No abstract available. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Durban, 1994.

This dissertation explains the causes of national differences in markets for technology. Different national approaches to intellectual property protection and use, market openness and market scope are the result of the process of creating technology standards in different countries. Technology Standards, in turn, are the product of two causal variables: the historically determined institutions of standardization - particularly the role of the state in the standardization process, and the position of a country in the fragmented global production system. The institutions of standardization determine the relative influence of different actors over standardization and market position. The position within the global economy determines these actors’ perspectives on intellectual property and market scope. Using case studies of standardization and technology market creation in the United States, Europe and China, this dissertation reveals the mechanisms by which these two variables give rise to national differences in technology markets.

The thesis investigates and analyses the hitherto neglected phenomenon of political reaction within the judiciary of south-eastern France during the period between the Thermidorian Reaction and the advent of the Consulate. The character, objectives and effects of the 'reaction judiciaire1 are studied through a series of different perspectives. The first task is to highlight the discrepancy between the concepts of the social and political effects of a revamped judicial system formulated during the Year III and the corrupt abuse of judicial power by reactionary provincial judges. Indeed, the study constantly seeks to explore the conceptual as well as the practical damage inflicted on the Directorial regime by the supposed trustees of the post-Terrorist republican settlement. Emphasis is placed upon the collaboration between the southern judges and the counter-revolutionary elements within the local community, especially in the discussion of the origins of the judicial reaction. The changes of technique and of objective which the judiciary experienced are explored in full. It is described from its beginnings as a weapon of retribution for the aggrieved local community against the former agents of the Terror to its role in the subversion of regional jacobinism to its support for the period of unchecked counter-revolution during the Year V and finally to its function as a 'rearguard' defender of arrested counter- revolutionaries during the period of the Second Directory. In addition, due consideration is given to the motivation of individual judges who operated the reaction. It is hoped that the thesis has provided a model for the study of the causes, techniques and aims of political reaction from within an independent state power. Furthermore, it is hoped that the work is seminal in its suggestion that judicial reaction and its many ramifications had both a direct and indirect bearing upon the fall of the Directory.

This thesis investigates the development of the present-day linguistic hegemonies within Italy and Norway as products of ongoing linguistic ‘wars of position’. Language activist movements have been key actors in these struggles, and this study seeks to address how such movements have operated in attempts to translate their linguistic ideologies into de facto language policy through mechanisms such as political agitation, propaganda and the use of language in public spaces. It also reveals which other extra-linguistic values and ideologies have become associated with or allied to these linguistic causes in recent years, how these ideologies have affected language policy, and whether such ideological alliances have been representative of language users’ ideologies. The study is informed by an innovative methodological framework combining the theories and metaphors of Antonio Gramsci (including hegemony and wars of position as well as his linguistic writings) with the theories of Stein Rokkan on cultural-political cleavage structures and the relationships between centres and peripheries. These constructs and relationships are thereafter documented as ideologically defining strands running through the history of the movements studied, through reference to activist periodicals and party newspapers. In Italy, the focus of the research is on the Lega Nord (Northern League), a far-right populist autonomist political movement. The Lega has sought to legitimise its imagination of a northern nation (‘Padania’) by portraying the dialects of northern Italy as minority languages, emphasising the hegemonic relationship between the Italian national language and northern dialects. The movement has also used this perception of northern dialects as peripheral and suppressed by Italian to bolster its depiction of ‘Padania’ as a wealthy periphery allegedly held back by central and southern Italy. Although this campaign has achieved some successes in increased visibility of dialects in public spaces, dialects largely remain restricted to ‘low’-status domains. In Norway, the thesis devotes special attention to the post-war efforts of the counter-hegemonic campaign for the Nynorsk standard of Norwegian, which was devised as a common denominator for Norwegian dialects, as opposed to the hegemonic standard Bokmål, which is a Norwegianisation of written Danish. In opposing the challenges of globalisation and centralisation, the Nynorsk movement has retained a radical character and is generally associated with a left-wing variant of nationalism, a key part of the Norwegian cultural cleavage structure. The social argumentation of the Nynorsk movement was instrumental in its successful promotion of dialects, now seen as an unstigmatised means of spoken communication in all social contexts.

This dissertation is a cross-national investigation of the relationship between cultural heterogeneity and regimes' respect for basic human rights. The quantitative human rights literature has not yet addressed the question of whether high levels of cultural diversity are beneficial or harmful. My research addresses this gap. I address the debate between those who argue that diversity is negatively related to basic human rights protection and those who argue it is likely to improve respect for these rights. Ultimately, I propose that regimes in diverse countries will be less likely to provide an adequate level of subsistence (otherwise known as basic human needs) and security rights (also known as integrity of the person rights) to their citizens than regimes in more homogeneous countries. Using a data set of 106 non-OECD countries for the years 1983 and 1993, I employ bivariate, linear multivariate regression, and causal modeling techniques to test whether higher levels of ethnolinguistic and religious diversity are associated with less regime respect for subsistence and security rights. The analysis reveals that higher levels of cultural diversity do appear to lead to lower respect for subsistence rights. However, counter to the hypothesized relationship, high levels of diversity appear to be compatible with high levels of respect for security rights.

