This research focused mainly on the progress of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and community-driven development projects (CDDs) in assisting the Chris Hani District Municipality (CHDM) community. The research identified the main types of CDDs that are found in the CHDM as agricultural, caregivers, manufacturing, tourism, performing arts, and education services. Thirty-eight NGOs participated in this project with two participants representing each NGO. These NGOs were looked at from a thematic perspective. Three main themes emerged, namely; a) the quality of life in CHDM or specifically in the areas of operation of the NGOs, b) operations of the NGOs where the name and main objectives CDDs were identified, and c) challenges, funding and impact of the CDDs. This research set out to ask the following questions: What is the nature and origin of projects operational in Chris Hani District? What is the impact and sustainability of donor-aided projects on CDD in the Chris Hani District? Can NGO projects be sustained without donor aid? Are there any alternative forms of funding apart from donor funds? To answer these questions, a number of qualitative methods and techniques were used to collect and analyse data. These included focus group discussions with project beneficiaries, observations of projects, activities and individual project participants, and key informant interviews with different categories of respondents depending on their roles and level of involvement in the implementation of projects as well as their experience in the implementation of donor-aided programmes. These discussions were guided by different interview schedules with respective respondents. Random and snowball sampling methods were used to choose the respondents as well as groups that participated in the study. The research also focused on assessing the survivability of donor-aided NGO projects if the donor funds were discontinued for any reason. It sought to determine the continuity and feasibility of developmental projects and their impact on the socio- economic welfare of the rural poor in the Chris Hani District without donations. This research found evidence indicating that, by and large, NGOs in the Chris Hani District play a crucial role in CDD. Be that as it may, this research established that on average, 98 per cent of NGOs had been economically and socially affected by the donor-funded projects. It was established that, on average, the donor dependency ratio was 74 per cent. It was also seen that most donor-funded projects could only survive for 12 days if the funding was withdrawn. However, this hypothetical withdrawal of funds does not cause much concern because of the security found in the funding types of the NGOs in the Chris Hani District. In practical terms, these community-driven projects are likely to continue for decades ceteris paribus.

African Union (AU) multilateral efforts in governance flounder at the level of implementation and their substantive intervention worth do not accord with the aspirations embodied in adopted normative frameworks and instruments. The research served to uncover the policy and delivery challenges within the overall AU institutional system as a means of providing a perspective on the future of AU governance mechanisms and related intervention modalities. Detailed empirical engagement, through an institutional lens, with norm formation and implementation in accountability, the rule of law and state capacity, and related delivery practices, enabled the extraction of crucial efficacy challenges in the AU institutional system. The exploration, using evidence embodied in documents from the AU governance implementation system, served to confirm that the AU continues to struggle between the imperatives of integration through established shared values and the exercise of state sovereignty. Within the policy-delivery nexus, the research points to the importance of agency by AU institutions and how practices and incentives serve to pervert the aspiration for a multilateral value-adding system in governance. In addition to providing a comprehensive historical macro-overview of AU governance intervention and related implementation modalities, the research served to uncover the implementation ‘black-box’ through a careful and comprehensive study of practices in each of the governance intervention terrains. The institutional focus serves to affirm that answerability for performance in the use of public resource and the structuring of organisations, matter for delivery and the production of substantive regional integration value. The core efficacy challenges at the level of AU multilateral engagements and implementation, such as norm proliferation, the exercise of power and sovereignty, staffing and capacity gaps, point to the need for a substantive and strategic reorientation of the AU governance normative framework and related intervention modalities. As an outcome of the analysis and reflection, a ‘norm graduating model’ is proposed to accommodate contextual realities in AU Member States on the back of historically hard-fought-for shared values in governance. At the level of implementation modalities, efficacy challenges point to the importance of a more tempered and realistic delivery approach. The primary focus in the immediate term should be on building governance through a diffused peer-engagement strategy culminating in norm compliance and full adherence to the provisions of established AU governance instruments over the long-term. / Public Administration and Management / Ph. D. (Public Administration)

