Masters in Public Administration - MPA / Rwandan local government system is currently making an important turning point with the introduction of democratic decentralisation. This study was carried out in order to find out the prospects and challenges of democratic decentralisation in Rwandan context. From Rwanda's independence in 1962 up to the 1999 administrative reforms, local governments, namely communes, have largely failed in their mission of being basic development units. Democratic decentralisation was then introduced to bridge gaps and correct weaknesses that undemined local governance in the past. There are some challenges like generalised poverty in the country, the nonparticipation, and dependence syndrome among citizens that need to be overcome. However, there are also opportunities that ought to be taken advantage if democratic decentralisation is to really take root in Rwanda. The main opportunity is commitment to to democracy and decentralisation by all stakeholders, the national leadership, local authorities and citizens in general. However, democratic decentralisation cannot be attained quickly. It is achieved gradually depending on citizens' understanding and to the availability of the resources. authorities and citizens in general

The starting point of the project was threat that commercial forces pose to the identity of today’s suburban centers. The value of a square or a non-commercial space to meet seems somehow forgotten since shopping malls and internet are our new meeting spaces. In the anonymous suburb Barkarby northwest of Stockholm the project aims to question the barrier often dividing commuter railway suburbs. The project realizes the urban values that the train inhabits and embraces the very artery that supplies the city with people. It is a first step towards a dense development enhancing the identity and status of the suburb, not trying to imitate the inner city core. Instead it competes with big scale commercial activities by suggesting qualities extracted from the suburb itself. An amphitheatre which questions the space between the highway and train, an activity path with more or less spontaneous activities and an multihall under the train tracks  altogether enriches each other and through visual guidance attracts people on a piece of ground otherwise difficult to exploit. / Utgångspunkten för projektet är det hot som kommersiella krafter utgör mot dagens förortscentrum. Vikten av ett torg eller annan icke kommersiell plats att mötas på glöms bort då gallerior och internet fungerar som våra nya mötesplatser. I den anonyma förorten Barkarby, belägen nordväst om Stockholm, strävar projektet efter att ifrågasätta den barriär som så ofta delar av området kring pendeltågsstationer. Projektet anammar de urbana kvaliteerna som tåget representerar och omfamnar själva anledningen till områdets befolkande. Det är ett första steg mot en tät stadsväv utanför stadskärnan, vilken också förstärker den lokala identiteten. Utan att härma innerstadens typlogi så förstärker projektet platsens status. Istället konkurrerar projektet med storskaliga kommersiella aktiviteter genom att erbjuda ett extract av förortens redan inneboende kvaliteter. En amfiteater som ifrågasätter utrymmet mellan motorvägen och tågspåren, ett aktivitetsstråk med mer eller mindre spontana aktiviteter och en multihall under tågspåren berikar varandra och genom visuell ledning attraherar folk på en plats som annars aldrig skulle utnyttjats.

The diploma thesis called 'the concept of referendums in democracy: a comparison of the Scottish and Catalan models', deals with the question of referendum in democracy which is an instrument for countries to become independent. The referendum is correctly known as a constitutional referendum. This thesis also deals with the application of a constitutional referendum in the cases of Scotland and Catalonia. The main purpose of this research is to analyse the conduct of the Scottish and Catalan referendums for independence, both of which were held in the autumn of 2014. The paper looks to identify the similarities and differences between these two examples. Both cases are based on seven variables in the research of referendums: 1) constitutional framework for holding a referendum of independence, 2) identification of the basic political process leading to a referendum, 3) organizational-administrative regulation of a referendum, 4) issues during the referendum campaign, 5) opinion polls for the referendum, 6) results of the referendum and 7) predicted consequences of the referendum. The final purpose of this thesis is to assess how these two models reflect on the current constitutional practice in a democratic society.

