Hong Kong, the Special Administrative Region under “one country, two systems”, is also one region that have been under two different rulers, which returned to China 1997 after 150 years of British colonial rule. The purpose of this study is to examine if the democracy in Hong Kong differs between British and Chinese rule. The empirical material about Hong Kong will be analysed through civil society, political society and through the rule of law under British and Chinese governance. With 23 years each, from the period 1974-2020, and with a theoretical framework of criteria needed to fulfill a democracy, this study will reach a conclusion. Although the British and the Chinese had different ways of governing Hong Kong, they both received the same level of democracy. / Statsvetenskapliga institutionen, Umeå Universitet

Turkey is one of the most powerful and influential nations in the Middle East with many important alliances, but what is the status of the democracy in the country? This thesis aims to explain the challenges towards a consolidation process in Turkey. A case study is used as a methodology and the research question is analysed with the help of the theoretical framework from Juan Linz and Alfred Stepans with their five consolidation arenas. The analysis examines the civil society, political society, economic society, rule of law and state bureacracy in Turkey. These five arenas indicates to which extent the consolidation difficulties exists. The results shows that many internal factors, with civil liberties in danger, has complicated the democratic consolidation. The country’s history with several military coups and ongoing battles with the kurdish guerilla PKK has also kept back the democracy.

No description available.

Notre thèse traite du thème : « Fondements philosophiques du projet d’un État mondial chez Éric Weil. » Il faut relever que l’idée d’un État mondial a effleuré l’esprit de beaucoup de penseurs avant et après Weil lui-même. Sans revenir en détails sur les idées cosmopolitiques qui ont été développées depuis les stoïciens jusqu’aux auteurs contemporains, on peut retenir que l’idée d’un État mondial a toujours visé un seul et unique but : instaurer une paix perpétuelle dans le monde. Ce qui fait la particularité et l’originalité de l’approche weilienne de cette question, c’est qu’elle centre la problématique de l’État mondial sur la question fondamentale de sa philosophie : le problème de la violence. Si le problème de la violence du langage a été thématisé et traité de façon systématique dans la Logique de la philosophie ; si le problème de la violence en l’homme a pu trouver sa solution dans la Philosophie morale; si la violence de la nature a pu trouver sa solution dans l’organisation rationnelle du travail social ; si la violence entre les individus à l’intérieur des États particuliers a pu trouver sa solution dans le cadre des États-nations, il restait à Weil de résoudre le problème non moins fondamental de la violence entre les États. C’est dans ce but qu’il a envisagé dans la troisième et dernière partie de la Philosophie politique la création d’un État mondial dont le but est « la satisfaction des individus raisonnables à l’intérieur d’États particuliers libres ». En confrontant la conception weilienne de l’État mondial avec celles de Maritain et de Kojève notamment, nous sommes arrivés à la conclusion que Weil a utilisé l’appellation « État mondial » pour désigner, une administration mondiale de la société mondiale du travail social. En somme, la conception weilienne de l’État mondial est pertinente et pleinement justifiée sur le plan philosophique, sur le plan de sa philosophie. Elle est philosophiquement justifiée parce qu’elle trouve ses fondements dans la Logique de la philosophie de Weil. Elle est pleinement justifiée, parce qu’elle permet de surmonter les obstacles comme le nationalisme, l’impérialisme, le conflit des cultures par l’idée de la promotion d’un État mondial pluraliste qui préserve la diversité des formes de vie. Elle est pleinement justifiée, parce qu’elle permet de surmonter l’obstacle du droit des nations à disposer d’elles-mêmes par la garantie de la souveraineté bien comprise des États