Poverty and inequality remain high in South Africa. Social grants are a mechanism implemented by the government to eradicate poverty. Post-apartheid South Africa has achieved significant transformation to adjust the ills imposed by the previous administration. Part of this transformation includes the transformation of the public service to render services effectively, efficiently and ethically. The focus of this study was to investigate how the administration of the Old Age Grants influences the livelihoods of beneficiaries in the Kgautswane rural community. Policy without effective, efficient and ethical implementation is as much use as none at all. The study investigated how policies of social security are implemented by people into practices that influence the quality of lives of beneficiaries. In the past, the use of grants was constrained by the complexity of the application process and onerous documentation requirements. This meant that many of those eligible for grants were not receiving them. Application was also complicated by the fact that the Department of Social Development, responsible for the administration of the grants, had inadequate capacity. In recognition of these constraints, the government endeavoured to simplify the grant administration process by establishing South African Social Security Agency (SASSA), an agency that is responsible for administering social grants. The Department of Social Development retained responsibility for policy development. Alleviating poverty will remain a key challenge for government. Social welfare is a necessity for South Africa as developmental state, but this implies that there is a need for a concerted effort by government to ensure the appropriate administration of this system to the benefit of the country, including the tax payers who fund the system. Beneficiaries remain dependent on the system for their continued livelihood, and the effective, efficient and ethical administration of the system will contribute to the development of a capable state, able to sustain the social contract with its citizens. / M Development and Management, North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

Mit der steigenden Verbreitung virtueller Unternehmensformen spielen auch verschiedene rechtliche Fragestellungen eine zunehmend wichtigere Rolle. Mit am wichtigsten ist dabei die Frage nach der Gesellschaftsform, da sich daraus einige weitere Punkte, wie z.B. die Haftung, ergeben. Im Rahmen des Projektes OPTIMA (Optimierte Arbeitsorganisation für virtuelle Dienstleistungsorganisationen) konnten das Fraunhofer Institut für Arbeitswirtschaft und Organisation zusammen mit einem Rechtsanwalt und einem Steuerberater zu diesem Themenkomplex Lösungsansätze erarbeiten. Dieser Beitrag schildert die typischen Problemstellungen bei Netzwerken insbes. kleiner Dienstleistungsunternehmen und zeigt an dem erarbeiteten Muster-Gesellschaftsvertrag mögliche Lösungen auf.

<p>This thesis will show how authoritarian governments rest legitimacy on their ability to create socio-economic development. It will point to some methods used to consolidate power by authoritarian leaders in Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia. An authoritarian regime that successfully creates development is strengthened and does not call for democratic change in the short run. It is suggested that the widely endorsed Lipset hypothesis, that development will eventually bring democratic transition, is true only when further socio-economic development requires that the economy transfers from being based on industrial manufacturing to knowledge and creativity – not on lower levels of development. Malaysia and Singapore have reached – or try to reach – this level of development today, but restrictions on their civil societies have still not been lifted.</p><p>This thesis describes modern political history in Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia in a Machiavellian tradition. The historical perspective will give a more or less plausible idea of how authoritarian regimes consolidated au-thority and what role development policies played in the leaders’ claims for authority. The conclusion will give a suggestion on how the political future in these three countries might evolve. It will point to the importance of an active and free civil society as a means to develop the nations further, rather than oppression.</p><p>This thesis will try to point to the dos and don’ts for authoritarian regimes. The ideas of Plato, Machiavelli and Hobbes provide the structures and methods that authoritarian regimes apply. It will be shown that a regime will disintegrate when it fails to comply with Plato’s and Machiavelli’s ideas. Al-though ancient, Plato and Machiavelli provide methods and structures that seem to carry relevance to the modern history of Southeast Asia.</p><p>I will point to how authoritarian rule can be maintained in the long run. What is required from the political leadership, what are their strategies and methods? What makes people to tolerate or topple authoritarian regimes? Why do some authoritarian regimes successfully create development while others do not? These are some of the questions this thesis will try to an-swer.</p>

This article traces different forms of the same present throughout several eras in American political and social history. I focus on two texts, John Locke’s Second Treatise of Government, and Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney’s majority opinion in Dred Scott v. Sandford, in order to examine slavery as a legal institution in the United States, and, in particular, the constitutionality of slavery. Rather than a massive contradiction, the Dred Scott decision is just another iteration of American political and racial philosophy as it was 100, even 200 years earlier. Taney’s opinion is a reflection of what the Lockean social contract came to look like in a racially hierarchized, colonial society. The Dred Scott decision paints one of the most accurate pictures of American political thought but is always written off as nothing but bad law. A close examination of race and social contract theory as they influenced the American Constitution gives insight into more productive ways to talk about race today.

