This thesis explores the significance of art in the relationship between democracy and education, challenging the apolitical perspective that has often resulted from the application of instrumentalist approaches in the field. Rather than viewing arts practices as a neutral means of teaching democracy, I have built on Biesta and Lawy's concept of 'citizenship-as-practice' (2006) to investigate how the arts are implicated in the ways young people learn democracy across a variety of contexts. Specifically, the objectives for my empirical research were to add to existing knowledge about young people's democratic learning in arts contexts, and to explore the significance of young people's more general engagement with art and culture for their democratic learning. The terms of the study were conceptualised via a theorisation of the relationships amongst democracy, education and art based on the work of Mouffe (2005; 2007), Rancière (1999; 2004; 2006; 2007) and Biesta (2006; 2010). The research was conducted as an interpretative study with two sets of young people recently engaged in the arts, using an adapted version of Charmaz' (2006) approach to grounded theory. The findings of the research indicate that the young people's engagement with art contributed to the their experiences of being able to act democratically or not in a number of contexts, and that it sometimes enabled them to make the imaginative leap necessary in order to learn from the experience of becoming democratically subject. The research suggests that the most fruitful way in which democratic education can 'make use' of the arts is not by teaching democratic citizenship, but rather by supporting young people as they reflect on and respond to their experiences in arts and other contexts, and by taking seriously the democratic potential of all aspects of their arts engagement.

Afghanistan is facing the daunting challenge of creating a stable, all inclusive and democratically based government that will be viewed as legitimate among all ethnic, social and religious groups. This will be a great trial for Afghans, who for decades have faced the realities of ethnic fragmentation and its impact on politics, culture and society of Afghanistan. The focus of this thesis will be on ethnic fragmentation, nationalism, and social structure, as they relate to state formation and democratic development. This thesis assumes these concepts are critical for democratic development in societies with multiple ethnic enclaves and multiple ethnic identities. Four former Afghan regimes are examined and used as case studies in this effort. Specifically, these regimes are analyzed in order to determine how each attempted to overcome cleavages within society during the process of state formation. The case study findings are then used prognostically to assess the current attempt to build a democratic Afghanistan. The thesis concludes with an assessment for success of the current Afghan government and presents recommendations for increasing the overall probability for Afghan democratic development and national cohesion.

In the last several decades there has been immense international emphasis and promotion of gender equality and female participation in the social, economic, and political spheres of society. There has also been an increase in civil conflict recurrence in countries as well as countries transitioning to democracy. This study explores the effect of female participation on peace and democracy. In the first part, I focus on the effect female participation has on decreasing the risk of peace failing in post-civil conflict countries. In many countries, women are marginalized and conflict further marginalizes them. However, I argue that the post-conflict environment allows women to escape this cycle of marginalization and their inclusion and participation is very crucial to sustaining peace. I find that female political and social female decreases the risk of peace failing in post-civil war countries. In the second part, I focus on the effect female participation has on decreasing the risk of authoritarian reversals in countries that have transitioned to and toward democracy. Previous empirical research has focused on women’s role in transitions to democracy, factors that contribute to the survival of democracy, as well as how women’s participation affects the stability country. I argue that women’s social, economic, and political participation decreases the risk of authoritarian reversals in countries that have newly transitioned to and toward democracy. I find that female social participation sustains democracy in countries that have transitioned to democracy and that female economic participation sustains democracy in countries that have transitioned toward democracy. Overall I find support that female participation matters for both peace and democracy.

The government of Malawi has embarked on a decentralisation program, whose primary objective is to improve service delivery. The program is implemented by transferring responsibility and authority from central office to the district assemblies. The study aimed at assessing the implementation situation of education decentralisation and its effects on the district education office operations and the primary school support. The study uses qualitative research method and undertook a case study of two districts. Data was collected by using in-depth individual interviews and document analysis. The results show that decentralisation is a complex phenomenon with problems at all stages from design to implementation. On the one hand the government appears committed to transferring responsibilities and authority gradually to district assembly level while on the other hand it is not prepared to compensate for the disparities existing in the districts by increasing resources. There is an acute shortage of material and human resources in terms of numbers as well as competency levels. This has affected the pace and smooth implementation of decentralisation. Because decentralisation is not a ‘once and for all’ act but a complex process, it is recommended to intensify advocacy, capacity building and support with relevant resources at all levels.

