This thesis examines how institutional frameworks impact on political repre-sentation. It looks at the links and relationships that exist between political institutions and political representation, and explores how institutions shape the role and behaviour of elected representatives. Institutional frameworks are comprised of institutions which include a great variety of rules. Some rules were intentionally designed and formally described in laws and policies. Others developed informally over time as practices and conventions. The thesis argues that formal and informal rules, individually and in combination, impact on political action. Political representation is about action. It is about how elected representatives act for the represented, and about whether the ‘acting’ is in the interest of the represented. The thesis argues that formal and informal rules influence the actions of representatives and thereby shape political representation. This thesis is a qualitative case study of sub-local government in the city of Munich in Bavaria, Germany. It builds upon ‘new institutionalism’ and inves-tigates what the institutions of sub-local government in Munich are, and what their role is with respect to the actions of elected representatives. The thesis looks at both how institutions shape the actions of representatives and at how representatives create and shape these institutions. Based on its empirical findings, the thesis generates theories and hypotheses as to how political institutions and political behaviour influence each other. The thesis reflects on the significance of the findings for representative government in Munich and, more broadly, for democratic outcomes at the local and sub-local level.

This thesis uses economics-style incentivised laboratory experiments to study the effects of the political transformation in Arab Spring Countries (frequent recalling of governments, political and social polarisation, and campaign dynamics of founding elections) on economic outcomes; such as tax compliance, support for painful economic reforms, corruption, and interpersonal trust. The main focus of this thesis is on Egypt, being the largest Arab country in terms of population, historically the most influential in the region, and with a dominant cultural influence felt all over the Arab world. I find the following experimental evidence: (i) Giving citizens the right to recall government officials decreases the level of corruption in government through the increased accountability it imposes on elected politicians. Specifically, corruption is reduced by 14% in the presence of this right (p=0.04). (ii) Empowering citizens with the right to recall government officials was also found to decrease tax compliance by 20% due to the high frequency of divisive elections associated with this newly acquired right in a newly democratised country and the creation of losers who become unsatisfied with the outcome of the election process and thus the psychological costs associated with their incompliance are minimized. (iii) Ideological polarisation in elections can impede economic reform. And that (iv) negative campaigning in elections can impact negatively on the level of interpersonal trust in the society.

This thesis explores how English councils and their public service partners responded to the UK Coalition government’s ‘austerity’-related spending cuts between 2010 and 2015. The research is distinctive in moving beyond a focus on the impacts of cuts to individual services, instead considering responses to austerity ‘in the round’, using a governance perspective. The methodology was innovative, using principles of ‘action research’ and ‘appreciative inquiry’ to design the research collaboratively with Nottingham City Council. Fieldwork was undertaken between 2012 and 2014, including a document review, 34 interviews and two workshops with frontline staff, as well as informal participant observation. The approach aimed to deliver academic rigour, as well as useful findings for practitioners addressing challenges in the field. Taking the locality of Nottingham as an exploratory and revelatory embedded single case study, the analysis combines insights from new institutionalist and interpretive theory. It demonstrates that although the council showed institutional resilience, and was able to maintain a wide range of services, spending cuts were creating pressure to change both the ‘practices’ and ‘narratives’ underpinning service delivery. Tensions in some service delivery partnerships suggested shifts in local ‘traditions’ of governance, viewed by some actors as symptomatic of a wider change in the values underpinning governance institutions. Meanwhile the council was increasingly focussed on strategic forms of community leadership, whilst links with local communities were diminishing. Working with partners, the council had (at least temporarily) mitigated a dramatic reduction in income. Yet although change in service delivery was incremental, the potential for transformation in local governance was clear. These findings are shown to have consistencies with wider comparative studies. Policy implications are discussed for the 2015 Conservative government, as it implements a further round of austerity-related cuts.

This study is concerned with the impacts of local government decentralisation on the lives of the people of Drumchapel. The dramatic changes associated with the British state and civil society in the 1980s serves as a starting point. As a decade, the 1980s witnessed major economic restructuring, and more significantly in relation to this work, upheaval in the structure and function of the welfare state. A substantial component of the welfare state is local government service provision, which has been directly challenged by central government initiated change, and indirectly challenged by the changing conditions of civil society. At the close of the 1980s, the once universally accepted pattern of provision had radically altered, and in some instances a mixed economy of welfare had become established. Restructuring is of significance to this work for two related reasons. Firstly, some of the explanations for decentralisation are related to restructuring, and the nature of developments in Drumchapel are intimately connected with such changes. Secondly, a marginalisation of some sections of British society has taken place, and arguably an underclass of people who are largely excluded from mainstream society has come into being. As a concept, the underclass is of direct relevance to Drumchapel (see below).Decentralisation is the core concept of this work. It has been welcomed as: "a new managerial paradigm bringing with it increased efficiency, flexibility and customer responsiveness, and also as a new political paradigm, bringing gains in terms of increased accountability and citizen participation" (Loundes 1991, p. 19). During the 1980s, decentralisation was broadly seen as a solution to many of the problems local government faced, including being part of the solution to financial constraints and to the problems associated with local government, in particular, excessive bureaucracy and remoteness from the public.

