Masters in Public Administration - MPA / The ideal and practice of administrative neutrality has been problematic in the public services of liberal democracies since the middle of the 19th century. Either the ideal was interpreted very narrowly to exclude public administration from political processes, or it has been too broadly incorporated to render its meaning practically useless. However, both literature and practice continue to emphasize the importance of the ideal. This study has attempted to clarify the meaning of the concept by examining its evolution and applicability in various liberal democratic states. Additionally, the study has developed a model of administrative neutrality for the post- apartheid South African public service. The study was guided by three broad assumptions: and these were: i) that the concept of administrative neutrality was not an antonym of politicization, and that whenever such meaning was imputed its applicability was bound to be compromised if not misguided; ii) that the applicability of administrative neutrality depended, among other things, on the constitutional experience and context of a given country; and that iii) administrative neutrality tended to emphasize those elements that are topical at a given time in a given country. Comparative experiences of older liberal democracies examined in the study lent support to these broad assumptions: thus, the British version of administrative neutrality has been conditioned by its political and administrative traditions in which the evolution of democratic political institutions dictated the subjection of administrative institutions to elected political leadership. By contrast, the French experience has reflected that country's administrative history in which public administration evolved much earlier than liberal democracy, and practices like permitting civil servants to seek political office without having to resign their posts was perceived as posing no danger to the ideal of neutrality. Similarly, the American model in which the top layer of public administrators are political appointees has been a product of its history which has had a heavy dosage of partisan patronage. However, despite the differences in terms of models and applicability of the concept the public services in all older liberal democracies examined showed a clear commitment to administrative neutrality in the form of a professionally appointed and managed public service. All the three older democracies examined here has clearly done away with the concept of patronage in the professional section of their public services. Based on the analysis of the three older democracies, a model has been developed for post-apartheid South Africa. First, it was observed that current practices of administrative neutrality in South Africa have been heavily influenced by both apartheid and British or Whitehall traditions. However, the 1996 constitution prescribes a public service that is nonpartisan and impartial, with the public service commission as the watchdog for its implementation. The study has noted that a few problems exist in the current practice of administrative neutrality. First, the practice of involving the minister in the department or premier in the province in matters of appointing permanent staff was regarded as anomalous. Second, that there was lack of specification of involvement by level of civil servants in partisan activities. Third, that the present arrangements do not make adequate checks and balances between ministerial responsibility for personnel and the role of the public service commission, and between the minister and the director- general. Fourth and finally, the absence of the head of the civil service who could cultivate, promote and defend the ethic of civil service neutrality. The proposed model addresses these issues and includes the following elements: commitment to national goals as a recognition of the fact that administrative neutrality does not mean avoidance of national political ideals and goals; merit as the basis for appointment and promotion to ensure against the spoils system; partisan neutrality in which civil servants at all levels do not participate in any partisan activities, but that this provision could be reviewed from time to time as the country's administrative culture evolves; institutional checks and balances in which the public service commission, the head of the civil service , and the re-designing of the office and even title of the director-general. At the moment there are no really checks and balances vis-a-vis ministerial role in the civil service. Finally, the model recommends general fairness and impartiality of the civil service as part of the neutrality concept. The model might meet some resistance due to entrenched traditions of the past or misconstruing of the ideal of neutrality itself by current practitioners. The study concludes by posing a few questions: what is the relationship between neutrality and civil service effectiveness? How does the policy of representative bureaucracy (i.e.: affirmative action) impact upon the merit principle? These and other questions have not been addressed in the study due to limitation of time and resources. Nonetheless, the ideal of administrative neutrality holds out the hope for a civil service that is emerging from the scars of apartheid politicization.

