There is a growing field of literature concerning the staging, management and planning for large scale sports events; the evaluation of these events and the reasons why nations, but more recently cities, attempt to host these events, but few studies have attempted to provide a theoretically informed analysis of the processes by which these decisions are made. This study builds upon those existing studies in this area which outlined a method for exploring decisions to host, but furthers the analysis through the consideration of policy models, most notably the Multiple Streams Framework (Kingdon, 1984), in order to provide a sophisticated understanding of how such policy decisions are taken at the local level. Within the context of a critical realist epistemology, case studies of three United Kingdom bids (Sheffield s bid for the 1991 Universiade; Manchester s bid for the 2000 Olympic Games and Glasgow s bid for the 2014 Commonwealth Games) were undertaken. Content analysis of documents, triangulated with semi-structured interviews with the majority of key actors involved in, and excluded from, the processes were carried out in order for geographical, methodological and theoretical triangulation to be undertaken. The three bids were selected from across a twenty year period in order to test the hypothesis that the decision-making process for events would had become more and centrally-led over time. The results indicate that, while no analytical framework provides a perfect fit , the Multiple Streams Framework and its focus on policy entrepreneurialism is highly useful in explaining the elevation of these events onto local political agendas. Despite the increased centralisation of United Kingdom sport policy, local/regional actors were able to operate with surprising freedom and take advantage of apparent coincidences in order to achieve their objectives. The wider implications of these results include providing a stimulus for researchers to build upon the limited body of literature that applies policy theory to sports policy issues and also to stimulate research in the international context.

Lebanon is a unique country. Its small size, numerous communities, geographical context, history of conflicts and foreign invasions contributes in making this research a unique study in the field of humanities and social sciences. The study of such a case gets even more complex when it comes to the evaluation of the position of sport in this society; especially since the Lebanese Government has never considered sport and the betterment of sport among its priorities. Lebanese sport reflects all the different parameters of the Lebanese scene: economic difficulties, administrative problems, religious and political tension. The situation of sport in this country is rendered even more complicated by the fact that the budget granted to sport is relatively very small; a fact that is not only detailed but is proven to have direct effects on the low position that Lebanon has in the different international sport rankings. Academically, research on this field is also still very limited and the very few works done in this domain are more descriptive than analytic. The aims of this thesis, new in its kind, is, first, to do an analysis on the sport policy administered in Lebanon from 1975 to 2004, and, then, after defining its different characteristics, propose a plan for development.

The UKSG was a government-funded initiative that provided a high-quality, multi-sport event for the UK s elite young athletes of school age over a six-year period. At time of investigation, the event addressed six objectives (both developmental and operational in focus) through eight Olympic sports. Operational targets ensured that athletes were selected to compete at the UKSG. Developmental targets were indirectly linked to the event and made use of the UKSG profile to drive forward other youth related projects, such as the National Competition Framework (NCF). This study explored the outcomes of these objectives, whilst understanding the relationship between the Youth Sport Trust (YST) and eight sports, and locating the implementation of the UKSG within a broader analysis of the policy process for youth / school sport. The study utilized various policy process and implementation concepts to support analysis of findings. In particular, bottom-up and top-down theories of policy implementation and the advocacy coalition framework, policy networks and multiple streams approaches proved particularly useful as heuristic devices or useful points of comparison in the analysis of stages of policy process. The findings from the three case study sports (supported by the data collected from the five other investigated sports) made for interesting conclusions in relation to the three research questions: 1). What are the key impacts of the UKSG on the competition structures of the eight sports? 2). What is the relationship between the key organisations involved in the UKSG and the NCF? And 3). What is the perceived role of each of the organisations involved in the UKSG and the NCF? Through investigating the eight sports approach to the six UKSG objectives, empirical evidence was collected that related specifically to the sport s approach to youth competition and their newly established NCF (objectives two and three). Evidence identified these objectives as the most challenging of the six to address, due to the looseness of their definition and scope for reinterpretation across and within the sport organisations. With this flexibility came differences in inter-organisational power (between home country NGBs and School Sport Associations) and therefore policy implementation. This inevitably led to mismatches in policy expectations of the YST and policy outcomes delivered by the sports. The study moves on to reveal that the six UKSG objectives proved capable of challenging, and in some cases, changing NGB behavior, albeit through several different implementation approaches. In particular, the UKSG was a programme that supported the positive development of home country NGB and School Sport Association communication and working practices.

