No description available.

No description available.

Foreign policy is the nexus between domestic and international political systems. Studies in Canada have so far produced mixed findings related to the role of political parties in foreign policy. Drawing from campaign promise, issue ownership and foreign policy decision-making literature, this dissertation investigates whether there is a foreign policy domain consistently dominated by a particular political party in the Canadian context. Part I uses data from the Comparative Manifesto Project (CMP) combined with manually coded foreign policy promises to determine the content and scope of foreign policy-related election promises in Canada. Part II follows the well-established pledge approach to measure promise fulfilment of foreign policy promises of Canadian governing parties following elections. This dissertation not only seeks to determine whether parties matter in the context of foreign policy, but also whether one party consistently “owns” the foreign policy domain or specific foreign policy issues. Findings from this research will fill an existing gap in the literature related to policy-specific promise fulfillment in Canada and will bridge existing theoretical assumptions related to political party behaviour and foreign policy decision-making. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

I define the Taiwan issue as the tense relationship between mainland China and Taiwan since 1949. The tension used to arise from the belligerency between the Kuomintang and the Chinese Communist Party. In the past decade, Taiwan increasingly sought to define its own national identity and international status, but faced diplomatic and military pressures from mainland China, which has insisted that Taiwan is part of China. The relationship between mainland China and Taiwan has been one of the most important issues regarding the peace and security in the Asia-Pacific region. In order to explore the Taiwan issue, this research will examine the interactions among the United States, Taiwan, and mainland China in the realist perspective of international relations. The main research questions are: What determines the costs and benefits of the security decisions of the United States, Taiwan, and mainland China regarding the Taiwan issue? What decisions should the players make based on their costs and benefits? How do these decisions form various scenarios leading to different outcomes? How have the relations among the United States, Taiwan, and mainland China evolved since 1949? This thesis is organized as follows. First, an examination of the interactions among the three players---the United States, Taiwan and mainland China---in a game theoretical model explores the costs and benefits of their security decisions and the formation of various security scenarios in the Taiwan Strait. Second, the evolution of security in the Taiwan Strait is reviewed and analyzed by applying the game theoretical model to the history of the Taiwan issue. Third, based on the game theoretical model, I make some speculations and predictions on the future relations between mainland China and Taiwan. / Master of Arts

Like other communities across the country, Blacksburg, Virginia, has struggled with land-use policy, planning, and growth issues. This struggle intensified when town residents discovered a Walmart store might be included in a new retail development project. Local interest groups quickly formed, establishing different perspectives concerning the issue, while a Blacksburg Town Council member introduced an ordinance that would give the town the power to halt plans for the store. This measure became the focal point of the conflict, and groups both supporting and opposing it worked aggressively to gain community support for their respective sides of the issue. Using Cobb and Elder's (1983) agenda-building framework, the goal of this thesis is to examine the ways various groups involved in a local land-use conflict defined, and sometimes redefined, their messages to town residents in an effort to expand the issue beyond the core members of the groups to gain more widespread support. The results of these efforts are also evaluated. A case study was conducted incorporating interviews with some of the key members of the interest groups involved in the conflict and discourse analysis to examine group messages generated during the controversy. This study found that the way an issue is defined could influence its progression and play an important role in its resolution. It also highlights definitive times during an issue's evolution that are critical to its progression. These findings demonstrate some of the benefits that can result from integrating effective issue management strategies into a communication program. / Master of Arts

This thesis investigates different aspects of competition under uncertainty using the tools of game theory. In Chapter 1, I consider a quantity oligopoly game. One of the firms is presented with an opportunity to commit to some output before the demand becomes known, but may add to it afterwards, then moving simultaneously with the rivals. I show that the more cost-efficient firm is more likely to behave like a Stackelberg leader, i.e. to produce the optimal Stackelberg leader quantity ex-ante and refrain from adding to it later, letting the rivals respond to its ex-ante output in the manner of Stackelberg followers. In Chapter 2, I study a model of an electoral contest. Two symmetric parties allocate their endowments to building platforms on various issues before the start of a campaign. Next, one of the issues becomes decisive in the course of the campaign with a commonly known probability. The outcome of the election depends on the difference in competence in this issue. I show that if the payoff functions are convex in this difference-the case of 'increasing returns to power'-parties differentiate each other by selecting different campaign issues. On the contrary, when the payoff functions are concave in this difference-the case of 'decreasing returns to power'-parties mimic each other by investing the same amounts into the same issues. Thus, incentives for selecting campaign issues depend critically on the shape of the payoff functions, which might be determined by (1) a non-linear technology transforming parties' investment in various topics into voters' perception of their competence, (2) or parties' inherent motivation for winning by a big margin due to parties' ideological convictions or rent-seeking, (3) or an electoral system giving winners or big parties a disproportionate advantage in the assigned number of seats, (4) or a relatively high extent of power given to the winning party once in office.

