International meetings such as the G8 Summit have evolved from the sequestered gatherings of the economic elite to full-scale political media events. Using the 2005 Gleneagles G8 Summit as a case study, and focusing on one specific ‘autonomous’ activist network – Dissent! – this thesis investigates how the process of mediation is articulated in activists’ practices in preparing and enacting acts of contention. Dominant approaches to such events in the field of media and communications are often text-centred, focussing on the media’s framing of protest, overlooking the actions against and interactions with the media at such sites. This oversight is significant given that contemporary political struggle occurs on the ground, as well as with and through the media. The theoretical framework applies past media/movement scholarship to emerging discourses on mediation which view media – its content, producers, users, technologies, culture and rituals – as an ongoing and reflexive process, actualised through analysing activists’ media-oriented practices (Couldry, 2004, Silverstone, 2005). The methodological approach follows Burawoy’s (1998) “extended method” drawing on a year of participant observation and 32 in-depth interviews. Analysis is undertaken on an activist, group and network level; before and at the Summit. The findings show that activists demonstrate a reflexive awareness of media, including lay theories of media which inform their actions. On a networklevel, Dissent! established a policy abstaining from media interaction. Yet, despite this, on a group-level, the CounterSpin Collective formed within Dissent! to manage media interest. The Collective’s media practices are shown to be characterised by a strategy of dual adaptation; adapting to both Dissent!’s political limitations and the media’s demands. The analysis of the site of protest in Scotland – Hori-Zone eco-village – and the protest actions undertaken from it, further demonstrates the way in which media orients and permeates activists practices. The concept of spectacular action is developed to analyse a shift in the type of protest activities conducted at a media event from direct action to the simulation of direct action, valuing symbolic over physical disruption. This thesis contributes to a growing interest in the concept of mediation through the emerging field of media practice, offering both empirical evidence and revised theory. Moreover it addresses the largely neglected role of the media in social movement literature. Research undertaken also demonstrates how the logic of media now permeates the practice of activism, marking the rise of spectacular action as a cause for concern for both activists and academics.

Practices commonly termed participatory or citizen journalism, such as blogging and publishing content in participatory news media, have triggered interest in academic and media discourses alike. The discussion has centred on the significance of participatory journalism and whether it leads to democratisation of media and to redefining journalism and its ethics. This thesis examines online participatory journalism practices and what enhances or impedes them by drawing on a close and systematic analysis of qualitative interviews with reporters and facilitators of participatory media. The research considers both the meso level of media organisations in their socio-cultural context and the micro level of reporters, and is comparative and transcultural in scope. The focus is on the international edition of the South Korean news organisation OhmyNews and on two Indymedia collectives, namely, Indybay in California in the USA and the no-longer active Vaikuttava Tietotoimisto in Finland. The study employs Dahlgren’s (2009) analytic frame of civic cultures that, although it downplays skills and somewhat problematically assumes equal weight of all dimensions, proved valuable in addressing several key aspects to participatory journalism as a mode of civic engagement. The research demonstrates how reporters’ journalistic activities do not exist in a vacuum, but are shaped by participatory media organisations, for example, through the values they promote and the type of journalism, the access to sources and training they facilitate. Furthermore, the thesis argues that participatory media practices are less distinct from those of mainstream media than may have been assumed. Underpinning the analysis of media organisations are the theories of alternative media and of voluntary associations, whereas Mouffe’s (2000a) political theory of agonistic pluralism is applied to assess the viability of an agonistic space online. The findings, apart from the instances of its constructive uses, point toward the difficulties in sustaining an agonistic online space.

This research investigates the dynamics of the on-going conflict in the state–civil society partnership in South Korea. In recent decades, partnership has become a central strategy for welfare provision worldwide. In accordance with this trend, the Korean government has invited numerous civil society organisations to become local welfare agencies. The workfare programme (called the SSP) is a typical example of such partnerships. Because a large number of anti-poverty organisations have become frontline SSP Centres, the SSP is widely regarded as an icon of participatory welfare. However, contrary to the ideals of democratic governance, some critical studies have argued that collaboration with the state can render civil society agencies susceptible to state demands, gradually undermining their role as advocates for disadvantaged people. In light of such claims, this study has explored the actual politics of the SSP partnership by: 1) analysing policy documents; 2) conducting interviews with 42 actors in the SSP system; and 3) observing a Centre. This research confirms that partnership does not always guarantee a democratic relationship. SSP Centres have gradually been subjected to state intervention, and their open confrontation with the state has evidently abated. Yet SSP Centres have not completely lost their autonomy and spirit of resistance: rather, they have adopted informal and unofficial forms of resistance while maintaining apparent conformity with the state. These street-level activities constitute SSP Centres’ emancipatory role in defending the life-world of poor people against the capitalist state. The implication of this study for the politics of partnership is that current forms of state–civil society partnership need not entail the ‘mutual coproduction’ or the ‘complete co-option’ of civil society to the state. Partnership can be a site of ‘complex struggles’ where civil society actors continue to counteract the control of the dominant system in inflected ways.

