Examinations of social policy often focus on their economic and social outcomes without much concern for their political dimensions. Since Evo Morales assumed the presidency of Bolivia in 2006, the Andean country has emerged as a powerful example of how social policy can be leveraged for political purposes beyond clientelism. The government's famous nationalization of natural gas resources along with a hefty hydrocarbon tax funded two major social programs: the Bono Juancito Pinto, an education conditional cash transfer, and Renta Dignidad, a universal old-age pension. Evidence from surveys, key informant interviews, reports, and official documents demonstrated that Bolivia's universal social policy was motivated by more than the goal of efficiently addressing the country's chronic social inequality. The Morales administration's implementation of these programs was a conscious decision to leverage windfall resource rents to build greater national solidarity and advance the MAS' political project to refound the country. Through a universalist approach to social policy, the MAS government has consolidated political hegemony, strengthened national solidarity, and secured the support of the armed forces. This political strategy, however, rests on shaky ground. The rentier model the government depends on to fund universal social policy fuels social conflicts that could destabilize the MAS' recently won hegemony and its attempts at nation building. Bolivia's experience with universal cash transfers lays the foundation for future study of social policy and nation building in the developing world; it is also important to examine how funding sources impact the efficacy of these programs. Considering cash transfers' exploding popularity and dissemination across the world in the last decade, this thesis calls for the more nuanced study of these programs in their political dimensions. / text

Thesis (D.Min.)--South Florida Center for Theological Studies, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Th. M.)--Dallas Theological Seminary, 1997. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 117-146).

While most of the states have embraced capitalist market economy, liberal and democratic norms face resistance in large parts of the world. The \enquote{liberal West} under the leadership of the United States has to face critique of his democratization practices and alleged hypocrisy when dealing with the enforcement of its own norms. One of the loudest critics is Russia under President Vladimir Putin. The first objective of my thesis is to understand the rationale behind Russia's Foreign Policy because without that, no efficient and deescalating policies towards Russia can be developed. I do this by means of an ideological discourse analysis of some of the most famous of Putin's speeches. The concepts of the German philosopher Carl Schmitt serve as a frame for tracing the ideas expressed in the speeches of the Russian President. The analysis concludes that, at least rhetorically, democracy, trust, disarmament, freedom of speech, balance of power and the UN as universal institution have a central place for both the Western World and Russia. NATO expansion, U.S. intervention in the Middle East and, related to that, the alleged non--respect of sovereignty are the most dividing issues between Russia and the Western liberal democracies. It becomes clear that Russia has the impression that Western liberal...

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The swedish law against female genital mutilation (FGM) prohibits procedures that removes parts of the female genitalia and thereby makes permanent changes in the body. The problem with the wording of the law is that it may also apply to the western phenomenon cosmetic genital surgery. This paper therefore examines if cosmetic genital surgery should be covered by the swedish law against FGM, by making a critical comparing analysis. The paper begins with comparing FGM with cosmetic genital surgery to prove that there are more similarities than differences between the procedures. By using the theoretical perspectives universalism and postcolonialism, the paper then examines why, particularly in the West, there is a different approach to FGM than to cosmetic genital surgery, regardless of the similarities of the procedures. Further the paper also examines consent and why consent to FGM is seen as illegitimate while consent to cosmetic genital surgery is seen as legitimate. On basis of the critical comparing analysis the paper then argues: that the procedures cosmetic genital surgery and FGM are very much alike; that cosmetic genital surgery is accepted over FGM because it is more familiar in the West and; that consent should be as illegitimate when given to cosmetic genital surgery as when given to FGM. Thus the conclusion of the paper is that cosmetic genital surgery should be covered by the swedish law against FGM.

