Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, School of Governance, 2014. / The democratisation process of higher education in South Africa commenced in 1994, with the refrains of ‘widening access, broadening participation’ and ‘the doors of education and culture shall be opened’. The deep structural and systemic deficits in the apartheid education system restricted access to higher education based on race, while simultaneously deepening inequalities in the schooling system. Education reform as the transition to democracy commenced, required seismic policy and systemic shifts widely described as an agenda to transform the higher education system. Thus equity of access and success reverberate in the policy documents and reforms undertaken by the government. This research study examined the policy texts and state instruments used to steer the system towards the goal of widening access. Using the conceptual model of Bowe, Ball and Gold (1992) it explored the role of universities in re-interpreting policies, while at the same time focusing on the difficulty of ‘widening access’ given the treacherous legacy of the past. The focus was on a 16 year time-span from 1994–2010, tracing the journey of policy reforms and analysing the quantitative data at the national level of the higher education system. The researcher sought to understand the enormity of the education system problems, while taking into account that changing the course for the country is a major task which would require deep transformation that would not be feasible in a short period. Findings of the research conducted are analysed and discussed during the course of this thesis. The thesis also recommends the adoption of an evaluative framework that would enable government to measure progress in relation to stated goals and inculcate greater accountability by universities.

After the break-up of the former Soviet Union in 1991, several states declared independence, including the Republic of Kazakhstan. Under the centralised soviet system Kazakhstan provided mainly raw materials to the USSR, and agriculture operated under a Moscow-based command and control model. Kazakhstan possesses vast wealth of mineral and energy resources and its agricultural land is well able to ensure national food security. However, after independence the rapid and frequently unplanned state actions such as land reform, taken to move from socialism to a market economy, were not always successful and the state of agriculture was initially one of chaos. A major exodus from the land to the cities ensued. Gradually Kazakhstani agriculture recovered some of its productivity but still lags well behind developed nations in the use of ICT supported agricultural information management (AIM). This research contributes to new knowledge in the area of ICT-based AIM by supplementing the limited statistical and scientific analyses of Kazakh agriculture by seeking to discover, through semi-structured interviews, the views and perceptions of agrarians who are both the customers and end users of ICT-based AIM in a post-soviet state. The researcher established that agrarian stakeholders were aware of the need for a centralised AIM system, but felt that to implement it, more assistance was required from the state. Kazakhstan can learn from the experiences of both developed and developing countries in furthering ICT-based AIM, and although its situation is unique, understanding of the perceptions of end users, who have had to make a series of flawed initiatives work, will arguably be relevant to policy makers in other post-soviet states.

Magister Philosophiae (Land and Agrarian Studies) - MPhil(LAS) / This thesis examines debates concerning large-scale land acquisitions in Kenya by looking at the case of the Dominion Farms Limited takeover of Yala Swamp. The case study illustrates actual practices of Kenya’s land governance system in terms of how large-scale land acquisitions take shape and their results on the ground. The study explores changes that have taken place at Yala Swamp from 2003 to 2013 and assesses them against the backdrop of recent and emerging land governance regulatory frameworks at national, regional and global levels. The study’s research methodology and data analysis reveal that the new large-scale land acquisition phenomenon has a historical dimension in that it perpetuates a continued legacy of land dispossession of local communities of the unregistered land thereby disrupting their livelihoods. This thesis contributes to a lively intellectual debate and literature on land governance by examining land issues from a governance and political economy perspective. Yala Swamp was chosen as a case study of large-scale land acquisition. The case shows how new land regulatory policies are being shaped and constrained by what is considered beneficial for foreign investment but not necessarily in tandem with local communities’ needs and expectations. This thesis is anchored on the assumption that land governance frameworks’ transformative potential depends on the extent to which they are able to address the structural factors that entrench continued poverty, food insecurity, gender inequality, environmental degradation and land conflicts. The thesis argues that initiatives that facilitate the corporate takeover of land and other resources from the poor in order to give to large-scale investors foreclose the smallholder agricultural space for future expansion. It further argues that an understanding of land reform processes from a governance and political economy perspective offers insight that could not only improve the design of land governance regulatory frameworks, but also provide pathways to support implementation.

Background: The implementation of structural adjustment programs (SAPs) in low to middle income (LMICs) has been followed by a marked reduction in their progress on economic growth, social indicators and health outcomes. Comprehensive and contextualized explorations of the effects of SAPs are needed to assist health and social policy-makers in better determining responses to such programs that continue to dominate global trade, aid and debt cancellation negotiations.<p>Methods: A comparative case study of Argentina and Uruguay was developed exploring the effects of SAPs on health. Drawing from a population health perspective and using a framework developed to analyze the relationship between globalization and health, changes in domestic policies resulting from SAPs and the corresponding population health outcomes of the countries were explored. <p>Results: In general, SAPs were implemented with greater severity and speed in Argentina than in Uruguay, with the greatest differences occurring over the 1980s. The more gradual and modest reforms implemented in Uruguay over the 1980s were associated with better population health outcomes. As Uruguays reforms began to accelerate and more closely resemble Argentinas over the 1990s, differences in population health of the countries were diminished.<p>Conclusions: Findings support those of previous studies demonstrating that countries that have maintained more protectionist policies have been better able to protect the health of the most vulnerable sectors of society.

