published_or_final_version / Business Administration / Master / Master of Business Administration

The Libyan economy relies heavily on increasing oil revenues, which may deteriorate with a future oil price decline. The Libyan economy performed as well as resource poor countries over the past few decades. The oil booms of 1973 and 1979 brought unprecedented income to Libya but, despite the substantial oil revenues, much of the potential benefit of the windfall has been dissipated. Libya relies heavily on oil receipts, the price of which tends to fluctuate widely in the international market. Also, the Libyan economy is dominated by hydrocarbons and the public sector. Sizeable oil wealth has supported a decent living standard for Libya's population, and socio-economic development compares favourably with standards in other Middle Eastern and North African countries. Libya has the potential to raise oil production and revenues significantly in coming years, given its large reserve. The reliance of public finance on a single sector means that shocks threaten the economy's fiscal balance and stability. Libya has over-consumed in response to windfalls from surges in world prices. Libyan government spending has outstripped the gain in revenues. These sharp increases in government spending are difficult to reverse when the boom ends and often lead to large fiscal deficits rather than surplus. However, the main challenge for Libya is to promote growth of the non-oil sector and spur diversification of its economy. Non-hydrocarbon GDP growth has been weak and oil revenue volatility has been transmitted to non-hydrocarbon GDP. Weak non-oil GDP growth reflects both insufficient private investment and low productivity of capital importing efficiency. Productivity growth is a precondition for faster growth and greater investment effort. Strong productivity growth is also a prerequisite for competitive diversification out of hydrocarbon. Projected high oil revenue will provide the finance for growth but will not necessarily spur sustained growth in the non-oil sector. Overoptimistic predictions of future oil revenues are shown to have seriously adverse consequences, particularly if the non-oil economy adjusts to falling demand through underdevelopment and capital flight is provoked. Policy options for protecting the economy from volatility in oil revenues, without eliminating the benefits from rising prices include the formation of a stabilization fund and hedging strategies in the international markets. The stabilization fund would smooth consumption and reduce the costs associated with volatile spending. Libya needs sound economic management and to address the problems associated with oil windfalls. Market processes are required to help allocate public resources, and governments and others responsible must take account of risk and uncertainty when selecting projects, and formulating plans for development. Consequently, there is a macroeconomic need to diversify the economy to avoid the pitfalls which so often plague developing countries with vast natural resources. The decisions concerning public investment in a social economic infrastructure would be better if unconnected to the presence of hydrocarbon windfalls. To speed up non-oil growth and job creation, the oil windfalls should be used strategically, with the aim of facilitating the transition to a competitive, market-led economy. Over the long-term, the intermediation of hydrocarbon windfalls through the household and business sectors might produce superior long-term growth, but it should go in tandem with considerable strengthening of the investment climate. Enhancing the quality of Libya's human resources will also be essential to improve productivity and diversify out of oil - especially into services - and compete in the global economy. Improving the quality of governance deserves particular attention, because it underlies the development reform agenda. Libya would probably have seen a larger benefit from its windfalls had it saved a higher proportion abroad and limited domestic investment through applying market criteria more rigorously. Quite clearly, good fiscal control of periodic boom episodes enables the boom to temporarily accelerate the rate of economic development. In addition, such questions as the magnitude of the windfalls, how Libya has used them and their impact on non-oil a sector have been addressed in this research. The adoption of sound economic policies and the good management of oil windfall gains will allow Libya to continuously manage growth and become one of the greatest success stories of all developing countries.

This thesis analyses the formation of Japanese foreign policy through the case study of relations with India. The study concentrates on three streams of Japanese diplomacy; namely economic relations, nuclear policy and security issues through the theoretical framework of neoclassical realism (NCR). This approach, considered the ‘third generation’ of the mainstream paradigm, utilises neo-realism’s focus on structural factors and ultimately places primacy on systemic forces. Yet NCR seeks a more nuanced appraisal of foreign policy and incorporates internal structures into analysis. The dissertation argues that structural factors including India’s economic growth, the rise of China and facilitation provided by the US, initiated interest in India and continues to shape the development of policy. ‘China-hedging’ does not provide the only rationale. Furthermore, whilst structure is vital, with differing influential weight dependent on policy, it is unable alone to explain the exact nature and timing of policy decisions. In order to achieve this, the domestic ‘black box’ needs to be explored through analysis of unit-level variables such as policymakers’ perceptions, business interests, public opinion and norms. Elites in Japan have been particularly slow to appreciate India’s strategic worth despite favourable environmental conditions. The business community is noted as an important influence but whilst public opinion plays a minimal role overall, the prevalence of norms is able to dictate how policy is framed. The scope of the research project is confined to approximately the past two decades, though attention is given to historical relations to place contemporary analysis in context. Empirical data was sourced from academic, government and media outlets in addition to extensive interview fieldwork in Tokyo, Delhi, London and Washington DC. This thesis contributes to a nascent literature on an increasingly important area of not only Japan’s diplomacy but the regional dynamics of region no scholar of international relations can ignore.

