This research will compare why two such comparable countries like Slovenia and Croatia have taken different paths towards consolidating democracy. The two countries on the same day in 1991 declared independence from Yugoslavia but only Slovenia managed to successfully consolidate democracy during the 1990s. The purpose of this study is to analyze what differences and similarities Croatia and Slovenia have had which has made them take different paths towards consolidating democracy. The theoretical framework will apply Linz and Stepans theory on consolidating democracy from the countries independence in 1991 until Croatia in 2013, like Slovenia in 2004, became member of the European Union. The results demonstrate that Croatia during the 1990’s were governed by a party and president in a non-democratic way while Slovenia since its independence has implemented all the necessary tools for a successful consolidation of democracy. In 1999 Croatia’s president died and this was the start of a new era in Croatian politics. In 2000 the ruling party was defeated by a coalition which immediately begun to integrate Croatia with the European Union and in essence started to consolidate democracy.

One of the concerns of the modern Christian church and dissident groups is to ensure that the Church's fundamental doctrines, leadership, women's ministries and religious practices conform with the early apostolic church teachings. In this study the writer offers a comprehensive and detailed evaluation of the modern church in the light of the early church. The case of the modern Seventhday Adventist (SDA) Church in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and worldwide is examined and compared, basing its survey on numerous published and unpublished documents from a combined use of primary, secondary materials and individual statements. Setting the early history of the SDA Church within the religious context of nineteenth-century America, the writer describes how SDA doctrines, leadership, women's ministries and religious practices link with those beliefs and practices in the early apostolic church, showing whether the SDA Church has departed from the early apostolic church’s Biblical, timeless principles or not. Several pertinent issues however have stirred up as much controversy in recent years within the Adventist dissident groups as that of the women’s ministries in the church, the righteousness by faith doctrine, the monarchical leadership, and various religious practices. Nevertheless, in the light of the early apostolic teaching, some enlightenment has been achieved, and several critical accusations from dissident groups were illuminated and confirmed.The accusation regarding the deterioration of Biblical doctrines appears not to have been confirmed by the Biblical evaluation and the lifestyle of the SDA believers. Rather, concerning this issue, it is confirmed that in the DRC and worldwide, the SDA Church has not departed from the fundamental doctrines of the early Apostolic church. / Thesis (D. TH. (Church History))

Thesis (MA (Political Science))--University of Stellenbosch, 2010. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The climate of the Great Lakes Region fostered desperate sources of insecurity which fed each other in a conflict-system which was also largely fuelled by the surrounding war economy. Consequently, the focus of this study was narrowed to providing only a descriptive analysis of the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s peace processes of 1998-2002. Subsequently, the surrounding climate served to aggravate the DRC’s ethnic cleavages and the conflict grew so complex that the issues could no longer be clearly divided. The motivation for conducting a study of this nature was that amidst the twenty-three failed attempts for peace, the conflict persisted with no signs of abating, which suggests that a historical and discourse analysis of the peace processes is justified. This study found that during these peace processes, far greater prominence was given to Track I diplomacy than to the unofficial Track II diplomacy. This was due to various limitations that existed. This distinction is fundamental because even though unofficial diplomacy has a different function to official diplomacy, their values are equal and more effective in a peace process when there is a collaborative effort between the two. This is called a Multi-Track approach (Diamond and McDonald, 1996). Thus this study proposes that by giving Track II diplomacy a greater prominence in a peace process, the Multi-Track approach would be fully utilized. It suggests that governmental, informal, and unofficial contact in civil society is fundamental in trust-building between parties in negotiation. Overall, there is value in providing a critical descriptive analysis of both Track I and Track II diplomatic initiatives that were undertaken during the 1998-2002 peace process, in order to expose the shortcomings. In doing so, this study presents the Multi-Track approach in order to emphasize its potential efficacy in addressing similar future cases of intractable conflict. