After nearly 60 years of frozen diplomatic relations between USA and Cuba President Obama decided it was time for a change. The leading words of his campaign has since the beginning of his first election period in 2009 been to “Remake America”. As a result of his new approach to foreign policymaking and international relations President Obama and Raúl Castro announced in December 2014 that they wished to normalize the diplomatic relationship between the two states. March 2016 therefor marks an historical event when Obama travelled to Cuba to formally shake hands with Raúl Castro, and extend a hand of friendship to the Cuban people. He was the first American president to visit Cuba since Kennedy confirmed the embargo in the beginning of the 1960s. This essay will look into the historical aspects of the path dependent Cuban policy that nine American Presidents has chosen to pursue since the beginning of the 1960s, leading up to 2009. A policy that has not been able to live up to what it was set out to do. This essay will use three different theories to try and make sense of why history is changing, and how we should understand these changes. Realism and liberalism are used to deal with the historical aspects regarding this relationship. Although USA is built on liberal values and they have taken on the role as a democratic leader in the world, many political decisions and actions points to a more realistic approach to international relations mostly driven by suspicion against other non-democratic states. The theory of path dependency is employed to try and break down events as we approach the historical event of the meeting between President Obama and Raúl Castro during Obamas visit to Cuba in March 2016. With the help of path dependent tools such as increasing returns and critical junctures, this essay concludes that we have in fact reached a critical juncture regarding the American Cuban policy.

This essay examines how rhetoric and migration policy have changed from before and after Brexit. The study is limited to the years 2012-2022. I will analyze whether there is a particular connection between rhetoric and migration policy within the named period. The material that will be analyzed will be the statements concerning migration policy. This will mainly be based on the statements of top politicians. The theories that will be consumed on my collected material are global neo-institutionalism and the critical juncture theory. The results indicate that Brexit entailed major institutional changes in migration policy. The result also indicated that Brexit meant that the Conservative Party was moved to pursue a more restrictive and restrained migration policy. The conclusion is summarized by the fact that Brexit entailed major institutional changes. However, these have not meant reduced migration to Great Britain, which was the aim of the changed migration policy.

This study looks at the development in policy towards homosexuals in Sweden from criminalization to constitutional protection. A study on the ideational development in parliament has yet to be conducted. By studying the frames expressed in the official documents between 1933 and 2010 the study analyses ideas in terms of problems and solutions to describe how change occurred. The result is that Swedish policy towards homosexuals has been determined by two frames of understanding: a sexual frame  and an emotional frame. The policy process of the frames developed similarly in terms of institutionalization. Initially both frames saw homosexuals as dangerous which resulted in a different legal status. The frames gradually harmonized with a new scientific understanding that reinterpreted homosexuality as harmless and the different legal status problematic.

<p>This study focuses upon the new societal objects that are termed public private</p><p>partnerships where the public sector forms strategic alliances with the private sector</p><p>and the civil society to manage the wicked issues of today. An exampel of such</p><p>cooperation is Vänerhamn AB where the municipalities around the lake of Vänern</p><p>and the private shipping companies got togheter to handle an economic crisis of the</p><p>shipping buisiness. The partnership Vänerhamn has developed from a problematic</p><p>activity to a healthy company and the aim of this thesis is to illuminate this</p><p>development through an historical institutional approach, focusing critical juncture</p><p>to discover if the governance theory can be used to understand the partnerships</p><p>positive process.</p><p> </p><p>This will be done through research questions about the organisation of the</p><p>partnership, about the members interests with the partnership and about eventually</p><p>coordination problems in the partnership. The questions derive from dimensions in</p><p>governance theory, central for the activity of partnerships. Interviews with central</p><p>informants where held and it was complemented through a document analyses in</p><p>order to search for indications of the dimensions and that is the methodological</p><p>approach of the study.</p><p> </p><p>The conclusion of this thesis is that the governance theory can be used to</p><p>understand Vänerhamns postive development since the members interest with the</p><p>partnership to a begining was not at all conformed and that led to obvious</p><p>coordination problems. With more conformed interests the coordination problems</p><p>were almost absent and the partnership made success. In this case the organisation</p><p>of the partnership did not matter as it was a registered company during the whole</p><p>time. The central sapiency of the thesis is that the public sector has to learn more</p><p>about the private sector and vice versa.</p>

