Health care reform is important in order to modify health care systems so that they operate more efficiently. There are various studies that compare the reforms of different countries to understand how these countries adjust their systems. This capstone introduces the health care system in Taiwan, China, and the United States, discusses the challenges they meet, and offers a comparison of recent reforms. The health care systems are introduced through three sections: collection of funds, pooling of funds and purchasing of services, and providing of services and exemptions. All three countries face the financing burden of health expenditure. To offer universal coverage and comprehensive benefit to its citizens, these three countries makes changes to qualifications for those insured, services provided to beneficiaries and payment systems for physicians, and contributions to pooling of funds. These reforms address barriers in reaching universal coverage in the three dimensions which are indicated in a WHO issued paper, that explains how to remove financial risks and barriers to access, promote efficiency and eliminate waste, and raisie sufficient resources for health (WHO, 2010). Despite the research, reforming the health care system to offer the accessibility of affordable services to individuals and to maintain sustainability of the health care financing will continually to be an issue.

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The aim of the study was to investigate affirmative action as a mechanism for education reform in South Aftica. This investigation was prompted by political changes, which took place after the democratic elections of April 1994, impacting on the provisioning of education in South Africa. The South African education system and its institutions were confronted by many new laws and policies, including affirmative action programmes that had to be implemented. Structural changes like a unified and racially integrated education system came into being. Through literature and empirical studies it was found that race and gender discrimination was observable in all the education institutions in the RSA. Literature study revealed that neither arguments for, nor arguments against affirmative action should be overemphasized at the expense of the other. Both approaches supplemented and enriched each other. Applied correctly and managed well, the disadvantages of affirmative action can be overcome in the main. In this manner most of the injustices of the past can be corrected. It was established through literature study that, like in the USA, affirmative action in the RSA seems to be an option to eradicate the imbalances of the past in terms of race and gender. In the USA success was achieved by affirmative action programmes: The American population became more representative in terms of race and gender. On the other hand it was also established that the previously disadvantaged groups were over-represented. This led to the claim of reverse discrimination. The empirical method, namely using questionnaires, was successful in obtaining information about how education participants, especially at school level, were affected by the implementation of affirmative action policies. It also established how education participants felt and thought about their experiences and perceptions about the affirmative action mechanism for education reform. The study established that factors aimed at the equality of opportunity (also known as the soft approach) enjoyed preference to factors aimed at the equality of result (also known as the hard approach). In order to bring about the smooth education transformation it also established that for observable and radical changes to occur in the education system, factors aimed at the equality of result (the hard approach) should enjoy more attention than factors aimed at the equality of opportunity. Thus it was concluded that both the soft and the hard approaches were necessary to understand the controversial nature of affirmative action. A number of recommendations were made with regard to the research findings for stakeholders and officials to note. / Thesis (M.Ed.)--Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education, 2003

School-to-prison pipeline research and scholarship point to a need for parent and community involvement in addressing school discipline policies and culturally sensitive approaches to reducing disparities in school discipline. My research examined how members of a parent community organization worked to raise parents' awareness about and engage them in school discipline reform, including culturally sensitive approaches. I developed a culturally centered research study that privileged my participants’ cultural and epistemological positions. The primary data sources were qualitative interviews and documents. A thematic analysis revealed that the participants’ cultural heritage formed the foundation for the organization’s work. Key organizational processes identified include raising awareness by learning new information, linking to community resources to engage in advocacy and build power, and leading parents through inquiry-based activism. Organizational learning and program adjustments showed promise of parents’ ability to influence local school district educational practices.

