The bond between the state and education has become stronger due to expended role and control of the state over education especially in the 21st century. Control of the state on education is embodied in educational policies which are the apparatus of modern states used to shape the education system in accordance with the basic interests and values of the society. However, educational policy is a complex, dynamic and multi-tiered concept that is formulated in a diverse sociopolitical system. Understanding the context and the dynamics of educational policy making is required to understand the dynamics of any educational system. This study aimed to investigate the formulation process of educational policies in Turkey and the U.S. through the perceptions of key actors in policy making process. On a broader perspective, this study tried to examine how certain issues became the agenda of the governments, how educational policies were formulated, under what conditions, in which context, and by which agents (persons or groups). For this purpose a qualitative comparative case study design was applied. Two specific policy initiatives of teacher education and teacher quality policies in Turkey (Career Ladders for Teachers, 2005) and Wisconsin, U.S. (Teacher Education Program Approval and Licenses: PI34, 2000) were focused as cases. Data were collected through in-depth interviews and document analysis. Seven key policy makers in each case were interviewed, and primary and secondary documents related to policies were collected. A descriptive, analytical and comparative approach was followed during the data analysis and interpretation. Results of this study showed that policy formulation process in education in two countries is highly complex and under the influence of various factors which determine the policy context in which the policy is developed. Policy context, in both countries, is intertwined by political, economic, social and international factors as well as the culture, values, beliefs, experience, variety and number of the policy actors. Policy process in Turkey, on the account of CLT, can be described as more politicized, and bureaucratic, more straightforward without policy games, and serious conflicts among the policy actors, yet more constrained, top-down, closed, government oriented and elitist process in which democratic procedures were ignored. Wisconsin, on the other hand, demonstrates a more complex policy contexts nested in different levels of government and high number of interest and pressure groups competing with each other, and based on consensus building and participation in within the realms of pluralist tradition.

Environmental policymaking is a difficult issue for governments. It is desirable to have the decisions based on the results of quantitative and analytical studies. On the other hand, by their very nature, many such decisions have political aspects, whose subtleties are difficult to be captured by quantitative approaches alone. It is left to the political establishments to decide how best to allocate the efforts to improve environmental conditions. In this respect, evaluating the countries by generating environmental indices and the subsequent ranking of the countries with respect to those indices is a common practice. Perhaps the best known environmental sustainability index, the Environmental Performance Index-2008 (EPI-2008), is a composite index that comprises 6 core policy categories and 25 indicators. While recognizing the qualitative aspects of such decision making, in order to support and guide the policymaking process, we develop analytical tools to assist the process. We carefully delineate our models to be limited only to the provable quantitative properties of the available objective data. However, such data are processed into more meaningful statements concerning the available options. Specifically, using EPI-2008, meaningful mathematical models that shed further light onto the country sustainability measures are developed.

The environment is seen by different people as being valuable for different reasons. A pervasive debate in Environmental Philosophy revolves around which values should hold sway in the case of conflicts between the various kinds of value associated with the environment. This debate is relevant to, and fuelled by, debates how human communities should make decisions about the environment. By exploring the methods for balancing the various forms of environmental value proposed by Bryan G. Norton, Mark Sagoff, and David Pearce, I will argue that, as of yet, there has been little progress towards constructing a morally satisfactory basis for giving particular environmental values more weight than others. I will argue that to the extent that decision-maker obligations constitute moral obligations to the community, they can act as a basis for justifying giving some environmental values precedence over others in the decision-making context.

Canada's immigration policy is based on the notion that increased levels of immigration will bring economic prosperity to the nation and its citizens. However, some immigrants and refugees face a number of challenges in finding adequate employment which has contributed to their living in low socio-economic conditions. Using a document analysis, I investigated the structural and historical contexts and the accountability mechanisms of Canada’s immigration policy under the lens of critical political studies theory and critical race theory to gain some insight as to what some of the dynamics are which could account for the discrepancy between the expected economic outcomes and the actual experiences of new Canadians. I learned that the policy is driven by hegemonic economic forces. From this perspective, I have concluded that immigration is a policy tool used to support the nation’s economic policy resulting in settlement and integration practices favouring the industry that immigration has created rather than the interests and needs of immigrants.

