This study attempts to assess the level to which effective political and management leadership for contributes to sustainable services. Looking at the past performance of the municipality one can see that around the years of 2003 and 2004, the municipality achieved a financially unqualified report from the Auditor General with just two points raised. However, from that point on the municipality has been on a steady decline. The most decline was from the period 2006 - 2011. The decline in the performance of the municipality has been so rapid in the five year period mentioned above so much that the 2010/2011 Auditor General Report on the municipality ran up to eighty issues over fourteen pages. Noteworthy is the fact that the decline in service delivery and financial management confirmed by the performance decline marked by the Auditor General coincided with several changes at the senior political and management levels. For example under the period of decline, the Municipality operated without a permanent Chief Financial Officer (CFO) for a period of more than four years. Also, during the period of decline the municipality had six municipal managers all in acting capacities and about four executive mayors in the same period. Regarding the issue of leadership in the municipality, the Auditor General made the following observation.

The recent election victory of gen. Obasanjo highlights the fragile civil-military relations encountered in Nigeria. It also illustrates the impact environment has on the recruitment process of political leaders, as a changed environment paved the way for democratic elections in Nigeria. To shed light on the phenomenon of the undemocratic recruitment of military leaders as political leaders, a model encompassing environment, recruitment and leadership elements was formulated and applied to the Nigerian situation as experienced under the Gowon, Babangida and Abacha regimes. The first step of the environment determined political leadership model is to perform a specific analysis of the historical situation to facilitate the description, explanation and clarification of undemocratic recruitment. In the next step, the dynamic interaction between leadership, environment and recruitment, as revealed in the previously assessed historical situation, is analysed and tabularised to facilitate prediction. The third step of the model is to test set linkages of statements, to formulate a theory for the prediction of undemocratic recruitment in general. This theory is as follows: The military leader (micro environment) will adopt a challenger personality, when the macro - and global environment allow the micro environment to challenge them for political domination. If the micro environment is able to mobilise resources and the macro environment is unable to mobilise resources and the global environment remains neutral, the military leader can be recruited in an undemocratic manner as political leader. To remain in power, the military leader must either dominate the macro environment or adopt legitimacy. In the application of this model, it was determined that a challenger personality developed in the micro environment due to a weakened macro environment pestered by the absence of nationalism and national political leadership, as well as constant psychological conditioning, but also because the global environment remained uninvolved in the recruitment process. Besides the colonial legacy of Nigeria, this background provided the opportunity for a strong supportive organisation to develop in favour of military regimes. This eased the mobilisation of military resources for attempting undemocratic recruitment actions and facilitated the institutionalisation of military regimes in Nigeria. These identified behavioural patterns confirmed the mentioned general theory on the undemocratic recruitment of military leaders. In conclusion it was stated that undemocratic recruitment attempts in Nigeria can be prevented if a balance is kept between the micro -, macro - and global environment. To address this imbalance, political restructuring (including leadership, institutions and processes), and also economic - and social restructuring need to take place in order for Democracy to be institutionalised. This requires that the lack of nationalism and the attitude of the military be addressed immediately. It also necessitates the participation of the global environment in condemning undemocratic recruitment actions. Fact is, the environment has changed and in the process has begun to hinder Africa's military's self imposed mission to redeem the continent from corrupt politicians. The more Africa reacts on the new social dimensions in the environment, such as education, Information Technology and accelerated time, the more difficulty the military will have in intervening in politics. / Thesis (MA (Political Science))--University of Pretoria, 2003. / Political Sciences / unrestricted

This study seeks to explain political leaders' motives to action, by studying how Jair Bolsonaro and Emmanuel Macron have acted in the matter of the fires in the Amazon rainforest. It is assumed that while political leaders may try to act rationally, they are influenced by psychological factors in terms of educational background and style. The theories of rational choice and political psychology are therefore used and integrated to explain their motives. The method used in the paper is a comparative qualitative content analysis, in which various statements and speeches made by the Presidents are read and analyzed. The results of the thesis show that for Bolsonaro, the Amazon fires is an internal matter and should be handled by the Amazonian countries. He seems to be seeking to achieve national goals, while being influenced by his conservative educational background. Macron indicates that the Amazon is an issue for the international community and that it is of major importance for the whole world. He appears to be seeking international goals, while being influenced by his liberal educational background. The assumption that political leaders' style influence their motives to action is not supported.

