In the last thirty years there have been significant changes in the governmentality and culture of higher education in the UK; concurrently, day-to-day practice has been transformed by networked computers. This political and technical double-act may be understood as a specific articulation of what Jodi Dean has termed communicative capitalism (2010, p.2-9). This thesis investigates how such political and technocultural changes condition the subjectivity of academic staff across a range of academic activities and contexts. The theoretical model I develop draws notably on a combination of the psychoanalytic theory of Freud and Lacan, using Freud's conception of the ‘uncanny' (1919) and Althusser's theory of ideology (1970), to consider how the academic subject of technoculture is constituted by the particular domain of communicative capitalism I term the Haunted University. To develop this argument the thesis firstly establishes the ‘nature' of the contemporary university – distinguishing it from earlier models and earlier moments of reform. This is developed using cultural history sources and theoretical work from social, cultural and critical higher education studies. Secondly, I use a series of cultural studies methods to identify and explore elements of the new university formation. These include the selection and analysis of relevant digital materials (e.g. academic homepages and blogs) and small qualitative surveys of academic staff. Thirdly, the broadly Lacanian thrust of my argument is developed through leveraging theoretical work from the fields of cultural studies, philosophy, critical labour studies and higher education policy. I conclude that the series of developments and changes enacted by communicative capitalism has tended to transform academic subjectivity, bringing about what may be a permanent change in the ontology and epistemology of the academy. However, despite neoliberalism's attempt to foreclose discursive dissent, there are resistances to its project. My original contribution to knowledge is to theorise how and why the shift in academic subjectivity is being enacted, demonstrating how the technocultural, neoliberal university is beginning to haunt the academy not only from the outside, but from the inside, too.

After the extension of the European Parliament's (EP) decision-making powers introduced by the Treaties of Amsterdam and Lisbon, it was assumed that the EP would increase the democratic credentials of the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice (AFSJ) and, given the EP's traditional promotion of civil liberties and human rights, that it would also tip the balance towards a more rights-based approach. Six years on, these expectations have not been fulfilled. The objective of this study is to evaluate why the EP, now a co-legislator, has been unable (or unwilling) to maintain its past policy preferences. In order to understand this gap between expectations and actions, the study looks at three case studies (the ‘Data retention' directive, the ‘Returns' directive and the SWIFT Agreement) and compares the impact that the introduction of more powers for the EP has had on these different episodes. In order to maximise the number of possible explanations, the study uses rational-choice and constructivist institutionalist approaches to identify the reasons behind the change in the policy preferences of the EP. In this sense, it aims to uncover the levels and direction of change as well as the main conditions and drivers that led to the abandonment of its previous policy positions.

The past decades have witnessed a surge in the scholarly use of the concept „populism‟, especially where the European context is concerned. Populism is a problematic concept, however, as it is often ill-defined and haphazardly applied. The surge of populism is, nevertheless, important as it is considered to be an indicator for the state of representative democracy. This study has two main aims. The first is to relate the concept populism to political parties and to identify the populist parties that have recently managed to enter parliament in 31 European countries. In the European context, populism has predominantly been associated with extreme or radical right parties. This study broadens the scope by also considering populist parties that are not typical examples of this type of party. This dissertation further contributes to the scholarly literature by moving beyond Western Europe and studying populist parties across the whole of Europe. An important lesson of this dissertation is that scholars should be very careful when applying the concept populism to political parties to prevent further concept-stretching. The second aim of the study is to explain the electoral performance of populist parties in Europe. A relatively novel technique, Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA), is applied. This method is particularly geared at demonstrating causal complexity. The results of this analysis are triangulated with three in-depth qualitative case studies of populist parties in three countries: The Netherlands, Poland and the United Kingdom. The study explicitly focuses on the agency of political parties and the credibility of populist parties in particular. In addition to the presence of a conducive environment, this turns out to be a crucial factor in explaining the electoral performance of populist parties. Further comparative research should, therefore, not refrain from taking the agency of populist parties themselves into account.

