This study assesses the efforts of the State Historic Preservation Office in relating Historic Preservation (HP) with Heritage Tourism (HT) against principles of sustainability. It also seeks to contribute toward an integrated heritage management framework at the State Historic Preservation level that is based on theoretical principles and empirical study. The focus is on the heritage management practices as performed by the Texas Historical Commission (THC). This case offers good understanding about the relationship between two major interests involved in heritage management: HP and HT. It is used to conduct a constructive evaluation of the HP-HT relationship in terms of its ‘existence’ and ‘effectiveness’ guided by sustainability and good governance principles. The study uses qualitative research based on a constructivist paradigm. Data are gathered using three research methods: documents, in-depth interviews, and participant observation. Documents were collected about the THC’s heritage management programs, including: the Texas Heritage Trails Program and the Visionaries in Preservation program. Ten in-depth interviews were conducted with state and regional stakeholders involved in activities related to these programs. Observation was made for the visionary process in Nacogdoches, Texas. Coding and categorizing for the interviews and documentary evidences were used as the fundamental analytic process. Coding included open coding, selective coding for core categories, and development of patterns and themes. This process assisted in identifying categories, properties, themes and the relationships between them that eventually helped in building a cohesive understanding of the HP-HT relationship as performed by the THC. The research found that heritage management efforts of the THC are not consistent with sustainability and good governance principles. Effectiveness of these efforts is affected by factors of heritage management approaches, partnership building, capacity building attempts, strategic processes, authority devolution, and accountability relations. A new framework for integrated heritage management has been developed from this study to assist the state government in achieving not only good management but good governance, since it will guide the organizations to more closely align with the social and cultural realities of their communities and develop meaningful and responsive heritage management policies and strategies.

<p>Ethiopia is exercising decentralisation of the health system and thus this study assesses lessons learned about the experiences of the decentralization of institutions in heoretical terms. The problem investigated in this study concerns the lack of institutional capacity to effectively provide services, lack of transparency, responsibility and accountability. Decision making is also very remote from the people with regard to resource allocation and public health service delivery. The scope of this study covers the Southern Nations, Nationalities and People&rsquo / s Regional State of Ethiopia and its relationship with the Cheha District in the area of health service decentralization. The objective of this study was to identify fundamental elements of decentralization of health institutions and the impact on the performance of the health system at local government level in the Cheha District in Ethiopia.</p>

<p>The question this paper seeks to answer is whether decentralization is helpful or harmful to Cameroon&rsquo / s national unity. This study traces the historical, constitutional and political development of the concepts of national unity and decentralization and critically examines their application in the Cameroonian context. It further tests the consolidation of national unity in Cameroon against a theoretical and empirical framework of decentralization. A one-dimensional view of the findings of this study is not very encouraging to regimes seeking to enhance national unity through the implementation of decentralization. However, the major conclusion of this study holds the position that the political outcome of decentralization on Cameroon&rsquo / s national unity is largely a product of the constitutional regulation of both concepts and the manner in which the theoretical dimensions of decentralization are transplanted onto Cameroon&rsquo / s political landscape. The paper recommends certain reforms to assist and guide Cameroon as it simultaneously implements decentralization and consolidates national unity.</p>

<p>Governing an ethnically diverse country constitutes a major challenge for state power and government in Cameroon. The call for national unity, championed by the regime in power has had to survive strong demands for greater autonomy and threats of secession by groups from within an English-speaking minority. In response to these demands and threats, and in conjunction with reforms to improve democratic governance and service delivery, Cameroon&rsquo / s state administration has in the last decade resorted to decentralization as a technique for promoting national unity. The question this paper seeks to answer is whether decentralization is helpful or harmful to Cameroon&rsquo / s national unity. This study traces the historical, constitutional and political development of the concepts of national unity and decentralization and critically examines their application in the Cameroonian context. It further tests the consolidation of national unity in Cameroon against a theoretical and empirical framework of decentralization. A one-dimensional view of the findings of this study is not very encouraging to regimes seeking to enhance national unity through the implementation of decentralization. However, the major conclusion of this study holds the position that the political outcome of decentralization on Cameroon&rsquo / s national unity is largely a product of the constitutional regulation of both concepts and the manner in which the theoretical dimensions of decentralization are transplanted onto Cameroon&rsquo / s political landscape. The paper recommends certain reforms to assist and guide Cameroon as it&nbsp / simultaneously implements decentralization and consolidates national unity.</p>