<p>This study deals with Swedish nuclear-energy politics from 1980 to 2006. The purpose is to trace and to explain change and stability in three political parties’ rhetoric concerning the phase-out of Swedish nuclear-energy and the Swedish government’s nuclear politics. Two hypotheses based on path dependency theory are tested to analyze if rhetoric and politics are developing in separate directions. The first hypothesis is based on the idea that earlier promises from the political parties affect what promises they can make later on. The second hypothesis is based on the idea that early investments in Swedish nuclear energy will affect what investments can be made at a later stage. The study shows that there are differences between the political parties’ promises and the government’s politics in the Swedish nuclear-energy debate. The two tested hypotheses seem to be possible explanations to why differences between party rhetoric and governmental politics have appeared. While party rhetoric is formed by a need to earn credibility by showing continuity in made promises, governmental politics is formed by a need to find practical solutions to welfare-, economic- and environmental problems.</p>

Homeownership and suburbanisation are two sides of the same coin in the context of Australia. This thesis explores the housing system that facilitates homeownership under a framework of institutional path dependence and how that has facilitated spatial patterns of suburbanization in contemporary Melbourne. Australia has been considered a homeowner society for the larger part of the 20th century. Living and owning a house on a ‘quarter acre block’ in one of its major cities is said to have been a virtue even before homeownership was in reach for the majority of the Australian population. The years after WWII enabled up to 70 per cent of the population to access homeownership tenure. In that, this thesis analyses the institutional, societal and economic configurations that enabled increased homeownership provision, but also the historical processes that further facilitated a system around a dominant tenure. Path dependency theory, developed in the field of historical institutionalism, offers an analytical toolbox to examine long-term processes. In a broad sense, path dependency refers to the continuous reproduction of institutional systems in place. The second part of this thesis examines urbanisation processes in Melbourne, under a framework of institutional and spatial change. Cities are changing environments that, although, they inhabit determinist and reinforcing spatial patterns and institutions, transition over time. By looking at historical and contemporary institutional processes, this thesis examines metropolitan strategies to consolidate the outward growth in the city of Melbourne. Under the aspect of change, current challenges to the built environment are presented. A third analysis connects the macro discussion with a case study of a local housing provider in Melbourne, that in some regards may be viewed as antithesis to the contemporary building regime in the Australian and Melbourne context. As the first in-depth path dependency analysis in the Australian context, this thesis can be viewed as a contribution to the growing body of path dependency literature with a housing focus that also combines the spatial nature of urban environments.

This thesis is an inquiry into the challenges to the role of civic organisations in political reform during and after political transitions. The major question this research addresses is: How do institutions and institutional dynamics constrain political reform during a transition? The thesis examines how demands for reform by non-governmental organisations in Lebanon and Libya were not translated into concrete political decisions taken by regimes during a transition period. The thesis suggests that the combination of weak states and power-sharing agreements marginalizes civic organisations, and poses institutional constraints on the likelihood of reform. The thesis is based on contemporary research on events and reform trajectories in Lebanon and Libya, with a focus on the demands and strategies employed by activists during periods of transition. Lebanon between 2005 and 2010 and Libya between 2011 and 2013 underwent critical political events but subsequently did not adopt political reforms despite demands by civic organisations in two main areas: the electoral system in Lebanon and the constitutional process in Libya. A study of these two reform campaigns reveals deeply entrenched historical patterns and elements of continuity that led to path dependent outcomes during transition. By utilising theory and concepts from the perspective of historical institutionalism, the thesis identifies the factors behind path dependent outcomes in Lebanon and Libya. I argue that the transitions in Lebanon and Libya were a result of only ‘partially' critical junctures. The thesis builds on the approach of path dependence by offering insights as to how historically inherited institutional dynamics from the previous regime can cause junctures to be only ‘partially' critical for the broader political order. The main source of data comes from participant observations, interviews and focus groups with two organisations that tried to advance electoral reform and constitutional development.

Why do some individuals endorse public policies aimed at reducing income inequality while others oppose them? Why is there widespread support for such policies in certain countries, but not in others? This dissertation advances scholarship toward a general theory of support for redistribution by analyzing variation in redistributive attitudes within and across two developing democracies, Argentina and Peru. Support for redistribution is higher in the former country. It examines existing theories based on interests and group identity, explanations whose predictions have been almost exclusively evaluated in the context of advanced industrial democracies. It also introduces and assesses a belief-based explanation that focuses on inequality frames, simplified mental models of the issue of inequality comprised of individuals’ beliefs about the causes of economic outcomes, about the extent to which society provides equal opportunities, and about the nature of wealth accumulation. This dissertation argues that these theories are complementary and identifies the contextual factors that condition the extent to which the considerations emphasized by these accounts inform redistributive attitudes. Interests and group identity are salient in contexts where individuals have access to material and informational resources that make them more cognizant of their position along economic and ethnic cleavages. In contrast, inequality frames inform redistributive attitudes regardless of context because of their inside-the-head nature. This study shows that the relative dominance of redistributive beliefs in Argentina and self-reliance beliefs in Peru help explain why support for redistribution is higher in the former country. Finally, this dissertation develops a politico-historical explanation for why and how these frames became relatively dominant. This account argues that individuals’ inequality frames are relatively stable during times of normal politics, but malleable during certain critical political junctures brought about by major events like mass political incorporation or economic crises. During such times, individuals are particularly receptive to elite cues and messages that are transmitted not only via rhetoric but also via public policies. Redistributive beliefs become dominant wherever political actors whose discourse features elements consistent with the redistributive frame are able to implement successful comprehensive social policies. The self-reliance frame becomes dominant in countries where this combination of rhetoric and policies does not take place during a critical juncture. / text

