<p>Theoretically, the role of higher education in national development has become clearer than before, while empirically the evidence is overwhelming. Elsewhere in the world, countries that have made tremendous strides in both social and economic development invested heavily and strategically in higher education. In Malawi, the role of higher education in national development has always been recognised by development policies since independence in 1964 <span style="mso-bidi-font-style:italic">However, with the exception of the first 15 years of independence, Malawi&rsquo / s development path has registered abysmal results both on the social and the economic fronts despite undergoing significant socio-economic and political reforms. Malawi remains one of the most underdeveloped countries whether judged by Gross National Product (GNP) per capita, the UNDP&rsquo / s Human Development Index (HDI) or the Human Poverty Index (HPI). One of the factors that is considered as having contributed to low levels of development is the performance of education systems (primary, secondary and higher education) (World Bank, 2009).</span>It is against this background that this study sought to examine how Malawi&rsquo / s higher education institutions (HEIs) have responded to their roles as prescribed by the national development policies with a focus on the period between 2000 and 2010. Four questions guided the study: i) what specific roles do national development policies define for HEIs to ensure that higher education contributes to national development? ii) To what extent are these roles performed by HEIs in Malawi? iii) What factors determine the performance of HEIs in their expected roles? iv) What pattern of response to their (HEIs&rsquo / ) expected roles can be identified? Theoretically and analytically, the study was informed by the two perspectives of the open systems theory, namely the resource-dependency approach and neo-institutional approach. These two approaches contend that actions by organisations are limited and influenced by various pressures and demands emanating from their internal and external environments and that organisations often respond accordingly in order to survive. Methodologically, the study employed a mixed-method design (of qualitative and quantitative) with a dominant usage of qualitative methods. A multiple case study approach was used in which data were collected through unstructured interviews, semi-structured interviews and documentary review. For qualitative data, the analysis was done using a text method while quantitative data were analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) and Microsoft Excel to provide simple descriptive analysis through charts, tables and graphs.<span style="mso-fareast-font-family:TimesNewRoman"> Overall, the study found that Malawi development policies expect HEIs to enhance access, equity, relevance, efficiency and quality of higher education as a way of ensuring that higher education contributes to the national development project. However, the study identified several patterns of response by HEIs (towards these expected roles) that tentatively explain the sub-optimal contribution of higher education in national development. These patterns of response include: inclination towards responding to the politically sensitive crises in the higher education system (for public HEIs) and profit-compatible roles (for private HEI) / use of sub-standard resources and methods antithetical to genuine teaching and learning / duplication by private HEIs of the &ldquo / soft&rdquo / roles being undertaken by public HEI / the abandonment of some of the HEIs&rsquo / original ideals and founding pledges, which are compatible with national development roles / and substitution of long-term coherent academic planning by short-term survival strategies. </span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:18.0pt / mso-fareast-font-family:TimesNewRoman / mso-bidi-font-family:Arial / color:black / mso-fareast-language:EN-US / mso-bidi-font-weight: bold">The study presents a number of implications, lessons and recommendations in the area of higher education and development. These include: the need for the government to recognise the importance and impact of intra-sectoral linkages in the entire education system on the performance of HEIs / the need to enforce the effective participation of private and public HEIs in national developmental project by establishing a proper regulatory framework / the need to enhance regional and internal collaboration among universities if they are to effectively respond to national roles / the need to reduce marginalisation of HEIs by maximising efforts that create linkages with the productive sector / the need to devise a robust public financing mechanism that broadly deals with issues of equity, relevance, quality and access of higher education / and the need to match education investment priorities and sequencing with development policies</span></p> <p>&nbsp / </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify">&nbsp / </p> <p>&nbsp / </p>

Thesis (M. Ed.(Curriculum Studies))-University of Pretoria, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references. Available on the Internet via the World Wide Web.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1980. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record.

