I focus on three district-level demographic variables indicative of contemporary social cleavages, and construct measures of their influences on partisan representation in American state legislatures during the 1999-2000 years. Using these measures, I examine a series of questions concerning the relationship between social cleavages and state legislative outcomes. I find that district racial composition is the most important constituency-based factor influencing partisan representation and voting in legislatures, but that other constituency variables are also important under various circumstances. I also present OLS regression analyses demonstrating the independent effect of the overall representation of social cleavages on levels of legislative polarization. / text

My research project is a break from the current trend in the literature that focuses on the conflict associated with roll call voting—party polarization and institutional friction. I am interested in determining how policy characteristics of roll call decisions can affect legislators' vote choices. Bills not only differ according to issue content—agricultural policy versus social welfare policy—but also according to how ambiguous they are—a collection of disparate issues versus one specific issue. Using a dataset of House roll calls from 1985-2004 and the Policy Agendas Project content coding scheme, I show that variation in both policy area and policy ambiguity of a given bill is associated with variation in the accuracy of ideology in predicting roll call vote choice. / text

No description available.

The graduation theses at the theme ,, The optimalisation of seting land machanisation at maintenance of melioration objects (waterwork) is described using methods of scheduled maintenance of melioration objects and setting the land mechanisation at this operations with their tools. The next part of graduation theses is discribed the choose of optimal alternace (variation) resolution manner of maintenance complience with legislature and promulgation 225/2002 Sb. The general references at recultivation water reservoir (pond) is set out with practical pictures on pond Beranov near by village Čakov.

Présidé par la Cour Suprême, le système judiciaire Libyen est caractérisé par le principe de l'unité de la justice qui n’a pas impliqué la création de tribunaux administratifs parallèlement aux tribunaux civils. La Cour exerce ses fonctions à travers ses Chambres «constitutionnelles, administratives, civiles, pénales et du statut personnel». Ainsi, l'approche libérale de cette Cour est fondée sur les principes de la justice, de l'égalité et de la liberté. S'il apparait que l'action principale de Cour Suprême est limitée dans ses pouvoirs et sa compétence, il s'avère qu'elle tend vers un élargissement progressif de sa capacité à protéger les droits individuels. Celui-ci se manifeste à travers le jugement obligatoire sur l’inconstitutionnalité des lois ou règlements qui s’opposent aux documents constitutionnels Libyens durant toutes les périodes ( Monarchie, Jamahiriya et transition). / Headed by the Supreme Court, the Libyan judicial system is based on the principle of the unity of justice, which does not involve the establishment of administrative courts alongside civil courts. The Court exercises its functions through its constituencies (constitutional, administrative, civil, criminal and personal). Thus, the liberal approach of this court is based on the principles of justice, equality and freedom. While the main procedure of the Supreme Court appears to be limited in its powers and jurisdiction, it appears to tend to gradually expand its ability to protect individual rights. This is reflected in its binding provisions on the unconstitutionality of laws or regulations that oppose Libyan constitutional documents during all periods (monarchy, mass, and transition).

