This thesis investigates the implementation of performance-based budgeting through a case-study of Indonesia. It examines the use by government officials/practitioners of performance information in the planning and budget-making process at the national level within Indonesia. In particular, the thesis assesses the impact that performance results have on budget allocations vis-a-vis other factors affecting budget allocation decisions. It also identifies the key challenges for government officials in seeking to implement a performance-based budgeting regime, especially, the challenge of moving the actual practice of budgetmaking model further away from a traditional incremental approach. The research for the thesis has involved a combination of qualitative and quantitative analysis, with three different data collection methods deployed. Interviews were conducted with fifty three government officials from the Ministry of Planning, the Ministry of Finance, seven other ministries/agencies and Parliament. A questionnaire was also designed and administered with seventy nine line ministry/agency officials. Finally, statistical analysis of performance scores and budget data was undertaken for 435 spending programmes covering 86 line ministries/agencies over the period 2011- 2014. A key conclusion from the study is that Indonesia has made significant efforts in the direction of using performance information in its budgetary planning processes. The Ministry of Planning, the Ministry of Finance, and line ministries/agencies have been particularly active in leading change in this respect. That said, the evidence gathered from the interviews, questionnaire responses and statistical analysis clearly show that, as elsewhere around the world, the impact of performance information on resource allocation decisions has, so far, been quite limited, and that incrementalism continues to dominate budgetary decision-making. While performance information is becoming increasingly important for managerial purposes within line ministries/agencies, the more challenging goal of breaking well-established budget-setting practices and instituting a more performance-driven allocation model is largely still to be achieved.

This thesis deals with Taiwan as a post-colonial nation, with an identity that remains somewhat ambiguous, from both internal and external perspectives. Specifically, in this thesis, the complexities of its Taiwan’s multicultural legacies are explored through the presentation in industrial heritage sites. Industrial heritage in Taiwan is mainly the product of the Japanese colonial period between 1895 and 1945, which spans the first half of the twentieth century. This fifty-year colonial industrialisation is arguably Taiwan’s most influential industrial heritage because it began a rapid process of modernisation that is continuing today. The key to this process is the industrialisation that led to the development of main parts of the island, catalysed new communities and social patterns and structured daily life. These industrial locations have now become heritage sites for tourism and creative development, Moreover, the interpretation of these sites highlights the re-contextualisation of the Taiwanese legacy from both political and economic perspectives. However, these sites also reveal some highly problematic place-related aspects of the colonial narrative. This thesis examines how this heritage is produced in a society that remains connected to Japanese culture, a society in which industrial heritage is influenced by the increasing convergence between cultural tourism, museumification and commercialisation Furthermore, new relationships are identified, which reflect the patterns and trends of wider economic, social and cultural changes. The thesis concludes by offering a deeper understanding of the valorisation of industrial heritage in Taiwan and its influence on broader Taiwanese narratives of geopolitics and global heritage agenda.

Literature on the integration of cross-cutting issues, or policy integration, has given little attention to how policy-making processes allow for policy integration as well as present barriers. There is also little evidence of how sectoral ministries respond to crosscutting issues and in what way they are affected by pressure to address such issues, including those promoted by ‘competing’ agencies. Climate change presents a significant and important issue for integration into many areas of public policy. Many government ministries and departments are tasked with responding to climate change mitigation and adaptation objectives. Forestry is a key sector in building a response to climate change and so an investigation into how policy-makers and policy-making processes have responded to climate change can shed light on the integration of cross-cutting issues. The thesis reports on investigation into how the Ministry of Forestry, Indonesia, has responded to climate change and into the organisational arrangements developed in the response to climate change. The research developed an innovative framework for the analysis of policy integration, generating conclusions in relation to the policy process, organisational arrangements and the influence of key actors, including policy champions and boundary spanners.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) is emerging as a significant security organisation in Central Asia, but remains understudies in academia. This thesis analyses SCO using primary research interviews across its member-states, and by drawing on theoretical literatures developed for security and regionalism in the developing world. The role of SCO as a security provider and the nature of cooperation within its framework are examined, challenging existing assumptions. It is argued that the SCO is not an "empty vessel" aimed at countering Western influence, but a framework for cooperation on the primary interest of its member-states,regime security. To this end, it is focussed on addressing non-traditional security challenges within Central Asia, and has developed an institutional framework that takes into account the reservations of its member-states' elites about ceding national sovereignty. The thesis concludes that this approach has enabled SCO to become an important element in its member-states' regional policy. In addition, mainstream literatures on regional institutions are critiqued, in particular the impliciit assumption that cooperation between states that are not pluralistic liberal-democracies is inherently limited. To the contrary, in regions of weak states, regime security provides the basis for a different form of cooperation that should not be dismissed.

