Brexit represents arguably the most dramatic development in the history of the European Union (EU). For a third country such as Australia, the United Kingdom (UK) with whom it shares a Commonwealth connection, has generally been perceived as serving as a bridge between Australia and the EU. Thus, Brexit represents a conundrum for Australia in its grappling of how to approach its relations with the EU into the future. Perceptions of the EU from the Asia- Pacific region have been regularly studied since the early 2000s. However, there has been a shortcoming in specific focus of Australian perceptions of the EU since 2008, and specifically Australian elite perceptions. Brexit presents an opportunity to update the existing body of literature, thus this research analyses how the Australian elite perceive the EU following the UK's departure. This research utilises a two-tiered methodological approach in order to ascertain what the Australian elite perception of the EU is since the Brexit referendum in June 2016. The methods include a critical content analysis of Australian think tank outputs, and semi-structured interviews with Australian elite figures identified as having extensive knowledge of the EU. The research tests the notion of the UK's centrality to Australia-EU relations and finds that there...

This dissertation focuses on the notion of the Kingdom of God in Jürgen Moltmann’s eschatology. The notion of the Kingdom of God is understood in many different ways, most of which bears very little relevance to secular life. The problem is therefore created of people either denying the existence of such a Kingdom (because of its deemed irrelevance) or emphasising the Kingdom to such an extent that the problems confronting life are ignored. It is the hypothesis that Moltmann puts forward an understanding of the Kingdom of God that is relevant to our daily existence. The notion of the Kingdom of God serves as an underlying theme in most, if not all of Moltmann’s works. Having suffered tremendously himself, Moltmann seeks to understand the Kingdom of God as not being purely metaphysical, but a way of living that can enhance our experience of the entire cycle of life. This is a literature study, using Moltmann’s book “The Coming of God: Christian eschatology” as the main source. Each chapter in this dissertation focuses on one section of this theological work, evaluates the progression of theological argument considering Moltmann’s other works and then seeks an existential understanding of the point using the South African context. Moltmann’s argument starts with Personal eschatology and proceeds to Historical eschatology, Cosmic eschatology and lastly, Divine eschatology. One therefore finds a natural growth in his argument, seeking the relationship between the immanence and transcendence of God. In order to confirm the hypothesis, this dissertation considers the various understandings of the concept of the Kingdom of God in light of the human views on life, death, history and creation. An exclusively transcendent God is proven to be unable to establish a reign in any of these human experiences, rendering the notion of the Kingdom of God irrelevant. A purely immanent God, on the other hand, also creates an irrelevant Kingdom, being proven to be limited by the confines of human thought and experience. The search in this dissertation is for an understanding of God and of God’s Kingdom that will neither deny the divinity of God nor will see the context of life as too finite to be included in the Kingdom of God. It is the argument that Moltmann’s notion of the Kingdom of God provides exactly that. This view is especially relevant to the South African context, as a growing secularised community progressively questions the relevance of the notion of the Kingdom of God. It is especially questioned as the H.I.V./A.I.D.S. pandemic is causing widespread suffering and death in this country. Moltmann’s eschatology is specifically used as the main doctrine in this argument as he views all theology to be based on the eschatological journey of God and creation. The questions that people ask, namely “Where is life going?” and “What do we have to hope for?” are in essence eschatological questions. It is my belief that this work will provide a theological understanding of the Kingdom of God that is relevant and accessible to especially the South African context. Copyright 2003, University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria. Please cite as follows: Bentley, W 2003, The Kingdom of God in Moltmann’s eschatology : a South African perspective , MA dissertation, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, viewed yymmdd < http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-10132003-170757 / > / Dissertation (MA (Theology))--University of Pretoria, 2004. / Dogmatics and Christian Ethics / unrestricted

Trade of South Africa with the rest of the world has changed substantially since the mid-1990s. The United States (US), which used to be the main trading partner of South Africa, is now only the third largest trading partner of the country. South African trade with Germany, Japan and the United Kingdom (UK) are also lower. The key reason is the emergence of China in the world economy. South Africa did not trade with China before 1993, but from 2009 China became the main trading partner of the country. Globalisation and China’s emergence have influenced the trade linkages of many other countries in the world. To incorporate the changes in global trade linkages, the foreign variables of all the models in the study are compiled with trade-weighted three-year moving average data. The foremost objective of the thesis is to determine how the changes in trade linkages affect the transmission of economic shocks originating in the rest of the world on South Africa. The global vector autoregression (GVAR) approach is used since one of its advantages is the incorporation of global trade linkages, which facilitates the analysis of the transmission of shocks from one country to another. As a GVAR model combines many individual country models, the study first estimates such a country-specific model for South Africa to determine whether it displays the expected impact of domestic shocks on the economy. This type of model is known as a vector error correction model (VECM) with domestic variables and weakly exogenous (X) foreign (*) variables, denoted by VECX*. The results from the VECX* for South Africa are in line with expectations, showing the effective transmission of monetary policy. The study then examines the impact of international shocks on the South African economy with a GVAR model. The GVAR, which incorporates country-specific VECX* models for 33 countries, is solved for all 33 countries using global trade weight matrices at different dates. The results indicate that over time South Africa is much more vulnerable to GDP shocks to the Chinese economy, and less vulnerable to GDP shocks to the US economy. These trends are however not confined to South Africa, and as such highlights the increased risk to the South African economy and many other economies, should China experience slower GDP growth. Finally, the thesis determines whether the forecasting performance of GVAR models is superior to that of a country-specific VECX* model. The study compares the out-of-sample forecasts of two key South African variables (real GDP and inflation) for five types of models: a VECX*, a customised small GVAR for South Africa, the more general 33-country GVAR, simple autoregressive models and random walk models. Better forecasts of both the GVAR models compared to the VECX* model at forecast horizons of more than four quarters show that, despite the complicated nature of the GVAR model with the inclusion of many countries and global trade linkages, the additional information is useful for forecasting domestic variables / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / gm2014 / Economics / unrestricted