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die omstandighede in die Groot Merestreek het onsekerheid gekweek, wat mekaar versterk het in die konteks van ’n konflik-sisteem wat ook deur die omliggende oorlog-ekonomie aangevuur was. Gevolglik is hierdie studie se fokus beperk tot ‘n beskrywende analise van die vredesprosesse wat tydens 1998-2002 op die tweede rebellie in die Demokratiese Republiek van die Kongo gevolg het. Die omstandighede in die omliggende omgewing het die DRK se etniese splitsings vererger, en die konflik het so kompleks geword dat daar nie meer duidelik tussen die verskillende geskilpunte onderskei kon word nie. Die motivering vir hierdie studie is dat daar te midde van die drie-en-twintig mislukte vredespogings geen teken was dat die konflik aan die afneem was nie, wat suggereer dat ’n historiese diskoers analise van die vredesproses geregverdig is. Hierdie studie het gevind dat daar gedurende hierdie vredesprosesse ’n veel meer prominente rol aan die amptelike Track I-diplomasie as aan die nie-amptelike Track II-diplomasie toegeken was, as gevolg van verskeie beperkinge wat bestaan het. Hierdie onderskeid is van kardinale belang; ten spyte van die feit dat nie-amptelike diplomasie ’n ander funksie as amptelike diplomasie vervul, dra dit ewe veel waarde en behoort vredesprosesse waar daar samewerking tussen die twee inisiatiewe plaasvind dus meer effektief te wees. Hierdie redenasie word ’n Multi-Track benadering genoem. Hierdie studie stel voor dat die Multi- Track benadering meer effektief geïmplementeer kan word deurdat daar aan Track IIdiplomasie ’n meer prominente rol in die vredesproses toegeken word; dit stel dus ook voor dat regeringskontak, informele en nie-amptelike kontak tussen gewone burgers van kardinale belang in die bou van vetroue tussen bemiddelingspartye is. Daar lê dus waarde daarin om ’n krities-beskrywende analise van beide Track I- en Track II inisiatiewe wat tydens die 1998-2002 vredesprosesse onderneem is weer te gee, ten einde die tekortkominge daarvan uit te wys. Op hierdie manier hou hierdie studie die Multi-Track benadering voor om uiteindelik die potensiële bruikbaarheid van hierdie benadering in soortgelyke toekomstige gevalle van konflik te beklemtoon.

Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2014. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Despite the excessive mineral wealth, the underground deposits of gold, diamonds, copper and cobalt and other valuable minerals in the Democratic Republic of the Congo which are coveted by many countries, the majority of the population is still destitute and lives in dire poverty. However the country itself prospered during the colonial period 1885-1960 and it became the second most industrialized state in Africa after South Africa (Petit & Mutambwa, 2005). Unfortunately it is now ranked among the world's poorest countries in the world. Since the Democratic Republic of the Congo gained independence in 1960 it has not experienced development that benefits the whole population. The country is experiencing continuing and pressing problems of poverty and human suffering. Thus the purpose during this study is to analyse the position of the Pentecostal Church in the Congo (30ème CPCO) concerning the situation of poverty in the city of Lubumbashi and to design a pragmatic approach that can assist the denomination to find ways to effectively address the problem of poverty. Findings reveal that the city of Lubumbashi is riddled with complex socio-economic challenges, but the 30 ème CPCO is not equipped practically or theologically to address these challenges. Poverty in the city of Lubumbashi is pervasive, it is therefore structural and historical. It comes a long way, from the slavery, to colonization, to dictatorship, neo-colonization and globalization. Sin and lovelessness have been identified as the roots causes of poverty in the DRC in the sense that sin which is the opposite of love is the driving force behind the oppressive structures that have impoverished millions of people in the DRC and around the world. Furthermore findings also disclose that the understanding of the soteriology within the Pentecostal denomination theology is problematic. Salvation is understood as being spiritual only, the physical aspect is misapprehended. In addition there is a heretical prosperity gospel in the denomination which teaches that poverty is the result of personal sin and unfaithfulness to tithing. They believe that giving large amounts of money will release blessings and prosperity. This view has skewed the denomination's approach towards the eradication of poverty. As a result the 30 ème CPCO’s involvement in poverty eradication is described as rudimentary, it is limited to sporadic assistance to the poor. Although the 30 ème CPCO station of Lubumbashi as a whole has been sporadically giving assistance to the poor, there are many factors that have restricted its ability to effectively engage in poverty eradication amongst which is poor understanding of the root causes of poverty. This in fact is influenced by the perception of poverty which is subject to features such as the mentality of the people or the level of literacy, the environment, the world view, the circumstances, the culture etc. The inability of the 30 ème CPCO to address poverty is also due to lack of enough education, poor administration, financial issues, lack of partners to help with the development and cooperation between congregations. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Ten spyte van groot minerale rykdom, die ondergrondse bronne van goud, diamante, koper kobalt en ander minerale, wat deur ander lande begeer word, leef die oorgrote meerderheid van die bevolking van die Demokratiese Republiek van die Kongo in armoede. Tydens die koloniale tydperk (1885–1960) het die Kongo tog vooruitgegaan en die tweede mees industrieë in Afrika, na Suid-Afrika, besit. Dus was dit die doel tydens hierdie studie om die posisie van die Pinkster Kerk in die Kongo (30 ème CPCO) betreffende die armoede stiuasie in die stad Lubumbashi te bepaal en om maniere te vind waarop ’n pragmatiese benadering tot armoede gevolg kan word. Daar is bevind dat die stad Lubumbashi baie komplekse sosio-ekonomiese uitdagings in die gesig staar, maar dat die 30 ème CPCO nie bevoeg is om daardie uitdagings op ’n praktiese wyse of ’n teologiese wyse aan te spreek nie nie. Die armoede in die stad kan oral gesien word, dit is struktueel en histories. Hierdie armoede gaan ver terug, na slaverny, kolonisasie diktatorskap, neo-liberalisme en globalisasie. Sonde en liefdeloosheid word gesien as hoofoorsake van armoede in die Demokratiese Republiek van die Kongo in die sin dat sonde wat die teenoorgestelde van liefde is, die dryfveer is agter die onderdrukkende strukture wat miljoene mense in die DRK en elders in die wêreld in armoede gedompel het. Daar is ook bevind dat die begrip van soteriologie in die Pinkster denominasie se teologie problematies is. Net die geestelike aspek van redding is in ag geneem en die fiesiese aspek is misken. Daar is ook diegene in die denominasie wat verkeerdelik glo in die voorspoeds evangelie waarvolgens armoede die gevolg is van die persoon se eie sonde of ontrouheid wat betref die gee van tiendes. Hulle glo dat die gee van groot hoeveelhede geld sal lei tot seëninge en voorspoed. Hierdie siening het ’n effek gehad op die denominasie se houding teenoor die uitroei van armoede. Daarom is die 30 ème CPCO se betrokkenheid by die uitwissing van armoede rudimentêr. Dit is beperk tot hulp aan die armes. . Alhoewel die 30 ème CPCO stasie van Lubumbashi as geheel sporadies hulp aan die armes verleen het, is daar baie faktore wat die kerk se vermoë om effektief te wees in die uitroei van armoede, beperk het. Een daarvan is ’n begrip van die grondoorsake van armoede. Die begrip word beïnvloed deur die persepsie van armoede, en aspekte soos die mentaliteit van die mense, die graad van geletterheid, die omgewing, die siening van die wêreld, die kultuur ens. Die onvermoë van die 30 ème CPCO om armoede aan te spreek is die gevolg van ’n gebrek aan opvoeding, swak administrasie, finansiële probleme en gebrek aan vennote, asook ’n gebrek aan samewerking tussen gemeentes.

Although largely overlooked in much of the previous research on political tolerance, I argue that contextual factors, specifically state-level features, play a significant role in influencing individual tolerance judgments. Drawing from extant theories of public opinion, international conflict, and political institutions, I seek to further our understanding of the determinants of political tolerance by trying to answer the following question: What accounts for the significant differences in political tolerance levels across countries? While models using individual-level predictors account for some of the disparity in tolerance levels, a substantial amount remains unexplained. I assert that several macro-level theoretical frameworks offer compelling explanations for the marked difference in tolerance levels across countries. Specifically, I examine the effect of state-level external threats, internal threats, and the role of domestic political institutions in shaping individual attitudes towards unpopular groups. To test my propositions, I use data from the 1995-1997 World Values survey as well as multi-level statistical modeling to estimate the aggregate effects of state-level factors on political tolerance levels across 33 countries while also controlling for individual-level predictors.This dissertation demonstrates that elevated objective threats to the state, whether international disputes or incidents of civil conflict, serve to dampen overall tolerance levels. In doing so, this study also highlights that not all types of external threat resonateequally amongst the public. Individuals in countries involved in territorial disputes or countries targeted in international disputes are generally less tolerant overall than those in countries involved in disputes over other issues. In terms of domestic political institutions, I find that electoral rules designed to build consensus and ameliorate societal tensions among groups may actually serve to foster intolerance in countries under certain conditions. Finally, my analyses reveal that the effect of democratic longevity on political tolerance levels is actually conditional based on the type of political institutions that exist in a country. Overall, the findings discovered here underscore the importance of contextual factors in shaping political tolerance levels across countries and stresses the need for this type of analysis in future studies of political tolerance.