Scholarship on twenty-first century Nigerian female-authored novels has long been dominated by womanist readings, regardless of the fact that these modern narratives represent feminism in strong terms. The readings often subsume subversive femininity within non-aggressive liberation, resulting in an insufficient narrative of the intricacies of the novels of the period. This thesis challenges such representations by proposing subversion as the hallmark of twenty- first century Nigerian female-authored novels through a textual analysis of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus and Half of a Yellow Sun, Sefi Atta’s Everything Good Will Come and Kaine Agary’s Yellow Yellow. Through a gynocentric approach, the analysis of the novels foregrounds a feminist view of domination, resistance and solidarity, espousing the premise that the contemporary heroines are understandably rebellious in asserting female agency. The thesis draws three fundamental conclusions: that the feminist paradigm is useful to the comprehension of the nuances of twenty-first century Nigerian female-authored novels, that dissidence is a remarkable feature of contemporary texts, and that this revolutionary tendency contrasts with the conservative attitudes of the previous epoch.

This thesis uses experimental methods to study two topics on the effectiveness of school inputs on educational outcomes in rural China. For the first topic, I use unique administrative data from Wugang County Education Bureau (a rural county in Hunan), and a regression discontinuity methodology. I find that selective/elite schools, despite their resource advantages, only have limited effects on raising student educational outcomes. However, magnet classes are effective for the top student group. These findings imply that magnet classes provide benefits at the expense of other students, and in general that concentrating resources in a few elite schools is not an effective way to raise educational outcomes. For the second topic, this time using unique data from Shaoyang County Education Bureau (also a rural county in Hunan), I designed two RCTs to examine the effectiveness of a low cost communication intervention. The intervention used a 12-point assessment form measuring a pupil’s academic work and class behaviour. One RCT communicated these assessment results only to the students (Teacher-Student-Communication, TSC), and the other additionally to the pupil's parents (Teacher-Student-Parent-Communication, TSPC). Test score improvements before and after the 8-month intervention period (with 13 assessments) were the measure of educational effectiveness. I find that the TSPC intervention for maths for left-behind children is particularly important. In addition, TSC helped younger pupils (3d grade) more than old (5"' grade), whether left behind or not, showing the importance of early intervention.

This thesis departs from the traditional historiographical views that portray Philby as having no political influence either while he was serving his country or after his resignation from government service when he was settled in Saudi Arabia. It also departs from picturing him as a man who tended to undermine British policy, arguing that he was loyal to his country, as was plain during his years of service. The thesis examines his background, from his early years to the work he did for his country in India, Iraq and Transjordan and takes an analytical and historical approach. It seeks to present a more comprehensive understanding of Philby’s mission to Arabia, its objectives and outcomes, focusing on his political work in Arabia and his efforts to solve problems which otherwise might have threatened British interests. This thesis deals with Philby’s efforts in the conflict between Najd and Hejaz and his actions in the border dispute between Ibn Sa‘ūd and his rival, Hussain, and assesses whether Philby played a major part in the collapse of the Hejazi kingdom. It considers Philby’s contribution to the American recognition of Saudi Arabia. It examines Philby’s method of settling political conditions after the Idrisi revolt against Ibn Sa‘ud. It asks why Philby visited Yemen and if it would somehow have enhanced Ibn Sa‘ūd’s position. It focuses on Philby’s role in the Buraimi crisis between Britain and Saudi Arabia and illustrates the persuasive arguments by which Philby upheld the Saudi opposition to Britain’s demands over Buraimi.

