This thesis narrates the exercise of state autonomy to achieve macro-economic stability and effect incremental policy change in South Africa between 1994 and 2014. Employing a composite case study of the macro-economic policy framework; the Growth Employment and Redistribution (GEAR) (1996) strategy, and two micro policies, Free Basic Electricity (FBE) (2003) and No Fee Schools (NFS) (2006), it demonstrates how the post-apartheid state introduced reforms at macro and micro policy levels. Taking a historical institutionalist approach, it emphasizes the importance of ideas, context, configurations, temporal arguments and path-dependence to recount a story of policy change. The main sources of evidence comprise semi-structured elite interviews conducted with senior politicians, public servants, trade unionists and academic researchers as well as secondary data such as Hansard, government documents and other research reports. Data collection in South Africa was undertaken over a period of twelve months across various sites such as state departments, parliament, the South African Reserve Bank, university libraries, municipalities, private companies, parastatals and schools in the Gauteng Province. The context of transition from apartheid to a democratic dispensation, 1990-1994, with the negotiation processes forms a backdrop to the study whereby compromises and important policy choices set the scene for the formulation of new policy infrastructure culminating in GEAR in 1996. The implementation of GEAR in 1996 and the achievement of macroeconomic stability in turn prepared the ground for intervention at micro policy level. Consequently the introduction of incremental policy change through micro policies such as FBE (2003) and NFS (2006) became possible. Importantly this thesis reveals that whilst incremental policy change has been achievable, it is not totally transformative but rather built upon policy legacies as it proffers gradual adjustments which do not reverse earlier policy decisions and compromises nor effect fundamental change. Nevertheless, even in a difficult international and domestic environment, the South African state has shown a capacity to initiate and sustain incremental change in key areas of public policy.

During the campaign of South Africa's first multi-racial elections of 1994, Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress (ANC) pledged to provide 1,000,000 new homes within the first presidential term of five years. This goal became more than just campaign rhetoric when it was written into the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP), a broad guideline for the new government's goals. However the Housing White Paper, the first housing policy of the new government, did not include a plan for mass housing construction. By 1998, Mandela had publicly abandoned the goal of 1,000,000 new homes in his term. Rather, private sector financing and vigorous community involvement through partnerships and collaboration between stakeholders were to be the cornerstones of delivery. The policy formulation process, which began two years prior to the elections, yielded an incremental approach of in situ upgrading through a capital subsidy, derived in large part from that of the previous administration. <p> This paper examines the policy formulation process, and why Mandela's ambitious housing agenda was not followed up with a policy that could realize the goal of 1 million homes in five years. Three explanations are offered, incrementalism in the policy formulation process, and the need for both domestic and international legitimization in light of poor economic conditions. / Master of Urban and Regional Planning

This dissertation argues that mid-century liberalism provided the philosophical rational and basis for sex education, and that sex education was cumulatively institutionalized as part of Ontario public schooling between 1955 and 1988 as the result of incremental, technocratic policy-making. School-based sex education – an extension of the welfare state – was a technocratic solution to socio-sexual problems such as venereal disease and teenage pregnancy. Sex education was conceptualized as a program of disease prevention and health promotion with the added objective of promoting sexual responsibility amongst students. While school-based sex education was ostensibly a form of sexual regulation, it also conformed to the purpose of liberal education: the development of the critical autonomous capacity of each and every individual student. The sex education that students received, therefore, was a medico-scientific study of sex that stressed prevention and early treatment, but which also emphasized the centrality of individual choice in place of the imperatives of a single standard of behaviour or morality. Sex education policy was shaped by a succession of incremental changes to better remedy both longstanding and emerging socio-sexual problems. When AIDS education was mandated for the 1987–88 school year in response to the AIDS crisis, sex education was further institutionalized. This decision, however, was only reached as a result of the past three decades worth of technocratic policy-making. Social scientific studies had provided evidence, albeit limited, of sex education’s effectiveness in ameliorating socio-sexual problems and reducing government spending. Moreover, empirical evidence indicated that most Ontarians were accepting of sex education – or at worst apathetic about it. While mandating AIDS education was the result of a catalyst, it did not represent a major shift in sex education policy when looked at over the longue durée. AIDS education was largely built upon established policy. By 1988, many aspects of contemporary sex education policy had been established. Ultimately, the ministry’s sex education policy reflected its burgeoning technocratic liberalism amidst an increasingly secular, pluralistic, and sexually permissive society. As a result of incremental, technocratic policy-making between 1955 and 1988, sex education – under conditions of liberal modernity – was institutionalized as part of Ontario public schooling. / Dissertation / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