The use of electoral reforms as active instruments of democratisation has been common in many transitions to democracy. However, in Mexico, electoral laws and institutions played an unusually important role in ensuring a peaceful transition to democracy. The current study addresses the effects of the Electoral Reforms in the Transition to democracy in Mexico with special reference to the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE). It is primarily intended as a contribution to the field of electoral reforms and institutions in processes of political change. The main aim of the thesis is to assess whether electoral reform contributed to or acted to confirm the process of political transition in Mexico and to establish the extent to which the IFE’s role expanded beyond what was initially expected. The study focuses on the political circumstances between the late 1970s, and 2000, when most of the relevant legislation was implemented and the bodies for the supervision of elections were created. The study employs “elite interviews” and a broad range of local sources including law, official documents, party literature and secondary source analysis. The study begins by examining the context of electoral reform in Mexico, giving a description of the Mexican authoritarian regime. Then, based on interviews as well as secondary sources, the Mexican transition is analysed in a comparative perspective and its peculiarities are highlighted. It concludes that the model of transition followed by Mexico is characterised by a slow and gradual change through five stages based on negotiations centred on electoral issues that avoided ruptures and promoted dialogue to achieve amongst the players consensus about the rules of the game. The study continues with an historical overview of the electoral reforms between 1946 and 1986 establishing the cosmetic nature of the early reforms and the democratising character of the 1977 reform which, by introducing Proportional Representation in Congress, not only opened the party system but also established the ground for political change based on electoral issues. The study goes on to examine the creation of IFE in the 1989-90 reform and its further evolution through the 1990s culminating with its total independence from the government in 1996. This is evaluated in the context of other political and socio-economic changes that had an impact on political groups and generated political forces. It examines the attitudes of the various parties towards the reform and the institution and their methods of negotiation have been analysed using “elite interviewing”, the analysis of party documents and media sources. The analysis concludes that despite the IFE being an effect of a critical political conflict generated by the controversial 1988 elections and being perceived as just another government agency, in time, it accumulated functions and gained additional powers and prestige that allowed it to become a major player in generating consensus among political parties and the government and in ensuring more transparent and fair elections, and thus increasing the competence of political parties. The final part of the study focuses on the three main areas of activity of IFE including I) the management of the electoral system, II) the development of formulas for the allocation of funds and the regulation of broadcasting time on radio and TV and III) the efforts made to improve participation rates, including political and civic education for adults and children. It uses official IFE documents and interviews with former and present members of IFE to discuss IFE’s evolution and functioning, and the members’ experiences and expectations for the future in relation to the institution. It concludes that after being created, the IFE initially focused exclusively on solving electoral fraud. Once IFE had finished resolving problems related to the organisation of elections, it started focusing on other issues such as the regulation of party finances and media access, moving on from a focus on merely “free” elections to “fair” elections. The study shows that the issue of party finances and media access only became relevant once earlier issues related to the organisation of elections had been solved. In relation to the role of the electoral authority in this area, the research shows that IFE contributed to the national debate on party funding, media access, and monitoring. The monitoring of party expenditure and media coverage by IFE proved to be an important element in reducing corruption and also contributed to the credibility of IFE. Finally the work of the IFE in the area of civic education is analysed. This study was unable to prove that IFE had been successful in creating a fully democratic political culture that could extend far beyond the electoral arena. In conclusion, it can be seen that electoral reform both contributed to and acted to confirm the process of political transition and that the role of IFE developed beyond what was initially expected.

