This thesis presents the political theory of Socrates, his trial and death, and looks at the reasons for Socrates' choice of death. In addition the author discusses the meaning of Socrates as it pertains to intellectual evolution and the maturity of societies.

Much of the scholarship that has been done on Philip Massinger mentions his political commentary only in passing; frequently the allusions have been used only to aid in dating the composition of the plays. There is no published work which gathers and discusses under one cover all of the political allusions in Massinger's plays. This study purports to fill this void. This investigation will enumerate and explain the meaning of all possible political allusions in Massinger's plays; it will also attempt to show the reasons why Massinger might have employed these allusions. When these purposes are fulfilled, knowledge of the plays and understanding of the playwright himself--his morality, his political affiliations, his public awareness--will be greatly increased.

This thesis examines the external activities of the European Union conducted in the wider Europe against the backdrop of eastern enlargement. It focuses on the technical aspects of EU diplomacy, using qualitative research methodology to study the programmes and initiatives launched since the year 2000 in the countries lying along the Union’s new border to the east. Drawing on evidence from Ukraine, it hypothesises that the EU is an agent of transformation in the eastern neighbourhood and that this transformation has important implications for the regional order in the post-Soviet space. The thesis constitutes an investigation into the transformational activities engaged by the EU in Ukraine conducted with an eye to their strategic implications. It documents and analyses three instances of EU intervention in Ukraine’s internal processes that relate to management of cross-border traffic in the Ukrainian-Russian borderland, restructuring of the country’s energy sector, and conduct of its contentious presidential election in 2004. It is argued that while these interventions have explicitly sought to advance the Union’s security with respect to certain twenty-first century transnational threats, they have at the same time served to confer important strategic advantages on the EU that include giving the bloc greater knowledge and control over developments in Ukraine and that contribute to the dismantling of infrastructural, institutional and other ties between Kiev and the other Soviet successor states, notably Russia. The effect of the European Union’s actions in the region, whether intended or not, has thus been to undermine any competing regional initiatives that cut across its own functions, and thereby to assert itself as the primary integration project in Europe. By showing how technical interventions in the politics, economics and administration of Ukraine can yield important geopolitical dividends, this thesis demonstrates that, in the context of EU external relations, high and low politics are interlinked.

The thesis discusses the result of a critical language study (CLS) of Tanzanian Presidential Kiswahili political oratory (TPKPO). The CLS was motivted by the belief that one of the principal contributions that linguists could make to the survival and development of their societies is to adopt what Shapiro (1990:12) paraphrasing Foucault (1977) has callled "a commitment to a form of inquiry aimed at the continuous disruption of the structures of "intelligibility" upon which some of the prevailing hegemonic political prejudices and biases are based. Faifclough's (1989) ideas regarding the need for and how to conduct CLS were dapted to suit the specific goal of the curren study which was to determine the inter and intra speker vriation within contemporary Tanzanian Kiswahili political discourse taking the oratory ex-president J. K. Nyerere and tha of Prersident A. H. Mwinyi as a case in point. The results of the study, which adopted a largely ethnographic research design, permit one to make two important observations about TPKPO.

Lobbyists for hire - commercial lobbyists - are a small, distinct,, accepted but minor addition to the dramatis personae of UK public policy-making. Their differentiating feature,, marking them off from other types of lobbyist., is that they are for hire and it is the feature which is the least previously researched. There is little explicit theory of commercial lobbying: it is best accounted for as an implication of neo-pluralism. Through primary fieldwork amongst them and the two groups with whom they interact - clients and decisionmakers - the nature of their hiring is analysed. They are mostly hired by large businesses and less so by public sector interests facing change. Clients show varying propensities to hire and services hired in by clients can be grouped under four headings. Commercial lobbyists are client-led and have no independent political influence. They are businesses seeking market share,, offering only what hirers want. Their work can be viewed through the prism of two ideal types: backgrounder and foregrounder. On balance, they work on the processes of policy-making rather than its contents; are less rather than more visible in the policy process; more reactive than proactive in their client relationships. They have a range of negative and positive relationships with decision-makers, who accept them in terms of supplying information otherwise difficult to access. There is no demonstrated methodology for evaluating their contribution to policy outcomes. The data suggests that this contribution is minor. But this 'minor' conclusion has to be qualified when looked at from the hirers' viewpoint: for them the hiring may help yield competitive advantage. Commercial lobbyists are corporate accessories and the source of any concern about their practices and about asymmetrical access to decision-makers lies in the nature of their relationships with other more substantial players in the UK policy process. Their role will be better understood if this process is more transparent and open.

