The Republic of Macedonia provides an illustration of how a societys identities reciprocally affect government and politics. This research investigates the extent to which Macedonia is developing a stable and cohesive society and contrasts more traditional investigations that treat identity as coextensive with fixed ethnic boundaries. This study employs an inductive approach to identity formation by investigating how individual beliefs and values function within a society. To accomplish this, a method for discerning and characterizing identity groups was employed, generating a rich mixture of qualitative and quantitative data. Fieldwork took place in two stages in 2005-2006. In stage one, university students across Macedonia (n=109) were interviewed using an adaptation of George Kellys repertory grid technique, a semi-structured interview procedure. In stage two, a national follow-up survey (n=496) based on those findings was administered to a random sample of Macedonias general population, allowing for an evaluation of initial results. Multidimensional scaling, factor analysis, generalized procrustes analysis, and a measure of cognitive homophily were employed to identify and assess similarities and differences among identity groups. This multitier approach made it possible to discern unifying themes that contribute to the previously unrecognized growth in civic identity that is beginning to span ethnic divisions in Macedonia. Although ethnic designations remain important to the assessment of identity, research findings support the contention that emergent identities in this new state are not categorically deterministic. This implies that some members of society are developing identities more strongly associated with Macedonias viability as a state than with ethnic and other designations. The methodology employed in this study offers an emic perspective that permits inductively derived comparisons, rather than etic comparisons that limit investigations to easily identifiable fixed categories. The emic methodology, operationalized through the repertory grid technique and Kellys theory of constructivist alternativism, elicits culturally relevant frames of reference in a manner that preserves the meanings attached by members of society while minimizing the effects of the researchers own cultural and intellectual biases. This is a promising methodology for investigating potentially emergent identities in other regions and communities where cultural misconceptions pose potential barriers to societal stability.

With increasing competition for economic development, the importance of a metropolitan region as a unit of governance has been recurrently stressed. But in light of a fragmented local political environment, encouraging local governments to participate in collective actions is theoretically unexpected and empirically difficult. How has each metropolitan region dealt with this problem? Are there different patterns of collaboration that are undertaken by each region? And how can we systematically characterize different approaches inherent in the governance of metropolitan regions? This dissertation states that existing literature on regional governance is not able to answer these questions correctly because they do not acknowledge the multiple dimensionality of governance. Not only the level of structural fragmentation but also the political and cultural aspects of governance should be seriously considered as the significant factor that determines the forms of regional governance. Two highly fragmented regions of Minneapolis and Pittsburgh are selected as the empirical cases to which theoretical models are tested. From a macro point of view, this study systemizes governance structures in two regions and identifies two models of regional governance: Integrated and Isolated models. In the integrated model represented by Minneapolis, inter-organizational relationships are metropolitan-wide, intergovernmental oriented, and politically and culturally integrated at the metropolitan level. In the isolated model represented by Pittsburgh, this dissertation empirically proves that inter-municipal collaboration is less favored, and the metropolitan region is built upon intergovernmental competition along with high level of vertical integration at state level. This argument on regional governance is supported from the micro perspective, by empirical analyses on the extent and patterns of inter-organizational collaboration in the field of economic development in the Minneapolis and Pittsburgh regions. Based on the modal approach to governance, this study proves that along with structural factors such as the level of fragmentation and institutional forms of government, the intensity of political integration of local government is also strongly associated with the extent of inter-organizational collaboration. In addition, it also describes the regional differences in the patterns of collaboration and how the inter-organizational networks are differently structured in two regions.

This dissertation involves a content analysis of public discussion by government officials involved in the debate over the use of force against Iraq. Elite participants in government made public announcements to justify policy positions to constituents, educate interested participants inside government and external to the process, and persuade fellow decision-makers in government that the decision to use force against Iraq was the correct decision. Government officials public statements regarding the potential use of force against Iraq comprise the policy primeval soup from which the policy of an invasion emerged. This analysis examines how U.S. political elites publicly discussed the use of force against Iraq from when President Bush took office on January 19, 2001 to March 19, 2003, the day the invasion of Iraq began. This research identifies aspects of the debate over which groups of officials most disagreed in the public discourse and how the degree of consensus or divergence changed over time. Results demonstrate that there was little consensus between parties and branches of government in how force was justified against Iraq. As the amount of discussion regarding Iraq increased in late 2002, this degree of consensus decreased. Though Congress authorized President Bush to use force against Iraq in October 2002, Republicans and Democrats in Congress differed significantly in how they discussed the use of force. These differences were smaller than the differences between Congress as a whole and the Executive branch. Nonetheless, the evidence collected here demonstrates that Congress was not acquiescent. While the prevailing interpretation in congressional-executive relations is that Congress passively supports the Executive branch in foreign military endeavors, this research demonstrates that Congress was involved in the debate about Iraq and increased that involvement as the time for the Iraq Resolution vote approached, increasingly growing more hawkish. At the same time, the story of the Iraq war debate was more nuanced than the typical argument would suggest, namely that Congress tends to follow the Executive branchs foreign policy. While the Executive branch exhorted war with Iraq more so than the Legislative branch, there may have been some enablement of this message from congressional Democrats.

