This thesis explores the relationship between state funding and the organisational characteristics of third sector organisations (TSOs). It presents a cross-sectional exploratory data analysis conducted using data from charities’ accounts and annual returns. The thesis contributes to a longstanding debate about the impact of state funding on TSOs’ independence and the role of the third sector within the welfare mix. The findings make an original contribution to this debate by opening up a new stream of quantitative evidence, to supplement the largely qualitative evidence base that already exists. This makes it possible to explore how changes at the organisational level have played out across the sector as a whole. In particular, it explores the links between state funding and TSOs' voluntary characteristics, financial health, and administrative spending. The findings suggest a mixed picture. Various associations were found in the data, though there were also numerous negative results where no link was found. Those associations that were uncovered were generally quite small. As such there is little evidence overall to suggest that state income is acting as a major driving force for organisational change within the third sector.

This thesis focuses on the challenge within public leadership of reconciling the sometimes conflicting interests of the national and local state. District Governors in Turkey are the agents of the central state within their districts but they also exercise an important role as local civic leaders for the communities over which they have jurisdiction. This thesis examines the ways in which those competing governance and leadership responsibilities are balanced out between one another. Additionally, the thesis explores the impacts upon the leadership practices of district governors of, on the one hand, personal qualities and behavioural traits, and contextual factors specific to particular places on the other, recognising that Turkey is a particularly diverse country in terms of social development, ethnicity, economic prosperity, and religion among other aspects. The underpinning research has been based on a case study design and has involved in-depth and semi-structured interviews with a sample of 30 District Governors, selected from across Turkey. A key finding is that, while being appointees of the central state and accountable to their superiors in Ankara, district governors soon develop for themselves strong roles and profiles as local public leaders, though somewhat constrained in this respect both by the centre's control over resource availability, and by the growing challenge created by the ascendancy of locally elected politicians under more recent policies favouring devolution and decentralisation. The research also highlights the significance of governors' personal endeavours to resolve particularly challenging local issues to their reputations and respect within their local communities; such acts of leadership being undertaken over and above, the plethora of administrative duties and responsibilities that the state expects of its governor appointees. However, having been conducted at a time of increasing political tension and hiatus across Turkey, the research also identified a mood of considerable uncertainty and pessimism among interviewees about the future for district governorships at the interface between centre and locality within the country. Recent public administration reforms in Turkey, and specifically, moves to devolve more powers to municipalities, imply changes in the role and influence of District Governors. Accordingly the research sought to understand how interviewees were viewing these changes and their implications for their role into the future. In this respect, almost all the governors expressed apprehension and much uncertainty about future prospects.

This thesis uses Historical Institutionalism (HI) to explain why social justice policy became an important focus for change in the 1997-2010 Conservative Party, how this policy changed, and why radical ideological change did not take place. Utilising interviews with mid- and elite-level Party actors, and analysis of policy publications, this thesis maps the restrictive and enabling effect of material and ideational institutional structures. It introduces new HI theoretical mechanisms of path tendency within path dependency, and confluence junctures, as key processes; neutral and mimicry invasion as key sources of new policy; and policy and institutional entrepreneurs as key types of actor. It couples these newly defined terms to present mechanisms in HI to offer an explanation that down-plays Cameron as a significant break from past ideological practice: rather there has been broad continuity throughout the opposition period, which, rather than being restrictive, has facilitated incremental policy change, largely emerging slowly from mid-level actors in the Party. The thesis contributes to debates in the study of British politics by offering a theoretical and institutionally focused explanation rather than prioritising more descriptive and personality focused work. It also develops HI and improves its explanation of incremental change in a non-crisis institutional environment.

