Thesis (M. Dev.) -- University of Limpopo, 2017. / Education is indeed essential for the improvement of the performance, competence and effectiveness of parliamentarians. Many countries in the world including South Africa do not require specific minimum qualifications or skills to qualify to be a parliamentarian. As a result, parliamentarians come into the legislature with varying levels of skills and qualifications, which has an impact on their competence and effectiveness. The purpose of the study was to assess the training needs of parliamentarians focusing on the case of the Limpopo legislature. Mixed research method comprising both qualitative and quantitative methods was applied in this study. A survey questionnaire was used to collect quantitative data from thirty-six respondents. In addition, semi-structured interviews were conducted to collect the qualitative data from seven respondents. The study found that seventy-eight percent of parliamentarians had a bachelor degree and post-graduate. Parliamentarians identified FAMPPLA, PFMA, research analysis, standing rules and orders, presiding over meeting, strategic management, interpersonal skills, speech writing, computer literacy, negotiations, facilitations skills, monitoring and evaluation as their priority training needs. The study further found that parliamentarians prefer two to three day workshops as a mode for training.

"The study is divided into six chapters. Chapter one introduces the study, by looking at the background factors contributing to the poor governance in Africa. The chapter sets off with the problem, objective, and motivation of the study. The chapter sets out the hypotheses of the study, the methodology used, and the review of the available literature. The chapter concludes with the clarifications of concepts used in the study. Chapter two makes a brief background legislative history by looking at the past constitutional frameworks and the political systems that might have influenced the Legislatures of the two countries. The chapter continues with the current constitutional frameworks of both countries and examines the Legislatures established under them. Chapter three starts with the crux of the study - the roles of both Legislatures and delves into their representation and participation roles. The chapter assesses the medium of representation and extent to which the general public gets involved and participates in the deliberations of the LG and LSA. Chapter four looks at the law-making role. The chapter looks into how through legislaiton both Legislatures flesh out their constituitonal values to create more tangible boundaries within which their citizens conduct their lives. Chapter five looks into the oversight role over the executive. The chapter looks into the mechanisms in place to oversee the executive, and to hold them to account on their performances. Chapter six concludes the study with a summary. It makes a comparative analysis of the LG and LSA. The chapter tests the hypotheses of the study. It looks also at the challenges of both Legislatures. The chapter concludes with recommendations aimed at effective performance of the Legislature in Ghana and South Africa." -- Chapter 1. / Under the supervision of Prof. Frans Viljoen, Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria / Thesis (LLM (Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa)) -- University of Pretoria, 2002. / http://www.chr.up.ac.za/academic_pro/llm1/dissertations.html / Centre for Human Rights / LLM

Public officials at the state level currently are called upon to create, evaluate, and implement policies that assess the effectiveness of teacher performance and hold teachers accountable for student achievement. Therefore, understanding the social construction of the teaching profession among those public officials is crucial to understanding the impact of the policy agenda on the work of teachers as well as being essential to exercising influence on the policy process itself. This study was an analysis of legislation regarding teacher accountability in an effort to provide insight into how the Florida State Legislature socially constructs the teaching profession. This study used a qualitative methodology to place teachers, as a group, in Schneider and Ingram’s (1993) typology of target populations and made use of historical analysis to trace the changes that have occurred in the social construction of teachers during the period from 1984-2015. In doing so, it found teachers are negatively constructed with a positive power component, correspondingly labeled contenders, on Schneider and Ingram’s typology. Ultimately, the effect of the pressures placed upon teachers has been to create projections of ongoing teacher shortages and to discourage potential candidates from pursuing the profession. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2017. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Between 1947 and 1954, the Texas State Legislature enacted a series of eight highly restrictive anti-communist laws. Designed to protect political, military, and economic structures in the state from communist infiltration, the laws banned communists from participating the political process, required registration of all communists who entered the state and eventually outlawed the Communist Party. Drawn from perceptions about Cold War events, such as the Truman Doctrine and the Korean War, and an expanding economy inside of Texas, members of the state legislature perceived that communism represented a threat to their state. However, when presented with the opportunity to put the laws into action during the 1953 Port Arthur Labor Strike, the state government failed to bring any charges against those who they labeled as communists. Instead of actually curtailing the limited communist presence inside of the state, members of the state government instead used the laws to leverage political control throughout the state by attacking labor, liberals in education and government, and racial minorities with accusations of communism.