In 2015, Europe experienced the arrival of an unprecedented number of migrants and refugees. This sparked a crisis, as the European states struggled to cope with the influx. Moreover, tensions in the European Union arose due to the disproportionate burden faced by some states, therefore arguably leading to some countries securitising the issue. This thesis seeks to investigate how and to what degrees socio-political conditions and political leadership roles impacted the securitisation of the 2015 refugee crisis in Hungary and Sweden. The assessment of these questions was approached by this paper through the employment of a comparative study analysis and a qualitative content analysis of speeches held by the Hungarian and Swedish prime ministers. Additionally, this paper utilises a theoretical framework, based upon Finnemore and Sikkink’s social constructivism and the Copenhagen School’s securitisation theory. This paper argues that socio-political conditions and leadership roles, embodied by the prime ministers of Hungary and Sweden, significantly impacted the securitisation processes of the 2015 refugee crisis. Furthermore, political leadership roles are interconnected to socio-political conditions via the securitisation of political issues in the following way: socio-cultural aspects, paired with political interests, inform the political leaders that shape how and through which articulation securitisation occurs.

Thesis (M.Admin. (Administration and Management)) -- University of Limpopo, 2022 / The local government is the first level of government closest to the people, and it is required under the 1996 Constitution of the Republic of South Africa to meet the needs of the people in their designated areas. Political and administrative leadership in the municipalities is entrusted with the responsibility of providing public services and managing government resources. Existing literature exhibits that municipal leaders possess certain characteristics that if effectively implemented, may effectively meet the needs of the people. With a distinct focus on Greater Giyani Local Municipality in Limpopo Province, the current study investigates the role of leadership in service delivery in South African municipalities. This study adopts “theory triangulation” as the theoretical points of departure due to its utilisation of four leadership theories (Servant, Transformational, Situational & System leadership theories). Municipal leadership in the Greater Giyani is expected to serve the public by providing high-quality service to the communities. To fulfil the purpose of this study, a mixed method research approach is adopted, which incorporates qualitative and quantitative methods. A questionnaire was used to collect quantitative data whereas interviews and document analysis were utilised to collect qualitative data. The collected data was then analysed through statistical package for social science. The findings of the study reveal that political and administrative leadership play a role in facilitating service delivery. However, there are also government issues that have to be considered in relation to service delivery, such as insufficient development training programs, and unqualified administrators. Aspects such as lack of understanding and compliance, poor public participation, and lack of adherence to work ethics are found to be amongst factors which hamper service delivery. This study submits that policy makers and managers in the municipalities should be trained in managerial skills. Additionally, the municipal leadership should always adhere to policies related to work ethics and procurement processes. The study also concludes that policy makers and senior managers in the municipalities need to develop relevant policies and strategies to enhance the role of leadership in service delivery in the municipalities.

The cases of the Kurds in Iraq and the Abkhaz in Georgia were chosen to illustrate how ethnic entrepreneurs play a crucial role in the ethnic mobilisation process. The study argues that in both cases a combination of variables was at work. These cases seem unlikely comparisons at first. The primary challenge appeared to be dealing with cases that involve different contexts and identities. However, in both cases entrepreneurs exploited an appropriate domestic environment to start the process and they perceived the opportunities provided by external intervention and the state’s policy towards their groups as incentives. Choosing the intermediate variables depends on the understanding that each one provides part of the explanation. Political opportunity structure directs the attention to the cost-benefit analyses of ethnic entrepreneurs and their perceptions of the available opportunity. Ethnic identity politicisation illustrates the role of ethnic entrepreneurs in choosing and activating identities. Finally, resource mobilisation is essential in conflict as any conflict requires resources that are consumed throughout its various stages. These resources are also used by ethnic entrepreneurs to reward their followers and guarantee loyalty, or sometimes to provide material incentives to reassure those unconvinced of the movement's potential success against the central authorities.

Decentralization is an approach Malawi government is using to accelerate development. In order to achieve this, local structures like ADCs were instituted to improve community participation and enhance demand driven type of development. This study examined the effectiveness of the ADCs in decentralization. The study was conducted in TAs Chilowoko and Kalumo in Ntchisi district. Both quantitative and qualitative research methods were used. Through random sampling, 97 respondents were interviewed using a household questionnaire. Two focus group discussions and 14 key informant interviews were also done. Analysis of the quantitative data collected was done using Scientific Package for Social Scientists (SPSS) tool while the qualitative data was analyzed manually using common themes that emerged from the findings. The results show that the community members do not commonly know ADCs and that they do not have autonomy to enhance community participation in decision making. ADCs do not have the autonomy to operate as custodians of development. ADCs are also facing many challenges that include lack of operational resources, incentives, transport and political infringement. On the overall, therefore, the study recommends that there is need to create awareness on the existence of the ADCs and other local structures to the community members. Secondly, there is need to review the National Decentralization Policy, Local Government Act and the Guidebook on decentralization in Malawi / Development Studies / M. A. (Development Studies)

