We examined the Standards of Learning mathematics scores and in-class grades for a rural Virginia county public school system. We looked at third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh grades as well as Algebra I, Algebra II, and Geometry classes. The purpose of this was to determine whether or not there is a strong correlation between the Standards of Learning and the students' in-class grades. Had a strong enough correlation between the Standards of Learning and in-class grades been found we would have used only the in-class grades to predict the Standard of Learning test scores. However, we found that the students' in-class grades are not the only predictor of the Standards of Learning test scores. With the coefficient of determination ranging from 6.8% to 84.4%, this indicates that at best 84.4% of variation in the response is explained by the model for Algebra II and at worst only 6.8% for Algebra I.

This research has analyzed how the institutions of the merit-based bureaucratic system in the Korean Government changed from 1948 to 1963, applying the gradual institutional change theory of Mahoney and Thelen (2010). Though copious research has been produced on Korean economic development, little analysis has been made on the emergence of the Korean developmental state. This research aimed to fill in the analytical gap by examining how effective bureaucratic institutions was established in the Korean developmental state to draw out implications for the institutional change theory as well as the discussion on the developmental sate and state capacity. This research has found that the merit-based bureaucratic institutions of the Korean Government positively changed in a piecemeal approach from 1948 to 1963, though once disturbed from 1955 to 1959. Contrary to the existing literature, this research also has found that the institutional setting for the merit-based bureaucracy was set from the very beginning of the Syngman Rhee Administration; however, the selective implementation and enforcement of the rules in the Syngman Rhee period hindered the Weberian bureaucracy. This research has, therefore, drawn out that for positive institutional change, the role of the change agents is critical especially the vertical chain of reformative leadership and capable practitioners. The low level of opposition is beneficial for not only positive but also negative change. In the end, in the case of Korea, the initially ambiguous institutions provided the actors with considerable discretion to manipulate or misuse rules. As a result of the institutional reform the rules and regulations became detailed reducing the gap between what the rules say and how the rules are implemented. The empirical tests of this research have confirmed the basic assumptions of the gradual institutional change theory of Mahoney and Thelen (2010). Firstly, the empirical results have shown that the institutional change has more to do with a piecemeal internal process than to do with any external shock or event. Secondly, the gap between the existence and the enforcement of an institution has also been proved valid. Thirdly, the empirical tests have confirmed the influence of three change factors producing different types of change in the theory. Based on the empirical findings, this research has identified important implications for the institutional change theory with three key areas for improvement. The first is the validity of the three modes of change in the theory. The test has identified the need to address the different magnitudes of the three factors affecting change. This research has also identified the need to clarify the definition of gradualness and the concept of the change agents to solidify the theory. This research has also enriched the discussion on the developmental state and state capacity by identifying the limitations of the merit-based institution in different contexts. Based on the analysis, this research has drawn out four key lessons for developing countries and for the donors: the importance of the enforcement of rules; the synchronized reform coalition between committed leadership and competent practitioners; the importance of understanding local contexts; and the relationship between dictatorship and development. By analyzing the emergence of the bureaucratic institutions, this research has not only broadened our understanding of development and state capacity but also presented a practical policy solution to overcome the persistent state of incapacity in the developing countries today.

