published_or_final_version / Political Science / Master / Master of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Politics and Public Administration / Master / Master of Public Administration

published_or_final_version / Public Administration / Master / Master of Public Administration

The aim of this study is to examine the nature of the British approach to extradition with particular reference to the definition of political offences and the position of political refugees in extradition law and practice. The attention of policy-makers and public opinion was always mainly focused upon these two issues, and this study will therefore concentrate upon them. In abstract terms, the definition of political offences was found to be generally impossible, although attempts to define them generated much important and interesting discussion. In practice, some guidelines were laid down in individual cases, but they did not amount to a solution of the general question.Before 1870, fears that efficient extradition would necessarily endanger political refugees prevented Britain from establishing a system of extradition treaties, with the result that many common criminals escaped punishment. A shift in opinion took place, and it came to be accepted that efficient extradition and security for political refugees could co-exist, but even after 1870, efficient extradition was still hampered to an extent by statutory safeguards for the position of political refugees. Furthermore, on several occasions, amendments of the law that were desirable in the interests of the efficient administration of the law were abandoned on the grounds that they might endanger political refugees.Foreign states resented British devotion to protecting political refugees, both because it hampered efficient extradition and because they resented British protection of refugees who were considered a threat to the security of foreign regimes. There was considerable pressure from abroad, and from certain sections of opinion within Britain, for her to abandon, or at least modify, her traditional stance vis-a-vis political refugees within extradition law and practice, and more generally, but it remained largely unaltered throughout the period under discussion. Up to 1914, political refugees were better protected by Britain than by any other nation. Thereafter, things began to change, as the peculiar conditions which had made such a policy both desirable and possible gradually altered and eventually disappeared.

A case study is used to assess the public involvement strategies used by the Environmental Protection Agency and in particular how these efforts affect implementation of its environmental justice responsibilities, and further the goals of Executive Order 12898. Restoration Advisory Boards (RABs) at two Superfund sites in EPA's Region 9--Tucson International Airport Area and Moffett Naval Air Station--are used as a basis for comparison with critical elements of the National Environmental Justice Advisory Council's Model Plan for Public Participation. Although some aspects of the model's critical elements are satisfied, some changes in approach are necessary to reach and involve broader public interests at the two sites. At the site where environmental justice is an issue, the goals of EPA's Environmental Justice Strategy are partially satisfied through the RAB and other agency activities, but efforts are limited by a traditional participatory approach and lack of community influence in decision-making.

Since the new dispensation, all stakeholders in the school are expected to play an active role in the governance of schools. It is not the responsibility of government alone to see that schools are up and running. Parents, educators, non-teaching staff, learners (in Secondary Schools) and the community must also share their ideas on how the school is to be administered. This study has focused on the knowledge that the School Governing Bodies (SGB's) should posses in relation to legislations and the application of the knowledge make an impact in the administration and management of the school in the Klerksdorp-area. For schools to function effectively, the School Governing Bodies need to know that the Constitution (Act 108 of 1996) is the supreme law that has an impact in all education legislations, policies and regulations. Therefore, whatever school policy is to be developed should take cognizance of the Constitution. Central to the study is the SGBs' understanding of their roles and functions as stipulated in the Schools Act, (Act 84 of 1996) to avoid conflict of interest and administer the school efficiently and effectively. It is expected that the SGBs should transfer their knowledge into action by formulating policies that govern the school. By formulating school policies the SGB will then be able to have an influence since clear directions will be stipulated in the school policy on how the school is to be managed and administered. School Governing Bodies, as governors of the school are also accountable to people that elected them. It is their responsibility to provide feedback to their constituency and to inform them on the progress made. / Thesis (M. Development and Management)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007.