On November 8, 2001, the Government of Manitoba announced that the number of school divisions and districts in the province would be reduced from 54 to 37. With that policy announcement, Manitoba embarked upon the most significant restructuring of school board governance arrangements since the late 1950s. The purpose of the research was to examine the school division amalgamation initiative as a case study in policy-making by the Government of Manitoba. The study investigated the nature of this initiative, including its origin, development, eventual conclusion and implementation. The fundamental question addressed by the study was this: Why was school division amalgamation an idea whose time had come in Manitoba? Discussion of amalgamation had been active within the Progressive Conservative administration of Gary Filmon since the early 1990s, but despite the recommendation in 1995 of a provincially established Boundaries Review Commission to move forward with government directed amalgamation, the idea languished until a newly-elected provincial government under Gary Doer, leader of the New Democratic Party, assumed power in 1999. The theoretical framework used in addressing the question posed relied primarily upon the work of John Kingdon (Agendas, Alternatives and Public Policies) who contends that there must be a timely convergence of three key aspects of policy formation: problems, solutions and politics. Therefore, the study examined the key role of elected officials in promoting certain policy ideas and their impact on the decisions of government at specific times. It also compared and contrasted the differing policy approaches taken by the Filmon and Doer regimes on this question, and assesses the opportunities and constraints which explain the differences found. The study relied on extant public documents and other primary sources, and especially the expressed view or position of certain elected officials and supporting staff gained through one-on-one in-depth interviews. The focus of the analysis was an attempt to assess the interplay of problem, solution, and politics, and whether or not it reveals what Kingdon has called a “window of opportunity” for decisive action by government. The study showed that, indeed, the window of opportunity for amalgamation occurred with the convergence of three forces by 2001: pervasive indicators of a problem; promotion of amalgamation as a policy solution previously tried in Manitoba and elsewhere; and the election of a new government in 1999 which was receptive to pursuing some degree of change with respect to school division governance and organization. / May 2008

On November 8, 2001, the Government of Manitoba announced that the number of school divisions and districts in the province would be reduced from 54 to 37. With that policy announcement, Manitoba embarked upon the most significant restructuring of school board governance arrangements since the late 1950s. The purpose of the research was to examine the school division amalgamation initiative as a case study in policy-making by the Government of Manitoba. The study investigated the nature of this initiative, including its origin, development, eventual conclusion and implementation. The fundamental question addressed by the study was this: Why was school division amalgamation an idea whose time had come in Manitoba? Discussion of amalgamation had been active within the Progressive Conservative administration of Gary Filmon since the early 1990s, but despite the recommendation in 1995 of a provincially established Boundaries Review Commission to move forward with government directed amalgamation, the idea languished until a newly-elected provincial government under Gary Doer, leader of the New Democratic Party, assumed power in 1999. The theoretical framework used in addressing the question posed relied primarily upon the work of John Kingdon (Agendas, Alternatives and Public Policies) who contends that there must be a timely convergence of three key aspects of policy formation: problems, solutions and politics. Therefore, the study examined the key role of elected officials in promoting certain policy ideas and their impact on the decisions of government at specific times. It also compared and contrasted the differing policy approaches taken by the Filmon and Doer regimes on this question, and assesses the opportunities and constraints which explain the differences found. The study relied on extant public documents and other primary sources, and especially the expressed view or position of certain elected officials and supporting staff gained through one-on-one in-depth interviews. The focus of the analysis was an attempt to assess the interplay of problem, solution, and politics, and whether or not it reveals what Kingdon has called a “window of opportunity” for decisive action by government. The study showed that, indeed, the window of opportunity for amalgamation occurred with the convergence of three forces by 2001: pervasive indicators of a problem; promotion of amalgamation as a policy solution previously tried in Manitoba and elsewhere; and the election of a new government in 1999 which was receptive to pursuing some degree of change with respect to school division governance and organization.

