Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 1986. / Also available in print.

This thesis examines the group of political advisors within the government offices of a right-wing and left-wing government, showing differences between the two in terms of recruitment. The political advisors, among many roles both inside and outside the government offices, fall under the category of policy professionals. The policy professionals are defined as a social group employed without being elected, but perhaps capable of affecting policies. With collected resumes of policy professionals inside the government offices, the backgrounds of the policy professionals are examined showing differences in the qualities valued most in recruitment between the two governments selected for the thesis. The political profiles ‘media-talent’ and ‘party democrat’ show what type of government metamorphosis is present on the basis of Bernard Manin’s theory of the representative democratic form of government. The results showed a majority of policy professionals belong to the party democratic profile representing Bernard Manin’s second metamorphosis. The growing group of media-talent profiles within both governments however show, that the metamorphosis might be in a state of change, moving towards the public democracy.

This dissertation analyzes the effects of Latino immigration on the representation of Latinos and African-Americans on school boards and attempts to explain under what conditions Latino immigrants provoke opposition among whites. I consider two measures of representation based on representative bureaucracy—the membership of Latinos and African-Americans on school boards and bias in the responsiveness of white school board members toward these two groups. Whites as the major racial group in the U.S. have been the subject of much intergroup relations research focusing on competition for scarce resources, perceived threat and group biases (e.g., Evans and Giles, 1986; Giles and Evans, 1985, 1986; Esses, Jackson and Armstrong, 1998), and I also focus on their racial behaviors as voters in school board elections and as school board members. I consider Latino immigration in this research because emerging evidence suggests that Latino immigration poses a growing threat to whites, leading them to shift their support from Latinos to a countervailing group, such as African-Americans (e.g., Meier and Stewart, 1991; Rocha, 2007). It is likely that the reactions of whites to Latino immigration are conditioned by their preexisting racial attitudes, so this dissertation also tests competing theories of community racial climate—group threat and group contact. I expect that racial tensions within a community should moderate the influence of Latino immigration on these two forms of Latino and African-American representation. Overall, this dissertation expands the study of representative bureaucracy by combining past research on community racial climates with conditions influencing minority representation.

With increased immigration into western democracies, how to establish generalised trust in society has received new attention. Are minorities and immigrants low trust levels best remediated through Putnam’s theory of civil organisation engagement or Rothstein’s theory of impartial institutions? Simultaneously, people are hired based on their cultural identity to work with minorities and immigrants in Swedish public administration, which is thought to increase the target group’s trust. This resembles the ideas of representative bureaucracy and conflicts with traditional merit recruitment and Rothstein’s theory. This thesis uses an inductive ideal type method based on an assumption of thin rationality to study the phenomena of hiring based on cultural identity, which it names cultural professionalism. It askes firstly, what does cultural professionalism contribute with that makes it desirable for actors in public administration and how is this related to trust? Secondly, what are the trade-offs when using cultural professionalism in public administration? Through studying the rational of the phenomena for actors directly affected by it, the findings indicate that cultural professionalism is a way to communicate information and legitimise implementation towards minority groups. The cultural professionals use their trustworthiness within the group to link implementation and information from public administration towards the group, and information from the group towards public administration. This information also has a socialising potential. The trust is however particularised, i.e. not bridged to public administration. Problematic logics discovered in the material are evaluated towards the three values of public administration: democracy, rule of law and efficiency. In sum, cultural professionals imply trade-offs for democracy and rule of law, and appears to favour efficiency. Lastly, cultural professionalism is described and defined as a “new” ideal type legitimacy model in policy implementation.