<p>Socialarbetare som arbetar med barn och ungdomar och deras föräldrar kommer i sitt arbete ofta i kontakt med människor med en annan kulturell bakgrund än den egna. På grund av detta kan det vara viktigt att tala om mångkulturellt socialt arbete.</p><p>Syftet med denna uppsats är att belysa hur socialsekreterare som arbetar med utredningar rörande barn och ungdom uppfattar mångkulturellt socialt arbete. I denna uppsats är den valda frågeställningen följande: Vad innebär mångkulturellt socialt arbete för socialsekreterare som arbetar med utredningar rörande barn och ungdom?</p><p>Studien är en kvalitativ studie som bygger på fem samtalsintervjuer med socialsekreterare som arbetar med utredningar rörande barn och ungdomar inom Stockholms stad. De teorier som använts för att analysera det empiriska materialet är mångkulturalism och universalism.</p><p>De resultat som framkommit i analysen visar på att socialsekreterare som arbetar med utredningar rörande barn och ungdomar anser att mångkulturellt arbete innebär att man skall respektera varje människa utifrån dennes förutsättningar och erfarenheter och att man som socialsekreterare bör skaffa sig kunskap om andra kulturer än den egna.</p>

This doctoral research, The Articulatory Practices of Islamism: A Focus on Space and Subjectivity, inquires into the role played by tradition, modernity and transmodernity qua symbolic reservoirs of Islamist discourses. By tackling Islamism from the theoretical and methodological perspective of discourse theory, my thesis will make a case for including within contemporary analyses of Islamism both a semiotic differentiation of Islamist articulatory practices (discourses) and a speculative assessment of their spatial representations and subjectivity formations. While the general framework of this study will be laid out in the Introduction (Chapter I), Part I of the thesis offers an examination of tradition, modernity and transmodernity in order to provide the reader with a conceptualisation of these key research categories. In addition to offering a reading of tradition and modernity crucial to a discourse-centred critique of Islamism, Chapter II will examine in detail the discourses of nationalism and pan-Islamism. Here the objective will be to uncover their deployment of two speculative paradigms in the construction of space and subjectivity; that is, dualism and universalism. Chapter III will then examine the emergence of key transmodern discourses such as globalism , universalism and virtualism tackling their relationship with globalisation. In Part II, I outline the main argument forwarded by my research. I will do so by examining the way three case studies engage with tradition, modernity and transmodernity. The discourse of three leading Islamist figures will be presented accompanied by textual examination and speculative analysis, the objective being to distinguish different discursive trajectories. I will strive to differentiate between a territorial trajectory of Islamism (Hasan al-Banna) in chapter IV; a transitional trajectory (Sayyid Qutb) in chapter V; and a transterritorial trajectory (Osama bin Laden) in chapter VI. Such an endeavour will help me to develop my main line of argument through an assessment of the role of symbolic reservoirs in the differentiation of Islamist discourses and in their construction of space and subjectivity. My conviction is that, while enlarging the space of academic debate on Islamism, such a theoretical approach could bring a new perspective to analytic inquiries into other discursive formations (liberalism, communism, anarchism etc), so helping analysts to differentiate between distinct trajectories within their respective discursive universe.

L’universalisme républicain constitue une conception du droit, formée à partir de la Révolution française, en vertu de laquelle la Nation transcende les particularismes et est exclusivement composée de citoyens. Suivant sa logique, ces derniers sont ainsi les seuls titulaires des droits et des obligations attachés à l’exercice de la vie de la cité. Cet idéal est devenu lentement et progressivement le soubassement de notre droit public à la faveur de l’adoption de normes concordantes qui le traduisent juridiquement. Jusqu’à aujourd’hui, l’universalisme républicain demeure l’idée générale qui sous-tend notre droit public.Cependant, à notre époque et en sens contraire, ont été développées des mesures et des pratiques fondées sur un postulat favorable à la prise en compte de particularismes variés. L’évolution de la réception de l’idéal à travers les époques amène à s’interroger sur la cohérence philosophique de notre édifice juridique dans son ensemble / The republican universalism is a concept of the law, formed from the French Revolution onwards, for which reason, the Nation transcends specific characteristics and is solely composed of citizens. According to its logic, the latter are thus the only persons entitled to the rights and duties attached to exercising life in the city. This ideal has slowly and gradually become the foundation of our public law with the help of the passing of matching norms that legally reflect it. Until now, the republican universalism remains the general idea which sustains our public law. However, measures and practices set up on a postulate favourable tothe adoption of varied characteristics have developed in an opposite way to our time. The evolution of the reception of the ideal through times leads us to question ourselves on the philosophical coherence of our legal system as a whole

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