The purpose of this study is to discuss the ideal of public service, what it is and what it should be and how it has evolved in American history. I am concerned that the ideal of public service, a guiding principle for public administrators and government, has been diminished by the emphasis in American public administration on economy, efficiency, and effectiveness. If public sector leaders, such as presidents, over time have changed their focus from discussions of the Constitution or republican principles to other ideas such as taxes and specific government programs, then has the ideal or vision of public service changed? The topic of service, aligned with duty and the responsibility of the citizen, while prevalent in the political theory literature, has been pushed to the back of the public administration literature shelves. Without the ideal of service as a vibrant element of the public administration discourse, the public administration community will have given way to those who see public administration as merely a modified business model. The primary research question posed in this study was: Has the emphasis on economy, efficiency, and effectiveness diminished the ideal of public service? The texts of presidential inaugural addresses were analyzed and reviewed for insights into the ideal of public service by the use of content analysis, using nine criteria that exemplify the ideals of public service. One of the secondary questions posed here was: Has the ideal or vision of public service changed? Discussion of the different criteria illustrated that there has been a change resulting in a different concept of the ideal of public service today. The final question of how and when the ideal of public service changed is answered in the dissertation also, as the results, criterion by criterion, are explained. This study shows that the inaugural addresses captured the ideal of public service dynamically and often eloquently over the course of American history. The changing nature of the role of government, issues of importance to government, and nature of the ideal of public service are on the historical record as set forth in these inaugural addresses. / Ph. D.

While the United States was founded upon the premise of religious freedom, religious rhetoric has pervaded presidential addresses since the Founding. While such addresses were rare at the Founding because constitutional interpretation restricted presidents’ ability to campaign and communicate directly with the American people, the inaugural address is one speech that has existed since George Washington’s inauguration in 1789. During presidential inaugurations, presidents introduce themselves as presidents and establish their policy directions for their presidencies. In this context, according to the role of the rhetorical presidency, early presidents used religious rhetoric in order to unite the nation under a unitary God, connecting the nation under common values and orienting the democracy as pre-destined by God for success. As distance increased from the American Revolution, presidents began to use religion in more personal ways, using religious rhetoric and even Scripture to support their policies, while continuing to use religion in unifying ways. By the beginning of the twentieth century, presidents began to appeal to the people more publicly, actively campaigning for their policies. In this context, religion began to be used as a tool of persuasion to advance presidents’ policies. This trend continued into the Cold War, when presidents invoked religion in order to establish America’s identity in a religious framework against an anti-religious, anti-democratic enemy, while simultaneously using specific religious allusions on the domestic front to further their policies in sometimes divisive ways. As the Cold War concluded, presidents continued to use religion to advance their own policies, appealing to certain audiences through religious rhetoric and making pleas for their policies through religious allegory.

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Italian architectural historian and critic, Manfredo Tafuri, with his seminal book Theories and History of Architecture, issued in 1968, started a new era in the architectural discourse. With his eminent theorization of &ldquo / architecture as the critique of ideology,&rdquo / Tafuri had shifted the critique of architecture to a political and Marxist level and this revolutionary understanding had absolute impacts on the institutionalization of the American critical discourse after 1968. This study is a historical criticism of the said intellectual interaction that examines the related theoretical transformations in discourse through specific publications, exhibitions, and symposiums. The 1972 MoMA exhibition, entitled Italy: The New Domestic Landscape (INDL) was a singular &ldquo / case&rdquo / in this examination since the first encounter of American intellectuals with the English translation of Tafuri&rsquo / s text, introducing a historical language, was through its catalog. Assigning the exhibition as a &ldquo / moment of crisis&rdquo / that had critical determining value for the comprehension of the entire sequence, this study attempts to reveal its significance, by analyzing the INDL catalog with a Tafurian methodology. In its entirety, the present study is a historical criticism of a sequence, which, however, does not refer to a linear flow of time. It is the &ldquo / project of crises&rdquo / in that particular sequence, a &ldquo / historical project&rdquo / in Tafurian sense. The project begins with the &ldquo / doubling&rdquo / of the INDL catalog. It recomposes the process into autonomous narratives, and then establishes an analytical relationship between those and Italophile inclinations in related texts, published in the periodical Oppositions between 1974 and 1984.

Recent ground failure case histories after 1994 Northridge, 1999 Kocaeli and 1999 Chi-Chi earthquakes revealed that low-plasticity silt-clay mixtures generate significant cyclic pore pressures and can exhibit a strain-softening response, which may cause significant damage to overlying structural systems. These observations accelerated research studies on liquefaction susceptibility of fine-grained soils. Alternative approaches to Chinese Criteria were proposed by several researchers (Seed et al. 2003, Bray and Sancio 2006, Boulanger and Idriss 2006) most of which assess liquefaction triggering potential based on cyclic test results compared on the basis of index properties of soils (such as LL, PI, LI, wc/LL). Although these new methodologies are judged to be major improvements over Chinese Criteria, still there exist unclear issues regarding if and how reliably these methods can be used for the assessment of liquefaction triggering potential of fine grained soils. In this study, results of cyclic tests performed on undisturbed specimens (ML, CL, MH and CH) were used to study cyclic shear strain and excess pore water pressure generation response of fine-grained soils. Based on comparisons with the cyclic response of saturated clean sands, a shift in pore pressure ratio (ru) vs. shear strain response is observed, which is identified to be a function of PI, LL and (wc/LL). Within the confines of this study, i) probabilistically based boundary curves identifying liquefaction triggering potential in the ru vs. shear strain domain were proposed as a function of PI, LL and (wc/LL), ii) these boundaries were then mapped on to the normalized net tip resistance (qt,1,net) vs. friction ratio (FR) domain, consistent with the work of Cetin and Ozan (2009). The proposed framework enabled both Atterberg limits and CPT based assessment of liquefaction triggering potential of fine grained low plasticity soils, differentiating clearly both cyclic mobility and liquefaction responses.

This thesis carries out an analysis of social pressure and the alienation of women in Angela Carter&rsquo / s The Magic Toyshop and Jeanette Winterson&rsquo / s Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit. It discusses the effect of social pressure on woman whose sexuality is ignored. This study initially focuses on the development of woman&rsquo / s sexuality in relation to the female model described by heterosexual hegemony. It aims at taking a closer look at the alienation of conformist and non-conformist female characters under patriarchal force in Carter&rsquo / s and Winterson&rsquo / s works. In relation to women&rsquo / s sexual identity, the thesis examines gender roles in the particular works. It discusses how women under patriarchal oppression are identified with passive female roles while men are associated with superior male roles. Thus this study iterates how women are alienated as a result of patriarchal gendering. With this aim, it questions the ways to destroy the patriarchal oppression for Carter and Winterson.

Novelty and distinctive character are the conditions of protection for a registered design in Turkey. This study investigates the ways in which novelty and distinctive character are interpreted and assessed by the parties actively involved in the assessment process &ndash / judges, court experts, the Turkish Patent Institute experts, attorneys and design agents. The face-to-face interviews conducted with 51 participants from the parties involved indicate that the assessment of distinctive character presents more challenges than the assessment of novelty. Not being exactly the same with a previous design is the main consideration in the assessment of novelty. The assessment of distinctive character is primarily identified with the comparison of designs&rsquo / overall impressions whereas designer&rsquo / s degree of freedom remains as the least mentioned consideration. The study suggests that being subject to protection of designs not fulfilling the conditions of protection coupled with the uncertainties in the assessment of novelty and distinctive character, which may have a negative impact on the public trust in the design registration system. The study concludes with a set of suggestions for developing an assessment guide for the design registration system in Turkey.