The focus of the study is the way which members of the press corps in the Texas Capitol influence policy-making through their friendships with legislators and through the news stories which they write. Methods of study included questionnaires to reporters and to legislators, interviews with members of both groups, and review of news stories written about the regular session of the 64th Texas Legislature. Respondents reported that journalists were used as "expert consultants" in legislative strategy as well as in policy content areas. While informal relationships were found to have an impact on policy, published news stories were perceived as having greater influence.

Traditionally, systems of constitutional democracy fell into two categories: parliamentary sovereignty, characterized by the omnipotence of Parliament and the absence of any substantive limitations on its power; and judicial supremacy, characterized by the presence of restrictions on legislative power in the form of a judicially enforced, written constitution containing a bill of rights. Recently, scholars have noted that Canada’s Charter regime includes elements of both traditional systems and have proposed new ways of understanding the apparent “sharing” of legal authority between courts and legislatures in Canada. These “new models” incorporate several key features of the traditional models but purport to be distinctive, and more accurate, accounts of how legal authority is allocated. Key features of the new models include a bill of rights, judicial review of legislation, and the preservation of legislative finality over the bill of rights through an “override” mechanism. However, these new models fail to capture the division of lawmaking power that is formally entrenched in section 33 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. In addition, they do not provide an adequate account of how the legislative finality provided through the “override” mechanism distinguishes the new models from legislative supremacy. A proposed “hybrid” model accommodates the formal division of legal power in the Charter and raises new questions about the extent of legislative finality in Canadian constitutionalism. The hybrid model also explains Canada’s supposed lapse into de facto judicial supremacy as an indication of a nuanced and compartmentalized form of legislative supremacy. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA) / Democratic governance was traditionally thought to require a choice between parliamentary sovereignty, with no restrictions on legislative power, and judicial supremacy, with restrictions on legislative power in the form of a judicially enforced, written constitution containing a bill of rights. Recently, scholars noting that Canada’s legal system includes elements of both traditional systems have proposed new ways of understanding the “sharing” of legal authority between courts and legislatures. These “new models” incorporate a bill of rights but allow legislatures to ignore or override these rights, thus preserving an element of parliamentary sovereignty. However, these new models fail to capture the division of lawmaking power that is formally entrenched in section 33 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. A new “hybrid” model accurately reflects this formal division of legal power and raises new challenges to the other new models of constitutionalism.

Historians of loyalism in Virginia during the American Revolution typically characterize supporters of the Crown as a small and unorganized group that had little bearing on the outcome of the war. However, these historians greatly underestimate the extent and nature of Virginia loyalists. Patriots throughout the state feared and loathed outright demonstrations of loyalty to the Crown, sought to identify and remove Tories in their communities, and worked to prevent the reentry of these Loyalists into postwar Virginia. Those loyalists who attempted to return to Virginia realized that continual attention was required to shape and present an image that would eliminate questions about their loyalty and protect interests and property.This study examines how a select group of returning loyalists sought to reestablish their citizenship and membership in the postwar Virginia community. To illustrate how young elites successfully negotiated their return into a hostile environment, the specific cases of Presly Thornton, John and Ralph Wormeley, and Philip Turpin are examined in great detail. As sons of well-to-do members of the community, they embraced Virginia's tradition of deference to elites and utilized social, political, and economic connections to achieve readmission. From studying the lives of these young men in the context of the vigorous anti-loyalist sentiment in Virginia, one can better understand the distinctly Virginian attitudes toward both loyalists and members of a select social class.