This thesis assesses fairness for Muslim religious value claims in liberal institutions aspiring to public neutrality. This is achieved though critically examining neutrality and religious equality in liberal political theory, national models of secularism, and instantiations at the local level of schools and workplaces. Through adopting a contextual approach to political theory, I argue for the situated nature of fairness. The aim of this approach is to utilise ideal theory to arrive at realistic guidelines fit for real (non-ideal) worlds. I therefore both address the limits of theory to practice and show how empirical contextualisation might inform revised theories better equipped to account for contextual variables. In order to address the shortcomings in existing models of neutrality and in existing ways of theorising about religious exemptions in contemporary liberal political theory, two arguments for accommodation are advanced: corrective grounds and reasonable access grounds. Corrective grounds stress the need to correct for existing inequities already in place privileging majoritarian groups, as we face the task of responding fairly to minority requests for accommodation. Reasonable access grounds emphasise the significance of environmental factors in exploring entitlement to religious exemptions from general rules and regulations. Both these accounts build on empirical contextualisation. Evidence supporting these arguments is derived from two national contexts – the U.S. and Sweden – and takes the form of semi-structured elite interviews with a range of individuals with expertise on questions of Muslim religious accommodation. Through this analysis, the thesis contends that the ‘costs’ associated with Muslim value claims in liberal institutions should not exclusively be attributed to inherent factors. On these grounds I argue for the remodelling of public institutions in order to facilitate the ease with which religious commitments are combined with access to, and participation in, public institutions aspiring to neutrality.

This study explores the popular politics behind the main milestones that shape Nasserist Egypt. The decade leading up to the 1952 revolution was one characterized with a heightened state of popular mobilisation, much of which the Free Officers’ movement capitalized upon. Thus, in focusing on three of the Revolution’s main milestones; the resistance to the tripartite aggression on Port Said (1956), the building of the Aswan High Dam (1960-­1971), and the popular warfare against Israel in Suez (1967-­1973), I shed light on the popular struggles behind the events. I argue that to the members of resistance of Port Said and Suez, and the builders of the High Dam, the revolution became a struggle of their own. Ideas of socialism and Arab nationalism were re-­articulated and appropriated so that they became features of their identities and everyday lives. Through looking at songs, idioms and stories of the experiences of those periods, I explore how people experimented with a new identity under Nasser and how much they were willing to sacrifice for it. These songs and idioms, I treat as an ‘intimate language’. A common language reflecting a shared experience that often only the community who produces the language can understand. I argue that songs capture in moments of political imagination what official historical narratives may not. Furthermore, I argue that these songs reveal silences imposed by state narratives, as well as those silences that are self-­imposed through the many incidents people would rather forget. The study contributes to an understanding of the politics of hegemony, and how an ideology can acquire the status of ‘common sense’ through being negotiated, (re)-­articulated, and contributed to, rather than enforced on a people suppressed. It also contributes to our understanding of popular politics, and the importance of exploring the experiences and intentions of people behind historical and political milestones; understanding politics beyond the person of politicians and the boundaries of the nation state.

The thesis is concerned with local practices that seek to contest international statebuilding measures. This line of inquiry stems from the need to generate knowledge on the ways in which international statebuilding is mediated and re-negotiated in local spaces. Rather than focusing on the much-analyzed hidden/everyday forms of resistance, the objective of the analysis is to understand the parallel, disruptive practices that directly challenge the international statebuilding project. These particular forms of contention are important as they explicitly engage with the coercive power of international statebuilding. Through the case study of post-Dayton Bosnia and Herzegovina, the thesis aims to generate an account of local contention and dynamics between domestic and international actors that is attentive to both material and non-material domains and practices. In doing so, the analysis identifies a range of contentious acts in the institutional, discursive and symbolic domains. While administrative practices slow down and block decision-making at the institutions of governance, local actors frequently deploy discursive strategies to destabilize and de-legitimize, or in some cases to co-opt, international statebuilding. They employ symbols and symbolic practices to contest the internationally-led cultural reconstruction efforts. It is argued that these disruptive techniques and the ensuing interactions translate into conflictual and symbiotic dynamic between internal and external actors. Although the interactions between internal and external actors frequently result in conflict, a closer look at the dynamic reveals a mutual dependency whereby the contentious activities of local actors and coercive statebuilding measures of the international officials maintain one another. The thesis makes a conceptual and empirical contribution to the analysis and understanding of the hybrid nature of post-conflict statebuilding. It begins developing the notion of contention and a set of mechanisms derived from contentious politics scholarship as a way to capture and trace local practices challenging internationally-led statebuilding measures. Empirically the study adds to our knowledge of local agency in societies emerging from conflicts.

