This thesis looks at the way that the European states system operated and affected the Ottoman-Russian relations between 1815 and 1856. The 1815 Settlements established a new system of international relations in Europe. Russia played the greatest role in foiling the Napoleonic bid for hegemony. The most distinguishing characteristic of this new system was that its structure made cooperation effective within the framework of the institution of Concert of Europe. In this respect the four victorious great powers, i.e. Russia, England, Prussia and Austria, did not exclude the defeated power, France, and they took on the governance of international affairs. The new system was built on the political and territorial balance. To this end, the restriction of France and moderation of Russia was necessary. Both countries had some revisionist objectives. Consequently, Near East became the centre stage of the international politics after 1815. Ottoman Empire did not take part in the 1815 Settlements. Therefore, Ottoman-Russian relations were to continue on a bilateral base. Russia’s strategic goal to secure her south-east frontiers clashed with her responsibility for maintaining the provisions of 1815 Settlements in Central Europe since any change in Near East would affect the territorial and political balance in Central Europe, too. Under these circumstances, Russia faced a dilemma in her relations with the Ottoman Empire. Russia was very advantageous owing to her enormous power and her treaty rights regarding the Ottoman Empire which had acquired since 1774. Ottoman-Russian relations developed around three main events during 1815-1856: the revolt of Greeks (1821-29), the rebellion of Viceroy of Egypt (1833 and 1839) and the Holy Place Issue (1852-1854). In all those events Russia was successfully restrained against the Ottoman Empire by the structure of the new system. The thesis draws a number of conclusions. The underlying economic structure of the new state system almost remained the same during the 1815-1856 period. The thesis concludes that the course of Ottoman-Russian relations was increasingly determined by the elements of relationship structure. In particular, the foreign policy objectives of France played the significant role in shaping the Ottoman-Russian relations during 1815-1856.

Long-term unemployment creates a series of individual, social, and economic problems. Long-term unemployment has been treated with a wide variety of public policies: this thesis focuses on one approach - active labour market policies. Active labour market policies in the UK have emerged in stages, as the welfare state has incrementally evolved from a largely state-dominated and passive social security system to a market-led, work-first system where an escalating percentage of benefit recipients are expected to be actively seeking work. The theory and evidence underpinning these developments are explored in the first fives chapters. In the last decade, British governments have sought the assistance of private and voluntary sector organisations in the delivery of active labour market policies, using a system of payment-by-results to encourage these organizations to move individuals into, and sustain, employment. These are the core features underpinning the case study of this thesis, the Flexible New Deal. The Flexible New Deal is a programme for all long-term unemployed persons, which operated between the autumns of 2009 and 2011. In chapter six the objectives, structure and expected outcomes of FND are detailed, and these are used to contextualize the core research problem. With the use of data analysis and fieldwork the thesis seeks to answer whether the national contracted market in labour market attachment has created a more effective and efficient system for transferring the unemployed from benefits into work than the systems before it. Within the broad parameters of the primary question, two further questions are considered. The first, whether the contracting process can identify the best and worst providers in the welfare market, and the second, whether work-first models of welfare-to-work are effective in different economic environments. Using careful data analysis, the results chapter shows that the Flexible New Deal did not meet the government’s own objectives for the programme, and it did not outperform the programmes it was designed to replace. In some areas of the country, the distance from attaining the targets were much greater than others, and these differences are shown to be largely reflective of the labour market characteristics of the operating areas. The thesis concludes by returning to the theme of path dependence established in Chapter 4 as the explanatory factor behind the reform of welfare-to-work programmes. It explains that despite market-driven active labour market policies not meeting their own objectives, the policies are likely to continue to be deployed by future governments.