Masrer of ArtsInternational Relations / The thesis is a contribution to the existing literature on the democratic process in Malawi with specific focus on two areas namely, the factors that led to the opening up of political space and the implementation of multiparty democracy. The thesis argues that multiparty democracy in Malawi, which transpired due to internal and external factors, had been perceived as the means of transforming the oppressive climate created by the Banda regime. However, despite three multiparty elections since the 1990s, the UDF government, which succeeded Banda, has failed to broaden the avenues for the consolidation of democracy in Malawi, leading to disillusionment among the people. Ten years of multiparty democracy have only resulted in the regression to the practices of the very regime it replaced. Currently Malawi is plagued with a lack of independent media, weak civil society, corruption among top government officials and a weak economy to mention a few. The thesis argues that this is because of the nature of the ruling class as well as the issue of ethnicity, which has resulted in the contestation of power.

Faculty of Arts School of Humanities 9407042h grule@polka.co.za / The simplistic, optimistic view surrounding Internet discourse suggests that because of the Net's ability to quickly and cheaply distribute vast amounts of information and facilitate communication, citizens can use digital networks to influence decision-making in society, which will lead to democratisation in communication. While there is indeed an inherent interactive capacity in the technologies of new media that facilitates discussion and debate, computer-mediated communication generally does not live up to the democratic hype. More to the point, the discursive inequalities and exclusions that result from the uneven distribution of power in society tend to be reproduced in the online environment.

This thesis is in partial fulfillment of a Master of Arts by Coursework and Research Report in International Relations and has been approved by the University of the Witwatersrand. / This research project looks at the relationship between democracy and development according to policies of aid conditionality in Africa. This involves an analysis of major donors, mainly international financial institutions such as the IMF and World Bank as well as bilateral donors, and the evolution of aid conditionality through the theoretical framework of liberal internationalism. This research focuses on both economic and political conditionality but reveals that economic interests are at the heart of conditionality and are always prioritized over political development. This has important implications for democracy and development because development discourse has identified key correlations between the principles of good governance promoted by a democratic system and development. Through an examination of two African case studies, this research shows that aid conditionality, with its emphasis on neoliberal, free-market economic adjustment, has not fostered adequate development with many recipients of such aid qualifying for the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries initiative that provides debt relief in the interest of poverty reduction. Looking forward, sustainable development can only be achieved with equal dedication to all its spheres; political, economic, and social, thereby providing an adequate foundation for increased international cooperation.

The period from 1929 to 1939 was selected as the time for study because it was during this time that democracy, as we knew it in the United States, was confronted with two dire threats: the likelihood of complete internal economic collapse and growing success for anti-democratic "isms" in Europe. It is the purpose of this paper to bring together what is considered to be the most representative thinking on the causes and effects of the crisis and to see what features of the crisis have been permanent in nature and what may have been learned from the crisis that might help in preventing a recurrence. / Typescript. / "Submitted to the Graduate Council of Florida State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts under Plan II." / Advisor: Marjorie M. Applewhite, Professor Directing Paper. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 49-51).