particuliers dans le cadre de l’État mondial. Elle est pleinement justifiée, parce qu’elle vise à réaliser un monde sensé, à réaliser un monde de raison où vivrons des hommes libres, égaux et raisonnables. En un mot, la création de l’État mondial, telle que l’a envisagée Weil à la fin de la Philosophie politique, permet à l’humanité de se réconcilier avec elle-même. / Abstract Our thesis deals with the theme: “Philosophical foundations for a world state project by Éric Weil”. It should be mentioned that the idea of a world state has been explored by many thinkers before and after Weil. Without going into details about the cosmopolitan ideas that have been developed since the Stoicians to contemporary authors, it is to be noted that the idea of a world state has always aimed at single and unique objective: establishing everlasting world peace. The specificity and originality of Weil’s approach resides in his questioning the philosophy underlying the world state concept, that is, the issue of violence. If the problem of the violence of language has been thematized and systematically treated in the Logic of Philosophy. Even though man-inherent violence issue is solved by Moral philosophy, and nature-inherent violence is solved to rational organization of social labour, and violence among individuals dealt with within the framework of nation-states, the fundamental issue of inter-state violence remains unsolved. In the third and last part of his book, Political Philosophy, he suggests the creation of a world state whose aim is “the satisfaction of reasonable individuals within specific free states”Comparing the Weilian conception of the world state with that of Maritain and Kojeve leads to the conclusion that Weil used the term "world state" to designate a global administration of the world society’s social work. In short, the Weilian conception of the world state is philosophically relevant and fully justified. It is philosophically justified because it finds its foundations in the Logic of the philosophy of Weil. It is fully justified because it overcomes such obstacles as nationalism, imperialism, the conflict of cultures by the idea of promoting a pluralistic world state that preserves the diversity of life forms. It is fully justified because it overcomes the obstacle of the right of nations to self-determination by guaranteeing the sovereignty, well understood by sovereign States within the framework of the world state. It is fully justified, because it aims to realize a sensible world, a world of reason in which free, equal and reasonable men will live together. In short, the creation of the world state, as envisioned by Weil at the end of Political Philosophy, would enable mankind to reconcile with itself.

長期以來，因為「九七回歸」、「一國兩制」等因素，台灣對香港的政治研究，多半將關注的焦點放在上層的政治制度，如行政長官（特首）、立法會的選舉和職能，亦或是政治民主化的討論。本文認為，一個地方的基層政治，如何的發展？具有什麼樣的成長過程？才是影響其政治文化產出的基礎。因此，本文以Lefebvre、Soja的空間理論、後殖民學者Chatterjee的政治社會理論，做為進入香港基層政治田野中的認識論基礎；透過歷史和社會學新制度主義的途徑，以區議會和區議員做為研究標的，來瞭解現今香港基層政治的面貌與對於香港政治文化發展的意義。 / 研究結果發現，香港雖然經歷了1997年的「解殖」，但因為來自《基本法》和「主權」的制約因素，所以基層政治制度發展仍然無法脫離過去殖民時期的脈絡。區議會擁有在最多數直選代表的組織，仍是被「吸納」、「鎖進」特區政府的地方行政管治主導架構當中，讓區議會只能發揮它代表基層民意接受來自特區政府的「諮詢」，而無法在制度上發揮充份制衡或影響行政權的能力。這符合了「政治社會」對於後殖民時期下的政治制度與底層人民參與之間距離的解釋。此外也發現，1997年之後來自於中國的新移民，在漸漸取得香港選舉的投票資格之後，也將開始影響未來香港的選舉和政治發展。 / 雖然香港的民主派持續地將民主制度、普選制度，放在香港政治發展過程中，作為一個很重要的追求目標。但是從回顧過去歷史的發展，到現在香港基層代議政治運作，以及未來發展的模式來看；代議民主、地方自治的那種「自主性」，並不是香港基層政治制度演變的重心。而基層民意代表組織對於民眾的意義，也集中在於提供類似「社會服務」的功能。即便所謂擴大區議會職能的改革計劃，也是包括在「地方行政」的思維中來推行，區議會仍然是輔助「行政權」的「委託」組織，而不是有能力和行政權並行的「自治組織」。如此，這就是本文所言，在民眾、區議會和區議員對於地方代議組織，角色認知的「異化」。毫無疑問地，這樣的「異化」，對於如民主派想建構的「民主政治制度」是有不小的落差。甚至最後就有可能將解殖後的香港政制，不斷地鎖回到殖民時期的風貌上。而這究竟是集體政治文化的選擇？亦或是主權者有意識的操作？不可否認的，本文認為，這兩種特性都存在於現在香港的基層政治文化當中。區議員的價值和地位，因為角色認知的「異化」，有可能不會更加弱化，但暫時似乎也找不到往地方自治方向再提升的動力了。脫離了殖民統治之後，香港市民應該有更多的正當性可以藉由選舉投票、公民集體運動來展現他們的聲音；香港未來的政治文化會往哪個方向走，現在的基層政治將會是塑造的起點。 / For a long terms, due to factors such as ”Handover in 1997”, ”One Country Two Systems”, Taiwan’s political research on Hong Kong is usually focused on the political system on the upper layer, for example, the administrative officer (Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region), the election and function of Legislative Council, or the discussion on political democracy. In this article, it was thought that how the Local Politics is developed, what kind of growth process it has is the basis to affect the political and cultural output. Therefore, in this article, the Space Theory of Lefebvre, Soja, the Political Society theory of Post-colonialism Chatterjee is used as the basis to enter the rural epistemology of the Local Politics of Hong Kong; through the path of historical and social new system principle, District Council and District Councilor are used as research targets to understand the meaning of the current Hong’s face of Local Politics on the political and cultural development of Hong Kong. / It is found from the research result that although Hong Kong has passed through the ”de-colonialism” in 1997, yet because of the limiting factors from “Basic Law” and ” sovereignty”, its development in Local Politics system still can not escape from the past path of colonial period. District Council is an organization that owns the largest number of directly elected representatives, yet it is still ”absorbed”, ”locked into” the main structure the local administrative government of the Special Region Government; therefore, District Council can only exploit its function to represent the people’s opinions to accept the ”consultation” from the Special Region Government, and its capability to fully balance or affect the administrative power in the system can not be exploited. This meets the explanation of the distance between the political system and the participation of the people in the bottom layer in the post-colonialism period from ”Political Society”. In addition, it is also found that the new immigrants from Mainland China after 1997, after the gradual acquisition of the election right in the local election of Hong Kong, they start to affect the future election and political development in Hong Kong. / Although the democratic party of Hong Kong continues to put democratic system and general election system into the political development process of Hong Kong to be used as a very important pursuit target, yet if we take a look from a review of the past historical development to the to the basic representative politic operation in modern Hong Kong, as well as future development model, Representative Democracy and “autonomy” of local self-government is not the evolution center of Local Politics system in Hong Kong. Meanwhile, the meaning of the basic representative organization of the public’s opinion is centered around the supply of the function similar to ”social service”. Even the improvement project for the expansion of the function of District Council is also included in the thinking of ”local administration” for the implementation; District Council is still a “consigned” organization to assist ”the administrative right” but not a ”Self-government organization” that has both power and administrative right. Therefore, this is what is mentioned in this article, this is ”alienation” among the public, District Council and District Councilor on the recognition of the local representative organization and role. No doubt, such ”alienation” has a pretty much gap to the ”Democratic political system” that the democratic party is going to build. It is even possible that the political system of Hong Kong after de-colonial period is continuously locked into the look in the colonial period. But is this the choice of group political culture or the conscious operation of the top level people who owns the power? Undeniably, it is thought in this article that both these characteristics all exist in the current Local Politics culture of current Hong Kong. The value and position of District Councilor, due to the ”alienation” of role recognition, might not be further weakened, but it is temporarily difficult to find power for the enhancement toward the direction of local self-government. After the escape from colonial governing, residents of Hong Kong should have more justification to send out their voices through voting in an election and the civic group movement; where the future politic and culture of Hong Kong is going to head toward, the current Local Politics is going to be a starting point for its final shape.