The research aimed to identify the level of threat currently experienced by Afrikaners, and their attitudes towards policies of affirmative action and the beneficiaries of these policies. Integrated threat theory was used in conjunction with social identity theory to identify current attitudes, and to investigate whether different attitudes existed between groups within the Afrikaner group. Data was collected from a representative sample via questionnaires. Research findings show that Afrikaners feel extremely threatened. Afrikaner negativity is focused directly on the policies of affirmative action rather than the beneficiaries of these policies. It was evident that Afrikaner males feel more threatened than Afrikaner females. Young Afrikaners attitudes are consistently the most negative of all Afrikaner groups; this was unexpected as this group of individuals has spent the majority of their young lives in a democratic South Africa. It is evident that a lot of work is still required to insure that the injustices of the past be adequately addressed. It is of critical importance that affirmative action be implemented with consideration to all groups of people and to understand the effect it has on those groups being negatively affected by it. All South Africans need to be responsible and recognise that the manner in which policy is implemented, has far greater influence than just the expected outcome of such policies. Copyright / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

Thesis advisor: M. Utku Ünver / Thesis advisor: M. Bumin Yenmez / This thesis is a collection of three essays in market design concerning designs of matching markets, affirmative action schemes, and COVID-19 testing policies. In Chapter 1, we explore the possibility of designing matching mechanisms that can accommodate non-standard choice behavior. In the standard model of matching markets, preferences over potential assignments encode participants' choice behavior. Our contribution to this literature is introducing behavioral participants to matching theory's setup. We pin down the necessary and sufficient conditions on participants' choice behavior for the existence of stable and incentive compatible matching mechanisms. Our results imply that well-functioning matching markets can be designed to adequately accommodate a plethora of non-standard (and standard) choice behaviors. We illustrate the applicability of our results by demonstrating that a simple modification in a commonly used matching mechanism enables it to accommodate non-standard choice behavior. In Chapter 2, we show that commonly used methods in reserving positions for beneficiaries of affirmative action are often inadequate in settings where affirmative action policies apply at two levels simultaneously, for instance, at university and itsdepartments. We present a comprehensive evaluation of existing procedures and formally and empirically document their shortcomings. We propose a new solution with appealing theoretical properties and quantify the benefits of adopting it using recruitment advertisement data from India. Our theoretical analysis hints at new possibilities for future work in the literature on the theory of apportionment (of parliamentary seats). Chapter 3 delves into the designs of the commonly used and advocated COVID-19 testing policies to resolve a conflict between their allocative efficiency and the ability to identify the infection rates. We present a novel comparison of various COVID-19 testing policies that allows us to pin down ordinally efficient testing policies that generate reliable estimates of infection rates while prioritizing testing of persons suspected of having the disease. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2022. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Economics.

Bibliography: pages 121-126C. / The research problem addressed in this research is the shortage of qualified chartered accountants from the black community in South Africa. This research attempts to identify what factors have resulted in this shortage, what efforts are being made to address this imbalance by which organisations and what factors could be considered as critical to the success of organisations, programmes and/or individuals. The study consists of a literature review and a three stage survey. Qualified black accountants and representatives of educational and other relevant organisations responded to questionnaires or were interviewed. The study is descriptive and exploratory in nature. Results indicate common trends amongst individual accountants and the opinions and experiences of organisations, rather than quantifiable data. The initial survey highlighted issues which have historically contributed to the shortage of black accountants, including awareness and perception of the profession, institutions, structures, racism, financial, macro and micro societal and educational factors. Educational factors were focused on for the remainder of the research. The literature review examined research in the areas of academic support programmes, cognition, learning and education and accounting education. Needs assessment, organisational objectives, educational methodology and evaluation were highlighted as potentially important factors in academic support programme design. The final section of the research drew on the practical experiences of support organisations and qualified accountants. The factors identified in the literature review appeared to be evident in most programmes. The group of qualified accountants participating in the study had not, however, participated in educational interventions by organisations, so the effectiveness of the hypothesized success factors could not be adequately assessed. Other issues which were identified in the study, and which are suggested for further research, were participation in facilitated or informal study groups, issues related to bilingualism and language and the importance of the locus of control over, and location of responsibility for, learning. The results indicate certain trends and commonalities which could guide further study, but the small population and sample size, and low response rates limit the generalisability of the results. Although the results are inconclusive as to the effectiveness of support organisations, a number of implications of the study for the short and long term, as well as suggestions for future research, can be made.