Assignment (MPhil)--University of Stellenbosch, 2005. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: While admitting that the ambitious privatization programme embarked on from 1991 to date in Zambia has contributed to unemployment largely due to the closure of privatized parastatal companies, post-privatization business conduct of investors need analyzing in order to understand why the expected economic growth and job creation in the country has never taken place. In this article the role the local political leadership, globalization and the tendency towards misplaced policy formulation play in driving the state of under development in Zambia will be analysed. The inherent weaknesses in the New Partnership for Africa’s Development which may further deny poor African countries such as Zambia, the benefits of a well timed and supported programme to provide home grown solutions for the continent’s numerous developmental problems will also be looked at. The paper will contribute towards resolving Zambia’s problems by suggesting the need to formulate policies which create a positive interface between local policies adopted to support and attract investment, and the motives driving the global players to invest in particular countries. In particular this paper focuses on the absence of good investment policy formulation, and consequently, the absence of the full economic benefit which should be derived by the economy for hosting multinational business enterprises such as the Shoprite Checkers Group. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die ambisieuse privatiserings program wat sedert 1991 in Zambië gevolg word, het hoofsaaklik as gevolg van die sluiting van geprivatiseerde semistaatsmaatskappye tot werkloosheid bygedra. Die sake-optrede van beleggers ná privatisering moet egter ontleed word ten einde te verstaan waarom die verwagte ekonomiese groei en werkskepping nooit in hierdie land plaasgevind het nie. In hierdie artikel sal die rol wat die plaaslike politieke leierskap, globalisering en die neiging na misplaaste beleidsformulering in onderontwikkeling in Zambië speel, ondersoek word. Die inherente tekortkominge in die Nuwe Vennootskap vir Afrika-ontwikkeling wat arm Afrikalande soos Zambië moontlik die voordele van ’n geleë en ondersteunde program om eie oplossings vir die kontinent se veelvuldige ontwikkelingsprobleme te bied, ontsê, sal ook onder die loep geneem word. Hierdie artikel sal ter oplossing van Zambië se probleme voorstel dat beleid geformuleer word wat ’n positiewe raakvlak bied tussen plaaslike beleid wat aangeneem is om belegging te lok en te ondersteun, en die beweegredes agter wêreldrolspelers se besluite om in spesifieke lande te belê. Hierdie artikel fokus veral op die afwesigheid van die formulering van goeie beleggingsbeleid en die gevolglike afwesigheid van die volle voordeel wat die ekonomie daaruit kan put om as gasheer vir multinasionale sake-ondernemigs soos die Shoprite Checkers Groep op te tree.

Essay I (with Mattias Öhman): Fluoridation of the drinking water is a public policy whose aim is to improve dental health. Although the evidence is clear that fluoride is good for dental health, concerns have been raised regarding potential negative effects on cognitive development. We study the effects of fluoride exposure through the drinking water in early life on cognitive and non-cognitive ability, education and labor market outcomes in a large-scale setting. We use a rich Swedish register dataset for the cohorts born 1985-1992, together with drinking water fluoride data. To estimate the effect we exploit intra-municipality variation of fluoride, stemming from an exogenous variation in the bedrock. First, we investigate and confirm the long-established positive relationship between fluoride and dental health. Second, we find precisely estimated zero effects on cognitive ability, non-cognitive ability and education. We do not find any evidence that fluoride levels below 1.5 mg/l have negative effects. Third, we find evidence that fluoride improves labor market outcome later in life, which indicates that good dental health is a positive factor on the labor market. / Essay II: Motivated by the intense public debate in the United States regarding politicians’ backgrounds, I investigate the effects of electing a candidate with earlier experience from elective office to the House of Representatives. The U.S. two-party-system with single-member election districts enables me to estimate the causal effect in a RD design where the outcomes are measured at the election district level. I find some indications that candidates with earlier elective experience are more likely to be members of important congressional committees. I also find some indications that directed federal spending (pork barrel spending) is higher in those districts were the elected representative had earlier elective experience prior of being elected to the House, but the effect manifests itself some years after the election. In contrast, I find no robust or statistically significant effects for personal income per capita or unemployment rate in the home district. / Essay III: This paper uses Swedish and Finnish municipal data to investigate the effect of changes in voter turnout on the tax rate, public spending and vote-shares. A reform in Sweden in 1970, which overall lowered the cost of voting, is applied as an instrument for voter turnout in local elections. The reform increased voter turnout in Sweden. The higher voter turnout resulted in higher municipal taxes and greater per capita local public spending. There are also indications that higher turnout decreased the vote share for right-wing parties. I use an individual survey data set to conclude that it was in particular low income earners that began to vote to a greater extent after the reform. / Essay IV (with Lovisa Persson): In a theoretical model where voters and politicians have different preferences for how much to spend on basic welfare services contra reception services for asylum seekers, we conclude that established politicians that are challenged by right-wing populists will implement a policy with no spending on asylum seekers if the cost is high enough. Additionally, adjustment to right-wing populist policy is more likely when the economy is in a recession. Voters differ in their level of private consumption in such a way that lower private consumption implies higher demand for basic welfare services at the expense of reception of asylum seekers, and thus stronger disposition to support right-wing populist policies. We propose that this within-budget-distributional conflict can arise as an electorally decisive conflict dimension if parties have converged to the median voter on the size-of-government issue.