The complexity of computer networks has been rising over the last decades. Increasing interconnectivity between multiple devices, growing complexity of performed tasks and a strong collaboration between nodes are drivers for this phenomenon. An example is represented by Internet-of-Things devices, whose relevance has been rising in recent years. The increasing number of devices requiring updates and supervision makes maintenance more difficult. Human interaction, in this case, is costly and requires a lot of time. To overcome this, self-adaptive software systems (SAS) can be used. SAS are a subset of autonomous systems which can monitor themselves and their environment to adapt to changes without human interaction. In the literature, different approaches for engineering SAS were proposed, including techniques for executing adaptations on multiple devices based on generated plans for reacting to changes. Among those solutions, also decentralised approaches can be found. To the best of our knowledge, no approach for engineering a SAS exists which tolerates errors during the execution of adaptation in a decentralised setting. While some approaches for role-based execution reset the application in case of a single failure during the adaptation process, others do not make assumptions about errors or do not consider an erroneous environment. In a real-world environment, errors will likely occur during run-time, and the adaptation process could be disturbed. This work aims to perform adaptations in a decentralised way on role-based systems with a relaxed consistency constraint, i.e., errors during the adaptation phase are tolerated. This increases the availability of nodes since no rollbacks are required in case of a failure. Moreover, a subset of applications, such as drone swarms, would benefit from an approach with a relaxed consistency model since parts of the system that adapted successfully can already operate in an adapted configuration instead of waiting for other peers to apply the changes in a later iteration. Moreover, if we eliminate the need for an atomic adaptation execution, asynchronous execution of adaptation would be possible. In that case, we can supervise the adaptation process for a long time and ensure that every peer takes the planned actions as soon as the internal task execution allows it. To allow for a relaxed consistent way of adaptation execution, we develop a decentralised adaptation execution protocol, which supports the notion of eventual consistency. As soon as devices reconnect after network congestion or restore their internal state after local failures, our protocol can coordinate the recovery process among multiple devices to attempt recovery of a globally consistent state after errors occur. By superseding the need for a central instance, every peer who received information about failing peers can start the recovery process. The developed approach can restore a consistent global configuration if almost all peers fail. Moreover, the approach supports asynchronous adaptations, i.e., the peers can execute planned adaptations as soon as they are ready, which increases overall availability in case of delayed adaptation of single nodes. The developed protocol is evaluated with the help of a proof-of-concept implementation. The approach was run in five different experiments with thousands of iterations to show the applicability and reliability of this novel approach. The time for execution of the protocol and the number of exchanged messages has been measured to compare the protocol for different error cases and system sizes, as well as to show the scalability of the approach. The developed solution has been compared to a blocking approach to show the feasibility compared to an atomic approach. The applicability in a real-world scenario has been described in an empirical study using an example of a fire-extinguishing drone swarm. The results show that an optimistic approach to adaptation is suitable and specific scenarios can benefit from the improved availability since no rollbacks are required. Systems can continue their work regardless of the failures of participating nodes in large-scale systems.:Abstract VI 1. Introduction 1 1.1. Motivational Use-Case 2 1.2. Problem Definition 3 1.3. Objectives 4 1.4. Research Questions 5 1.5. Contributions 5 1.6. Outline 6 2. Foundation 7 2.1. Role Concept 7 2.2. Self-Adaptive Software Systems 13 2.3. Terminology for Role-Based Self-Adaptation 15 2.4. Consistency Preservation and Consistency Models 17 2.5. Summary 20 3. Related Work 21 3.1. Role-Based Approaches 22 3.2. Actor Model of Computation and Akka 23 3.3. Adaptation Execution in Self-Adaptive Software Systems 24 3.4. Change Consistency in Distributed Systems 33 3.5. Comparison of the Evaluated Approaches 40 4. The Decentralised Consistency Compensation Protocol 43 4.1. System and Error Model 43 4.2. Requirements to the Concept 44 4.3. The Usage of Roles in Adaptations 45 4.4. Protocol Overview 47 4.5. Protocol Description 51 4.6. Protocol Corner- and Error Cases 64 4.7. Summary 66 5. Prototypical Implementation 67 5.1. Technology Overview 67 5.2. Reused Artifacts 68 5.3. Implementation Details 70 5.4. Setup of the Prototypical Implementation 76 5.5. Summary 77 6. Evaluation 79 6.1. Evaluation Methodology 79 6.2. Evaluation Setup 80 6.3. Experiment Overview 81 6.4. Default Case: Successful Adaptation 84 6.5. Compensation on Disconnection of Peers 85 6.6. Recovery from Failed Adaptation 88 6.7. Impact of Early Activation of Adaptations 91 6.8. Comparison with a Blocking Approach 92 6.9. Empirical Study: Fire Extinguishing Drones 95 6.10. Summary 97 7. Conclusion and Future Work 99 7.1. Recap of the Research Questions 99 7.2. Discussion 101 7.3. Future Work 101 A. Protocol Buffer Definition 103 Acronyms 108 Bibliography 109

