The key question addressed by this study is: does religion promote political stability or political change? Andrew Greeley's theory of the religious imagination is adopted for the study of religion. Politics is seen as including all those actions and attitudes directed towards the influencing of the making and the execution of policy which deals with concerns in which all members of a society have an interest. These actions and attitudes take the form of either demands or support. The relationships between religion and politics are tested in a secondary analysis of data from an NORC study on religious values conducted in 1979. The American nationwide sample of Catholics and former Catholics aged 18 to 19 are examined. Models of hypothesized relationships are tested by using path analysis based on ordinary least-square regression. After the models are tested for Catholics, Catholic disidentifiers, males, females, Germans, Irish, and Italians. The results demonstrate that religion may, given the content of that religion, promote either political stability or political change. The influence of religion on politics is contingent upon the content of that religion, particularly upon the religious imagery held by the respondents. Conventional images of God for the most part increase levels of confidence in the political authorities. These images contribute to political stability. When religious imagery has an influence on the view that the church and its functionaries should articulate progressive socio-political demands it is warm religious imagery. Warm images of God can contribute to the promotion of political change. Conventional images of God, for males and Italians, contribute to higher levels of conventional political participation. Warm images of God, for females and Germans, also have a positive influence on conventional political participation. This study demonstrates the need to include religion as an important consideration to be examined in any inquiry into the generation of demands and supports into the political system. It also provides a framework for the investigation of religion's influence on politics in cross-national and cross-cultural research.

This doctoral thesis examines the impact of moderate Islamist parties on party system institutionalization in Turkey. Its focus is on the political emergence of ‘Muslim-Democrat’ parties. This term was coined by the scholar Vali Nasr and refers to a new sub-type of party actor in the spectrum of political Islam that employs Islamic religiousity in its electoral appeal but operates within the normative framework of liberal democracy. The central question driving this thesis is to uncover how Turkey’s Muslim-Democrat parties have had a positive effect in advancing the institutionalization of Turkey’s party system. This thesis attempts to contribute to the broader debate regarding the compatibility of Islamist parties and democratic politics in demonstrating that the former, when adopting a moderate format akin to the ‘Muslim-Democrat’ ideal type, can have a positive effect in advancing processes of party system institutionalization. This effect would then be critically discussed within the context of its impact on broader democratic consolidation. The AKP, Turkey’s incumbent party, is chosen as the case study of a Muslim Democrat party. The theoretical basis for the empirical element of this thesis is informed by the research framework for party system institutionalization that was formulated by Mainwaring and Scully in the context of Latin American ‘third-wave’ democracies. They posit four specific factors to examine the institutional strengths of democratic party systems. This framework is used to examine the development of the Turkish party system and the impact of the Islamist parties, especially Muslim-Democrat parties, on these processes. The bulk of this thesis uses statistical analyses of aggregate electoral as well as attitudinal survey data as well as examining the political discourse of the election manifestoes of Turkey’s Islamist and Muslim-Democrat parties using content analysis as well as discourse analysis. The findings of this analysis conclude that Muslim-Democrat parties like the AKP have indeed contributed towards party system institutionalization in Turkey both in terms of stabilizing inter-party competition and social rootedness as well as increasing the legitimacy of democratic civilian politics. In that sense, their effect on party system institutionalization has had a beneficial effect on Turkey’s democratic consolidation.

A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Arts at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, for the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS. / It is widely assumed that the development of a country depends generally on the organization and the management of the state apparatus. Ostensibly the relative development of South Africa and the underdevelopment of Zaire would seem to confirm this. This study sets out to examine the validity of these assumptions by investigating the way the state apparatus is organized in Zaire and South Africa. The central role the state has played in the developmental process is the main concern of this thesis. The thesis attempts to understand this process through an in- depth investigation of the political and economic framework in both countries. It will present its arguments in five parts. The first outlines the conceptual framework necessary to compare and evaluate the political institutions by establishing the distinction between a "soft state" and a "hard state". The second part deals with the political system of both countries and the third contains an empirical analysis of their economic structure. The fourth provides a comparative institutional and process analysis of the state’s capabilities in Zaire and South Africa and largely emphasizes the state’s organizational strategies adopted to solve problems. A brief conclusion supplies an overall comparison and explanation of relative state capacity in the two countries and the consequences for development in each case of the state’s degree of competence. / Andrew Chakane 2018

手稿本. / Thesis (M.A.)--香港中文大學. / Shou gao ben. / Thesis (M.A.)--Xianggang Zhong wen da xue. / Chapter 一 --- 引論 / Chapter 二 --- 南京部院形成之過程 / Chapter 三 --- 兩京都院官吏員額與組織體系之比較 / Chapter 四 --- 兩京都部院之權力關係與人事遷調(上) / Chapter 五 --- 兩京都部院之權力關係與人事遷調(下) / Chapter 六 --- 結語 / Chapter 附一 --- 補明史南京七卿年表 / Chapter 附二 --- 洪武十三年以前中書省轄下之六部尚書年表 / 附御史大夫

Liang, Xuecun. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2011. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 199-249). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstract also in Chinese.

