Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 31-10, Section: A, page: 5485. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1970.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 31-11, Section: A, page: 6124. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1970.

This dissertation is an attempt to understand why and how "credentialism" has been institutionalized in Thailand. Credentialism is conceptualized as the whole set of belief systems which are in favor of formal education, educational expansion, and the credentialization process in the job market. Credentialism is manifested in society as a general perception which holds that one's educational credentials are the most important factor determining one's future social, political, and economic status. It manifests itself through a certain pattern of dynamic of educational institutions and the job market. / The rapid expansion of credentialism around the world, especially since the World War II, reflects the wide-ranging influence of the "traditional" (classical, neo-classical, functionalist) perspective on the nature of social change, the meaning of development and causes of underdevelopment, and assumptions that the role of education plays in these. With this traditional perspective, the (formal) educational institution is thus seen as a mechanism to ameliorate all the conditions categorized as "underdevelopment" in the Third World. Such a view has been theoretically supported by the human capital/functionalist interpretation of the role and effects of education. Credentialism, hence, can be seen as an ideology which emanates from the theories embedded in this human capital, and functionalist, position. / After decades of the "Age of Education," however, problems such as poverty (measured in terms of income distribution gap) and unemployment, still exist and appear in an even more subtle form. Some alternative views on education and its effects thus have been postulated, based on a different perspective of social change, alternate definition of development and causes of underdevelopment, and assumptions of the role of education. These alternative paradigms reflect a concern over the dominant paradigm's belief in credentialism. There have been some attempts recently to examine the extent and context of credentialism. There are still very few works which have tried to show why and how credentialism is developed and institutionalized in a society. This dissertation attempts to shed some light on the aspect of "how and why" by looking, historically, at the relationships between the dynamism of the credentialist system and the conditions that have shaped it in Thailand. . . . (Author's abstract exceeds stipulated maximum length. Discontinued here with permission of author.) UMI / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 43-12, Section: A, page: 4026. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1982.

This research examines the innovation and diffusion of thirteen environmental policies in the American states. It focuses on three explanations of state legislative policy adoptions: (1) interaction between adopting and nonadopting states; (2) federal policy making; and (3) in-state forces. Using a longitudinal model of policy diffusion an analysis of interaction effects and the impact of federal policy on state adoptions was conducted. The policies included in the research have diffused by a variety of processes. In general policies lacking a federal counterpart (state preserve) and policies having a 'negative' federal inducement were less likely to diffuse through interaction. Federal interest usually acts to accelerate state adoptions, with inducements specifying sanctions for noncompliance by states having the greatest impact. / To examine the role of in-state forces a cross-sectional probability model was constructed. Imposing the assumption that the adoption of environmental policies are influenced by a similar set of factors, various resource, demand, and political variables were utilized to assess their unique impacts across policies. The most significant factor was found to be the professionalism of a state's legislature. Other relationships tended to cluster around certain policies suggesting that the forces of adoption are issue specific. / Lastly, the analysis of in-state determinants was integrated with the examination of diffusion. Two major trends were detected: (1) federal interest policies are more likely to be associated with the importance of legislative professionalism and other in-state resource factors; while (2) state preserve policies are less likely to be related to professionalism or any other in-state factors. In sum, the limited range of policies in this research indicates that the complexity of state adoptions should not be taken lightly. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 43-07, Section: A, page: 2442. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1982.

This study is based on a research survey which was conducted among Iranian students in six universities of Florida and Texas. The questionnaire was sent to 676 students; 139 students responded. / The objectives of the study were to measure students' ideology as well as their attitudes and values, and to determine the behavior applications of these variables. A ten-point scale was adapted to measure student ideology from left to center to right. The data indicated that about one-third of the respondents fell into each of the three categories. Social class and intelligence appeared to explain ideology. More specifically, those from the upper social class, and less intelligent students were found to be more rightist, while those from the middle and lower middle classes, as well as the more intelligent students held a collective ideology. / The data show that leftists are more optimistic about the future, are less religious, have more modern values, and have more egalitarian personalities. On the other hand, rightists are more pessimistic about the future, have stronger religious beliefs, have more traditional values and have more authoritarian personalities. Students' public and private values in terms of the materialist/non-materialist dimensions were also measured. / Respondents' attitudes toward change, as well as their attitudes toward protest, repression and unconventional participation were determined. Path analysis techniques were used to determine the associations between different independent variables and ideology and participation. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 45-11, Section: A, page: 3440. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1984.