Il tema di fondo su cui si confronta la ricerca è l'esistenza di relazioni complesse - dirette e indirette, esplicite ed implicite - tra i diversi livelli di governance dell'istruzione superiore in grado di esercitare una crescente pressione sui sistemi nazionali e sulle singole università sino a modificarne le priorità. Più nel dettaglio la ricerca indaga il rapporto tra i modelli competitivi veicolati dagli organismi internazionali, nello specifico dall'Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development - OECD, e il modo con cui ciascun ateneo interpreta i propri obiettivi di formazione - nel quadro dei vincoli e delle opportunità del sistema d'istruzione superiore italiano. L'assunto di base è che tra l'OECD e il management degli atenei ci siano delle connessioni che sono la risultante di due tendenze complementari: da una parte l'influsso dell'Organizzazione sulle politiche nazionali, locali e degli atenei; dall'altra la propensione di questi ultimi ad avvalersi, in maniera differenziata, degli studi e delle analisi statistiche e comparative prodotte dall'OECD per interpretare i fenomeni globali della higher education e supportare le proprie strategie di intervento. / The research focus upon the existence of complex relationships - both direct and indirect, explicit and implicit - between different levels of higher education governance that can exert increasing pressure on national systems and universities up to changing their priorities. In further detail, the research investigates the relationship between competitive models promoted by international bodies, specifically by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development - OECD, and the way in which each university interprets its strategic goals - in the framework of the constraints and opportunities of the Italian higher education system. It is assumed that between the OECD and the university management there are some connections resulting from two complementary trends. The first one refers to the influence of the Organization on national policies and local universities; the second one regards to the use by the university management of the OECD's comparative studies and statistical analysis to interpret the global higher education phenomena and support their intervention strategies.

Canada's immigration policy is based on the notion that increased levels of immigration will bring economic prosperity to the nation and its citizens. However, some immigrants and refugees face a number of challenges in finding adequate employment which has contributed to their living in low socio-economic conditions. Using a document analysis, I investigated the structural and historical contexts and the accountability mechanisms of Canada’s immigration policy under the lens of critical political studies theory and critical race theory to gain some insight as to what some of the dynamics are which could account for the discrepancy between the expected economic outcomes and the actual experiences of new Canadians. I learned that the policy is driven by hegemonic economic forces. From this perspective, I have concluded that immigration is a policy tool used to support the nation’s economic policy resulting in settlement and integration practices favouring the industry that immigration has created rather than the interests and needs of immigrants.

Las lesiones por tráfico son un importante problema de salud pública en España. En 2004, el gobierno español estableció la seguridad vial como una prioridad política, y creó el Plan Estratégico de Seguridad Vial 2005-2008, que propone una serie de medidas dirigidas a disminuir el impacto de las lesiones por tráfico en España. Los objetivos de la tesis son revisar las intervenciones de seguridad vial que se han demostrado efectivas en reducir las lesiones y mortalidad por tráfico y evaluar el impacto en morbilidad y mortalidad por tráfico del conjunto de medidas implementadas en España a partir del año 2004 y de algunas de las medidas implementadas, concretamente el permiso por puntos, la reforma del Código Penal y los radares. El diseño de todos los estudios de evaluación consistió en estudios de series temporales interrumpidas. Las poblaciones de estudio fueron el número de colisiones, conductores involucrados en colisiones con lesionados y personas lesionadas por tráfico en España entre los años 2000 y 2008. Las fuentes de información fueron bases de datos de policía y hospitalarias. Se ajustaron modelos de regresión Quasi-Poisson, controlando la tendencia temporal y la estacionalidad. Los estudios incluidos en la tesis sugieren que la priorización de la seguridad vial en el año 2004 supuso un cambio en la tendencia de las lesiones por tráfico en España, y fue especialmente efectiva en reducir el número de lesionados graves. Entre las intervenciones incluidas en el Plan Estratégico de Seguridad Vial 2005-2008, se evaluó la efectividad de los radares, el permiso por puntos y la criminalización de una serie de comportamientos de tráfico – mediante la reforma del Código Penal –, medidas que redujeron el impacto de las lesiones por tráfico en España. Sin embargo, la revisión de la literatura incluida en la tesis identificó diversas medidas efectivas de seguridad vial, como el permiso de conducir gradual, que todavía no han sido implementadas y que podrían reducir todavía más el número de personas lesionadas en las carreteras españolas. Será necesario realizar esfuerzos importantes y adjudicar suficientes recursos para mantener el nivel de seguridad vial alcanzado. Además, se deberán implementar más medidas efectivas de seguridad vial para reducir el todavía inaceptablemente elevado número de personas lesionadas o muertas en las carreteras españolas cada día. / Road traffic injuries are an important public health problem in Spain. In 2004, the Spanish government established road safety as a political priority, and created the Road Safety Strategic Programme 2005-2008, which proposes a series of actions aimed to reduce the burden of traffic injuries in Spain. The objectives of the present thesis are to review the road safety interventions which have proven to be effective in reducing road traffic deaths and injuries, and to assess the impact on traffic morbidity and mortality of overall road safety interventions implemented in Spain from the year 2004 on and of specific road safety interventions implemented, specifically the penalty points system, the reform of the Penal Code and speed cameras. The design of all the intervention evaluation studies consisted in interrupted time-series studies. The number of injury crashes, drivers involved in injury collisions, and people injured in traffic collisions in Spain between the years 2000-2008 were the study populations. Police and hospital registries were used as sources of information. Quasi-Poisson regression models were adjusted, controlling for time trend and seasonal patterns. The studies included in the present thesis suggest that the prioritisation of road safety in the year 2004 changed the trend of road traffic injuries in Spain, being especially effective in reducing the number of seriously injured people. Among the interventions included in the Road Safety Strategic Programme 2005-2008, speed cameras, the penalty points system, and the criminalisation of a set of road behaviours - by means of reforming the Penal Code – were assessed for effectiveness and were observed to reduce the burden of traffic injuries in Spain. Nevertheless, the literature review included in the thesis identified several effective road safety interventions, such as the graduated licensing system, that have not been implemented as yet, and which could further reduce the number of people injured on the Spanish roads. Important efforts and enough resources will be needed to maintain the level of road safety achieved. Furthermore, additional effective road safety measures should be implemented to reduce the still unacceptably high number of people injured or killed on the Spanish roads every day.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Western Sydney, Nepean, 1998. / "A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy." "May, 1998." Bibliography : leaves 250-277.

