This is an examination of the context, content and significance of the surprising engagement of the British left with the arguments of Friedrich Hayek (1899-1992), one of the most influential theorists of the new right and an important influence on leading figures in the Conservative Government elected in the UK in 1979. The thesis examines in detail the engagement by four thinkers on the British left with Hayek's work: David Miller, Raymond Plant, Andrew Gamble and Hilary Wainwright. Its chronological parameters are the collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the election of ‘New Labour’ in the UK in 1997. Important contextual factors behind this engagement include the rise and fall of the British Conservative Party, the difficulties of statist forms of socialism and Hayek's own death. The engagement with Hayek's work provides a case study that demonstrates changes in political themes, in particular, the decline of statist forms of socialism with the left's embrace of the market and individual freedom, the decline in support for the paternalistic state and the search for more ‘feasible’ alternatives. I argue that the British left's engagement with Hayek is part of a wider intellectual break that constitutes the end of a ‘short twentieth century’ in political thought, and that the political landscape is now dominated by two strands of the liberal tradition. As such, the research will be of importance to anyone seeking a clearer understanding of recent changes in political thought and to the shape of the contemporary political landscape.

Online social network sites have become an important source of news and political information for many people. At the same time, these sites have transformed the way users encounter and engage with this type of content. This thesis investigates the democratic implications of this trend. Specifically, it estimates the extent to which the relationship between news consumption and political behaviour is mediated by the unique technological affordances of social network sites. It explores how, and to what extent, social network sites transform the way users encounter and engage with news content and how this, in turn, shapes their subsequent political behaviour. This thesis comprises a series of original comparative research papers. Paper 1 sets out to establish evidence of a relationship between everyday social network site use and political participation. Using nationally representative data collected by the UK Oxford Internet Institute, it establishes evidence to suggest that social network site use has the potential to increase political participation, but only when it comes to certain activities. Building on this analysis, Paper 2 estimates the extent to which social network site use indirectly influences political participation, through inadvertently exposing users to news content and information. It finds that although the everyday use of social network sites positively predicts inadvertent news and information exposure, such exposure does not translate into widespread political participation. Since a growing body of research indicates that the effects of news and information on participatory behaviour is largely channeled through interpersonal communication, Paper 3 and Paper 4 focus on the communicative processes that are typically thought to precede participation. Specifically, these papers analyse a unique set of data to investigate the extent to which social network sites shape the way users discuss the news content they consume on these sites. Paper 3 compares the deliberative quality of user comments left on social network sites with those left on news websites. Paper 4 adopts an identical methodological approach to compare the level of civility and politeness in user comments across platforms. The findings suggest that while social network sites are conducive to civil political discussion, they do not appear to encourage comments of superior deliberative quality.

This is a multidisciplinary research project that aims to explore the geopolitical dynamics, in parallel with recent developments in the Middle East, in the period 2003-2013 and beyond, to some extent. The most effective developments can be found in the shifting power relations, alongside regional and international rivalries, that led to instability, security threats and patterns of violence. With these dynamics in mind and power shifts post-2003, interactions between soft power (ideological proxies) vs military power played a crucial role in shaping the political and security landscape of the region. The thesis explores three sides of the security triangle. The first corresponds to Iran's foreign policy, as case study, which is one of the focal actors that used ideology as basis for action. The second is the presence of the US and its allies, particularly its regional allies. The third is the Middle East region as a reference point for examining power structures in light of rivalry relationships, which in turn interconnects some regional key players in the security paradigm. The objective of this thesis is to broaden the concept of security studies in the field of international relations. The thesis endeavours to incorporate non-state actor violence, sponsored by some nation-states, in this case Iran, as part of a regional strategic agenda. From this vantage point, defensive and offensive approaches will be discussed, in line with Iran's foreign policy, in order to demonstrate how Iran resists regional threats to ensure its survival, and reinforces its influence to maximise its power.

This project was initially born out of a curiosity to investigate why Turkey in the 2000s so fervently reclaimed itself in Middle Eastern politics. Such curiosity was further buttressed by additional questions like 'why now?', 'is this the first time?', 'has Turkey ever indicated a similar interest in the region?' and 'are there common patterns with cross government, cross time and cross leadership explanatory power?' Thus seeking answers in a broadened perspective, a most pertinent challenge was to develop a heuristic model. This effort brought Turkish „state culture' to the forefront. Earlier scholarly work had already provided hindsight with regards to 'strategic culture' through a security based understanding. But this time Turkish leaders' expressly geography based reasoning required further scrutiny by analysing contending geopolitical discourses from the early days of Turkey until the present day. This is how this research came across geopolitics in critical scholarship. As a result, the novel perspective to analyse as to how Turkey behaves in the Middle East is centred on the premise of 'geopolitical culture'. It covers many aspects of discursive geography in which perception and representation with historical ad continuum remain two key themes. The analyses in this study are therefore socially and historically contextual, and are not singlehandedly restricted to the views of individual Turkish leaders. The two most prominent traditions, i.e. Kemalism and Conservatism, keep producing rediscovered discourses on the global political space, Turkey‟s geography, and sense of geo-cultural belonging. What remains beneath are two distinct, competing and highly irreconcilable geopolitical mentalities to impact foreign policy in an exercise highly imbued with domestic power relations. This is to hint at the freshness of the theoretical perspective with a particular emphasis on geographical influences on Turkish foreign policy through the prism of the Middle East.