The status of Christian–Muslim relations (CMR), which are difficult to assess, has been ambiguous in contemporary Lebanon. Analysts, as well as individuals within Lebanese communities in Lebanon and within the diaspora have made conflicting claims. One major claim has been that CMR are better now than before the Lebanese Civil War because the civil war ended in 1991 and a reoccurrence has never materialized. Furthermore, the Ţā’if agreement, a working document aimed at ending the civil war and promoting solid CMR, was signed by most of the major communities of Lebanon in 1991. For these reasons and more, Lebanese CMR were believed to have improved post-civil war. Nevertheless, this writer explored the veracity of this proposition. Through comprehensive quantitative and qualitative research, the poor state of CMR in contemporary Lebanon was revealed. In face-to-face interviews in Lebanon, field experts reflected on the weakened condition of CMR and the reasons for the same. University students participated in a survey to ascertain their feelings concerning CMR and the possible causes of problems within CMR. Focus was also placed on the role identity has had in CMR. These causes of CMR conflict and, at times, consensus were reviewed and compared for a clear understanding of the state of present-day CMR. Finally, based on an understanding of these factors, recommendations for improvement, further study, and the future of CMR were given.

China has been the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the absolute terms since 2008. Yet the pivotal drivers and key factors in its climate policymaking are still much under‐researched. In particular, little attention has been given to developing theoretical models to account for and to explain the evolution of Chinese climate change policy. This study directly addresses this gap in the climate change literature. Firstly, the study identifies the key domestic drivers and factors in Chinese climate policies using social evolution theory, which incorporates facets of institutionalism and elite theory in order to explain the evolution of Chinese climate change policy by direct reference to its highly dynamic socio‐economic circumstances. Secondly, this study uses these social evolutionary insights to inform interviews with 11 key climate policymakers situated at the highest levels within the Chinese Communist Party and the climate policymaking organisations. Respondents’ verbatim comments are analysed using NVivo software to critically assess the validity of social evolutionary analysis conducted in the first part of the thesis. Not only does this provide a vital means of empirical confirmation, it also directly contributes to the very scarce body of academic work on Chinese political elite interviewing. Thirdly, the analysis builds on this domestic level analysis to examine the extent to which social evolutionary theory might be used to understand and explain Chinese climate policies. Implications are discussed to inform future domestic and international climate policymaking and global cooperation on addressing climate change.

Urban redevelopment in Chinese cities is significant for urban growth. This study aims to investigate the dynamics of governance of urban redevelopment in Guangzhou, China from 1990 to 2015 under the Chinese authoritarian regime. The connections between such governance and the authoritarian regime are the key to understand the governance dynamics; this is the main contribution of this research. This study explores 5 research objectives to achieve research aims by qualitative methods: (1) the institutional background; (2) patterns of governance; (3) purposes of governance; (4) mechanism of governance; and (5) a Guangzhou mode of governance. The research findings of 5 research objectives are (1) institutional background can be described as a land-oriented pro-growth authoritarian regime. (2) The patterns of governance have three various phases, the Primitive Market Phase (1990–1996) as a semi-market mode of governance; the Pure Government Phase (1998–2006) as a semi-hierarchy mode; and the Multiple Players Phase (2006–2015) as a semi-network mode. (3) The purpose of governance is to pursue economic growth in various conditions. (4) The mechanisms to produce governance modes are driven by the Chinese authoritarian regime. (5) A Guangzhou mode of governance can be established based on the comparison between Guangzhou, other Chinese cities and a simplified picture of Western cities. There are three main arguments in these findings, the governance modes in Guangzhou are dramatically changeable; these changes aim to adapt changed environments to realise growth; the authoritarian regime of Guangzhou is an important reason for this adaptive capacity.