This study has sought to address the nature of the evolution of sports policy in ROC/Taiwan since 1973, within the context of a strategic relations approach to the analysis of policy. These aims have been addressed by the development of the analysis of the ROC/Taiwan's position in international relations and its implications for sports policy; of the internal structure and history of the state at national level and their implications for national level policy; and finally, analysis of the local government context. In each case explanation sought to identify both the structural context of policy development and the explanation provided by individual policy actors. The empirical analysis of policy draws on the evidence provided by key actors in the ROC/Taiwan state who have played a significant role in enabling sports policy output. In order to understand sports policy mechanisms since 1973, politicians' perceptions (evidenced in a review of parliamentary debates from 1984 to 2002) provide a useful empirical picture of sports policy. Other data sources employed included government reports, and press accounts as well as interviews with policy actors. The interviewees were drawn from the central government civil service, local government, the national governing bodies of sport and the business community (n--21). Qualitative data analysis software (QSR) was used to manage and organise the data in an inductive and deductive thematic analysis. The theoretical framework on which the study draws involves a recognition that the state is influenced by particular interest groups (characterised in the thesis as the neo-pluralist position), in which elites (the neo-elitist position) often, though not exclusively, drawn from business interests (the neo-Marxist position) are in evidence. The particular make-up of these groups will vary according to the issues concerned at the particular point of time in the history of the ROC/Taiwan state on which one focuses. In the early stages of the ROC/Taiwan state, the military elite was closely allied with the business elite'and with ethnic interest groups (Mainlander Chinese groups rather than native Taiwanese). Such political and ethnic divisions subsequently had an impact on party political affiliations and on the geographic location of facilities and services as the North and Souih of"the' island, and those cities under the Kuomintang and Democratic Progressive Party control, vied with one another to capture resources.

This thesis has sought to investigate the development of Chinese elite sport policy after the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games through examining the evolution of the Chinese Olympic discourses and elite sport policy discourses with emphasis on the power and interests reflected and constructed within and by these discourses. This study adopts a Critical Discourse Analysis approach, (founded on Critical Realist premises). The discourse analysis protocol employed is modified from Fairclough s (2005, 2009) framework, also known as Dialectical-Relational Approach, to examine the constitution and implementation of power at the meso and micro levels of relationships within Chinese elite sport. The analysis is based on archival material and semi-structured interviews. Rather than providing a detailed chronology of the Chinese Olympic movement and of Chinese elite sport, the analysis, divided into two main parts, starts with identifying critical periods as the start line of the analysis and points of division that separate these periods. The analysis of the pre-2008 era starts with the year 1993, in which the first Olympic bid by China failed and the second significant reforming policy of Chinese elite sport was published. This section of the thesis consists of an analytic description of the development of Chinese elite sport policy and the analysis of Chinese Olympic discourse and elite sport discourse before the 2008 Olympics. The post-2008 section contains the analysis of these two discourses after the Beijing Games, and develops case studies of three sports, baseball, diving and table tennis, attempting to unveil the development of Chinese elite sport policy in the post-2008 era. From 1993 to 2012, a consistent feature was the concurrent requirement of both reform and of satisfactory elite sport performance, was maintained in Chinese elite sport policy discourse. The power of discourses in relation to these dual goals has varied across the period, has been influenced by a number of factors, and has been maintained by the dominant group within Chinese society and within Chinese elite sport exercising their power over discourse. The thesis argues that the characterisation of Chinese elite sport and of its development has varied with the change in the power relationship between the two sets of goals, which has significantly influenced the key developments and change in Chinese elite sport policy and its governance system.

