Section 43 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 allocates the national legislative authority to Parliament. The Constitutional Court acknowledged in the Certification of the Constitution of the RSA, 1996 judgment that the South African application of the doctrine will be unique, because there is “no universal model of the separation of powers”. Each branch of government has a different role to play during the legislative process. Political steering can be defined as “the intentional intervention of political actors in legal subsystems including the legislative system”. Executive political steering can be a useful tool for cooperation, but when taken too far, could infringe on the doctrine of the separation of power. From the case studies, it was evident that executive political steering can be a twoedged sword. On face value, it may seem as if the executive is intervening, albeit by using the departmental experts and specialists, to ensure that their vision for legislation remains largely intact. When Bills are accepted “as is” from the Executive, and without substantially interrogating each proposal, the Portfolio Committees and Parliament are not exercising their authority to the fullest extent. However, it is accepted that there is an acute shortage of legislative drafters, and that national departments employ content specialists. Parliamentarians cannot be specialists in all the fields that they have to legislate on, and it is not cost-effective to replicate the national department’s structures in Parliament to provide such expertise to the members. / Dissertation (LLM)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / gm2014 / Public Law / unrestricted

<p>This study concerns school-development and the political public sphere in a Swedish context. It draws on an earlier study in which school-leaders expressed political signals in relation to school-development as being ambiguous and contradictive. On one hand they saw a political support for openness and dialogue in school. On the other hand they perceived control and competition. Another point of departure for the study is what tentatively was suggested as a shift in focus for the state government of schools during the 1990:s, from decentralization as such to an increased emphasis on control of its consequences. The overriding aim of the study was to illuminate how this shift could be understood regarding the relation between school-development and the political public sphere.</p><p>The study was conducted within a larger, national project where almost 900 schools worked without the national time table. Policy texts behind the governments’ decision on starting the project were used in order to describe and analyse school policy. School-leaders´ accounts on school-work and school-development in the project was used for analysis and description of school practice.</p><p>Habermas’ theory of communicative action, particularly his notions on “the welfare-state crisis” as an opening for a revitalized political public sphere grounded upon communicative action, was used as a theoretical frame for the study.</p><p>The results support the assumption that school policy, as formulated in the studied documents, did shift over time from a focus on decentralization to an emphasis on control of its consequences. The school-leaders, however, gave voice to a school practice where the importance of a communicative direction was emphasized. The overall conclusion is that while a vital political public sphere in Habermas´ terms is supported in school practice, school policy seems to direct school development in the opposite direction, thereby closing the opportunity for school to support a revitalized public sphere.</p>

This study concerns school-development and the political public sphere in a Swedish context. It draws on an earlier study in which school-leaders expressed political signals in relation to school-development as being ambiguous and contradictive. On one hand they saw a political support for openness and dialogue in school. On the other hand they perceived control and competition. Another point of departure for the study is what tentatively was suggested as a shift in focus for the state government of schools during the 1990:s, from decentralization as such to an increased emphasis on control of its consequences. The overriding aim of the study was to illuminate how this shift could be understood regarding the relation between school-development and the political public sphere. The study was conducted within a larger, national project where almost 900 schools worked without the national time table. Policy texts behind the governments’ decision on starting the project were used in order to describe and analyse school policy. School-leaders´ accounts on school-work and school-development in the project was used for analysis and description of school practice. Habermas’ theory of communicative action, particularly his notions on “the welfare-state crisis” as an opening for a revitalized political public sphere grounded upon communicative action, was used as a theoretical frame for the study. The results support the assumption that school policy, as formulated in the studied documents, did shift over time from a focus on decentralization to an emphasis on control of its consequences. The school-leaders, however, gave voice to a school practice where the importance of a communicative direction was emphasized. The overall conclusion is that while a vital political public sphere in Habermas´ terms is supported in school practice, school policy seems to direct school development in the opposite direction, thereby closing the opportunity for school to support a revitalized public sphere.

This thesis examines digital inclusion and how it is governed in today’s politics. The main focus is on the region of Östergötland, the municipality of Norrköping and a project called Digital media bus in Östergötland. To give the reader some understanding about digital inclusion the thesis starts with earlier research on digital inclusion, the role of the library in solving this problem about digital divides and how it has been governed before. Then, some background information about Europe and Swedens digital development, their digital agendas, current legislation in Sweden about digital inclusion and two campaign weeks which aim to increase the digital inclusion in Europe and Sweden. The theoretical framework is based on a theory about different policy instruments and from a governance perspective. The theoretical framework interacts with the empirical material in the analysis. The empirical material is based on interviews with two politicians and three public officials, on different regulatory documents and on the project Digital media bus in Östergötland which has been observed during the year of 2016. The empirical material is presented in the sixth chapter called ”There are needs, so there must be solutions!”. The result is that digital inclusion is a policy which is hard to govern. Today, it seems like there is mostly soft policy instruments and the way to govern is from a governance perspective – which means that there are a lot of networks and dissemination of information. However, a harder way to govern is requested by the informants because it may release necessary resources to solve the problem with digital exclusion. The project Digital media bus in Östergötland used mostly soft policy instruments in their work with getting children more technical skilled and digital curious. The main outcome from the project is that the problem with digital inclusion has got more attention both in the politics and the official administration, but the project has also shown the importance of cooperation. Lastly in my thesis, I discuss my results and propose some further research about digital inclusion.