The aim of the thesis is contribute to the growing comparative literature on regionalist parties in Western Europe, focusing on strategy and ideology. The research questions correspond to the three ideological dimensions/domains which are taken into consideration (centre-periphery, leftright and European integration), as well as to the links amongst such dimensions/domains: why are some regionalist parties more moderate (i.e. autonomists) while other are more radical (i.e. secessionists)?; why do some regionalist parties position themselves to the left, while others position themselves to the right?; why are some regionalist parties pro-integration, while others are against?; are there relationships between regionalist parties‟ positions across the diverse ideological dimensions? The analytical framework brings together sociological theories of political alignments with theories of party competition and theories of party change. The empirical section is made up of a comparison of four case studies (LN, PC, SVP and SNP), which are analysed in depth, plus a final chapter that includes the most important regionalist parties in Western Europe. Data are gathered through interviews with prominent party members, party documents (primarily manifestos), election studies and secondary sources. In brief, in the conclusions it is argued that: regions that have been independent states in the past and regions with concentrated ethno-linguistic minorities tend to produce more radical parties on the centre-periphery dimension. Competition between regionalist parties acting in the same region also increases radicalism; 'working class' regions tend to produce leftist regionalist parties, while 'bourgeois' regions tend to produce rightist regionalist parties; positioning on European integration depends mainly on the compatibility of the selfgovernment project with the process of European integration and on parties‟ satisfaction with the policy output of the state vis a vis that of the EU; only weak relationships can be discerned between centre-periphery and left-right positioning, and between centre-periphery and European integration. A stronger relationship is apparent between left-right and European integration positioning.

This thesis advances several core arguments surrounding the need for a dynamic and nuanced conceptualisation and multi-dimensional framework to position parties towards European integration; that Europe does play a more important role in European elections than previously thought; that ideology is the strongest predictor of party positions; and finally that the quantitative study of party manifestos produces valid and reliable data for positioning political parties. The study finds that the European issue is the most important in European election manifestos and that parties do exhibit similar behaviour in both national and European elections. Furthermore, it finds that ideology remains an important and strong predictive factor, but its explanatory power diminishes in the analyses towards the newer dimensions of integration (social, cultural, and foreign policy). With the in-depth examination of party positions, it is possible to identify a significantly greater number of Eurosceptic parties using the new definition, that Euroscepticism is now found in all political party families, and that there remains a strong ideological component in the content of their positions towards integration. However, ideology is a stronger predictive factor for the left-wing parties, with those on the right being more fragmented and heterogeneous

Thesis. 1977. M.Arch.A.S.--Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Architecture. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ROTCH. / Includes bibliographical references. / M.Arch.A.S.

This dissertation consists of four studies on the role of institutions, education and institutional reform in economic development. Three of the studies examine empirical aspects of the issue and the fourth provides an analysis of policy implications. A key theme of the dissertation is the recognition that institutions, both formal and informal, are important for development. The observation that some developing economies have been unable to substantively improve institutional structures, creates a vital agenda for studying institutional change. The first study empirically investigates the impact of education, both quantitatively and qualitatively, on the informal institution of social capital measured as social trust. Differences in levels of education are considered to find the separate effects of primary, secondary and tertiary education. The relationship between education and social trust levels in countries is found to be positive. The sample is further split into developed and developing countries which also substantiates the main hypothesis. The results can be interpreted as schooling playing a transformative role in the society. The second study develops a framework for studying education inequality and institutional development. A range of economic, political and social measures of institutional quality are used in a cross-country analysis. The study confirms that the cross-country differences in institutional variables are influenced negatively by the education inequality. Several competing hypotheses of institutional improvement are used to test the sensitivity of the results. The sample is further split into OECD and non-OECD countries, with no new results arising from this split. The third study investigates the relationship of education inequality and institutional quality using panel data techniques and an alternative data set of institutional measures, than the one used in the second study. This study initially estimates the relationship using the pooled OLS and fixed effects models. The issue of persistency in institutional variables is then investigated by using a system GMM estimator. The evidence suggests that the impact of reducing education inequality is associated with improvements in institutional quality. The fourth study analyses the implications from the first three studies with reference to the institutional reform agenda. Insight is given for improving the reform process. Areas of context specificity and sequencing of reforms are dealt with, using country examples. The intuition from this essay is that educational equality is a deliberate initiative which needs to be carried out through policy initiatives, although the process adopted would depend on the specific economy. It is suggested that there is a need to change the fundamental focus from emphasis on altering formal rules, to considering the current underlying structures in societies as a constraint, in developing a way forward to improving the reform agenda.