The focus of this thesis is on the evolution of dissidence within Irish republicanism since 1986, the contemporary phase of competing interpretations of the Irish republican tradition and ideology. Across the various strands of Irish republicanism there exists agreement over the ultimate goal of a united Ireland, but the means of achieving this remain highly contested. Republicanism is represented by a broad spectrum of tactics and principles; from those who consider armed struggle to be an essential element of any republican campaign to those who seek reform within constitutional arrangements. This thesis examines the broad spectrum of republicanism in Northern Ireland and considers whether these rival interpretations can all be accommodated under a broad republican umbrella. It examines how dissidents came to reject the Provisional form of republicanism which, at its outset, had itself been perceived as a dissident reading of republican ideology and method. This examination of intra-republican difference has required assessment of Sinn Féin’s evolution from the margins of political existence to becoming mainstream constitutional players and how the compromises associated with these changes have been rejected by republican ‘ultras’. The signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, the decommissioning by the Provisional IRA (PIRA) and the acceptance of policing exemplified how far Sinn Féin had moved since the 1986 split in the movement, the first fracture which contributed to the emergence of what are today know as ‘dissidents’. Amid such changes from Sinn Féin, the party has come to be seen as ‘mainstream’ republicanism, with ‘dissident’ groups often considered in relation to what Sinn Féin, in their modern day form, represent. The term ‘dissident’ is used to refer to those groups, individuals and factions that have dissented from the Sinn Féin ‘brand’ of republicanism. This thesis assesses the various groups operating under the ‘dissident’ republican label. Using in depth interviews and enjoying a level of access to groups not yet evident to others, it has been possible to explore the origins, strategy and goals of the various strands of republicanism evident in Northern Ireland today. Original data from a media analysis has also been utilised to provide an analysis of dissident republican newspapers and their attempts to construct a ‘counter’ narrative to mainstream media portrayals In assessing tactics, principles and the balance of political and military elements within the republican tradition, the thesis offers a sceptical critique of notions of a single or ‘true’ form of republicanism, rendering the label ‘dissident’ unsatisfactory. Rather it is a label to collectivise a broad spectrum of republican groups attempting to challenge what is seen as ‘normal’ and the ‘accepted’ status quo.

In 2010, the British Coalition government came to power explicitly promising spending cuts as part of a wider fiscal consolidation programme to resolve a debt crisis. Despite this promise to reduce public services, the British public seemed to reluctantly accept as necessary the imperatives of this debt crisis. Why? Through the analysis of data from focus groups conducted around Birmingham, this thesis tackles this puzzle of austerity acquiescence by answering a double-edged central research question: how do everyday actors make sense of austerity, and what do these processes tell us about the legitimation of austerity and the wider politics of crisis? The central argument is that while austerity is a vague and highly moral idea, it is simultaneously powerful and 'successful' inasmuch that it resonates with the 'mood of the times'. In other words, fiscal consolidation has been conferred a degree of legitimacy since it can be justified in line with some of the intersubjective beliefs and experiences of the public. Through this argument, this thesis primarily contributes to the discipline of political economy through a novel empirical account of austerity acquiescence and a constructivist framework for exploring how crises and narratives are conferred legitimacy through resonating with the mood of the times.

Hans-Georg Gadamer argues that understanding is rooted in conversation and that it is understanding that shapes the human sciences. By showing how words reveal their conceptual value in conversation, we have to question the human sciences attachment to method. The alienating effect of an instrumental view of language is the key issue in this work. We focus on how we communicate as ethical and lyrical subjects in the human sciences while observing scientific protocols. The key question that dominates the current work is: how can poetics and truth, seen as a primary part of our verbal experience of the world, come to capture the problem of self-understanding and concept formation in the human sciences?

Sustainability is a major challenge in the rural water supply sector, where efforts to realise the right to clean water are undermined by high levels of non-functionality. This thesis uses mixed methods to test the relative influence of ten proximate determinants of sustainability, and to critically examine the social, economic and political dynamics underlying these determinants – especially the community management model, which places responsibility for water point functionality on users. The study finds that the key proximate determinants include both technical factors (e.g. water point type and installation quality) and management factors (e.g. availability of funds and incidence of theft). These in turn are driven by the way that community management structures interact with socially embedded institutions. Contrary to the claims made for participatory approaches, the study finds that community management is frequently inefficient and disempowering. Drawing on the concepts of institutional bricolage and civil society failure, the analysis shows that community management generates conflict and reproduces inequality at community level, and embeds perverse incentives and consolidates clientelism at a wider level. The study concludes that community management leads to erosion of social capital and abdication of state responsibility, and argues that donors should reconsider their support for it.

