Thesis advisor: William Gamson / This study explores newspaper discussions of the intersectional identities of political candidates. Specifically, this study focuses on reporting of the 2013 New York City democratic mayoral primary and identifies how reporters of The New York Times discussed the identities of mayoral hopefuls Christine Quinn, Bill de Blasio, and Bill Thompson. The results indicated that Christine Quinn, as the only woman and openly gay candidate, was mentioned more frequently in discussions related to gender and sexuality than were the other two candidates. The results also indicated that Bill de Blasio, who was white with a mixed-race family, and Bill Thompson, the only black candidate in the democratic primary, were mentioned more frequently in discussions related to race than Quinn was. Further, the study finds that the reporting of The New York Times focused on both the sensitizing nature and the novelty of each candidate’s identity. Finally, the study suggests implications of this media focus for discussions of intersectional identity in newspaper reporting of political campaigns. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2014. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: College Honors Program. / Discipline: Sociology Honors Program.

This research addresses the question of what explains municipal performance in terms of delivering social services and fiscal performance. While the existing literature explains governmental performance with political, institutional and socio-demographic factors, I suggest that the greatest influence on municipal performance comes from having qualified managers. Specifically, I argue that that mayoral qualifications influence municipal performance. By qualifications I mean mayors’ human capital, that is, their educational and job-related experience. The rationale for my proposition rests on the fact that in developing municipalities the mayor is not just the elected leader but also the public manager, as s/he performs not just political but also administrative functions. Under certain circumstances, however, mayoral qualifications may not have the same influential power on municipal performance. Therefore, I also argue that in unfavorable municipal contexts, the potential influence of mayoral qualifications on performance decreases. I use both statistical and survey-experimental methodologies to test the hypotheses derived from the proposed “mayoral quality theory.” I collected six years of data for the statistical analyses by doing field research across the 40 municipalities that comprise the Colombian Department of Norte of Santander. For the surveyexperimental analysis, I gathered data from interviews and surveys with 120 mayors from 12 Latin American countries, who participated in the II Latin American Congress of Cities and Local Governments held in Cali, Colombia, on July 26-29, 2006. The statistical findings reveal that mayoral qualifications—education and jobrelated experience—positively influence municipal performance with respect to education enrollment, tax property collection, and social program investment. However, the positive impact that mayoral qualifications have on such performance indicators decreases under external constraints, such as the presence of illegal armed groups. From the survey-experimental study, findings show that issue salience (or nature of municipal need) moderates the impact that mayoral qualifications have on mayors’ decision-making. In education issues, for example, qualified mayors are more likely to perform better, while in infrastructure issues they are less likely to do so.

A growing number of traditional school boards and city mayors are looking for the next generation of school superintendents to come prepared with a variety of professional backgrounds to provide instructional leadership for school districts. The primary purpose of this qualitative study was to examine and describe the experiences, of five urban non-traditional superintendents. Associated research methods, namely interviews with study participants and the identification of major themes emerging from the data, were employed. Six emergent themes were revealed, including change agent, accountability, political connection/clout, school reform, student achievement and excellent leadership. Profiles of the participants were offered to provide a context for the results of this study. In relation to the major themes, these participants believed that their backgrounds in corporate worlds and other professions uniquely prepared them for the increased challenges of today’s school superintendency. They all indicated that they assumed the helms in their respective school systems for altruistic reasons. However, once on the job, the participants noted that they suffered personally and professionally. They found themselves victims of little respect from the community, media and from their own governing bodies. In terms of preparation for the job, the non-traditional superintendents practiced self-study through reading leadership and journal articles and by attending conferences. The participants also experienced different challenges in gaining certification for the superintendency due to disparate state regulations governing licensure. Several recommendations resulted from the findings of this study. Since academic performance is the primary indicator of success or failure in education today, future researchers in this area might consider a quantitative analysis of student achievement in districts led by non-traditional superintendents compared to academic performance in those systems led by their traditional counterparts. In addition, it is suggested that these participants’ views on superintendent preparation and certification and on governance issues may be considered by school districts, state and federal agencies and by universities as they develop future policy and programs. Other recommendations addressed the need to study female non-traditional superintendent governance and non-traditional leaders in smaller school districts as it relates to these issues.

Democratic politics is a process where political elites compete for votes (Schumpeter, 1950) and therefore campaign communication is an indispensable area in it. In the beginning, campaign communication focused more on public policy promotion (Peng, 2005) and now is campaign-communication oriented to define communication strategies adopted in election campaign. Election campaign becomes fiercer after party politics takes root in Taiwan and that is where campaign advertising comes in. Purposes of campaign advertising by a candidate or party include image shaping, promotion of campaign issue and statement of political platform and achievements. We examined campaign literature of Democratic Progressive Party in 2010 Kaohsiung Mayoral Election and adopted Cognitive Continuum Theory (CCT) to analyze how appeal of campaign advertising influenced voter. Quasi-experiment was adopted. 45 questionnaires were issued to 45 participants individually due to the nature of the questionnaire. Results indicate that voters in Kaohsiung are more intuitive and support a candidate more because of the candidate¡¦s image than his/her platform. Reflect Kaohsiung voters' cognitive characteristics to be more intuitive. These cognitive characteristics show not only economic but serious social issues in Kaohsiung.