Partout où l'homme est libre, il se croit dans les fers. Tel est le paradoxe démocratique qui ouvre à l'individu moderne un espace important de liberté, tout en lui conférant en parallèle le sentiment d'en être privé. A la séparation traditionnelle des pouvoirs, se superpose désormais celle des acteurs, organisés en société politique et civile. C'est dans la patrie des Lumières que ces notions chemineront le plus singulièrement. Historiquement confondues, elles vont progressivement se détacher l'une de l'autre, pour aujourd'hui s'opposer. Il est vrai que d'importantes secousses traversent la société politique et la mettent en difficulté. Il convient néanmoins, de s'interroger sur leur nature afin de déterminer si elles constituent le fondement d'une crise ou celui d'une mutation. Le recours politique a une société civile ainsi idéalisée remet en cause le lien essentiel qui agrège l'individu à l’Etat, à travers la citoyenneté. Conjugué à la montée de l'individualisme, comment alors restaurer le lien social dans lequel s'inscrit toute société ? La diversité de ces questions illustre l'intérêt de cette recherche qui permet d'une part,d'aborder les préoccupations actuelles à la lumière des sources de notre organisation politique et, d'autre part, d'observer les enjeux contenus dans les changements de comportement des différents protagonistes. Cette étude n'a pas la prétention de dresser un programme de travail dont le risque serait de déboucher sur une synthèse encore très prématurée. Nous nous sommes fixés pour objectif, moins d'apporter des réponses objectives ou de faire valoir des certitudes sur l'intégralité de ces thèmes, que de rassembler les principaux points de repère et de les organiser pour soumettre la problématique d'ensemble au débat. / Everywhere man is free, he fells in chains. Such is the democratic paradox which gives the modern individual both a large space of freedom and the feeling to be deprived of any. On top of the traditional separation of powe rs or Checks and Balances now lies the one of actors, organized within a Political and Civil Society. It is in the homeland of Enlightenment that these notions are so singular.. Historically merged, they progressively broke apart and are now opposed to each other. It is true that the Political Society is going through important jolts, putting it in a difficult situation. However, one needs to specify the nature of these changes in order to determine if they are the symptoms of a crisis or the ones of a transformation. The political recourse to a Civil Society indeed idealized questions the essential link between theState and the individual, in other words citizenship. Combined with the rise of individualism, how can we reinstate the Social Link so essential in every society? The diversity of these questions illustrates the interest of this research. It analyzes both current issues by the light ofthe sources of our political organization and the stakes of the behavioral changes of our system’s protagonists. This research does not aim at building a work plan whose risk would be to result to definite conclusion. Its goal is certainly not to bring objective answers or certitudesto all these issues but to gather the main landmarks and to organize them to subject our problematic to the debate.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-29T14:17:38Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Marcia Maria Biondi Pinheiro.pdf: 792557 bytes, checksum: be56a8a24d628c525d4c178e8f7963a0 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008-11-17 / The present work is searching to analize the social control trajectory on social politic assistance, having as locus the National Social Assistance Counsel, discussing the localization of public and private interest of such perspective, starting from 2003 gestions. For this motive,the principal aproaches about social control realized in Brazil , with a a descrption of CNAS, as stage of the experience of those two interests, as a reference in the history of the political and social Brazilian formation, questions that even today pass through social assistance.It describe still the principal fights that the Brazilian people undertake in search of democracy, giving special attention to the arise of new personages in the country and in the social assistance, locating the social assistance birth nominated here as MAS. The CNAS is also focated under it s paritarian composition,civil society and government, after reflexive analysis about such categories. After a definiton of the referential analysis , is realized the activity classification of CNAS at the gestions, since 2003. Finally, the principal analysis of his object is taken followed by the necessary agenda for the advance of popular participaton in the social assistance / Este trabalho procura analisar a trajetória do controle social na política de assistência social, tendo como lócus o Conselho Nacional de Assistência Social, discutindo a localização do interesse público e o privado nessa perspectiva, nas gestões a partir de 2003. Para tanto, traz as principais abordagens realizadas no Brasil sobre o controle social, descreve o CNAS, palco da vivência desses dois interesses, bem como referencia na história da formação política e social brasileira as questões que ainda hoje perpassam a assistência social. Descreve, ainda, as principais lutas que a população brasileira empreendeu na busca da democracia, dando especial atenção ao momento do surgimento dos novos personagens no país e na assistência social, localizando o nascimento do movimento da assistência social aqui denominado MAS. O CNAS também é focado, em sua composição paritária, sociedade civil e governo, após análises reflexivas sobre essas categorias. Após a definição de referenciais de análise, é realizada a classificação das atividades do CNAS nas gestões, desde o ano de 2003. Por fim, retoma as principais análises de seu objeto e, em seguida, aponta a agenda necessária para o avanço da participação popular na assistência social

The purpose of this thesis is to evaluate the democratization process in the Middle East after 9/11. After 9/11 the US made a drastic change in their foreign policy towards the Middle East aiming on a “Freedom Agenda and fighting the “war on Terrorism” to ensure their national security.  Therefore, the main effort of the policy was made on democracy promotion in the Middle East in order for the Bush Administration to achieve their goals. Democracy is a widely used concept in the West describing a ruling system that secures peace and stability since it ensures the citizens all their freedoms and human rights. A definition of democracy and its arenas will be given according to the definition of Linz and Stephan with a main focus on Civil and Political Society. Lebanon will be brought up as an example of a somehow democratic Middle Easter Country. The Lebanese political system is based on confessionalism thus it is important to show how democracy is preserved within Lebanon presenting both the civil and political society within the country. The study in question shows how the US approached the region and which efforts were made in the democratization process in the Arab Middle East and it will also deal with the outcome 9/11 had on the Lebanese-US relation. The conclusion of the thesis showed that the Bush Administrations new foreign Policy faced many backlashes. Even though the US managed to overthrow the Taliban’s and remove Saddam’s Regime, the policy’s main goal of achieving democracy in the Middle East was not successful. In the case of Lebanon the research concludes that to achieve a successful democratic policy the Lebanese strong confessional structures must be combined with the fundamentals of democracy. It further showed that there has not been a drastic change in the Lebanese-US relation due to 9/11.