This thesis asks when and how ordinary citizens gain substantial control over important collective decisions. In particular I highlight conditions that explain citizen control of decision-making in participatory budgeting programmes worldwide. The thesis further sets out to test the value of new tools in comparative political science for answering such a question. I apply Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) in an attempt to cumulate existing knowledge and engage in logical systematic comparison across cases. It is shown that the QCA approach is an underutilised complement to existing research strategies in the social sciences. Despite some important challenges and limitations outlined in the thesis, QCA is shown to be an effective tool for cumulating and systematically reviewing evidence in order to contribute to the development of knowledge about social phenomena in a coherent way. QCA can effectively inform research's choices about the requisite degrees of parsimony and complexity to use in explaining social phenomena. Contrary to previous findings based on single-case of small-N analysis I find that there are no single necessary conditions for achieving or negating strong democratic outcomes in participatory programmes. The meaningful involvement of citizens in governing collectively occurs when both political and administrative leaders have the will and capacity to implement programmes and this is combined with either fiscal freedom to spend money on programmes or active demand for involvement from civil society actors. I show however considerable equifinality in causation as bureaucratic and political support can contribute to failure where both civil society support and finance are absent.

This thesis is concerned with the public sphere of justice in the contemporary internal colonial contexts of Australia and Canada. More specifically, it examines the way in which Indigenous actors are generally impeded from participating in public disputes of justice on equitable and self-determined terms. It develops and applies a position centred on the recent theoretical work of Nancy Fraser, and particularly her thinking around the concept of "abnormal justice". Fraser's reflections on the deeply contested nature of justice in contemporary times - and the accompanying absence of agreement and certainty about justice's most fundamental meaning and character - provide, I suggest, first, a valuable new framework for understanding the complexities that presently pervade public sphere shaped by colonial pasts and presents, and, second, the outline of a means for dealing with those complexities in more sensitive and productive ways. Accordingly, Part 1 of the thesis introduces and elaborates the 'diagnostic' side of Fraser's theorising, and applies it to the internal colonial contexts of Australia and Canada. The outcome is a deeper appreciation of the ways in which the experiences of injustice and aspirations for justice possessed by Indigenous actors are frequently obscured by the dominant (or 'normal') bounds of justice within these societies. Part 2, in turn, focuses on the 'reconstructive' side of Fraser's work and its potential to inform a progressive response to a meeting with abnormal justice in internal colonial contexts. I contend that the reflexive-democratic character of Fraser's thought provides the basis for a mode of politics through which Indigenous actors might begin to realise greater participatory parity in the terms of public disputes. Though, I reduce, the senses of injustice presently felt by Indigenous actors, it does at lease open up spaces by which they can being to participate more equitably in naming those injustices an authoring possibilities for overcoming them. The position thus defended is that a reflexive democratic politics can help in the task of dismantling obstacles to equitable Indigenous participation in ongoing public disputes. This, I contend, must represent an essential step in any effort to being to convincingly address the continuing and past violences of internal colonial contexts.

This thesis investigates to what extent Turkey’s mediation differs from Western modes of mediation. It poses an example for understanding the ability of peripheral countries to challenge the prevalent modes of mediation and emerge as problem solving agents in the international system. The study examines Turkey’s mediation in the interstate conflict between Syria and Israel between 2007 and 2008; and in the intrastate conflict in Somalia between 2012 and 2014. It suggests that Turkey’s search for a new identity since 2002, in the context of domestic, regional and international changes, paved the way for the emergence of its mediator role by creating a sense of confidence leading Turkey to adopt a more proactive stance vis-à-vis the conflicts pertaining in its region. Turkey uses mediation as one element in its wider foreign policy which bears resemblance to Western mediators. Mediation enables Turkey to exert its interest in areas in which it has historical, geopolitical and relational ties. Turkey gains legitimacy as a mediator from its dual identity by presenting itself as both Western and non-Western. Its ability to present its insiderness, inclusiveness and cultural ties as assets come to the fore as ways in which Turkey mediates differently. While cultural ties are advantages in gaining entry into conflicts; demonstrating commitment and dealing with the technicalities of mediation played a greater role in securing Turkey’s credibility as a mediator. The Turkish model entails a broader understanding of mediation that includes aid as complementary to diplomatic talks, particularly in intrastate conflicts. There is also considerable room for civil society involvement. The thesis suggests that Turkey’s mediator role has been too dependent upon more intangible aspects of cultural affinity and identity. As a result, its sustainability depends on the willingness of policy makers to improve the condition of Turkish mediation by investing in institutionalization, capacity building and expertise.

