Given that the basic functions of parliamentary Question Time are to provide information and to hold the Government accountable for its actions, the possibility of evasion occurring in such a context is of crucial importance. Evasion (equivocation) has been identified as a matter of concern in political interviews, but no systematic study has been undertaken in the context of parliamentary discourse, notably Question Time, anywhere in the world. This study applies and adapts Harris's (1991) coding framework on various types of responses, Bull and Mayer's (1993) typology of non-replies and Clayman's (2001) work on how politicians 'resist' answering questions, all of which are based on political news interviews, to the study of evasion in Australia's House of Representatives' Question Time. A comprehensive, unified framework for the analysis of evasion is described, a decision flow-chart for the framework is provided, and an illustrative example of the applied framework is given based on Australia's Federal House of Representatives' Question Time. Put simply, the study was undertaken to determine if evasion occurred, how frequently it occurred and how it occurred. It involved the classification of responses as 'answers' (direct or indirect), 'intermediate responses' (such as pointing out incorrect information in the question), and 'evasions' based on specific criteria. Responses which were considered evasions were further analysed to determine the levels of evasion, whether they were covert or overt in nature and the types of 'agenda shifts' that occurred, if any. The thesis also involved a discourse-analytical study of other factors that appear to facilitate Ministerial evasion in Australia's House of Representatives, including the Speaker's performance and the use of 'Dorothy Dixers'. The research data was sourced from Question Time transcripts from the House of Representatives Hansard for the months of February and March 2003, dealing only with questions and responses on the topic of Iraq. In those months there were 87 questions on the topic of Iraq, representing more than two thirds of all questions on Iraq for the whole of 2003. Of these 87 questions, the majority (48) came from the Opposition party, through its leader. The balance (39) was asked by Government MPs. Analysis of the question/answer discourse for all 87 questions revealed that every question asked by Government members was answered compared to only 8 of the 48 Opposition questions. Of the 40 remaining Opposition questions, 21 were given intermediate responses and 19 were evaded outright. The fact that the overwhelming majority (83%) of Opposition questions were not answered together with other findings such as instances of partiality on the part of the Speaker; the use of 'friendly', prearranged questions by Government MPs; and the 'hostile' nature of questions asked by Opposition MPs casts serious doubt on the effectiveness of Question Time as a means of ensuring the Government is held accountable for its actions. The study provides empirical evidence that evasion does occur in Australia's House of Representatives' Question Time.

<p>The purpose of this study was to examine and describe how politicians and directors of care define and experience quality in aged care facilities. Further on we wanted to compare on which fundamental principles the participants base their opinion about quality and how they work with quality. To reach our aim we conducted five interviews with politicians and directors of care. The results show that it is hard to determine quality in an unambiguous and objective way. Quality in aged care appears to be about relations and encounters amongst people. The participants in our study agree that experiences are subjective and depending on individual expectations.</p><p>There are fundamental principles shared by both politicians and directors of care regarding safety and respect of human integrity. Directors of care point out the difficulties in having multiple perspectives to consider, residents and their relatives have other expectations on what services should be provided than the directors of care understand to be their assignment from the local government. It appears to be a gap between political goals and reality. The future will bring changes, regarding both needs and expectations. The participants see a challenge in developing aged care and meeting new generations of elderly.</p>

The purpose of this study was to examine and describe how politicians and directors of care define and experience quality in aged care facilities. Further on we wanted to compare on which fundamental principles the participants base their opinion about quality and how they work with quality. To reach our aim we conducted five interviews with politicians and directors of care. The results show that it is hard to determine quality in an unambiguous and objective way. Quality in aged care appears to be about relations and encounters amongst people. The participants in our study agree that experiences are subjective and depending on individual expectations. There are fundamental principles shared by both politicians and directors of care regarding safety and respect of human integrity. Directors of care point out the difficulties in having multiple perspectives to consider, residents and their relatives have other expectations on what services should be provided than the directors of care understand to be their assignment from the local government. It appears to be a gap between political goals and reality. The future will bring changes, regarding both needs and expectations. The participants see a challenge in developing aged care and meeting new generations of elderly.

It has been a lot of talking about who’s president’s fault has been for the crisis that Started in the United States and how it spread around the world. Is it really a specific group of people’s fault? Our leaders’ responsibility to prevent all this? Or is it all of our fault for living in the illusions leaders created for us in order to keep being elected? I am not here to point fingers but, rather, analyzing what has happened by researching legislations that passed and did not pass, and who lobbied and why they lobbied on specific legislations that could have made a difference in the economic situation but were never given the chance. The research are mainly on the years right before the 2007- 2008 recession and specifically from 2004 to 2006. I conclude with analyzing the types of leadership styles that I feel have influenced the current situation and what is the follower’s responsibility in letting it happen, why, and how they could change the situation.