This thesis explores continuity and change in the developmental welfare approach in Thailand following the 1997 Asian financial crisis. It examines both the exogenous and endogenous forces that generated change as well as both the ‘process’ and the ‘content’ of transformation or responses to the crisis. It uses the One Tambon One Product (OTOP) policy as a case study to explore these changes. The principle research question is: To what extent did the post 1997 crisis policy on social protection in Thailand represent a shift from its existing institutional path of developmental welfarism? Extending from this overarching question are subsidiary questions, which guided the thesis. They include: To what extent did the OTOP policy address the social protection gaps that became apparent in the Asian financial crisis? To what extent did the OTOP policy benefit its target population? The thesis uses historical institutionalism (HI) and the role of ideas as the analytic frameworks in analyzing change. The thesis argues that the exogenous shock of the 1997 financial crisis contributed to some departure from the institutional path of developmental welfarism in Thailand. However, the change did not follow the conventional punctuated equilibrium (PE) model under the HI framework in the sense of moving from one equilibrium to another after an exogenous shock. Rather, the radical change that took place after the exogenous shock was gradual. The new set of institutional arrangement prompted significant ideational and institutional transformations. They involved both intended and unintended consequences of incremental shifts in the forms of ‘layering’ ‘drift’ and ‘conversion’ (Streeck and Thelen, 2005). In addition, the thesis argues that the transformation in Thailand after the 1997 financial crisis lies in an intermediate order of change that is found between shifts in policy instrument and a wholesale ‘paradigm shift’ (Hall, 1993). Here, apart from having introduced a new policy such as OTOP, the Thai government engaged in a broader rethinking of Thailand’s developmental welfare path. Moreover, the study finds that the structure of economic development in a developing country context can both promote and impede social protection, rather than only subordinate the latter. The claim is based on the finding that the expansion of economic policy goals in Thailand supported local development and increasing inclusiveness of the informal sector after the 1997 financial crisis. Finally, the thesis argues that social protection delivery or lack thereof reflects contestation of ideas as well as material interests. Both the state and the policy beneficiaries in the OTOP context pushed for their interests when there were gaps between policy formulation and implementation. As a result, changes occurred both in the policy goals and in who benefited from OTOP.

O direito fundamental à liberdade sindical, consagrado no ordenamento jurídico brasileiro não apenas na Constituição Federal, mas também nos mais importantes Pactos Internacionais de Direiros Humanos ratificados pelo Brasil, possui, a despeito de sua conceituação aberta e aparentemente imprecisa, um conteúdo histórico-institucional que pode ser objetivamente delineado e que, por tal razão, condiciona a atuação dos órgãos estatais e dos atores particulares nas situações concretas de aplicabilidade. Demonstrar-se-á, nesse sentido, que o conteúdo institucional da liberdade sindical foi talhado não só pelo contexto fático presente no momento histórico de seu surgimento, como também pelas vicissitudes ocorridas ao longo de seu desenvolvimento espaço-temporal, de modo a ensejar como consectário lógico, dentre os diversos aspectos individuais e coletivos a ele inerentes, a tutela dos trabalhadores e de suas entidades representativas contra as condutas antissindicais e antirrepresentativas praticadas pelos empregadores, pelo Estado e pelos próprios sindicatos. Para além disso, a tese buscará elencar, de modo objetivo, (i) os sujeitos titulares da proteção contra os atos antissindicais e antirrepresentativos subjacente ao conteúdo histórico-institucional do princípio da liberdade sindical, (ii) as circunstâncias sob as quais estes últimos encontram-se amparados, (iii) os parâmetros objetivos a serem observados pelo legislador ordinário, bem como pelo Poder Judiciário e pelo Poder Executivo quando da concretização, da aplicação e da regulamentação dos dispositivos do ordenamento jurídicos a consagrarem o direito fundamental à liberdade sindical e (iv) os mecanismos de tutela de que dispõem dos trabalhadores e de suas entidades em face daquelas práticas.Ao cabo de tal análise, ter-se-á o delineamento objetivo da tutela emanada do princípio da liberdade sindical consagrado no ordenamento jurídico pátrio em relação aos atos antissindicais e antirrepresentativos passíveis de serem praticados contra os trabalhadores e suas entidades e das diretrizes a vincularem os agentes públicos na implementação prática de tal tutela. / The freedom of trade unions association, as an human right recognized by the Brazilian law not only in the text of the Federal Constitution, but also in the most important International Human Rights Conventions signed by Brazil, own, despite its open and apparently imprecise definition, an historic content that can be defined in objective lines and which terms links the public authorities and the private actors to its lines in the concrete situations. The study intend to demonstrate, on that sense, that the institutional content owned by the freedom of trade unions association was defined not only in the historical moment when these right has arrived, but also in the situations occurred during its development as an institutional right. The evolution faced by the freedom of trade unions association lead us to understand the protection of the workers and its collective bodies from the acts against the labor organization (as known as unfair labor practices) promoted by the employers, by the public authorities or by the trade unions itself as a matter inherent to these institutional right. Moreover, the study will try to describe objectively (i) the subjects of the protection against those unfair labor practices, (ii) the circumstances under which these subjects are protected, (iii) the objective terms to be followed by the authorities of the Legislative, Judiciary and Executive in the task of giving practical sense to the freedom of trade unions association as an instrument of protection against the unfair labor practices and (iv) the protection mechanisms which the law offers to the workers and its bodies in order to protect them from those unfair practices.After all, it will be possible to describe the objective terms of the protection that the freedom of trade nunions association recognized by the Brazilian law as an autonomous institution give to workers and its organizations against those unfair labor practices.

