This study examines the influence of polls and pollsters on politicians. The analysis reviews the American literature, which suggests that electoral technology is used by private political consultants to assist the politician in manipulating the voter. Six hypotheses are identified from the electoral manipulation literature, focusing specifically on the influence of political consultants on politicians. These hypotheses are tested with an historical analysis of the use of polls in the political organization of the Liberal Party of Canada from 1943 to 1984. Secondly, in-depth interviews were conducted with prominent Liberals, and are reviewed to further test the hypotheses as they relate to the influence of polling on politicians. The study concludes by examining the rise of electoral technocracy in the party, and by assessing the pollsters' influence on political decision-making.

This thesis examines the ways in which the Liberal Party - the Natal Division in particularattempted to become an effective political force in South Africa. The Party was fanned in May 1953 as a non-racial political party. Initially, it concentrated on working among the white electorate, and on achieving political change through parliamentary means. The Party gradually shifted its attention to the voteless black majority, and took its active opposition beyond the boundaries of parliamentary politics. Members of the Natal Division played a leading role in this shift. The party gave expression to a distinctive strand of radica1liberalism, within a broader spectrum of South African liberalism. The Party was unsuccessful in preventing the entrenchment of the apartheid policies it so vehemently opposed. However, the Natal LP succeeded in developing a good working relationship with Congress Alliance, especially the African National Congress, in the region, in attracting a large number of black members through its grass-roots involvement, and in keeping liberal principles and priorities in the public eye in inauspicious circumstances. From 1960, Party leaders attracted increasing government persecution for their anti-apartheid activism. The Party deserves more attention than is commonly given to it in the South African historiography of resistance politics. The Liberal Party's continued existence as a non-racial political party was rendered impossible by government legislation in 1968. The Party disbanded, rather than compromise its non-racial principles. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1999.

Despite its presentation as a pragmatic and universally applicable path to peace, the author argues that liberal peacebuilding offers no clear break from past colonial and imperial relations. Liberal peacebuilding is, in fact, colonial in its attempt to penetrate the markets and political systems of post-conflict countries and restructure economies and political life through the hegemonic imposition of liberal norms, facilitating their integration into global capitalism and a liberal community of states. The “liberal peace” created by this political and economic order often involves violent conditions of assimilation and exclusion. Moreover, the confluence of security and development concerns in the 1990s has set the strategic foundation for the incorporation of locally-driven “civil society” approaches to peacebuilding within statebuilding operations. In this thesis, the author identifies existing criticisms of peacebuilding, and, drawing on theorists such as Michel Foucault, Partha Chatterjee, David Scott, and Jenny Edkins, initiates a deeper critique that considers the historical context of colonialism, legitimations of violence, the construction of the non-west in categories of development, and the relations of power and knowledge associated with liberal approaches to making peace. The author provides a historical and political overview of wars in Angola, proposing that discourses and practices of international peacebuilding have concealed the continuation of war by other means.

No description available.

The history of colonialism is generally associated with the authoritarian regimes of the sixteenth century that expanded their reign for the purpose of material aggrandizement. Problems arise, however, when colonial regimes espouse explicit concern for the welfare of the subject population. Through a reading of British colonial discourse on India, as represented by the Economist newspaper, John Stuart Mill, George Campbell, and John William Kaye, I argue that market capitalism was seen as the means by which ‘backward’ Indian subjects would be ‘improved.’ But this ‘civilizing mission’ exposed Indian society to unprecedented violence as the British sought to enforce its conformity to a system of proprietorship and commercial production. To explain the paradox inherent to liberal colonialism I will employ the concept of biopolitics as developed by Michel Foucault. Biopolitics explains how the prioritization of ‘life’ leads, not to peaceful existence, but to efforts to eliminate elements of human activity deemed inimical to the reproduction of the species. In colonial India this took the form of adjudicating subjects’ ability to adapt to, and create, the circumstances for industry to flourish, showing that at its core, British rule in India represented an assault on the indeterminacy of life itself.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Australian National University, 2004.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Carleton University, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 334-365). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Thesis (M.A.)--Rutgers University, 2010. / "Graduate Program in Liberal Studies." Includes bibliographical references (p. 32-33).

Thesis (M.A.)--Rutgers University, 2010. / "Graduate Program in Liberal Studies." Includes bibliographical references (p. 37-38).

Thesis (M.A.)--Rutgers University, 2008. / "Graduate Program in Liberal Studies." Includes bibliographical references (p. 28-30).