South Africa changed its tax system from a source-based to a resident-based system in 2001. This change is in line with tax reforms worldwide. However, over the last two decades, personal income tax reforms have not resulted in a noticeable increase in tax revenue worldwide, even though governments find themselves hard-pressed to maintain or increase their expenditure. The aim of this study was to compare the South African tax base, which relies on taxing individuals, with the tax base used in another developing country, namely India, as well as to those applied in two developed countries, namely the United Kingdom (UK) and the United States (US). This comparison identified similarities and differences between the countries, and highlighted possible improvements to South African tax legislation in order to broaden the country‟s tax base and potentially increase tax revenues. For the purposes of the study, a tax base can be defined as the total income of an individual, after allowing for specified deductions, allowances and other adjustments, on which tax is levied. It was determined that the tax base used in South Africa is similar in some respects to those used in India, the UK and the US. An improvement that South Africa could adopt is the inclusion of the annual value of house property, as specified in the Indian tax system. The employment abroad exclusion from income could be replaced by a foreign-earned income exclusion, as applied in the US tax system. It was also determined that permitting certain deductions could in fact increase the tax base, as these deductions could entice taxpayers to register for tax, therefore increasing tax compliance and ultimately increasing tax revenue. By adopting any of the advantages of the other tax systems, South Africa can broaden its tax base and generate additional tax revenue to support the government‟s needs. / Dissertation (MCom)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / gm2014 / Taxation / unrestricted

This study’s focus is Jesus’ significant representation of the kingdom of God utilizable for mission today – a topic of importance for contemporary Christianity’s sustainable reaction to a globalizing world. Christianity should not have to be a spectator to globalization but one of its agents, one of the forces at work by extending interconnection between peoples, shared ideas and promoted social, political and cultural links. How should Christian churches conceive of their mission within the context of a globalizing world? It is remarkable that after two millennia of Jesus’ life, ‘mission in the kingdom of God’ is still of great importance for human life on earth. Indeed, contemporary secularists might not commend religion with the custody of such a fundamental burden of responsibility. Yet, considering the times we live in, a foundation of sustainable values for earth are inescapably important. Nevertheless, from what foundational values does Christianity draw to bear witness of the divine in a secular age? When considering all the factors mentioned, what foundational ethics and virtues of Christianity that we bear witness to are still believable in a secular age? The purpose of this study is not to provide a complete response to the question of mission of the church in a globalizing world, but to establish a framework within which answers may be sought. The study is informed from a variety of disciplines such as politics, cultural theory and politics, which are not the usual fields of New Testament Studies. Therefore, this study presents itself in five chapters informing one another. Chapter 1 addresses the issues that surface from current missional reaction and the broader implications that globalization has on changing social and institutional realities and the churches’ response to it. Chapter 2 identifies indispensable characteristics of the early twentieth century Social Gospel movement to implement those values as essential building blocks in globalized mission. In Chapter 3 investigates the potential use of Postcolonial Theory for categorizing postcolonial characteristics of marginalization, oppression, neo-imperialism and neocolonialism. Chapter 4 applies the outcomes of Chapter 1 through 3 with which Richard Horsley’s proposed perspective on Jesus’ mission in Roman Palestine as the ‘renewal of Israel’ is considered to discern about the first century world and the implications it has for the third millennium. The Christian faith, among others, has marginalizing practices derived from centuries old traditions and biased interpretations of Scripture. We see examples of it strewn over two millennia. Chapter 5 concludes this cursory study by summarizing the valuable and constructive characteristics in mission, globalization, postcolonial studies and the Social Gospel. These characteristics can inform the Christian faith in its responsibility of living, and letting others participate, through ‘mission’, in the kingdom of God. Because if we do not, what is still believable today about the significant life of Jesus? / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / tm2015 / New Testament Studies / PhD / Unrestricted

