International air transport is a commercial business by nature but carries a political significance. It has been regulated under the Chicago regime which requires the sovereignty governments to negotiate and determine how airlines engage in the transnational operations regardless of the market demand. Policy makers will have to take into account all factors, whether at international, domestic, institutional and individual levels, in determining to what extent the market should be liberalised so as to protect their national interest, optimise the opportunities for their industry and society as a whole, while at the same time promote competition and facilitate international trade. Despite the vast research that has been done on the liberalisation of international air transport as well as China‘s aviation policy and its industry, little is known about the considerations of Chinese government when formulating its international air transport policy, e.g. what are the variables that have influenced the country‘s policy making process that leads to the policy per se. The focus of the existing literature fails to treat China‘s international air transport policy as a subject matter for an objective and comprehensive analysis, but rather takes the policy itself as an external stimulus that drives the radical changes of the industry. Consequently, China‘s policymaking process with respect to international air transport remains a black box and its international behaviour is considered unpredictable. Applying the Micro-Macro Linkage Approach to three case studies, i.e. China-the US, China-the Netherlands and China-the UK markets, this research analyses China‘s liberalisation policy with respect to international air transport. By examining the data gathered through qualitative methods such as historical files and record, observations, and interviews with those who have participated in the process of policymaking and have been personally involved in bilateral air services negotiations, this research aims at identifying the factors that have had an impact on the country‘s policymaking process, establishing whether these factors are evolving over the years and determining how they are interacting with each other in leading to the policy outcome, hence, shedding light on the country‘s international trade policymaking and its international behaviour. The research has revealed that China‘s international air transport policymaking is both a top-down and bottom-up process with industry regulator being the primary initiator, formulator and administrator of the industry-specific liberalisation policy. Its decision making process has become more transparent, plural, open for and subject to both external and internal influences at all levels. International environment including international conventions, laws and regulations have formed a framework within which the country has to operate to develop its overall national policy. Bilateral political and economic relationship has played a pivotal role in shaping the country‘s policy on that specific country-pair market. Domestic considerations such as national interest, benefits to the society, industry and consumers as a whole are the fundamental concerns in determining the policy scope, i.e. to what extent the market should be liberalised and the pace of such liberalisation. Stakeholders are increasingly proactive in its involvement in the policymaking process in an attempt to influence the policy makers to their own optimal benefits. Institutions and personal characteristics do shape individual policy makers‘ mindset and perceptions but only to the extent of affecting the negotiation outcome on the bilateral country-pair markets. These factors have been evolving over the years and are time- and circumstance-constrained, namely, some factors may function at one occasion at a certain time but not necessarily at another. This research is a meaningful endeavour in attempting to understand China‘s policymaking process with respect to international air transport as an international trade in services, which has just received growing interest in both academia and industry practitioners in recent years. It will contribute to the knowledge of the study of China and the study of international air transport at large.

This thesis researches the variation in levels of liberalisation within the European services market, focusing in detail on four selected service sectors (i.e. postal services, electricity services, healthcare services and the services covered by the Services Directive) from 2001 until 2011. In this thesis, I propose a model of European integration capable of explaining the exact levels of liberalisation in each service sector. I argue that the level of liberalisation can be explained by looking at the drivers of integration (i.e. expected economic benefits from further integration and the level of supranational activity), which determine the societal demand for further integration and the shape legislators’ preferences and constraints, and the intervening influence of adhoc politicisation (i.e. the influence of public opinion through mass mobilisation). To illustrate this, this thesis applies a two-tiered approach of analysis. First, it explains the context in which the legislation is made to understand the economic implications of the proposed legislation, the level of supranational activity preceding the tabling of the legislation and the preferences of all actors involved. Second, taking preferences as exogenously given, this thesis applies a method of process tracing to study in detail the negotiations between legislators – the amending stage of the legislation. The case studies show that the drivers are crucial to explain the general demand for integration and at the same time show how politicisation, taking various guises, influences the level of liberalisation – primarily by altering legislators’ relative power. Particularly interesting is that politicisation can affect the negotiations even in absence of politicisation actually materialising causing some legislation to be made in the ‘shadow of politicisation’. These findings confirm existing explanations of European integration and add new insights as to how we can understand the process of European integration more generally.