The global emphasis on human rights has generated a surge of studies into what causes regimes to abuse the basic rights of their citizens. Causes of abuse can be internal or external in nature, based on economics, politics or cultures. This study examines the effects of foreign aid and foreign direct investment on three types of human rights: personal integrity, civil and political, and subsistence. I perform ordinary least squares regression analyses with panel-corrected standard errors on a pooled cross-sectional time series design incorporating 127 countries from 1976 to 1996. While my results are not significant, it is important to observe that there is a tendency toward negative relationships for the majority of the analyses.

Dissertation submitted in partial compliance with the requirements for the Master's Degree in Technology: Fine Art(Printmaking), Technikon Natal, 2000. / This dissertation is concerned with the effects of censorship on the arts community during the apartheid era in South Africa, and in the post apartheid era that followed. Through interviews and various sources, a picture will be presented that examines the contrasts and similarities of the two eras. Chapter One will present an overview of South African history, from its beginnings in 1653 to the first popular election in 1994. It will show how the religious beliefs and accompanying attitudes of the in-coming colonialists created a social atmosphere in which the system of apartheid was able to flourish and grow. It will also show how apartheid ultimately crumbled under pressure from growing resistance and violence among the people it sought to control. Chapter Two is comprised primarily of the results of several interviews with selected artists, showing how the various individuals thought about censorship, how they dealt with all the restrictive laws, and how they were able to pursue their art making under these conditions. Personal experiences illuminate the effects of such censorship, and opinions about the value and necessity of censorship are summarized. Various of the interviewees talk specifically about what actions they took under the apartheid regime, and how they viewed, and continue to view, the role of the artist in society. Chapter Three uses several case studies to illustrate what is currently happening concerning censorship and art in the post-apartheid era. Opinions and reactions to current conditions will be presented, and specific instances of censorship or attempted censorship will offer a comparison with the previous era. This will illustrate how much liberty artists today enjoy in South Africa. Several significant issues are raised by such examples; Issues of potency and importance to any culture. Finally, the artists themselves look ahead, and provide a picture of the future for arts in this society . / M

D.Com. (Economics) / At the beginning of 1990, a sequence of events took place which were to provide the initiative for this study. The unbanning of South Africa's major black political organisations shifted the focus ofthe public debate to negotiations on a democratic constitution. Regional issues, such as had been debated with substantial fervour in KwaZulu/Natal, became negligible when contrasted with the realisation that South Africa's two dominant political forces had agreed upon the necessity for a ceasefire. Until 1990, these two groups, namely the National Party (NP) and the African National Congress (ANC) had been engaged in a bitter and long-standing war. In using dictatorial political powers to suppress access by blacks, coloureds and Indians to universally accepted basic human rights, the NP committed acts of institutionalised violence, which led to increasing resistance amongst disenfranchised South Africans and unparalleled international ostracism. The ANC was not a passive victim ofthe policies of statutory racial segregation and had, since especially the rnid-1970s, embarked upon a strategy of armed resistance as part of its endeavours to focus the attention ofdecision-makers within South Africa and abroad on the plight of the disenfranchised majority. An agreement was reached to end armed hostilities shortly after the unbanning of the ANC, but it was clear that an ideological war would continue to be fought between the ANC and the NP well into the future. Central to the debate on determining fundamental conditions for inclusive participation in constitutional negotiations would be the issues of guarantees for minority rights; the relative roles of the state and the market in economic processes; and the degree to which policies aimed at redressing racially-based income inequalities need to be pursued by government. The intractable nature of differences of opinion on these issues, combined with the new focus on constitutional negotiations at national level, led to the discontinuance of the activities of the KwaZulu/Natal Indaba, which had sought a political compromise for the region amongst all representative groups. At the time, the author had been managing a socio-economic research unit within the Indaba's secretariat. Contact had been established earlier with an organization launched in Durban in February 1990 with the specific objective to encourage affirmative action policies, mainly amongst organisations in the private sector. This organisation, the National Economic Initiative (NEI), had its roots in the group of American-owned companies that had been signatories to the Sullivan code of employment practices.

This study was concerned with examining the process of educational policy-making at the central government level in the Republic of Korea through an application of systems analysis. The purposes of this study were (1) to examine the relationship existing between politics and education; (2) to construct a systems analysis for examining the process of educational policy-making; and (3) to identify problems and limitations in the educational policy-making process in the Republic of Korea. To accomplish these purposes analytic and descriptive methods were used as a research technique.

M.A. / Please refer to full text to view abstract