Organisations with high-performing data and analytics capabilities are more successful than organisations with lower analytics maturity. It is therefore necessary for organisations to assess their analytics capabilities and needs in order to identify and evaluate areas of improvement that need to be addressed. This was the purpose of this case study conducted on a region in a global B2B organisation, which has a centrally established analytics function on corporate level, wanting the use of analytics to be integrated in more of the region’s processes and analytical capabilities and resources being used as efficient as possible.To fulfil the thesis purpose, empirical data was collected through qualitative interviews with employees on corporate level, more quantitative interviews with regional employees and a questionnaire issued to regional employees. This was complemented with a thorough literature study which provided the analytics maturity models used for identifying the current capabilities on a holistic level of the region, as well as analytics setups, Lean Six Sigma and Knowledge Management. Results show a relatively low analytics maturity due to e.g. insufficient support from management, unclear responsibility of analytics, data not being used correctly or requested enough and various issues with competence, tools and sources.This study contributes to analytics research by identifying that analytics maturity models available free of charge only are good for inspiration and not full use when used in a large company. Furthermore, the study shows that complexities arise when having a central analytics function with low analytics maturity while other parts of the company face analytics problems but no indications are given on who and what to proceed on or not. This study therefore results in contributing with a proposition for companies wanting to increase its analytics maturity that this could be facilitated by establishing networks for analytics. Combining literature and empirics show that networks enable investigation of the analytics situation while at the same time enabling increased sharing, collaboration, innovation, coordination and dissemination. By making Lean Six Sigma a central part of the network analytics will be used more and better while at the same time increasing the success-rate of change and improvements projects.

The reforms that were implemented in the early 1990s changed the way the Swedish school system worked and how it was governed. This sparked a debate in whether this was beneficial for the equality of the education. The debate regarding the Swedish school system has been never ending since the start and implementation of New Public management reforms that swept through Swedish politics in the late 1980 and the 1990s. The discourse regarding the issues created by the implementation of these reforms and the impact of NPM in this area will be discussed an analyzed in this essay. The essay aims to explain and analyze the impact New public management, decentralization and its reforms has had on the equality of the Swedish education and the discourse it has created.

Since 1994 a number of health reforms took place in furthering democracy. These changes included the decentralisation of Primary Health Care Services. This study is a phenomenological research that chronicles the Primary Health Care decentralisation experiences in the Bophirima District of the North-West Province. Using a descriptive phenomenological orientation, the purpose of this study was to describe the experiences of participants associated with decentralisation in the Bophirima District. Also, to illustrate how the participants perceive these experiences in relation to Primary Health Care services. Furthermore, to provide scientific evidence regarding factors related to the decentralisation of PHC services in the Bophirima District. These and other issues remain of paramount importance given the current state of health care in the South Africa. This study took place in the outskirts of the semi-rural area of Bophirima and Central District in the North-West Province. The investigation followed qualitative research design that was descriptive, exploratory, contextual and phenomenological in nature. The sampling procedure involved non-probability purposive, sampling technique with a sample size of five participants. Data was collected by using an unstructured interview technique. The modified Giorgi method of analysis was used for qualitative data analysis. These are contained in Burns and Grove (2001:596) and Polit and Beck (2004:394) are fully explicated in Chapter Four. Guba model (in Babbie & Mouton, 2001:180) was utilised to ensure the trustworthiness of the study. Ethical requirements were considered throughout and these are reflected in chapter four of the thesis.Three forms of decentralisation: deconcentration, delegation and devolution were identified in the findings. The investigation further indicated that the integration of primary health care services was also underway at the time of decentralisation. This integration triggered different psychological and emotional states amongst research participants. Most importantly, the research revealed that the interest of leadership across three spheres of government played a key role in the decentralisation of PHCs and integration of PHCs, while highlighting the importance of community participation in health service delivery (CP). In conclusion, the decentralisation process was generally perceived as empowering although, nationally, leadership needs to be strengthened to support provinces and districts regarding major policy issues such decentralisation. Key recommendations were made and further research was suggested. / Health Studies / D. Litt. et Phil. (Health Studies)