The discovery of oil in commercial quantities in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria in the 1950s has brought with it both benefits and consequences, with the latter purported to have resulted in violence as well as the loss of lives and properties (Hummels, 1998; Eweje, 2007). This study examines the nature of the relationships existing between stakeholders in the industry and the understanding of the connections between these relationships and CSR in the industry. This resulted in the choice of Social Contract and Resource Dependence theories to be used in harmony as part of the theoretical base for this study, as a further expansion of Stakeholder theory. The Social Contract theory helps to bring out the place of agreement in the maintenance of these relationships between stakeholders, with the resources being crucial in the determination of the power balance. The study was a qualitative one that involved interviews and surveys amongst the different stakeholders that make up the industry (oil companies, host communities, NGOs, Experts). The data gathered was analysed using Thematic Discourse Analysis, with the aim of finding out how the words and phrases used by respondents gave an indication of their perceptions and actions in these relationships. This thesis results in the proposition of a Micro-System Perspective Model which asserts that different stakeholders start their relationships with each other with varying objectives that can only be achieved as outcomes, only if certain mechanisms are properly applied to these relationships. These mechanisms are resources, licences and agreements impact these relationships as reflected by the different features of these relationships. This model also emphasizes the separation of the government from the relationship between the oil companies and the host communities and as a result can carry out its roles in the industry without bias. Also, the relationships between stakeholders in the industry are deemed to be dynamic in nature, as influenced by the use of these mechanisms by the different stakeholders in their interaction with each other. The findings show that such dynamism is also caused by the management of these relationships through the CSR activities undertaken by the oil companies operating in the various parts of the region. As a result, CSR is viewed in the region as being a social obligation owed to the host communities by the oil companies. It is asserted that the definition and identification of stakeholders should not be based on their relationships with the firm (Freeman, 1984), but on their relationships with the industry and its resource which should be deemed the focal point. In line with this, the findings show that the salience of a stakeholder group is not just dependent upon their power, urgency and legitimacy alone as earlier purported by Mitchell et al (1997). On the contrary, these attributes together with the resources held by such stakeholders are crucial in deciding who controls these relationships between stakeholders. This study makes significant contributions to knowledge, especially in relation to the advancement of stakeholder debate and theory. It proposes that stakeholders should be identified not just based on their relationships with the firm but a consideration of their control of the resources deemed crucial by other stakeholders. Such a relationship with the industry and its resource is deemed crucial in determining stakeholder salience, thereby leading to the call for resources to be regarded as a stakeholder attribute in addition to urgency, power, legitimacy and proximity which is another contribution. The study also shows the different challenges and complexities of managing stakeholder relationships in the region that cause these relationships to be dynamic in nature. The proposal of a Micro System Perspective is another contribution as this has a direct implication for the Nigerian Oil industry and its impact on the different stakeholders involved in its operations.

of the diploma thesis Janoščík Václav The Concept of Autonomy (Conditions of modern subjectivity, of the concept of law and of historicity) Submitted thesis aims at articulation of the concept of autonomy in its complexity. At first it pursues specific contexts of the notion to arrive at its structure. At first we try to explore prospective of analytical philosophy of law to situate the concept of autonomy to the heart of the idea of law. This efforts unfolds itself by an unorthodox interpretation of natural right theory of Herbert Hart's early work. Second chapter discusses the framework of the philosophy of history, that are based on the idea of an autonomous subject. Seemingly paradoxical linkage of Heidegger's fundamental ontology and Kosík's dialectics of the particular articulates the historical function of the autonomy. Next chapter connects Kosík with Cornelius Castoriadis in the perspective of social theories. Also in their normative core we can identify our notion of autonomy. Fourth chapter follows the theory of disenchantment of the world of Marcel Gauchet. We reformulate it as a realization of the ideal of autonomous subject in order to contextualize the concept historically. Last topic of the first part is the framework of the intellectual history. Here we situate Dieter Henrich and...