One of the most challenging questions that a political comparativist can grapple with in todays world is: Why do some countries and their systems of governance fail while others succeed? As a student of comparative politics, I have been grappling with a similar question for some time now: What is wrong with development initiatives in Africa? This is the major question motivating my research. In this dissertation, I apply a new institutional approach to an exploration and analysis of the fundamental institutional issues of the current local governance system in Tanzania. Specifically, this study investigates and reflects on the relationship between institutions and governance in local political settings and analyzes the impacts of institutional factors on good governance, particularly at the local level, in Tanzania. Of particular importance in this study is the precise analysis that I provide of contemporary governing practices in Tanzania since the inception of the Local Government Reform Program (LGRP) in 2000. This is used to compare current governing practices to the conceptions of how they were expected work after the end of the program in June 2008. I used documentary research to identify fundamental issues in local governance in Tanzania. From this checklist, a selected few of the problems, ones that are common to all local government authorities (LGAs), were chosen as the foci of the research. Then, in order to explore the relationship between the selected problems and the institutional framework, a case study of four LGAs in Tanzania was employed. I have argued in this dissertation that Tanzanias development outcomes (good governance and reduction of systemic poverty) are greatly influenced by the countrys institutions of governance. However, my research findings show that the role of institutions that are deemed necessary for the achievement of local development goals and good governance in Tanzania has become severely simplified if not forgotten. Drawing on the discussions and findings of each chapter in this dissertation, I came to the conclusion that when the system of governance is malfunctioning, then something must be wrong with its institutional mechanisms. This is what I have described in this study as alternative thinking on governance.

The purpose of the study is to identify variables influencing family members’ decisions regarding continued placement of family members with mental disabilities in state-operated mental retardation institutions. This study was conducted during the spring and summer of 2006 (March through July). The participants were 51 family members of residents residing in one stateoperated institution. The survey questionnaire used in this study was developed using several similar questionnaires found in the literature as a guide. Of the 17 questions, two were taken from the Survey of Families with a Developmentally Disabled Family Member by Tausig (1985); and two were taken from the Survey of Parents of Children with Developmental Disabilities by Sherman (1988). The remaining questions were generated and modified from the National Survey of the Families of Institutionalized Mentally Retarded Persons by Spreat, Telles, Conroy, Feinstein, and Colombatto (1987). All three questionnaires used were designed to assess families’ perceptions of residential services. Descriptive statistics were used to report personal characteristics of family members, and correlation techniques were used to measure relationships between and among characteristics of family members and their decisions to both seek and maintain placement of their family member with mental disabilities in a state-operated institution. Major findings are: 1. Respondents were more likely to seek initial placement in a state mental retardation institution, a) because their family member with the mental disability could receive more intensive care and/or specialized programs in the institution, and b) because they were advised by physicians and/or other medical and professional specialists. 2. The need for a more protected place/secure environment was very important to family members when deciding to seek initial placement. 3. Current placement was maintained because their family member with the mental disability could receive more intensive care or specialized programs in the institution. 4. The need for 24-hour supervision that could provide for a more protected environment was reported as a reason for the decision to maintain their current placements. 5. Respondents indicated they were satisfied with services provided at the residential facility; and the need for facility, social and physical/health supports were important factors that determined family members’ choices to maintain placement.

Texte remanié de: Th. doct.--Hist. du droit--Clermont-Ferrand 1, 2000. / Titre de couv. : "L'ordonnance du 3 mars 1357, les Valois dans la tourmente" En appendice, choix de documents. Bibliogr. p. 325-326. Index.