The purpose of this mixed-methods case study research is to discover how, in relation to trade liberalisation in Vietnam's Mekong Delta, intangible assets affect livelihood outcomes of the ethnic majority Kinh and the ethnic minority Khmer people. Methods used include a random survey of 150 ethnic majority (Kinh) rice farmers combined with focus group data from Khmer ethnic minority people. Data shows that lack of access to information about the changing economic circumstances generated by trade reform has caused farmers to take sub-optimal decisions about the diversification of their crops. The economic outcomes on Khmer farmers have also been negatively affected by a lack of information, compounded by rigid gender roles, lack of education, discrimination, language problems and isolation from the majority ethnic group. These factors have contributed considerably to the negative outcomes of liberalisation, including loss of land, and have impeded people's ability to make use of emerging opportunities, including better access to markets and new ways of making a livelihood. This research shows that intangible assets interact with trade liberalisation to exacerbate existing inequalities.

The international community has followed up its 2001 invasion of Afghanistan with a complex multi-faceted peacebuilding project. However, informed observers believe the Western-led mission in Afghanistan has failed to address the inherent peacebuilding needs of Afghanistan and has hindered the formation of a locally experienced sustainable peace. In response, emerging peacebuilding theory and rhetoric has pointed to an urgent need for revised peacebuilding paradigms and strategies that hold local (Afghan) ownership of peacebuilding activities as a central concern. This research project utilised a qualitative grounded theory methodology to explore perceptions of Afghan ownership of peacebuilding activities in Afghanistan. Research data was gathered in early 2011 through face-to-face semi-structured interviews with 63 local and international peacebuilding leaders in two Afghan urban centres. The participants included persons from the United Nations, the Afghan and foreign governments, local and international NGOs, a broad range of civil society groups, international donors, and the international military forces. Analysis of the interview narratives revealed several dilemmas on the journey towards increased Afghan ownership of peacebuilding. First, participants believed that the international community is performing important roles in Afghanistan, but is struggling to ensure Afghan ownership of peacebuilding activities. Second, international and Afghan peacebuilding actors have struggled to define who should be owning peacebuilding in at least two respects: (1) civil society or government; and (2) traditional- informal or democratic-formal institutions. Third, grassroots populations and Afghan civil society felt virtually no ownership of upper-level peace processes, and described a distinct lack of locally owned grassroots-level peace process activities. And fourth, inappropriate external forces and processes, the militarisation and politicisation of peacebuilding activities, local aid dependency, and inadequate local control over peacebuilding coordination have hindered the international-domestic inter-relationship in Afghanistan. However, the dilemmas of local ownership do not need to be viewed as unworkable barriers but can be re-conceptualised as holding constructive potential in designing sustainable peacebuilding solutions. To this end, this research study proposed the creation of a locally owned, broadly participatory, and strategic dispute resolution system that might transform international-local relations and forge the necessary space in which the transition to local authority and ownership might occur.

The international community has followed up its 2001 invasion of Afghanistan with a complex multi-faceted peacebuilding project. However, informed observers believe the Western-led mission in Afghanistan has failed to address the inherent peacebuilding needs of Afghanistan and has hindered the formation of a locally experienced sustainable peace. In response, emerging peacebuilding theory and rhetoric has pointed to an urgent need for revised peacebuilding paradigms and strategies that hold local (Afghan) ownership of peacebuilding activities as a central concern. This research project utilised a qualitative grounded theory methodology to explore perceptions of Afghan ownership of peacebuilding activities in Afghanistan. Research data was gathered in early 2011 through face-to-face semi-structured interviews with 63 local and international peacebuilding leaders in two Afghan urban centres. The participants included persons from the United Nations, the Afghan and foreign governments, local and international NGOs, a broad range of civil society groups, international donors, and the international military forces. Analysis of the interview narratives revealed several dilemmas on the journey towards increased Afghan ownership of peacebuilding. First, participants believed that the international community is performing important roles in Afghanistan, but is struggling to ensure Afghan ownership of peacebuilding activities. Second, international and Afghan peacebuilding actors have struggled to define who should be owning peacebuilding in at least two respects: (1) civil society or government; and (2) traditional- informal or democratic-formal institutions. Third, grassroots populations and Afghan civil society felt virtually no ownership of upper-level peace processes, and described a distinct lack of locally owned grassroots-level peace process activities. And fourth, inappropriate external forces and processes, the militarisation and politicisation of peacebuilding activities, local aid dependency, and inadequate local control over peacebuilding coordination have hindered the international-domestic inter-relationship in Afghanistan. However, the dilemmas of local ownership do not need to be viewed as unworkable barriers but can be re-conceptualised as holding constructive potential in designing sustainable peacebuilding solutions. To this end, this research study proposed the creation of a locally owned, broadly participatory, and strategic dispute resolution system that might transform international-local relations and forge the necessary space in which the transition to local authority and ownership might occur.

