This dissertation presents the first thorough study of Charles Leslie's political and theological writings. During his career as a pamphleteer and journalist, Leslie wrote against whigs, disserters, freethinkers and latitudinarians. These groups, he believed, had conspired to bring about England's rebellion against legitimate authority in both church and state. Leslie attempted to demonstrate the veracity of the scriptual record and to argue that legitimate government must be deduced from the divine model set down there. In the process, he become his generation's most vigorous opponent of whig political thought and offered the first detailed criticism of John Locke's theory of government. Throughout the thesis the theological aspect of post-revolutionary politics and political thought has been emphasised. Leslie derived his theory of monarchical government from his theory of episcopal government. Freeing the church of England from secular control was his fundamental goal, and a restoration of the Stuarts--who had promised to give up certain prerogatives in the area of ecclesiastical affairs--was a first step towards such a reform of the church. None of the scholars who have noticed Leslie's writings in the past few years have been concerned with his emphasis upon theological questions and the proper relationship of church and state. Historians of jacobitism have not considered what a Stuart restoration would have meant for the church of England. A close examination of Charles Leslie's career and writings helps to clarify both the motives and the goals of that small group of English churchmen of which he was a leading member. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

yes / The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps or IRGC is a multilayered political, ideological, and security institution that has steadily acquired an increasing role in Iran’s economy in recent years. This paper analyses the increasing economic and business involvement of the IRGC in the broader context of Iranian state-society relations in general, and its civil-military dynamics in particular. More specifically, we look at the political and socio-economic processes within which the IRGC operates at the interrelated levels of the state and society. This analysis sets out the framework based on which we examine the IRGC’s increasing power in the course of its engagements and various conflicts in both political and societal arenas, and in particular its economic expansion under Ahmadinejad’s presidency. This paper concludes by discussing the implications of the IRGC’s rise on the economic policy of the new government under President Rouhani. / The full text is unavailable in the repository due to copyright restrictions.

This Thesis explores artistic activism or artivism in the context of youth in post- revolution Tunisia. During and after the Arab Uprisings, the MENA region has experienced a tendency, wherein resistance is undertaken by artivists through in situ art interventions, music, and performances that create ‘new cultural spaces’, in which cultural hybridism through the mix of urban youth subculture, communication and traditional culture, creates new contexts of authenticity. It further investigates how art and activism is used in Tunis as a tool to mirror, provoke or communicate messages that directly or indirectly deal with post-revolution themes, and which mechanisms exist in limitations of artistic freedom of expression.It utilizes concepts of cultural resistance through theorists Stephen Duncombe and discusses the concept artivism as a hybrid term, through Aldo Milohnic. It then delineates subculture, authenticity and hybridization through various theorists and examines Artistic Freedom of Expression through the standpoint of international conventions and reports. The Thesis also analyzes artistic activism, commodification and globalization through a re-contextualization of Theodor Adorno and Walter Benjamin.Guiding this analysis are interrelated points of redefining Arab youth subcultures, through interviews conducted with five young Tunisian artists who combine artistic expression with political commentary and activism. I argue that a new dynamic discourse is shaped in the MENA region through the re-mixing of a cultural narrative which becomes re-contextualized locally, and therefore becomes authentic in a ‘glocal’ context. The Thesis offers analytical contribution to the field of cultural production in a Tunisian political context and adds to the research field of artistic activism.

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