The purpose of this study is to develop an e-government readiness model and to test this model. Consistent with this model several instruments, IS assessment (ISA), IT governance (ITG), and Organization-IS alignment (IS-ALIGN) are examined for their ability to measure the readiness of one organization for e-government and to test the instruments fit in the proposed e-government model. The ISA instrument used is the result of adapting and combining the IS-SERVQUAL instrument proposed by Van Dyke, Kappelman, and Pybutok (1997), and the IS-SUCCESS instrument developed by Kappelman and Chong (2001) for the City of Denton (COD) project at UNT. The IS Success Model was first proposed by DeLone and McLean (1992), but they did not validate this model. The ITG instrument was based on the goals of the COD project for IT governance and was developed by Sanchez and Kappelman (2001) from UNT. The ISALIGN instrument was also developed by Sanchez and Kappelman (2001) for the COD project. It is an instrument based on the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA) that measures how effectively a government organization utilizes IT to support its various objectives. The EGOV instrument was adapted from the study of the Action-Audience Model developed by Koh and Balthazrd (1997) to measure how well a government organization is prepared to usher in e-government in terms of various success factors at planning, system and data levels. An on-line survey was conducted with employees of the City of Denton, Texas. An invitation letter to participate in the survey was sent to the 1100 employees of the City of Denton via email, 339 responses were received, yielding a response rate of 31%. About 168 responses were discarded because they were incomplete and had the missing values, leaving 171 usable surveys, for a usable set of responses that had a response rate of 16%. Although the proposed and some alternate models were partially consistent with the hypothesized theory, the confirmation of the relationships among the constructs warrants further research via either by replication of this research or by development a new theoretical model. However, the significant validity and reliability measures obtained in this study indicate that the e-government readiness model has the potential for use in future studies.

This research study examines how faculty perceive academic freedom at a metropolitan university. Thirty structured interviews were conducted with social science faculty, who have been tenured for 10 years or more, at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). These faculty came from the departments of Sociology, Psychology, Anthropology, Political Science, Urban Studies, Criminal Justice, Women’s Studies, and African-American Studies. The following five questions were the central research questions: (a) how do core faculty in the social sciences at VCU define academic freedom; (b) do these same faculty perceive academic freedom to be a significant feature of a career in higher education; (c) do these same faculty perceive any existing threats to their academic freedom; (d) how do these faculty define academic tenure; and (e) how did these faculty learn about academic freedom and tenure. Where previous research has often focused on comparing and contrasting faculty perceptions of academic freedom from different institutions, ranks and disciplines, this research targeted a fairly homogenous population of faculty in order to identify any common socialization experiences, both formal and informal, which may have contributed to common perceptions. The findings suggest that these faculty do not share a common perception of academic freedom. Where most of the respondents did agree that academic freedom protected both research and teaching, approximately half of the respondents did not associate any institutional limitations or professional responsibilities with academic freedom. Most of the respondents considered academic freedom to be a significant feature of an academic career. They perceived the current threats to academic freedom to be largely stemmed from within the institution. In particular, they believed that a top- down business model of leadership coupled with a weak academic culture to be the most significant threats to academic freedom. They defined tenure primarily as a means of protecting their own academic freedom through job security. Lastly, most of them learned about academic freedom very vicariously and informally, which helps explain the varied perceptions of what academic freedom means to them and how it should be exercised.

<p> This dissertation examined the literature of cutback management in the context of the Great Recession. Specifically, it studied the relationship between cutback management policies used by county governments during the recession and revenue changes. </p><p> The purpose of this dissertation was to test whether or not the percent change in revenue had an impact on the probability that cutback management policies were used in the recession. According to the cutback management literature developed in the 1970s and 1980s, there should be a relationship. </p><p> The theoretical framework used for this study was the rational-approach framework, which proposes that every expenditure reducing and revenue increasing policy is enacted based on the percent decrease in revenue the government faces. This suggests that the cutback management policies are a proportional response to revenue decline. The framework was operationalized by using a binary logistic regression that used policy enactment as the dependent variable and the percent change in revenue as the independent variable. Eighty-six counties were sampled and 7 years of each county&rsquo;s budget book were examined for policies and financial data. </p><p> The research found that eleven expenditure policies and three revenue policies had a statistically significant relationship with the percent change in revenues. This resulted in the conclusion that the framework and, therefore, the cutback management literature were useful in explaining primarily expenditure policies.</p>

It is the claim of this thesis that central to any reading of the work of Gillian Rose is an understanding of her development of Hegel's thought. This thesis accordingly examines Rose's work through a comprehensive reading of Hegel contra Sociology. It is argued that an irresolvable aporia is discovered at the heart of Rose's reading of Hegel which, this thesis argues, manifests itself through the question and answer of style. It is argued that Rose simultaneously undermines the presupposition of style and at the same time reinforces it. It is also argued that this is consistent with Rose's acknowledgment and critique of prevailing social relations. It is argued in conclusion that Rose's work is both simply an expression of aporia which undermines the question of style and at the same time is itself also aporetic which thus reinforces the question of style.