The activity of interest groups in the political process of the European Union has given rise to a broad debate concerning the effect on European democracy these groups have. As relatively powerful political actors, the question of these groups’ views on the EU and how the union should be is an important one. The status of these groups owns democratic representation also affects the democratic status of the EU. Being based on a number of theories, this study adopts an ideology analysis for the purpose of testing these theories on two cases – the Swedish environmental organizations World Wide Fund for Nature and The Swedish Society for Nature Conservation. This study conducts an investigation of these questions based on theories of interest group involvement in politics, aswell as the broader theories of pluralism and corporatism in a democratic political system. The question of representation is examined based on different perspectives and theories of representation, specifically on discursive representation which offers a view unlike the normal one of representing individuals or voters. The analysis shows varying support for the pluralist and corporatist view of politics, aswell as clear support for the discursive representation together with the more “traditional” view of representation.

A "peer advisory group" essentially melds a business advisory board with a peer group. Peer advisory groups consist of business managers who meet together for the purpose of mutual self-improvement and learning through the sharing of experiences. The entire peer advisory group concept encompasses many variations and this research focuses on groups consisting of farm managers. Unfortunately, some farm managers who wish to participate have expressed frustration with group formation: they find it difficult to identify suitable individuals to participate in a peer advisory group with. Peer advisory groups can take many forms, and experts have suggested an individual should specifically seek out people interested in the same type of group. For example, an individual who wants to strictly focus discussion on production issues should seek out other individuals who also seek to focus on production discussions. Some individuals have suggested that some type of "clearinghouse" organizations could be beneficial in assisting individuals with the peer advisory group formation problem. Such an organization would likely need to adapt some sort of method for identifying individuals who have interest in a similar type of group. Although this could be approached from several different angles, one possible approach involves the practice of cluster analysis?a wide set of procedures intended to break down a set of objects into "clusters" of individuals with similar attributes. Cluster analysis comes with several attractive benefits; however, literature includes countless variations in the methods and criticisms of certain aspects of the methodology. This thesis focuses on using cluster analysis to assist with peer advisory group formation. More specifically, this thesis seeks to answer the following question: how could a clearinghouse organization apply cluster analysis methods to a pool of candidates to effectively create peer advisory groups congruent to the individuals' needs and wants? An approach was proposed which differs slightly from traditional cluster analysis methods, and this was applied to a hypothetical pool of candidates, along with several control methods. The proposed approach was found to most effectively create peer advisory groups which fulfilled the desires of the individuals.

The present thesis aims to develop an analogy between the methods for recognizing a black box group and the classification of the finite simple groups. We propose a uniform approach for recognizing simple groups of Lie type which can be viewed as the computational version of the classification of the finite simple groups. Similar to the inductive argument on centralizers of involutions which plays a crucial role in the classification project, our approach is based on a recursive construction of the centralizers of involutions in black box groups. We present an algorithm which constructs a long root SL_2(q)-subgroup in a finite simple group of Lie type of odd characteristic $p$ extended possibly by a p-group. Following this construction, we take the Aschbacher&#039 / s ``Classical Involution Theorem&#039 / &#039 / as a model in the final recognition algorithm and we propose an algorithm which constructs all root SL_2(q)-subgroups corresponding to the nodes in the extended Dynkin diagram, that is, our approach is the construction of the the extended Curtis - Phan - Tits presentation of the finite simple groups of Lie type of odd characteristic which further yields the construction of all subsystem subgroups which can be read from the extended Dynkin diagram. In this thesis, we present this algorithm for the groups PSL_n(q) and PSU_n(q). We also present an algorithm which determines whether the p-core (or ``unipotent radical&#039 / &#039 / ) O_p(G) of a black box group G is trivial or not where G/O_p(G) is a finite simple classical group of Lie type of odd characteristic p answering a well-known question of Babai and Shalev. The algorithms presented in this thesis have been implemented extensively in the computer algebra system GAP.

This thesis is devoted to the analysis of relations between two major conjectures in the theory of groups of finite Morley rank. One of them is the Cherlin-Zil&#039 / ber Algebraicity Conjecture which states that infinite simple groups of finite Morley rank are isomorphic to simple algebraic groups over algebraically closed fields. The other conjecture is due to Hrushovski and it states that a generic automorphism of a simple group of finite Morley rank has pseudofinite group of fixed points. Hrushovski showed that the Cherlin-Zil&#039 / ber Conjecture implies his conjecture. Proving his Conjecture and reversing the implication would provide a new efficient approach to prove the Cherlin-Zil&#039 / ber Conjecture. This thesis proposes an approach to derive a proof of the Cherlin-Zil&#039 / ber Conjecture from Hrushovski&#039 / s Conjecture and contains a proof of a step in that direction. Firstly, we show that John S. Wilson&#039 / s classification theorem for simple pseudofinite groups can be adapted for definably simple non-abelian pseudofinite groups of finite centralizer dimension. Combining this result with recent related developments, we identify definably simple non-abelian pseudofinite groups with Chevalley or twisted Chevalley groups over pseudofinite fields. After that in the context of Hrushovski&#039 / s Conjecture, in a purely algebraic set-up, we show that the pseudofinite group of fixed points of a generic automorphism is actually an extension of a Chevalley group or a twisted Chevalley group over a pseudofinite field.

Thesis (M.M.)--University of North Texas, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 63-64).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Western Sydney, 2008. / A thesis presented to the University of Western Sydney, College of Health and Science, School of Computing and Mathematics, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy - Science. Includes bibliographies.

Thesis (M. Soc. Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 1987.

We construct Fuchsian groups [Gamma] of signature (0 : 2, ... ,2 ;1;0) so that the set of hyperbolic fixed points of [Gamma] will contain a given finite collection of elements in the boundary of the hyperbolic plane. We use this to establish that there are infinitely many non-commensurable non-cocompact Fuchsian groups [Delta] of finite covolume sitting in PSL₂(Q) so that the set of hyperbolic fixed points of [Delta] will contain a given finite collection of rational boundary points of the hyperbolic plane. We also give a parameterization of Fuchsian groups of signature (0:2,2,2;1;0) and investigate when particular hyperbolic elements have rational fixed points. Moreover, we include a detailed list of the group elements and their killer intervals for the known pseudomodular groups that Long and Reid found; in addition, the list contains a new list of killer intervals for a pseudomodular group not found by Long and Reid. / text

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published_or_final_version / Public Administration / Master / Master of Public Administration