Since the late 1980s, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) engaged in international development in Japan have become increasingly interested in incorporating advocacy into their operations. Despite the enthusiasm, however, NGO advocacy in Japan has been rather stagnant, not yet experiencing a dramatic boost. Given such situation, this paper analyzes the challenges development NGOs in Japan face in undertaking advocacy work. In doing so, the paper dissects NGO advocacy into aim, approach, and audience. During the 1980s and 1990s, development NGOs in Japan faced an unfavorable legal structure that led these organizations to suffer from chronic financial instability. Forced to emphasize fundraising for service delivery, many of the development NGOs in Japan did not have the capacity to undertake other types of public communication programs, i.e. advocacy. The restricted environment allowed only a limited number of NGOs to engage in advocacy during this period, which were mostly policy recommendation to the Japanese government through lobbying. The unfavorable legal structure began to show dramatic change in the 2000s. The new NPO Law enacted in 1998 and the new tax system for nonprofits instituted in 2001 eased the financial issue of development NGOs, thus allowing them to incorporate more advocacy work. Increased involvement to advocacy led to successful implementation of Hottokenai Sekai no Mazushisa Campaign of 2005, a major turning point of NGO advocacy in Japan. In addition to lobbying the decision-makers, the campaign intentionally attempted to mobilize the general public. This expansion of approach and audience led to a new challenge in NGO advocacy in Japan; the Japanese public with a tendency to regard NGOs as fundraisers for service delivery rather than advocates now stands as the new obstacle. The paper thus finds a shift of NGO advocacy challenge in Japan from 1980s and 1990s to 2000s. In-between these two periods, constraining factor shifted from incapacity for advocacy resulting from unfavorable legal structure to unreceptive audience. The new stage for NGO advocacy in Japan thus calls for careful attention to the qualitative aspect of advocacy work, i.e. messages articulated and delivered to the audience.

Metropolitan and urban issues have been of interest to social scientists, policy analysts, and others for some time. This dissertation explores service provision related to government structure, and measurements of these relationships in metropolitan areas, because public service is a primary function of government. To account for different services in different areas, service expenditure and growth in service expenditure are used as the primary variables. Relationships between growth in expenditures and economic-demographic conditions are examined for county government structure. The research method uses single county metropolitan areas to eliminate complications of large, multiple county metropolitan areas, such as multiple states. The study combines content analysis of government and academic documentation on local governance structure and characteristics with quantitative analysis. There are several study findings regarding growth in service expenditure related to government structure and demographic condition. First, structures of government that facilitate managerial competency tend to have lower cost of service provision. Second, expenditure reduction is related to service scope and the type of government providing the service: 1) use of municipal service delivery for jurisdictional-specific services is associated with lower overall service expenditure for the metropolitan area; while 2) use of county services is associated with lower service expenditure for services which benefit from economies of scale; and 3) utilization of special districts is increasing and apparently benefits the tax stream and development finances. Third, in general metropolitan areas with more population in central cities have lower overall service expenditure growth. This dissertation advances the current discussion for improvement of service provision in the following ways. First, it contributes to an understanding of metropolitan area conditions through public service structure and governmental structure. Second, it contributes to the development of a methodological approach for measurement of metropolitan governance. This is accomplished with the concept of share of service responsibility for each type of local government and managerial competency. Third, it provides a benchmark of the service structure for multiple-county metropolitan areas.

Disasters require quick, decisive action by disaster managers under intense conditions of uncertainty. The response organizations that form to meet the challenge are a collection of actors with a variety of experience, training, priorities and communications abilities, and form a unique, emergent social network. The size, scope and dynamics of the event make it difficult to gather clear, timely, pertinent data, assign and share meaning to inform critical decisions. This study describes the planned, reported, perceived and desired (PRPD) networks in emergency management mass care response operations and the information needs of the disaster manager during the threat and immediate response phases of the disaster to build an effective common operating picture (COP). Utilizing the National Incident Management System (NIMS) and the Emergency Support Function (ESF) organizing concept of the National Response Plan as a framework, the networks of actors and information are identified and compared to actual data and networks that were demonstrated in federal and state disaster response operations through the historic Gulf Coast hurricane season of 2005.

