Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2004. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 153-155).

Master's thesis. / Format: PDF. Bibl.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2003. / Title from first page of PDF file. Document formatted into pages; contains xv, 219 p. : ill. Includes abstract and vita. Advisor: Herbert F. Weisberg, Dept. of Political Science. Includes bibliographical references (p. 214-219).

This thesis analyzes the development of Chinese local people’s congresses (LPCs) in the reform era (1979 onwards). It explores the dynamics behind this development and the role LPCs play in legal-political reform in China. Changes to LPCs are examined in the following areas: national laws and local regulations concerning the LPC system, organization and operation of the LPCs and their standing committees, elections for deputies at both direct and indirect level, and the activities of deputies, including deputy-voter interactions. Based on empirical findings, this thesis argues that LPC reform involves top-down legal reform of the congressional system, social stratification, the emergence of new social classes, a new awareness of rights, and greater public participation. It concludes that through congress elections, Chinese people are increasingly educated and trained to exert their political rights; meanwhile, through congress operations the Party state is becoming more institutionalized, legalized, and pluralistic. That is the contribution made by LPCs to the rule of law and democracy in China. / published_or_final_version / Law / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

In order to fully explicate the role of news media in individuals’ political participation, this dissertation aims at establishing an integrative structural model that specifies relationships among news media use, its antecedents and mediators of its influence on political participation. The proposed model is comprised of key factors of political participation that previous research has identified. The relational structure is based on models and theories relevant to prediction of political behaviors. Specifically, the model integrates (a) communication mediation model, which posits that communication behaviors (i.e., news media use and interpersonal discussion) mediate the effects of socio-demographic variables (i.e., income, education, age, gender, and race) and political dispositions (i.e., political interest, partisanship and ideology) on political outcomes; (b) agenda-setting theory, which posits that frequent exposure to news media increases the salience of news objects in audiences’ minds; (c) cognitive mediation model, which posits that elaborative and collective thinking is a prerequisite to produce political outcomes of news exposure; (d) theory of planned behavior, which posits that human behavior can be best predicted by three proximal variables (i.e., attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control); (e) O-S-R-O-R (orientations-stimulus-reasoning-orientations-response) model of communication effects, which provides a parsimonious framework of effect process. Using the structural equation modeling (SEM) method, this dissertation analyzes the 2008 American National Election Studies data set to test the validity of the proposed structural model. Results indicate that frequent exposure to news media stimulates attentive news use as well as intra- and interpersonal reasoning, which produce a wide range of political outcomes. Two reasoning behaviors (i.e., self-reflection and interpersonal political discussion) are critical mechanisms that linked news media use to various political outcomes including political participation. Personal-psychological mediators, such as strength in affects, personal traits, opinions about political issues, campaign interest, political knowledge, attitude strength, perceived ability of political parties and political efficacy all significantly mediate the influence of news media use on political participation. News media use mediates significant portion of effects that a set of preexisting variables have on political participation as well as various types of political orientations. / text

published_or_final_version / Public Administration / Master / Master of Public Administration

Sport in Canada is struggling to demonstrate that it is accountable, value-based, and socially responsible. Simultaneously, there is a growing consciousness among elite athletes to use the power and appeal of sport to affect meaningful social change. Through in-depth interviews, I sought to understand which values and experiences motivated 15 elite Canadian athletes to become involved in social and political activities. I employed a grounded theory approach to analyze interview data and to develop the Athlete Social Responsibility (ASR) framework. My results show that ASR is grounded in identity and existential development. The research participants indicated that, early in their careers, sport provided discipline, direction, and purpose, but through the maturation process, they indicated that becoming socially and politically active was instrumental to their personal development, performance, and continued participation in elite sport. They voiced frustration that the current sport system does little to encourage such engagement and offered a number of innovative ways in which the current system could adopt an ASR perspective. These ideas included: developing a resource to help athletes find their cause and link with related organizations, companies, or charities; helping athletes find ways to connect to their local communities; and restructuring the Canadian Athlete Assistance Program to include both performance and ASR criteria.

This thesis examines whether the introduction of citizenship education in New Zealand would increase the levels of active citizenship of young migrant New Zealanders, using voter turnout as a measure. This research draws attention to an overlooked part of New Zealand political science research by studying young migrant New Zealanders. The theories and topics covered in this research include the notion of citizenship, education, political participation, social capital and multiculturalism. Both surveys and interviews are used to gauge young New Zealanders’ political attitudes and opinions, and their levels of political knowledge, interest, sophistication and socialisation are examined. The findings of this research suggest that citizenship education would not only be beneficial to young migrant New Zealanders but that citizenship education would benefit all young New Zealanders. It is argued that an increase in all young New Zealanders’ levels of political knowledge and interest are likely to have a positive effect on voter turnout levels. It is also argued that the current education curriculum does not explicitly encourage such learning. Using these findings in conjunction with theory, it is recommended that citizenship education is implemented into the New Zealand secondary school curriculum to ensure that New Zealand’s democracy is in good health for the current and future generations.