This thesis examines how Israeli critical activist engagement with the Palestinian call for just peace reframes Israel-Palestine. The thesis makes a political-theoretical intervention by arguing that Israeli civil society engagement with the principles underlying just peace requires, if it is to be successful, the utilisation of non-statist conceptualisations of peace politics. The thesis draws upon feminist critical theory and postcolonial critique to theorise peace politics as a practice of solidarity. From this perspective the conflict is analysed through the prism of Nancy Fraser’s ‘all affected’ principle which asserts that all those whose lives and wellbeing are affected by an institution of power, whether that be a state or a transnational corporation, are subjects of justice in relation to that institution, whether they hold the same citizenship as its representatives or not. Thus, by virtue of sharing the same, albeit politically diffentiated, geo-political space Israelis and Palestinians residing in Israel within its 1948 borders, the West Bank and Gaza Strip, as well as the refugees outside Israel-Palestine, are subjects of justice and potential solidarity. As such, the Palestinians have the right to demand justice not only from the state of Israel but also from its citizens. The activist work, narratives and responses of three critical Israeli case study groups are examined in relation to the call for just peace: Anarchists Against the Wall (AATW), the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD), and Zochrot (Remembering). The activist narratives and practices examined testify to the way in which critical Israeli engagement with nonviolent ethical responsibility towards the Palestinian people can result in unprecedented narrative convergence, practical solidarity, and the possibility for non-domination and cohabitation. These critical activist practices reveal just peace as an emergent and ongoing project to reframe and rearticulate the contemporary relations of oppression and domination in Israel-Palestine.

This thesis explores responses to rape in the Acholi sub-region of northern Uganda, based on three years of participant observation plus in-­depth interviews with a random sample of 187 women from two villages. The issues examined lie at the intersection of two ongoing discussions in scholarship and practice and contributes to each of them: wrongdoing and justice, and sexual violence and rape. Northern Uganda is at the heart of international justice debates. Fierce controversy followed the 2005 announcement of the International Criminal Court’s intervention in ongoing conflict between the Lord’s Resistance Army and the Government of Uganda. Two opposing representations of Acholi society emerged: that Acholi were innately forgiving -­ able to deal with mass crime through traditional justice; or that they needed and often supported formal legal justice. But this missed crucial aspects of Acholi realities, which this study illustrates, most basically the profound value of social harmony, and a deep distrust of distanced authorities to dispense justice in their interest. Many scholars and practitioners assume that in the aftermath of crime, justice must be done. Amongst Acholi, I have found, the primary moral imperative in the wake of wrongdoing is not punishment of the perpetrator or individual victim’s rights but the restoration of social harmony. Experience of rape and harm it causes are predicated on understandings of wrongdoing related to challenges posed to social harmony. Similarly, an appropriate remedy depends not only on the act of forced sex itself, but also on the social role of the perpetrator and social context. This thesis adds empirical, locally-­grounded, and culturally-­specific evidence in support of a more complicated and nuanced explanation of rape and its aftermath than is familiar in the analytical/normative frameworks familiar in post-­atrocity justice debates or anti-­rape feminist activist discourse. It suggests reimagining the meanings of these phenomena along lived continuums: before, during and after war; and acknowledging the role of sex, power and politics in all sexual experiences on a spectrum of coercion and enthusiastic consent.

This is a study of how UK public sector organisations both build and define capacity for improvement. Public service quality in the UK remains a subject of ongoing importance, not least because of its contribution to economic growth of the country as a whole but also because of the needs and wants of the civil population as consumers of those services. It is considered that in order to improve service in a continuous and sustainable manner, organisations must develop the capacity for improvement through the process of capacity building. The research is based in the field of Education, at school level, from which the implementation and effects of a particular capacity building policy can be examined. The policy in question is PPA time (Planning, Preparation, and Assessment time), which forms part of the government's agenda for Workforce Reform. In conducting this exploratory research, a qualitative approach to a case study based research design is adopted. An interpretive analysis of cases facilitates a richness and depth of understanding. Six detailed case studies are carried out at schools serving Key Stage 1 and 2 pupils in one Local Authority in the West Midlands. A number of research methods are employed to facilitate triangulation of the data, including semi-structured interviews, observation, a survey, and a diary study. This thesis makes three contributions to new knowledge. Firstly, it develops understanding of the role of certain influences on internal capacity. Some are found to influence internal capacity directly through their impact upon internal capabilities. Others are found to influence internal capacity indirectly through the way in which they impact upon implementation of a capacity building policy. Influences are further found to be `enablers', which if present would enhance internal capabilities; `qualifiers'; without which, particular influences would `inhibit' internal capabilities, and which had the potential to become `enablers'; and `inhibitors', which had detrimental effects on internal capabilities. Secondly, it examines the relationship between direct influences and internal capacity to find that several of the influences in the extant literature are less significant in the context of a policy designed to build capacity. Further, it finds that particular influences affect other influences and so are `higher order' influences. Thirdly, it interprets the literature and research findings to conclude that `capacity building' is best understood as: the process of developing the necessary resources to meet improvement objectives, and of maximising the benefits of those resources through organisational capabilities.