In Kuwait, an increase in the use of social media by the Kuwait National Assembly (KNA) has allowed it members to reach out to the public and so advance their political agenda. This study examines social media influences on the decision making process; addresses the lack of academic research in relation to KNA members; and seeks to understand the extent to which public political engagement using social media might affect the outcome of their decision making. The proposed social media influence model (SMIM) was used to explore the relationships and relative importance of variables influencing legislator decision making in a social media environment. The second decade of the twenty-first century saw a number of major issues emerging in Kuwait. A core mixed method design known as explanatory sequential was applied to multiple sets of data generated during KNA members' 14th (2013-2016) and 15th (2016-2018) terms. These data included Twitter messages (tweets), the KNA Information Center Parliamentary Information System legislation documents, and the news media articles. The sample was drawn from KNA membership, some of which used Twitter to comment on major events with specific hashtags and the Kuwaiti news media articles related to the same. Study results confirm and support the proposed SMIM. They also suggest that a single person or a group of individuals (in this case, legislators) can be influenced and motivated to use social media for self-promotion and/or advancing their political agenda. Consequently, they can be used to devise ways for improving the use of social media by KNA members in support of legislative work, which in turn will provide citizens with access to real-time information and enhanced political interaction.

This dissertation analyzes several topics related to political life in ethnically divided societies. In chapter 2, I study the relationship between ethnic social conflict, such as protests, riots, and armed inter-ethnic violence, and bloc partisan identification. I find that protests have no effect on bloc support for political parties, riots increase bloc partisan identification, and that armed violence reduces this phenomenon. In chapter 3, I analyze the factors that influence the targeting of ethnic groups by ethnic parties in social conflict. I find some empirical evidence that conditions favorable to vote pooling across ethnic lines reduce group targeting by ethnic parties. In chapter 4, I analyze the effects of ethnic demography on ethnic party behavior. Through a qualitative analysis of party behavior in local elections in Macedonia, I find that ethnic parties change their strategies in response to changes in ethnic demography. I find that co-ethnic parties are less likely to challenge each other for power under conditions of split demography. In fact, under conditions of split demography, I find that co-ethnic parties have political incentives to unite behind a single party because intra-group competition jeopardizes the group's hold on power.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / This thesis is a critical literature review on the studies of social movements and contentious politics in the U.S. and China. Thanks to theories of contentious politics, we can analyze the studies of America’s social movements and China’s collective actions in the same “frame.” By making a comparison, this thesis tries to construct a theoretical dialogue between the studies across both countries. At the same time, it criticizes over-generalizing the mode “democratic-nondemocratic” in analysis of repertories of contentious politics and downplaying capitalism’s role in the social movements. From the various empirical studies in both countries, this thesis argues that a generalization should be based on the diversity of this realm, not just from the western perspective.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / While the Arab spring succeeded in ousting the long-term dictator led governments from power in many Arab countries, leading the way to a new democratic process to develop in the Arab world, it did not end the old suspicions between Arab Muslims and the West. This research investigates the beginning of the relations between the Arab Muslims and the West as they have developed over time, and then focuses its analysis on perceptions from both sides beginning with 9/11 through the events known as the Arab spring. The framework for analysis is a communication perspective, as embodied in the Coordinated Management of Meaning (CMM). According to CMM, communication can be understood as forms of interactions that both constitute and frame reality. The study posits the analysis that the current Arab Muslim-West divide, is often a conversation that is consistent with what CMM labels as the ethnocentric pattern. This analysis will suggest a new pathway, one that follows the CMM cosmopolitan form, as a more fruitful pattern for the future of Arab Muslim-West relations. This research emphasizes the factors fueling this ethnocentric pattern, in addition to ways of bringing the Islamic world and the West to understand each other with a more cosmopolitan approach, which, among other things, accepts mutual differences while fostering agreements. To reach this core, the study will apply a direct communicative engagement between the Islamic world and the West to foster trusted relations, between the two.

The thesis is about the relationship between State and Church, taking note of alternative relations which existed over the ages. The government of Bophuthatswana declared their state to be Christian. The main emphasis was that the Batswana were religious people who were deeply Christian and thus the state was to become Christian as well. This was not separated from the issue of land which also was seen as a gift from God for them. Winterveld was used as a case study to show how the state was justifying its own actions to discriminate against non-Batswana from obtaining citizenship and denying them access to land. The transition period showed that the church stood on the other side of the fence when it supported changes that were sweeping South Africa and calling for the end of states such as Bophuthatswana. This saw the new secular state of South Africa coming into existence. / Theology & Religion / D. Th. (Church History)

