Univ., Diss.--Bonn, 2005. / Literaturverz. S. 119 - 175.

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In Scotland the Revolution of 1688 - 1689 has received little academic attention - considered little more than an adjunct of events in England. Traditionally, the political elite have been seen as reluctant to rebel, the resulting Convention Parliament containing few committed protagonists - the reaction of most determined by inherent conservatism and the overwhelming desire to preserve their own interest and status. Motivated essentially by self-interest and personal gain, the predominance of noble faction crippled Parliament - a constitutionally underdeveloped institution - which became nothing more than a platform for the rivalry and ambition of the landed elite. However, this interpretation is based on the dated notion that Scottish history can be considered as simply a protracted power struggle between a dominant territorial nobility and a weak monarch, intent on centralising authority. Nonetheless, the aim of the thesis is not to rewrite the political history of the Revolution or to chart the constitutional development of Parliament - although both aspects form part of the general analysis. Instead, this is principally a thematic study of the membership of the Convention Parliament and what they achieved, in terms of legislation and procedure. Taking into account the European context, including a thorough membership analysis, and revising the practical aspects of the Revolution settlement, it is possible to offer a fresh account of contemporary politics. Introducing the extensive contest that characterised the general election of 1689, and the emergence and progress of court and country politics through 1698 - 1702, study reveals the continuing development of an inclusive party political system similar to that evident in England. In this respect, the objective of the thesis is to address the main themes associated with the Revolution and Convention Parliament, providing an alternative, more accurate interpretation of the Scottish Revolution experience.

This research probes the role of the Pan African Parliament (PAP) in the African Union (AU), given the documented struggle of African regional integration institutions for relevance in the highly intergovernmental milieu of African regionalism (Haas 1970; 615; Gottschalk&Schmidt 2004:138). In 2000, African heads of states met in Lomé Togo and pledged to do all that is necessary to create effective, working institutions in the African Union (AU 2000). Taking into consideration the very recent history of the AU and its institutions, the research approach was to interrogate the evolution of the Pan African Parliament as a path to determining the PAP’s definitive role in the AU. As the research progressed, the institutionalism approach unveiled how past institutional legacies and culture in the OAU shaped the emergence of the AU and in particular the PAP. The research located and developed a central argument, which is that designers of institutions will likely create institutions with functional outcomes attuned to their own motivations and intentions. These motivations and intentions in turn are shaped by historical and social exigencies which render rational reflections dubious. This central point is observed in the manner the OAU has subsequently shaped the design of the AU and PAP in particular. Consequently, the thesis views the non-interference legacy of the OAU as well as the highly intergovernmental culture of African regionalism as institutionalised baggage with the potential of crippling a supranational leaning institution like the PAP. Based on this central argument, the research found that despite its legal importance in terms of the AU Constitutive Act, the PAP in practice, plays no effective role in AU decision making. As a consultative body, the PAP has made no impact whatsoever in the decisions of the AU. Finally, drawing from the institutionalism discourse, the research argues that although these institutional antecedents may not augur well for PAP’s future in the AU, the PAP’s growth strategy should take advantage of increasing tasks and unintended consequences in the expanding AU, to find its relevance in the continental polity. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2009. / School of Public Management and Administration (SPMA) / unrestricted

Since 1997, the UK constitution has undergone a transformation. This has since become a rolling process which shows little sign of abating. However, some of this constitutional change has been criticised for being rushed, piecemeal and with little consideration of the broader constitution. Yet, despite these criticisms, the underlying methodology of constitutional change has not been discussed in any great detail. This thesis, focusing on formal constitutional change, argues that the methodology to deliver that change should be enhanced to address these concerns. After establishing the limits of formal constitutional change, this thesis then considers how constitutional issues are approached within government and suggests that a Department of Legal Affairs would improve the preparation of proposed changes before being presented to Parliament. The politics of constitutional change are then analysed, with a particular focus on the process of coalition negotiations, which has become a new part of the methodology. The parliamentary process is considered by analysing the parliamentary passage of what became the Constitutional Reform Act 2005 and the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Act 2006. Recent changes to parliamentary procedure have allowed Parliament to scrutinise constitutional legislation more effectively, although there are still areas for significant improvement, particularly during the Committee Stage in the House of Commons. The thesis then considers the role of referendums and establishes when a referendum is required either as a matter of law or convention. The thesis then shows how procedural innovations such as the constitutional conventions in Australia and Ireland or the citizens’ assemblies in British Columbia and Ontario could be used in the UK. Also, as any recommendations of a constitutional convention or a citizens’ assembly are usually put to the rest of the electorate at a referendum, the links between a convention or assembly and the referendum process are discussed. Taken together, these enhancements to discrete aspects of the methodology of constitutional change should ensure that changes are more considered and allow for a more a stable constitutional settlement.