Ce projet de thèse explore les identités culturelles de la Renaissance de Harlem, aussi bien que les croisements épistémologiques et les agentivités littéraires et artistiques de cette période. Dans un premier temps, le projet s’intéresse à mettre en évidence les discours et les pratiques épistémiques qui traversèrent la Renaissance de Harlem lors de son débout. Notamment, les parrains et activistes de la Renaissance (Du Bois, Locke) sont étudiés dans leur rapport intellectuel avec le discours nationaliste américain; cet étude est situé dans le contexte d'urbanisation et réglementation des corps et des espaces tel qu'il eut lieu à New York au début du XX siècle, époque de la Grande Migration des noirs du Sud au Nord des États Unis. L'analyse se complexifie en considérant comment les pratiques artistiques mais aussi ludiques de Harlem s'approprient des identités genrées et racisées produites par le pouvoir étatique national, et comment les modernistes blanc.hes s'insèrent dans ces processus à niveau épistémique, discursif et poétique. Deuxièmement, le projet engage une lecture approfondie de l’œuvre de l'écrivain noir jamaïcain Claude McKay. Les écritures de McKay permettent de dégager des axes thématiques révélatrices des préoccupations communes aux parrains de la Renaissance: notamment le rapport à la performance des identitées racisées et gendrées dans les discours politiques et propagandistes nationalistes du début du XX siècle. D’ailleurs, les écrits de McKay dépassent la formalisation idéaliste du “black folk” (Du Bois) portée par les élites culturelles de la Renaissance de Harlem, pour se situer sur un terrain plus matériel et existentiel. A partir du style dialogique des écrits de McKay, et de leur rapport aux écritures nationalistes européennes, le projet réfléchit donc à la notion d’intersubjectivité, alors que la littérarité des ouvrages de la Renaissance de Harlem est mise en avant et étudiée en relation aux subjectivités noires et blanches qui s’affrontent ou rencontrent dans le panorama national de l’époque. Troisièmement, le style et les figures culturelles et poétiques déployées dans la fiction de McKay guident l’étude des oeuvres signées par Wallace Thurman, Richard Bruce Nugent, Nella Larsen, aussi bien qu’une discussion des ouvrages par des auteurs et autrices blanches. Ici, la question méthodologique de la mort de l’auteur, mise à l'épreuve des concepts de race et de genre, sera ultérieurement approfondie afin de dégager un éventail d’identités culturelles le plus vaste et riche possible, et d’interroger les rapports de pouvoir liés à la performance de ces identités dans les arts et la littérature de l'époque. / This research project explores the cultural identities and the literary and artistic agencies of the Harlem Renaissance. Firstly, discourses and epistemological practices that traversed the Harlem Renaissance are highlighted in a short intellectual genealogy of the movement. In particular, the relationship of the godfathers of the Harlem Renaissance (W.E.B. Du Bois, Alain Locke) to the American nationalist discourse is given front stage. Such relationship is considered on the background of early-XX-century New York urbanization and regulamentation of bodies and spaces, as the Great Migration of black Americans from the South to the North was taking place. The analysis is complexified by considerations on how, in Harlem, artistic and recreational practices appropriated gendered and racialized identities generated by national state power; also, white modernists' epistemic, discursive and poetic participation to the process is explored. Successively, the research project engages with the reading of black Jamaican author Claude McKay’s literary works. McKay’s writings allow us to trace some thematic axes that show commonalities with the Renaissance godfathers’ concerns, notably in relation to the performance of raced and gendered identities in political and propagandistic discourses of the beginning of the XX century. Yet, it appears that McKay’s writings exceed the idealist formalization of the “black folk” (Du Bois) supported by the cultural elites of the Renaissance, to occupy a ground which privileges a material and existential outlook. Elaborating from the dialogism that characterizes McKay’s writings, and from their relation to European nationalist fictions, the thesis reflects on the notion of intersubjectivity as the literariness of the Harlem Renaissance works is considered and put in relation to black and white subjectivities that clash or meet on the national panorama of the time. Thirdly, the style and cultural figures that appear in the McKay’s fiction provide some guidelines to the study of the works by black writers Wallace Thurman, Richard Bruce Nugent, Nella Larsen, as well as of the works by white writers such as Carl Van Vetchen. Contextually, the methodological question of the death of the author will be further explored in order to extricate a vast and complex specter of cultural identities, and to question power relations linked to the performance of such identities in the arts and writings of the time.