This project creates an original dataset of 1,008 randomly sampled news items that discussed LGBT political issues posted online between 2011 and 2017 by Huffington Post Queer Voices, NPR, and Fox News. I use quantitative methods and content analysis to locate the 14 most popular LGBT political issues in media coverage and to confirm there are three competing media frames of political discussion in coverage of LGBT political issues. There are three results chapters. Chapter 5 describes the 14 LGBT political issues that appear most often in political science research and to what extent media coverage of these 14 issues differs across the political left, right and center. I find that academia addresses more LGBT issues, more often, than does media coverage. Also, media coverage and academic literature contain four competing narratives about LGBT people and issues: a Family Narrative, an Identity Narrative, a Tragedy Narrative, and a Political Activity Narrative. Moreover, politically left media coverage is more like academic discussions about LGBT politics than politically right or centrist media coverage. Chapter 6 describes three competing frames in media coverage. A legal frame contains language that discusses constitutions, trial and appellate courts, litigation tactics, and appellate procedure. A religious frame contains language that discusses the Bible, Jesus, religious-based curative therapy, evangelicals as political participants, and quotes from clergy. An institutional frame contains language that involves elections, political parties, direct democracy, constitutional amendments, local state and federal legislatures, and the President. I find that legal framing of LGBT issues has increased since the 2000s, while religious framing has declined, and political framing is slowly rising – peaking in federal election years then decreasing in non-election years. Chapter 7 describes how the media’s focus on same-sex marriage eclipses coverage of less-covered, but still important, LGBT political issues. Further, since same-sex marriage was legalized nation-wide in 2015, the media has been increasingly focused on transgender issues rather than 13 other LGBT political issues. So, the issues, narratives, and frames one encounters in news coverage about the LGBT is noticeably different than in the 2000s, and differs on the political left, right, and center.

This thesis is a study of selected themes in feminist rethinkings of the political. It explores connections between specific interpretations of the meanings and boundaries of the political, the problems of exclusion and the imagination of non-exclusionary alternatives. It traces, and responds to, shifts in these interconnected concerns that have transpired over the last three decades as feminists in western liberal democracies have moved from a preoccupation with gendered oppression, to relations of identity and difference more broadly conceived. The contrasting perspectives of Moira Gatens and Anne Phillips on political exclusion and their preferred political futures are discussed. Gatens' preferred future is a 'polymorphous, polyvocal and polyvalent body politic' but the institutional forms of that polity and its relation to actually existing liberal democracy are uncertain. Phillips apparently has more modest aspirations; for increased political presence for the politically marginalised (especially women); and for a revitalisation of the deliberative component of democracy. Although Phillips appears to hold the trump card of immediate practical relevance, the thesis questions this assumption. It argues that feminist analysis can only benefit from increased conversation between such divergent feminist responses to the problem of political exclusion. But further, it concludes that the least 'practical' may sometimes be the most important components of feminist rethinkings of the political / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2002. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

This study investigates the relationship between upward influence tactics and job satisfaction from the employees in Taiwan , According to the results of analyses conducted on data collected from 2761 employees. The seven personal characteristics variables examined were gender, age, education, marriage, With subordinates the manager to work together as colleagues the period of service, in office the organization work period of service and position . Results indicated the importance of upward influence tactics and individual differences on assessments of job satisfaction as follows: First, the upward political line obtains five constructions surface by way of the host ingredient analysis, the naming is: (1) rationality convinces (2) exchange and upwardly demands (3) image to manage (4) fawns on (5) hindrance to exert pressure Second, the work satisfies the feeling to obtain six constructions surface by way of the host ingredient analysis, the naming is: (1) work achievement feeling (2) compensation satisfies (3) boss to satisfy (4) is promoted the opportunity (5) colleague to relate (6) work support Third, personal characteristics variable and relations upward political behavior: (1) male are more than in the upward political behavior activity the female. (2) work period of service 3~10 year or 30~40 year-old age level for political behavior operation degree most exuberant time. (3) high school record, mostly also is the upward political behavior highly by chance. (4) with subordinates the manager to work together as colleagues the period of service to be longer, the upward political behavior utilization regulation goes past high. (5) in management level, Regarding upward political behavior by chance degree, the high social class position manager and center the social class position manager obviously is higher than the basic unit social class managers. Fourth, personal characteristics variable and satisfies the relations with the work: (1)different personal characteristics variable all has in the work achievement feeling reveals the difference. (2)besides the education level, different personal characteristics variable and satisfies in the compensation on all has reveals the difference. (3)except outside the sex, the age, the education level, other four item of personal characteristics variable and satisfies in the boss on all has reveals the difference. (4)except outside the age, the education level, the marriage, other four item of personal characteristics variable in is promoted in the opportunity to have reveals the difference. (5)only has the sex, is in office the organization work period of service, work official rank three item of personal characteristics variable relates in the colleague on has reveals the difference. (6)except outside the sex, the education level, the marriage, other four item of personal characteristics variable all has in the work support reveals the difference. Fifth, controls personal characteristics variable, satisfies the relations in view of the upward political behavior and the work, after correlation analysis result: (1)regarding the work achievement feeling influence, "the rationality convinces" and "fawns on" presents is being connected, but "the exchange and the upward demand" presents causes the negative effect. (2)regarding salary satisfied influence, "exchange and upward demand" the upward political behavior effect is best, but uses "the hindrance exerts pressure" the way, then possibly instead causes the negative effect. (3)regarding the boss satisfied influence, the utilization "fawns on" the effect is best, adopts "the hindrance exerts pressure" the way to be able to appear the negative effect. (4)regarding is promoted the opportunity influence, adopts "the exchange and the upward demand" is easiest to achieve the expectation goal. (5)influence which relates regarding the colleague, "the rationality convinces" and "fawns on" has the frontage to strengthen the influence, but "the exchange and the upward demand" and "the hindrance exerts pressure" has the negative destruction influence. (6)regarding the work support influence, adopts "the exchange and the upward demand" the upward political behavior effect is best, but "the hindrance exerts pressure" can have the negative effect.