Venezuela experienced one of the most dramatic political transformations of the twentieth century. After initially developing a system of representative democracy hailed among the most resilient in the Western Hemisphere in the 1950s, the country endured wave after wave of economic turmoil until, in 1998, Hugo Chávez was elected to the office of the Venezuelan presidency, fundamentally altering the governmental structure of the country and contributing to the desperate economic conditions Venezuela finds itself in today. This thesis attempts to explain the societal factors that led to Chávez’s election through an examination of Venezuelan economic policy in the final decades of the twentieth century. By charting the attempts made by specific Venezuelan political actors to address the unique conditions and dilemmas generated by the country’s largely oil-based economy during this period, it is argued that the economic policies enacted by Venezuela’s representative democracy systematically failed to address the needs and concerns of the country’s poor and working classes. As a result, political disillusionment among these social groups became increasingly more pervasive, finally reaching its full expression in the election of Chávez as an outsider candidate pledging to overhaul the Venezuelan political system in favor of poor and working class social sectors. Moreover, this text attempts to situate Chávez’s election as the result of a broader trend of inadequate economic policy beyond the commonly examined neoliberal reforms of the 1990s and ultimately serves to caution against an economic worldview that overlooks potential repercussions for society’s most vulnerable sectors.

Representation: This thesis on the topic of representation is focused generally on behalf of the Institute. It mainly deals with the rules contained in Civil Code, Act no. 89/2012 Coll. It desribes basic concepts and methods of resolution representation. Its interpretation focuses on the diferences between any forms of representation. In that case, it is not possible to write up the entire institution of the representation, which was one of the largest in the law. This work is therefore focused on the substantive representation, and especially on the conditions for the creation and termination of contractual representation and on guardianship and especially guardianship of individuals. The thesis contains also an outline of the historical development of the Institute's presence in our law, but again, considering the vastness of representation, it is not an exhaustive analysis, but merely mentioning the most significant sources. An element of this thesis is also an overview of the procedural representation in civil court proceedings. Adoption of the Civil Code Act no. 89/2012 Coll. had to institute represented a significant impact when to applicable law brought many new important sub-institutes, and greater clarity.

Representation The thesis on the representation is aimed generally on the institute of representation, basic concepts and resolution methods of representation. Given the scope of the thesis is not possible to cover discourse about all forms of representation and therefore is focused on substantive representation, whether contractual, statutory representation and other specific forms, especially human guardianship and guardianship of legal entities or representation of legal entities. In the thesis are included as information on the historical development of the Institute's the representation, especially since the general Civil Code and therefore early 19th century and comparison of current legislation contained in the Civil Code of 1964 and the new Civil Code, effective from 1 January 2014. Raised the major changes that will occur in the near future in the regulation of the representation, as well as outline the basic problems that this adjustment could bring in the practice of law. Is also pointed out to adjust representation in European law, konrkétně the Principles of European Contract Law and the Draft Common Frame of Reference.

My thesis relates to the action for liability due to lack of assets in French law and further deals with this institute in the Czech Republic as it can be found in § 68 of Business Corporations Act. Along with the common legislation of liability, I present the institute of faute, which is unknown to Czech law and I describe the French national legislation of the action for liability due to lack of assets. The Czech legislation, which addressed the form of the institute when creating the Business Corporations Act yields an interesting comparison given French law has long incorporated the tradition of the institute. To finish, my thesis deals with the amendment of Business Corporations Act as proposed by the Ministry of Justice in the end of 2016 and which is only at the beginning of the legislative process. In France the institute represents a special type of liability that can be established to statutory bodies when there is lack of assets. In the Czech Republic it is a special type of guarantee that can be established for a member or a former member of the business corporation's statutory body. The differences between the French and Czech legislation are mainly based upon the manner in which the fulfillment of the obligation by the statutory body is made. In France the statutory body's fulfillment goes...