<p>Det är viktigt att kommunpolitiker och tjänstemän i kommuner använder sig av de verktyg som finns tillgängliga i kommunen. Det fungerar inte alltid, vilket det finns en rad olika orsaker till. Gröna bokslut är ett dokument som visar trender i samhället, den pekar på hur kommunen lyckas främja en hållbar utveckling på valda områden om. Det är till för att användas som beslutsunderlag vid olika beslut. </p><p>Syftet med fallstudien är att se hur stor kännedomen är om det gröna bokslutet bland kommunpolitiker och tjänstemän, och om de använder sig av boksluten. De frågeställningar som studerades är: </p><p>1. Hur stor kännedom har kommunpolitiker och tjänstemän om de gröna boksluten? </p><p>2. Använder de sig av det gröna bokslutet som beslutsunderlag för att främja den hållbara utvecklingen? </p><p>För den teoretiska anknytningen valdes implementeringsteori. Det man valde att titta på är ramen för olika implementeringsprocesser, exempel på det är nätverksimplementering och top - down - bottom - up användande processer för gröna boksluten. </p><p>Studien utfördes i kommunerna Linköping, Mjölby och Norrköping. Som metod för undersökningen valdes öppna kvalitativ intervjuer. Respondenterna blev sammanlagt nio stycken, två ledamöter i kommunfullmäktige och miljöcheferna för de olika miljökontoren i respektive kommun. Ett frågeunderlag användes vid intervjuerna. I analysen var de frågor som ställdes under intervjuerna utgångspunkten. Det som kom fram i analysen var att alla har kännedom om boksluten, det som skiljer dem åt är i vilken omfattning. Likaså skiljer sig användningen. Bland ledamöterna i kommunfullmäktige är det blandat, vissa använder det mycket medan andra knappt tittar i boksluten. Miljöcheferna använder inte bokslutet, då de anser att de inte har användning för det i sitt arbete. </p><p>Inte att förglömmas är att denna studie är väldigt smal och bara ger en bild utifrån de intervjuade om problematiken. Om studien hade utökats med fler eller med andra respondenter hade kanske ett annat resultat uppnåtts.</p>

Thesis (PhD--Māori Studies)--University of Auckland, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references.

The relationship between politicians and civil servants is ambiguous and potentially problematic in democratic terms. The aim of the thesis is to examine this relationship in the Swedish core executive, Regeringskansliet. More specifically, the analysis emphasises the respective role expectations of the two groups when interacting with each other. The thesis is based on two extensive qualitative interview studies with politicians and senior civil servants, one carried out in the early 1980’s and one undertaken more recently. Hence it also offers an opportunity to analyse whether these expectations have changed or remained stable during the last decades. The findings reveal that the role expectations of politicians and civil servants to a high extent correspond, and have remained relatively stable over time. The relationship between politicians and civil servants is based on norms such as (conditional) trust, delegation and yet relatively close interaction. If so, politicians are unloaded by the civil service in order to handle their external responsibilities. Although relatively informal, a passive hierarchy of roles ensures the superiority of politicians and more specifically of the minister. Civil servants adapt to roles taken by politicians, although providing guidance to the politicians on how to behave in office. The division of labour is not based on the different tasks performed in the policy-making process. Instead, politicians assume responsibility for all actions and decisions – also those undertaken by the civil servants – within the ministries, while civil servants offer politicians protection and security. Taken together these results indicate that the institutionalised norms that surround the relationship between politicians and civil servants are highly powerful. Nevertheless, the thesis also reveals tendencies towards a departure from these norms, suggesting that this relationship is to some extent fragile and exposed to various attempts at reform.

Although more women are successfully breaching the social, economic and political barriers that can prevent them from participating as electoral candidates, few women campaign for elected office. A dearth of female candidates may be understandable, given research demonstrating that women tend to avoid competition and competitive environments. Thus, elections – competitive by design – may attract fewer women than men. This thesis posits that the inherent competitiveness of electoral politics may deter women from campaigning for office. However, this work also forwards that competitive sport socialization during adolescence may prepare women for electoral competition. This paper examines the results of a self-administered survey mailed to 449 female candidates for municipal office. The survey investigated candidates’ adolescent experiences in competitive sports and attitudes relating to internal political efficacy. The results appear to demonstrate a strong correlation between competitive sport socialization and either positive or neutral evaluations of political competition. / x, 163 leaves ; 29 cm

The past decades New Public Management (NPM) reforms in the public sector have changed how the mechanisms of accountability work. One type of reform is the privatization of public service provision. These services are today often procured with extensive regulations involved. Many academics argue, under the concept of juridification, that legal institutions have a bigger impact than policies in these activities today (Magnussen &amp; Nilssen, 2013; Blichner &amp; Molander, 2008; Laughlin &amp; Broadbent, 1993) and that the legal contract plays an important role in governing them (Camén, 2011; Brown &amp; Potoski, 2005). In this study we explore how the actors involved in provision of public services perceive accountability. We do this by investigating how politicians, civil servants and service providers involved in the provision of public bus services in Sweden perceive their roles, the procurement regulations’ roles and the legal contracts’ roles. We conclude that, in the case where the service provider is a private company, the legal contract plays an important role in how the accountability is perceived by the actors involved. Further research is needed to see if our results also apply to the contexts of other provisions of public services.

Thesis (M.S.)--Brigham Young University. Dept. of Communications, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 173-180).