Regarding the effects brought out by China¡¦s joining World Trade Organization (WTO), apart from the investigation on the current wide economic aspect, there are some other aspects, such as the interaction among the political, social and national departments¡¦ independence, that are also worthy of further investigation. Ever since her reforms and opening to the world, China seems to be emerged step by step in a structure entirely different from her past systems. The highly independent and initiative natures of the original national organization have been weakened. In the process of China¡¦s becoming an official member of WTO and her substantial participation in the economic globalization, just because of the trend of international economic systems, the predictability of systems required by market economy, and also the independence bestowed on the mainframe of the market, China has to establish the relative applicable law system, and promise to act according to the international regulations and practices. Besides the relevant measures and conflicts of various industries, to China, her joining WTO is a catalytic media to accelerate the emergence of system crisis and the creation of system renovation. The study finds that concerning the independence of the national organization after China¡¦s joining WTO, aside from the political aspect where the originally high independence of the traditional party and national rules can still be preserved, there is a tendency that on the economic and social aspects, the independence of the national organization will first rise, and then fall. In the short run, in order to meet the fresh participation in WTO, the national organization naturally appears to have high independence in various aspects. But in the long run, the process of globalization has inevitably made China unable to sustain the high independence that she owned in the past, especially on the economic and social aspects.

This thesis examines relations between domestic actors and central government or the state during the EC accession negotiations and EC/EU membership in Spain. It presents three theoretical perspectives on the role of the state: a state-centric approach which focuses on the state as autonomous actor; a two-level game framework which considers the state as gatekeeper between the European and domestic arenas; and a multi-level governance perspective where the state becomes an arena in which a number of different actors participate. A dynamic approach to the analysis is adopted, highlighting sets of changing conditions in the Spanish political system expected to influence the access to policy-making for actors other than central government, which it terms the domestic opportunity structure. The analysis of the high level of state autonomy during the EC accession negotiations acts as an essential baseline for an examination of the policy process during EC/EU membership when the state's autonomy is expected to be reduced by a more open opportunity structure. This changed context is explored in the specific areas of cohesion policy and fisheries, when the input of domestic actors is seen to depend on the particular policy setting, the policy-making stage and the type of decision, termed the EU opportunity structure. A combination of theoretical approaches is considered necessary to explain the changing levels of opportunity. Given that considerable evidence exists for the state's retention of its role as key decision-maker in the policy process, this thesis concludes that the state-centric approach is still relevant to the case of Spain. However, at certain stages of the process, particular sets of actors have gained greater access to policy-making during EC/EU membership, as illustrated by the increasing involvement of regional authorities in the implementation of the structural funds, thus indicating that theoretical insights which place greater emphasis on the influence of domestic actors other than. the state may be needed to supplement a purely statist approach.

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This thesis narrates the exercise of state autonomy to achieve macro-economic stability and effect incremental policy change in South Africa between 1994 and 2014. Employing a composite case study of the macro-economic policy framework; the Growth Employment and Redistribution (GEAR) (1996) strategy, and two micro policies, Free Basic Electricity (FBE) (2003) and No Fee Schools (NFS) (2006), it demonstrates how the post-apartheid state introduced reforms at macro and micro policy levels. Taking a historical institutionalist approach, it emphasizes the importance of ideas, context, configurations, temporal arguments and path-dependence to recount a story of policy change. The main sources of evidence comprise semi-structured elite interviews conducted with senior politicians, public servants, trade unionists and academic researchers as well as secondary data such as Hansard, government documents and other research reports. Data collection in South Africa was undertaken over a period of twelve months across various sites such as state departments, parliament, the South African Reserve Bank, university libraries, municipalities, private companies, parastatals and schools in the Gauteng Province. The context of transition from apartheid to a democratic dispensation, 1990-1994, with the negotiation processes forms a backdrop to the study whereby compromises and important policy choices set the scene for the formulation of new policy infrastructure culminating in GEAR in 1996. The implementation of GEAR in 1996 and the achievement of macroeconomic stability in turn prepared the ground for intervention at micro policy level. Consequently the introduction of incremental policy change through micro policies such as FBE (2003) and NFS (2006) became possible. Importantly this thesis reveals that whilst incremental policy change has been achievable, it is not totally transformative but rather built upon policy legacies as it proffers gradual adjustments which do not reverse earlier policy decisions and compromises nor effect fundamental change. Nevertheless, even in a difficult international and domestic environment, the South African state has shown a capacity to initiate and sustain incremental change in key areas of public policy.

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Thesis advisor: Gerald M. Easter / Does the emergence of these newly informatics practices by the Chinese state indicate a future abolishment of the Xinfang mechanism? In order to answer these questions and foster an understanding of today’s state information management in China, this thesis first employs the method of historical analysis. The thesis provides an initial effort in English literature to answer how and why societal petitioning was gradually translated into state-dominated action and whether or not informational engagement impacted state autonomy. The thesis then moves on to field work conducted in S Province since 2014 through 2017 that counted approximately 20 weeks altogether. With such first-hand empirical evidence, the thesis develops three main arguments as below: First and foremost, I find that there exist an increasing number of information seekers among petitioners from the background databases of both Governor’s Mailbox and the Provincial Bureau for Letters and Calls’ online complaint system. Such informational needs of today’s Chinese public may be in need of higher attention from policy makers and scholars. Second, the leadership, whether at central or any local level, have sought to establish various apparatuses, and charged them with building information channels and providing an information stream for policy making. the apparatuses hereby develop two strategies to draw more societal actors to their offices and guarantee their informational supplies to above. Such competition eventually results in a champion among all the informatics offices in the arena. Last but not least, apparatus autonomy cannot be equated with individual official autonomy. While an office is assigned with increased autonomy, the very officials’ individual autonomy may fall down to a lesser degree. / Thesis (MA) — Boston College, 2018. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Political Science.

