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The Vietnamese Communist Party (VCP) first launched Doi Moi [Renovation] in 1986—10 years after the VCP officially assumed power in 1976 of the Socialist Republics of Vietnam. As the VCP describes, Doi Moi is a comprehensive economic reform package with new initiatives toward building “a mixed economy” that introduces “market mechanism with state management and a socialist orientation” to Vietnam’s economy. With Doi Moi, pragmatism has evidently taken center stage in place of dogmatic concerns for ideological correctness. The thesis seeks to first examine the conditions and factors that gave impetus for the economic reforms in Vietnam. These conditions and factors are especially evident when they are examined in a comparative context with the Soviet Union and China’s experiences with similar reforms as they are done here in the thesis. Moreover, the change of orientation from a centrally planned economy to market-oriented economy is reflected in Doi Moi’s decentralization and economic liberalization reforms as well as the VCP’s opening up to international reintegration and reconciliation with namely the United States. From this examination, it is apparent that at the crux of the VCP’s decision to pursue reforms and the Vietnamese people's support for reforms are fundamental considerations of self and political interests—the VCP's to stay in power and the people's to subsist and prosper. Whether reforms are socialist or capitalist—in form or in practice—are thus of lesser importance to the VCP and Vietnamese people than whether reforms work or do not work. / text

This thesis rejects the position, dominant in political philosophy since Plato that the authority of states may be explained by means of a moral theory of legitimacy. It denies that it is possible even in principle to determine a principle that can endow a state with the moral entitlement to rule and create for its citizens a moral obligation of obedience which thereby authorises it to coerce them. The thesis argues that a Lockean understanding of the state leads more naturally to the position that the state is properly understood as a necessary evil granted qualified justification to coerce in order to protect people from each other. It locates this ambiguity in the moral psychology of the individuals from which a Lockean state must derive its powers and through whom it acts. It further claims that, Government officials being no different in character than the individuals over whom they rule, further coercion may be justified to raise funds by taxation to set up political institutions such as a separation of powers, and to ensure that citizens may equip themselves with the skills needed to avoid being financially dependent on the state. This justification is nonetheless provisional, and the responsibility to weigh the necessity of public coercion against the evil that it involves falls upon individual voters as much as parliamentarians and prime ministers.

This thesis applies interdisciplinary approaches to explore interactions between two forms of community governance in Acholiland from 1898 to 2010, locating itself within Peace Studies. One form, kaka, was “traditional”, featuring varied forms of “facultative mutualisms” among two or more gangi agnates – with one gang as dominant in the realm. Gangi were kinship-based polities. Like kaka, gangi manifested autopoietic attributes and strong internal “fiduciary cultures”. Then in the 1900s, kaka as governing systems were reshuffled under colonialism and a tribal unit, the Acholi Local Government was created and was subordinated to the Uganda state. Unlike kaka, Acholi Local Government was hierarchal and has consistently been redesigned by various postcolonial governments in their attempts to renegotiate, reshape and control the Acholi people. The study advances a concept of community governance as “socialpolitical” and moral, and counters that kaka was about brotherhoods - not rulersubject relationships. It further distinguishes what was “traditional” from “customary” systems, and demonstrates how colonialism in Acholiland, and a crisis of legitimacy manifested in a trifurcation of authorities, with: i) the despotic civil service - the “customary system”, fusing modernity and the African tradition, ii) a reshuffled kaka system as traditional, and, iii) the cross-modern, manifested as kinematic lugwok paco, linking ethno-governance with the nascent national and global arenas. The study concludes that both colonialism and “coloniality” have reshuffled the mores of kaka along an African neo-patrimonial legitimacy. Conversely, Acholiland is a “limited statehood” – manifesting a higher order of societal entropy - where the “rule by law and customs” dovetail with violence and poverty, demonstrating a genre of exceptionalism.

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In recent years, political legitimacy as a concept distinct from full justice has received much attention. Yet in addition to querying the specific conditions legitimacy requires, there is a more general question: What is legitimacy even about? How ought we identify and conceptualize these conditions? According to the regnant justificatory liberal (JL) approach, legitimate legal coercion is based on reasons all reasonable persons can accept and JL is explicated in terms of a hypothetical procedure. Alas, Part I explains why JL is inadequate. First, I argue that it de-legitimizes all coercion. Second, it undercuts the proposition that there are certain basic rights which must be protected for legitimacy. Third, I suggest that JL structurally involves paternalism. Where should theorists turn? My perhaps surprising proposal is that they turn to the Christian Reformed (CR) tradition of social thought. As I take it, this tradition is composed of such figures as Augustine and Calvin, Abraham Kuyper and Herman Dooyeweerd, and, more recently, Francis Schaeffer. It has long theorized such issues as church-state separation and permissible coercion, and is replete with conceptual resources. Thus, Part II reconstructs an alternative legitimacy framework out of these resources. The central CR insight is this: legitimacy is a function of preventing basic wrongs. Legal coercion is only necessary "by reason of sin". I develop this insight in terms of three ideas. First, those wrongs which must prevented as conditions of legitimacy are objective wrongs, obtaining universally regardless of consent. Second, they presuppose some view of basic teleology. A teleological view is needed to elaborate contentful basic rights non-arbitrarily, but only a basic teleological view insofar as legitimacy is distinct from full justice. Third, I suggest these wrongs are fruitfully understood as constituting an exogenous standard, one that is neither the product of actual nor hypothetical self-legislation. Part III brings JL and CR legitimacy into dialogue. Understanding legitimacy in terms of objective, teleological, and exogenous wrongs, respectively, helps us avoid each of the unacceptable consequences of JL covered in Part I. Legitimacy is better conceptualized in CR terms; preventing such wrongs is what legitimacy is about. / Thesis (Ph.D, Philosophy) -- Queen's University, 2013-11-13 04:18:01.642