This thesis argues from a non-ecocentric perspective that environmental policy should be underpinned by a strong conception of ecological sustainability, and should eschew liberal neutrality in favour of government based on a substantive conception of human flourishing which accepts and celebrates our ecological embeddedness. A relational understanding of autonomy shows that such policy need not conflict with the protection of freedom, and is hence potentially compatible with a perfectionist liberalism which aims at intergenerational justice of capabilities. However reflection on the ecologically unsustainable resource consumption levels typical of affluent capitalist economies suggests that while a capabilities framework (potentially including protection of some capabilities as environmental rights) may be effective in establishing 'floors' at the lower end of the range of ethically acceptable consumption levels, 'ceilings' at the top end are better justified by reference to a eudaimonist ecological virtue ethics which understands and promotes ecological virtue as a matter of enlightened self-interest. Appeals to ecological virtue are entirely congruent with a capabilities approach to sustainability. Exhortations to ecological virtue aimed at individuals by governments are nonetheless illegitimate unless accompanied by policies which embody as well as facilitate such virtue, and aim to remove incentives to ecological vice. This includes robust regulation of consumption drivers and restriction of unsustainable options. Objections to such policies appealing to 'freedom of choice' are ill-founded to the extent that they neglect to examine the value of the options chosen between.

This thesis explores the limits to purposive change in liberal democracies. Its aim is to provide new analytical tools and concepts to understand better the basis of liberal democracy’s legitimacy, the mechanisms and limitations of political agency at work in it, and the ways in which societal change is delimited and channelled in what is today the most dominant form of political order. The thesis contains three conceptual innovations. The first concerns the nature of liberal democracy, which is shown to involve an ‘epistemic’ dimension of legitimacy on which the system’s stability relies. This explanatory account of legitimacy argues that in a modern democracy the paradoxical relation of the people to itself as both ruler and ruled can only be stabilised when both sides of the equation refer to the same ‘independent’ reality – a reality that has to be generated outside their precarious relationship and hence (for example) in the capitalist market economy. The second innovation regards an analytical distinction between three fundamental ‘modes’ of political agency – decision, choice and solution – whose deployment is strictly controlled by the systemic requirements of ‘epistemic legitimacy’. The result is shown to be an ‘agentic deadlock’ in liberal democracy, which inhibits purposive societal change. The third innovation concerns the very idea of ‘change’ itself. Based on Wittgenstein’s notion of grammar a concept of transformation is developed, which allows us to account for the subtle and long-term changes in the discursive structure of liberal-democratic societies. After comparing these conceptual innovations with the dominant aggregative, deliberative and radical approaches to democratic theory, the thesis concludes with a suggestion for an institutional innovation that might help break the agentic deadlock in liberal democracy.

This four article journal-based dissertation builds on Gene Sharp's framework of nonviolent direct action, along with Hess and Martin's repression backfire, in order to deepen our understanding of how state repression impacts protest mobilization and historical processes of social change. After initially problematizing Gene Sharp’s notions of power and consent with aid of political discourse theory, and two case studies of the 1905 Russian Bloody Sunday Massacre and the South African 1976 Soweto Massacre, the dissertation moves onto specifically explain the conditions under which protest mobilization is likely to continue after severe state repression. A causal process model underpins the logic of the dissertation. It identifies generalizable antecedent factors and conditions under which repression backfire is most likely to occur. Numerous mechanisms are also introduced that help explain the operation of this process across different historical eras and political systems. After applying this process model and its mechanisms to the 2013 Turkish Gezi protests, a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis of 44 different historical massacres is presented in which repression backfired and increased protest in some cases, but not others. Repression backfire is a highly asymmetrical and nonlinear causal phenomenon. I conclude that nonviolent protest strategy has been a salient factor in historical cases of repression backfire and is also vital for the ability of protests to withstand state repression. However, the role of nonviolence is partial and to some degree inadequate in explaining repression backfire if it is not linked to other general factors which include protest diversity, protest threat level, and geographic terrain.