From the mid-1990s, the amalgamation of security, development, and humanitarian imperatives under the single umbrella of ‘state-building’ has provided a compelling justification for increasingly intrusive interventions into the political, economic, and social affairs of subject countries. Guided by the assumptions of liberal peace theory, state-building initiatives engage directly with states, seeking to achieve a reformulation of structures of government as a first step towards the implementation of wider socio-economic reforms. The state-building project is geared towards the construction of a particular form of statehood in subject states; state institutions are to be reconstructed in accordance with a liberal template, and tasked with establishing the necessary institutional environment for market-led development and the liberal peace. Contemporary discourses of state-building and development are fundamentally interlinked, representing a unified process of neo-liberal replication in subject states, whereby fundamental transformations of social, political, and economic structures are to be implemented and sustained through the construction of liberal state institutions. Pressure to court international approval due to conditions of aid dependence curtails the potential for meaningful democracy in subject countries. Key questions of social and economic policy are subsumed as technical matters of good governance and removed from domestic democratic contestation, facilitating a transfer of formerly domestic considerations into the international sphere. These interlocking processes of state-building and neo-liberal discipline have contributed to an inversion of sovereign statehood, whereby the state serves to channel inward an externally driven agenda, rather than acting as a sovereign expression of domestic interests. This reality raises important questions regarding the nature of democracy in post-conflict environments, and in particular the impact of state-building activities on the prospects for broadly inclusive democracy in subject states. This study will examine the evolution of state-building as a critical components of peace-building missions, its central assumptions and goals, and its implementation in practice in Timor-Leste. The state-building process in Timor-Leste has contributed to the formation of an insulated state with little basis in Timorese society. The democratic experience in Timor-Leste has been profoundly disempowering; conditions of aid dependence have constrained elected governments in key areas of social and economic policy, resulting in a loss of popular legitimacy and mounting public disenchantment. Closer examination of food and agricultural policy and management of Timorese oil reserves reveals the extent to which government policy remains constrained by international preferences. In these areas, the government’s inability to act in the interests of the Timorese public has compounded social hardships and popular discontent, contributing to the build-up of anti-government sentiment that manifested itself in the 2006 crisis.

The question this paper seeks to answer is whether decentralization is helpful or harmful to Cameroon's national unity. This study traces the historical, constitutional and political development of the concepts of national unity and decentralization and critically examines their application in the Cameroonian context. It further tests the consolidation of national unity in Cameroon against a theoretical and empirical framework of decentralization. A one-dimensional view of the findings of this study is not very encouraging to regimes seeking to enhance national unity through the implementation of decentralization. However, the major conclusion of this study holds the position that the political outcome of decentralization on Cameroon's national unity is largely a product of the constitutional regulation of both concepts and the manner in which the theoretical dimensions of decentralization are transplanted onto Cameroon's political landscape. The paper recommends certain reforms to assist and guide Cameroon as it simultaneously implements decentralization and consolidates national unity. / Magister Legum - LLM

Governing an ethnically diverse country constitutes a major challenge for state power and government in Cameroon. The call for national unity, championed by the regime in power has had to survive strong demands for greater autonomy and threats of secession by groups from within an English-speaking minority. In response to these demands and threats, and in conjunction with reforms to improve democratic governance and service delivery,Cameroon’s state administration has in the last decade resorted to decentralization as a technique for promoting national unity. The question this paper seeks to answer is whether decentralization is helpful or harmful to Cameroon’s national unity. This study traces the historical, constitutional and political development of the concepts of national unity and decentralization and critically examines their application in the Cameroonian context. It further tests the consolidation of national unity in Cameroon against a theoretical and empirical framework of decentralization. A one-dimensional view of the findings of this study is not very encouraging to regimes seeking to enhance national unity through the implementation of decentralization. However, the major conclusion of this study holds the position that the political outcome of decentralization on Cameroon’s national unity is largely a product of the constitutional regulation of both concepts and the manner in which the theoretical dimensions of decentralization are transplanted onto Cameroon’s political landscape. The paper recommends certain reforms to assist and guide Cameroon as it simultaneously implements decentralization and consolidates national unity. / Magister Legum - LLM