While self-­determination is often considered to mean political and sometimes territorial independence, for indigenous peoples that have been colonised self-­determination often manifests in a different way. For Māori, the concept of tino rangatiratanga encapsulates many of the issues associated with the desire for political equality and self-­determination. It includes the right for Māori to decide how they want to be governed, including having the ability to make decisions about their own futures, and it is contingent upon having a sense of political agency. To date there is little research that explores Māori political agency. The aim of this thesis is to address this research gap by examining what Māori aspire to as political agents, what some of the barriers to those aspirations might be, and whether Māori believe that they can make a difference in the political realm if they choose to do so. The thesis draws together several strands of literature, from empirical to theoretical, and examines Māori political agency in the context of self-­determination. Primary data is also gathered and analysed using Q-­methodology to better understand these questions. A further goal of this thesis is to analyse the effectiveness of traditional efficacy measures for studying political agency in indigenous groups. The results support the self-­determination literature that argues that Māori want to have the ability to make decisions about their own futures. It also finds, as is to be expected of a diverse peoples, that there is no single view or aspiration in regard to political agency, and that attitudes to politics are as diverse as the participants themselves. Accessibility to political networks was identified as being important, but such networks were also identified as a potential barrier to agency. Thus, the findings suggest that there must be a degree of individual effort in order to achieve a sense of agency. The research also found several limitations with traditional efficacy measures for studying agency within indigenous groups. This is primarily due to the focus of such methods on institutional forms of political participation such as voting, which is assumed to have similar outcomes for everyone – for minorities this is not the case. Moreover, the data reveals that it is difficult to draw a linear relationship between efficacy, and participation, and that there may be other reasons individuals choose to participate in politics or not.

Tyrimo aktualumas ir problema Pastaraisiais dešimtmečiais Europoje ir Lietuvoje nemažai akcentuojamas pilietinis ir politinis dalyvavimas kaip viena iš svarbiausių pilietinės visuomenės ir demokratiškos valstybės garantų. Lietuva yra demokratinė valstybė ir viena iš pagrindinių stiprios, vieningos ir gerai funkcionuojančios valstybės sąlygų – piliečių pasitikėjimas valdžia bei dalyvavimas politikoje. Kaip teigia L. Diamond, aktyvi pilietinė visuomenė yra tarpinis reiškinys tarp privataus gyvenimo ir valstybės (Diamond, 1997). Ji neapima privačios, į save nukreiptos veiklos, o skatina pasitikėjimą, bendradarbiavimą su kitais visuomenės nariais. Tuo tarpu, R. J. Dalton teigia, kad, šiuo metu didžiausia šiuolaikinių demokratijų problema yra ta, kad piliečiai vis labiau nepasitiki politikais, abejoja demokratinių institucijų ir demokratinio proceso veiksmingumu (Dalton, 2004). Dažnai žmogaus laisvėms ir pačiai demokratijai kyla pavojus, kai didžioji dauguma visuomenės nereiškia jokio susidomėjimo valdžios institucijų veikla, o tiesioginis gyventojų dalyvavimas viešųjų reikalų tvarkyme dažniausiai suvokiamas tik kaip piliečių dalyvavimas rinkimuose. Palyginus, ne daug piliečių aktyviai dalyvauja politiniame gyvenime, dauguma yra linkę leisti priimti sprendimus atsakingiems valstybės tarnautojams. Demokratinėje valstybėje svarbu, kad kiekvienas pilietis suvoktų, kad jo dalyvavimas politikoje yra būtinas. Juk piliečių dalyvavimas sprendimų priėmimo procese liudija apie visuomenės... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Civil and political participation is emphasized as one of the most important civil society and democratic state guarantors. In democratic state, it is important that every citizen would be aware that his involvement in politics is necessary, therefore, one of the priorities should be the promotion of youth's participation in politics, because young people are society's and state's future. Generation change, value preservation, learning to make decisions and take full responsibility for them are required. For all that to happen, it is crucial for young people to more actively participate in politics. It is necessary to develop youth's public spirit and political activity, try to teach them to make decisions and solve problems, because future politics depend on young people. Unfortunately, there is noticeable passivity in youth's participation in politics, complete lack of political values and attitudes. Thus, this master's thesis' goal is to analyze the political participation as one of the socialization means and determine the factors promoting and obstructing youth's participation. Youth's political participation attitudes' and motivation's to participate (in the context of socialization) analysis parts are: 1. Political participation's theoretical assumptions: concept, main forms of participation, levels; 2. Legal regulation of youth's participation; 3. Lithuanian youth's politics and factors influencing political activity; 4. The empirical results which reveal youth's... [to full text]