No description available.

Within a Gramscian analysis, concepts of hegemony, passive revolution and organic intellectuals are employed to investigate and theorise the New Right think tanks' critique of English local government. Unlike other accounts, it is argued that the New Right think tanks successfully modernised traditional Conservative party concerns that elected local government was susceptible to demands for social welfare and of bureaucrats and politicians self-seeking efforts. The Gramscian analysis further suggests that in a highly centralised state elected local government was never only concerned with locality but was often embroiled in the statecraft strategy if the dominant bloc. Previously when the dominant hegemony had been endangered, elected local government has been usefully deployed to resolve social tensions. This strategy however, has been problematic and has been destructive of the relative independence of elected local government. More generally, elected local government's decisive role in civil society means that it too has become a site where counter hegemonic projects have clustered. During the 1980s, such tensions become critical. The organic intellectuals associated with Thatcherism, the New Right think tanks, acted as a clarion for demands to end elected local government's role in providing social welfare that effectively questioned its existence. Elswhere in a parallel development increased regulation of elected local government by the centre restricted the activities of local authorities, a strategy that also adversly affected those who supported the dominant bloc's hegemony.

The thesis focuses on Local Government duties and powers for enabling energy and sustainability projects in England and Wales. It establishes a theoretical understanding for well-being in international law, European law and a pragmatic approach on how legal and policy instruments should be interpreted when assessing obligations for energy and sustainability. It then illustrates how various objectives are currently delivered across Europe. This leads to a theoretical and legal context for council members and officers working in local government with both mandatory duties and permitted powers available to advance the carbon emissions and fuel poverty agenda in their communities. The thesis evaluates the implications of ultra vires and judicial review on local authority behaviour in hand with the Local Government Act 1999 (Best Value) and suggests the combination has restricted positive action by the majority of local authorities in areas crucial to the well-being of many vulnerable residents. Compounding this, the subsequent Local Government Act 2000 (Powers of Well-Being) is currently underused due to a lack of legal certainty about their interpretation or realisation of their potential to address substantive community issues. To help counter the issue the thesis provides a theoretical context and working definition for energy and sustainability in local government which aligns Aristotelian thought and the principles of sustainable development. Then a practical example illustrates how energy and sustainability projects could be used to achieve wider community well-being. The thesis concludes by offering local government is under an implied duty to promote well-being and it should not defer actions on the grounds of the absence of a mandatory duty in the area. It must look to its history in public health reform in order to recognise the substantive issues of the day involving energy and poverty. It must become more outward looking, exploratory and adventurous in scope and find the political will to address the issues and the moral courage to direct resources to long term solutions.

No description available.

This study expands the literature on clergy as political actors by shedding light on the relative electoral performance of clergy who hold office in state legislatures. Kinney’s 2008 study on the occurrence of clergy in local office, as well as other works showing the divergence in attitudes towards church-state separation among racial groups and religious traditions, illustrate potential factors affecting the performance of clergy in elections. The analyses examine the factors related to differences in vote percentages, margins of victory, and campaign funding between clergy and non-clergy. These factors include racial and religious traditions and how their effects interact. The analyses find that clergy-legislators receive larger vote percentages, larger margins of victory, but less campaign funding. These effects, with the exception of campaign funding, tend to be the strongest when looking at black Protestant clergy compared to mainline Protestant clergy and non-clergy legislators.