published_or_final_version / Politics and Public Administration / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

This dissertation uses the history of political thought to shed light on the disconnect between the prominent place of judgments about the character in American democratic life, and the marginalized place of those judgments in contemporary democratic theory. By tracing the origins of that disconnect back into the history of political philosophy, and by locating an alternative approach to questions of character in the political and ethical writings of Aristotle, the dissertation brings out important connections between contemporary democratic theory and key developments in the history of ideas, and it recovers an ancient account of character that turns out still to be relevant to the dynamics of modern citizenship. The dissertation begins by showing how character is key to Aristotle‘s distinction between "correct" and "deviant" regimes in the Politics: not only are correct regimes distinguished by the character of those who rule, but the distinguishing feature of citizen-rulers in more correct regimes turns out to be their ability to appreciate what is excellent in the character of their fellow citizens. I then trace the decline of Aristotle‘s approach in the work of Machiavelli, Hobbes, Rousseau, and Kant, showing how Machiavelli‘s famously unsettling account of the relationship between moral goodness, political leadership, and popular government made its way into the foundations of later democratic theory. Finally, I return to Aristotle, showing how his treatment of philia or "friendship" in his ethical writings provides an important prelude to the ideas from the Politics we will already have considered. By taking into account both the high and often noble aspirations that inform considerations of character but also their potential to derail into disenchantment or dangerous ill-will, Aristotle‘s approach offers a theory capable of engaging directly with both the promise and the pitfalls of character judgments in democratic life. / Government

Employment relations literature is concerned with what is exchanged between the employer and the employee via an employment contract, a social contract or a psychological contract, with perceived mutual obligations (Rousseau, 1995; Capelli, 1999; Kalleberg, 2001). The psychological contract finds its foundation in the perceptions of the employee, that is, what the employee believe the employer has offered the employee in terms of their work relationship and the social contract refers to the expectations and obligations employers and employees have for their work and the employment relationship (Grahl, & Teague, 2009). The new employment contract differs from the old employment contract in that it is largely informal and even unwritten (Gilbert, 1996). This is in line with the new trend of business management as used by people-driven world-class organisations with a globalised focus (Gilbert, 1996). A research need exists to examine the potentially different or redundant effects of promises and expectations on the development of the obligations that are perceived to constitute the employment, the social and the psychological contracts (Martocchio, 2004; Shore, Tetrick, Taylor, Coyle-Shapiro, Liden, McLean-Parks, et al. 2004). The primary objective of this research is to investigate the relationship between the social- and the psychological contracts of private security employees (N=217) in the Vaal Triangle in terms of employability, job insecurity, job satisfaction, life satisfaction and intention to quit. This study is submitted in article form. The research method for each of the two articles consists of a brief literature review and an empirical study. Factor analyses, as well as Cronbach alpha coefficients were computed to assess the reliability of the research. Validity, Pearson product moment correlation coefficients as well as regression analysis were utilised to examine the relationship between the constructs employed in this research. The Employment Contract Scale (ECS) was also utilised as a research instrument, as the questionnaire-method proves to be largely reliable. Reliability analysis confirmed sufficient internal consistency of the subscales. The observed correlations were found to be comparable with the values reported in previous research by Edward and Karau (2007). By using multiple regression analysis, it was established that by investigating the relationship between the social- and the psychological contracts of private security employees (N=217) in the Vaal Triangle in terms of employability, job insecurity, job satisfaction, life satisfaction and intention to quit (the primary objective of this research) that job satisfaction and intention to quit predicted the social contract and that job satisfaction and life satisfaction predicted the psychological contract. No relationship however exists between employability, intention to quit and the psychological contract. Recommendations are advanced for future research. / MA (Labour Relations Management) ,North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2013

Thesis (M.A. in Political Science)--Vanderbilt University, May 2006. / Title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Carleton University, 1988. / Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2003. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 257-283).

Thesis--Hessischen Ludwigs-Universität zu Giessen. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. [3]-[5]).

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本文主旨是要說明：就《道德形上學》的論述而言，康德在何種意義上能夠被視為一個契約論思想家。本文將從兩條線索出發來理解康德所提出的契約論，這兩條線索分別是：康德的財產權理論、以及契約論中處理政治權威正當性時所必須面對的統一性問題。 本文認為：康德所提出的作為理念的原初契約，是一種提供給已處身在政治社會之下的個人，去設想當下所面對的法律強制力之正當性的方式。藉由康德在《純粹理性批判》之中對於「理念」的界定，可以將賦予原初契約一個確實的契約作用：人民的同意。儘管是一個被想像的同意，但康德賦予它積極的意義即形塑公民為一個自主、自律的主體，因此，在這個面向上，本文認為康德提出了儘管與霍布斯、洛克、盧梭迥異但卻仍然極富意義的契約論。 / The purpose of this thesis is that Kant should be seen as a theorist of the social contract theory in the discourse of the Metaphysics of Morals. This thesis will perceive the social contract theory provided by Kant in accordance to two clues, including the theory of property and the problem of unity. The main point of the thesis is that the original social contract as an idea of reason is the method providing for the individual existing in the civil society of constructing the legitimacy of the political authority. By definition of “Idea” in Critique of Pure reason, Kant gives the original social contract a meaningful function: the consent of people. Though the consent is a concept imagined by the people, Kant gives it a positive meaning of forming the people to the independent subject in politics. In conclusion, this thesis claims that Kant provided a meaningful social contract theory different from other theorists in the social contract tradition, such as Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau.

Contemporary Hobbesian contractarianism began in the wake of John Rawls' revitalization of contractarianism in A Theory of Justice and the subsequent body of critical literature which has grown up around it. Philosophers have been impressed with Rawls' powerful application of a contractarian framework to traditional issues in moral and political philosophy but dismayed at the extensive normative precommitments of his particular contractarian theory. They have thus sought an equally powerful contractarian approach unwed to strong normative precommitments. Of all extant contractarian theories, Thomas Hobbes' theory in Leviathan uniquely constitutes such an approach. Like all contractarians, Hobbes specifies a hypothetical choice problem consisting of a choice environment, a choice problem, and a method of resolution. But Hobbes' choice environment purports to make virtually no substantive normative precommitments. The strength of Hobbesian contractarianism is that it seeks to generate substantive normative conclusions from premises established in a normatively minimalistic theoretical framework, and thus promises not to beg any fundamental normative questions. This dissertation considers in detail three comprehensive and game-theoretically sophisticated books which are central to the current corpus of contemporary Hobbesian contractarianism. These are Jean Hampton's Hobbes and the Social Contract Tradition, Gregory Kavka's Hobbesian Moral and Political Theory, and David Gauthier's Morals by Agreement. We explain the common denominators and points of divergence among these theories while undertaking an extensive critical investigation of each. Two fundamental themes emerge from these investigations. First, Hobbesian contractarianism tends to run afoul of collective action problems at various levels of its overall argument. Collective actions problems arise when the requirements of individual and collective rationality diverge. Second, the normative minimalism which is heralded as the primary virtue of Hobbesian contractarianism is also revealed as one of its fundamental problems. By minimalizing its normative precommitments, Hobbesian contractarianism undermines its ultimate goal of generating powerful normative conclusions.