In 2002, the Scottish National Party (SNP) published a draft Constitution for Scotland. Aside from its potential practical importance in the event of Scotland becoming independent, this draft Constitution is also of academic interest as an example of a written Constitution that is derived from, but which critiques and seeks to reform, the ‘Westminster’ model of democracy. This thesis subjects the SNP’s draft Constitution, for the first time, to a thorough, independent and scholarly review. It addresses the central question of whether the draft Constitution, if adopted, would be a viable and acceptable foundation for the constitutional order of a democratic Scottish State. Using a historical institutionalist approach, the thesis identifies the criteria of a viable and acceptable Constitution by reference to Scotland’s historical trajectory, the evolving global norms of constitutional democracy, and the circumstantial conditions of Scotland today. It then conducts a detailed examination of the draft Constitution, to assess how well the text embodies these criteria. The thesis finds that the SNP’s draft Constitution is viable and acceptable in its overall structure and principles, but that it is diminished by poor constitutional design and by an avoidable lack of attention to procedural detail.

The protracted war and the centrality of security in Israel raises the Lasswellian question, can parliamentary democracy and political pluralism prevail under such conditions, without turning Israel into a Garrison State? The prevailing understanding of political-military relations in Israel is that the IDF is an instrumentalist army, that it serves as the executive tool of the legitimate political authorities and is not involved with state politics. Furthermore, it is accepted that the greatest achievement of David Ben Gurion, Israel's first Prime Minister and Defence Minister, and the architect of the defence establishment, was the de-politicization of the IDF and its disconnection from party politics. Both assumptions are challenged in this study. New evidence, and an analysis of existing material reveals the existence of a nominal control pattern, which has the formal appearance of an instrumentalist model, whereas the reality is otherwise. The IDF was not subordinate only to a state channel of political control, like other instrumentalist armies. In Israel there existed a unique pattern of political-military relations, a dual-control pattern. The political authorities exerted control through two channels, not only the state but also the party channel, that is of the dominant Labour Party. The state control was in fact weak and there was a lack of effective mediatory mechanisms between the military on the one hand and the Cabinet, Parliament and Defence Ministry on the other. As a result a pattern of civil-military partnership emerged in place of civil control. The boundaries between the military and the Labour Party were permeable. This allowed the rivalry between that party's two "sub-elites" to affect the military which enhanced the partnership between the military and political elites. The emergence of the military as one of the main mobility channels to the national leadership, evidenced by the increased influence of the generals-turned-politicians, has resulted in a developmental construct of Military Democracy.

The setting for research is Abkhazia a small country south of the Caucasus Mountains and bordering Europe and the Near East. The Abkhaz hold onto custom – apswara – to make of state law an adjunct to custom as the state strives to strengthen its powers to ‘modernise’ along capitalist lines. This institution of a parallel-cum-interwoven and oppositional existence of practices and the laws questions the relationship of the two in a novel way. The bases of apswara are its concepts of communality and fairness. Profound transformations have followed the dissolution of the Soviet Union, and the breakaway from and subsequent war with Georgia, none of which have brought the bright prospects that were hoped-for with independence. The element of hope in post-Soviet nostalgia provides pointers to what the Abkhaz seek to enact for their future, to decide the course of change that entertains the possibility of a non-capitalist modernisation route and a customary state. Apswara is founded on the direct participatory democracy of non-state regulation. It draws members of all ethnicities into the generation of nationalist self-awareness that transcends ethnicity and religions, and forms around sacred shrines and decisions taken by popular assemblies. It has topical significance for other societies where custom and law co-habit through contestation, and questions some widely accepted theories about the relationship of the two, as well as problematising anthropological concepts of ‘legal pluralism’ and post-Sovietics. The study suggests new topics for research.

The role of cultural diversity in various aspects of society has been theoretically and empirically investigated. Prevailing measures of cultural diversity mainly focus on diversity of ethnicity, religion and language. However, there has been little discussion about diversity in human values. We construct cultural diversity measures based on human values and seek to examine its role in economic development. This thesis demonstrates the significance our measure plays in estimating the impact of formal institutions (rule of law) and informal institutions (respect for others) on economic performance.

As the first study focusing on the implementation of the constitutions and quality of government (QoG) in Kurdistan from a practical point of view, this thesis examines the question why the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) fails to deliver the constitutions in a way that strengthens its democracy and produces a good QoG. From analyses of the data gleaned from 41 semi-structured interviews the thesis identifies the main factors that affect the implementation of the constitutions and QoG with particular reference to the 2005 Iraqi constitution and the Kurdistan draft constitution of 2009. The study also outlines the reform process in the Kurdistan Region and explains how a system of political checks and balances in a democratic society can improve QoG and democracy. This research considers the main obstacle to the establishment of a good and democratic government in the region to be political influence on all state institutions, including the executive, parliament, the judiciary, military forces, police and security services, and use of these institutions for political and personal benefits. Other obstacles identified are a reliance on oil products, a culture of corruption, poor administration, a low-quality legal system, Kurdish disputes with the central Iraqi government, the absence of a clear, enforceable regional constitution, the lack of experience with democracy and, more importantly, the absence of political will for reform by the ruling parties. In this light, the study recommends strengthening the state institutions, reducing political influence over them and establishing a process of political checks and balances – as exists in democratic states – as extremely important to improving QoG. However, it also argues that these aims will not be achieved without a genuine political will for reform. Thus, this thesis stands as the first detailed research in this field that qualitatively investigates the effect of the implementation of democratic constitutions in a region that has gone through conflict and violence; attempts to set out the factors that form obstacles to such implementation; and puts forward recommendations for the improvement of QoG in the light of the constitutions. This study therefore, can help the government and politicians to take action in terms of reforms to improve QoG in the region and develop the democratic process. This research will also contribute to future study on a similar theme.