Essa dissertação analisa a atuação da classe política brasileira com relação à criação e implementação dos instrumentos de iniciativa legislativa popular no Brasil. O primeiro objeto de análise são as emendas populares no processo constituinte de 1986-1988 instrumento que permitia às entidades da sociedade civil apresentar emendas ao projeto de constituição que propunham mecanismos de participação popular direta extremamente efetivos: iniciativa popular de plebiscito, referendo, projetos de lei e de emendas à constituição. A constituição de 88 só aprovou a iniciativa popular e com restrições: somente para projetos de lei, e com requerimentos extremamente exigentes: 1% de assinaturas de eleitores (aproximadamente 1 milhão) em 5 estados diferentes. A explicação que essa dissertação busca fundamentar é que uma coalizão de centro, centro-direita e direita conseguiu barrar propostas mais progressistas de participação direta no legislativo. O objeto de estudo seguinte são os projetos de lei por iniciativa popular, foram apresentados somente 5 projetos desde a promulgação da carta de 1988 até hoje, 4 foram aprovados e se tornaram leis. Uma análise na tramitação desses projetos de lei mostra que, devido à estrutura verticalizada do legislativo e falhas na institucionalização do mecanismo de iniciativa popular de lei, houve necessidade do apoio ativo da coalizão majoritária do legislativo para os projetos serem aprovados. Por fim, o último objeto de análise são as sugestões legislativas da Comissão de Legislação Participativa da Câmara dos Deputados (CLP-CD). As sugestões legislativas têm exigências extremamente simples: registro da entidade civil e ata da reunião comprovando a apresentação da sugestão. A CLP-CD também abriu um leque de opções legislativas às entidades da sociedade civil e permitindo sugestões de lei, requerimentos, indicações, emenda à constituição, ao orçamento e criação de CPIs. No entanto, um estudo comparativo com outras comissões permanentes, mostra que a CLP-CD é pouco prestigiada pelos parlamentares. Dessa forma, a principal hipótese dessa dissertação é que os políticos assumem uma posição ambígua em relação aos instrumentos de participação direta no legislativo: por um lado, criam 10 mecanismos de iniciativa legislativa popular, mas, por outro, dificultam o uso efetivo e sua implementação e hesitam em compartilhar efetivamente a tarefa da representação de interesses com a sociedade civil. / The aim of this work is to provide an analysis about the actions of Brazilian politicians towards the creation and implementation of mechanisms of popular legislative initiative. The first subject of study are the popular amendments (emendas populares) mechanism that allowed civil society to present amendments during the Brazilian Constitution-making process in 1986-1988. These popular amendments proposed broader mechanisms of direct democracy: popular initiative for plebiscite, referendum, constitutional change and law proposal. In the end of the process, the Brazilian 1988 Constitution approved only the popular legislative initiative, with extremely high requirements: it could be used only for law proposals and it should have signatures of 1% of total eligible voters in 5 different states. The hypothesis that this work seeks to prove is that a parliamentary coalition among centrist, rightist and,center-rightist deputies achieved its objective of nullifying the proposals for stronger mechanisms of direct democracy. The second subject are the law proposals from popular initiative that have been presented by civil society since 1988 till now. Since the promulgation of the Brazilian constitution in 1988, civil society associations and entities presented only 5 popular law proposals, of which 4 were approved. An analysis of the process of discussion and voting of these bills shows us that, despite being presented by civil society, all those bills had to struggle to obtain the majority coalition in the parliament to be approved. This can be explained by the fact that the Brazilian legislative process is verticalized and that regulation of the popular initiative mechanisms is still incomplete. Finally, the legislative suggestions of the CLP-CD (Chamber of Deputies Committee for Participatory Legislation) are the last subject of study. To propose a legislative suggestion, civil society organizations and associations must meet some simple requirements: show its civil registry and also a draft proving that the legislative suggestion was discussed in one of its regular meetings. The legislative participatory committee also opened a wider range of legislative options for the civil society. Not only bill proposals can be presented at the committee but also proposals for motions requesting (requerimentos), indications 12 (indicações), constitutional amendments, budgetary amendments, and the creation of Parliamentary Inquiry Committees (Comissões Parlamentares de Inquérito). However, if we compare the inner dynamics of the CLP-CD with other Chambers permanent committees we see that the CLP-CD has little prestige between the Brazilian deputies. Therefore, the main hypothesis of this dissertation is that the Brazilian politicians have a rather ambiguous view towards the direct legislative mechanisms. In one side, they create popular legislative initiative mechanisms, but, on the other side, they create obstacles for civil society to effectively use those mechanisms and also hesitate to share the role of representing interests and demands with associations and organizations of the civil society.

M.A. (Public Management and Governance) / This research is an assessment of the level of goal achievement by the Gauteng Provincial Legislature’s (GPL) Infrastructure Development Portfolio Committee (IDCP). The overall aim is to determine the effectiveness of the Portfolio Committee, the reasons behind the discovered level of performance, and how to improve the status quo. Research findings reveal that the IDPC managed to achieve 61% of its targets over a four-year period (2009-2014). This is a fairly respectable achievement considering that the Portfolio Committee was only established in the current legislative term. Research findings also reveal a number of factors to support this achievement, such as capacity issues for both Members of the Provincial Legislature (MPLs) and staff and the institution’s congested programme. Quite a number of these factors need to be addressed at institutional level, including capacitation of MPLs and administrative support staff, the GPL’s congested programme, and the identification of relevant stakeholders. However, there are issues that can be addressed at committee level and include engaging in law making discussions, providing feedback to stakeholders on a regular basis and systematically, and gathering more independent information for verification purposes.

The aim of this paper is to examine the relationship between reserved seats for ethnic groups in national legislatures and corruption. In 2008, over 30 countries were reserving seats for ethnic groups in their national legislature. The share of seats that was reserved ranged from a 2 percent reserved seats arrangement for a small ethnic minority, to a 100 percent reserved seats power-sharing arrangement between two or more ethnic groups. By applying theories of informal power, this essay hypothesizes that reserving seats reduces corruption. In contrast to the theory, an initial bivariate regression shows that reserved seats are associated with higher levels of corruption. However, when controlling for conflict history, democracy, ethnic fractionalization, GDP/capita, fuel exports, newspaper circulation, and region, this association turns into a negative one, indicating that reserved seats might reduce corruption. The main finding of the study is that having less than 25 percent of the total amount of legislative seats reserved for ethnic groups reduces corruption more than having no reserved seats at all or more than 25 percent reserved seats. This suggests that certain types of reserved seats arrangements are useful for fighting corruption.

