Francis Fukuyama's End of History paradigm critiques the post-Cold War era. His premise is that liberal democracy is emerging as a global phenomenon because of the collapse of communism as a viable ideology. As a result, the states of the international system are then able to concentrate their efforts in economic maximization and in the building of an international consumer environment. Fukuyama's paradigm is compared to the integration scholarship of David Mitrany and Ernst B. Haas. As Fukuyama perceives nationalism becoming a less relevant issue in Western Europe because of the progressive elements of economic and political integration, Mitrany was one of the earlier political theorists to articulate that the purpose of politics was about the solving of practical problems of states through the development of functional international agencies. Haas believed that not only was nationalism dormant in Western Europe, but that its states would slowly but surely relinquish their sovereignty because of pressure from economic and political groups interested in the development of a supranational Europe. What Haas came to realize, however, was that the concepts of sovereignty and self-determination remain important variables in certain regions of Western Europe. The purpose of this dissertation, then, is to examine the clash between economic maximization and the role of ideas in Western Europe focusing particularly on a state not known for its nationalistic fervour. This dissertation examines the British Conservative Party's and the Scottish National Party's (SNP) position regarding devolution (the Union) and the future scope of the European Union. The SNP is important to analyse because it offers a radical alternative to the status quo and, moreover, this project examines the Party's internal divisions over the EU and its relevance to the devolution principle. There are certain factions within the Tory Party which perceive the establishment of a single currency as detrimental to parliamentary sovereignty and that there should be a repatriation of functions back to the member states. This empirical exercise adds credibility to the argument that despite the alleged and perceived benefits of further economic and political integration, there are political groups who perceive certain issues, like self-determination, worth defending. In a liberal democracy there can exist clashes over fundamental issues. This, thus, offers a sound contribution to the End of History debate.

No description available.

This thesis examines the criminal offence of familial homicide created by section 5 of the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004. This offence imposes liability on the defendant if he either caused or allowed the death of the victim, and it does not have to be shown which of these alternatives applies. The offence was created to respond to a loophole in the law under which if it could not be proven which of the defendants killed the victim, or that they were acting together to cause death, they could be acquitted. However, the offence created issues of its own. This thesis builds on the positive aspects of the offence in terms of convicting culpable defendants whilst addressing its weaknesses and the issues it creates for underlying criminal theory. The thesis discusses the theory regarding causation, omissions, mens rea, and accessorial liability which are all affected by the new offence. It also considers domestic violence as it is prevalent within this context. The two main changes to the law proposed by this thesis relate to causation and omissions liability. A more gradated law of causation is necessary, and thus a theory of direct and indirect causation is advanced. It also argues that a new personal association duty is needed, expanding the traditional exceptions to omissions liability. Regarding accessorial liability, this thesis argues that in situations where it is unclear who kills the victim and who allows his death, the familial homicide offence which blurs the distinction between the parties is appropriate because it ensures that culpable defendants are no longer escaping liability. However, where the role of each party is clear the law needs to be reformed. This thesis proposes, that the current approach towards mens rea and domestic violence should remain unchanged.

With inequalities in earnings, employment and economic activity widespread throughout the UK, this thesis examines these inequalities and attempts to explain them. Data from the Living in Wales survey and the Annual Population Survey is used to examine the earnings response to unemployment in the UK, with particular attention paid to Wales and its position relative to other UK regions. Strong evidence of a wage curve is found, and this wage curve is tested over the earnings distribution and levels of centralization. The returns to degrees, masters and PhDs are investigated, with a focus on how returns vary over regions. Large differences are found using a national baseline, but these differences are greatly reduced when regional differences are controlled for. The use of quantile regression techniques suggests that the graduate premium varies little over the earnings distribution. The inequalities m earnings, employment and economic activity are broken down into a component of individual characteristics and a component of area effects. It is found that area effects play a small role, with inequalities driven by individual characteristics. These individual effects are also broken down, with occupation identified as the key driver of inequalities.