Since the Vietnamese Communist Party passed the resolution to implement the ¡§Doi Moi¡¨ policy in the sixth National Congress in December 1986, Vietnam¡¦s economy has transformed from state-controlled economic system to market and socialism-oriented economy. This change of economic system has contributed to the recent economic improvement in Vietnam, a key point of studying Vietnam¡¦s political development. On the perspective of political economy, modernization theory contends that economic development helps political democratization, whereas stably hegemony theory argues that economic achievement may bring about stability for authoritarian regimes. Based on state theory, this paper takes two dimensions, i.e. state autonomy and state capacity, to examine the issue whether the Vietnamese state will be influenced after Vietnam¡¦s political and economic reforms. This paper concludes that modernization theory is not able to explain the current political economy of Vietnam, because Vietnam did not change from a strong state to a weak state. Rather, Vietnam maintains a strong state, which fits the explanation of state theory.

Abstract After devastating destruction of two World Wars, how to re-develop economy was the most important issue in the world between 1950¡¦s and 1970¡¦s. As a result, theories of national development arose in the same time. ¡§The state-centric approach¡¨ arose in 1980¡¦s to explore the relationship between market function and the state after viewing the outstanding economic performance of East Asian countries. Researchers of ¡§the state-centric approach¡¨ claimed that the state autonomy and capacity are key elements to country¡¦s development. After World War II, Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea were common in: 1. Authoritarian states with high autonomy and capacity; 2. Received American aid to undertake political, economic reform and import substitute policy; 3. Land reform resulted in fair distribution. The economic development of Taiwan in the past fifty years was rapid, constant, steady, and fair distribution, which is one of the successful models of East Asian. The state was the key factor of Taiwan¡¦s economic success. The establishment of Export Processing Zone was a proof of how the state induced development. The growth of Export Processing Zone equals to the development in Taiwan. This research is focused on the Export Processing Zone, discussing how the autonomy and capacity of state affected the development in Taiwan as well as in Export Processing Zone. The author also tried to find out what and how the state should do n the next step to create another new phase of development for Taiwan.

The objective of this thesis is to explain the dynamics bringing about the removal of the Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze from power through the &lsquo / Rose Revolution&rsquo / . Relying on an historical sociological approach, contrary to the society-centered and the state-centered studies in the literature on the &lsquo / Rose Revolution&rsquo / , this thesis argues that the coercive, administrative, extractive, distributive and regulative incapacitation of the Georgian state, which resulted in the loss of state autonomy vis-&agrave / -vis domestic and external political actors before the &lsquo / Rose Revolution&rsquo / , led to the removal of Shevardnadze. In fact, the society-centered studies, which exclusively focus exclusively on the political opposition, the NGOs and the mass media, fail to explain the dynamics of the &lsquo / Rose Revolution&rsquo / since they neglect the role of the state. Likewise, the state-centered studies&rsquo / exclusive focus on the coercive aspect of the Georgian state capacity resulted in the insufficient explanation of the &lsquo / Rose Revolution&rsquo / since they neglect other aspects of state capacity such as administrative, extractive, distributive and regulative. The thesis consists of six main chapters, introduction and conclusion. Chapter 2 develops the theoretical framework of the study. Chapter 3 explores the historical background. Chapter 4 examines the process leading up to the &lsquo / Rose Revolution&rsquo / . Chapter 5 and 6 analyze the &lsquo / Rose Revolution&rsquo / and its aftermath. Before the concluding chapter, Chapter 7 compares the Georgian case with the other seven post-Soviet cases.

Os Tribunais brasileiros consideram inerente à estrutura federativa do Brasil o dever de os Estados-membros e Municípios organizarem-se em simetria à organização políticoinstitucional da União. A investigação busca situar o denominado princípio da simetria no tempo e no espaço, em função de sua origem. Na primeira parte, recupera-se o sentido do ideal federalista tanto no federalismo sócio-natural inspirado em Althusius quanto no federalismo pactista pensado por Montesquieu e realizado pelos Federalistas, a fim de identificar algum indício justificador de um tal princípio da simetria. Na segunda parte, percorre-se a evolução do federalismo brasileiro a partir dos contornos constitucionais da Federação, com o objetivo de precisar o momento em que o princípio da simetria surgiu. Na terceira parte, o princípio da simetria é posto no contexto da ordem constitucional e democrática instituída pela Constituição de 1988. A continuidade da aplicação do princípio da simetria para controlar as normas estaduais é questionada e dois argumentos contra essa prática são apresentados: a autonomia estadual e a indeterminação dos princípios constitucionais. / Brazilian Courts consider inherent to Brazil’s federative structure a duty of both Member States and Municipalities to organise themselves in symmetry to Union’s political and institutional organisation. This research seeks to place the so-called principle of symmetry in space and time, according to their origin. First, it recovers the federal ideal sense both in socio-natural federalism inspired by Althusius as in covenantal federalism thought by Montesquieu and performed by the Federalists, in order to identify any evidence able to justify such a principle of symmetry. Second, it goes through the evolution of Brazilian federalism based on Federation’s constitutional design, with the objective of clarifying the moment in which the principle of symmetry arose. Third, the principle of symmetry is put in contexto with the democratic and constitutional order established by the Constitution of 1988. The continuity in application of the principle of symmetry to review state regulations is questioned and two arguments against this practice are presented: state autonomy and constitutional principles’ indeterminacy.