O direito fundamental à liberdade sindical, consagrado no ordenamento jurídico brasileiro não apenas na Constituição Federal, mas também nos mais importantes Pactos Internacionais de Direiros Humanos ratificados pelo Brasil, possui, a despeito de sua conceituação aberta e aparentemente imprecisa, um conteúdo histórico-institucional que pode ser objetivamente delineado e que, por tal razão, condiciona a atuação dos órgãos estatais e dos atores particulares nas situações concretas de aplicabilidade. Demonstrar-se-á, nesse sentido, que o conteúdo institucional da liberdade sindical foi talhado não só pelo contexto fático presente no momento histórico de seu surgimento, como também pelas vicissitudes ocorridas ao longo de seu desenvolvimento espaço-temporal, de modo a ensejar como consectário lógico, dentre os diversos aspectos individuais e coletivos a ele inerentes, a tutela dos trabalhadores e de suas entidades representativas contra as condutas antissindicais e antirrepresentativas praticadas pelos empregadores, pelo Estado e pelos próprios sindicatos. Para além disso, a tese buscará elencar, de modo objetivo, (i) os sujeitos titulares da proteção contra os atos antissindicais e antirrepresentativos subjacente ao conteúdo histórico-institucional do princípio da liberdade sindical, (ii) as circunstâncias sob as quais estes últimos encontram-se amparados, (iii) os parâmetros objetivos a serem observados pelo legislador ordinário, bem como pelo Poder Judiciário e pelo Poder Executivo quando da concretização, da aplicação e da regulamentação dos dispositivos do ordenamento jurídicos a consagrarem o direito fundamental à liberdade sindical e (iv) os mecanismos de tutela de que dispõem dos trabalhadores e de suas entidades em face daquelas práticas.Ao cabo de tal análise, ter-se-á o delineamento objetivo da tutela emanada do princípio da liberdade sindical consagrado no ordenamento jurídico pátrio em relação aos atos antissindicais e antirrepresentativos passíveis de serem praticados contra os trabalhadores e suas entidades e das diretrizes a vincularem os agentes públicos na implementação prática de tal tutela. / The freedom of trade unions association, as an human right recognized by the Brazilian law not only in the text of the Federal Constitution, but also in the most important International Human Rights Conventions signed by Brazil, own, despite its open and apparently imprecise definition, an historic content that can be defined in objective lines and which terms links the public authorities and the private actors to its lines in the concrete situations. The study intend to demonstrate, on that sense, that the institutional content owned by the freedom of trade unions association was defined not only in the historical moment when these right has arrived, but also in the situations occurred during its development as an institutional right. The evolution faced by the freedom of trade unions association lead us to understand the protection of the workers and its collective bodies from the acts against the labor organization (as known as unfair labor practices) promoted by the employers, by the public authorities or by the trade unions itself as a matter inherent to these institutional right. Moreover, the study will try to describe objectively (i) the subjects of the protection against those unfair labor practices, (ii) the circumstances under which these subjects are protected, (iii) the objective terms to be followed by the authorities of the Legislative, Judiciary and Executive in the task of giving practical sense to the freedom of trade unions association as an instrument of protection against the unfair labor practices and (iv) the protection mechanisms which the law offers to the workers and its bodies in order to protect them from those unfair practices.After all, it will be possible to describe the objective terms of the protection that the freedom of trade nunions association recognized by the Brazilian law as an autonomous institution give to workers and its organizations against those unfair labor practices.