On November 8, 2001, the Government of Manitoba announced that the number of school divisions and districts in the province would be reduced from 54 to 37. With that policy announcement, Manitoba embarked upon the most significant restructuring of school board governance arrangements since the late 1950s. The purpose of the research was to examine the school division amalgamation initiative as a case study in policy-making by the Government of Manitoba. The study investigated the nature of this initiative, including its origin, development, eventual conclusion and implementation. The fundamental question addressed by the study was this: Why was school division amalgamation an idea whose time had come in Manitoba? Discussion of amalgamation had been active within the Progressive Conservative administration of Gary Filmon since the early 1990s, but despite the recommendation in 1995 of a provincially established Boundaries Review Commission to move forward with government directed amalgamation, the idea languished until a newly-elected provincial government under Gary Doer, leader of the New Democratic Party, assumed power in 1999. The theoretical framework used in addressing the question posed relied primarily upon the work of John Kingdon (Agendas, Alternatives and Public Policies) who contends that there must be a timely convergence of three key aspects of policy formation: problems, solutions and politics. Therefore, the study examined the key role of elected officials in promoting certain policy ideas and their impact on the decisions of government at specific times. It also compared and contrasted the differing policy approaches taken by the Filmon and Doer regimes on this question, and assesses the opportunities and constraints which explain the differences found. The study relied on extant public documents and other primary sources, and especially the expressed view or position of certain elected officials and supporting staff gained through one-on-one in-depth interviews. The focus of the analysis was an attempt to assess the interplay of problem, solution, and politics, and whether or not it reveals what Kingdon has called a “window of opportunity” for decisive action by government. The study showed that, indeed, the window of opportunity for amalgamation occurred with the convergence of three forces by 2001: pervasive indicators of a problem; promotion of amalgamation as a policy solution previously tried in Manitoba and elsewhere; and the election of a new government in 1999 which was receptive to pursuing some degree of change with respect to school division governance and organization.

Esta pesquisa realiza uma análise sobre permanências e mudanças na execução orçamentária para políticas culturais a partir da adoção de uma concepção ampliada de cultura. O recorte definido para a análise compreende as gestões de Gilberto Kassab (DEM), de 2009 a 2012, e de Fernando Haddad (PT). Do ponto de vista teórico as abordagens adotadas neste estudo são o modelo incremental, a Teoria Institucional e os modelos e paradigmas de cultura como objeto de política pública. Do ponto de vista empírico o objeto de estudo são os relatórios Quadro Detalhado de Despesas da Secretaria Municipal de Cultura do Município de São Paulo, para os exercícios entre 2009 e 2016. O estudo levantou as hipóteses (H) de que as políticas institucionalizadas e os atores culturais historicamente legitimados pelo Estado tendem a manter seus benefícios conquistados, ainda que as gestões assumam concepções ampliadas de cultura que incitem alterações no perfil das políticas (H1) e de que governos que adotam concepções ampliadas sobre cultura possuem pouca margem de discricionariedade para atender a grupos culturais legitimados mais recentemente pelo Estado (H2). O estudo demonstra que mesmo que governos assumam concepções ampliadas de cultura, a manutenção da base orçamentária e de benefícios a atores e políticas legitimados da margem de discricionariedade, limitam o fortalecimento de políticas de cidadania cultural / This research makes an analysis of the continuities and changes in budget execution for cultural policies from the adoption of widened conceptions about culture. The research excerpt is the governments of Gilberto Kassab (DEM) from 2009 to 2012 and Fernando Haddad (PT). From the theoretical point of view, the approaches adopted in this study are the incremental model, the Institutional Theory and the models and paradigms of culture as an object of public policy. From the empirical point of view, the object of study is the reports Quadro Detalhado de Despesas of the Secretaria Municipal de Cultura de São Paulo, from the year 2009 to 2016. The study raised the hypotheses (H) that institutionalized policies and cultural actors historically legitimized by the state tend to maintain their gains, even though the administrations assume widened conceptions about culture that incite changes in the profile of policies (H1), and that even governments that adopt widened conceptions about culture have little margin of discretion to attend local groups less strengthened in the field and (H2). The study shows that even if governments take on broader conceptions of culture, maintaining the budget base and benefits to actors and legitimized policies of margin of discretion, limit the strengthening of cultural citizenship policies