This thesis is a study of the origins and development of law and workers' participation policies in Zambia from their inception in 1969 to 1989. The research was focussed at three levels of investigation: why was workers' participation introduced; what factors have determined its development; and whether the results suggest that state involvement, and the use of law in particular, has made a useful contribution to these industrial relations policies. The value of the work is threefold. First, it makes a modest but significant contribution to the understanding of law and industrial relations in post-independence Zambia. Second, it disputes and, in large measure, seeks to contradict earlier explanations thought to have determined the origins and development of participation policies in the country. Third, it provides original insights into the 1971 and 1988 workers' participation legislation. The methods of investigation have been largely historical and comparative. It analysed primary and secondary materials, supplemented by discussion interviews. Theoretical guidance was drawn from critical studies of corporations, labour law and industrial relations. The study reveals that the origins of workers' participation in Zambia is connected to the political objective in the 1960s of assuring the participation of Zambians in the ownership and management of the economy. Consequently, it argues that the development of these policies is best understood in the context of this origin as well as of the structures and institutions upon which they were erected in the 1970s. Turning to the assessment, it found that very little industrial relations effects have been demonstrated. This was partly a result of three interlocking factors. First, weak and inconsistent laws. Second, the failure to develop the widest possible consensus on participation policies. Third, the absence of economic and political conditions under which the confidence of managers and workers could be won towards state policies.

This study contributes to critical information systems research understanding of the broader strategic context of information systems initiatives in developing countries. It investigates contextual influences with structural impacts that may lead to instabilities and discontinuities in the immediate project context using a critical realist paradigm. It was informed by literature on development as discourse, ICT4D policy and technology transfer, E-Government adoption, and information systems research paradigms and applications in developing countries. A disconnection was observed between ICT4D policy practice that favors positivist technology diffusion models and research findings that suggest interpretive and critical contextual approaches. A theoretical framework was developed to reconsider ICT4D from a postcolonial country perspective by integrating critiques of modernity from Critical realism and postcolonial theory. An empirical case study investigation of change in Kenya‘s transition to E-Governance was then conducted and analyzed using a critical realist research framework, the Morphogenetic approach, supplemented by Q-methodology to study subjectivity. Finally ICT change was interpreted using critical realist concepts for structure, culture, and agency, with an overriding direction towards greater freedom. The main research contribution is a new approach to ICT4D where change is conceived within a dialectical framework that assumes people are moral and ethical beings possessing values. Research findings have implications for understanding the strategic context of E-Governance and ICT4D, time and temporality in contextual integrative frameworks, and suggest an alternative approach to strategy analysis in situations of rapid political and institutional change. They highlight the importance of political leaders and development agencies as mediators and interpreters of the strategic context. Development was conceived as a dialectical process towards transformative praxis, which together with the suggested approach to the strategic context, may require us to rethink the meaning of IS project success or failure in postcolonial developing countries.

This thesis is an analysis of liberal ideology and its role in South African industrialisation during the period 1886-1948. It looks at the growth of a specifically South African "liberal tradition" out of nineteenth century Cape colonial origins and focuses on the development of liberal welfare and reform orientated organisations and agencies. Using the private papers and correspondence of the individuals involved in establishing this reform tradition, the thesis argues that South African liberals were only partially successful in the years before 1948 in emulating their western counterparts in institutionalising themselves as political mediators between the state apparatus and the burgeoning black working class. Lacking a sound political base in the narrow electoral franchise, liberals were forced increasingly onto the defensive as the old paternalist basis of Cape liberalism became eroded. Though for the period between Uni-on and the second world war able use was made of local level politics, the increase in democratic radicalism by the mid 1940s forced liberals towards reformulating their ideology into one of administrative reform from above on the basis of a model of ethnic pluralism. This theory has remained the basis of South African liberal ideology substantially up to the present.

This research examines the regulation of phishing in Taiwan, particularly focusing on legal regulation but within a context of a multi-dimensional regulatory framework which also necessarily includes an examination of international regulation and the interaction between international and Taiwan regulatory interfaces given the transnational nature of phishing. Phishing is a malicious cyber activity which targets the acquisition of various types of confidential information by deception through the use of spoofed emails and/or websites. The increasing threat of phishing to information security has inspired a growing demand for regulation. Significant effort has been made in academic research and by industry to develop regulatory measures for phishing, which is dominated by technological work with comparatively little research on legal regulation. The current legal discussion of phishing, both international and Taiwan, very often concentrates on the criminal liability of phishers and pays little attention to the alternative role of law in the regulation of phishing. Thus this research suggests a broader approach to legal regulation that goes beyond criminal law and particularly addresses the role of information privacy law which constrains phishing by ensuring the protection of personal information. Phishing has posed crucial challenges to the traditional system in terms of both criminalization and legal enforcement. The solution that has been mostly addressed by the existing research is cooperation. As phishing is frequently a global phenomenon, this research suggests that an international approach involving coordination of legal standards and cross-border cooperation of law enforcement is necessary to tackle phishing, and also suggests that the fundamental step lies in a converged regulation of phishing consistent with its true context. Weak legal enforcement is a major deterrent to the effectiveness of legal regulation which highlights a need for a broad from of regulation that goes beyond law. In addition, a successful phishing episode involves a complex of factors including not only weakness in law but also vulnerability of technical infrastructure, administrative system and user awareness. A single solution is thus unlikely to deal with phishing. This research therefore suggests a multi-dimensional regulatory framework comprising different countermeasures developed especially in the areas of law, technology, education, and institutional network. It examines the anti-phishing approach undertaken in Taiwan employing qualitative methods to supplement the doctrinal research. In the context of a shortage of Taiwan scholarship on this subject, the research provides a set of suggestions to Taiwan development of a multi-dimensional regulatory scheme.

