From 2008-2012, the Harper government engaged in an effort to reform Canada's copyright legislation. This thesis uses a frame analysis approach to identify two distinct frames advanced by the government during this reform. 2008's Bill C-61 was unsuccessfully framed as a "Made-in-Canada" bill in order to combat opposition claims that American pressure unduly influenced the policy process. Following the failure of this bill, the government embarked on a public consultation on copyright. Although the government did not substantively modify subsequent reform bills, it was able to leverage the consultation process and Supreme Court of Canada jurisprudence to lend legitimacy to its new frame of the reform as a "balanced approach", build a coalition of support, and mitigate opposition. The thesis' analysis supports key conclusions of existing framing literature and creates a space for the role of ideas in the study of copyright reform in Canada.

The theme of this thesis "Analysis of medicine policy reform in Slovakia" is an analysis of current legislation in the field and the impact of changes to the citizen. The objective of the work to bring changes that have occurred and their impact on citizens. At work I use a content analysis of the legislation, literature and confirm it on the opinions of experts and laypersons to the topic. basis of the work is analysis of statistical data, analysis of changes in the cost of a model citizen questionnaire and analysis of public opinion on drug policy. The conclusion of this work is to evaluate the impact of changes in drug policy.

Magister Legum - LLM / In the past, analyses of Uganda’s Transitional Justice legal and policy measures on truth-seeking have been focussed on evaluating the efficacy of a truth commission. However, being cognizant of the limitations entailed in taking that approach, this research adopts a more comprehensive examination of the problem, assessing the viability of all the known truth-seeking avenues and the opportunities they present in enabling Uganda to effectively address the challenge of enforcing accountability for past violations. The research uses a doctrinal study to demonstrate that even if Uganda were to adopt a truth commission as a truth-seeking initiative, there are no guarantees for its success. In fact, the research illustrates that, given the political context of there being no actual transition, a truth commission is more likely to fail and may only be used to achieve political rather than truth and justice objectives. Yet, the research finds that the current Transitional Justice discourse and the recent enactment of the National Transitional Justice Policy 2019 present good opportunity for the incorporation of traditional justice mechanisms into Uganda’s formal justice processes to enhance their truth-seeking capability.

The thesis analyses the 2013 Cohesion Policy reform as a case of European integration. By revisiting neofunctionalism and combining it with the Multiple Streams approach, it is possible to provide a new angle to the phenomenon of the Cohesion Policy’s integration into the European economic governance framework. The thesis utilises qualitative content analysis to systematically analyse the dynamics that influenced the reform process and eventually lead to the establishment of new integrative linkages. It is revealed how the integration dynamics originated in the economic policy arena and spilled over into the Cohesion Policy reform. Consequently, the thesis concludes that the neofunctionalist concept of functional spillover remains a powerful analytical tool and it is shown in what way neofunctional mechanisms continue to materialise in the European polity.

No description available.

<p>The study concentrates on a particular type of state intervention in social policy. It considers whether policy reforms and subsequent provision of information with regards to the issue of parental leave and part-time work arrangements, makes an impact on gender equity in the labour market (Del Boca, 2002 / Naldini &amp / Saraceno, 2008). Giddens&rsquo / theory of structuration is the conceptual framework from which this study approaches these questions. It is thus held that agents (in this instance, women) are constrained by structures (labour policy framework and institutionalised labour practices) to achieve specific social goals. And further: that the apparent lack of power on the part of agents requires intervention on the part of the state apparatus to correct the failure (or inability) of the labour market to deliver the social justice as aspired to in the cited European Employment Strategy, as well as fostering economic efficiency (Barr, 1992). I further contend that not only are agents constrained by structural properties, but that institutional reform (in the form of labour policy reform) is constrained by the human action1 of the management of firms and enterprises as economic agents within the policy framework.</p>