The research analyses stability and change in the English/British elite sport policy landscape in the period 2005 to early 2014. In the context of a recession and change of government, the policy environment could be described as turbulent and cuts to public funding and commitment to deregulation have been key features of the overarching policy landscape. There was an assumption that elite sport would not be immune from the policy turbulence. The policy landscape is described as consisting of three elements: organisations, public funding and political salience. The original contribution of the thesis is threefold: first, in relation to the empirical study of the relative impact of the political and economic turbulence on the elite sport system; second, in the application of institutional theory and punctuated equilibrium theory to the analysis of elite sport policy; and third, the application of theory to explain the extent of stability uncovered through the empirical research. The research used a case study approach. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 senior officials from sport in England/the UK from both sport-specific NGBs and organisations with wider, national remits for elite sport and incorporating both government and non-government organisations. Due to the sample of interviewees, the nuances of elite interviewing were an important consideration for the researcher. A document analysis study was also carried out. Through the existing literature and the data gathered, three cases emerged and were examined in depth: youth talent search and development; nurturing and transferring talent; and sustaining world class athletes. Thematic analysis was used to examine the data. The data revealed that the policy landscape was, for the most part, stable in the period studied. There were changes to the intensity of financial and political support and refinements of policy objectives, especially due to the hosting of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, but the overall policy aims remained consistent. The reasons identified for this stability were as follows: the absence of an alternative, critical lobby; strong leadership in the sector; and the hosting of the London 2012 Games. The long-term impact of Labour s Modernisation agenda was found to have contributed to the stable governance of elite sport, which includes a structure for decision-making and accountability around funding of NGBs by UK Sport. Historical Institutionalism was found to offer the most useful meso-level framework for analysis of the data and clear critical junctures and path formation phases could be identified.

This thesis seeks to analyse to what extent, in what ways and with what success does the Chinese government seek to manage its interaction with sport globalisation in Olympic Movement, football and basketball? Held et al's (1999) conceptualisation of globalisation provides the major theoretical framework for the analysis. In order to analyse the behaviour of the Chinese state we adopt Houlihan's (1994) concepts of 'reach' and 'response' which focus attention on global actors and pressures external to the country and state (reach) and the capacity of states to determine their response. A set of quantitative and qualitative indicators of globalisation have been identified. Data were collected from a number of sources including official government documents, news media, and a series of 32 interviews with Chinese officials. The analysis reveals that the Chinese government has demonstrated a desire and a capacity to manage the impact of the Olympic Movement, global football and basketball on domestic sport practices; and second, the Chinese government has attempted, with reasonable success, to manage the impact of commercial interests on Chinese domestic football, basketball and other Olympic sports practices, elite athletes and professional clubs. However, a number of tensions exist: first, between the priorities of commercial clubs and national teams' development; and second, between the highly paid and internationally mobile 'star players' and the centrally controlled elite development system.

The purpose of this thesis was to explore the development of elite sport through national sport policy within a developing country, Jamaica. Taking a qualitative approach, the thesis drew on the SPLISS framework (De Bosscher et al., 2006, 2015) to understand government influence in the development of elite sport, through policy, and to investigate other contributing factors for elite sporting success. A logic model illustrated the input-throughput-output pillars of the SPLISS framework, and aided in the interpretation of both a theoretical and rival proposition (Yin, 2018). This thesis purpose, accomplished in part by exploring the most successful elite sport in Jamaica, athletics (track and field), incorporated three interconnected studies on that developing country’s national sport system, a sport system that produced its first Olympic success in 1948, forty-six years before the introduction of national sport policy. Three interconnected studies allowed for findings that highlighted the roots of Jamaica’s sport development, beginning with the introduction of a school and community sport system by the former colonial British government, and retained and expanded by the Jamaican government from 1962. The findings also highlighted that the school and community sport systems facilitated a local approach to the development and training for athletics. It included factors outside of the influence of government, such as the impact of coaches and role models that assisted in creating a fraternity in the sport through tradition, culture and passion, and established an environment for elite sport. This environment involved a collaboration between educational institutions and the professional local club system, and represents the critical elements in the success of athletics, indicating that the influence of government policies for sport development was not impacting international sporting success up to 2017. The interconnected studies also provided support for gaps identified in the SPLISS framework and the literature on elite sport policy. For SPLISS, the findings provided evidence in understanding what happens when input factors are processed (the ‘black box’) leading to outputs, and national outcomes. For the literature, the thesis found that an historical context is important in understanding the coalescing of micro-, macro-, and meso-level factors for elite sporting success.