This thesis applies interdisciplinary approaches to explore interactions between two forms of community governance in Acholiland from 1898 to 2010, locating itself within Peace Studies. One form, kaka, was “traditional”, featuring varied forms of “facultative mutualisms” among two or more gangi agnates – with one gang as dominant in the realm. Gangi were kinship-based polities. Like kaka, gangi manifested autopoietic attributes and strong internal “fiduciary cultures”. Then in the 1900s, kaka as governing systems were reshuffled under colonialism and a tribal unit, the Acholi Local Government was created and was subordinated to the Uganda state. Unlike kaka, Acholi Local Government was hierarchal and has consistently been redesigned by various postcolonial governments in their attempts to renegotiate, reshape and control the Acholi people. The study advances a concept of community governance as “socialpolitical” and moral, and counters that kaka was about brotherhoods - not rulersubject relationships. It further distinguishes what was “traditional” from “customary” systems, and demonstrates how colonialism in Acholiland, and a crisis of legitimacy manifested in a trifurcation of authorities, with: i) the despotic civil service - the “customary system”, fusing modernity and the African tradition, ii) a reshuffled kaka system as traditional, and, iii) the cross-modern, manifested as kinematic lugwok paco, linking ethno-governance with the nascent national and global arenas. The study concludes that both colonialism and “coloniality” have reshuffled the mores of kaka along an African neo-patrimonial legitimacy. Conversely, Acholiland is a “limited statehood” – manifesting a higher order of societal entropy - where the “rule by law and customs” dovetail with violence and poverty, demonstrating a genre of exceptionalism.

A tentative historicalpolicy analysis is developed to generate knowledge about local government policies and political legitimacy, as well as to contribute to policy analysis methodology. Social indicators, institutions and actors are used to gain knowledge about the phenomena. What local governments do to deal with and try to solve local problems is assumed to contribute to political legitimacy. The basic question that structures the thesis is to investigate whether, and to what extent, problem-orientated and "problem-effective" local government policy can contribute to political legitimacy. Time-series analysis shows that social malaise problems (poverty and unemployment) have fluctuated over the last 120 years, increasing in some periods and/or communities and decreasing in others. In contrast, problems concerning health and the environment decreased over the same period. Social policies appear to be closely related to local problems during the first hundred years (i.e. from 1874-1970), which indicates that local government policy is problem-orientated. After 1970 the connection between problems and social policy starts to loosen up. During the 1980s local infrastructure and industrial policy begin, for the first time, to follow social malaise problems in the municipalities. Earlier, infrastructure policy grew when problems were small or decreasing. The analysis indicates that municipalities were generally more successful in coping with local problems a hundred years ago. Health policies appear to have contributed towards solving local health problems up until 1970. Social malaise policies, on the other hand, have not directly contributed to solving local problems. Indirecdy, however, the latter type of policies contributed to economic development and promoted the development of local industry during the first hundred years. After 1970, only certain aspects of social malaise policies show positive effects on local problems. Instead, these policies generally seem to have exacerbated local problems. Attempts to resolve social problems, together with social service delivery, turn out to become part of the problem. The interpretation that legitimacy can be reached through problem-orientated and problem-effective policies has some empirical support in the period prior to 1900 and today. However, under predemocratic regimes, as well as during periods when democracy was highly centralized, the support for, and trust in, legality seems to be the dominate source of political legitimacy. / digitalisering@umu

This dissertation analyzes the presidencies of Askar Akaev (1991-2005) and Kurmanbek Bakiev (2005-2010) in Kyrgyzstan by looking at the referendums as well as the parliamentary and presidential elections held in this country in the post-Soviet era, with specific emphasis on the legitimacy of these two leaders as perceived by the Kyrgyz people. Based on the field research conducted in Kyrgyzstan, the study aims to shed some light on how the Kyrgyz people perceive issues of democracy, democratic transition, political leadership and political legitimacy in the post-Soviet era. The dissertation further focuses on how and why even the minimal requirements of democracy such as elections and referendums have been used in this country in order to increase executive power, despite the rhetoric of democratization promoted by the political leaders.

This dissertation analyzes changes in the ruling strategies of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in the context of economic reforms, beginning in 1978. By employing both quantitative and qualitative methods, this dissertation investigates how Chinese leaders have utilized legitimating strategies, while modifying their governing strategies, in order to a) solidify the population, b) consolidate ruling authority and c) maintain political and social stability. Specifically, this dissertation looks at how Chinese policymakers have developed effective public policies in response to rapidly rising wage inequality, one of the most pressing problems undermining the CCP’s ruling authority. By providing an original estimate of China’s wage inequality and analyzing the government’s response to it, this dissertation provides a unique look at how the CCP has transformed government functions from growth-based to people-centered to meet various social, political and economic challenges. A comparative statistical analysis helps illustrate the philosophical roots and sources of the CCP’s political legitimacy. The technique of Theil Statistics is applied to measure China’s wage inequality during the reform period. A multivariate hierarchical regression analysis is employed to measure the impact of rising inequality on Chinese society. Two models on social welfare system reform are studied in order to understand Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao’s people-centered governing philosophy and the rationale for constructing a service-oriented government. / text