This study examines change in welfare using time series analysis in five major United States public assistance programs: Aid to Families with Dependent Children, Supplemental Security Income, State General Assistance, Medicaid and Food Stamps. Two types of change-producting interventions are considered. One type of intervention is a major legislative event in the history of the program. The other type of intervention is the "welfare rights movement" of the 1960s. The analysis identifies points of major change in total constant dollar payments, average constant dollar payments per recipient, and numbers of recipients. Findings are analyzed for each program and compared across programs. Cross-program comparisons take into account differences in intervention effects based on program age, clientele, administrative structure, and type of transfer (cash or inkind). / Findings suggest that in only limited cases have legislative changes in public assistance programs produced intended results. Legislation aimed at increasing welfare spending and number of recipients has been much more successful in accomplishing its goals than legislation aimed at curbing spending and recipient growth. For example legislation federalizing the adult public assistance programs in 1973 in order to raise payment levels and include new recipients was generally effective. However, legislative amendments to the Social Security Act in 1962 and 1967 intended to reduce the number of welfare families with dependent children were unsuccessful in limiting growth. Encouraging welfare growth through legislative change is far more effective than limiting growth. / The welfare rights movement was not a consistent predictor of dramatic increases in welfare spending and recipient levels. In the cash assistance programs, Aid to Families with Dependent Children and General Assistance, continual, steady increases in total constant dollar payments and numbers of recipients occurred, not explosive growth. Average constant dollar payments did not increase in either program. In the Supplemental Security Income program there was growth in the portion of the program for the disabled but not for the elderly or blind. Of all the welfare programs, most growth occurred in the inkind programs, Medicaid and Food Stamps. These inkind programs were the real welfare-expanding programs of 1960s. These findings suggest that the major effect of the welfare rights movement was not to increase cash benefit programs, but to stimulate new services for the poor. While the movement was unsuccessful in boosting cash benefits for recipients, legislators were spurred to do something about welfare, even if this meant reintroducing the more paternalistic inkind welfare programs of the early- and middle-twentieth century. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 41-07, Section: A, page: 3244. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1980.

The study of political participation in the United States and Western Europe has become sufficiently sophisticated to provide for the use of common or similar items on a multinational basis. Few attempts, however, have been made to extend Western participation items to the analysis of political participation in the quasi-democracies of the Third World. Quasi-democracies are defined as states in which democratic institutions appear to exist in form but do not provide the same substance they do in the West. / The general purpose of this dissertation is to examine the nature of political participation among one subpopulation, university students, in Morocco, a country which is an excellent example of a quasi-democracy. Specifically, the objectives are to examine: (1) how Moroccan university students relate to their political system, (2) the extent to which correlates of participation in Morocco are similar to correlates of participation in the West, and (3) the applicability of Western participation items to a quasi-democracy of the Third World. / The analysis is based on survey results obtained from a questionnaire that was administered in the winter and spring of 1979 to a sample of 402 students attending Mohammed V University in Rabat. The questionnaire consisted of 231 items designed to measure the dependent variable, political participation, and the following independent variables: (1) demographic and SES attributes, (2) university related variables, (3) traditional/modern core values, (4) political awareness, (5) political efficacy, and (6) organizational involvement. The political participation items factored into five separate modes of participation. Several hypotheses were formulated and tested regarding the impact of the above independent variables on both the preference for and the levels of participation in the five modes of participation. The results indicated the large majority of the respondents: (1) to be highly interested in, attentive and aware of the political situation in Morocco, (2) to have a very low opinion of the political system, and (3) to display attitudinal and behavioral preferences that are not congruent with the quasi-democratic institutions of the present regime. The analysis revealed the major determinants of political participation to be organizational involvement and political efficacy, and indicated that the students most likely to become politically active are those that are most opposed to the regime. In sum, it appears that the present regime has clearly lost touch with university students, an elite population representing the next generation of administrative, political and business leaders, raising certain doubts as to the future viability of the political system in its present form. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 41-09, Section: A, page: 4153. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1980.