Thesis (Ph.D.) - Carleton University, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 255-298). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Submitted by Edileide Reis (leyde-landy@hotmail.com) on 2013-04-17T12:59:37Z No. of bitstreams: 1 MCarvalho seg.pdf: 849043 bytes, checksum: e8954e6a0f2e56ad572f8c186bfcd554 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Rodrigo Meirelles(rodrigomei@ufba.br) on 2013-05-09T18:06:33Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 MCarvalho seg.pdf: 849043 bytes, checksum: e8954e6a0f2e56ad572f8c186bfcd554 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2013-05-09T18:06:33Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 MCarvalho seg.pdf: 849043 bytes, checksum: e8954e6a0f2e56ad572f8c186bfcd554 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008 / O tema desta dissertação é a jurisdição no Estado do bem-estar e do desenvolvimento. O estudo está dividido em duas partes sendo abordadas na primeira parte as premissas e bases para a compreensão da segunda parte que reflete especificamente o tema. O objetivo é analisar a jurisdição sob a ótica do estado do bem-estar e do desenvolvimento em face da globalização como uma das garantias fundamentais e por isso instrumento necessario à valorização da dignidade da pessoa humana ao respeito do mínimo existencial ao imperativo moral da preservação do meio-ambiente e à redução das desigualdades. A pergunta que provocou o trabalho é se os direitos públicos subjetivos podem ser exigidos perante o Poder Judiciário como forma de implementação desses direitos de forma plenamente eficaz realizando concretamente os preceitos da Constituição Federal de 1988. Essa questão foi respondida positivamente propondo-se critérios para tal interferência judicial, sem perder de vista a realização individual e coletiva do bem-estar do desenvolvimen to e da justiça social. / Salvador

Policymakers in China and other developing countries grapple with a metropolitan dilemma. Building on the existing advantages of leading cities makes it easier to achieve fast, visible progress in economic development. But further concentrating resources in top urban centers can marginalize other areas, worsen urban congestion, and increase inequality. The degree to which governments favor key metropolitan centers relative to other cities and outlying areas in the distribution of policy support and resources is thus a consequential issue in development politics. Yet, scholars lack a systematic understanding of "metropolitan bias," and existing theories have difficulty explaining wide variation in development approaches over time and across regions in countries like China. This project analyzes variation in development strategies across China's provinces during the 1990s and 2000s to shed light on the nature and sources of metropolitan bias. Existing research generally views favoritism toward large cities as an unintended consequence of rapid industrialization and rent-seeking dynamics. In contrast, I highlight more strategic efforts by higher-level governments to shape the growth of cities and regions, and probe the politics surrounding spatial development policies. First, I argue that metropolitan bias tends to be greater in provinces that have experienced lagging economic performance, where policymakers build up top cities as a means of enhancing regional competitiveness. Second, I argue that metropolitan-oriented development has been driven in large part by provincial governments, and that there is greater metropolitan bias where the provincial level is strong relative to other government tiers. To develop and test these claims, I employ a mixed-method research design and draw on Chinese- and English-language written sources, interview material, and statistical data. Through comparative case studies of Jiangsu, Hunan, and Jiangxi provinces and analysis of China's policy institutions, I explore how different explanatory factors influence the formulation and implementation of development strategies. Meanwhile, I use statistical analysis to test how well key claims generalize to a larger sample of units. Beyond contributing in a timely way to our knowledge of the politics behind China's urban boom, the study advances our theoretical understanding of the politics of state-led development and multilevel governance more broadly. / Government

The relationship between national culture and CSR has received increased attention over the past few decades. However, to date, the results of this relationship are inconclusive as they show positive, negative, and non-significant results. Moreover, the results are outdated as only the first four dimensions of the Hofstede framework have been researched thoroughly, while the two newest dimensions have received very little attention with regards to their relationship to CSR. The key objective of this study is to contribute to the debate by testing the influence of power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism, masculinity, long-term orientation, and indulgence on CSR. This is done by analyzing 215 companies from 23 different countries, which are on the Forbes 2000 list. Furthermore, the moderating role of state of development is assessed in this context, by using the distinction made in the MSCI ACWI Index. By conducting a moderated multiple regression analysis, mixed results were found on the influence of national culture on CSR, which could be ascribed to a difference in sample. Moreover, the influence of state of development was not significant in the main regression, however, it gave interesting opportunities for future research. The findings of this study thereby add to the body of knowledge on national culture, CSR, and state of development, and provide several theoretical and managerial implications.