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We need to stop being afraid and realise that as individuals we have power and that power is the ability to use your own reason and just try and look beyond this. (Saif, 27, male, academic activist) This thesis presents findings from an ESRC-funded doctoral study on the cultural politics of young adult Muslims who participate in political and civic activism within British civil society. Based on ethnographic research in the Midlands area, it offers an empirically informed understanding of how these forms of activism relate to themes of political participation, citizenship, security and governance in Britain today. The thesis argues that the diverse mobilisations examined by the research collectively constitute a social movement to resist the marginalisation and stigmatisation of Muslim identities in a post 9/11 context. The war on terror, in response to the international crisis of militant Islam, has placed Muslim citizenship in many Western liberal democracies under fierce scrutiny, prompting uneasy and hard to resolve questions around issues of security, diversity, cohesion and national identity. In Britain, as in Europe, political and public responses to these questions have precipitated a climate of fear and suspicion around Muslims, rendering their citizenship contingent and precarious and undermining their ability to identify with the nation and participate in its political processes. This thesis reveals how young Muslim activists negotiate these challenges by engaging in a range of activities typical of social movements, not only in terms of distinctive modes of action but also with respect to their transformative social and political visions and imaginaries. Muslim activists engage in cultural politics to demand a more inclusive and post-national notion of citizenship, by seeking to turn negative Muslim differences into positive ones. Participants’ engagement in democratic processes through political repertoires commonly adopted by other progressive social movements challenges the moral panic engendered by the exceptionalism ascribed to Muslim identity politics. This thesis argues that these cultural politics constitute a British Muslim social movement to contest Islamophobia through resistance to two dominant forms of power in contemporary Western societies. Firstly, this movement is a response to the multiple technologies of power articulated by Foucault’s concept of ‘governmentality’, which are difficult to distinguish and confront due to their imperceptible and socially dispersed nature. Secondly, cultural politics is necessitated by direct threats of force that Foucault described as a ‘relationship of violence’ and which are discernible in the rise of the securitisation of citizenship in the wake of 9/11. The nature of resistance from Muslim activists suggests that their cultural politics are not only a strategic but also a less risky political response to both these prevailing forms of power. Foucault’s argument that the nature of power can be deciphered from the forms of resistance it provokes suggests responsive rather than reactive political strategies by young Muslims. The thesis concludes that these cultural politics represent forms of active citizenship premised on a more equal, participatory and radically democratic social contract than nationalist and neoliberal forms of governance presently concede.

Between 1660 and 1880 a number of Royal Patents were granted and Acts of ParI iament passed whose purpose and effect, it has generally been acknowledged, was to restrict the spread and availability of English theatre, in particular that within the two cities of the metropolis, and to limit its potential as a forum of debate for the examination of ideas or the promotion of political dissent. During the same period, although not necessarily at the same time, theatre came under fire from religious groups of many different denominations. This condemnation and the measures taken by this special interest group in society to combat the influence of the stage has also been held to have had a restrictive effect on the institution of theatre. This research has been primarily based on an examination and analysis oflegislation, parliamentary debates, religious tracts, papers and letters in Lambeth Palace Library, letters in the Manuscript Department of the British Library, theatre texts, the writings of contemporary theatre critics, articles in contemporary newspapers and journals specialising in theatrical topics, specialist reports and magazines published by various religious denominations, contemporary pamphlets, diaries, biographies, theatre ephemera and current critical writing in specialist magazines and books devoted to theatrical and religious topics. After discussing the reasons for setting the parameters of 1660 and the late 1880s for this research, the thesis considers the importance of the institution of theatre in the particular period studied and its relationship to the whole panorama of the history of theatre. After detailing a number of questions regarding the purpose of theatre and the effect it has and has had on society, this research examines the objects, effects and motivation behind the main statutes that were enacted to deal with the phenomenon of theatre between 1660 and 1880. In particular the genesis and context of The Restoration Patents, the Licensing Act (1737), the Disorderly Houses Act (1751), the Theatrical Representations Act (1788), the failed Sadler's Wells Bill (1788), and Interludes Bill (1788), and the Theatres Act (1843) have been examined, the aims of each debated and the effects of each of the legislative measures on theatre as a whole is explored. The opposition that came from religious forces within the country during the period under study is also examined and analysed. The complaints from Church and Chapel were various: blasphemy, indolence, vice, perversion (particularly of the young), consorting with unwholesome company and drawing people away from God were all cited as sins of the stage. The underlying causes ofthe censure of important religious figures as well as that which came from different denominations is examined. The various measures put into operation to combat the dangers perceived to be coming from theatre are explored and their efficiency debated. Finally the study examines the nature of the theatrical experience and how this has been affected by the legislation and condemnation of the religious interest in the country. A principal conclusion is that theatre in England was not repressed or rendered impotent by any of the legislation nor was it by the tactical opposition of the religious faction in society. Indeed theatre gained strength and potency by finding ways to circumvent the opposition it encountered. So successful was it in overcoming the ploys of the legislature and religious interests and so instrumental was theatre as a focus for life in England during the period under study that both of the forces of opposition eventually had to adopt theatre as an ally in the implementation of their own political agenda.

No description available.