This study focuses upon the new societal objects that are termed public private partnerships where the public sector forms strategic alliances with the private sector and the civil society to manage the wicked issues of today. An exampel of such cooperation is Vänerhamn AB where the municipalities around the lake of Vänern and the private shipping companies got togheter to handle an economic crisis of the shipping buisiness. The partnership Vänerhamn has developed from a problematic activity to a healthy company and the aim of this thesis is to illuminate this development through an historical institutional approach, focusing critical juncture to discover if the governance theory can be used to understand the partnerships positive process.   This will be done through research questions about the organisation of the partnership, about the members interests with the partnership and about eventually coordination problems in the partnership. The questions derive from dimensions in governance theory, central for the activity of partnerships. Interviews with central informants where held and it was complemented through a document analyses in order to search for indications of the dimensions and that is the methodological approach of the study.   The conclusion of this thesis is that the governance theory can be used to understand Vänerhamns postive development since the members interest with the partnership to a begining was not at all conformed and that led to obvious coordination problems. With more conformed interests the coordination problems were almost absent and the partnership made success. In this case the organisation of the partnership did not matter as it was a registered company during the whole time. The central sapiency of the thesis is that the public sector has to learn more about the private sector and vice versa.

Este trabalho busca revisitar as teorias existentes sobre reformas econômicas e democratização, em especial no que concerne às reformas financeiras liberalizantes. De acordo com o saber convencional, normalmente essas reformas afetam de modo negativo as democracias, colocando em perigo a construção de boas instituições para a sua consolidação. Ao analisar de forma mais detida a relação entre as reformas financeiras levadas a cabo pelo Banco Central do Brasil, a partir de uma conjuntura crítica ocorrida no início de 1999, e a padronização de instituições para o incremento da Supervisão Bancária, oriunda do BIS ? Banco para Compensações Internacionais, resolvemos questionar a validade universal dessa literatura ao argumentar que a construção de redes de proteção para o sistema financeiro brasileiro, num contexto de crise e oportunidades, foi possibilitado por uma maior cooperação entre esse organismo financeiro internacional e a autoridade monetária local. A contrapartida para o reforço de autoridade do Banco Central e a conseqüente implementação de instituições para a reforma financeira, no Brasil, foi um aumento da transparência das ações da autoridade monetária, concomitante a uma melhoria em seu processo de prestação de contas e responsabilização pública. A reconstrução das trajetórias que levaram a essa convergência entre um organismo internacional e uma autoridade local, numa democracia emergente de mercado, parece ser a chave para o entendimento das peculiaridades que redundaram nas falhas dos modelos unificadores de institucionalização, como aqueles preconizados pelo Consenso de Washington e adotados por outras organizações financeiras, por exemplo, o Fundo Monetário Internacional (FMI) / This thesis aims to review the well-established theories of economic reforms and democratization. The object will focus especially on the so called \"liberal financial reforms\". According to conventional wisdom, these reforms normally affect democracies deeply and jeopardize the building of sound institutions towards their consolidation. We decided to debate the universal validity of this conventional literature using the argument that the institutional building of safety nets for the Brazilian financial system - in a context of crisis and opportunities - was possible as a result of the cooperative game between an international financial organization (BIS) and the local monetary authority (BACEN). We will do that by analyzing the relation between these financial reforms led by Brazilian Central Bank more accurately, arising from a critical juncture occurred at the beginning of 1999, and the standardization of institutions for the improvement of banking supervision originated from BIS -Bank for International Settlements. The counterbalance to the reinforcement of central bank authority and the consequent implementation of institutions for the financial reform in Brazil was the increased monetary authority acts transparency and the simultaneous improvement of its mechanisms of political accountability. The study of path sequence that led to the convergence of the intentions of an international organization and a local political authority, in a emerging market democracy, seems to be the key to the comprehension of the peculiarities that resulted in the failure of the remedies that recommended a \"single model\" for the success of these reforms in new democracies, like the ones prescribed by the Washington Consensus, which were adopted by several organizations, including the International Monetary Fund - IMF