Thesis (PhD (Education Policy Studies))--University of Stellenbosch, 2010. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The decentralisation of power in education is part of a global process that has become part of the education reform policies of most countries. Decentralisation, which is typified by the redistribution of power to local levels, is claimed to serve a variety of ends from democratization to efficiency, empowerment of stakeholders to improved quality of education. It is, however, a complex process that is difficult to capture as power is seen to manifest in multiple ways. During the nineties Zimbabwe, against the background of a massive increase in enrolments, for a variety of reasons including the improvement of the quality of education, embarked on the re-distribution of administrative and financial power in the Ministry of Education, Sport and Culture. The implementation of this policy revealed major discrepancies between the intentions of government and the way it translated in educational sites. The aim of this study is to explore how the intentions of decentralisation in education as a policy aimed that the improvement of the quality of education is experienced by school principals. An interpretative methodology with in depth interviews, focus groups, some observations and document analysis were employed to engage in the debates about decentralisation. Although this was a small study the findings concurred with studies of decentralisation in other countries where it was found that the re-distribution of power in education manifests differently in different contexts in the same country. In countries such as Zimbabwe where resource limitations and restructuring concomitantly took place the experience of principals revealed that conditions arose that could not be seen to be conducive to the improvement of the quality of education such as the ambiguity of the meaning of who is responsible for what, the power struggles as government was seen to recentralise crucial roles, increased workloads of principals due to the devolving of administrative and supervisory functions to school level, loss of teachers and other specialist functionaries conducive to a drop in standards and the challenge to parents who had to contribute increasingly to enable schooling of their children. These findings are indicative of the claims from studies in other countries that decentralisation as a policy for whatever reason is seldom more than political rhetoric to decentralise conflict. Exploring the intersection between the literature on decentralisation and parental involvement of education, however, revealed the opening up of other spaces that enabled local power relations to develop in creative ways as parents got increasingly involved in schools. Apart from the challenges related to the redistribution of power as authority delegated, devolved or deconcentrated from government, this study revealed that power manifests in relations and interactions not necessarily ascribed to the intentions of policy, neither as a substance or function only. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die desentralisering van mag in die onderwys maak deel uit van ʼn wêreldwye proses van onderwyshervorming. Desentralisasie, wat deur die herverspreiding van mag na plaaslike vlakke gekenmerk word, is veronderstel om aan ʼn verskeidenheid doele te beantwoord – van demokratisering tot die verhoging van doeltreffendheid, die bemagtiging van belanghebbendes, en die verbetering van onderwysgehalte. Desentralisasie is egter ‘n komplekse proses waaraan moeilik uitvoering gegee kan word, aangesien mag in verskeie gedaantes voorkom. In die negentigerjare het Zimbabwe, teen die agtergrond van ʼn drastiese toename in inskrywings, die herverspreiding van administratiewe en finansiële mag in die Ministerie van Onderwys, Sport en Kultuur onderneem. Dié stap is aan verskillende redes toegeskryf, waaronder die verbetering van onderwysgehalte. Die toepassing van die beleid het egter groot teenstrydighede aan die lig gebring tussen die regering se voornemens, en hoe dié voornemens uiteindelik prakties in onderwysinstellings ten uitvoer gebring is. Die doel van hierdie studie is om skoolhoofde se ervaring van onderwysdesentralisasie as beleid te ondersoek. Die studie is vanuit ‘n interpreterende benadering gedoen met diepte-onderhoude, fokusgroepe, ʼn paar waarnemings sowel as dokumentontleding. Ongeag die beperkte omvang van die studie, stem die bevindinge ooreen met dié van navorsing oor desentralisasie in ander lande, waar bevind is dat herverspreiding van mag in dieselfde land in verskillende kontekste verskillend realiseer. In lande soos Zimbabwe, waar herstrukturering te midde van hulpbronbeperkinge plaasgevind het, het skoolhoofde bepaalde omstandighede ervaar wat nié die verbetering van onderwysgehalte sou kon bevorder het nie. Dít sluit in onsekerheid oor die onderskeie partye se verantwoordelikhede; die magstryd toe die regering kernrolle sentraal beheer; swaarder werklaste vir skoolhoofde nadat administratiewe en toesigfunksies na skoolvlak afgewentel is; ʼn verlies aan onderwysers en ander spesialisamptenare, wat op sy beurt standaarde laat daal het, en ouers se groter verantwoordelikheid om al hoe meer by te dra ten einde hulle kinders se opvoeding te verseker. Hierdie bevindinge strook ook met dié van studies in ander lande, naamlik dat desentralisering as ʼn beleid om watter rede ook al selde meer is as politieke retoriek ten einde konflik te desentraliseer. Nadere ondersoek van die verband tussen navorsing oor desentralisasie, en dié oor ouerbetrokkenheid by onderwys het egter daarop gedui dat desentralisering wel nuwe moontlikhede kan ontsluit vir die skeppende ontwikkeling van plaaslike magsverhoudinge namate ouers al hoe meer by skole betrokke raak. Buiten die uitdagings met betrekking tot die herverspreiding van mag namate regeringsgesag gedelegeer, afgewentel of gedekonsentreer word, dui dié studie daarop dat mag soms ook in verhoudinge en wisselwerkings geopenbaar word wat nie noodwendig met die voornemens van die beleid verband hou nie, en dit mag voorts nie as net substansie of net funksie tot uiting kom nie.

