This thesis explains why individuals are active in the British Columbia Liberal Party, considering it was finished as a viable force in BC politics following the 1975 election. What are their motivations and incentives, and the factors that govern them, given the party's inability to reward its workers in terms of winning elections? The analysis is conducted using a two-pronged theoretical approach. This approach posits first, that incentives are dependent on, and independent of, the Liberal Party's ends, including its political principles and its goal of being elected. Second, it posits their incentives arise from both personal gain and psychological needs. Using survey data collected from the BC Liberal Party 1987 leadership convention, I demonstrate that activists are inspired by a variety of motivations that are both dependent on, and independent of, the party's ends. Due to their distinct ideological orientation and purposive concerns, the activists would not fit in any other provincial party. Analysis also reveals that there are two groups of Liberal activists—optimists and realists regarding the future success of the party. Paradoxically, the least optimistic are the most involved in party activity, and the most hopeful are the least involved. I demonstrated that closeness to the federal Liberal party influences the realists' activism in the provincial party. The existing literature on incentives for political party activism tends to focus on patronage, ideology and party-related concerns, such as policy, issues, leaders and candidates. As such, it diminishes the importance of psychological motivations. This thesis found the latter played an equally powerful role in governing motivations for political party activism. In this regard, this thesis has contributed to a more comprehensive understanding of party activism. / Arts, Faculty of / Political Science, Department of / Graduate

Orientador: Rubem A. Alves / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Educação / Made available in DSpace on 2018-07-13T21:24:41Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Silva_JosePaulinoda_D.pdf: 9397857 bytes, checksum: b72d14e545da78fbd125669515908098 (MD5) Previous issue date: 1989 / Doutorado

In this thesis, I have attempted to show a connection between nor:ms for argumentation and requirements of a liberal democracy. The way in which we arrive at our decisions in a democracy is through the argumentative process. This argumentative process can be differentiated into eight separate argumentative dialogues, each having their own respective goals and initial situations. Given democracy's reliance on these argumentative dialogues, I derived three requirements which follow from our basic conception of democracy, i.e. government by the people. These three requirements are participation, trust and understanding. From these three requirements, I argued that it is possible to derive nor:ms of argumentation which in turn support and foster these requirements of democracy. They are fairness, honesty, and clarity, respectively. By bringing together political philosophy and argumentational theory, I have shown that the quality of one's arguments have direct consequences for democracy. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

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This thesis attempts to understand how American hegemony is reproduced. Despite heavily criticizing American military expansion, the foreign policy elite still abet the expansion of the American military apparatus. I argue that international liberalism is used to capture the hearts and minds of the professional-managerial class. Specifically, the framings of the democratic peace theory, multilateralism, and international law soften the violent and deleterious interventionist decisions made by the foreign policy elite. Furthermore, these framings are used to academically bolster liberalism and add to their cultural legitimacy and saliency in civil society. By interrogating a podcast made by foreign policy elites, I show how podcasts function as a key site of hegemonic reproduction. / Master of Arts / It is not uncommon for foreign policy diplomats, strategists, and advisors to become media pundits after they finish their careers in foreign policy. As foreign policy careerists filter into the media apparatus, they also transfer their ideological beliefs through the media outlets that they operate. First, this thesis investigates the international actions and ideological assumptions of foreign policy careerists. Subsequently, this thesis argues that foreign policy careerists spread their ideological positions through podcasts to make their preferred policy decisions seem commonsensical and benevolent. They have the power to do this, in part, because they have successfully associated themselves with the authority of intellectual thought.

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Recent financial problems have highlighted the portion of financial literacy classes related to credit and spending. The recent bursting of the real estate asset bubble and the ongoing economic crisis framed the research question for this study regarding the experiences of social studies and business teachers in teaching coursework in credit-related finance management. The purpose of this study was to understand teacher experiences in the classroom that involved teaching financial information related to consumer credit. The study was based on the theoretical foundations of constructivism and a synthesis of related economic and educational thought. A qualitative, constructivist, and interpretive case study was conducted using interviews with and observations of 6 business and 3 economics teachers. The results were horizontalized and then inductively grouped by phenomenological reduction into domains. Analysis showed that business and economics teachers were faithful in incorporating topics related to consumer credit-related finance education at, or greater than, the level outlined by state standards. The best methods recommended by research were prevalent in the instructional strategies. Teachers stressed the importance of literacy and numeracy. The infusion of economics in early grade levels had little effect on student performance. Participants felt that more finance education in high school was needed, either as a stand-alone course or integrated more efficiently into the curriculum. Implications for positive social change include evaluating financial curriculum components to improve instructional practices by being a part of the curriculum review process and helping administrators and teachers address poverty by improving students' financial skills.

Past research has shown that learner-centered environments can improve students' self-esteem and increase their academic skills. The purpose of this study was to determine whether teaching the core curriculum within a caring classroom environment increases students ability to communicate effectively and perform at higher achievement levels in writing. The study addressed the experiences of teachers in implementing a new writing program with a strong emphasis on social skill development as a precursor to good writing. Guided by the social learning theories of Dewey, Rogers, and Vygotsky, who contended that social interaction is vital to the development of cognition, a qualitative case study was undertaken consisting of individual interviews with 15 teachers at 6 elementary schools in southwestern Connecticut. Data were collected to address the extent to which a caring community of students can foster positive academic outcomes. Data were analyzed and coded to discover common themes. Results showed that teachers perceived that the social skills taught through the program did increase students writing skills. In addition, students had better listening skills and were more comfortable taking academic risks. This finding supports past social learning theories. Based on these findings, 3 days of professional learning workshops were created with the goals of building student-teacher relationships, creating learner-centered environments, and curtailing bullying. Equipping teachers with this resource will help to create social change by helping students become better communicators in a diverse society, increasing their graduation rates, and preparing them to enter the global workforce of the 21st century.

How should we contemplate spiritual freedom in modern liberal societies? This dissertation explores spiritual freedom by presenting the figure of the free spirit, a figure modeled after Nietzsche's description of one. The free spirit exemplifies the possibilities for spiritual freedom, and his relation to political order uncovers important implications for our understanding of political freedom. The free spirit affirms life--he finds meaning and value in life--apart from politics and community. He does so by taking an aesthetic perspective. A certain type of spirit is necessary for such aesthetic perspective: a free spirit, a skeptic who liberates oneself from political community, religious traditions, and common values of his time. A deeper understanding of the free spirit also reveals a deeper understanding of individual autonomy. Individual autonomy is one of the bedrocks of liberal political order, a foundation that is threatened by criticisms from progressives and communitarians. Progressives attack the very possibility of employing individual autonomy as a justification for the founding of liberal government. In a similar vein, communitarians attack the possibility and the desirability of treating individuals as autonomous units, highlighting the social and communal basis of personhood and the dangers of individual "atomism". The attacks aimed at individual autonomy are simultaneously attacks on liberal political order. The explication of the free spirit in this dissertation is an attempt to combat these critiques of liberal political order on the basis of individual autonomy. The free spirit presented here reminds us that a wholly liberal defense of individual rights must include the political space for aesthetic perspective. For a society to be truly free it must respect and protect each individual's liberty to treat existence as a spectacle, to detach themselves from popular worldly concerns, whether political, cultural, or social. / text

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