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Management, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Management. / Current political changes in local government will necessitate the implementation of affirmative action programmes. Successful implementation is vital to ensure peace and stability at local government level. The main purpose of this study was to examine control options for affirmative action in local government. The research was conducted by means of two research methods, namely documentary study on eight policy documents and survey questionnaires from 152 people involved in local government. It is interesting to note that the results of these methods were highly complementary. The documentary study and survey questionnaire results revealed a high degree of consensus on union involvement in the development of affirmative action policies and programmes. Furthermore, the enforcement of affirmative action by means of agreement between management and the trade unions was well received by all occupation groups in the study. Councillors and officials in particular, had no difficulty with shop steward involvement in the implementation of affirmative action, The study revealed that council officials and councillors are not in favour of government involvement in enforcing affirmative action policies and programmes .. At best, negotiated guidelines on affirmative action are fairly acceptable. The use of quotas and/or fines was unacceptable to the various parties. The nature of the research was exploratory and took the form of theory building as opposed to theory testing. For the first time in South Africa, an attempt was made to assess how best control systems for affirmative action policies and programmes could be implemented in local government. The input from key stakeholders in local government made it possible to develop a model that could he used to control affirmative action policies and programmes. / AC2017

Thesis (LL.M. (Labour Law)) -- University of Limpopo, 2022 / The aim of this research is to determine the laws that regulate affirmative action in the workplace and the impact Covid-19 has on affirmative action. This research focuses on the history of affirmative action in South Africa and the United States of America. Both countries have a similar history of discrimination and racial segregation. The United States of America is one of the most progressive countries on the issue of affirmative action. The comparison of South Africa with the United States of America will enhance the applicability and effectiveness of affirmative action. Past discrimination is a huge contributing factor to the imbalances and inequalities experienced in the workplace. A measure in a form of affirmative action was established to redress past injustices, however, there are many controversies around the topic and its effectiveness. The Covid-19 pandemic has made matters worse in that many people have been laid off, resulting in the retrenchments and the regress of affirmative action and its purpose. The findings of this research conclude that Covid-19 has negatively affected the process of affirmative action. As such, employers during this trying time prefer only individuals who are fully qualified and experienced as the employees have been reduced. As long as affirmative action applies to individuals or a group of individuals with certain skin colour or sex regardless of their past privileges this racial tension might never be relieved. In order to effectively implement affirmative action, South Africa has to focus on the institutions that cause the problem rather than dealing with the final results

This dissertation examines racial inequality and affirmative action in Malaysia and South Africa, two countries with a politically dominant but economically disadvantaged majority group - the Bumiputera in Malaysia, and blacks in post-Apartheid South Africa. We aim to contribute comparative perspectives and current empirical research on affirmative action regimes and dimensions of inequality directly pertinent to affirmative action, chiefly, racial representation and earnings inequality among tertiary educated workers and in upper-level occupations. We discuss theoretical approaches to inequality and affirmative action, with attention to particular circumstances of majority-favoring regimes, then survey, compare and contrast affirmative action programs and their political economic context in Malaysia and South Africa. In the empirical portions, we outline patterns and evaluate determinants of racial inequality, focusing on the mid-1990s to the mid-2000s. On Malaysia, we find that Bumiputera access to tertiary education has rapidly increased, but also observe disproportionate difficulties among Bumiputera degree-holders in participating in labor markets and in attaining upper-level occupations. Bumiputera representation at managerial and professional levels has remained static and dependent on the public sector. Econometric results indicate that quality of tertiary education impacts on the prospect of attaining upper-level jobs, and that Bumiputera are more adversely affected. Lack of data restricts our assessment of racial earnings inequality to a deduction that Bumiputera young graduates have experienced relatively greater decline in their earnings capacity. On South Africa, we find that blacks have steadily increased access to tertiary education, although disparities in quality of institutions and in student performance persist, which disproportionately and negatively affect black graduates. We observe that black representation has increased in upper-level, especially professional, occupations, largely in the public sector. We find that white-black earnings disparity declined substantially among degree-qualified workers, while not diminishing or not showing clear patterns among other educational and occupational groups. We conclude by considering, within the constraints of each country's political economic context, implications that arise from our findings. Most saliently, while affirmative action raises quantitative attainment of tertiary education and representation in upper-level occupations for the beneficiary group, inadequate attention to qualitative development of institutions and progressive distribution of benefits may attenuate progress toward the ultimate objective of cultivating broad-based, self-reliant professionals and managers.