abstract: In 2008, South Korea suffered a great loss of public trust in government. Since May 2, 2008, street protests against U.S. beef imports and the April 2008 beef agreement continued for more than 100 days. These public protests started with peaceful candlelight vigils but some of them turned violent in the end of May. According to a white paper on the protests published by the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office, for 106 days from May 2 until Aug. 15, there were 2,398 separate rallies drawing 932,000 people. Among them, 1,476 protesters were indicted for participating in illegal and violent protests. 100 police officers suffered serious injuries and 401 light ones. 88 civilians were seriously injured. The South Korean National Assembly had to remain idle for more than 80 days due to numerous political debates and the approval rating of President Myung-Bak Lee plummeted from 40 percent range to near 20 percent during the protest period. This Dissertation started from a question of why people were so angry against their government. The whole process of the U.S.-South Korea Beef negotiation was reviewed, focusing on whether or not Korean government and its negotiators tried to make a domestic agreement with people. For the purpose, this dissertation developed an integrated framework by the combination of the two level-game theory with the advocacy coalition framework. The framework was also used to investigate the effect of external factors outside the Korean policy-making system of the beef negotiation. The framework reviewed win-set changes of both countries, especially focusing on the change of Korean win-set size. Then, the whole process of the beef negotiation in the dissertation framework was interpreted in the aspect of the New Public Service. This interpretation gave the dissertation the theoretical importance, showing the way in which the interpretation contributed to the decision-making theory. Findings in the dissertation revealed that there was a deep disagreement between what Korean government wanted and what Korean people actually desired. Finally, this dissertation considered how public administrators could increase communication with their people in the Korean policy-making system. Janet and Robert Denhardt's shared values approach to the public interest and the decision-making process would be one answer. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Public Administration 2012

Nos últimos anos o termo diplomacia presidencial tornou-se conhecido por todos devido a sua presença tanto na mídia, quanto nos meios acadêmicos e diplomáticos. O objetivo do presente trabalho é analisar o conceito de diplomacia presidencial no Brasil, cunhado por estudiosos para nomear a nova atitude – mais ativa – de alguns presidentes em política externa. Essa análise é importante para uma melhor compreensão da ação dos chefes de Executivo nacionais no cenário externo. Para isso, comparam-se publicações que abordam o conceito e aquelas que o definem, o que contribui para a compreensão do seu estatuto teórico. Além disso, confronta-se o conceito de diplomacia presidencial com outras abordagens que tratam da ação da Presidência da República na formulação de política externa. / In recent years the term presidential diplomacy has become widely known due to its constant presence in the media, the academic and diplomatic circles. This paper aims to analyze the concept of presidential diplomacy in Brazil, coined by researchers to describe the new and more active attitude toward foreign policy of some presidents. This analysis is important to better understand the actions executed by the head of the Executive in the international arena. Publications that approached the concept and those that defined it were compared in order to contribute to the comprehension of its theoretical statute. Furthermore, the concept of presidential diplomacy was confronted with other approaches that deal with the direct intervention of the Chief-of-State in the formulation of foreign policy.