In 2013, the U.S. Department of State allocated nearly $45 million to the Texas Office of Refugee Resettlement to help aid with the resettlement of 6,922 refugees. Approximately 10 percent of all refugees who were brought to the U.S. that year were resettled in Texas. Austin received 716 of those refugees. For 30 years, the U.S.'s Refugee Admissions Programs has been providing aid and money to help refugees fleeing religious and political persecution resettle in the U.S. The program is a system of public-private partnership in which the U.S. Department of State hands out funds to local non-profit organizations to oversee the initial six months of the resettlement. The current program is largely underfunded and is based on a self-sufficiency model that requires refugees find a job within four months of arrival setting many refugees on a path towards poverty as they are often come from conflict zones with minimal English skills, knowledge of how the U.S. works or programs to help them use whatever skills or education they have to find better paying jobs. This paper critiques elements of the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program through the case study of one family that has recently arrived in Austin, Texas, from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. / text

本論文從「後社會主義中國」發展的框架下以「村民自治」來研究九十年代大陸基層政治參與，從制度層面及非制度層面探討大陸農村村民「政治參與權」發展情況，並分析對大陸未來政治發展可能產生的積極影響及消極影響。制度層面指涉的範圍是在「村民自治」的正式制度規範設計對於人民政治參與權利以及管道上的影響，主要包括「民主選舉」、「民主決策」、「民主管理」、「民主監督」、「村民小組」等等；非制度層面指涉的是包括內外部政治環境、傳統文化、經濟環境、社會環境等因素對人民政治參與的影響。從「村民自治」的制度層面和非制度層面的因素探討中，發現九十年代「村民自治」的政治參與呈現出一種嚴重的不平衡發展狀態。在制度面上，＜組織法＞比＜試行法＞在「四個民主」的機制設計比較進步，但是在選舉的競爭機制改善上成就不是很大；在非制度面上，經濟發展、仲介社團的產生及資訊的進步等因素對於民眾參與的意願有所促進，但是宗族、黨幹部的心態、傳統文化以及政府對傳媒的管制等因素卻使民眾的政治參與受到限制。九十年代大陸基層政治參與情況，由於制度變遷「路徑依賴」的選擇及自我強化的結果，使「後社會主義中國」政治參與的轉型發展，朝著「部份民主化」的方向前進，形成「接近自主型」、「部分自主型」、「被動型」三種不同的「政治參與權」型態。照目前「村民自治」發展情況來看，中共政權朝民主化方向發展是侷限性大於可能性。以漸進、溫和的方式由下而上的推動制度變革、經濟的發展、社會多元化、公民意識及參與政治文化的建立，來作為大陸推動民主化的策略選擇，雖然目前看來成功機會不大，但可作為未來大陸政治轉型之一種轉形發展策略。 / This paper attempts to look into the local political participation in Mainland China during the 1990s. The analysis on the villagers’ self-government under the framework of the post-socialism and the transitional development of Chinese Mainland and the analysis on the villagers’ “political participation powers and rights” from the formal and the informal systems of villagers’ self-government will be used to find the positive and the negative influences on the future of Mainland China’s political development by local self-government political participation. The scope of the formal system of villagers’ self-government includes democratic election, democratic decision-making, democratic management, democratic supervision and villagers’ subcommittee. The scope of the informal system of villagers’ self-government includes the interior and the exterior political environment, traditional culture, economic factor, and social environment. From the gathered data, we find the local political participation on the Mainland China during the 1990s is seriously unbalanced in rural areas of PRC. Because of the effect of path dependence, the transitional path forms three different types of “political participation powers and rights.” From the indications of current local political participation, the democratization of PRC in the near future will be limited. However, the strategy for gradualism reform still can be viewed as one possible path for transitional development of Chinese Mainland.