第三次民主化浪潮及其所代表的世界性民主化转型使得许多人相信民主不仅具有其本身的价值，而且有助于提高大众的福利水平。不少学者曾研究过民主制度与社会福利产出之间的关系。然而，在解释两者关系时并未得到一致性的结论。在很多情况下，民主制国家在改善人类发展指标和提高福利水平方面并没得到社会所期待的结果，而且经常被非民主制国家所超越。政治制度如何影响社会福利表现？民主化和社会福利发展之间是否存在取舍矛盾？如果这种取舍矛盾存在，如何将民主化的社会代价减到最小？ / 本研究试图加深我们对政治制度性质与社会福利产出水平之间关系的理解。为此，本文以维度路径分析政治制度的不同维度如何影响政府采取不同类型的政策选择。本文的核心问题是：民主制的哪些方面有利于/不利于哪种公共政策的实现？民主的不同维度能够促进/抑制哪些政策？竞争性选举和公众参与形成本研究的两个自变量维度。本研究应变量的两个维度是两种政府回应性：政府对公民基本需求（basic needs）的回应，即代表了社会福利表现的改进，以及政府对公民要求（wants and demands）的回应，即代表了满足群体所呼吁的而非客观上对其有利的政策福利。两者在概念上有所不同。本文首先在理论上分析自变量和应变量不同维度之间的关系，继而引用实证科学的定量和定性基本方法来检验所建立的理论关系。 / 本研究证明，并非所有的导致回应要求（wants）的民主属性也有助于使政府回应基本需求（basic needs）。公众要求和公众客观需求作为公共政策所回应的目标具有不同的特征。从委托-代理理论框架来看，回应公众基本需求的政策需要政府采取不同于在回应主观要求时所采取的措施。由于这些不同点，在两个民主维度（政治竞争和公众参与）当中，只有后者对基本需求有积极影响，而前者往往会阻碍以回应基本需求为目的的政策。在政治竞争压力之下，追求选票最大化的政治家更倾向于采取回应社会现有要求的短期措施，且往往以忽视客观需求为代价。因此，为了避免民主化的高成本，需要促进民主的参与维度，且同时要缓解其竞争维度的激烈性。 / The shift towards democracy globally under the “third wave“ of democratization has stirred the conviction that democracy is not only a good thing in itself but also a promoter of general welfare. A considerable amount of research has been conducted to explore the effects of democracy on social outcomes. However, unequivocal conclusions regarding democracy’s impact on health, education, life expectancy and other aspects of human well-being have not been achieved. Many democracies do not perform as good as they are expected to and are often outperformed by non-democratic regimes. Questions appear: How does political regime affect social performance? Is there a trade-off between democratization, on the one hand, and social development, on the other? If there is, how should democratization be carried out so as not to inhibit human well-being? / This dissertation attempts to enhance our understanding of the impact of political regime on social outcomes by applying a dimensional approach. Instead of asking whether democracy is good or bad, it asks: which dimensions of political regime are good for which kinds of outcomes? What kinds of policies are promoted and what are inhibited by different dimensions of democracy? On the causal side are such regime dimensions as competition and participation; on the outcome side are two kinds of government action: responsiveness to people’s objective needs, which conceptually stands for improvement of social outcomes, and responsiveness to subjective wants and demands, which conceptually stands for giving people what they want regardless what is objectively good for them. The relations between these causal and outcome dimensions are explored both theoretically and empirically applying quantitative as well as qualitative methods. / The dissertation demonstrates that not all dimensions of democracy that induce governments to satisfy public wants and demands also work in case of basic needs satisfaction. Public needs and wants, as targets of policymaking, are different. Within a principal-agent framework, responsiveness to needs, compared to responsiveness to wants, implies different strategies of policymaking and has different political implications. Due to these differences, of the two regime dimensions only participation has systemic positive effect on social outcomes. Competition, more often than not, inhibits regime responsiveness to basic needs. In competitive settings, vote-maximizing politicians tend to opt for short-term wants-oriented policies, often at the expense of responding to objective needs. To make democratization less costly, therefore, participation should be encouraged, and competition should be tamed. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Korolev, Alexander. