The aim of this study was to establish whether there is a policy community for disability sport in England. Whilst structured competitive disability sport may traditionally have been organised and run by charitable bodies, segregated from mainstream non-disabled sport, contemporary policies stress a need for disability sport to be the responsibility of mainstream organisations. However, there is a dearth of literature that considers how disability sport policy has developed, which agencies have been powerful in the organisational network, and the significance of the values of key actors in the policy process and outcome. This study; a) establishes the key characteristics of disability sport policy in England, and b) establishes the interests, resources, power and relationships between organisations involved in disability sport and determines the ideologies of key actors involved in disability sport policy. Data is generated in three phases using an analysis of policy documents, a survey of 162 sports organisations and 21 interviews with key personnel. In Phase I semi-structured interviews with key personnel combined with documentary analysis were used to establish how disability sport emerged and developed. Informed by the data from Phase 1, in Phase 2a survey of governing bodies of sport and disability sport organisations was conducted to establish which national organisations are involved in the policy network, how disability sport policy is formed, the role organisations play and ideologies of key actors. In Phase 3, informed by the data from Phases I and 2 and using interviews and documentary analysis, two case studies were carried out to examine, 1) the formation and role of the English Federation of Disability Sport, and 2) the mainstreaming of disability sport. The analysis of data is informed by theories of disability, a history of disability policy and sports policy, and three prominent theories of policy analysis: Marsha and Rhodes' policy network model, Sabatier's advocacy coalition framework and Kingdon's policy streams approach. (Continues...).

The main purpose of this dissertation is to develop a process to improve actual policy-making procedures in terms of aviation environmental effects. This research work expands current practices with physics based publicly available models. The process herein proposed provides information regarding the interdependencies between the environmental effects of aircraft. These interdependencies are also tied to the actual physical parameters of the aircraft and the engine, making it more intuitive for decision-makers to understand the impacts to the vehicle due to different policy scenarios. These scenarios involve the use of fleet analysis tools in which the existing aircraft are used to predict the environmental effects of imposing new stringency levels. The aircraft used are reduced to a series of coefficients that represent their performance, in terms of flight characteristics, fuel burn, noise, and emissions. These coefficients are then utilized to model flight operations and calculate what the environmental impacts of those aircraft are. If a particular aircraft does not meet the stringency to be analyzed, a technology response is applied to it, in order to meet that stringency. Depending on the level of reduction needed, this technology response can have an effect on the fuel burn characteristic of the aircraft. The proposed alternative is to create a fleet of replacement aircraft to the current fleet that does not meet stringency. These replacement aircraft represent the achievable physical limits for state of the art systems. In addition, the replacement aircraft show the linkage between environmental effects and fundamental aircraft and engine characteristics, something that has been neglected in previous policy making procedures. Another aspect that has been ignored is the creation of the coefficients used for the fleet analyses. In current literature, a defined process for the creation of those coefficients does not exist, but this research work develops a process to do so and demonstrates that the characteristics of the aircraft can be propagated to the coefficients and to the fleet analysis tools.

