Language has become a central feature of the debate surrounding Canadian identity. The Canadian project is an example of a state struggling to find a means of accommodating linguistic difference. This struggle is epitomized by the language legislation in Quebec as well as by federal bilingualism. Language legislation is ultimately aimed at promoting and protecting identity. An examination of language legislation as promoted by Quebec and the federal government reveals a different orientation toward the concept of equality. Language policy thus presents both a vision of community and a political argument. Federal language policy promotes a vision of Canada in which English and French are juridically equal. Politically, this vision of community denies Quebec is distinct. Quebec's language policy, on the other hand, asserts the importance of protecting Quebecois culture against the majoritarian impulses of a larger Canadian identity. As a result, Quebec's language legislation incorporates Quebec's different position in Canada into a definition of equality. Recognition that Quebec has a right to protect its language is tantamount to an acknowledgement that Quebec is a distinct society in Canada. The language debate thus embodies competing visions of equality that relate to a specific identity. The national unity issue plaguing Canada cannot be resolved through a commitment to equality as similar treatment. The problem of language planning, in Canada, revolves around finding a way to acknowledge and promote the local aspirations of the Quebecois, without creating an inequitable language environment for the English linguistic minority in Quebec. / Arts, Faculty of / Political Science, Department of / Graduate

Leaders in the Federal Government of the United States have a problem ensuring the contract management resources used to administer and monitor contracts meet organizational performance goals. Contracting officer's representatives (CORs) are members of the acquisition workforce responsible for contract management. This study explored the ways in which resource-based strategies can improve the quality of CORs' performance in contract management by exploring an organizational framework based on strategic management approaches. Interview data were collected from 41 CORs from the 10 Federal Government agencies that represented 85% of the fiscal year 2014 expenditures. These CORs had all managed contracts with successful outcomes. Data analysis utilizing descriptive and magnitude coding resulted in several findings: (a) a recognition of the influence the COR's environment has on the contract outcomes, (b) an understanding of the CORs' processes within the various organizational structures, and (c) the importance of organizational support for the COR. These findings resulted in elements of a potential resource-based management model framework that link the identified attributes of the CORs' resource management to organizational performance. The social contribution from this emergent framework is the recognition of the CORs' value in ensuring optimal contract driven organizational performance. Positive social change can result from Federal Government leaders' use of this resource-based framework to improve the quality of management of CORs' functions and processes. This framework and its implication for the acquisition workforce may facilitate superior performance and enhance organizational capital.

[pt] O presente trabalho examina a redefinição da relação entre Estado e Mercado no Brasil, tendo como referência os processos de privatização conduzidos nos anos 1990, à luz das particularidades desfrutadas pela desestatização da Companhia Vale do Rio Doce. Tomando como ponto de partida as transformações no ecossistema empresarial alavancadas pelo fenômeno da globalização, determinadas especificidades do capitalismo no contexto brasileiro e as perspectivas Neoliberal e Nacional Desenvolvimentista, este trabalho visa compreender a amplitude da influência do Governo Federal no processo decisório da Companhia Vale do Rio Doce entre 1997 a 2011, período imediatamente posterior a privatização, que atravessa os Governos de Fernando Henrique Cardoso (PSDB) e de Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT). A investigação revelou que existem evidências de interferência do Governo Federal na empresa. O modelo de venda adotado pelos Governos do PSDB concedia espaço à influência governamental. Nos Governos do PT a interferência se ampliou, tendo o BNDES um papel relevante nesse processo. / [en] This paper examines the redefinition of State and Market dynamics in Brazil, taking into account privatization processes conducted in the 1990s and highlighting the particularities regarding Companhia Vale do Rio Doce privatization. Departing from the business environment changes carried out by the globalization phenomenon, certain Brazilian capitalism specificities and both Neoliberal and National Developmentalist perspectives, this research aims to understand the extent of Federal Government influence in Companhia Vale do Rio Doce decision-making process during 1997-2011 – a period shortly after privatization – traversing Fernando Henrique Cardoso (PSDB) and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) governments. The investigation revealed that there are evidences of Federal Government interference in the company. The privatization model adopted by the PSDB Governments allowed a sort of government influence that had increased throughout the PT Governments with BNDES playing a key role in this process.

In 1979, a handful of Nevada state officials sparked a movement to transfer the large unappropriated domain to the western states. For two years what became known as the Sagebrush Rebellion swept across the American West like brushfire, engaging westerners of all stripes in a heated dispute over the question of the public lands. In Utah, as elsewhere in the West, public officials, rural ranchers, miners, developers, academics, environmentalists, and concerned citizens joined the debate and staked sides. This episode underscored western relationships between people and nature and featured contests over competing ideologies in the West. But it probably did more harm than good in solving the problems of the West and even further polarized westerners against themselves. After just two years in the limelight, the Sagebrush Rebellion unspectacularly faded into public memory, partly as a result of environmental opposition but mostly because Ronald Reagan's administration steered public land policy in a new direction. Interior Secretary James Watt took steps to appease disgruntled westerners by loosening federal regulations on the public lands, but he opposed any efforts for a large-scale transfer. Thus the Sagebrush Rebellion ultimately failed; but still today the sentiment and conflicts that propelled it persist, continuing to color the panorama that is the American West.

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No description available.