Comparatively few studies have explored how variations in state governing institutions influence voting behavior. Utilizing lower chamber state legislative election returns from the years 2000 through 2010, and the 2002 through 2010 GSS data series, this dissertation focuses on how US state legislatures influence voting behavior and political attitudes of the American electorate. Specifically, this research takes on a comparative approach and illustrates how institutional differences in the size, capacity, and composition of the US state legislatures affect the electorates’ propensity to vote and how politically efficacious people feel.

A ciência política brasileira produziu explicações consistentes no que se refere ao funcionamento da democracia pós-1988. Os mecanismos de governabilidade e o processo decisório do sistema político brasileiro encontram-se amplamente discutidos pela literatura sob a rubrica do presidencialismo de coalizão. No entanto, duas agendas de pesquisa sobre nosso sistema político não foram suficientemente testadas, quais sejam: o estudo sobre as relações Executivo-Legislativo nas unidades subnacionais e os mecanismos de checks and balances em nossa democracia. O objetivo desta dissertação é analisar o ponto de toque ou mesmo a junção entre estas duas agendas: a dimensão de fiscalização e o controle nas unidades subnacionais brasileiras. Para isso, o desenho de pesquisa é composto pelo balanço do estado da arte das respectivas literaturas relevantes, juntamente à análise dos dados de 20 Estados da Federação Brasileira, na legislatura 2007-2010. / The Brazilian political science produced consistent explanations about the functioning of democracy in the post-1988 period. The mechanisms of governability and decision-making of the Brazilian political system are widely discussed in the literature under the rubric of coalition presidentialism. However, two research agendas on our political system have not been sufficiently tested, namely: the study of the Executive-Legislative relations in subnational units and mechanisms of checks and balances in our democracy. The goal of this dissertation is to analyze the touch point or even the junction between these two frameworks: the dimension of supervision and control in the Brazilian subnational units. To accomplish these objectives, the research design consists in the review of the relevant literature, along with the analysis of data from 20 states of the Brazilian Federation - from 2007 to 2010.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-26T20:21:20Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Joao Carlos Medeiros de Aragao.pdf: 916511 bytes, checksum: fcc4e2b2df1969d804ae45984249d98f (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-10-25 / This study attempts to evaluate the judicialization of politics through the analysis of the judicial system and its interference in acts interna corporis of the Legislature. The interpretation of the concept by part of legal doctrine has resulted in controversy about the legitimacy of judicial review of actions taken by the Legislature. We seek to demonstrate that, backed by jurisprudence of the Supreme Court on the matter, it is legitimate to judge acts interna corporis of the legislative houses and maintain their integrity preserved for it is not the Justice s role to discuss issues related to the Legislature but rather discuss those that can harm subjective or individual rights as well as collective interests. Thus, the goal is to demonstrate the judicial review adjustment with respect to the legislative procedure in the light of constitutional principles. It can be inferred from the data that the maintenance of democratic order demands that the actions of all public officers and bodies be guided by legitimate and legal principles even if they are part of Legislature and that the Judiciary has the power to direct law enforcement / Este Trabalho procura avaliar a judicialização da política, por meio da análise da atuação do Poder Judiciário na ingerência em atos interna corporis do Legislativo. A interpretação do conceito tem levado, por parte da doutrina jurídica, a polêmicas acerca da legitimidade da apreciação jurisdicional das ações praticadas pelo Legislativo. Busca-se demonstrar que, com apoio em jurisprudências do STF sobre a matéria, é legítimo julgar os atos interna corporis das Casas Legislativas e manter sua integridade preservada, porquanto não é função da Justiça discutir temas afetos ao Legislativo e, sim, aqueles que possam ferir direito subjetivo, individual ou prejudicar interesses coletivos. Assim, objetiva-se demonstrar a adequação do controle judicial com respeito ao procedimento legislativo sob a luz dos preceitos constitucionais. Infere-se, a partir do trabalho de coleta de dados realizado, que a manutenção da ordem democrática demanda que a atuação de todos os agentes públicos se oriente por princípios legítimos e legais, mesmo que sejam do Legislativo, e o Judiciário possui competência para assegurar o cumprimento da lei