National drug policy development is essential for effective drug policies, yet the process through which they emerge, the role of evidence and the theoretical basis for drug policy development are poorly understood. The present research adopted a cross-national analytical-descriptive approach to examine drug policy development between 1994 and 2006 in two nations: Portugal and Australia. Through contrasting atypical reforms - namely decriminalisation in Portugal and the Illicit Drug Diversion Initiative (IDDI) in Australia – with the preceding periods of typical reform, it provides a detailed examination of how atypical reforms are proposed, negotiated and adopted. Moreover, it critically analyses the application of three public policy theories – Multiple Streams, Advocacy Coalition and Punctuated Equilibrium – to identify common drivers and processes underpinning the developments. / Through a primarily qualitative approach involving interviews with 42 expert policy makers, supplemented with secondary sources and publicly available evaluations, this research demonstrates that the major drivers of atypical reform are policy advocates and their ability to convert opportunities into pragmatic responses. In Portugal policy entrepreneurs utilised the emergence of a problem opportunity, typified by a public health crisis in Casal Ventoso, to form an alliance between experts and politicians and adopt a paradigmatic change: decriminalisation. Policy entrepreneurs in Australia used the emergence of a highly politicised opportunity to convert what was initially a doctrinal solution of “zero tolerance” into a more humane response: drug diversion. / The research reveals that the process of policy formulation has critical impacts upon the mechanism, implementation and potential outcomes of reform, most notably whether there is evidence-based policy or policy-based evidence. It concludes by identifying practical and theoretical implications for more effective drug policy development, including the need for greater application of the theory of Punctuated Equilibrium. The current research asserts that policy makers must have realistic expectations over the role of evidence in policy making, but that the likelihood of pragmatic reform may be enhanced through expanding attention from “what works” to include alternative tools of persuasion. It further recommends that greater attention to the latter may increase the likelihood of effective reform. Due to the formation of an alliance between politicians and experts the Portuguese policy making process facilitated a more pragmatic reform. However, a paradigmatic change – and hence the potential for effective drug policy – would not have been possible without advocacy for a new vision of the drug user as a citizen.

Genetically modified insect-resistant (Bt) cotton is widely cultivated in Pakistan, although the Pakistani Government has yet to approve its commercial cultivation. This thesis is the first in-depth, systematic and critical examination of its commercialisation through the informal sector, and explains the conundrum of around 6.4 million acres of ‘illegal’ cultivation of a GM crop. / Most popular Bt varieties under cultivation in Pakistan contain Monsanto’s genetic modification event (called MON 531), widely believed to be under patent protection in Pakistan. Not wanting to infringe Monsanto’s intellectual property rights (IPR), the Pakistani Government has refused biosafety approval to these varieties. Consequently, the Pakistani breeders of these high-yielding Bt varieties commercialised them in the informal sector. This research decriminalises seed provision in the informal sector and shows that rather than being discrete categories, the formal/informal sectors are locations across which breeders and varieties travel. / For its part, Monsanto is not willing to enter the Pakistani seed market, considering it too disorderly in which to operate. It seeks to operate in the ‘high-differential’ end of the market, therefore requiring active engagement of the Government to keep the farmer from dropping out. Alternatively, Monsanto proposes that the Government licenses MON 531 on payment of an annual technology fee for use by Pakistani farmers and breeders. This technology fee is compared with Monsanto’s cost of development of Bt products, and Pakistan’s budgetary allocation for agriculture. On both counts, the technology fee demanded by Monsanto is excessive. / An examination of Pakistan’s patent law and the patents granted to Monsanto reveals that neither MON 531 nor biotechnological products/processes required for its insertion in local cotton varieties are patented in Pakistan. Thus Pakistan presents a unique case where the Government has consistently honoured patents that it never issued. It is argued that Monsanto’s non-existent IPR has been honoured due to the particular social relations between Monsanto and Pakistani farmers and breeders. Since MON 531 is a commodity objectifying the labour of a particular social group, a patent thereupon becomes a means to operationalise the social relations between this social group and those who consume this commodity. / An alternate route for commercialisation is through the hybrid seed. Monsanto is willing to enter the Pakistani seed market if its technology can be carried in hybrid seeds. But the use of hybrid seed is economically unfeasible in cotton production, and there are significant problems with hybrid seed production in large quantities for the Pakistani market. Yet Monsanto and other companies prefer the hybrid route to technology commercialisation because of an important latent function that hybrids perform – they stop the farmer from saving seed. / It is argued that IPR and the use of hybrid seed are key social and technical strategies for accumulation by dispossession. They represent the commodification of seed, which is a pre-requisite for the process of accumulation. At the same time, these appear to be the only available strategies within existing social relations for improving cotton germplasm and for providing quality Bt seed to the Pakistani farmer.