This dissertation seeks to understand how issue publics contribute to citizen competence and the functioning of democracy. In the first part of the dissertation, a new measurement was constructed by theoretically and empirically analyzing the attributes of issue public members. Through the hypotheses testing, the new measure was more reliable in identifying issue public members compared to previous measurement strategies. Employing the new measure, results show that issue public members with concern about a specific issue, exercised their issue-specificity in seeking information (i.e., issue-based selectivity) with exposure to both attitude-consistent and counter-attitudinal perspectives. Issue public membership also had significant effects on issue-specific knowledge, and generating rationales for their own and other's oppositional viewpoints. These direct effects were mediated by issue-based selectivity. The relationships highlight the importance of issue publics in contributing to the deliberative democracy. In addition, issue publics play a significant role in contributing to the participatory democracy in that issue public members have greater intentions to participate in issue-related activities than nonmembers. However, while issue publics come close to solve the deliberative-participatory paradox, it was found that their information selectivity and argument generation were unbalanced in a way of favoring pro-attitudinal perspectives over counter-attitudinal perspectives. The second part of the dissertation examined conditional factors--accuracy and directional goals in affecting information selectivity and processing. The findings show that directional goals influenced participants to apply either the strategies of selective approach or selective avoidance to seek information depending on the issue. Accuracy goals exerted a main effect on the issue that is relatively less controversial and less obtrusive. They also interacted with issue public membership in influencing the less controversial and less obtrusive issue. Argument generation was not affected by accuracy or directional goals. Overall, through conceptualizing citizens as members of different issue publics, individuals are more competent then we thought. Their intrinsic interest in an issue serves as a strong factor affecting their information selectivity, information processing, and political actions. Despite finding an optimistic role for issue publics in the democratic process, their limitations also should be recognized. The implications for the deliberative and participatory democracy are discussed.

The thesis deals with the czech economic thought till 1948, specifically its part called woman's issue. Woman's issue was part of the social issue and it touched many of economical and social topics in theoretical and practical economy. Thesis explores interpretation of czech economists and summarizes their attitudes towards woman's issue, it defines main topics of woman's issue along with the prevailing opinions of economists and it analyses development of opinions of woman's issue in the czech economic thought.

Conducting an IPO allows companies to obtain external capital from investors in exchange for ownership stakes. The capital raised in an IPO is intended to finance the company's economic growth and expansion. A challenge regarding IPOs is the pricing of shares. The study aims to investigate whether there is a relationship between industry affiliation and underpricing in IPOs on Nasdaq Stockholm and First North. The study will also examine whether underpricing differs between IPOs on First North and Nasdaq Stockholm and whether there is a relationship between market conditions and underpricing. The sample of the study consists of 197 companies operating in the Data/IT, Real Estate, Finance, Manufacturing Industry, and Pharmaceutical industries between 2017-2023. The study uses a chi 2 test and t-tests in order to answer the research questions.  The results of the study shows that there is a statistically significant relationship between underpricing and the Swedish stock market. The average underpricing was 8,99% for all IPOs in the sample. Furthermore, the study's results indicate that there is no significant relationship between industry affiliation and underpricing. Future research could examine how IPOs in the selected industries perform over time.

O interesse em trabalhar nessa Tese, o estudioso da geografia pernambucana, Manuel Correia de Andrade é resultado da nossa inquietação em resgatar um pouco da trajetória de vida do cientista pernambucano que, com seus 84 anos de existência dedicou grande parte de sua vida às ciências sociais, contribuindo na formação do pensamento geográfico e para o conhecimento de seu país e de sua região, o Nordeste brasileiro. Sendo natural de Vicência, município que compõe o Vale do Siriji, procurou-se inicialmente fazer uma abordagem desse Vale, no que tange ao processo histórico de exploração e ocupação de suas terras com a cana de açúcar, os engenhos e, as usinas, salientando as novas territorialidades existentes, junto à cana ou mesmo em substituição da mesma. Em seguida, situou-se, nesse Vale, Jundiá, engenho onde nasceu o estudioso. O trabalho salienta a vida desse pesquisador no engenho e, como ter nascido em uma família da aristocracia açucareira teve influência no caminho por ele trilhado ao longo de sua vida profissional e acadêmica. A postura que assumiu durante toda a sua vida reflete o rompimento que houve do geógrafo com aquelas ideias vigentes na estrutura dominante na sociedade do açúcar e do poder. Foi realizada análise documental de grande parte de sua obra através do método de pesquisa de Paul Thompson a fim de destacar a contribuição dada por ele à geografia em algumas áreas que foram objeto de suas preocupações e consequentemente eram das mais estudadas e discutidas em suas obras e atividades acadêmicas: a questão ambiental e a regional. / The reason in taking as subject of this thesis Manuel Correia de Andrade, a scholar in the geography of Pernambuco, is the the concern of this researcher to recover a little of the life trajectory of this Pernambuco scientist who, along his 84 years of existence, dedicated much of his life to the social sciences, having contributed for the formation of the geographic thought and for the knowledge of his country and of his region, the Brazilian Northeast. As Andrade is a native of Vicência, a municipality that composes the Siriji Valley, this study initially sought to describe this valley including the historical process of exploring and occupying its lands with sugarcane, sugar mills and mills. On that occasion, the new territorialities that were formed because of the sugarcane plantation or even in substitution of it were highlighted. Next, the Jundiá mill was presented, where the scholar was born. This work emphasizes the life of this researcher in the sugar mill and the fact that as being born in a family of the sugar aristocracy had influence in the way he has traveled throughout his professional and academic life. The attitude he has taken throughout his life reflects the breakdown of the geographer with those ideas prevailing in the dominant structure in the sugar and power society at that time. As a methodology, a documentary analysis of a large part of his work was done through Paul Thompson\'s research method. The purpose was to highlight the contribution made by the scholar to Geography in areas that were the subject of his concerns and, consequently, more studied and discussed in his works and academic activities: the environmental and regional issues.