This dissertation pools time-series and cross-section data among Canadian provinces to examine: (1) whether provincial welfare generosity (health, social services, and education expenditures), power resources and political parties (unions and left, centre, and right political parties), and political democracy (voter turnout and women in government) affects population health; (2) whether the effect of leftist politics channels through or combines with provincial welfare generosity to affect population health; and (3) whether provinces cluster into distinct political regimes which are predictive of population health. Data is retrieved from the Canadian Socio-Economic Information Management System (CANSIM) II Tables from 1976 to 2008 and Canadian Parliamentary Guides from various years. Population health is measured using total, male, and female age-standardized mortality rates. Estimation techniques include Prais-Winsten regressions with panel-corrected standard errors (PCSE), a first-order autocorrelation correction model (AR1), and fixed unit effects. Hierarchical cluster analysis is used to identify how provinces cluster into distinct regimes. Primary findings are three-fold. First, provincial welfare generosity has a significant impact in lowering mortality rates, net of other factors, such as demographic and economic variables. Second, the political power of left and centre political parties and women in government have significant negative effects on mortality rates. Whereas left political parties and women in government combine with provincial welfare generosity to improve population health, the effect of centre political parties is channeled through provincial expenditures. Third, provinces cluster into three distinct regimes based on left political party power and women in government: 1) leftist (Saskatchewan, British Columbia, and Manitoba); 2) centre-left (Ontario and Quebec); and 3) conservative (Alberta, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland). Compared to the leftist regime, centre-left and conservative provinces have significantly higher mortality rates; however, provincial welfare generosity accounts for most of the observed inter-provincial differences in population health.

The thesis examines issues of religion and politics in Israel. The thesis is constructed around a critical reading of the literature written on the subject and an indepth first-person interviews with expatriates living in Ultra-Orthodox communities in Israel. After a careful presentation and examination of the various religious groups in Israel and their relationships with the state, the thesis offers a discussion on some of the many difficult issues Israeli society faces over the place of religion. More specifically, it explores the dynamics and processes of inclusion/exclusion of ultra-orthodox communities within / from the Israeli society. It looks at various policy sectors such as military service, housing, education and civil matters to see how the state has tried to find accomodations for Haredi people and how these latter have influenced and informed the ways public policies have been elaborated. It concludes that the historical statu quo on this question is no longer possible as witnessed in the last decade with growing tensions between various segments of the Israeli society. Therefore, the thesis proposes different scenarios to bridge the societal gaps between Haredi communities and the Israeli society.

No description available.

This thesis examines the juridical framing of the political in the thought of Carl Schmitt. The purpose of this discussion is to draw attention to the fundamental inconsistencies that are present in Schmitt’s thinking on the political. These inconsistencies arise from Schmitt’s desire to advance a concept of the political that can be understood autonomously in terms of the friend-and-enemy grouping. This thesis argues that Schmitt’s concept of the political should not be understood autonomously but in terms of a juridical ethic of mastery and dominion. Schmitt’s desire to ground the political in an autonomous field of meaning—where the political achieves mastery over all other domains—reduces the political down to a juridical moment. Schmitt fails in his mission to construct an autonomous concept of the political, primarily because theology frames Schmitt’s analysis of sovereignty. Moreover, Schmitt’s concept of the political presupposes the state and a decisionist discourse of sovereignty. Schmitt’s decisionism is expressed in terms of a sublime, symbolising the highest region of both political conduct and knowledge. For Schmitt, mastery and dominion are the core values of the political. This has severe implications for the concept of legality and the democratic functioning of the state. Thinking beyond a juridical formula unleashes political thought from the strictures of both proceduralism (liberalism) and decisionism (authoritarianism). This reflexive approach to the political—present in the work of Foucault, Butler, and Mouffe—allows for the shared regime of mastery and dominion to be critically reformulated. Without the imperative of mastery—the unilateral control of conduct by the subject—political thought is freed from the need to exercise dominion and can focus on the ways in which the subject can be constituted in less exclusionary ways.