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The decline in traditional methods of civic engagement is a cause for concern in many Western democracies. Similarly, studies of American party politics point to a transformation from locally-based volunteer organizations to national ones assisting candidate-centered, professionally-run campaigns, leaving little room for volunteer participants. This thesis analyses the recent resurgence of grassroots participation and organization in the United States. Using interpretive methods, I present a study of grassroots participants in Massachusetts Democratic Party primary campaigns in 2006. Primary documents, interviews with volunteers and paid members of field staff, and observations of canvassing work all detail the personal and organizational contexts of participation, illuminating the meanings individuals found in campaign work. Grassroots participation takes place in a loosely organized set of candidate-based campaigns, local party committees, and civic spheres. When participants first engage in this environment, they become socialized into a community with learned norms, practices, and ways of knowing. While those interviewed shared some of the motivations of party activists in previous studies, the motives and beliefs described by both professional organizers and volunteers were less policy focused than expected, and blurred the distinction between ideological and social categories. Indeed, while organizers and volunteers build distinct identities through their campaign participation, they share many more similarities than the literature on activism and professionalism in parties would suggest. Participants also serve a crucial role as translators between party elites and their fellow citizens, with important implications for linkage and the problem of decoupling. Rather than a return to traditional methods and structures of political engagement, the participants observed take part in and are building communities which have much in common with new forms of non-traditional participation. These findings contribute to the development of party organization theories and point towards the need for greater dialogue between scholars of party politics, organizational studies, and civic engagement.

This doctoral thesis examines the political and democratic implications of transformations in nuclear power policy, with a focus on the formalised spaces of public engagement situated in three ‘eras’ of nuclear power development. The research is particularly focussed upon the Planning Act 2008, designed to speed up the planning process around large-scale infrastructure including nuclear power. To date the political consequences of the Act have received little academic attention. Building upon key debates in Geography and Planning situated around notions of ‘post-politics’ as well as other conceptualisations of ‘contentious’ political and democratic interventions including STS and state-theoretical perspectives, this thesis examines the consequences for political contestation around nuclear power, in relation to spaces of consultation. These new forms of public engagement are based around a ‘rescaled and segmented’ policy framework created by the Planning Act. A central argument of this is thesis is that the Planning Act cannot be viewed in isolation however. Rather it should be understood in relation to tensions regarding the spatial politics and political opportunities present in previous forms of public engagement around nuclear power, as well as the contradictions created between particular ideological underpinnings of government, and simultaneous commitments to certain ‘objects of governance’, in this instance, nuclear power. Three eras of nuclear power development form the foci of the research. Firstly, an examination of the ‘forgotten inquiry’ between 1988-1989 into the construction of Hinkley C nuclear power station, which was never built due to the collapse of the economic case for nuclear due to privatisation. Through archival research and interviews, this chapter traces empirically how ‘political opportunities’ were enacted and created by campaign groups within the inquiry setting, and how various spatial strategies were utilised to politicise the inquiry. The second empirical chapter addresses the participatory era of New Labour, where new collaborative experiments were developed to negotiate nuclear issues. Through analysis of policy documents and interview data, the ways in which the enthusiasm towards participatory governance was problematised through the return of new nuclear power onto the policy agenda is explored, with particular attention to ‘object-focussed’ state theory. Thirdly, the effects of the ‘rescaled’ consultative framework of the Planning Act are explored through interviews, policy documents, and ethnographic research. Situated within the context of the second attempt to construct Hinkley C, this chapter provides fertile ground for comparative analysis with the 1980’s Inquiry. I argue that the Act attempts to solve some of the key tensions of previous policy, attempting to speed up the planning process whilst maintaining commitments to collaborative forms of public engagement through consensus-based decision-making. The spatial framing of the Act is seen as key to processes of post-politicisation however, where substantial concerns regarding the profound uncertainties of the UK nuclear revival are displaced to other forms of engagement beyond planning. This attempt to ‘solve political dissensus through space’ has ‘unintended consequences’ however which are explored in the conclusion. This thesis brings empirical attention to the’ where’ of politics in different policy settings. Theoretical discussions regarding the relationship between spatial politics, and more nuanced understandings of post-politics and the political are developed through this thesis.