesity represents a threat and how various participants that are involved in international relations coordinate their steps towards fighting obesity, on which levels they coordinate their agenda and for whom they are working for when fighting obesity.