The megachurch and the missional church are on-going global phenomena. Under the premise that the church has to be missional, this dissertation analyses and describes if a megachurch can be missional in both theoretical and practical ways from a Korean perspective. The megachurch is not simply a very large church in membership or size of its building. It, by the influence of interaction of socio-cultural, historical and theological backgrounds, has its own missiological and ecclesiological perspectives. The megachurch understands that the growth of an individual church is the expansion of the kingdom of God, so that the church must be functional and structural to fulfil the church growth efficiently. Thus, it is a powerful tendency that can be found not only in large size churches, but from all churches trying to achieve by all means the quantitative growth of the church and world evangelisation, through the power and material obtained from growth. The Korean megachurches represented by the Poongsunghan Church obviously display the characteristics of this tendency. The missional church is not simply a mission-driven church sending many missionaries to other countries. It believes that all churches are sent to the world by God who wants to reconcile the whole universe to Him, so that the church has to restore its missional essence to participate in the mission of God wherever it is as the early church did. Thus, the missional church is a reforming movement to witness to God’s rule by recovering its apostolic nature. The characteristics of the movement is clearly activating in the Bundang Woori Church, one of the Korean missional churches. In this line of research, any churches that are not resisting the megachurch tendency cannot be missional. The Korean church, which is in crisis being marginalised from society, has to join the missional movement. / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / tm2015 / Science of Religion and Missiology / MA / Unrestricted

South Africa is currently an emerging economy and has various trade agreements with the United States of America and the United Kingdom according to which South Africa enjoys different preferential rules of origin. In some respects, current customs and excise legislation relating to rules of origin places South Africa at a disadvantage in the global arena. In some cases, preferential rules of origin with developed countries benefit South Africa little if they are not properly structured, or if the rules of various trade agreements contradict each other. The aim of this study was to ascertain whether South Africa’s rules of origin are sufficiently aligned with those of more developed economies to improve the economy, thereby increasing trade growth and tax revenue. This study compared the South African rules of origin with rules of origin that are applied in another developing country, namely Brazil, as well as to those applied in two developed countries, namely the United Kingdom and the United States. To illustrate the application of the rules of origin, this study focused specifically on rules of origin applicable to individual quick frozen poultry. This comparative study identified similarities and differences between the countries, and noted possible improvements to South African customs and excise tax legislation for this industry. It was found that the rules of origin applied in South Africa are similar in some respects to those used in the UK. An improvement that South Africa could make is to minimise the number of rules in effect by negotiating better preferential rates of duty across more than one country. South Africa could also ensure that it can comply with all obligatory conditions of trade agreements entered into to avoid under-utilisation of the benefits of a trade agreement. By adopting or adapting some of the advantages of the rules of origin in the countries chosen for comparison, South Africa can grow its international trade and generate increased tax revenue to support the government’s revenue income demand. / Dissertation (MCom)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / tm2015 / Taxation / MCom / Unrestricted

This Master's thesis looks into the phenomenon of party identification and explores various factors that play a role in the emergence, development and decline of partisanship. It follows and compares the changing levels of party identification in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands from the 1960s to the present day and strives to determine the causes and effects of this process. It is widely accepted that declining party identification is linked to increasing electoral volatility. This thesis draws upon a range of range of theoretical works in the field of electoral behaviour. It utilizes findings of an original small scale research among the British and Dutch voters as well as established election studies.

Master thesis is concerned about relationship between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the European Union. Thesis is focused on development of historical relationship between the UK and the EU since the end of second world war, followed by establishment of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) in 1951, over Brexit, until these days. It's written from the British point of view, specifically depending on the attitude of government of UK and British parliamentary political parties to European integration. British government, similarly to British political parties, has a main impact on British public opinion. Main goal of my thesis is to focus on attitude of these political subjects to European integration and find out how great was their influence on decision of British voters during Brexit. The referendum was held on Thursday 23 June 2016 and British electorate voted to leave the EU. Thesis is divided into two parts. The first part is concerned about historical development of attitude of British government to the European union and the second one is focused on relationship between British political parties and the EU. The first chapter is about historical attitude of political parties to the EU since establishment of ECSC until announcement of official date of...

This thesis compares counter and deradicalization policies of the United Kingdom and the Kingdom of Denmark. Both countries have one of the oldest policies in Europe and are characterized as different, even opposite, and therefore were chosen for the comparative analysis. Thesis assesses concrete policy initiatives preventing radicalization mainly in prisons, schools, on the Internet, governments' deradicalization initiatives; initiatives addressing foreign fighters, the extremist ideology; and other approaches in preventing radicalization. The comparison is based on the theoretical-analytical framework of the most prominent theoretical approaches towards explaining radicalization. Through the comparison, the thesis explores, sometime subtle, differences and similarities of both approaches and links them together with theoretical explanations. The thesis highlights many possible policy responses to one phenomenon, corresponding to many theoretical explanations behind it. The comparison has shown similarities and differences between the two policies and correlation between the definition of radicalization and extremism and certain policy objectives and programs. It is structured into four chapters, the first one is theoretical introduction into the concept of radicalization which creates an...