Corporate political activity (CPA) has been recognized as a source of sustainable competitive advantage. Its proponents, mostly nonmarket strategy researchers, argue that political capital enables firms to influence their regulatory and policy environments, shape their competitive space, and improve their performance. Consequently, there is a widely held view that the performance of firms depends not only on the ability of managers to exploit economic markets but also on their ability to succeed in political markets. To test the value of political activism, recent scholarship has probed the relationship between CPA and firm performance. However, random mixed findings and the fragmented nature of the field raise more questions than provide answers to the nature of this relationship. This systematic review examines scholarly articles for evidence of the impact of CPA on firm value. Drawing on 56 articles contributing to the topic and applying the CIMO-logic method of synthesis, this study discusses the findings within a framework of four elements. First, it examines the contexts within which CPA has been investigated. Second, it presents findings on the strategies that are studied. Third, it investigates the performance outcomes of CPA. Fourth, it explores the mechanisms that underpin the performance outcomes of CPA. The findings suggest that CPA is positively related to firm performance, an indication that there is value in political activism. However, counter evidence is reported by a few studies. The evidence also reveals that institutional contexts impact the political strategies used by firms or studied by researchers. Even though most of the studies lack theoretical grounding, social capital, cronyism and agency relationships are the popularly cited or implied mechanisms underlying the CPA-firm performance relationship. Following from the discussion, two propositions linking contexts, interventions, and outcomes are developed. The study suggests future research directions based on the gaps/limitations identified in the literature.

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This study highlights the contribution of activists from Durban and Cape Town in the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa in the early nineteen seventies. Historians tend to generally disregard this period, that followed the state crackdown on black political organisations and leaders, especially when writing on the 1960s Defiance Campaign and the 1976 uprising. The respondents in this study developed their political consciousness during the period when internationally there was growing popular resistance to the Vietnam War, coupled with the emergence of the militant Black Power Movement in the USA. This was also the period of the development of the Black Consciousness Movement among 'black' university students in South Africa. The emergence of the dynamic Black Consciousness Movement gave young individuals the ammunition to explore a new identity that could help them discard the shackles of the oppressive consciousness drummed through apartheid schooling. The thesis of this study is about the significant impact the deconstruction of racial identities had on the lives of young activists who resisted racial and class oppression, during the period incorrectly described as The Fifteen Year Night After Sharpeville2 '. It contends that revolutionary zeal evoked spontaneous learning. Powerful learning occurred when it was linked to the struggle against oppression. Under such conditions groups and individuals took responsibility for their own learning and developed skills and strategies that has largely stayed with them for the rest of their lives. This study presents the oral stories of some activists from the Durban and Cape Town areas and explores the activities of these two groups, hundreds of miles away from one another who pursued activities that were largely similar. The focus is on the learning that emerged through the consciousness raising and the conscientisation processes that helped activists psychologically liberate themselves from racial indoctrination. It traces the 2 Jaffe, 1994: 182 development of their consciousness during their youth and examines how that consciousness impacted on their lives as well as their understanding of their social identities in the present. The Black Consciousness philosophy drew individuals away from the preconceived notions rooted in the oppressive ideology of apartheid and created a new identity that promoted 'black' pride and solidarity. Although the groups operated almost 1700 kilometres apart, this study found that those activists who were exposed to philosophies like Freire's 'Education for Liberation' converged towards a common goal for revolutionary social change. / Thesis (M.Ed.) - University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2007.

Previous research shows that women are more likely to vote Democrat than men. Using the 2000 Middletown Area Survey this paper tests the Feminist Consciousness Theory as a possible explanation for the gender gap in voting. Results indicate that women in the study voted more Democrat than men. Those who scored higher on the NonTraditional Gender Role Ideology scale, the Support for Gender Equality Scale and who said that they were a feminist were more likely to vote Democrat. Women were more likely to support gender equality and identify as being a feminist than were men. This means that because women are more likely to have a feminist conscious they are more likely to vote Democrat. / Department of Sociology

This study argues that the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan survived the years between the signing of the Baghdad Pact in 1955 and the outbreak of the June 1967 war due primarily to the cohesion of its National Security Establishment (NSE), a ruling coalition of security and foreign policy professionals from the monarchy, the political elite, and the military. By examining the national security policymaking process in Jordan between 1955 and 1967, this study shows that NSE members often disagreed over the means of protecting Jordanian national security, but agreed on the ultimate end of security policy: the preservation of the Hashemite monarchy and the protection of the territorial integrity of Jordan. This thesis examines in detail the foreign and domestic challenges to Jordanian national security during the kingdom's most turbulent period. The thesis makes extensive use of primary sources from the British, American, and Jordanian archives, Arabic and English language memoirs, and interviews with surviving Jordanian decisionmakers. In addition, the study builds on the work of previous scholars by making use of the published literature on Jordan. The first three chapters are organised thematically, while the remaining chapters are organised chronologically.

A large measure of the durability of the Huguenot movement was derived from then- general political assemblies. The assembly held at Montauban in 1579 was the first attended by a deputy north of the Loire; after the final and twenty-second general assembly at La Rochelle in 1622, only localised gatherings were held. This thesis argues that the assemblies were primarily a corps: their principal purpose was both to oversee the implementation of the edicts of pacification and to mobilize resources if peace broke down. Essentially based on the available manuscript sources, many of them unexplored, this thesis approaches the general assemblies as an institution. The first two chapters highlight the process of convocation of the general assemblies and the manner in which political representation (both within the assemblies and to the monarchy) took place. The third chapter principally explores the relationship between the general assemblies and the chambers created for Huguenots in the parlements from 1576. The assemblies supported these chambers as a means of obtaining implementation of the edicts of pacification. In the fourth chapter, the apparently conflicting attitudes of the general assemblies to property and civil rights are addressed. For instance, while the assemblies regulated the taking of lay and ecclesiastical property, revenue from these sources was often reinvested to support ministers, schools and charitable purposes. The fifth and sixth chapters examine the provisions for war made by the general assemblies and their attempts to ensure the adequate financing of Huguenot troops. The assemblies always stated that they acted in self-defence; a primary concern was the need to ensure the protection of local civilian populations. The monarchy allowed the assemblies to organise levies for the repayment of debts owed to mercenary troops and provided for the maintenance of Huguenot garrison troops from royal revenue. This thesis concludes that while the general assemblies worked as a corps, they never received letters of corporation from the monarchy; they remained ad hoc, susceptible to events and to the manipulation of public opinion through wellaimed pamphlet literature.

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Typescript. / Vita. / Bibliography: leaves 408-422. / xv, 422 leaves ill

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