Thesis (Ph. D.)--Cornell University, 1915. / Bibliography: p. 240-254.

Thesis (M.A.)--Rutgers University, 2008. / "Graduate Program in Liberal Studies." Includes bibliographical references (p. [34-35]).

Thesis (M.A.)--Rutgers University, 2008. / "Graduate Program in Liberal Studies." Includes bibliographical references (p. 51-54).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1974. / Typescript. Vita. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Cornell University, 1915. / Bibliography: p. 240-254.

No / The victory of Hamas, a proscribed terrorist organisation, in the January 2006 elections for the Palestinian Authority, was greeted with dismay by the international community, which responded by cutting off aid. This article seeks to understand why Hamas was elected, as well as the international community's response, through an analysis of the liberal peace thesis. This thesis states that democracies do not go to war with one another, thus it was thought that building a democratic Palestinian state would buttress the peace process. The Palestinian people have, however, elected an organization that rejects the peace process. This has provided a wake-up call for the US to face up to the fact that promoting democratization may not always produce the results it desires. The US sees the election of Hamas as the cause of the current crisis and the main obstacle to peace. This article, however, argues that this is merely a symptom, not the cause, of the crisis. The Palestinian Authority's lack of sovereignty and its complete dependence on Israel put severe limitations on the building of a viable, democratic state. The article concludes that the US's uncompromising response to Hamas could well undermine democracy promotion in the region.

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No description available.

The purpose of this mixed methods sequential exploratory study was to develop an understanding of the ways in which graduates of liberal arts programs recognize, make meaning of, and apply the competencies developed as an undergraduate within the workplace. In the first quantitative phase of the study, the research questions addressed the association among liberal arts graduates’ perceived importance, academic preparation, and assessment of value attributed by employers of eight critical skills in the workplace and any differences based on participants’ academic domain. The data were collected via a self-developed web-based survey (N=328) sent to graduates of six institutions representing four different Carnegie classifications. The overall response rate was 9.4%. A chi-square analysis in conjunction with the Holm-Bonferroni procedure yielded a statistically significant relationship in five of nine academic domain relationships. A post-hoc contingency table analysis further revealed statistically significant results between academic domain and perception value categories. In the second qualitative phase, eight case studies, consisting of graduates of liberal arts programs from four Carnegie classifications and four academic domains, delved deeper into the results from the first phase. Four themes emerged during the within- and cross-case analysis related to participants’ perceptions of the use of critical skills in the workplace: (1) Personal accountability to the job, (2) workplace dynamics among coworkers, clients, and supervisors, (3) self-awareness of what is important in the workplace, and (4) employer support of the liberal arts in the workplace. The final phase of the study integrated the quantitative results and qualitative findings to determine broad-scale outcomes of the study. Based on the overall analysis, the study provides policy implications and recommendations related to practical skill development within liberal arts programs.

The dominant construction of democracy on a global scale is in the liberal tradition. It is evident in the criteria which constitute democratic barometers in organisations like Freedom House, the International Monetary Fund, the United Nations and the World Trade Organisation. This study seeks to provide a third-order analysis of liberal democratic consolidation theory in order to highlight that its theoretical discourse and underlying structure is not necessarily compatible with the cultural values of the non-Western world using a critical discourse analysis. Democratic consolidation in the non-Western world may not necessarily mirror the theoretical model of liberal democratic consolidation. Given the hegemonic position of liberal democracy‘s criteria and its dominant discourse and role as a barometer of democracy, this study focuses on democratic consolidation in this tradition. It is primarily due to the perceived inability of non-Western states to consolidate their democracies in the liberal democratic tradition and by default, construct thriving liberal democracies. Present theories of liberal democratic consolidation theory deal with governmental, political organisational and societal aspects of liberal democracy. The level of change these theories propagate is all encompassing, and consequently one cannot merely study one aspect of liberal democratic consolidation theory, but needs to analyse the paradigm as a whole in order to explore its metatheoretical structure. It is in this light that the study conducts an appraisal of liberal democratic consolidation theory. The critique developed in this study is aimed at addressing a disparity that currently exists within contemporary consolidation of liberal democracy theory, namely a failure of producers of liberal democratic discourse to understand the philosophical and ideological undertone of liberal democratic consolidation‘s understructure. The study does not seek to conceptualise alternative criteria of democratic consolidation in the non-Western context, but focuses on liberal democratic consolidation theory, to demonstrate that its criteria is not necessarily an appropriate barometer to measure democracy in the non-Western world. / Political Sciences / D.Litt. et Phil. (African Politics)