In the thesis I consider the potential effectiveness of the Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act 4 of 2000 (hereafter “the Act”) in reaching its stated goal of achieving societal transformation in South Africa. I consider and analyse those socio-legal theories that have a bearing on the relationship between “law” and “society”, and the extent to which state law may be used in a “top-down” or instrumental fashion to steer society in a desired direction. I identify several characteristics of effective laws and compare these to the Act. As the Act is the South African version of what may be termed “antidiscrimination legislation”, I determine the usual shortcomings of this legislation in foreign jurisdictions, and identify the steps the South African legislature has taken to obviate these shortcomings. This thesis analyses four requirements of effective laws in more detail: (i) that the enforcementmechanisms should consist of specialised bodies staffed by well-trained personnel; (ii) that the source of the new law must be authoritative and prestigious; (iii) that the purpose behind the legislation must at least to a degree be compatible with existing values; and (iv) that the required change must be communicated to the large majority of the population. In order to assess the degree of expertise of equality court personnel, the first requirement above, I discuss and analyse the implementation of training programmes for court personnel tasked to preside in courts applying the Act. I illustrate that the current pool of equality court personnel was probably inadequately trained, inter alia because the individuals tasked to manage the training of equality court personnel did not follow good management practice. As to the second and third requirements of effective legislation referred to above, I report on an empirical study relating to unfair discrimination undertaken in 2001 in “white Pretoria”, Mamelodi and Atteridgeville. The results of this study suggest that the majority of South Africans do not experience explicit discrimination and where they do, they generally do not approach courts to have their grievances aired. In turn, this finding suggests that the Act will be underutilised and will not play the role envisaged for it by Parliament in combating discrimination. As to the last requirement highlighted above, I illustrate that the public awareness campaign relating to the Act was inadequate in its impact. In conclusion, the study identifies a number of weaknesses in the Act and proposes a range of amendments that would facilitate the use of these courts by complainants. I also identify further avenues of socio-legal research that could be undertaken relating to the Act, specifically how the Act may be utilised to combat poverty in South Africa. / Thesis (LLD)--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Jurisprudence / LLD / Unrestricted

Company law legislation has recently undergone changes with the enactment of the Companies Act 71 of 2008. The purpose of this new piece of legislation is, inter alia, to encourage entrepreneurship and enterprise efficiency, to create flexibility and simplicity in the formation and maintenance of companies, and to provide for the creation, role and use of companies in a manner that enhances the economic welfare of South Africa. This Act was signed into law on 8 April 2009 and is said to come into operation during April 2011. The Act furthermore introduces an extensive and renewed approach to the regulation of pre-incorporation contracts in an attempt to address the shortcomings of previous and current legislation on this topic. This study explores the impact and effect that the new Act will have on the conclusion of pre-incorporation contracts, and also identifies the possible shortcomings of the Act. In order to determine what impact the new Act will have on pre-incorporation contracts, these contracts must first be placed in their historical context. This entails tracing the historical development of the common law rules relating to agency and ratification, and their impact on pre-incorporation contracts. Secondly this study attempts to determine whether the old and the current legislation regulating pre-incorporation contracts have been effective, and if so, to what extent. To establish this, the statutory arrangements that currently regulate pre-incorporation contracts require a grounded, solid and formulated basis, which is determined by an evaluation of the history of the different statutory sections on pre-incorporation contracts in these enactments. A significant part of this study will be devoted to the success, shortcomings and complications presented by the specific statutory arrangements. Fair consideration will be given to case law on these aspects. The South African courts have offered insight into the difficulties relating to the various statutory arrangements and explored alternative methods to supplement these statutory provisions. The advantages, disadvantages and legal consequences of these alternative methods are also discussed and analysed in this study. Concepts that are dealt with in this regard includes shelf companies, an agreement for the benefit of a third party (the stipulatio alteri), and where promoters act as principals. This study also reveals that these alternative methods present their own complications. The central theme of this study remains whether the new Companies Act provides adequate solutions to the problems that frequently arise from the conclusion of pre-incorporation contracts, and whether the shortcomings that exist in current and previous legislation have successfully been addressed by the new Act. To this end, the research reveals that section 21 of the new Act will succeed in equitably balancing the interests of third parties, companies and promoters, by providing clearly stipulated protection measures for all parties involved in the conclusion of pre-incorporation contracts. It has offered valuable improvements to previous statutes. The proposed reforms as introduced by section 21 are therefore welcomed. The mere fact that the South African legislature has now made a conscious attempt to create reform on this subject shows that it acknowledges that pre-incorporation contracts will continue to play an important role in commercial dealings. However, questions still arise on the future role of the statutory arrangements in light of the various alternative methods available to promoters. Academic opinions have also been divided with regards to the future role of pre-incorporation contracts within changing commercial environments. It is clear from the research presented in this study that pre-incorporation contracts have the potential to present a range of complex and challenging questions in practice. Therefore, this study seeks to provide sufficient guidelines to third parties and promoters who seek to acquire rights, duties, assets and benefits for a company prior to its incorporation, while protecting themselves against personal liability and associated litigation. / Dissertation (LLM)--University of Pretoria, 2011. / Private Law / unrestricted