Given the importance that entrepreneurship and start-up businesses operating in technology-intensive sectors (biotechnologies, life sciences, renewable energy, artificial intelligence, information & communication technologies, software, etc.) have come to play as part of the processes of economic development and jobs creation, the access of such entrepreneurs and businesses to appropriate levels of corporate finance has become a major focus of policymakers in recent decades. Yet, this gave way to a wide variety of policy models across nation-states and even within nation-states, as levels of government and market actors adapted to those new challenges by refining or transforming pre-existing policies and institutions as well as by crafting new policy tools to address specific needs or interests. This thesis investigates the roots of such policy diversity within countries, offering in-depth accounts of the evolution of Quebec’s and Scotland’s policy strategies in the sector of development capital and sub-sector of venture capital since 1990. As compared to other regions’ or provinces’ in the United Kingdom (such as South East England) or Canada (such as Ontario), Quebec and Scottish regional venture capital ecosystems rely on a high degree of state intervention, either direct (through public investment funds) or indirect (through government-backed, hybrid or tax-advantaged funds). Hence the description of these two regions as “sponsor states,” heavily involved in the strategic backing of innovative businesses. Whereas most of the literature on venture capital has focused on economic variables to explain variations in such public sector involvement across polities however, this thesis seeks to explain policy divergence in Quebec and Scotland through a political and ideological lens. Its main argument is that the development of the venture capital ecosystems in these regions was underpinned by Québécois and Scottish nationalisms, which induced perceived imperatives and ideological preferences for policy autonomy, policy divergence, and state intervention. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / This thesis investigates the impacts of political ideas on economic policymaking. More specifically, it is a study into the effects of Québécois and Scottish nationalisms on regional policies in the sector of corporate finance, and subsector of venture capital. The question it was devised to answer is as follows: why is it that Quebec and Scotland developed particularly dynamic regional venture capital ecosystems, in which the state (through public investment funds) or state-backed investors (such as hybrid or tax-advantaged funds) play a leading role as compared with other Canadian or British regions? Through an in-depth process-tracing effort aimed at the uncovering of rationales underpinning major policy initiatives in this sector since 1990 and beyond, this thesis shows that minority nationalism contributed to the development of such ecosystems in key ways, notably by inducing perceived imperatives and preferences for policy autonomy, policy asymmetry, and state intervention.

Given the relative scarcity of capital and the small volume of savings in most African economies at independence, the establishment of stock exchanges and their regulation showed that several countries considered them as strategic financial intermediaries for channelling capital to their national, and even regional, economies. This article examines the Lagos Stock Exchange’s formative years as a political process of Nigeria’s decolonisation and the First Republic. Originally incorporated as a private limited liability company on 15 September 1960, and as the first stock exchange in West Africa and the region’s largest economy, the new financial intermediary defined the relationship between the post-independence state and the growing capital market during a period of considerable political and economic changes. The role of the post-independence state and state-owned enterprises in facilitating the trade on the Lagos Stock Exchange broadens the analytical scope of this investigation to identify the sources of Nigeria’s development finance. While significant efforts were taken to grow private individual participation in the share trade and ownership, the early years of the Lagos Stock Exchange were ultimately marked by the dominance of institutional investors such as state-owned enterprises and private commercial banks.

This thesis analyzes how the interests of minority and majority groups in state-led development practices can be bridged, with the Indian tribals affected by the Sardar Sarovar Dam Project (SSP) serving as a context for my analysis. The SSP threatens the livelihoods of approximately 100,000 people with displacement, who are primarily comprised of Indian tribal minorities. The construction of the SSP makes tribals more vulnerable to the risks associated with development-induced displacement, such as landlessness, joblessness, homelessness, marginalization, and food insecurity. When analyzing the SSP, a lack of adequate compensation, resettlement, and legal protection for the tribals becomes apparent. This has led to discussions of human rights violations among the national and international community, raising concerns regarding the protection of minority groups affected by state-led development. Attention is placed on what it means to be a citizen of a country in terms of legal representation and state protection, and how the under-representation of societal groups can lead to the creation of second-class citizens. The objective is to go beyond current discussions of human rights neglect in the context of the SSP by analyzing the position of minority rights in state-led development practices.