This dissertation consist of three research papers on direct democracy. Each paper addresses a fundamental question about direct democracy. All three questions have a specific role in a larger research agenda on direct democratic institutions. To out rule any confusion up front I need to define direct democratic institutions. I refer to direct democratic institutions if they can be launched or triggered by citizens and political parties against the will of the executive and the legislature or if they are constitutionally required. The second qualification is that the outcome of the process or mechanism has to be binding. Direct democracy, according to this definition, exists on a national level in Australia, Austria, Denmark, Egypt, Ireland, Japan, Spain, Switzerland, USA (to change the constitution). In Italy, Liberia, Liechtenstein, the Philippines, and Switzerland the people can challenge government policies. Finally, in the US states, Switzerland, Swiss cantons, and also most German Länder there is a right to propose new laws (Hug, 2004). The purpose of limiting direct democracy to the most powerful subset of such institutions - the ones which can originate from the people and are binding for the government - provides us with specific enough set of institutions such that one can make meaningful statements about them. Direct democracy can be many things; its significant effects, variously for good or ill, have been widely acknowledged (Broder, 2000; Matsusaka, 1995). Do direct democratic institutions inevitably lead to inability of reform (as in California) or do direct democratic institutions constrain political elites and make them more responsive to the electorate (Hug, 2003)? These are the two extreme positions on whether direct democratic institutions are beneficial or disadvantageous. But a normative claim has to be rooted in a detailed understanding of how these institutions work. To that end, I ask three research questions which shed light on the direct democratic institutions within modern representative polities. The first paper asks why direct democratic institutions are introduced and extended. Why should politicians in power change the institutional setting in a unfavorable way for themselves? The motivation for this paper is that many scholars regard Switzerland as a peculiar and special case for direct democracy. There is an underlying understanding that there is a special cultural and historical affinity to direct democracy. This paper shows that most regions and cantons did not have direct democratic institutions two hundred years ago. The introduction and extension of direct democracy can be understood as a consequence of partisan motivations to restrict power of the party in government. Are direct democratic institutions the people's means of keeping politicians on a leash? The second paper shows how organized political groups exploit direct democratic institutions. The paper shows that the degree of partisan competition is the main driver of initiative frequency. This paper explains and illustrates how partisan competition is altered by the presence of direct democratic institutions. Finally, the results help to understand why initiatives often target social issues and moral value questions rather than redistribution issues. Finally, the third paper asks under which circumstances direct democratic institutions yield better policies for the median voter. Is the median voter always better off with direct democracy? The paper shows that the voter is usually not worse off but that the benefit from having direct democratic institutions depends on the specific cleavage structure in a country. The main relationship and recurrent theme of this dissertation is the cleavage structure and how that interacts with direct democracy. The first paper shows that the more cleavages are actively exploited the more likely introduction and extension of direct democracy becomes. The second paper shows that the cross-cutting cleavages yield the issues which will be exploited by parties in their quest to gain larger support in the next elections. The final paper shows that direct democracy will yield its largest effect when a polity has two cleavages which are cross-cutting and only one of them is relevant for the elections. What do we learn from these three papers? All three papers in this dissertation center around the cleavage structure. Whether the specific cleavage constellation proliferates direct democracy, or a new cross-cutting cleavage creates the incentives for parties to use direct democracy, or, finally, whether it is predicting when direct democracy will benefit the median voter most. Since the origins, the usage, but also the effects are contingent on the conflict structure within a society it is hard to study direct democracy in a comparative manner. The study of direct democracy has remained a somewhat neglected endeavor and has been mostly delegated to scholars of US state politics or Swiss politics (see Altman, 2011, for an exception). Part of the reason for this may be that it is hard to understand how direct democracy works because those very mechanics depend on the underlying conflict structure in a society. I believe that the study of direct democracy is central because it strikes at the core of democracy. It is a set of institutions which has the potential to create a more responsive government and to democratize democratic societies even further. At the same time, this comes with costs. The main aspect being that the people's will may very well violate basic liberal rights. Another critique which is often voiced doubts the ability of ordinary citizens to make policy decisions. However, I have never been too impressed in normative discussion when the people's ability to make rational choices was questioned. I do not fully disagree and I do think that people may make mistakes. But after all, this argument was used against general suffrage and proportional representation, two institutions which we nowadays believe to be fundamental democratic principles. Given the potential of these institutions, intensive study of them is warranted. But the study of direct democracy will only make a leap forward once we surpass the country studies and move on to a truly comparative analysis. Understanding the conditionality of effects and hence under- standing how these institutions exert differential effects depending on the societal and institutional environment they exist within is the next big step. This dissertation, hence, can be regarded as a product of the old times - but my aspiration is to also contribute to a newer wave of literature and to work towards the goal of a truly comparative study of direct democracy.

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