The notion of accountability assumes different meanings and emphasis in different contexts depending on the purpose for which it is used. In essence, accountability has to do with the demand for improved services, operations and products. In the public sector in particular, the spread of democratization has led to growing public demand for improved and better services and standards. This demand led many governments to introduce administrative reforms to bring about the desired changes in the delivery of services to the general public. Education, as a public service, and against the backdrop ofpoor learning outcomes, has over the years been subjected to intensive public scrutiny leading to increased demand for education accountability. The huge expectations imposed on educational establishments have led to a significant change in the nature and scale of education accountability. Equally, the lack of confidence in public schools to meet the educational needs of society is a further justification for the demand for accountability in education. Education accountability, in the final analysis, has as its primary goal, the need to improve learning outcomes. This study is about the development of a conceptual framework to enhance accountability in public schooling. Existing accountability processes and practises fall far too short of making public education accountable. Partly because approaches to accountability are not grounded on fundamental values and principles. Accountability in general and education accountability in particular, must be underpinned by sound values and principles to be effective and developmental. This study takes as its point of departure, the view that education accountability is both necessary and desirable if the growing educational needs of communities, particularly the poor, are to be met. To that effect, the conceptual framework has to afford every learning institution, regardless of its unique characteristics and circumstances, the opportunity to meet its accountability obligations. In this study, the quantitative and qualitative designs were employed to gather information relating to accountability processes and practises in the N orth-West education system and schools in particular. A survey questionnaire (quantitative) was used to compile data regarding the views and perspectives of principals on education accountability. Focus group interviews (qualitative) were conducted with both district officials and teacher unions to solicit their views and perspectives on the processes and practises of accountability in the North-West education department. The sample involved 222 principals from both primary and secondary schools in the province. Nine (9) union representatives drawn from the three major unions in the province participated in the focused group interviews. In addition, 7 district officials, drawn from the four education districts in the province also participated in the focus group interviews. The research, as stipulated above, yielded the following results: • Most of the principals surveyed managed schools that are located in rural and generally poor areas. These demographic challenges imposed serious limitations on the capacity of principals to manage effectively since rural schools are often geographically dispersed and poorly resourced. Consequently, accountability processes and practises must be sensitive to the context within which these schools operate. • Most of the principals sampled have the requisite qualifications and managerial experience suggesting that they are reasonably equipped to do their work. There is also evidence that provision is made for in-service training in management. It could therefore be concluded that if experience and qualifications alone were taken as key determinants in securing effective management, many of the sampled schools would be performing reasonably well. This finding however, is inconsistent with the widespread school level dysfunctionality that characterise the North-West schooling system. Effective accountability would therefore go beyond the principal to find answers to this incongruecy. • Teacher quality and teacher professionalism were identified as key levers of educational quality and school level accountability • There is a clear and direct link between an accountable school and the role of the principal. The characteristic features of an accountable school tended to overlap with the roles and responsibilities of the principals. • The role ofstakeholders in enhancing education accountability was supported by most respondents, suggesting therefore that schools must strive to develop healthy relationships with all stakeholders, both internal and externaL • Collaboration and networking among principals were seen as important in providing principals with opportunities to share ideas and thereby enhance their own capabilities • Accountability was seen by most respondents in a positive light, however, participants maintained that accountability processes and practises were poorly understood and implemented in the North-West education system. • There was general concern that the various parties to the accountability relationship did not understand their respective roles and responsibilities and thus diluting instead ofenhancing accountability. • The views of participants on the importance of performance agreements as a way of enhancing accountability were generally negative. Fear was expressed that these agreements would be abused. This finding is consistent with the finding that accountability practises were poorly understood and implemented. The general conclusion from this study is that education accountability is both necessary and desirable. However, the complex contexts within which education is delivered must be fully appreciated if accountability practices and processes are to be effective. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Education Management))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011

This thesis examines the relationship between the state and civil society in Zimbabwe. The relationship between the state and civil society is discussed under the categories of the concepts democratisation, good governance and sustainable development. The nature of the relationship between the state and civil society in Africa is examined to set out parameters for state-civil society debate in Zimbabwe. The discussion of the relationship between the state and civil society in Zimbabwe is synthesised into three parts, the post-independence era, the post-1990s and the post-2000. From these discussions it is argued that the relationship between the state and civil society was peaceful in the first decade of independence and this was because the state maintained dominance and control over all sectors of civil society. However, the 1990s saw a collapse of peaceful relations between the state and civil society in Zimbabwe. The collapse of the peaceful relationship between the state and civil society came as a result of the country’s economic decline and the authoritarian practices in Zimbabwe, which saw the emergence of a confrontational civil society towards the state. In the early 2000s, it is observed that the state became repressive towards civil society through the introduction of repressive laws which include Access to Information and Privacy Act (AIIPA) and the Public Order and Security Act (POSA). For peaceful relations between the state and civil society to exist in a sustainable manner, the state must continuously promote and practice democracy and good governance. In addition, the state should play a pivotal role of enhancing sustainable development in a manner that meets the socio-economic realities of its population. / Thesis (M.A. (Political Studies))--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2011

This thesis examines the relationship between the state and civil society in Zimbabwe. The relationship between the state and civil society is discussed under the categories of the concepts democratisation, good governance and sustainable development. The nature of the relationship between the state and civil society in Africa is examined to set out parameters for state-civil society debate in Zimbabwe. The discussion of the relationship between the state and civil society in Zimbabwe is synthesised into three parts, the post-independence era, the post-1990s and the post-2000. From these discussions it is argued that the relationship between the state and civil society was peaceful in the first decade of independence and this was because the state maintained dominance and control over all sectors of civil society. However, the 1990s saw a collapse of peaceful relations between the state and civil society in Zimbabwe. The collapse of the peaceful relationship between the state and civil society came as a result of the country’s economic decline and the authoritarian practices in Zimbabwe, which saw the emergence of a confrontational civil society towards the state. In the early 2000s, it is observed that the state became repressive towards civil society through the introduction of repressive laws which include Access to Information and Privacy Act (AIIPA) and the Public Order and Security Act (POSA). For peaceful relations between the state and civil society to exist in a sustainable manner, the state must continuously promote and practice democracy and good governance. In addition, the state should play a pivotal role of enhancing sustainable development in a manner that meets the socio-economic realities of its population. / Thesis (M.A. (Political Studies))--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2011