Government involvement in New Zealand sport spans over 70 years from provisions of the Physical Welfare Act in 1937 to current provisions of the Sport and Recreation Act 2002. Thousands of volunteers in non-profit organisations continue to underpin New Zealand's sport system. It is axiomatic that sport defines part of what it means to be a New Zealander. Governments frequently use the rhetoric of community cohesion, national pride, life skills and public health benefits to justify its involvement. This thesis examines the impact of government intervention on the sport sector, its funding paradigms and the extent of sector engagement in a policy for sport. Through an examination of available government and sport sector records, and the author's own experience as a participant in events, the thesis recounts a sequence of five milestones for the New Zealand sport system and views them through a public management system lens. The passing of the Physical Welfare and Recreation Act in 1937, the establishment of a Ministry and Council for Recreation and Sport in 1973, the ministerial Sports Development Inquiry in 1984, the Prime Minister's Review of High Performance Sport in 1995 and the Sport, Fitness and Leisure Ministerial Taskforce. Government funding of sport now stands at around $100 million annually from small beginnings of $3,295 in 1945/1946, despite the absence of a comprehensive national policy for sport. By examining the chronology through a wider state sector lens, the thesis opens a window to the practical effect of public policy processes on matters of importance to the New Zealand sport sector and its voluntary sector foundations. This thesis also provides a rationale for revitalising the engagement between government and the New Zealand sport sector to meet the expectations of a modern state sector to meaningfully engage citizens and the non-government sector in the formation of policy and planning its implementation.

There is a lack of knowledge on how alternative forms of sports facility provision influences end user's sports and physical activity behaviour, and the consequent impact this has on their health, well-being and social capital. To address this knowledge gap, this thesis has undertaken a multi-level analysis of the sport delivery system. It examines if strategic priorities and objectives pursued by different types of sport and fitness facilities, that are being influenced by macro level forces, along with their characteristics and ownership, influences individuals sport participation behaviour with a potential consequent impact on the policy outcomes of health, well-being and social capital. In the UK recently, sport policy objectives have focussed on increasing the population s participation in sport and physical activity to enhance a range of outcomes including health, well-being and social capital. Over the last three decades, there has also been significant changes in sport provision with the growth of private sector facilities, and public sector facilities being outsourced to private management. However, there is no evidence of the effectiveness of these alternative arrangements in delivering the policy objectives. There is limited knowledge on how different agents and actors in the sport delivery system function collectively to achieve these objectives or not, and a multi-level analysis of the sport delivery system i.e., from policy, through facilities, to end users does not exist. This gap in knowledge is addressed in this thesis through the adoption of a mixed methods case study of Leicestershire and Rutland Sport-County Sport Partnership (LRS-CSP) region in the midlands of England. The sport participation of individuals who use differently owned and managed sport and fitness facilities in the LRS-CSP region is examined, and the impact this has on their health, well-being and social capital, from macro level (policy), meso level (facilities), and micro level (end users) perspectives. Data collected at these levels involves, semi-structured interviews with the regional managers (macro level) who are responsible for the development and provision of sport in the region, a quantitative survey involving the facility managers (meso level) who are responsible for the day-to-day activities of the facilities, and quantitative survey and focus groups of end users in the region (micro level). Surveys done at the meso and the micro level are matched to the facilities of a variety of different ownership and characteristics to explore the influence this might have on individuals participation frequency and the impact this has on their health, well-being and social capital. The results show that government and public sport agencies priorities towards the sports sector which operate at the macro level of the sport delivery system influence the strategic objectives pursued by different types of sport and fitness facilities that are responsible for sport provision at the meso level of the sport delivery system. Public sport agencies and government bodies through their policies seem to have a significant influence over public sector including LMC facilities strategic decision making. However, this is not the case for the private sector facilities. Neither the strategic objectives of facilities nor their ownership and characteristics are shown to have a significant difference on the users sport participation behaviour, nor on the sport policy outcomes of their health, well-being and social capital. The largest influence on sport participation seems to be when individuals engage in sport with those they meet at the facility, indicating that facilitation of the co-creation of social capital among individuals could play a bigger role in increasing participation levels. Along with this, results also show that sport participation has a direct positive influence on individuals health which then enhances their well-being and social capital. This thesis contributes towards the long-standing debate about the relative value of different ownership types that span the public, private, and LMCs and their relationship with performance . The findings of the thesis suggest that, providing general availability of space for sport and fitness activities and by facilitating a network of opportunities with others and across activities is important in achieving the policy outcomes of improved participation and the consequent positive impact this has on health, well-being and social capital, and should be given priority in sport provision.