Genetically modified insect-resistant (Bt) cotton is widely cultivated in Pakistan, although the Pakistani Government has yet to approve its commercial cultivation. This thesis is the first in-depth, systematic and critical examination of its commercialisation through the informal sector, and explains the conundrum of around 6.4 million acres of ‘illegal’ cultivation of a GM crop. / Most popular Bt varieties under cultivation in Pakistan contain Monsanto’s genetic modification event (called MON 531), widely believed to be under patent protection in Pakistan. Not wanting to infringe Monsanto’s intellectual property rights (IPR), the Pakistani Government has refused biosafety approval to these varieties. Consequently, the Pakistani breeders of these high-yielding Bt varieties commercialised them in the informal sector. This research decriminalises seed provision in the informal sector and shows that rather than being discrete categories, the formal/informal sectors are locations across which breeders and varieties travel. / For its part, Monsanto is not willing to enter the Pakistani seed market, considering it too disorderly in which to operate. It seeks to operate in the ‘high-differential’ end of the market, therefore requiring active engagement of the Government to keep the farmer from dropping out. Alternatively, Monsanto proposes that the Government licenses MON 531 on payment of an annual technology fee for use by Pakistani farmers and breeders. This technology fee is compared with Monsanto’s cost of development of Bt products, and Pakistan’s budgetary allocation for agriculture. On both counts, the technology fee demanded by Monsanto is excessive. / An examination of Pakistan’s patent law and the patents granted to Monsanto reveals that neither MON 531 nor biotechnological products/processes required for its insertion in local cotton varieties are patented in Pakistan. Thus Pakistan presents a unique case where the Government has consistently honoured patents that it never issued. It is argued that Monsanto’s non-existent IPR has been honoured due to the particular social relations between Monsanto and Pakistani farmers and breeders. Since MON 531 is a commodity objectifying the labour of a particular social group, a patent thereupon becomes a means to operationalise the social relations between this social group and those who consume this commodity. / An alternate route for commercialisation is through the hybrid seed. Monsanto is willing to enter the Pakistani seed market if its technology can be carried in hybrid seeds. But the use of hybrid seed is economically unfeasible in cotton production, and there are significant problems with hybrid seed production in large quantities for the Pakistani market. Yet Monsanto and other companies prefer the hybrid route to technology commercialisation because of an important latent function that hybrids perform – they stop the farmer from saving seed. / It is argued that IPR and the use of hybrid seed are key social and technical strategies for accumulation by dispossession. They represent the commodification of seed, which is a pre-requisite for the process of accumulation. At the same time, these appear to be the only available strategies within existing social relations for improving cotton germplasm and for providing quality Bt seed to the Pakistani farmer.

The purpose of this study is to explain how Australia has bargained for improved outcomes in its trade with the United States over the 1980s and into the early 1990s. This explanation is sought by means of an analysis of the forces which have shaped Australia's trade policy-making towards the U.S. in the five trading sectors of wheat, sugar, beef, steel and international air passenger transport. The study adopts a theoretical framework which postulates that state actors and institutions are principally responsible for trade policy-making and the concomitant bargaining strategies adopted to improve trade outcomes. However, a state-centred approach needs to be qualified by state actors' accomodation of societal-actor demands for policy action. While exogenous to this domestic bargaining process, influences emanating from the international political economy must also be taken into account. The relationship within and between state and societal actors, influenced as they are by international institutions and ideas, are critical to understanding the bargaining approaches made by one state towards another. It is argued that sectoral trading outcomes between Australia and the U.S. can be understood by reference to a bilateral bargaining process within each trading sector. Within each such bargaining process, Australia has, within broad bilateral and multilateral approaches, devised strategies by which it could mobilize sectorally-specific resources to seek to exploit opportunities and minimise problems so as to improve its trading outcomes. The nature of these sectoral strategies has been influenced by first, the nature of the U.S. policy and policy-making process; second, the Australian domestic bargaining process between state and societal actors; and third, and to a lesser extent, prevailing ideas and the perceptions of the negotiating parties.