Sustainable development is generally accepted as a policy imperative. However, it can be interpreted in very different ways and is perhaps best regarded as a discourse rather than as a precisely defined term. It is also generally accepted that `sustainable development' requires actions at all spatial scales and by all levels of government, including the local. However, parish and town councils, which are the most local level of local government in rural England, are given no responsibilities in relation to sustainability. This thesis is intended to investigate the potential of parish and town councils to take a leadership role in increasing the sustainability of their communities. A casestudy approach is used, involving the study of five larger local councils in the county of Gloucestershire, in the context of larger-scale sustainable development discourses. Two case-study projects are also analysed to study how different discourses come together at the local level. We find that the concept of `sustainable development' has been adapted by UK government to conform to wider political discourses. However, government interpretations are not necessarily reproduced at the local level, where inherent contradictions become more apparent. Although parish and town councillors may express commitment to `sustainable development', they tend to interpret it in terms of the local and the relatively short- term. A discourse of local council legitimation is identified by which councillors see their role as caring for their parish, with the benefit of local knowledge and holistic thinking. The thesis concludes that if parish and town councils are to contribute to sustainable development, they must be given specific powers encompassing the global and long-term effects of local activities, and other local groups must see the local council as a leader of the community and `sustainability arbiter', rather than as just another interest group.

This thesis investigates Local Area Agreements as a tool for the effective delivery of local public services focusing on three main areas: - Centre-Local Relations and the Vertical Governance of LAAs - Intra Local Relations and the Horizontal Governance of LAAs - Learning from LAAs to improve the future practice of local public service delivery. In exploring these areas, the thesis draws upon several academic theories; principally the Strategic Relational Approach and New Institutionalism. These themes are explored in a two-tiered methodology. The first is a national overview survey of LAA practitioners which then informed the second stage; detailed interviews across two case study areas (Liverpool and St Helens) as well as with civil servants and elected politicians from national government. In relation to vertical-governance, the thesis discusses the national indicator dataset and the ability for areas to adequately focus on local policy priorities, the top-down governance of LAAs and a discussion about the role of Government Office for the regions in negotiating and delivering LAAs. In relation to horizontal governance, the research identifies both stronger and weaker actors within the local governance process, discusses the value of differing actor approaches, investigates how internal accountability affects the relationship with a wider partnership and discusses the role of elected members. The final section discusses how practitioners feel that LAAs could be improved, before discussing how current Coalition policy addresses these concerns, before drawing some final conclusions about the relative success of the LAA project. The findings show that despite initial overtures of greater local discretion over setting priorities, strong central control remained. In particular, this was seen through the indicator selection process, with areas adopting indicators that were not seen as local priorities. At the local level it is shown that a long or short term operating horizon affected how actors worked with the LAA and that those actors that traditionally operated on shorter time scales (i.e. police, fire and rescue service) were more likely to register frustration with longer term bureaucratic processes. It was also found that those actors that viewed partnership working on LAA targets as an investment for long term results were viewed as being more effective than those which simply saw it as a cost. In terms of Coalition policy in the post LAA period, it appears that many lessons have gone unheeded, particularly around the components of effective partnership working. However, the new City Deal programme presents a renewed sense of optimism for effective (and locally responsive) local public service delivery.

Government budgetary techniques and related management systems have been recently of great concern in many countries all over the world. At the present time a few, major developments have been made in this field and these are the main focus of discussions in this thesis with a view to assessing their respective influence on the management of government activities in general, and local government in particular. This study aims to achieve one major objective, that of the empirical investigation of the state and developments of such techniques and procedures in English local authorities. This was done on the basis of the combination of a theoretical analysis, supported by the necessary descriptive material, with an empirical survey to test the main hypotheses of the study. The thesis is presented in three parts, where the first and the second present the theoretical review of the literature, critically discussing the state of the above-mentioned procedures in government activities through both central and local government. The final part summarises and evaluates the findings resulting from the analysis of the survey. The various findings have, where appropriate, been used to test the conclusions of the theoretical aspects of the thesis. The research findings suggest that traditional budgetary procedures in English local authorities are no longer sufficient for an effective and efficient allocation of resources. The annual budget within a corporate planning framework is an integrated part of overall policy and strategy in most authorities. Indeed it is a significant part of the corporate planning system. The present research also confirms that English local authorities have tended to doubt the practical value of PPBS and to prefer a corporate planning approach. A number of authorities have recognised the value of adopting ZBB, and some of them have adopted a modified budgeting approach based on ZBB principles. It seems that these authorities believe in ZBB as an approach suitable to a climate of restraint and cutback. Finally, the majority of the authorities disagree that the introduction of any changes in their accounting and auditing systems were a direct result of the introduction of the newer budgetary techniques.