Thesis (M. Com. (Accountancy)) -- University of Limpopo, 2021 / This study investigated the effect of mayoral attributes on the financial performance of selected municipalities for improved service delivery in South Africa. The study adopted the quantitative research method to examine the relationship between mayoral attributes (age, administrative experience, and educational background) and financial performance. This study used data from 30 municipalities based in the Limpopo Province of South Africa. The study used data collected from selected municipal annual reports available on their websites using purposive sampling and panel data analysis to analyse the data. The results showed a positive relationship between administrative experience and financial performance, a negative relationship between age and financial performance, and a negative relationship between educational background and financial performance. Therefore, the study recommends that to improve financial performance in municipalities for improved service delivery the appointment of a municipal mayor should be based on administrative experience. Furthermore, the study suggests that in consideration of the need to interpret constantly emerging new financial regulations to promote financial stability in municipalities, the educational qualifications of mayoral candidates should be prioritised. However, the study did not examine other mayoral attributes that can affect financial performance, such as independence, race, and allowance because they are challenging to estimate. Keywords: Financial performance; age; Administrative experience; Educational background; municipalities; mayoral attributes.

This qualitative case study examined a single phenomenon that of a decade of public school reform efforts via legislated takeover in an urban poor minority school district, 1999-2009. The Harrisburg School District (HSD) is situated within the Capitol City of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and educates one of the highest rates of poverty and minority populations in the country. The HSD has the lowest student achievement scores in the state, despite 10 years of restructuring efforts, a legislated state takeover given over to Mayoral control, increased funding, and leadership reorganization. A contextual critique of political and sociological factors was conducted, illuminating an overview of conditions, events and retrospective perceptions. Two types of data were collected, documents and participant interviews. Documents collected included: media sources, legislation, community postings, district and Department of Education documents, university studies, student achievement data, cases studies conducted during the 10 year era, and literature related to individuals that had involvement in the governance of the district. 25 individuals were interviewed to obtain their perceptions of events across the decade. Respondents represented those of high to low governance, employees and community members. Documents and impressions were analyzed through both a circulatory and constant comparative method. Timelines, chronologies and perceptions were merged, converged, deconstructed and reconstructed producing continuum themes of hope and despair and back again. Results revealed three eras: 1) A period of Great Expectations, 1998-2001, prior to and during the early takeover, where community involvement was active, test scores were beginning to rise and state support with increased funding was available; 2) A period of Rough Terrain, 2002-2008, the disillusion and desolation of the takeover, where constituents were uninvolved, funding improvements not realized, and participants expressed oppression, disenfranchisement, and allegations of powerful elites making profit; and 3) A period of Rising Hope, 2007-2009, the metamorphosing of the takeover, where community involvement in the politics of ousting the more than 2-decade incumbent mayor produced hope in the change that was coming, making conditions more tolerable. Despite efforts, student achievement remained the lowest in the state. / Educational Administration

The Harrisburg (PA) city schools had been failing for many years, plagued by bad student performance on standardized tests, high absenteeism, poor graduation rates, and what appeared to be organizational chaos, according to media reports. The school board had hired and fired three superintendents in the space of a decade, but nothing they or their administrators did stemmed the tide of bad news. In December of 2000, Stephen Reed, the long-standing Democratic mayor of Harrisburg, instituted a mayoral takeover of the city schools under the auspices of Act 91 of 2000, commonly referred to as the Empowerment Act of 2000. His first act under the provisions of the law was to appoint a board of control, which left the elected school board little role to play. The mayor's next move was to recruit a superintendent of schools. He found Dr. Gerald Kohn, former superintendent of schools for the city of Vineland, New Jersey. The new superintendent brought with him his own hand-picked top-level management team; this resulted in a flurry of management changes (including reassignments and dismissals) among administrative staff in place before the takeover. Recognizing that such a high level of change in school governance this would create, the purpose of this case study was to examine the attitudes and perceptions of a group of administrators who attempted to bring about, or adapt to, a sea change in a troubled school district under the auspices of a city mayor who abrogated the authority of a duly elected school board, resulting to date in what seems to many interested observers as little or no progress after seven years, and in what appeared to be according to media reports a climate of controversy and turmoil. Administrators completed a pre-interview survey and then a randomly selected sub-set participated in a forty to fifty minute interviews. Both the survey and interviews focused on the four research questions: How do administrators perceive the takeover has affected their stress levels? How has it affected their job satisfaction? Has in their opinion the takeover increased or decreased the level of turmoil in the district? What do they believe is the level of confidence the public has in the job they are doing? The survey and administrator interviews were augmented by interviews with selected representative stakeholders in the district who were queried on essentially the same questions. Administrators generally reported high or very high stress levels accompanied by good or very high rates of job satisfaction. They and their stakeholder counterparts agreed that turbulence had subsided in the district since the takeover. Administrators and stakeholders split on the issue of public confidence. Administrators felt public confidence in the schools was improving; stakeholders expressed dissatisfaction with the pace of change in the district and what they perceived as unacceptably low PSSA scores. / Educational Administration

Mayoral control of public schools as a solution for failing schools and low student achievement. This thesis analyzes different models of governance, the types of students served in districts with mayoral control, and the types of solutions implemented by mayors (charter schools, voucher programs, and the tools of NCLB) and whether there has been any success to mayoral control than mere anecdotal evidence.

Magister Legum - LLM

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