The global political system forms the backdrop to the changing function of the state and the emergence of new governing systems. This thesis develops a particular governance narrative in relation to endogenous rural development within the South West of England through the European Union’s (EU) LEADER+ rural development programme. This programme is important because it sits firmly within a wider set of discourses on the ‘new governance’. This discourse spans wider debates over emerging forms of deliberative democracy, European governance and globalisation. The LEADER programmes approach to governance is framed as a means to facilitate enhanced deliberative practice through‘partnership’ arrangements at the local level, and in turn ensure ‘local people’ and their‘communities’ develop in line with their strengths. This approach to governance, developed through the regional studies literature, is seen as a means to meet those challenges presented by the global economic epoch. There is a strong rhetoric on the potential of the LEADER approach, but this rhetoric does not result in effective deliberative processes and outputs. The LEADER programme fails to break free from its wider political contexts and the governmentalities of the state. These enable powerful actors to manipulate the political system and its objectives. This is possible through the even wider context of global governance, which helps us understand that relations of power no longer follow linear channels, that gateways once closed are now open (and vice versa), and that policy networks now stretch both horizontally and vertically beyond the traditional confines of state power.

Thesis (M. A. (Media Studies)) -- University of Limpopo, 2017 / This study examines how democracy is represented in Late Nite News with Loyiso Gola (LNN) using two qualitative content analysis methods: the social semiotic approach and thematic analysis. It is based on the assumption that representation in media serves to influence how viewers draw meaning from, and understand the political process and political issues in South Africa. Literature on what constitutes parody, the meaning of representation and democracy, and the functions of the media in a democracy was reviewed. Four media theories which are agenda-setting and priming; framing theory, social responsibility theory and democratic deliberative theory formed the theoretical framework for this study. The qualitative approach using a case study design as well as focus groups proved to be a useful tool for two reasons: it enabled the researcher to penetrate the deeper layers of the messages contained in the text in order to come to an understanding of how LNN represents democracy; and it enabled the researcher to understand how viewers engage with and understand democracy through watching LNN.