<p>The break-up of the Soviet Union handed down the Russian Federation a number of Soviet environmental legacies ranging from contaminated areas to the old bureaucratic procedures and outdated practices. In the post-Soviet years of transition to a free-market economy Russia began to face increasingly acute tension between environmental security and economic development, and the state’s ability to effectively pursue environmental policies deteriorated. Current environmental policy-makers are faced with a multitude of challenges that range from complicated environmental systems to the inconsistent legislative framework and resource deficiencies. Although researchers have paid some attention to these problems, environmental decision-making remains a poorly illuminated area and constitutes a theoretically challenging problem. This paper addresses the regional environmental decision-making process in the Russian Federation. Using the Pskov region on the border with Byelorussia and the two future EU members Estonia and Latvia as a case study, this paper seeks to supply a better understanding of how environmental decisions are made on the regional and local levels with a special focus on constraints affecting environmental policy-making. The study attempts to explain the environmental decision-making process in light of the two competing theories of decision- making, incrementalism and the bureaucratic politics model. It is primarily based on interviews made in the Pskov region in the autumn of 2002.</p>

The break-up of the Soviet Union handed down the Russian Federation a number of Soviet environmental legacies ranging from contaminated areas to the old bureaucratic procedures and outdated practices. In the post-Soviet years of transition to a free-market economy Russia began to face increasingly acute tension between environmental security and economic development, and the state’s ability to effectively pursue environmental policies deteriorated. Current environmental policy-makers are faced with a multitude of challenges that range from complicated environmental systems to the inconsistent legislative framework and resource deficiencies. Although researchers have paid some attention to these problems, environmental decision-making remains a poorly illuminated area and constitutes a theoretically challenging problem. This paper addresses the regional environmental decision-making process in the Russian Federation. Using the Pskov region on the border with Byelorussia and the two future EU members Estonia and Latvia as a case study, this paper seeks to supply a better understanding of how environmental decisions are made on the regional and local levels with a special focus on constraints affecting environmental policy-making. The study attempts to explain the environmental decision-making process in light of the two competing theories of decision- making, incrementalism and the bureaucratic politics model. It is primarily based on interviews made in the Pskov region in the autumn of 2002.

Esta pesquisa realiza uma análise sobre permanências e mudanças na execução orçamentária para políticas culturais a partir da adoção de uma concepção ampliada de cultura. O recorte definido para a análise compreende as gestões de Gilberto Kassab (DEM), de 2009 a 2012, e de Fernando Haddad (PT). Do ponto de vista teórico as abordagens adotadas neste estudo são o modelo incremental, a Teoria Institucional e os modelos e paradigmas de cultura como objeto de política pública. Do ponto de vista empírico o objeto de estudo são os relatórios Quadro Detalhado de Despesas da Secretaria Municipal de Cultura do Município de São Paulo, para os exercícios entre 2009 e 2016. O estudo levantou as hipóteses (H) de que as políticas institucionalizadas e os atores culturais historicamente legitimados pelo Estado tendem a manter seus benefícios conquistados, ainda que as gestões assumam concepções ampliadas de cultura que incitem alterações no perfil das políticas (H1) e de que governos que adotam concepções ampliadas sobre cultura possuem pouca margem de discricionariedade para atender a grupos culturais legitimados mais recentemente pelo Estado (H2). O estudo demonstra que mesmo que governos assumam concepções ampliadas de cultura, a manutenção da base orçamentária e de benefícios a atores e políticas legitimados da margem de discricionariedade, limitam o fortalecimento de políticas de cidadania cultural / This research makes an analysis of the continuities and changes in budget execution for cultural policies from the adoption of widened conceptions about culture. The research excerpt is the governments of Gilberto Kassab (DEM) from 2009 to 2012 and Fernando Haddad (PT). From the theoretical point of view, the approaches adopted in this study are the incremental model, the Institutional Theory and the models and paradigms of culture as an object of public policy. From the empirical point of view, the object of study is the reports Quadro Detalhado de Despesas of the Secretaria Municipal de Cultura de São Paulo, from the year 2009 to 2016. The study raised the hypotheses (H) that institutionalized policies and cultural actors historically legitimized by the state tend to maintain their gains, even though the administrations assume widened conceptions about culture that incite changes in the profile of policies (H1), and that even governments that adopt widened conceptions about culture have little margin of discretion to attend local groups less strengthened in the field and (H2). The study shows that even if governments take on broader conceptions of culture, maintaining the budget base and benefits to actors and legitimized policies of margin of discretion, limit the strengthening of cultural citizenship policies