Doctor of Philosophy / This thesis is concerned with the role of the United States investment insurance agency, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), in enforcing property and contract rights on behalf of United States (U.S.) infrastructure investors, pursuant to the deregulation of infrastructure markets across the developing world. Drawing on evidence from two recent high profile breach of regulatory contract disputes between OPIC insured U.S. energy companies and Indonesia and India respectively, the thesis finds that while legalized modes of dispute settlement have proliferated, the ‘rules of the game’— their efficacy in delimiting outcomes—emerge as a function of state power and interests, as states undertake to enforce or resist legal obligations. Second, and contrary to the image of U.S. foreign economic policy-makers as beholden to corporate interests, the thesis finds that the agency’s transformation from ‘aid to trade’ as underpinned the expansion of U.S. infrastructure investors to the developing world during the 1990s was driven by state officials consistent with evolving conceptions of U.S. national interests, central to which was the desire to expand markets for U.S. foreign investors and capital goods exporters. In this regard, the transformation of developing country infrastructure markets and the shift in the modes of resolving investor-state expropriation disputes as but one element of economic globalization and the ‘legalization’ of dispute settlement respectively are revealed as a function of U.S. material interests and power at the point of enforcement. The thesis contends, however, that the changes observed reflect not only U.S. power and interests but a specifically American conception of private property and contract rights so as to reveal OPIC investment insurance as a conduit for the diffusion of shifting property norms concerning regulatory taking (expropriation) from the United States to the world economy at large.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, School of Public Health, 1992. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 287-293).

abstract: This research project provides a unique perspective of the role of the concept of collaborative leadership between the Arizona Subsidized Child Care Program and its key stakeholder network. The process involved was to frame the research and its findings using the Team Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire's (TMLQ's) Assessment Scales. The research project sought to explore whether collaborative leadership in the policy-making process between the Arizona Subsidized Child Care Program and its key stakeholders actually does exist and, if so, to what extent. The research questions for the dissertation are, as follows: (1) What leadership styles does the Arizona Subsidized Child Care Program, through its various managers, exhibit and are these styles truly collaborative?; and (2) Are the leadership relationships between the key child care stakeholder groups and the Arizona Subsidized Child Care Program actually collaborative? The study employed a mixed-method approach (both quantitative and qualitative research methods) by means of an online survey, interviews, and document analysis. ii Based on this study's findings, the program exhibits collaborative leadership concepts with its stakeholder network. In addition, a positive correlation between the use of collaborative leadership concepts and participant perceptions of satisfaction, extra effort, and effectiveness was documented. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Public Administration 2010

abstract: This research examines the use of innovative mechanisms for encouragement of citizen participation in the governance, policy, and decision making processes using case studies of Washington, DC, the United States and Seoul, South Korea for comparison. The research illustrates ways of encouraging development of citizen participation using innovative mechanisms through comparative study. This research used a comparative case study of the two cities which focuses on how the two governments apply ICTs and foster citizen participation, what similarities and differences there are between the two city governments' performance and practices, and what may cause these similarities and differences. For the research, websites and citizen participation practices of Washington, DC and Seoul using innovative technologies - Citizen Summit and Seoul Oasis - are reviewed and compared using the categories of general capacity, actor, legal aspect, management, and evaluation. As capitals of the United States and South Korea, Washington, DC and Seoul lead the encouragement of citizen participation, and the two cities' specific practices are recognized as exemplary. The findings describe encouragement of citizen participation using innovative technologies in governance, policy, and decision making processes of Washington, DC and Seoul as well as similarities and differences. Both cities commonly use Government 2.0. Through Government 2.0, citizens can participate and influence the results and effects of policy. Also, governments secure transparency, legitimacy, and efficiency through direct communication with citizens. The study illustrates how citizen participation using innovative technologies can support civic engagement in local government. Strong leadership of the mayor is a common driving force of the two cities in initiating and implementing the Citizen Summit and Seoul Oasis. Different contexts of the two cities influence ways to initiate and utilize innovative technologies. Washington, DC implemented a practice combining public meeting and small group discussion using innovative technologies. On the other hand, Seoul initiated a new citizen participation practice based on the Internet. The results of the research show that innovative mechanisms allow adopting new government-citizen relationships in both cities. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Public Administration 2011