While the human agent has the capacity for consciousness, intentionality and reflexivity, the same agent must also be affected by the social and political world in which she lives: herein lies the essence of the structure and agency debate. This thesis argues that while realists are in principle committed to a dialectical relationship between structure and agency, there is much dissonance between this commitment and the concepts of agency that they develop. I highlight the exclusion of the unconscious from realist notions of agency and argue that this oversight serves to unbalance the dialectic between structure and agency. The concepts of agency developed by Margaret Archer and Colin Hay are examined and, in varying degrees, both are shown to neglect the unconscious within a dialectical approach. Anthony Giddens is shown to develop a much improved concept of agency, which includes a notion of the unconscious, however, his rejection of the independent causal powers of structure and agency problematises his commitment to the dialectic. A novel approach to theorising agency is offered and draws on insights from Pierre Bourdieu and his notion of habitus. It is suggested that this re-conceptualisation will provide realist social scientist’s with a much improved ontological account of agency and a broader conception of the nature and scope of sociopolitical motivations which inform agential behaviour. A novel methodological framework for researching habitus and its unconscious platform is also explored.

The second chapter of this PhD thesis examines the barriers to nonviolent resistance and explains why, despite the grievances, we see uprisings in some states and not others. I argue that a lack of common ties and the existence of ethnic cleavages create additional barriers for nonviolent mass mobilization in ethnically diverse states. I test the argument by using the Ethnic-Power Relations (EPR) and Nonviolent and Violent Campaign and Outcomes (NAVCO.2.0) datasets. The results show that the probability of nonviolent campaign onset is conditional on both, the levels of ethnic diversity and the regime type – the onset being less likely in ethnically diverse non-democracies. The third chapter illustrates how ethnic divides can be used to undermine mass-scale nonviolent mobilization by examining government framing of protest events during the 2014 spring protests in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Automated text analysis approach is used to discover the types of narratives (frames) that the Bosnia and Herzegovina’s government officials used to respond to protest demands. The results show that the Government officials have predominantly used the following types of frames: delegitimizing (ex. calling protesters traitors, hooligans), demobilizing (sympathetic statements – ex. saying that protests are justified), and alternative views (sidelining/ignoring grievances by discussing more salient issues). The results indicate that ethnic divides were exploited to prevent cross-ethnic mass mobilization. In the chapter four, I explore the variability of government responses to protest events using the Mass Mobilization Data (MMD), focusing on the ignore category - the response not commonly studied in the literature. I find that contrary to the expectations, governments are more likely to ignore than repress protest events. In particular, governments are more likely to ignore protests with 1000 or more participants, and more likely to accommodate than repress protests above 5000 participants. In conclusion, this PhD thesis shows that ethnicity increases costs of cooperation and lowers potentials for nonviolent resistance. In addition, this thesis demonstrates that governments might often choose to neither repress nor accommodate protest events, choosing instead to ignore grievances and demands. In summary, the aim of this PhD thesis is to examine barriers to nonviolent resistance and state responses to dissent.

No description available.

This thesis examines the development of the Prevent counter terrorism policy between 2001 and 2011 to understand the extent to which it represented a change in policy and why. Prevent was an important element of the UK government’s response to the threat from home-grown al-Qaeda terrorism following 9/11 and the associated political conflict over Islam and the Muslim community. The study argues that the development of Prevent can be understood through two competing models of the relationship between government and society, one centralised and coercive the other distributed and consensual that are based on the traditions of Hobbes and Locke. The combination of both models by the Labour government produced a new framework for decision-making that enabled government to deliver short-term security objectives by embedding these in a longer term process of social change. However, whilst this dual approach enabled a broader response to terrorism it also came at the cost of increased conflict over decision-making that ultimately motivated a narrowing of the agenda. The study analyses decision-making through different lenses in order to understand the reasons why Prevent developed in this way. The study was based on a qualitative analysis of semi-structured elite interviews with a small targeted sample of individuals involved in decision-making, alongside primary documentation, to examine explicit and implicit influences on the process. It presents an in-depth narrative account that identified the main decisions, including both formal and informal decisions as well as relevant exogenous and endogenous inputs into the process. It then examines the influence of the decision-making community, including the structure of the relationship between central government, local agencies and civil society. The study then explored how ideas and arguments about the causes of terrorism helped to integrate the competing models of security and the associated trade-offs between the two. The study concludes by examining whether this process represented a paradigmatic change in policy and the lessons that can be drawn about policy change more generally.