Political parties have been a common feature in non-competitive political systems, but their fates following an opening of electoral competition vary widely. Some parties continue to be able successfully compete for power, while many others languish as second-class political parties for decades. This dissertation seeks to answer the questions on this variation based on the institutional and organizational characteristics of these parties during the non-competitive era. Parties that play a major role in the non-competitive regime should be more likely to survive after an opening of competition, and parties that are able to reform anti-democratic legacies will be more able to translate their resources into future electoral success. This project builds on a literature that is rich in regional and sub-regional case studies by developing a global approach based upon comparable institutional qualities of non-competitive political systems and their ruling political parties. I also move away from the transitions literature and its focus on democracy, and instead focus on continuity and change in political parties after a time of major political change and the outcomes of that process. I develop an original, global database of 105 different regimes and 136 parties and their successors and their performance in elections ranging from 1975-2013. I find that parties which are a central institutional feature of the non-competitive regime are likely to survive regardless of their electoral success, while parties that play only a minor supporting role in the prior regime are dependent on continued electoral victories in order to survive for any significant period of time.

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This thesis is concerned with the geographical impact of the post-Soviet transition on the north of Perm' oblast, Russian Federation; a forested area which is marginal in terms of agriculture and economic development, where harsh climate and marshy soils preclude profitable agriculture, and where very poor infrastructure and low levels of investment have contributed to the decline of the forestry industry, which was developed during the Soviet period outside of the market system under which such development might have been regarded as non-viable. This thesis discusses marginality and poverty against the background of the process of 'transition' in Russia, and also outlines the theory of transition itself. The historical context is also considered; the processes through which the north of Perm' oblast arrived at the position in which it found itself by 1991 are examined, and changes up to the present day are analyzed. Historically, the processes of settlement and development of forestry in the study area are central. The political situation in the Russian Federation is also brought into the argument; the struggle for power between the centre and the periphery, and the weakening of the centre in recent months all have a bearing upon the view taken of marginal areas by the Moscow administration, and the policies undertaken which affect them. The thesis describes the responses of rural inhabitants to the processes of marginalisation; through out-migration, bifurcation of households, and the ways in which they utilise their domestic and environmental resources to effect subsistence. It also describes the importance of cash sources, of social capital, and of the forestry enterprises in the villages, as survival strategies. The conditions in the study region are shown to owe much to the context of Soviet development policy, and its impact on post-Soviet Russia.

Most historiography on British Anarchism has concluded that the Anarchists contributed very little to the political, social and cultural life of Britain. This thesis aims to provide an alternative view. The failure of Anarchism as a coherent political movement has been adequately charted by others. The purpose of the present work is to investigate the impact of Anarchist ideas and practices within the wider political culture. It will demonstrate that Anarchism had significant things to say about many of the issues troubling British society at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries. The Anarchist contribution often demonstrated a high degree of originality and coherence and therefore deserves to be taken seriously. The first chapter outlines the evolution of British Anarchism from the 1880's onwards in order to construct a chronological and organisational context for the thematic debates that follow. It provides an historical account of the various Anarchist groups in Britain and their relations with the rest of the Socialist movement. Chapter Two builds on this by discussing the various social and cultural mileux characteristic of British Anarchism. The following chapters present evidence of the Anarchist contribution to a variety of diverse developments in British society between the 1880's and 1914. In order, these are educational practices, communal ways of living, trade unionism, Syndicalism and finally the status of women in society. The conclusion maintains that, although Anarchist influence was weakened by sectarianism and organisational failures, the Anarchists nevertheless made an original contribution to the political culture, both as theorists and practical activists.

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Typescript. / Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1985. / Bibliography: leaves 158-175. / Photocopy. / Microfiche. / ix, 175 leaves, bound 29 cm

Thesis (Ph.D.) -- McMaster University, 2006. / Supervisor: Imre Szeman. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 216-233).

Thesis (M. Ed.)--University of Toronto, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 57-63).