Thesis advisor: M. Utku Ünver / Thesis advisor: Tayfun Sönmez / This thesis is a collection of three essays in market design concerning designs of matching markets with aggregate constraints, affirmative action schemes, and investigating boundaries of simultaneous efficiency-stability relaxation for one-to-one matching mechanisms.In Chapter 1, I establish and propose a possible solution for a college housing crisis, a severe ongoing problem taking place in many countries. Every year many colleges provide housing for admitted students. However, there is no college admissions process that considers applicants’ housing needs, which often results in college housing shortages. In this chapter, I formally introduce housing quotas to the college admissions problem and solve it for centralized admissions with common dormitories. The proposed setting is inspired by college admissions where applicants apply directly to college departments, and colleges are endowed with common residence halls. Such setting has many real-life applications: hospital/residents matching in Japan (Kamada and Kojima, 2011, 2012, 2015), college admissions with scholarships in Hungary (Biró, 2012), etc. A simple example shows that there may not be a stable allocation for the proposed setting. Therefore, I construct two mechanisms that always produce some weakened versions of a stable matching: a Take-House-from-Applicant-stable and incentive compatible cumulative offer mechanism that respects improvements, and a Not-Compromised-Request-from-One-Agent-stable (stronger version of stability) cutoff minimising mechanism. Finally, I propose an integer programming solution for detecting a blocking-undominated Not-Compromised-Request-from-One-Agent-stable matching. Building on these results, I argue that presented procedures could serve as a helpful tool for solving the college housing crisis. In Chapter 2, I propose a number of solutions to resource allocation problems in an affirmative action agenda. Quotas are introduced as a way to promote members of minority groups. In addition, reserves may overlap: any candidate can belong to many minority groups, or, in other words, have more than one trait. Moreover, once selected, each candidate fills one reserve position for each of her traits, rather than just one position for one of her traits. This makes the entire decision process more transparent for applicants and allows them to potentially utilize all their traits. I extend the approach of Sönmez and Yenmez (2019) who proposed a paired-admissions choice correspondence that works under no more than two traits. In turn, I allow for any number of traits focusing on extracting the best possible agents, such that the chosen set is non-wasteful, the most diverse, and eliminates collective justified envy. Two new, lower- and upper-dominant choice rules and a class of sum-minimizing choice correspondences are introduced and characterized. In Chapter 3, I implement optimization techniques for detecting the efficient trade off between ex-post Pareto efficiency (for one side of a two-sided matching market) and ex-ante stability for small one-to-one matching markets. Neat example (Roth, 1982) proves that there is no matching mechanism that achieves both efficiency (for one side of the one-to-one matching market) and stability. As representative mechanisms I choose deferred-acceptance for stability, and top trading cycles for Pareto efficiency (both of them are strategy-proof for one side of the market). I compare performances of a randomized matching mechanism that simultaneously relaxes efficiency and stability, and a convex combination of two representative mechanisms. Results show that the constructed mechanism significantly improves efficiency and stability in comparison to mentioned convex combination of the benchmark mechanisms. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2023. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Economics.

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I make two arguments in this dissertation. First, I argue that institutions and the people who managed them mattered in the fight for racial justice. At the University of Michigan, activists and state actors successfully pushed administrators to create new policies to increase minorities' access to the University, but it was University presidents, admissions officers, housing officials, deans and faculty members who had to put the ideal of racial justice into practice. These institutional managers, many of whom had never participated in a civil rights protest, had to rethink admissions and recruiting policies, craft new curriculum and counseling services and create new programs to address racial tension. In short, this is the story of what happened when institutional managers at the University of Michigan put the civil rights movement through the meat grinder of implementation. The second argument concerns the origins of the concepts and practices of diversity. Scholars have shown that activists, politicians and federal bureaucrats were responsible for the origins of affirmative action. In other words, institutions that implemented race-conscious admissions or hiring practices reacted to both the activists who insisted that institutions had a social responsibility to use affirmative action to address the racial inequities in American society, and to the state actors who enforced this ideal. If activists and state actors invented affirmative action, I argue that institutional managers created the concept of diversity. At the University of Michigan, the concept of diversity emerged out of a long struggle to implement race-conscious policies and carry out the ideal that the University had a social responsibility to address racial inequity in the state of Michigan. / History