International air transport is a commercial business by nature but carries a political significance. It has been regulated under the Chicago regime which requires the sovereignty governments to negotiate and determine how airlines engage in the transnational operations regardless of the market demand. Policy makers will have to take into account all factors, whether at international, domestic, institutional and individual levels, in determining to what extent the market should be liberalised so as to protect their national interest, optimise the opportunities for their industry and society as a whole, while at the same time promote competition and facilitate international trade. Despite the vast research that has been done on the liberalisation of international air transport as well as China‘s aviation policy and its industry, little is known about the considerations of Chinese government when formulating its international air transport policy, e.g. what are the variables that have influenced the country‘s policy making process that leads to the policy per se. The focus of the existing literature fails to treat China‘s international air transport policy as a subject matter for an objective and comprehensive analysis, but rather takes the policy itself as an external stimulus that drives the radical changes of the industry. Consequently, China‘s policymaking process with respect to international air transport remains a black box and its international behaviour is considered unpredictable. Applying the Micro-Macro Linkage Approach to three case studies, i.e. China-the US, China-the Netherlands and China-the UK markets, this research analyses China‘s liberalisation policy with respect to international air transport. By examining the data gathered through qualitative methods such as historical files and record, observations, and interviews with those who have participated in the process of policymaking and have been personally involved in bilateral air services negotiations, this research aims at identifying the factors that have had an impact on the country‘s policymaking process, establishing whether these factors are evolving over the years and determining how they are interacting with each other in leading to the policy outcome, hence, shedding light on the country‘s international trade policymaking and its international behaviour. The research has revealed that China‘s international air transport policymaking is both a top-down and bottom-up process with industry regulator being the primary initiator, formulator and administrator of the industry-specific liberalisation policy. Its decision making process has become more transparent, plural, open for and subject to both external and internal influences at all levels. International environment including international conventions, laws and regulations have formed a framework within which the country has to operate to develop its overall national policy. Bilateral political and economic relationship has played a pivotal role in shaping the country‘s policy on that specific country-pair market. Domestic considerations such as national interest, benefits to the society, industry and consumers as a whole are the fundamental concerns in determining the policy scope, i.e. to what extent the market should be liberalised and the pace of such liberalisation. Stakeholders are increasingly proactive in its involvement in the policymaking process in an attempt to influence the policy makers to their own optimal benefits. Institutions and personal characteristics do shape individual policy makers‘ mindset and perceptions but only to the extent of affecting the negotiation outcome on the bilateral country-pair markets. These factors have been evolving over the years and are time- and circumstance-constrained, namely, some factors may function at one occasion at a certain time but not necessarily at another. This research is a meaningful endeavour in attempting to understand China‘s policymaking process with respect to international air transport as an international trade in services, which has just received growing interest in both academia and industry practitioners in recent years. It will contribute to the knowledge of the study of China and the study of international air transport at large.