Submitted by Filipe dos Santos (fsantos@pucsp.br) on 2017-05-19T11:57:28Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Marcelo Johny Maciel.pdf: 18646890 bytes, checksum: 126b949772cbc562a2db4563168038c0 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-05-19T11:57:28Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Marcelo Johny Maciel.pdf: 18646890 bytes, checksum: 126b949772cbc562a2db4563168038c0 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-04-06 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / This monograph paper was developed from a methodology basis of Social Sciences, with emphasis in political Sciences and added to the contributions of history, anthropology and literature. The main objective is to present the most important aspects of the War of Contestado within a linear process to the formation of the first refuge which took place in the region, considering the social and symbolic elements important in the consolidation of the political leaderships manifested in this conflictive period. The War of Contestado unlikely the other conflicts which are generally remembered by the male engagement in the resistance role, represents the normality with the youth and of the women participation. Despite the effort of the State in silencing the individuals who featured the fight in defense of the legitimacy of the land, the result was proportional to the oppression which the countrymen suffered, developed different ways of the strategies through the collective awareness. The formation of the Contestado took place in large scale by the forced migration of the “gaúchos” – countrymen from the State of Rio Grande do Sul – who were expelled from their homeland by the State in different moments. The Contestado was in the beginning a commercial post between Sao Paulo and Rio Grande do Sul State, afterwards the conflicts involving the “gauchos”, many people searched for this region to restart their lives believing that they would have a distance from the State. Regarding the Republic and the project of modernization applied in the mid-south states with the railway tracks, areas such as the Contestado turned out to be valuable for the important market, becoming the desire between the States of Santa Catarina and Parana. The dispute between these states affected directly the countrymen who recovered rapidly all the resources acquired in other conflicts and started to resist all the interests of the capital. This dispute for the space regarded by the countrymen as sacred, qualified the women as reference in refuges due to the possession of the best resources. Among all, Maria Rosa had an important role of absolute leadership in the acutest moment of the war. In order to have a better understanding of how this process happened, it was necessary a rigorous documentation analysis and with the support of the literature it was possible to understand that the process which led to Maria Rosa to the power comes from a very recent history; the female role in the Farroupilha and in the Rio Grande do Sul Federalist Revolution both contribute meaningfully to break the idea of the Contestado was an exception and this was the main objective of this research / Esta monografia foi desenvolvida a partir da base metodológica das Ciências Sociais, com ênfase nas Ciências políticas e somada as contribuições da história, antropologia e da literatura. Busca-se com isso apresentar os aspectos mais importantes da Guerra do Contestado dentro de um processo linear até a formação dos primeiros redutos na região, considerando os elementos sociais e simbólicos importantes na consolidação das lideranças políticas manifestadas no período conflituoso. A Guerra do Contestado diferentemente de outros conflitos que são costumeiramente lembrados pelo engajamento masculino no papel de resistência representa a normalidade com a inclusão infanto-juvenil e das mulheres. Apesar do esforço do Estado em silenciar os sujeitos que protagonizaram uma luta em defesa da legitimidade da terra, o resultado foi proporcional à opressão que os sertanejos sofreram, desenvolveram diferentes formas de estratégias através da consciência coletiva. A formação do Contestado ocorreu em larga escala pela migração forçada dos gaúchos que foram expulsos de sua terra de origem pelo Estado em diferentes momentos. O Contestado era a princípio um entreposto entre São Paulo e Rio Grande do Sul, depois dos conflitos envolvendo os gaúchos, muitos recorreram a região para recomeçarem suas vidas acreditando que teriam um distanciamento do Estado. A partir da República e do projeto de modernização aplicado no centro-sul com a malha ferroviária, áreas como do Contestado passaram a ter um valor de mercado importante, sendo objeto de desejo entre os estados de Santa Catarina e Paraná. A disputa entre os Estados afetou diretamente os sertanejos que resgataram rapidamente recursos adquiridos em outros conflitos e passaram a resistir aos interesses do capital. Esta disputa pelo espaço considerado pelos sertanejos como sagrado, credenciou as mulheres como referência nos redutos por disporem de maiores recursos. Dentre todas Maria Rosa desempenhou o papel de liderança absoluta no momento mais agudo da Guerra. Para entender melhor como ocorreu este processo foi preciso uma análise documental rigorosa e com apoio da literatura foi possível compreender que o processo que levou Maria Rosa ao poder advém de uma história recente; o papel feminino na Farroupilha e na Revolução Federalista no Rio Grande do Sul contribuem significativamente para romper com a ideia de que o Contestado foi uma exceção e este foi o objetivo central da pesquisa