Thesis (MComm (Education))--Stellenbosch University, 2008. / In enquiring after the best means of financing basic local services in South Africa, the thesis begins by reviewing the arguments for fiscal decentralisation and the efficiency criteria for expenditure and revenue assignment. The role of local government within South Africa’s system of intergovernmental fiscal relations is then evaluated. A chapter is devoted to the efficient pricing of infrastructure for household services. However, it is emphasised that such pricing is unlikely to meet equity criteria for access and affordability. The equity aspect of providing basic local services is explored further from the perspective of South African Constitutional obligations and the current basic services policy framework. A concluding chapter discusses issues arising out of the work and provides some recommendations.

L’étude des institutions financières fédérales ont la plupart du temps, été l’objet de travaux de recherche portant sur des pays développés et plus particulièrement sur le système américain. Cependant, l’adoption et l’évolution du système fédéral par d’autres pays comme le Mexique, reste encore très peu connues. Ces dernières années, le système fédéral mexicain a suscité de nombreuses critiques de la part des gouvernements locaux, lesquels dénoncent un haut niveau de centralisation du pouvoir fiscal de la fédération. Ils plaident pour une reconfiguration du système où aurait lieu un véritable partage du pouvoir fiscal entre les trois niveaux gouvernementaux à savoir ; la fédération, les Etats fédérés et les municipalités. Néanmoins, des réformes ont été mises en place pour augmenter la décentralisation des ressources financières mais pas de la dévolution du pouvoir d’imposition. Un processus de centralisation gouvernemental qui semble s’installer progressivement depuis l’adoption du modèle fédéral, exige ainsi une reconsidération de son évolution. Le fédéralisme financier au Mexique est une thèse qui analyse non seulement la structure financière du pays, mais qui cherche aussi des réponses afin de comprendre quelles sont les causes et comment le système fédéral est devenu un fédéralisme centralisé. Quels sont les outils juridiques qui ont permis le fonctionnement de ce système fédéral en neutralisant l’autonomie locale et la concurrence entre les autorités gouvernementales? Pourquoi est-il difficile de changer de direction ou de concevoir une réforme de grande ampleur qui pourrait rénover les relations intergouvernementales? Les réponses à de tels questionnements nous amènent à une conception plus large et plus vaste que l’analyse juridique de la structure fédérale ne suffirait pas à expliquer même si celle-ci constitue la base légitime d’une telle organisation politique. En effet, il existe toute une organisation de relations formelles et informelles nées des relations du pouvoir qui mènent à un fonctionnement conflictuel, aggravé par une hétérogénéité régionale. Sous cette perspective, l’organisation institutionnelle de l’Etat est le résultat de plusieurs facteurs où les intérêts de groupes du pouvoir est indissociable de la pratique centralisée du fédéralisme, suivi d’une répétition de crises économiques et d’une tendance à contrôler depuis le centre la gestion publique nationale. Toutefois, dévoiler le fonctionnement de ce système fédéral n’est pas simplement dû à la multiplicité des facteurs qui interagissent dans sa conception. L’intérêt de notre recherche est justement d’interpréter le fonctionnement conflictuel du fédéralisme financier mexicain. / Over the past few years, the Mexican federal system has borne the brunt of numerous criticisms from local government which denounces a high level of centralised fiscal power in the Federation. They advocate a restructuring of the system where a genuine sharing of fiscal power would be instituted between the three levels of government, those being: the Federal Government, the State Government and the Municipalities.Although some reforms have been implemented to increase the decentralisation of financial resources, this has not been the case with taxation power. The process of governmental centralisation, which seems to have progressively taken hold since the adoption of the federal model, demands a reconsideration of its evolution.Financial federalism in Mexico is a thesis which not only analyses the financial structure of the country, but also seeks answers to better understand how the federal system became a centralised federalism and what the causes are. Why is it difficult to change direction or to conceive of a large-scale reform which could reform intergovernmental relations?The responses to such questioning will lead us to a broader conception of the subject where a legal analysis of the federal structure alone will not suffice to explain it, even if this does constitute the legitimate basis of such a political organisation.Indeed, a structure of formal and informal relations exists (power relations) which leads to a conflictual functioning of the system, exacerbated by regional heterogeneousness. From this perspective, the institutional organisation of the State is the result of several factors where the interests of power groups are an integral part of the centralised practice of federalism, followed by a series of economic crises and a tendency to control the management of public affairs from the centre of government.However, uncovering the functioning of this federal system is not simply due to the multitude of factors interacting in its construct. The interest of our research is to interpret the conflictual functioning of financial federalism in Mexico.