The social welfare services of the western nations are administered in almost all cases through a combination of voluntary and statutory organizations. The patterns of the relationships subsisting between these two kinds of welfare agency exhibit wide variations from one country to another, and between one area of service and another within the same country. Although there is an extensive literature on the subject purporting to state the nature and scope of the roles peculiarly suited to each of the two kinds of agency, it is not in fact apparent either that the claims of attributions on which this literature rests are valid or that the activities of the agencies themselves conform in a regular way to the model. The present study deals with one area of welfare services in one jurisdiction, namely child welfare service in England and Wales at the present time. It attempts to determine what the character of the relationship between private and public organizations in the field of child welfare is, to evaluate the relative advantages and disadvantages of that relationship, and to offer a number of hypotheses designed to explain the idiosyncrasies of the relationship. It is conceived as one of a number of projected studies, all of which are to be concerned with assessing the plausibility of conventional accounts of the public-private relationship, with the identification of the principal causes of the relationships that are actually observable, and with contributing to the development of a theory of the matter which would assist in the formulation of realistic, efficient and logically consistent methods of organizing and administering social welfare services. The main findings of the study are that: (1) marked differences in the relations between private and public welfare agencies exist even between the constituent parts of a single area of service, — in this case, between delinquency, adoption, protection and recreational services within the single area of child welfare; (2) these differences seem as often as not to be the result of historical accident rather than of principled adherence to a coherent view of what the private-public relationship ought to be; (3) the problem of explaining the sources of the historical accidents in question does not appear to be amenable to any general mode of explanation in the present state of our knowledge of the subject; (4) gross inefficiencies in the administration of child welfare services are a common consequence of unwillingness or inability to come to terms with the problems arising from the co-existence of private and public organizations. / Arts, Faculty of / Social Work, School of / Graduate

At the beginning of the present century, Anglo-Russian rivalry was perhaps the most important factor in the international situation of the day. At that time it seemed sound doctrine to believe that Britain and Russia were bound to remain implacable enemies for an indefinite period of time. Nevertheless, seven years after the century had begun, these two apparently irreconcilable rivals had reached an agreement, which, if not cordial, was none the less real, and which relegated their well-night century-old rivalry to the realms of history. The animosity which was characteristic of Anglo-Russian relations throughout this period had its origins in the Near East during the last part of the eighteenth century, as a result of Russian efforts to obtain control of the Straits of Bosphorous and of the Dardanelles from the Ottoman Turk. However, the rise of revolutionary France put an end temporarily to this newly-born rivalry, and forced the two countries into a partnership to meet a nation who was a vital threat to both, with the defeat of Napoleon, though, this partnership dissolved and the rivalry appeared in a more intense form than before. Throughout the nineteenth century it spread successively from the Near East to Central Asia, and finally to the Far East. However, shortly after the coming of the twentieth century, both countries discovered they had a common rival in Imperial Germany, whose growing power now made her the leading European power on the continent. As in the case of revolutionary France, the two countries resolved to forego their rivalry in order to meet a common peril. Hence the Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907, From the British side, the material for the study of Anglo-Russian relations throughout this period is on the whole adequate. The original British Documents for the years 1878 - I897 are not available, but those for the years 1898 - 1907 are contained in the general collection "British Documents on the Origins of the War, 1898, - 1914". There is also much material available in the memoirs and biographies of the leading British statesmen. On the Russian side, however, there is much to be desired. A certain number of official documents have been published in a spasmodic and desultory manner in the "Krasny Archiv", but much which is pertinent has been withheld. Only a few documents are available in English translation. The memoirs of émigré Russian diplomats, while available in so far as they go, suffer from the fact that they were composed in exile, with little else save memory to serve as a guide. As a result, there is much on the Russian side which is, and likely will remain unknown. Nevertheless, there is enough Russian material extant which, taken in conjunction with the British material available, is sufficient to enable the determining of the course followed by Anglo- Russian relations with a reasonable degree of certainty. In summing up, it should be emphasized that Anglo-Russian rivalry flourished most vigorously when neither country was menaced by a strong European power. When a strong power emerged which threatened to dominate the continent of Europe, this rivalry temporarily ceased. Since both Great Britain and Russia had developed immense empires in Asia in close proximity the one to the other, it was perhaps only natural that they should be serious rivals. Nevertheless, they both remained powers whose major interests lay in Europe. Here, in Europe, if the Near East be excluded, the vital interests of the two countries did not conflict. Both countries were interested in maintaining the status quo in Europe, as they clearly recognized that a Europe organized under the hegemony of another single power was a mortal threat to both. It can therefore be said that both Great Britain and Imperial Russia considered the maintenance of the European balance of power as essential to their long-term interests, and were prepared to forego their mutual rivalry to maintain it. / Arts, Faculty of / History, Department of / Graduate