Schulpflichtige Nachwuchssportler sehen sich mit der Problematik konfrontiert, dass sowohl die schulische als auch die spitzensportliche Karriere von ihnen vollen Einsatz verlangt, ohne dass sich die erbrachten Leistungen wechselseitig anrechnen lassen. Die daraus entstehende Doppelbelastung kann dazu führen, dass beide Karriereformen nur mit Abstrichen und Beeinträchtigungen verfolgt werden. Bedenkt man nunmehr, dass bei einer Vernachlässigung der schulischen Ausbildung bereits frühzeitig weiterführende berufliche Karrieren eingeschränkt werden, so verwundert es nicht, dass die Verantwortung für die Lösung dieses Inklusionsproblems gemeinhin dem politischen System zugeschrieben wird. Das darauf aufbauende, übergeordnete Erkenntnisinteresse der Arbeit liegt in der Analyse der Möglichkeiten und Grenzen des politischen Systems eine bessere Vereinbarkeit von Schule und Spitzensport herbeizuführen. Die Auseinandersetzung mit der Problematik erfolgt dabei primär auf theoretischer Ebene und verfolgt das Ziel ein in sich geschlossenes Theoriegebäude unter systemtheoretischen Prämissen zu entwickeln. Dabei zeigt sich einerseits, dass die Möglichkeiten der Politik, auf die Problematik der Doppelbelastung schulpflichtiger Nachwuchssportler einwirken zu können aufgrund der funktionalen Differenzierung moderner Gesellschaften und der operativen Schließung der einzelnen sozialen Systeme, stark reglementiert sind. Andererseits scheinen jedoch, aufgrund der Außenorientierung der Politik in Verbindung mit den spezifischen Steuerungsmedien und den vielfältigen Verbindungen zu anderen Systemen, Wirkungen im Sinne einer Differenzsteuerung denkbar. Bei der Betrachtung konkreter Ansatzpunkte politischer Steuerungsmöglichkeiten kann danach unterschieden werden, ob sich Interventionen primär auf die Ebene der Funktions- bzw. Organisationssysteme beziehen oder aber, ob Interorganisationsbeziehungen fokussiert werden.

Schulpflichtige Nachwuchssportler sehen sich mit der Problematik konfrontiert, dass sowohl die schulische als auch die spitzensportliche Karriere von ihnen vollen Einsatz verlangt, ohne dass sich die erbrachten Leistungen wechselseitig anrechnen lassen. Die daraus entstehende Doppelbelastung kann dazu führen, dass beide Karriereformen nur mit Abstrichen und Beeinträchtigungen verfolgt werden. Bedenkt man nunmehr, dass bei einer Vernachlässigung der schulischen Ausbildung bereits frühzeitig weiterführende berufliche Karrieren eingeschränkt werden, so verwundert es nicht, dass die Verantwortung für die Lösung dieses Inklusionsproblems gemeinhin dem politischen System zugeschrieben wird. Das darauf aufbauende, übergeordnete Erkenntnisinteresse der Arbeit liegt in der Analyse der Möglichkeiten und Grenzen des politischen Systems eine bessere Vereinbarkeit von Schule und Spitzensport herbeizuführen. Die Auseinandersetzung mit der Problematik erfolgt dabei primär auf theoretischer Ebene und verfolgt das Ziel ein in sich geschlossenes Theoriegebäude unter systemtheoretischen Prämissen zu entwickeln. Dabei zeigt sich einerseits, dass die Möglichkeiten der Politik, auf die Problematik der Doppelbelastung schulpflichtiger Nachwuchssportler einwirken zu können aufgrund der funktionalen Differenzierung moderner Gesellschaften und der operativen Schließung der einzelnen sozialen Systeme, stark reglementiert sind. Andererseits scheinen jedoch, aufgrund der Außenorientierung der Politik in Verbindung mit den spezifischen Steuerungsmedien und den vielfältigen Verbindungen zu anderen Systemen, Wirkungen im Sinne einer Differenzsteuerung denkbar. Bei der Betrachtung konkreter Ansatzpunkte politischer Steuerungsmöglichkeiten kann danach unterschieden werden, ob sich Interventionen primär auf die Ebene der Funktions- bzw. Organisationssysteme beziehen oder aber, ob Interorganisationsbeziehungen fokussiert werden.