During the late 1970s Ghana was described as a collapsed and failed state. In contrast, today it is hailed internationally as beacon of democracy and stability in West Africa. In light of Ghana’s drastic image change from a fragile and even collapsed polity to a resilient state, this thesis contributes to the statebuilding debate by analysing the social change that occurred. Grounded in a critical theory approach the thesis applies a political settlement analysis to explore how power is distributed and changed over time between contending social groups; exploring the extent to which this is embedded in formal and informal institutional arrangements. Ghana’s 2012 elections serve as an empirical basis and lens to observe the country’s current settlement. This approach enables a fine grained within-case comparison with Ghana’s collapsed post-independent settlement. The analysis illustrates that while there has been no transformation of the Ghanaian state, however, continuous incremental structural change has occurred within it, as demonstrated by a structurally altered constellation of power. While internationally propagated (neo-)liberal economic and political reforms had a vital impact on the reconstruction process of state-society relations, Ghana’s labelling as “success story” evokes the distorted idea of a resilient liberal state. The sustainability of Ghana’s current settlement characterised by electoral competitive clientelism depends on a continued inflow of foreign capital. So far the mutually beneficial interest of portraying Ghana as a resilient state by its elites and donors ensures the flow of needed financial assistance to preserve the settlement. / Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC); European Commission Marie Curie Pre-doctoral Fellowship programme

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This thesis discusses early modern European perceptions of body and soul in association with the increasing stringency of civilized behaviour and state formation in an effort to provide motivation for the increased severity of the witch hunts of that time. Both secondary and primary sources have been used, in particular the contemporary demonologies by such authors as Bodin, and Kramer and Sprenger. The thesis is divided into five chapters, including an Introduction and Conclusion. The body of the thesis focuses on religious, scientific, and secular beliefs (Ch. 2), appearance and characteristics of witches (Ch. 3), and the activities and behaviours/actions of witches, (Ch. 4). This study concentrates on the similarities found across Europe, and, as the majority of witches persecuted were female, my thesis emphasizes women as victims of the witch hunts.

Two images of British India persist in the modern imagination: first, an eighteenth-century world of incipient multiculturalism, of sexual adventure amidst the hazy smoke of hookah pipes; and second, the grandiose imperialism of the Victorian Raj, its vast public buildings and stiff upper lip. No art historian has focused on the intervening decades, however, or considered how the earlier period transitioned into the later. In contrast, Art in India's 'Age of Reform' sets out to develop a distinct historical identity for the decades between the Charter Act of 1813 and the 1858 Government of India Act, arguing that the art produced during this period was implicated in the political process by which the conquests of a trading venture were legislated and 'reformed' to become the colonial possessions of the British Nation. Over two parts, each comprised of two chapters, two overlooked media are connected to 'reforms' that have traditionally been understood as atrophying artistic production in the subcontinent. Part I relates amateur practice to the reform of the Company's civil establishment, using an extensive archive associated with the celebrated amateur Sir Charles D'Oyly (1781-1845) and an art society that he established called the Behar School of Athens (est.1824). It argues that rather than citing the Company's increasing bureaucratisation as the cause of a decline in fine art patronage, it is crucial instead to recognise how amateur practice shaped this bureaucracy's collective identity and ethos. Part II connects the production and consumption of illustrated print culture to the demographic shifts that occurred as a result of the repeal of the Company's monopolistic privileges in 1813 and 1833, focusing specifically on several costume albums published by artists such as John Gantz (1772-1853) and Colesworthy Grant (1813-1880). In doing so, it reveals how print culture provided cultural capital to a transnational middle class developing across the early-Victorian Empire of free trade. Throughout each chapter, the gradual undermining of the East India Company's sovereignty by a centralising British State is framed as a prerequisite to the emergence of the nation-state as the fundamental category of modern social and political organisation. Art in India's 'Age of Reform' therefore seeks not only to uncover the work and biographies of several unstudied artists in nineteenth-century India, but reveals the significance of this overlooked art history to both the development of the modern British State, and the consequent demise of alternative forms of political corporation.