This dissertation presents three article manuscripts investigating contemporary human resource management issues in the United States (US) federal government. Drawing on the behavioral public administration approach, the three articles hypothesize and test theoretical models using data from the US Office of Personnel Management's employee surveys. Chapter 1 introduces the motivation of this dissertation, theoretical backgrounds, and a summary of the three research studies conducted. Chapter 2 presents the first article manuscript, looking at the generational difference issue and its implications for theories and practices. Drawing on generational theories, this study empirically compares affective commitment of federal Millennials and Generation Xers. This study uses time-lag data from the 2011 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey (FEVS) and the 2004 Federal Human Capital Survey (FHCS). The results show no statistically significant differences between the two generations in terms of their affective commitment levels and how several work experiences influence the two generations' attitude. As such, this study provides evidence to reduce generational stereotypes in the public sector. Chapter 3 draws on conservation of resources theory to address perceptions of workload in the public workplace. Using structural equation modeling method with data from the 2019 FEVS, this study finds that supervisor support can sequentially help enhance coworker support, perceived reasonable workload, and job satisfaction, while tangible job resources moderate the above relationship. This study deepens scholarly understandings and points to appropriate practical strategies to enhance employees' perceptions of reasonable workload and job satisfaction in public workplaces. Chapter 4 looks at the issue of trust in different levels of management and its effects on employees, building on the trickle effects models and job demands-resources model. Analysis of 2019 FEVS data finds that employee trust in senior leaders and direct supervisors are positively related to as well as interact with each other to influence public employees. This research also finds trust in senior leaders and direct supervisors indirectly affects extra-role behavior through psychological well-being, and that workload moderates these effects. Chapter 5 concludes this dissertation with summaries of research findings, theoretical and practical implications, research limitations, and future research directions. The quantitative empirical methods used in this dissertation contribute to a community of inquiry using diverse data and methods. / Doctor of Philosophy / This dissertation investigates issues related to managing people in the US federal government. Chapter 1 introduces the motivation of the study, lays out the theoretical background, and presents a brief summary of the three research studies conducted. Chapter 2 examines whether federal employees belonging to the Millennial generation (those born between 1982 and 1999) differ from those of the Generation X (those born between 1965 and 1981) in their affective commitment and how job experiences influence the attitude of these generations. The findings show no substantial differences between the two generations, providing evidence to reduce generational stereotypes in the public sector. Chapter 3 investigates the ways to help employees feel their workload as more reasonable and enhance their job satisfaction. It found that supervisor support can sequentially help enhance coworker support, perceived reasonable workload, and job satisfaction, while tangible job resources moderate the above relationship. As such, this study suggests appropriate management strategies to enhance employees' perceptions of reasonable workload and job satisfaction in public workplaces. Chapter 4 looks at the issue of trust in different levels of management and its effects on employees. It found that employee trust in senior leaders and direct supervisors can influence as well as enhance the effect of each other on employees. Also, trust in senior leaders and direct supervisors indirectly affects extra-role behavior through psychological well-being. Meanwhile, reasonable workload enhances the effect of trust in senior leaders on employees but decreases the effect of trust in supervisors on employees. Chapter 5 concludes this dissertation with summaries of research findings, the contributions of this dissertation, research limitations, and future research directions.

American Public Administration (PA) theory and practices have lacked adequately articulated or formalized normative foundations since the formal founding of the American State. Discussions regarding how PA theory derives from individual and collective critical reflection on practices (praxiology) and how that knowledge can inform future actions (praxis) virtually have been absent in all organizations. The recognition of the political legitimacy of PA has been lacking. The placing of a viable and critical social theory that posits conscious, responsible, and committed human practices within the context of the administration of the American Constitutional State, a politically narrow context, has been lacking as well. This dissertation establishes the works of social theorists Orion White, Jr., Michael Harmon, Robert Denhardt and Bayard Catron as the foundation for understanding how individuals do and can contribute to the collective administration of the complex state, including how they operate daily in organizations they join, critique and are capable of changing. These scholars understand the dynamics of human being and present discussions of human actions and practices that are capable of tackling the challenges associated with administering the American State. The work of John Rohr has established the other missing links—the constitutional legitimacy of PA and the clarification of constitutional values to which American administrative actions and knowledge must adhere. This dissertation asserts that it is the placing of human theory and action within the distinctly American theory and practices of the State that constitutes the solid normative foundations for American PA Praxis and Praxiology that constitutes a viable and formal founding of American Public Administration in word and deed. / Ph. D.

Pas de résumé / Doctorat en droit / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

The interim Constitution and the 1996 South African Constitution are products of a compromise between various political parties, mainly those that advocated for a unitary system, for example the African National Congress (ANC) and the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) were the leading proponents , anti the parties that advocated for a federal constitution, the significant ones being the Inkatha Freedom Party (lFP), the National Party (NP) and the Democratic Party (DP). The interim Constitution and the 1996 South African Constitution contain both unitary and substantial federal characteristics. The study deals with the origins of the federal idea and how the concept federalism is understood and applied internationally, and draws out some key characteristics that are common in federal constitutions so as to measure the interim Constitution and the 1996 South African Constitution against such common characteristics. The conclusion deals with recommendations of how the substantial federal characteristics could be effectively managed through intergovernmental relations / Political Science / M.A. (African Politics)