Background: The implementation of structural adjustment programs (SAPs) in low to middle income (LMICs) has been followed by a marked reduction in their progress on economic growth, social indicators and health outcomes. Comprehensive and contextualized explorations of the effects of SAPs are needed to assist health and social policy-makers in better determining responses to such programs that continue to dominate global trade, aid and debt cancellation negotiations.<p>Methods: A comparative case study of Argentina and Uruguay was developed exploring the effects of SAPs on health. Drawing from a population health perspective and using a framework developed to analyze the relationship between globalization and health, changes in domestic policies resulting from SAPs and the corresponding population health outcomes of the countries were explored. <p>Results: In general, SAPs were implemented with greater severity and speed in Argentina than in Uruguay, with the greatest differences occurring over the 1980s. The more gradual and modest reforms implemented in Uruguay over the 1980s were associated with better population health outcomes. As Uruguays reforms began to accelerate and more closely resemble Argentinas over the 1990s, differences in population health of the countries were diminished.<p>Conclusions: Findings support those of previous studies demonstrating that countries that have maintained more protectionist policies have been better able to protect the health of the most vulnerable sectors of society.

The thesis deals with the promotion of agriculture in the European Union. The aim is to evaluate the development of the Common Agricultural Policy of the Union from its beginning until now. Work includes general characteristics of the agricultural sector, development and financing of the Common agricultural policy, positions of individual Member States to the common agricultural policy, its reforms and financing. The author's main resources are books and documents of the European institutions.

The role of national education systems is changing, and many drivers of this phenomenon have been identified (Green, 1997). On the one side, there is a growing convergence in global education policy developments given by globalisation processes, on the other side, a political and ideological discourse has spread that promotes education as essential to the achievement of a model of economic productivity and competitiveness (Ball, 2013). The current research aims to shed light not only on the degree to which national education policy in the last two decades have been influenced by this movement, referred to as the Global Education Reform Movement (GERM) by Sahlberg (2016), but also on its possible consequences on equity. In order to do so, three western and European countries have been chosen: England, Sweden, and Italy. Through a mixed-method approach, in which the analysis of policy reforms is combined with PISA secondary data, each country’s specific political landscape and variation in socio-economic inequalities in the period between 2000 and 2020 is discussed. The final comparison between the countries allows seeing that even if all three countries present features of the GERM in the policy reforms enacted from the 2000s on, the consequences on equity are ambiguous. While the three countries present divergent trends both in PISA results and indicators of socio-economic inequalities, one common phenomenon worth deepening considering the increasing focus on standards is the steep increment in scores’ variation.

African economies, including Nigeria continued to perform poorly despite the adoption of economic policy reforms in the 1980s. An explanation for the failure of economic policy reforms was therefore sought from an institutional perspective. Since active state intervention in the economy was the rationale given for the economic crisis of developing countries, the conventional case for an active state which rested on the need to correct for market failure was counterposed with the argument that the economy was best coordinated by market forces given that the state was not benevolent, omniscient or omnipotent. However, the state has played an important role in the transformation of late developers while a state-market dichotomy takes no account of institutional factors. The widespread adoption of economic policy reforms owed more to an ideological shift in the development paradigm than to the debt crisis and there was a great deal of controversy about the theoretical foundations and impact of these reforms contrary to claims of a consensus. An institutionalist political economy which recognises that the market is not the only institution and that economic transformation requires the positive use of political power was proposed. Such an approach takes account of history, politics and the institutional diversity of capitalism. A more nuanced view of state intervention was therefore advocated. The importance of institutional arrangements in the quest for economic transformation underscored the inadequacy of structural adjustment which was hampered by the lack of price and institutional flexibility as well as other institutional constraints. The Nigerian experience of structural adjustment shows that long term growth prospects were not enhanced and that the reforms tended to favour the financial sector over the real sector. The failure of economic policy reforms in Nigeria can be attributed to the continued presence of constraining institutional factors and the absence of a positive use of political power. / Economics / D. Comm. (Economics)

African economies, including Nigeria continued to perform poorly despite the adoption of economic policy reforms in the 1980s. An explanation for the failure of economic policy reforms was therefore sought from an institutional perspective. Since active state intervention in the economy was the rationale given for the economic crisis of developing countries, the conventional case for an active state which rested on the need to correct for market failure was counterposed with the argument that the economy was best coordinated by market forces given that the state was not benevolent, omniscient or omnipotent. However, the state has played an important role in the transformation of late developers while a state-market dichotomy takes no account of institutional factors. The widespread adoption of economic policy reforms owed more to an ideological shift in the development paradigm than to the debt crisis and there was a great deal of controversy about the theoretical foundations and impact of these reforms contrary to claims of a consensus. An institutionalist political economy which recognises that the market is not the only institution and that economic transformation requires the positive use of political power was proposed. Such an approach takes account of history, politics and the institutional diversity of capitalism. A more nuanced view of state intervention was therefore advocated. The importance of institutional arrangements in the quest for economic transformation underscored the inadequacy of structural adjustment which was hampered by the lack of price and institutional flexibility as well as other institutional constraints. The Nigerian experience of structural adjustment shows that long term growth prospects were not enhanced and that the reforms tended to favour the financial sector over the real sector. The failure of economic policy reforms in Nigeria can be attributed to the continued presence of constraining institutional factors and the absence of a positive use of political power. / Economics / D. Comm. (Economics)

Public Administration & Management / D.P.A.