Brazil was confronted with high inflation while implementing neoliberal economic policies which were imposed as a panacea to the debt crisis during the process of transition to democracy since 1985. In this context, implementation of structural adjustment and stabilization programs further deteriorated its already unequal distribution of income and exposed the poor to devastating effects of the intermittent crises which were in turn the result of macro-economic policies pursued. Conditional cash transfers which were started to be made in 1995 to extremely poor people against the effects of crises by a few local governments were subsequently expanded in terms of its scope and geography. From 2004 onwards, it was begun to be implemented in the whole country under the title of Bolsa Familia, by President Lula, PT (Labor Party) leader who came to power after the 2002 elections. The program had two objectives: 1. Immediate relief of poverty through the transfer of income, 2. To get people out of poverty and to prevent intergenerational transmission of poverty through conditionalities based on education and health services. Positive impacts were observed in relation to the achievement of the first goal / but the outcomes of the studies on the second goal are not promising. So, the aim of this thesis is to investigate whether the second goal is realizable by examining these studies and their outcomes with reference to the causes of poverty / and to determine the relationship between our results and structural limitations of the program.

This thesis seeks to answer the question whether economic and social rights have the same status with civil and political rights under the human rights regime of the Council of Europe. To this end, the thesis examines the assumptions with regard to the nature of economic and social rights, on the one hand, and civil and political rights, on the other. Second, it seeks to find out whether the nature of economic and social rights is different from that of civil and political rights. Third, it examines how the protection of and approach to the two sets of rights developed in the Council of Europe. Finally, it assesses the contemporary protection of economic and social rights in the Council of Europe in comparison to protection of civil and political rights.

This thesis analyses ATAKA&rsquo / s rise as a prominent actor in Bulgarian politics and to what extent this success is sustainable. The first section seeks the roots of authoritarianism in Bulgaria. The following section focuses on the restructuring and transformation in Bulgaria following the end of the Communist Party rule. The last section examines the reproduction of authoritarianism Bulgaria which is manifested through the rise of ATAKA in the last few years. Main argument of the thesis is that while the party&rsquo / s success has been rather fast and unexpected in the beginning, it was a result of the recreation of authoritarianism that has been present in the Bulgarian history and manifested itself through ATAKA and its xenophobic-racist rhetoric since 2005. While the sustainability of ATAKA&rsquo / s success in the long-term is in question considering its decline in the 2009 parliamentary elections, there is always the possibility of the authoritarianism resurfacing through different mediums, if not through ATAKA.

Original sin in economy literature is defined as the inability of countries to borrow in domestic currency from abroad (even from local markets with long maturities and fixed-rate). There are two dimensions of the problem, international and domestic. In this thesis, some of theories on determinants of international original sin phenomenon are investigated. The results suggest that absolute size of the economy is a significant determinant of the international original sin. Financial and economic development is also found to be necessary in order to redeem from the original sin problem. Existence of strong policies and institutions, monetary credibility, and flexible exchange rate regime are found as other significant factors in terms of explaining the phenomenon. Countries that faces credit market imperfections and poor contract enforcement more prone to original sin problem.

Various assumptions exist regarding the relationship between socio-economic factors as income and education, and personal factors as age and gender, and political participation. In an attempt to test the veracity of these widely held assumptions, this study initially examines the relationship between socio-economic factors (education and income) and personal factors (age and gender) and political participation. Secondly, interest and perception of people about politics and municipal administration were investigated to be able to set some policy proposal for encouraging participation of people in politics. In order to reveal the effects of these factors on participation of people, a survey study was applied to residents in Bodrum. The study encompasses a questionnaire and in-depth interviews. According to results of the research / effects of some of these socio-economic and personal factors on political participation were observed but it was also seen that especially some other factors as income, generated no differentiation between participants. There have been gained some implications not in accordance with mainstream literature. However, political perception and interest of people show us that act of voting and political parties are seen as the main, even only, actors of political participation. In other words, people seem having a narrow political interest and perception. In addition, findings of the survey suggest that some initiatives should be composed on the initiative of municipal administration to encourage participation of people in politics.

This work aims to analyze the responses of Syria to two international changes comparatively. After the end of the Cold War, US initiated a foreign policy doctrine based on American hegemony. This policy was firstly manifested in the war on Iraq as a response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait on January 17, 1991. It was noteworthy to see Syria aligning with the US during the Gulf War (1990-1991), as the country had been allied against the US during the Cold War period. Syria was also the first state accepting US proposal for a peace conference known as Madrid Peace Conference. All these developments reveal that Syria had been cooperated with the US in the aftermath of the Cold War. The second international change analyzed within the framework of this study is the September 11 events. Following the September 11 attacks, the US declared a &ldquo / war on terror&rdquo / to recover its superpower position and intervened in Afghanistan and then Iraq. In that process, Syria opted for countering the US and became the leading critique of the invasion of Iraq. This study examines the different responses of Syria to the end of the Cold War and the post-September 11 period through using neoclassical realism as a model.

This study aims to contribute to the literature on the political role of intellectuals through examining the stance of a specific group with regard to power in the recent moment of Turkish political history. It is the concern of the thesis to identify the reasons behind the constant support of this specific group, namely, the liberal intellectuals to the political power under the AKP period. Depending on Gramsci

The current study analyzes the impact of ethical work climates (caring, law and code, rules, instrumental and independence climates) and perceptions of organizational justice (distributive, procedural and interactional justice) on workplace deviance (organizational and interpersonal deviance) which is associated with huge financial, social and psychological costs for the organizations and organizational members. The findings of the research are based on a quantitative survey conducted among 219 employees in a public organization. The results obtained after controlling the significant effect of demographic variables revealed that it was only the perceptions of procedural justice that had a significant negative impact on organizational deviance. Distributive and interactional justice predicted neither interpersonal nor organizational deviance. Among the ethical work climates, caring climate was found to be the only ethical climate type that predicted organizational deviance. The remaining types of ethical work climates had significant relationships with neither one of the interpersonal or organizational deviance. Results also showed that ethical work climate was a better predictor of organizational deviance than interpersonal deviance.

With signing of Agreement on Textile and Clothing which entered into force in 1995, it was decided to abolish quantity limitations applied by the developed countries since the second half of 20th century. By this way, restrictions in the developed country markets against the developing countries would be lifted gradually in a ten year period and the liberalization in textile and clothing markets would be realized from 2005 onwards. This would provide smooth access to major markets for all the developing and least developed countries. However, China&rsquo / s accession to WTO in 2001 created a breakthrough in this assumption. Hereafter, China increased its shares in the developed countries&rsquo / markets at the expense of other developing countries. One of the matters wondered most during this period was how would the developing and least developed countries, that had quota-free entrance to the developed countries&rsquo / markets, perform against China. This study focuses on the export performances of developing and least developed countries, that have had preferential trade agreements with European Union and the United States of America, against China in those markets.

This thesis analyzes the dynamics of bilateral relationship between the United States of America and Syrian Arab Republic from Hafez Asad&rsquo / s grasp of power in 1970 to the latest domestic uprising of 2011. The relationship will be considered under three main vectors / struggle over Lebanon, tensions regarding peace process and Israel, and rogue statehood of Syria attributed by the United States.