This study deals with the history of ballroom dancing in South Africa. While reference will be made to the founding of ballroom in the early eighteenth century in South Africa, the study will mainly focus on the period between 1920 and 1940 in the Johannesburg, Pretoria region. The study will determine how and why ballroom dancing came to South Africa from abroad; how South Africans borrowed from the international dancing world; what they copied, what ideas they followed, how they chose to dance ballroom and how this affected South African society at large. Copyright / Dissertation (MHCS)--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Historical and Heritage Studies / unrestricted

Over the last sixty years, voting patterns in the United States have changed dramatically, and this is especially true in the state of Florida. Though there is some literature in the field of political science that outlines the voting and election history of Florida and identifies some trends, this literature is extremely limited and is not comprehensive of the data that is available up to the present day. This study seeks to find Florida’s voting patterns and to explain how they can be understood by both the casual observer and the political scientist. To do so, unique methodology was applied that used the "relative margin" of both a county and a region in a particular election to give the Democratic nominee’s performance context both in the election in question and in history, by comparing the actual margin of victory or defeat of the Democratic nominee to the statewide margin of victory or defeat. This was an illuminating process that ultimately revealed some truths about the election history of Florida: the counties and regions most likely to vote for Democratic nominees in the 1950s and early 1960 are now among the least likely to do so, and the counties and regions most likely to vote for Republican nominees in the 1950s and early 1960s are now considered to be "swing" or "tossup" areas that are regularly and alternatively won by Democratic and Republican nominees. Additionally, the pattern of each region in how it voted in presidential elections was compared to forty seven other states in the country to provide further context as to how the election patterns can be understood in context.

Le gouverneur civil portugais ne cesse d’être, pour les juristes, les politistes et les historiens, une sourceconstante d’interrogations. Établi en 1832 par José Xavier MOUZINHO da SILVEIRA avec le titre de prefeito, puisen 1835 avec celui de gouverneur civil, en même temps que la création du district en tant que division administrativedu territoire, il a été, dès ses origines, fortement inspiré du préfet français. L’institution a été instaurée dans laperspective de créer une séparation entre les fonctions juridictionnelles et administratives, lesquelles relevaient descomarcas. De même, il s’agissait de doter le pouvoir royal d’une réelle structure politique à l’échelon local. Par lasuite, les Codes administratifs successifs, révisés ou adoptés quasiment à chaque alternance politique, avantl’avènement de l’État Nouveau et la Constitution Politique de 1933, n’ont pas bouleversé fondamentalement lesattributions de l’institution en tant que représentation locale du pouvoir central, et il a fallu attendre le Codeadministratif de 1940 pour faire du gouverneur civil un acteur essentiel de la vie administrative et politique locale.Après la transition démocratique, qui a fait suite à la Révolution des OEillets du 25 avril 1974, et l’adoption de laConstitution de la République Portugaise de 1976, le gouverneur civil, toujours nommé par le pouvoir central, a étémaintenu à titre transitoire… durant quatre décennies. Depuis l’échec du référendum du 8 novembre 1998, relatif à larégionalisation administrative du territoire, les relations complexes de la classe politique à l’égard de l’institutioncentrale du district se sont toujours inscrites entre perspectives de suppression, volonté de réformes et indécisions. Encela, elles sont révélatrices des atermoiements et des paradoxes de la classe politique qui souhaitait une réforme enprofondeur du gouverneur civil, mais qui maintenait l’institution dans une situation ambiguë. La loi organiquen° 1/2011 du 30 novembre 2011 a disposé que le gouverneur civil était supprimé. En l’absence d’un représentantlocal du pouvoir central on propose une réforme théorique dans laquelle le prefeito régional représenterait l’État dansles régions administratives lorsqu’elles auront été instaurées. / The role of the Portuguese Civil Governor remains a constant source of interrogation for lawyers, politicalscientists and historians. It was established in 1832 by José Xavier MOUZINHO da SILVEIRA, under the title ofPrefeito then in 1835 at the time of the creation of the district as an administrative division of the territory, the titlebecame the “Civil Governor”. It was initially inspired by the French Prefect. The institution was founded in anattempt to separate the jurisdictional and administrative functions within the districts. Similarly, the goal was toprovide the royal power with a real political structure at local level. Accordingly, before the advent of the New Stateand the Political Constitution of 1933, the revised and adopted administrative codes, resulting from any politicalchange, did not fundamentally alter the powers of the institution as a local representation of the central power. TheCivil Governor only became a key player in the administration and local politics following the Administrative Codeof 1940. After the democratic transition following the Carnation Revolution (April 25, 1974) and the adoption of theConstitution of the Portuguese Republic in 1976, the Civil Governor, who was always appointed by the centralgovernment, has remained in a transitory state for four decades, more than a third of a century. Since the referendumof November 8th 1998 relating to the administrative regionalization of the territory failed, the complex relationshipsbetween the political class and the central institution of the district have always wavered between the prospect ofsuppression, the desire for reform and indecisiveness. As such these relations revealed the prevarications andparadoxes of the political class which wanted an in depth reform of the Civil Governor’s role while maintaining theinstitution in an ambiguous situation. The organic law n° 1/2011 of November 30th 2011 states that the CivilGovernor is abolished. In the absence of the local representative of the central power, a theoretical reform is proposedwhere the regional Prefeito represents the State in the administrative regions once they are established.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Although the main emphasis of this study is Lane and his part in the Republican Party, another important part to this thesis is the examination of Indiana and national politics in the 1850s. This thesis studies the development of the Hoosier Republican Party and the obstacles the young organization experienced as it transformed into a major political party. Party leaders generally focused on states like New York and Pennsylvania in national elections but Indiana became increasingly significant leading up to the 1860 election. Though Hoosier names like George Julian and Schuyler Colfax might be more recognizable nationally for their role in the Republican Party, this thesis argues that Lane played a guiding role in the development of the new third party in Indiana. Through the study of primary sources, it is clear that Hoosiers turned to Lane to lead the organization of the Republican Party and to lead it to its success in elections. Historians have long acknowledged Lane’s involvement in the 1860 Republican National Convention but fail to fully realize his significance in Indiana throughout the 1850s. This thesis argues that Lane was a vital leader in Hoosier politics and helped transform the Republican Party in Indiana from a grassroots movement into a powerful political party by 1860.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / I examined a panel of all 50 states over a period of 30 years between 1981 and 2010, estimating a random effects model to examine the relationship between the party of a state’s governor and changes in pretax and transfer income inequality. Though the literature has quite consistently shown that income inequality increases more quickly under Republican governors or when policies favored by Republicans are implemented, I find no evidence to support this, though this is perhaps because I did not allow a long enough lag time for new policies to have an effect. I did, however, find that pretax income inequality increases more quickly under Democratic presidents than under Republicans, in spite of the fact that all previous research shows the opposite to be true. I suspect that this unusual finding is the result of a quirk in my 1981-2010 time frame, namely the effects of the shift in welfare policy under the Clinton administration in the 1990s.