MA (History) / Department of Development Studies / The study examines the process of democratic consolidation in South Africa since 1994. This study unpacks the trends, developments and challenges which have taken place since 1994 towards the entrenchment of democracy in the country. The research will explore the nature of the rule of the ANC in the light of efforts, successes and failures in consolidating democratic rule in the country. The major problem which prompted this study is that, claims of South Africa as a democratic state have not been scrutinised by academics, and this study seeks to question the validity of the phrase “New democracy” which is commonly used by both politicians and academics in referring to the government since 1994. The study will be informed by notions of democracy and will utilise the indicators of democracy to locate whether South Africa can be viewed as a true democracy, or if it offers some elements, but neglecting some of the key components of democracy. The other critical issue will be to determine the extent to which democratic institutions have been strengthened in the country. This will be basically a literaturebased study, which depends more on reviewing policies enacted by the government and determining if the policies entail democratic consolidation. The overall assumption is that more still needs to be done towards entrenching democratic institutions that address socio-economic inequalities that persist in the country. Theoretically the study builds from the liberal discourse and its fundamental notions of democracy and good governance

Nowadays liberal democracy is faced with a crisis bought mainly by the liberal-democratic elites with their approach and the politics they established during the period of boundless triumphalism in the 1990s. Sand castles, whether it was the inevitability of progress or capitalism as a miraculous elixir to all the ills of society at the time, built during this period, began to crumble like a house of cards. Associated with the financial crisis that erupted in the United States in 2007 it spread practically all over the world. The period of the global financial crisis has shown that the creation of a legal framework, building of a conscious civil society and the system of values on which the society is built and identifies with them, or the construction of a liberal-democratic identity fell behind economic transformation and economic growth after 1989 and the people's relationship to liberal democracy was built primarily on economic aspects. This created space for those who for many years hid rather in the shadows, on the edge of the spectrum of political power. A fraction of the liberal-democratic elites, with their approach and politics of a kind of arrogance of power and the style of labeling their opponents, have turned against them even those who a priori did not have a negative attitude...

Thesis advisor: David Rasmussen / The debate between political liberalism and liberal perfectionism has taken center stage in contemporary literature on liberal political theory. According to political liberalism, the most sensible thing to do for political philosophy is to apply “the principle of toleration” to itself in order to arrive at a public conception of justice that is independent of controversial moral, philosophical, and religious doctrines. According to liberal perfectionism, basic liberal ideals and principles are compatible with the view that the state should direct citizens to live good or meaningful lives, and discourage them from pursuing bad or worthless ones. Both political liberalism and liberal perfectionism have developed substantial arguments to support their positions, and the debate between them has helped to shape the intellectual landscape of contemporary political philosophy. At the periphery of the mainstream liberal discourse, there has been growing interest in establishing and maintaining at least some liberal and democratic ideals and institutions in the burgeoning and increasingly pluralistic region of East Asia. One of the recent developments has led to sophisticated attempts to bring out the political side of Confucianism, the dominant source of cultural influence in the region. As some Confucian scholars have pointed out, East Asian societies, like their Western counterparts, are under the influence of reasonable pluralism, which diversifies and even divides the population in a region that used to be highly homogeneous. Thus, a plausible political theory and a timely model of democracy for East Asia must reflect this crucial change. This dissertation aims to contribute to both the internal debate in liberalism and the application of political liberalism to the process of democratization in East Asia. In my view, political liberalism offers the most promising vision for liberal democracy, and it can be defended against three perfectionist objections. First, the objection that the political conception of justice cannot be separated from morality in the comprehensive sense will be defused by introducing what I call the public conception of morality. Second, the objection that political liberalism’s asymmetric treatment of the right and the good is problematic will be addressed by defending the distinction between foundational and justificatory disagreements. Third, the objection that Rawls’ inclusion of epistemic elements in the concept of reasonableness necessarily makes political liberalism perfectionist and weakens the political liberal account of respect for persons will be defeated by revising the understanding of epistemic reasonableness. Beyond Rawls’ original intention to limit the scope of political liberalism to only existing and well-ordered liberal democracies, political liberalism has the potential to inspire and contribute to democratic establishment and improvement in East Asia. Specifically, I will first demonstrate that both comprehensive and moderate approaches to political Confucianism suffer from practical and theoretical difficulties. Then, with the support of political liberalism, I will propose a model of democracy that has a multivariate structure for citizens to come to terms with democracy in their own ways, a neutral state to ensure the establishment and stability of democracy, and an active public role for Confucianism to prevent it from being confined to the private sphere. This model represents a more promising future for democracy in East Asia. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2017. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Philosophy.