Arabic text / الحمدُ لله الذي أكْرَمَنَا بِنُورالعلمِ المُبَدِّدِ للظُلمات, وعصَمَنا به من الأهواءِ المُرْدِية والآراءِ المُضلة رافع الإصْرَ عنَّا, جاء بالدين الوَسَطِ وحَذَّرَ من الوَكْسِ والشَطَطِ وبعدُ : فإنَّ أحقَ العلومِ بالتَّسْطِيرِ وأنفَسهَا عند الجَمْعِ والتَّحْبِيرِ , تِبْيَان وجهِ الحقِّ فيما تتعَاورهُ الأفهام بالجهلِ تار ة , وتار ة بما عرض لها من الأَوْهَامِ , ومن المهم تَجْديد وتَرْسِيخِ المفاهيم السياسية في ضوء نظام الشريعة الإسلامية, مِفْتَاح الهداية ونَهْجِ السعادة, بل وتصحيحها مما اعْتَراهَا من التشويه والزَّيفِ إذ ذاك من أفضل النوافل وأعظمها نفعا وعائدة, وأوفرها خيرا وفائدة. واعلم أن الناس أصنافٌ مختلفون وأطوارٌ مُتباينون يتقاطعون بالإيثار تابعا ومتبوعا ويتساعدون على أعمالهم آمِرا ومَأْمُور ا , فكان لزاما أن أحرر بحثا للرسالة, وانْصَبَّ الإختيار على السياسة ليوافق المقال الحال, فالإنتفاضات والثورات الشعبية تَتْرَا في دولنا الإسلامية, والمرحلةُ تستلزم المشاركة وتوضيح المفاهيم الشرعية, وجلاء الحقائق وإسْقَاطها على الواقع وتصحيح المسارات, فالرأي العام بين مُوجِبٍ ومُبيحٍ للثورات, وسَاكتٍ ومُطيعٍ لهذه الحكومات. لذلكَ ارتأيتُ أن أُبْحِرَ في خِضمِّ هذه الأمواج الفكرية المُتلاطمةِ , وأُشَمِرَعن ساعدي راجيا أن أبلغ الحقيقة الصائبة, وأُرْشِد القارىء الكريم إلى فَهْمِ السياسةِ الراشدة / Recent political turmoil and developments in the Muslim World have motivated me to present this dissertation aimed at renewing, correcting and deepening an understanding of political concepts in light of the Islamic code. It is thus my endeavour to relate them to current reality as I perceive it. A primary concern that I address herein are debates revolving around political rebellion; namely, their permissibility or the need to remain sycophantic towards prevailing political authorities. / Religious Studies & Arabic / M.A. (Islamic Studies)

The thesis is about the relationship between State and Church, taking note of alternative relations which existed over the ages. The government of Bophuthatswana declared their state to be Christian. The main emphasis was that the Batswana were religious people who were deeply Christian and thus the state was to become Christian as well. This was not separated from the issue of land which also was seen as a gift from God for them. Winterveld was used as a case study to show how the state was justifying its own actions to discriminate against non-Batswana from obtaining citizenship and denying them access to land. The transition period showed that the church stood on the other side of the fence when it supported changes that were sweeping South Africa and calling for the end of states such as Bophuthatswana. This saw the new secular state of South Africa coming into existence. / Theology and Religion / D. Th. (Church History)

Global research shows that media owners tend to influence the editorial direction of their newspapers. Such influence generally tends to be in line with the media owner’s economic and / or political interests. Naturally, this is a challenge because media is regarded as the fourth estate and is supposed to be an objective yet effective channel for the citizenry to make informed decisions about their world. The study seeks to find out if the owners of four daily newspapers in South Africa, based on their political proximity; may have influenced their newspapers to be biased in favour or against any of the three biggest political parties contesting the 2016 Local Government Elections. This study is an exploratory and descriptive content analysis based on an Agenda Setting theoretic framework – supported by framing analysis and game framing. Findings reveal the correlation between the media owner’s interests and the biased reporting within their respective newspaper. This suggests that although media may not be directly or explicitly forced to adopt a specific ideology, it can be argued that political relations with media owners can influence editorial decisions. Therefore, it can be inferred that media owners of The New Age, The Citizen and The Star influenced editorial content of their newspapers during the 2016 local government elections. Given the findings of this study and the elections scheduled for 2019 in South Africa, it is important for more political communication studies to be conducted in order to establish guidelines for unbiased news reporting across all media – including newspapers. Alternatively, to compel media owners to declare their bias towards and against specific political parties in each news content, upfront. Particularly important during election period, is the need for each media (including newspapers) to have an independent editor – potentially one from the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) to ensure that each piece of content produced is validated as bias or impartial. / Communication Science / M.A. (Communication Science)