Esta dissertação tem como objetivo fazer uma leitura da obra do pensador genebrino Jean-Jacques Rousseau, que vai da descrição do homem no estado natural à crítica do homem no estado social, tomando como enfoque os conceitos de liberdade e igualdade. O autor utiliza-se de relações epistemológicas entre estado primitivo, natureza e cultura, origem da felicidade, descrições e investigações acerca de qualidades tais como: a igualdade, liberdade, amor-de-si, piedade natural e perfectibilidade; que fariam parte, segundo ele, da constituição ontológica ou natural do homem. É com base nesses conceitos que Rousseau articula sua crítica à sociedade e analisa a liberdade e igualdade do homem no estrado natural e social. Considerando que este tema não se restringe a uma determinada obra, mas que está presente em praticamente todo o conjunto de seu pensamento filosófico, perpassando o Discurso sobre as ciências e as artes, Discurso sobre a origem e os fundamentos da desigualdade entre os homens, Emílio e no Contrato Social. É com o propósito de investigar esta problemática baseada principalmente nas obras citadas anteriormente que desenvolveremos a presente dissertação. / This thesis has an objective to make the analyses by the Genevan thinker Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who goes, from the description of the man in the natural state to the critic of the man in the social state. The author utilized of epistemological relations between, been natural and social state, nature and culture and property, as well as, descriptions and investigations about qualities such as: equality, freedom, love-of-himself, natural mercy and perfectibility; that they would be part, according to him, of the ontological or natural constitution of the man. It is with base in those concepts that Rousseau articulates its critic to the society and analyzes the freedom and equality of the man in the natural and social state. Considering that this subject is not restricted to a certain work, but that, is present in practically in all the set of its philosophical thoughts, for such reason was necessary to find resources to different texts, between which we mentioned: The Speech on sciences and the arts, the Speech on the origin and the foundations of the inequality between the men, Emilio and the Social Contract. It is in order to investigate this problematic issue, cradle mainly in the previously works mentioned, that we will develop the present dissertation.

The diploma thesis is focused on social contract theories, as presented by the philosophers Thomas Hobbes, John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. My research is based on Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes, Second Treatise of Government by John Locke and Discourses and The Social Contract by Jean-Jacque Rousseau. In their respective theories, these authors present their opinions on how any state comes to life through entering into a social contract and how it should operate. The aim of my thesis is to look into their theories and using method of comparison to determine how they correspond with each other on the fundamental aspects of their ideas. These include the natural state, the act of entering into a social contract, the sovereign, sovereignty and the order of state establishment. The research suggests that although the authors agree on some points, in some cases they differ significantly. It also shows the significant influence of the environments and events experienced by the authors during their lives, on the formation of their thoughts and theories. At the very end of the thesis there is a reflection on the legitimacy of the Constitution of the Czech Republic and the contribution of the theories of appointed authors to today's society.

Perceptual differences in how citizens and police view police-initiated contacts can result in individual and communal tension, mistrust, and social strife, which complicate the relationships needed in order to thrive and promote safe environments. To examine how police officers interpret these contacts, this case study sought to explore the nature of citizen-police relations from the perspective of police officers in a city in the northwest part of the United States. Social contract and procedural justice theories were used to examine the circumstances that officers cited for taking enforcement actions, including operational definitions of police fairness and legitimacy from the Queensland Community Engagement Trial. Data were collected from interviews with 10 officers during police ride-alongs and from departmental data related to officer performance. These data were inductively coded and then analyzed using a naturalistic inquiry approach. Findings suggest that police officers were amenable to creating formal, quasi-contractual agreements between police and citizens based on a shared understanding of how police exercised power and discretion to guide the citizen-police interaction. Participants perceived that, under certain circumstances, explaining police discretion to citizens may decrease the level of community tension police officers experience. These findings support the theoretical constructs of procedural justice and have implications for social contract theory. This type of arrangement encourages positive social change by strengthening the ties with community members, which in turn promotes officer and public safety.