This is a study of the social and legal consequences of family breakdown in Nigeria as a whole but with specific reference to Borno State. It examines the effects of family breakdown on the husband and wife or wives and their children under the General Laws, Customary Law and Islamic Law of the people of Maidugurij Biu, and Gwoza areas of Borno State. The study covers the post-Independence period-i. e from 1960 to today. The aim of the study is to show how the social and economic changes in society affect the family at divorce. Although social change is part of any society, this study shows that the formal law on family breakdown and its consequences have not kept pace with social change, and that the dichotomy between state law and customary or Islamic law on family breakdown exists only in court. Thus the authority of the extended family, and within it, the dominance of men over womens, has not been specifically disturbed by the increasing Westernisation and rural-urban migration that has taken place since Independence. It is under this situation that the rights of women, property settlement on divorce, maintenances, and custody of children, as the main indicators of the consequences of family breakdown in any society has to be gauged. The role of the law and the state is also discussed. We argue that all the post-Colonial governments in the Federation were responsible for the present deplorable condition of victims of family breakdown not only in Borno State but throughout the country. Thus there has been no state-provided Social welfare to cater for deserted wivest children, and destitutes despite the ever increasing needs of such persons in a society that is rapidly changing. It is within this context that the effect of family breakdown on the people of Borno State is examined. The study argues that the various state authorities in Nigeria tend to abandon their responsibility to the family to the traditional customary institutions, such as the extended familyf which are now incapable of meeting the needs of victims of family breakdown. Moreoveri, the traditional family based economic system does not help women on divorce because it is predicated on the traditional power structure within the home which is in favour of men. on divorce, women are invariably left high and dry# and with few alternatives than to return home to their parents or other extended family members for support.

This study is intended to be a critical examination of the role of law and the legal profession in Urban pinning and development in the context of East Africa. It discusses the actual, proposed and possible functions of law and gives a critical analysis of shortcomings in the existing law and attitudes towards the planning process. It begins by discussing the various notions of plmning and development and what these mean to different groups of people whose work relate to the subject of planning and development. The first three chapters may be regarded as setting the scene in that they outline the perspective of the study, describe the region and its people, deal with the current and future problems of urbanization, discuss the land tenure systems and evaluate the processes of acquiring land for urban planning and developnent. The middle of the thesis, and particularly chapter five examines the organs, institutions, bureaucracies and. infrastructures of urban agglomerations. Chapter six deals with land use planning, the aims and objectives in such planning and how the resulting plans are implemented and enforced. Of special interest are the functions fulfilled or to be fulfilled by lawyers in this process. Chapter seven discusses housing as one of the important objectives of planning and evaluates the agencies of developzent including foreign investments, building societies and self-help projects. Included in this chapter are urban rates and rents. The last chapter is a resume of the study but concentrates on what the author has called "The Lawyer's 'brief' in Urban Planning and Development". The theeme of the study has been that planning and development is a multi-purpose, multi-disciplinary subject in which law must play its part. Consequently, there has been considerable use of materials and authorities traditionally regarded as "non-legal". One of the fascinating points in this kind of study is the use and analysis of such materials and authorities for the purpose of producing a legal discourse.

The aim of this thesis is to understand and explain ‘deviant autocracies’, which are an overlooked and under-researched theme in the democratisation literature. Two major approaches, i.e. structural and process-driven explanations, have dominated the debate on and studies of democratisation. However, over the past few decades, there have been an increasing number of cases that have not made the transition to democracy. These cases, which I refer to as ‘deviant autocracies’, are the primary focus of this thesis. Deviant autocracies are countries that have a high level of economic development but are still governed by non-democratic regimes. Based on a large-N analysis of a dataset from 1960 to 2011, this thesis shows that since the 1970s, increasing numbers of high income countries have not made the transition to democracy. To understand the emergence and consolidation of deviant autocracies, an analytical framework, the neo actor-based approach, is developed. This approach synergies with the lens of existing actor-based approach, elite theory, models of the elite bargaining process and the elite-structure paradigm to examine the interactions of international actors, local elites and state capacity. Based on this analytical framework, two small-N case studies were conducted to examine the identified deviant autocracies, Singapore and Hong Kong, to understand why they have not made the transition to democracy. At the analytical level, this thesis aims to offer an explanation of the non-transition of deviant autocracies based on a middle-range theory that focuses on elite interactions during the transitional period. At the empirical level, it contributes to our empirical knowledge of why Hong Kong and Singapore have not made the transition to democracy despite favourable circumstances and structural factors. By focusing on understanding why these cases remain stable deviant autocracies, I hope to open up a new research agenda for scholars of democratisation.