There are two distinct but related parts to this exegesis. Firstly there is the production of a fifty-five minute documentary Return of the Trojan Horse, and secondly a written exegesis. The latter advances an academic argument centred around the research question - how to motivate the role of the expository documentary at a time when the documentary field is dominated by the debate between philosophical scepticism and empirical realism, while in aesthetic terms, the documentary mode itself is led by perfomative/interactive documentaries such as Michael Moore's Bowling for Columbine. My response to this question is informed in theoretical terms by the Critical Realist paradigm. The use of Critical Realism enables the exegesis to supply an integrated approach which seeks to transcend both the sceptical and the empirical realist positions. In doing so, the exegesis makes a contribution both to documentary theory and the Critical Realist paradigm itself by applying it to the field of documentary film theory. As such the exegesis addresses an absence of aesthetic theorising within the Critical Realist paradigm. As part of the process I review, analyse and synthesise the key theoretical arguments of authors Bill Nichols, Michael Renov, Brian Winston, John Corner and Noel Carroll. The documentary sub-genres are then located within the context of these theoretical debates while the emphasis is placed on the expository sub-genre as utilised in my own documentary film, Return of the Trojan Horse. The exegesis then critically discusses Return of the Trojan Horse from a Critical Realist perspective and reflects on the strategies involved in the production of the film. As the topic of the film deals with the negative impacts of economic liberalisation, the mass media is briefly discussed within the context of a deregulated market and right-wing politics, while reviewing Herman and Chomsky's 'A Propaganda Model' in Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media, 2002.

Magister Legum - LLM

This thesis examines the impact of financial liberalisation on the capital structure of non-financial firms listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE). The research hypotheses have been formulated and tested by using various econometric estimation procedures. The empirical assessment begins by resolving some methodological issues relating to the dating of financial liberalisation and the measurement of leverage. Next, a panel of 100 non-financial firms is constructed for the period 1989 to 2007. The pooled Ordinary Least Squares, fixed (within), and random effects (Generalised Least Squares) models are used to estimate the impact of various aspects of financial liberalisation on firm capital structure. Robustness checks are performed by using the instrumental variable technique and the Arellano and Bond (1991: 277) two-step Generalised Method of Moments (GMM) procedure. Irrespective of the procedure used, the lifting of international sanctions and stock market liberalisation is associated with a reduction in leverage for all sets of firms. Capital account liberalisation causes firms to access more debt, and there is mild support for domestic financial sector liberalisation. Stock market liberalisation provides avenues for firms to increase their debt maturity structure. The size of the stock market is positively associated with leverage, and banking sector development is negatively correlated to leverage. The effect of financial liberalisation is more pronounced for larger firms, suggesting that the process of financial liberalisation causes a wedge between small and large firms. Furthermore, regime dummies are interacted with firm specific determinants of capital structure. The notable facts arising out of the interactive dummy variable exercise reveal that the lifting of international sanctions and stock market liberalisation cause significant structural shifts in the profitability, growth and tax rate variables. This is evident for the book and market value of the debt to equity ratio. The results of the dynamic model of capital structure document evidence of transaction costs for both the pre and post liberalisation regime. However, it appears that transaction costs reduce dramatically in the post liberalisation regime. The associated coefficient of adjustment increases accordingly. This suggests that a developed financial system promotes competition amongst the issuers of capital, thereby lowering borrowing and transaction costs. The empirical significance of firm specific determinants in a closed economy appears to be weaker than that of the post liberalised regime. Furthermore, firm size speeds up the adjustment to the target level of leverage for firms operating in both the pre and post liberalisation regimes. Finally, the results confirm most of the theoretical predictions of capital structure theories. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Financial Management / unrestricted

The thesis deals with the major issues facing the European energy policy: the liberalisation of energy markets, security of supply and combating the climate change. After a short description of the history of this policy comes the explanation why the energy issues have become so important for the EU in recent years (oil thirst of the emerging markets, rise of Putin's Russia, climate change). The next chapter focuses on EU's response to these challenges, focusing on Barroso's Commision agenda. Apart from this, there is an analysis of major stakeholders' reactions concerning the recent legislation (Energy packages). However, the main part of the thesis tries to point at the discrepancies between the "official" policy as pronounced at the EU summits and the actual state of things. Major lagging behind can be found in areas such as the extent to which the external energy policy is successful (relations with Russia), the questionable impacts of subsidising biofuels or the slow implementation of energy market directives.