This is a study of Neighborhood Information System (NIS) across the U.S. This dissertation investigates the public-nonprofit partnerships of building NIS and evaluates their effectiveness in being a tool for local governance. I employed an extensive study, including a nationwide survey,and an intensive study, including qualitative case analyses. Neighborhood indicators play a critical role for local governance as they provide necessary information about neighborhoods. Recently, Neighborhood Information Systems (NIS) have been developed in the cities across the U.S. to provide better access to local data and information to community development stakeholders. National Neighborhood Indicators Partnership (NNIP), at the Urban Institute brings many local NIS together, acting as a headquarter unit. Government agencies, non profit organizations, and community organizations engage in decision making process for community development and NISs are designed to help information sharing, and effective and participatory decision makings for community development stakeholders. The use of partnerships has emerged as a dominant strategy to develop an NIS. This research investigated what contributes to a working partnership to develop a successful and effective NIS as an information-sharing network to help local economic development and community revitalization. This study suggests data is more important than other resources such as funding and technology in terms of building an information System for the communities. It also indicates executive level connections with local governments are important as development of an NIS needs a project champion in government for data sharing. The implication for building NISs is that government is an indispensable part of the partnership network, even when the initiation of NIS development comes from the nonprofit sector.

The last decade has witnessed substantial increases in US university study abroad programming. Related, there has been a demonstrable spike in university administrators and faculty members suggesting that their institutions prepare students for global citizenship. Yet few institutions have offered a clear conceptualization of what global citizenship is, how they educate for it, or how they measure their progress in that effort. This dissertation addresses the relative dearth of applicable theoretical constructs by offering one such construct, suggesting the specific educative process by which it may be encouraged, and discussing initial efforts evaluating its success. Its three primary contributions are: (1) a particular articulation of global citizenship that draws on existing theoretical approaches while insisting on integration with or development of strong mechanisms for application, (2) clarification of the educative process by which that articulation and practice of global citizenship may be encouraged, and (3) the development and testing of a quantitative instrument for better understanding and evaluating global citizenship and civic engagement. A pre- and post- survey is employed to develop an index of global civic engagement and awareness measures among students (1) not participating in global service-learning, (2) participating in global service-learning without a deliberate global citizenship education component, and (3) participating in global service-learning with clear attention to the integration of a global citizenship curriculum. The findings, buttressed by analysis of related qualitative data, suggest that integration of a carefully developed and articulated theoretical and practical approach to global citizenship education is essential if universities are to be successful in their efforts to create global citizens. Perhaps less intuitive and more alarming, the findings indicate that exposure to study abroad programming absent deliberate global citizenship education efforts may serve to merely reinforce stereotypes, create situations where severe cultural shock and withdrawal are likely experiences, and otherwise serve to cause young US citizens to shrink from rather than engage with the world. Taken as a whole, the analysis suggests the outcomes of many efforts to globalize campuses and create global citizens are unclear at best and that clearer conceptualizations, educative processes, and evaluation efforts are needed.

Two incidents have forced the United States to take significant steps to prepare for large-scale disasters: the attacks on September 11, 2001 and the devastation that resulted from Hurricane Katrina on August 29, 2005. Emergency managers respond under the mantra all emergencies are local. While this is a good tag line, it is through the planning and preparation efforts at all levels of government that an emergency response system can work efficiently and effectively. This study focuses on the state level to first, understand how organizations can be designed to contain both structure and flexibility in the emergency management context, and second, identify the role of personal interactions, communication, legal structures and leadership within these types of organizations. California was carefully selected because of its size, national economic importance, and experience with preparing for and responding to multi-jurisdictional incidents.

Public sector corruption plays an important role in a nation's development, and many low income countries (LICs) suffer chronic bureaucratic corruption. While there have been numerous studies addressing both the causes and consequences of corruption, the full range of causes remains unexplored, and consequences are becoming understood in new light with fresh data and expanded linkages. Specifically, the impact of religion and spirituality on public sector corruption had not previously been adequately researched and documented, and tracing the role of corruption on living standards through business starts data provides a novel perspective on this link. This dissertation is a macro-level, global study of public sector corruption, analyzing the impact of religion and spirituality on public sector corruption, and subsequently on living standards. Essentially this is a study of ethics in public service, reviewed through the lens of one ancient concept (religion) and an emerging new construct (spirituality). The primary conclusions and contributions of this dissertation are that: (1) religion has a direct and moderate causal impact on corruption, (2) spirituality has an inverse but weak causal impact on corruption and (3) public sector corruption has an inverse and strong causal impact on business starts, economic growth and living standards. All three of these primary findings have social, political, and economic policy implications.