No description available.

This thesis seeks to research patterns of economic growth and development from a number of perspectives often resonated in the growth literature. By addressing themes about history, geography, institutions and culture the thesis is able to bring to bear a wide range of inter-related literatures and methodologies within a single content. Additionally, by targeting different administrative levels in its research design and approach, this thesis is also able to provide a comprehensive treatment of the economic growth dilemma from both cross-national and sub-national perspectives. The three chapters herein discuss economic development from two broad dimensions. The first of these chapters takes on the economic growth inquiry by attempting to incorporate cultural geography within a cross-country formal spatial econometric growth framework. By introducing the global cultural dynamics of languages and ethnic groups as spatial network mechanisms, this chapter is able to distinguish economic growth effects accruing from own-country productive efforts from those accruing from interconnections within a global productive network chain. From this, discussions and deductions about the implications for both developed and developing countries are made as regards potentials for gains and losses from such types and levels of productive integration. The second and third chapters take a different spin to the economic development inquiry. They both focus on economic activity in Africa, tackling the relevant issues from a geo-intersected dimension involving historic regional tribal homelands and modern national and subnational administrative territories. The second chapter specifically focuses on attempting to adopt historical channels to investigate the connection between national institutional quality and economic development in demarcated tribal homelands at the fringes of national African borders. The third chapter on the other hand focuses on looking closer at the effects of demarcations on economic activity. It particularly probes how different kinds of demarcation warranted by two different but very relevant classes of politico-economic players have affected economic activity quite distinguishably within the resulting subnational regions in Africa.

Political parties are the cornerstone of modern democracies and the decisions they make can have important consequences for citizens' well-being. This dissertation studies two different types of party behaviour. The first is coalition building and how social-identity concerns can help predict which parties form alliances. The second is the decision of potential new parties to enter electoral competition. The effect of social-identity on coalition formation is tested using an experiment on the 'pure effect' of gender, race and political ideology on who is selected as a coalition partner. The findings showed that gender and race did not affect participants' decisions. By contrast, ideology had a strong effect. Substantively, the results provide evidence that a preference for similar coalition partners can help predict which coalitions form, even when there are no policy benefits from this alliance to be gained. Party entry behaviour is analysed through two incentive structures. The first paper measures the impact of public subsidies on new-party presidential candidates in Latin America. The results show that campaign subsidies can increase the relative costs of a campaign and create a barrier for new-party candidate entry. On the other hand, campaign funding for everyday party activities has the opposite effect. This study contributes to the understanding of the cost-benefit incentives for new party entry and the consequences of party finance regulations. The second paper on new parties addresses the dynamic process of party exit and entry into politics. The study argues that the collapse of a political party opens policy space that can lead to the successful entrance of new parties. The results provide robust evidence that the size of the collapsed party has a positive effect on the vote shares for new parties. However, this is moderated by the permissibility of the electoral formula.

No description available.

Democracy purports to accurately reflect the choices of the general public. It is justly credited with the creation and expansion of modern mechanisms of redistribution. Yet, in recent decades it appears to have become more of an inhibitor than a catalyst in the pursuit of an equitable society. Those treated most unequally were not bystanders. Both in Britain and Israel, roughly two fifths of them did not support the expansion of the welfare state. This thesis shows their engagement with politics was often different than others. It observes the dynamics in a three-force triangle consisting of poor people, democracy and the welfare state. Even though historically this Triangle fuelled the movement towards progressive redistribution, the findings suggest it is no longer the pivotal engine to mitigate market inequalities. The principal beneficiaries of welfare appear to be incapable of mobilising democracy to expand it. The research indicates that poor people were alarmingly uncommitted to democracy and/or the welfare state. Although these institutions underpinned their social and political rights, many barely recognised how they serve their interests. In addition, the poor could not identify themselves as a collective, were more vulnerable to fallacies, emotions and traditions, and tended to prioritise other policy domains. This thesis challenges the operational definitions of political exclusion and illuminates the need to scrutinise and theorise the political behaviour of the underprivileged electorate. Policy-wise, a new strategy is required to revive relationships between poor people, democracies and welfare states. We should be looking at active and inclusive institutional mechanisms rather than technical solutions of postal or compulsory voting.