This thesis examines the impact of one party dominant systems on liberal democracy in developing countries. It is insufficient to argue that one party dominant systems – systems where one party dominates over a prolonged period - need not be further scrutinised because they occur within democracies. Instead it is contended that the term ‘democracy’ is but one public virtue in a political system and thus needs to be prefixed for it to have meaning beyond a method of government selection. The importance of this is highlighted when looking at two major trends in the understanding of democracy. The first is democracy as rule by the people -a non-authoritarian democracy- where governmental control is limited, and agents of voice and accountability are protected. Voice and accountability refers to citizens being able to exercise power over the process of decision-making and not merely power to select decision-makers. The second type of democracy is rule for the people -an authoritarian democracy- where governmental control extends over all spheres of society, and the operating space for agents of voice and accountability is constrained. Since unchecked centralisation is the anti-thesis of a non-authoritarian democracy, the observed tendency of dominant parties to use their predominant position to further consolidate their control is a concern. The apprehension is, as power is centralised so the operating space of agents of voice and accountability (including political and civil society) is constrained. Despite differences in the type of one party dominant system, whether they be hegemonic (Mexico) or dominant (South Africa) the ruling dominant/ hegemonic party uses similar methods of consolidating dominance – they essentially centralise power through the establishment of (1) economic, (2) political, and sometimes (3) ideological monopolies. These monopolies are established using internal and external methods of control (centralising of political power; party controlled process of political leadership selection; institutional arrangements and electoral amendments, which favour the ruling party; patronage and corporatism), which in turn effectively close down or limit the operating space of civil and political society, especially in developing countries which do not have histories of liberal-constitutionalism, and have vast socio-economic inequalities making them especially susceptible to the manipulation of ruling elites. Although one party dominant systems may initially have a uniting, stabilising effect, if continued they tend to lead towards either the entrenchment of authoritarianism or the establishment of authoritarianism, since dominance is achieved at the expense of competition, and independent and alternative voices. Uncompetitive democracies result in unresponsive governments. Pursuing a liberal democracy, while simultaneously monopolising power is to indulge in serious programmatic contradictions. Eventually something has to give and it is usually liberal democracy. Voice and accountability inevitably become inhibited in one party dominant systems due to the mechanisms of internal and external control used by the dominant or hegemonic party. These mechanisms of control culminate in, as they did in Mexico, there being ‘no life outside the ruling party’. Only when the economic, political and ideological monopolies are dismantled through either economic liberalisation, opposition maintaining its integrity, civil society keeping its independence and societies refusing to be drawn into relationships of patronage, can the space for voice and accountability be prised open again. In the interests of its citizens and the future success of its country, the ruling party of a one party dominant system needs to recognise that it is not the sole channel for the voice of its citizens and to acknowledge the space for agents of voice and accountability. Ensuring that non-authoritarian democracy remains the only game in town in a one party dominant system requires responsive and accountable government and effective agents of voice and accountability. / Thesis (DPhil)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Political Sciences / unrestricted

No description available.