This thesis explores the shifts and continuities in the construction of security in the post-communist period. The thesis provides an insight into the reasons and the ways in which the dominant discourse of security and foreign policy of the Albanian state shifted in 1997 from a an emphasis on the ‘nation’ and ‘national sovereignty’ into a liberal discourse which emphasized the ‘economy’ and the ‘region’. The overarching question of the thesis is why did the Euro-Atlantic orientation become the hegemonic discourse of Albanian foreign and security policy in the post-1997 period? In order to find the answer for this question I will concentrate on the meanings that the Albanian political elites—and more specifically the two main governing parties, the Democratic Party and the Socialist Party— have attached to the notions of ‘national question’ and ‘Euro-Atlantic orientation’. The argument of the thesis is that the different articulations of ‘Euro-Atlantic orientation’ and of the ‘national interest’ have relied upon the elites’ different conceptions of self, that is, what constituted Albanianism. In turn, the political actors translate the basic identity narratives of the nation through their ideological/interpretative repertoires. The thesis builds on Discourse Theory and particularly the approach developed by Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe (1985) By incorporating notions of ‘identification strategies’, ‘interpretative repertoires’ and ‘myth’ into the framework of Lene Hansen and Ole Waever (2001), the thesis reveals the intricate interplay between the construction of state identity and of political identities in post-communist Albania.

The primary purpose of this study was to conduct a comparative investigation and systematic examination of the constraints confronting advocacy groups in the post-transitional states of Kenya and Zambia. The researcher also examined the effects of such constraints on the ability of advocacy groups to effectively contribute to the process of democratic consolidation. The constrained advocacy sub-sector of civil society in a supposedly democratic political setting is an intriguing paradox that is less studied and understood despite advocacy groups' critical role in the process of democratic consolidation. The study employed a domestic politico-institutional approach with a comparative and case-oriented, qualitative research design, primarily based on in-depth semi-structured interviews method of data collection. The study demonstrated that advocacy groups in the post-transitional states of Kenya and Zambia are finding it extremely difficult to adapt to the new political environment. The groups are confronting constraints from the uncertainty of the new political environment defined by advocacy groups' internal contradictions and weaknesses, the legacy of authoritarianism, the influence of politics, primordialism, and international donor control; all have combined in varying degrees to undermine the role of advocacy groups in the process of democratic consolidation. Deliberate state strategies have also led to the 'closing civic space' for advocacy groups coupled with popular disengagement due to the disillusionment of citizens with advocacy groups' performance in the process of democratic consolidation. Advocacy groups are therefore a microcosm of society rigid and not as adaptable as previously portrayed in the literature of civil society studies. The contribution of advocacy groups to the process of democratic consolidation is, therefore, ambiguous. The study also concludes that domestic actors and institutions are the primary determinants of the pace and direction of democratic consolidation, while the state remains the most significant actor in the process.

This thesis fills the gap in the TQM and public service management literature by providing a more sophisticated understanding of the relationship between TQM, employee satisfaction and service quality within the context of Jordanian public sector organisations. The primary data for this research relied on two sources, survey and semi-structured interviews. These were conducted as part of fieldwork within the public sector of Jordan. The study was based on two samples to achieve the research objectives. Firstly, 420 employees working on the frontline in public service organisations in Jordan were surveyed to diagnose TQM and employee satisfaction issues. 821 customers were surveyed to explore service quality issues. For further clarification and explanation on TQM and employee satisfaction 30 employees were interviewed in parallel to the survey field work. 30 customers were interviewed to explore service quality issues. Qualitative data such as “Excellence” reports were used to support, validate and explain elements of the research model. Findings from Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) reveal the direct impact of TQM on ES, whereas TQM was found to have an indirect impact on service quality (mediated by employee satisfaction). At the same time, employees’ satisfaction has a direct impact on dimensions of service quality, namely reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy. The variance of service empathy can be highly predicted by employee satisfaction levels (71%).Interestingly, the outcomes of this research revealed that service employees in the public sector play four roles: enabler, mediator, complementary and collaborator.