MA (Xitsonga) / Ehansi ka M.E. R. Mathivha ya Tindzimi ta Afrika, Vutshila ni Ndhavuko / See the attached abstract below

Magister Administrationis - MAdmin / Training in the South African public service is a highly needed factor, especially in the process of transformation. In the "rationalisation" of the public service, training cannot be conducted in isolation. At the same time training should be seen as a process not an event. Empowering employees with skills and knowledge is vital because this could ensure that the goals of the organisation are attained. As Andrews (1988) argues, training is a systematic process of altering behaviour, knowledge and motivation of employees in order to increase organisational goal achievement. The study focuses on the South African Parliament's Human Resource Department. Training in this department needs to be examined or evaluated for four main reasons. These are: The non-existence of a training policy, lack of funds, non-existence of trainers and poor evaluation

Antiracism consistently decries its lack of transformative effects, particularly in relation to embodied experiences of racism and the complexity of racist processes and experiences (e.g., Ahmed, 2004; Hage, 2016). By contrast, cyborgian theory (Gray, 1996; Haraway, 1991) highlights the cyborg as a powerful resource for an embodied transformative politics that is responsive to the structures and processes of embodied understandings, and to the entanglements of knowledge and being. This thesis theorizes how the cyborg may be operationalized for antiracism specifically. I reconfigure antiracism considering the cyborg through three steps. First, building on my own embodied experience as a white, cisgendered woman, I ground antiracism in a praxis of embodied response-ability (Haraway, 2016) moving from a reactive form of antiracism to an on-going project of engagement. Second, I draw on posthumanist anti-oppressive and feminist theory (e.g., Braidotti, 2011; Thweatt-Bates, 2016) to align antiracism with Donna Haraway’s (1991, 1992, 2016) conceptualization of the cyborg. This alignment refigures antiracism as actively embodied, theoretically grounded, and attentive to relationality and processes of cultural production. Third, I operationalize my theorizing through my embodied engagement with Canada’s parliamentary precinct, Parliament Hill. My diffractive mapping through an antiracism attuned to the cyborg shows how Parliament Hill produces and continues racism through an assemblage of mechanisms of nationalist dominance that actively fortify overt boundaries, network dialectic understandings of identity, and pattern racist relations of belonging and otherness. My analysis reveals how intimately and insidiously racism lives and entangles in knowledge production. It also shows how engaging the world, recognizing the onto-epistemological orientation in posthuman cyborg provides a means for critically living in and with entanglements of embodied racisms that enable a transformative antiracist praxis.

The deficits of conteporary law-making in the Czech Republic Keywords: legislative process, Parliament, legisprudence Abstract: The thesis concerns contemporary law-making process in the Czech Republic in an effort to identify its weak spots, which can lead to low-quality laws being created and passed. Rating the quality of legislative process is considered by the author to be impossible without a proper philosophical and theoretical basis. Such basis is found in the theory of legisprudence, which was conceived by L. Wintgens. Legisprudence is a theory of rational law-making and it presents itself as an alternative to mainstream jurisprudence that is focused mainly on interpreting law. In accordance with legisprudence, the legitimacy of law is dependent on bringing positive outcomes compared to a situation of absence of law. Philosophically, legisprudence is based on social contract as a mandate for the lawmaker to pass laws that only minimally encroach on freedoms. Principles of legisprudence and the requirements on lawmakers that it formulates, are applied on specific parts of the law-making process in Czech Republic. Specifically, administrative procedure of legislative drafting, legislative technique, explanatory memoranda, regulatory impact assessment, and parliamentary procedure are examined. These...

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