This study compares and contrasts the writings of Edmund Burke and Adam Smith, to determine whether they are contradictory, compatible, or complementary. Burke can be regarded as the founder of modern conservatism, and Smith is an early and powerful advocate of market-orientated liberalism. Today, their ideas have been blended into a system of “liberal conservatism” that serves as the unofficial political ideology of most right-of centre parties throughout the English-speaking world. However, it is not so immediately apparent that Smith and Burke can be reconciled with each other. In the course of this study, Burke and Smith’s ideas are considered at various levels of abstraction. They share a nuanced view of human beings as complex, social, sympathetic and self-interested. They both adhere to an empiricist epistemology that is distrustful of deductive rationality, especially when applied to complex human societies. In order to cope with this complexity, Burke and Smith alike counsel humility and pragmatism, and emphasise the importance of contingency. Furthermore, they suggest that policymakers rely on mechanisms that reveal information held by large numbers of individuals: tradition in the case of Burke, and the market mechanism in the case of Smith. Burke is a staunch opponent of arbitrary power, and an advocate of colonial liberty. However, he defends the prescriptive powers of the state, and argues that liberty should be tempered by self-restraint. Smith advocates a “system of natural liberty” in economic affairs, but acknowledges that such a system takes place within the framework of a coercive state. In terms of policy, Burke and Smith share similar views on external free trade and laissez-faire within the domestic economy, but there are important stylistic and substantive differences in their views on the relief of the poor. Ultimately, this study argues that Burke and Smith’s complementary policymaking framework, rather than their actual views on policy, is the true point of convergence between them. / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Political Sciences / unrestricted

Contrasted with the other branches of government, the Supreme Court has long been an institution posing a level of secretiveness equal to its power. Naturally, that has developed a desire, and maybe necessity, to gain a better understanding regarding the principal influences of judicial decision making on America’s highest Court. One phenomenon that has long been of interest to Court observers is the notion of the justice’s voting across established ideological lines. Previous attempts to explain and reconcile cross-ideological votes have focused on the influence of external actors on the Court, its legitimacy, public opinion, and dynamics between justices. Yet, there remains a need to scrutinize the types of cases most likely to produce cross-ideological votes among justices in order to offer explanatory factors as to when a particular cross-ideological vote occurs. Often ignored in the quest to ascertain factors influencing particular justices and the Court as a whole, is the need for a study of case topics and the ability of these topics to correlate to an unexpected vote by a justice. In this thesis, I analyze which legal issues embedded within Supreme Court cases are most likely to produce cross-ideological votes among justices. I then propose a theory for predicting what issue areas are most likely to produce cross-ideological votes among Supreme Court justices in the future. In this research, I find that the issue area of criminal procedure correlates to the largest number of cross-ideological votes by Supreme Court members. Interestingly, I also find that conservative and liberal justices are equally inconsistent in voting concerning criminal procedure cases.

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Denna uppsats består av en läromedelsanalys av samhällskunskapsböcker för gymnasieskolan. Texten tar avstamp i några teoretiska utgångspunkter: den universalistiska liberalismen är inte värdeneutral och kan stå i konflikt med andra idétraditioner, massutbildningssystemet i västvärlden har varit en viktig komponent för att bygga en nationell identitet och utbildningssystemet konstruerar en samhällsgemenskap med traditioner och normer som riskerar att andrafiera och utöva symboliskt våld mot dem som står utanför normen. Metoden är en diskursanalys och fyra läroböcker har undersökts. Klassrummet och de läromedel som används i det är en del i en samhällelig kontext och påverkas av omvärlden. Med teorierna som utgångspunkt genomförs analysen i tre steg: inledningsvis undersökte jag hur samhällsgemenskapen – vi:et – konstruerades. Med hjälp av liberal universalism som analytiskt begrepp letade jag efter nyckelord som exempelvis: kristendom, Sverige, Europa och demokrati. I det andra steget diskuterades följderna av att konstruera en samhällsgemenskap genom begreppen andrafiering och symboliskt våld. Avslutningsvis diskuterades dessa följder i kontexten av det mångkulturella klassrummet och vad det kan få för konsekvenser för lärare som vill använda dessa läroböcker. Resultatet visade att läroböckerna på ett tydligt och genomgripande sätt lyfte det svenska och europeiska genom att beskriva demokrati, mänskliga rättigheter och andra västerländska ideal som självklara och bör spridas till resten av världen. Urvalet kan betraktas som eurocentriskt och det icke-konfessionella politiska styret beskrevs som det mest rationella och moderna. Då vi:et gestaltades som positivt på ett så tydligt sätt argumenterade jag för att andrafieringen och det symboliska våldet hade ännu större risk att utövas, i synnerhet i det mångkulturella klassrummet. Vidare påstod jag att lärare som vill använda tillgängliga böcker i samhällskunskap för gymnasieskolan bör göra det på ett medvetet sätt genom att komplettera det eurocentriska innehållet med material som belyser andra perspektiv och ökar elevers förståelse och tolerans för andra kulturer, vilket även läroplanen betonar.