For the 2012 Mexican Presidential Elections, about 50 million voters went to polls to elect more than two thousand posts. The runner-up attributed the defeat to a massive vote-buying mobilisation in favour of the front-runner. Reports from electoral observers supported that version. Did vote buying modify voters choices? Although the literature has approached vote buying from several angles, there remain disputes and gaps in our understanding of the mechanisms involved and their direct implications for electoral outcomes. In this dissertation, I assess both, asking i) how are Mexican voters confronted by vote-buying strategies, ii) what mechanisms for targeting and buying votes do parties deploy, and iii) how strong are the effects on voting choices. First, I propose an extended two-stage model of vote-buying mobilisation to frame the analysis and to resolve conflations and confusions in previous research. Second, I employ a mixed-methods research design, analysing thousands of phone calls reporting vote-buying to a national hotline service, a series of semi-structured interviews with brokers, and a list experiment embedded in a nationally representative survey in Mexico. Qualitative evidence from calls and interviews confirm the two-stage model: that activists begin to target voters long time before polling days by knocking on doors, proffering rewards as an exchange for votes and compiling lists of electors. Near and during polling days, activists conduct the second mobilisation strategy to monitor voters and ensure compliance by distributing benefits broadly across the country. Survey evidence shows that 15% of those electors switching voting choices near polling days were contacted by activists during the Election Day, which suggests that further research on vote buying should be more attentive to the timing of the exchange. This research contributes to the literature on vote buying in three ways. First, it extends theoretical approaches of models of vote-buying mobilisation. Second, it provides qualitative evidence from both citizens and brokers to understand mechanisms of targeting and buying votes. Third, it highlights some indirect questioning strategies -including but not confined to the list experiment- that are helpful for estimating vote-buying.

The burgeoning literature in IR has pointed to the importance of global communication for enriching our understanding of global politics. However, practically, few works provide comprehensive analysis of meaning construction that goes beyond the notion of strategic persuasion. This work will address this limitation by opening up to another, tactical level of discourse through the analysis of ‘competing’ discourses. This dissertation aims to advance understanding of framing and counter-framing in world politics with reference to the case study of RT. Empirically, it analyses how RT framed the Syrian Crisis in 2013 and the Annexation of Crimea in 2014. It focuses on the dialogic nature of international communication and applies a systematic methodology of framing and counter-framing to the case studies. The study analyses the dialogue between RT and its discursive rival, CNN, that emerges as a result of tactical efforts of the channels to promote interpretations. Making theoretical advancements in framing theory, the work proposes a structural model of data analysis. In particular, the work employs textual, visual and intertextual methods to extract sub-frames and identify meta-frames of the discourse. By exposing the countering strategies and the internal dialogism of RT’s narratives the work theorizes on the origins and implications of Russia’s defensive rhetoric.

My thesis traces and assesses the engagement of Africa in the international political economy through examining Mauritian activism and co-operation in the World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiating and decision-making process. Using the illustrative case study of Mauritius I investigate the increased engagement of Africa in the international political economy beyond the political elite interests and client-patronage relationships. This is done by establishing that those Mauritian elites involved in trade policy-making and activism and co-operation in the WTO are constrained by the process of deliberation and negotiation with other societal actors, ensuring that they act in accordance (to an extent) with the wider societal aspirations/interests (whether intended or otherwise) and act to advance the development of Mauritius’ political economy within international political economy. Using the Strategic Relational Approach (SRA) I explain the centrality of human actors in exercising agency in relationship with both the domestic and international contexts in which they find themselves – contexts which are uneven and which also constrain their activities. This allows me to interrogate the marginalisation and engagement approaches in their explanation of Africa’s position in the international political economy as I highlight their interrelated structural and agential dimensions and in the process provide an alternative lens to explain Mauritius’ domestic policy-making processes and engagement in the international political economy. My adopted alternative approach allows the thesis to develop a more complex understanding of the engagement of African countries in the international political economy than is currently provided by pre-existing literature.

In recent years, ‘agencification’ and ‘autonomisation’ seem to have emerged as the new orthodoxy in the reform of public administration, fuelling a lively academic debate on bureaucratic autonomy and political control - on whether these two phenomena are diametrically opposed or can co-exist alongside each other. Using as its empirical basis two case studies of revenue administrations in Jamaica and the Dominican Republic, this cross-jurisdictional, interdisciplinary piece of research seeks to advance current understanding of bureaucratic autonomy on two fronts. First, it explores the under-researched issue of factors which may condition the exercise of bureaucratic discretion. Second, it is distinct from current works because of its comparative analysis of bureaucratic manoeuvrability within differing legal traditions and systems of government. Notwithstanding the cases’ historical and cultural differences, findings revealed a number of common functional realities. The more influential macro-institutional constraints fed through to impact on internal operational functioning in areas such as the establishment of tax priorities and revenue targets. No support was found for the hypothesis that different legal traditions have a differential impact on bureaucratic functioning. In both jurisdictions, a detailed ‘fussy’ style of drafting revenue laws aims towards certainty and predictability, with no particular stakeholder biases. Legal drafting style may be a function of the specific policy area.