This study examined the relationship between voting defection from the traditional Democratic norm among social groupings and noncongruence of their attitudes and social backgrounds with parties' candidates in presidential elections. The 1956 and 1976 SRC/CPS National Surveys provided the data base. The interviews were designed to explore the voters attitudes and behavior surrounding the 1956 and 1976 presidential elections. / Demographics or social background of Catholics, Blacks and native white Southerners were referred to as independent variables which included age, sex, SES, group identity and party identification. Also, attitudes on social, economic and governmental role issues were included among the independent variables. Presidential preference, which consisted of voting defection and nondefection, was implemented as the dependent variable. / Several hypotheses were generated to examine this noncongruence theory of voting defection. Hypothesis one examined the patterns of voting defection and socioeconomic status. Hypothesis two examined role identification and voting defection. The third hypothesis examined age and voting defection. Age consisted of three age cohorts (Post-Depression, Depression and Pre-Depression). Hypothesis four examined perceptions of compatibility with candidates (or party) on issues and presidential choice. Issues were classified into three typologies: social, economic, and governmental role. Hypothesis five examined group identity and voting defection. The final hypothesis examined the magnitude of voting defection and partisan loyalty among the social groupings. Catholics, native white Southerners, and Blacks were investigated in relation to the above hypotheses. / Both chi-square and Pearson product-moment correlation were used to examine the directionality and the strength of the independent variables to the dependent variable. To examine the magnitude of voting defection among the social groupings, the Student's t was employed. Finally, multivariable discriminant analysis was used to determine the relative importance of the independent variables in relation to the dependent variable. / In general, most of the hypotheses were supported for the 1976 election. However, only the hypothesized relation about issue voting was strongly supported for the 1956 election. Some of these independent variables were stronger predictors than others. They also varied in importance depending upon the social groupings. Using the Pearson product-moment correlation to examine the relative importance of the independent variables among Catholics, native white Southerners and Blacks, economic issues appeared to be the most important independent variable in both elections. Issues ranked in importance depending on the immediate impact those issues had on voters' lives. Voters were more likely to respond to the candidate's position on issues rather than political parties' position on those same issues. While appearing to be the most important variable when testing the hypotheses, issues had a secondary role to party identification for the 1976 election in the canonical correlation analysis. Also, SES and age had the most important explanatory value among Blacks in the 1976 election. Group identity had a secondary position to economic issues among Blacks in 1956. In 1956 strong group identity lead to partisan stability, but in 1976 strong group identity related to partisan defection among Blacks and Catholics. Both issues and demographic variables are important explanatory factors of voting defection depending upon the social group. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 41-09, Section: A, page: 4155. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1980.

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the radicalization of leftist youth in Iran. The study took place from September 1979 and continued through January 20, 1980. A survey of 400 Iranian youth was conducted in the Iranian province of Khuzastan. The sample was stratified to include an equal proportion of rural and urban youth, as well as equal proportions of males, students and non-students. The urban sample was drawn from Abadan, the major city of the Khuzastan region. The rural sample was drawn from Eizeh. / Students used in the study were in the twelfth grade in high school. Their ages were 17 and over. Data collection was accomplished using face to face interviews which contained information on 170 variables. The data collected suggested that, based upon one operationalization of leftist tendencies, approximately 21 percent of the sample could be classified as hard core leftists. Among the respondents manifesting leftist tendencies, 85.7 percent were from the Abadan area. This indicated that the base of Iranian leftism continues to be in the urban areas. / The hypothesis that leftism would be stronger among students than among non-students was overwhelmingly sustained with 82 percent of the leftists surveyed being students. The picture was even more stark in the rural areas, with all but a few of the rural leftists being drawn from the ranks of the students. / The hypothesis that leftists would be more prominent among males than females was confirmed only among the rural portion of the sample. Among the total sample of leftists youth, 52.4 percent were males and 47.6 percent were females, indicating a relative balance between the two groups. / The study found that 60 percent of the leftist respondents were drawn from middle class backgrounds. The trend was particularly prominent in the urban areas with a full 70 percent of the leftist students being drawn from the middle income groups. / This study rejected the hypothesis that leftist youth would be drawn more heavily from minority backgrounds than from Farsi backgrounds. / Three agents of political socialization--family, mass media, and peer pressure--were examined in this study. We found that peer pressure was the most important agent in transferring leftist values to youth. Two additional hypotheses were formulated: (1) there is a link between political position of leftist organizations and groups and the attitudes of leftist students, and (2) leftist students are more inclined to become politically involved than other students. These hypotheses were accepted by this study. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 42-06, Section: A, page: 2833. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1981.

The intention of this study is to search for answers to three basic questions: whether regional inequality charges are supported by material evidence; what factors account for variations among regional shares; and what ought to be done about regional inequality. Inequality charges are made by regional political analysts who investigated regional political discontent in the Sudan. The author uses the 1971-1980 budgetary data, looking at both grants to regions and regional shares of development projects (measured by total costs) to test the first hypothesis. Hard data makes it absolutely clear that regional shares are markedly different in per capita terms. Empirical evidence also supports the position of some analysts who have perceived Sudanese regions as divided into two categories, the "haves" and the "have nots", with resources being distributed in favor of the "haves" (Section (A) Chapter IV). / Having established the fact that regional inequalities do exist among the Sudanese regions and that certain regions are justified in their complaint about their fair share of national resources, the next step is to explore factors that account for variations in regional shares. Expectedly, several factors appear to be influential in determining resource allocations. However, incrementalism appears to be the key factor in grant allocations while being a region of the modern agricultural sector is the most important factor in project locations (Section (B) Chapter IV). / In Chapter V it is argued that the present pattern of resource allocations be discontinued for several reasons. Above all, evidence is shown that the pattern serves neither the objectives of rapid economic development nor those of distributive justice. Two things are called for by the author: the heaviest investment in the regions of the traditional agricultural sector and the distribution of annual grants according to a criterion that is acceptable to the recipients. The view is expressed that maintaining distributive justice will help eradicate regional discontent and promote national cohesion. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 42-10, Section: A, page: 4571. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1981.