The Izmir Region is located in the heart of the Western Anatolian coastline and forms a natural bridge between the Anatolian mainland and the Western Aegean. The region is connected to Central Anatolia through deep valleys and is linked to the Aegean Sea via many harbor sites along the coast. The architectural features and the other remains (such as pottery, metal objects etc.) found in and around those architectural context can provide the information about the genesis of the urbanization. With reference to the fortifications and bastions may show us that societies in question are concerned with some political problems. This study aims to understand how the scale of architecture changed from the Late Chalcolithic to the Early Bronze Age in the comperative basis of Aegean context particularly in Bakla Tepe and Liman Tepe. On the basis of architectural differences, two distinct community types may be postulated for Early Bronze Age sites in the Aegean. The fortified coastal site of Liman Tepe is an example of a centrally administrated early urban community with a strong economy. Bakla Tepe represents an affluent inland village or small town community interacting with large centers.

The thesis explores the relationship, or assumed relationship between nomadic tribalism and the stateless group in Kuwait. While exploring this issue, the thesis also examines state formation and tribalism throughout the history of Kuwait. By exploring what the author calls, &quot / Pan-Tribalism,&quot / the thesis also explores assumed cross-border linkages, and perceptions of loyalty, or disloyalty among various groups in Kuwait. The thesis includes research on the history of Kuwait because it reveals early tribal dynamics. The thesis uncovers the roots of certain historical issues and power structures that exist today - as all of this is related to citizenship and statelessness. The thesis takes a close look at the impact of oil on state-formation both due to the mass influx of immigrants that oil wealth caused, as well as the welfare/distributive state policy that emerged afterwards. Both of these issues directly affected citizenship. Additionally, it thus explores internal oil politics rather an international oil politics

In this thesis two &ldquo / western modern state&rdquo / and three Ottoman &ldquo / state tradition&rdquo / scholars (Gianfranco Poggi, Christopher Pierson, Serif Mardin, Metin Heper and &Ccedil / aglar Keyder) are elaborated in the way how they write the the history for their theorization attempts. The specially emphasized processes in these histories are asserted to be reconstructed as the sources of an &ldquo / idealized&rdquo / -type that is assumed to be fulfilled by &ldquo / the West&rdquo / and should also be followed by &ldquo / the rest&rdquo / . The description of this form of a state entails a covert expectation on the requirement of an effective, limited but primarily strong state. Since the mainstream historical knowledge builds the foundations of both our academic studies and daily political arguments, it should be subjected to a critique. And state theory should be rethought with comparative and alternative perspectives. This work does not only trace the histories of political development constituted on &ldquo / modernization revisionist&rdquo / and &ldquo / state traditional&rdquo / theses, it also aims to cast new perspectives for the theorization of state-formation momentums and mechanisms by making a potpourri from some alternative readings of historical theses. As a result some central debates are brought into the picture on the historical transformation of state-society relationships. Along with the attempts for more comprehensive thinking exersizes on the states, theorization does not deal with two separate states or separate narratives of the the history but rather with the experiences thought together and watched through the different forms they takes in each particular historical momentums.

In this thesis two &ldquo / western modern state&rdquo / and three Ottoman &ldquo / state tradition&rdquo / scholars (Gianfranco Poggi, Christopher Pierson, Serif Mardin, Metin Heper and &Ccedil / aglar Keyder) are elaborated in the way how they write the the history for their theorization attempts. The specially emphasized processes in these histories are asserted to be reconstructed as the sources of an &ldquo / idealized&rdquo / -type that is assumed to be fulfilled by &ldquo / the West&rdquo / and should also be followed by &ldquo / the rest&rdquo / . The description of this form of a state entails a covert expectation on the requirement of an effective, limited but primarily strong state. Since the mainstream historical knowledge builds the foundations of both our academic studies and daily political arguments, it should be subjected to a critique. And state theory should be rethought with comparative and alternative perspectives. This work does not only trace the histories of political development constituted on &ldquo / modernization revisionist&rdquo / and &ldquo / state traditional&rdquo / theses, it also aims to cast new perspectives for the theorization of state-formation momentums and mechanisms by making a potpourri from some alternative readings of historical theses. As a result some central debates are brought into the picture on the historical transformation of state-society relationships. Along with the attempts for more comprehensive thinking exersizes on the states, theorization does not deal with two separate states or separate narratives of the the history but rather with the experiences thought together and watched through the different forms they takes in each particular historical momentums.