As college degrees become more common and the cost of these degrees increases, so does the debate about the worthwhileness and value of a college education, and of specific college degrees. One side of the debate uses statistical data about starting salaries and unemployment rates to claim that degrees within the humanities and liberal arts do not provide a good return on investment while the other side claims that a liberal arts education fosters the broad so-called "soft skills” that employers value most. However, both sides of the debate have neglected the perspectives of the graduates themselves, particularly as they transition from the university environment to the workforce. In this exploratory mixed-methods study I sought to understand this transition and English graduates' perceptions of their degree, first through semi-structured interviews with 8 participants who graduated between 2010 and 2019, and then through the responses of 338 graduates from the same time frame who participated in a validation survey used to determine the pervasiveness of the themes identified in the interviews. I learned that, while the initial transition from degree to employment is challenging for many English graduates, most eventually found work that they are satisfied with. Perceptions of the English degree vary over time, but most participants recognized the skills they gained in the English major and appreciate the professional value of these skills, especially later on in their careers. Participants identified some factors, such as networking, prior internship and work experience, and completing a minor that made for a more positive transition to employment. They also pointed to ways that the English department could better prepare students for and support them during this transition including encouraging more applied experiences, helping students recognize their English skills, and better identify and talk about potential career paths open to English majors.

"Not My Father's Son" explores a new generation of white southern sons in the late twentieth and early twenty-first century whose resistance to the problematic construction of masculinity and the violence needed to sustain it allows them both the freedom to acknowledge openly their same-sex desires and to embrace life, as opposed to death, in the face of a homosexual identity that lies before them. Rather than excavate queer subjects that may have been coded in earlier mid-twentieth-century texts, my dissertation examines the psychological shifts concerning white masculinity that must occur for these gay subjects to exist openly and without compromise. In addressing the struggle these sons face in revising a problematic vision of the father, I discuss selected fiction and non-fiction from southern, white male authors written in the past thirty years, including two recently published memoirs by gay, southern, white men, Kevin Jennings and Kevin Sessums; a memoir by Lewis Nordan; and selected fiction from both Nordan and Jim Grimsley. I argue that these historical and literary depictions of white, gay, southern men in the late twentieth and early twenty-first century invoke a new paradigm in which the sons' challenge to the historical forces of supremacy (racism, sexism, and homophobia) inherent in the legacy of the white southern father opens up new spaces for both gay characters and gay men to exist. / acase@tulane.edu

Traditionally, academic narratives on Irish immigration to the Americas have focused on experiences of dislocation caused by changes in geography. Settlers, they argue, clung to Old World identities, adapted to new cultural habits or mixed the two. This dissertation explores the social and cultural transitions of Irish immigrants who arrived in New Orleans between 1780 and 1820, or during the city’s late Spanish colonial and early national period. Employing an object-focused perspective, it shows that these persons inhabited a transoceanic setting that linked Ireland and the Gulf Coast together in their shared investments in commerce and conscious consumerism. This resulted in a significant overlap between travelers’ Old and New World lives, and it suggests a new migratory model focused on continuity across the Atlantic Ocean. Referencing the examples of foods, linens and enslaved persons, this dissertation shows that Irishmen and women had ample contact with the non-local, even before they moved overseas. This prepared them, in many ways, for their lives abroad. Some goods, like the South American potato, were so ingrained in island culture by the late 1700s that consumers forgot its foreign provenance. Others, like textiles, had values that changed between Ireland and Louisiana. The example of slaveholding, in particular, points to the ways that immigrants encountered human-commodities common to their visual culture but unrecognizable in practice. The many Irish immigrants who became slave-owners, ultimately, adapted material languages concerning wealth and status they brought from Europe to these new consumerism. They thus made sense of the exotic in familiar terms. By examining the growth of commercial webs and the market availabilities of early New Orleans, this project offers an intimate look at experiences of movement, materiality and cosmopolitanism in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. / acase@tulane.edu