Abstract The employee left no matter voluntarily non-voluntarily from any organization, high turnover rate means increasing the time and cost of recruiting, selecting and training employee. Further more, it will reduce the competitiveness for any industry leading to non-effective operation, difficult to remain intellectual property as well. It surely is impairment to an organization. As critical employee left with preventable reason such as sensed with any political problem within the organization then it¡¦s not a good situation to any firm. Hence, the Company should try to reduce the bad impact from conception of organizational politics would improve the high turnover rate. This researcher intends to see the relationships between perceptions of organizational politics and employees¡¦ resignation inclinations and compare the difference of private organizations. The perceptions of organizational politics scale was translated by An-ming Lee according to Kacmar K. M., Carlson D. S. (1997), and resignation inclinations scale was modified by Chin-ming Ho according to Kai-yi Huang (1984). To analyze 948 effective examples by SPSS program of Correlation Analysis, One-way Anova analysis, Scheffe multiple comparisons, Regression Analysis, etc. and try to get the variables and the result of the research, 1. Different personal attributes variables of different industries have significant difference in perceptions of general political behavior. (1) For general service industry, people who have high-level manager would have the less perceptive for general political behavior than any position. And for high-tech manufacturer , technical staffs have the significant difference for general political behavior than middle-level manager. (2) For general service industry and high-tech manufacturer, different period of getting along with the supervisors have different significant. (3) For general service industry, different working period have significant difference than other industries. (4) For high-tech manufacturer, staffs¡¦ age has significant difference than other industries. 2. Different personal attributes variables of different industries have significant difference in perceptions of the difference between policy and enforcement. (1) For all of the researching industries, different positions have significant different. (2) For financial service industry and general service industry, different periods of getting along with their supervisors have different significant. (3) For high-tech manufacturer and traditional manufacturer industries, the marriage status have different significant. (4) For financial service industry, staffs¡¦ age have significant difference than other industries. 3. Different personal attributes variables of different industries have significant difference in perceptions of communication problem. (1) For financial service industry and high-tech manufacturer, different positions have significant different. (2) For general service industry and traditional manufacturer industry, different periods of getting along with their supervisors have different significant. (3) For high-tech manufacturer, staffs¡¦ marriage sttatus have significant difference than other industries. (4) For traditional manufacturer, staffs¡¦ age have significant difference than other industries. 4. Different personal attributes variables of different industries have significant difference in perceptions of organizational politics. (1) For all of the researching industries, different positions have significant different. People who has lower position would have the more perceptive of organizational politics. (2) For any service industry, different periods of getting along with their supervisors have different significant. (3) For high-tech manufacturer, staffs¡¦ marriage sttatus and age have significant difference than other industries. 5. The influence resignation inclinations while people have perceptions of organizational politics between the researching industries. (1) For all of the researching industries, excluded high-tech manufacturer, while people have higher perceptions of organizational politics will have higher resignation inclinations. (2) The personal attributes variables won¡¦t have any influence for resignation inclinations. (3) For all of the researching industries, while people have higher perceptions of the difference between policy and enforcement will have influence for resignation inclinations. (4) For financial service industry and general service industry, while people have higher perceptions of general political behavior will have higher resignation inclinations. (5) For all of the researching industries, excluded traditional manufacturer industry, while people have higher perceptions of communication problem will have higher resignation inclinations.