This thesis examines the American policy of ‘dual containment’: the assumption by the US of a predominant role in the security system of the Persian Gulf in the 1990s, necessitating the simultaneous ‘containment’ of both Iran and Iraq. American policy towards Iran receives special attention thanks to its more unusual aspects, including the vehemence of American attempts to isolate it. While other scholars have sought to explore the empirical aspects of this policy, this thesis seeks to place it within an overarching theoretical framework derived from neoclassical realism (NCR). Additionally, the thesis integrates insights drawn from Foreign Policy Analysis (FPA) to explain the impact of domestic variables on the formation of American policy towards Iran and Iraq during this era. In terms of domestic factors, the thesis identifies three key ‘intervening variables’ and their role in the adoption and evolution of dual containment: perceptions of threat on the part of policymakers, domestic political structures, and the operation of policy coalitions. In terms of the external, the role of the idiosyncratic ‘tripolar’ dynamics of the Persian Gulf region in shaping American policy is examined, as is the longstanding American interest in the Persian Gulf as an area of important national interest and key importance in the global economy, which endured into the 1990s despite the end of the Cold War. The thesis concludes that US policy towards Iran and Iraq was shaped by the intervening variables it identifies and examines. It strongly reflected the perceptions held by American policymakers of American power, and also of Iran and Iraq as ‘rogue’ or ‘outlaw’ states, and the measures perceived as necessary to advance Arab-Israeli peace. Moreover, it also reflected the influence of domestic interest groups and Congressional activism in the realm of foreign policy.

Though the civil-military relations field has seen a lot of theoretical work in recent years, the field still lacks consistent overarching theories. This dissertation argues that the field requires a new and better theoretical framework. Scholars do not agree about how to define key concepts or how these concepts affect one another. They therefore have a tendency to talk past one another when debating and developing theories of civil-military relations. This dissertation develops a new and more sophisticated theoretical framework for elite civil-military relations. The field’s current theoretical framework was developed by Samuel Huntington in The Soldier and the State. This dissertation uses his framework as a starting point for a larger conceptual analysis, where political and military sociology, international relations, political theory, and military science are used to define the key concepts of civil-military relations. There are two heterogeneous types of civil-military relations that should be studied separately: societal civil-military relations and elite civil-military relations. Political science approaches to civil-military relations, such as this dissertation, typically focus on the latter type. Elite civil-military relations consist of two separate fields of study: civilian control and military effectiveness. Elite civil-military relations function as a system that essentially depends on civilian overall preferences, the mutual trust between soldiers and civilians, the institutional set-up of the state, and the actual skills of civilian and military elites. The dissertation challenges several of the field’s established truths. It shows that one cannot claim that one civilian control policy is superior a priori. Instead, the choice of policy depends on the situational circumstances. It also shows that military professionalism plays a less significant role than commonly thought. It clarifies that civilian control depends on both the internal norms of the officer corps and the external control institutions of the state. Finally, it demonstrates that Samuel Huntington’s work, though clearly impressive for its time, lacks the sophistication needed of a modern social science theory and theoretical framework. It therefore argues that the civil-military relations field should move beyond The Soldier and the State.

This thesis contributes to our understanding of the role of European Union policy in national level governance of the audiovisual media sectors in small states in South East Europe. It compares the Republics of Slovenia and Macedonia, two countries of similar size and population that emerged from the same former-Yugoslav media system. Slovenia is a new EU member state and Macedonia is a candidate country, therefore both are formally bound by EU audiovisual media policy. Europeanization research, particularly in new Member States and candidate countries, has focused on compliance with transposition deadlines and the implementation of specific EU Directives. This study takes a bottom-up approach, making media governance its object of study based on a conceptualisation of governance by Jan Kooiman (2003), but still focused on identifying the role of the EU within that national level governance. It draws on interviews with stakeholders in both countries, examination of secondary data available on the respective media markets, and accounts from civil society actors and regulators to arrive at an overall picture of media governance. It finds that in these two cases the role of Europeanization, defined in this thesis in relation to the EU, centres on the use of EU rules by domestic actors in order to forward their strategic interests. It argues that the media sectors in these two cases are largely resistant to Europeanization because of their small size and the particular relations between media and political elites. This thesis suggests that the media sector may be different from other sectors such as transport, environmental protection, or labour in terms of Europeanization and governance because the role of media in domestic politics. However, this is not a simple story of the democratic and governance failures often attributed to Southern European countries. This thesis shows the complexity in which Europeanization takes place, and highlights the importance of market conditions and market players to this process.