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2012. / Includes bibliographical references. / Abstract also in Chinese. / Chapter 1 / Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1. --- Question --- p.1 / Chapter 1.2. --- Methodology --- p.3 / Chapter 1.3. --- Argument --- p.6 / Chapter 1.4. --- Significance --- p.7 / Chapter 1.5. --- Research design and methods --- p.10 / Chapter 1.6. --- Plan --- p.14 / PART I / A DIMENSIONAL THEORY OF DEMOCRATIC RESPONSIVENESS / Chapter 2 / Literature Analysis: “Two Modes“ of Regime Responsiveness --- p.22 / Chapter 2.1. --- The Dual Nature of Government Action --- p.22 / Chapter 2.2. --- Democracy and Public “Wants“ --- p.27 / Chapter 2.3. --- Democracy and Public “Needs“ --- p.31 / Chapter 2.4. --- Summary --- p.34 / Chapter 3 / Needs, Wants, and Two Dimensions of Responsiveness --- p.38 / Chapter 3.1. --- Concept of Basic Needs and its Cognates --- p.40 / Chapter 3.2. --- Public “Needs“ vs. Public “Wants“ as Targets of Policy Making --- p.44 / Chapter 3.2.1. --- Observability --- p.45 / Chapter 3.2.2. --- Variability --- p.47 / Chapter 3.2.3. --- Malleability --- p.49 / Chapter 3.2.4. --- Satisfaction criteria --- p.51 / Chapter 3.3. --- Needs/wants Dichotomy and Regime Responsiveness --- p.53 / Chapter 3.3.1. --- Observability and the issue of information asymmetry --- p.54 / Chapter 3.3.2. --- Variability and planning frame for policy making --- p.58 / Chapter 3.3.3. --- Malleability and the possibility for manipulation --- p.59 / Chapter 3.3.4. --- Satisfaction criteria and substantiveness of policy response --- p.61 / Chapter 3.4. --- Summary --- p.62 / Chapter 4 / Two Dimensions of Democracy and Responsiveness to Basic Needs --- p.67 / Chapter 4.1. --- Multidimensionality of Regime’s Impact and Decomposition Criteria --- p.68 / Chapter 4.2. --- Political Competition and Regime Responsiveness to Basic Needs --- p.76 / Chapter 4.2.1. --- Competition dimension in theory --- p.77 / Chapter 4.2.2. --- Competition dimension in practice --- p.81 / Chapter 4.3. --- Political Participation and Regime Responsiveness to Basic Needs --- p.89 / Chapter 4.3.1. --- Participation dimension in theory --- p.89 / Chapter 4.3.2. --- Participation dimension in practice --- p.93 / Chapter 4.4. --- Summary --- p.98 / PART II / EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS / Chapter 5 / Competition, Participation and Basic Needs A Quantitative Test --- p.102 / Chapter 5.1. --- Research Strategies and Statistical Model --- p.102 / Chapter 5.2. --- Analysis of Variables and Indices --- p.105 / Chapter 5.2.1. --- Indicators and socio-economic characteristics of basic needs --- p.106 / Chapter 5.2.2. --- Definitions and characteristics of the regime variables --- p.110 / Chapter 5.2.3. --- Critical quantitative analysis of the state capacity variables --- p.116 / Chapter 5.2.4. --- Socioeconomic variables --- p.125 / Chapter 5.3. --- Methods and Results --- p.127 / Chapter 5.4. --- Regime and Needs: Theoretical Explanation of the Statistical Findings --- p.139 / Chapter 5.4.1. --- When elections foster and when hinder basic needs satisfaction --- p.140 / Chapter 5.4.2. --- How participation helps, or is helped by, basic needs attainment --- p.153 / Chapter 6 / Qualitative Illustrations: The Politics of Healthcare in China and US --- p.160 / Chapter 6.1. --- General Patterns of Health Needs Provision in China and US --- p.163 / Chapter 6.2. --- Destructive Competition and Healthcare Reform in the US --- p.173 / Chapter 6.2.1. --- Trends in American healthcare sector --- p.173 / Chapter 6.2.2. --- Failed attempts to reform healthcare --- p.177 / Chapter 6.2.3. --- “Obamneycare bugaboo and public fears of healthcare reform --- p.179 / Chapter 6.3. --- Mobilized Participation and Healthcare Reform in China --- p.185 / Chapter 6.3.1. --- China’s healthcare in the post-reform period --- p.187 / Chapter 6.3.2. --- Policy response and the reversal of negative trends --- p.190 / Chapter 6.3.3. --- Participation and health policy making in china --- p.192 / Chapter 6.4. --- Summary --- p.205 / Chapter 7 / Conclusion --- p.207 / References --- p.212

Thesis (Ph. D.)--State University of New York at Binghamton, Political Science Department, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references.