This is an ethnographic study of student politics relating to Palestine-Israel within British universities. Palestine-Israel has been a focal issue within British campuses for over four decades, manifesting in intense, high profile conflicts, which have been subject to competing political and media framings. In this thesis, I identify this as a case of what Nancy Fraser (2008) describes as 'abnormal justice', a situation of incommensurable, spiralling conflicts over the 'what', 'how' and 'who' of political community. I show how students' engagement with Palestine-Israel raises spectres of entangled histories of the Holocaust and colonialism, and tensions over the national versus global boundaries of the polity. Moving beyond abstract portrayals of this as a conflict between discrete ethno-religious groups or autonomous moral actors, I attend to students' complex personal experiences of these political dynamics. My central argument is that PalestineIsrael exerts discomforting, at times irreconcilable, claims over participating students, arising out of violent histories, ongoing racisms, complex transnational attachments and " the rationalism of post-imperial British universities. I trace how unsettling ambiguities and a desire for moral coher.,e nce are enacted within this campus politics, analysing how institutional practices of containment and shaming lead to 'tragic' moments of passionate aggression, which then circulate in the media. Contributing to a cross-disciplinary turn towards affect, aesthetics and ethics in the study of public spheres, I stake a claim for responsive ethnography with ethical ambitions. I do so by drawing our attention beyond spectacular political conflicts, showing how students cultivate reflexive practices and express uncertainty, care and commitment within overlooked, 'ordinary' spaces of the campus. In these ways, I show how attending to intersubjective political experience provides vital insights into the motivations and desires at stake in justice conflicts, and operis up expansive possibilities for reflexivity and creativity within the public institutions of democratic societies.

The purpose of this study is to examine political crimes in and women’s political activity in 18th century Sweden. The cases of political crimes which has been used range from 1700- 1789 and they form an outline of the patterns of political crime in this century. These cases contain different types of political crimes, but most common ar defamation of the royal family, defamatory writings, rumor-spreading and treason. To study women’s political activity, seven cases ranging from 1749 to 1758 have been more closely studied. All of these cases belong to the category defamation of the royal family. The study has shown that the frequency of cases of political crime fluctuates and incidents are most common between 1740 to 1759. Furhtermore different kind of crimes are more common in different periods of time. Treason is most common between 1710 and 1714 and cases of rumor-spreading only exist between 1740 and 1759. Few cases of these crimes being commited by women have been found, in only 19 out of 426 cases is the perpetrator a woman. These cases show that the demfamatory words whih are used depend on who they are used towards. The king is criticized for his politics, whereas the queen’s character is insulted. The study has also shown that there is no evidence that it was considered odd for women to commit these crimes, which can be connected to the different view on gender in early modern times.Keywords: Gender, Politics, Political crimes, treason, defamatory words, royal family, 18th century, Sweden.

The emergence of broad rural support in West Bengal for the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPM) is here studied through the history (1960 to present) of two villages in Burdwan district. The focus is on the relationship between the dynamics of village politics and political and ideological changes of the larger polity. Village politics constitutes an important realm of informal rules for political action and public participation where popular perceptions of wider political events and cultural changes are created. The communist mobilization of the late 1960s followed from an informal alliance formed between sections of the educated (and politicized) middle-class peasantry and certain groups (castes) of poor. The middle-class peasantry drew inspiration from Bengal's high-status and literary but radicalized tradition. However, the establishment and dynamics of the alliance, at the local level, can only be understood within the normative framework of the village. The poor appeared previously as marginal to public exercise of village affairs, but were nonetheless able to manipulate resources available to them (numbers, assertion, norms) and thus achieve some leverage vis-a-vis village leaders dependent on man-support or "moral economy" sentiments for legitimacy. The interests of these groups of poor, particularly of the social or cultural kind since the material resources available were very limited, became crucial in the bonds village leaders sought to create to retain their support. Following on this practice, also the CPM's local party leadership, in the 1980s and 1990s, consistently confirmed social aspirations and status considerations. This leads to the conclusions that not only do communist movements too depend on considerations of social status, honours, and symbolic displays of respect but that the scope for change and the manner in which the communist movement can function at the local level derive from popular perceptions, formed and enacted in villages.

Secession has been noticeably absent from International Relations theory although its role in the creation and recognition of states is clearly relevant. Traditionally, the dominant perspectives in IR have not questioned state formation and this has effectively barred secession as a topic since it cannot be thoroughly treated without looking across the inside/outside divide of state sovereignty. Secession must be placed in its historical context-as a phenomenon only possible in the modern era and only perceived as a global threat in this century. Theorists from other disciplines who have discussed secession have relied on a problem-solving theoretical perspective which has kept them from considering secession as an outcome of problematic assumptions about identity and territory in the international system. In contrast, a critical theoretical perspective, which affirms the constitutive processes of historical discourse allows an analysis of secession which exposes the contingency of its basic assumptions. Historicising the territorial state allows us to recognise the different structures of political power through which we have already passed and thus to theorise about different forms for the future. The secessionist imperative narrates the boundaries of a specific people who must be secured by a territorial state. Textual analysis of secessionist documents reveals that the narrative strategies they employ are exclusionist and historically short-sighted. Recognising identity as a continuous and relational process is a necessary step towards a post-territorialist order. If different forms of political space are practiced, democracy must also be re-theorised. There is no single model which can guarantee peaceful democratic politics since ambiguity and conflict are inherent in the political process itself and must be encouraged. However, an understanding of the intersubjective processes through which we have generated our present day politics of territory and identity can open up the theoretical space required for alternative politics.

No description available.

No description available.