The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in the European Union (EU) is one of the oldest fields of cooperation within the European Union. During the past decades the different Commissioners have made several proposals about changes in the CAP and many of them have not been passed but renegotiated. The present Commission has however published a report in 2011, which emphasizes that the CAP has three alternative ways to go in the future. This study aims to predict which one of these three alternative ways it is most likely that the CAP will take according to the historical institutionalist theory. When to be able to predict this text analysis is used. The analysis tools of the study are collected from the theory, which focuses on the conceptions: critical juncture, feedback effects, path dependency and sequencing. These tools as well as the theory are applied on the empirical material, which mainly consists of books about the earlier reforms and proposals from the Commission, academical journals and some reports. The analysis shows that the Luxembourg compromise can be seen as a critical juncture in the history of the CAP and this led to a path dependency, which is characterized by a decision-making procedure by consensus between the political institutions in the EU. The analysis also shows that most of the reforms regarding the CAP, are made with some sort of compromise or consensus (the Delors I budgetary package, the Mac Sharry reforms and so on). Therefore the conclusion of the study is that, from an historical institutionalist perspective, it is more or less possible for the CAP to go with any of the alternative ways that the Commission points out in the report. It is however most likely that the second way is the most prominent one. This is because that option emphasizes that major overhauls of the policy should be made, that the measures should be more targeted, and that the spending of the CAP should be more efficient. All of these changes have been made more or less during the history of the CAP and the institutional framework therefore allows this way.

<p>In the largest known investigation to date of the prevalence of resilience following experiences of child maltreatment, a statewide, longitudinal sample of maltreated children was used to measure the prevalence of resilience, defined in this study as consistent competence over time and across multiple domains of functioning within the academic setting. In response to the relative paucity of resilience research using large samples, multiple domains of functioning, and longitudinal data, the current study measured resilience in a sample of over 150,000 children who were reported to child protective services agencies for suspected maltreatment. Functioning was measured within three distinct domains (academic performance, special education, and behavioral functioning) across a time period of up to 7 years. A sample of over 450,000 children with no known maltreatment history was used to compare relative rates of consistent competence over time and examine any differential effects on competence across groups. Approximately 18% of maltreated children exhibited consistently competent functioning in all domains across all available years of data, whereas approximately 35% of nonmaltreated children demonstrated consistent competence. County-level introduction of differential response policies investigating children's reported maltreatment was found to promote higher rates of competent functioning. In addition, relative levels of government expenditures in children's counties on two popular statewide early childhood programs (Smart Start and More At Four) were found to predict competent functioning for maltreated and nonmaltreated children alike. These findings suggest that child welfare policies aimed at identifying and assisting high-risk families in need of services and support and community programs targeted at improving children's early development and school readiness hold promise for improving adaptive functioning among maltreated children at high risk for experiencing difficulties in the school environment.</p> / Dissertation

<p>The study concentrates on a particular type of state intervention in social policy. It considers whether policy reforms and subsequent provision of information with regards to the issue of parental leave and part-time work arrangements, makes an impact on gender equity in the labour market (Del Boca, 2002 / Naldini &amp / Saraceno, 2008). Giddens&rsquo / theory of structuration is the conceptual framework from which this study approaches these questions. It is thus held that agents (in this instance, women) are constrained by structures (labour policy framework and institutionalised labour practices) to achieve specific social goals. And further: that the apparent lack of power on the part of agents requires intervention on the part of the state apparatus to correct the failure (or inability) of the labour market to deliver the social justice as aspired to in the cited European Employment Strategy, as well as fostering economic efficiency (Barr, 1992). I further contend that not only are agents constrained by structural properties, but that institutional reform (in the form of labour policy reform) is constrained by the human action1 of the management of firms and enterprises as economic agents within the policy framework.</p>

"Essays on Social Conflict and Reform" consists of four essays that study the political economy of policy reform. Social Conflict with Passive Groups examines conflicts over the distribution of income where groups that engage in appropriative activities as well as groups that are passive in this respect participate. Democratization, Rent Seeking, and Economic Transition uses a model of social conflict to determine the political and economic reform space and the economic performance in a society undergoing a transition from authoritarian rule to democracy and market economy. Constitutional Constraints and Redistributive Activities analyzes the effects of constitutional constraints against redistribution on the outcome of social conflicts. The Break-up of the Ruble Zone: Undertaking Monetary Reform while Building Democratic Institutions applies the theoretical findings of this dissertation to explain differences in monetary reform between countries in the former Soviet Union. / SITE, Stockholm Institute of Transition