This study aims to synthesise the land reform programme in South Africa in terms of its multifaceted political and legal policy origins, arrangements and the implementation thereof, with due regard to the international lessons and experiences. The political aspects of the process are given due consideration as they are often linked to the socio--economic aspects of the land reform process. The fact is that the South African government's attempts at land reform have thus far failed to live up to expectations. This study proposes equity-sharing schemes in general and farm worker equity-share schemes in particular as viable modes of land redistribution. There is also a particular focus on the appropriate institutional environment, which is required for a successful and sustainable transfer of ownership and control. Furthermore, the government needs to provide extensive support for the rural poor who have been to a large extent rationed out from the current land reform process. Ultimately, it is conceded that for the next decade at least the targeted beneficiaries of the land reform programme in South Africa that is, "the rural poor, women, and the landless", will have to wait, as has been the case for many developing nations, to receive what will probably be a very small gain, in terms of what was promised and expected after political freedom was attained in 1994. / Thesis (M.Com.)- University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2004

The aim of the study was to investigate affirmative action as a mechanism for education reform in South Aftica. This investigation was prompted by political changes, which took place after the democratic elections of April 1994, impacting on the provisioning of education in South Africa. The South African education system and its institutions were confronted by many new laws and policies, including affirmative action programmes that had to be implemented. Structural changes like a unified and racially integrated education system came into being. Through literature and empirical studies it was found that race and gender discrimination was observable in all the education institutions in the RSA. Literature study revealed that neither arguments for, nor arguments against affirmative action should be overemphasized at the expense of the other. Both approaches supplemented and enriched each other. Applied correctly and managed well, the disadvantages of affirmative action can be overcome in the main. In this manner most of the injustices of the past can be corrected. It was established through literature study that, like in the USA, affirmative action in the RSA seems to be an option to eradicate the imbalances of the past in terms of race and gender. In the USA success was achieved by affirmative action programmes: The American population became more representative in terms of race and gender. On the other hand it was also established that the previously disadvantaged groups were over-represented. This led to the claim of reverse discrimination. The empirical method, namely using questionnaires, was successful in obtaining information about how education participants, especially at school level, were affected by the implementation of affirmative action policies. It also established how education participants felt and thought about their experiences and perceptions about the affirmative action mechanism for education reform. The study established that factors aimed at the equality of opportunity (also known as the soft approach) enjoyed preference to factors aimed at the equality of result (also known as the hard approach). In order to bring about the smooth education transformation it also established that for observable and radical changes to occur in the education system, factors aimed at the equality of result (the hard approach) should enjoy more attention than factors aimed at the equality of opportunity. Thus it was concluded that both the soft and the hard approaches were necessary to understand the controversial nature of affirmative action. A number of recommendations were made with regard to the research findings for stakeholders and officials to note. / Thesis (M.Ed.)--Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education, 2003

This research examined the challenges, decisions, issues, and dilemmas facing the International Community (IC) in attempting to re-establish and rebuild public administration and other government institutions in a country that continues to suffer from instability and remains at high risk of further conflict. The research looks specifically at a subset of Public Administration Reform (PAR): Civil Service and Administrative Reform (CSAR). The research concludes that CSAR in a Fragile and Conflict Affected State (FCAS) such as Afghanistan is clearly a ‘wicked problem’ requiring innovative, iterative and adaptive responses by the IC over an extended time period. However, the IC treats CSAR in Afghanistan as a ‘tame’ problem simply framed in terms of ‘we are coming to build your capacity’, resulting in slow progress on public sector reform overall and little understanding of the relationship with overarching statebuilding and stabilisation objectives. Despite the acknowledgement of the importance of CSAR, IC support has fallen dramatically in recent years. The current approach to supporting CSAR in Afghanistan is therefore almost guaranteed to fail. The research calls for a new approach to PAR in these types of cases, one that recognises the severe limits to progress utilising existing approaches and structures rooted in Western notions of good government. A new approach goes beyond the overwhelming focus on capacity development; emphasises the importance of understanding what space exists for reform; recognises the need to pragmatically confront trade- offs between the competing objectives of reconciling stabilisation imperatives with wider considerations of ‘good governance’; and poses an alternative expanded framework for considering public administration, legitimacy, authority and representation in the government of an FCAS, partly as an organising framework but also as an aid to understanding the complexity of interrelated systems prevalent in an FCAS. The research also concludes that a great deal more independent academic research is required to understand how to make progress in Public Sector Reform (PSR), stabilisation and longer-term development that will help prevent countries slipping back into conflict.

Congressional reform is the focus of my study. Congress (but primarily the House of Representatives) attempted to reform its workings from 1968 through 1975, so it might be more effective in developing comprehensive policies on national issues, and more independent of the executive branch. Reform raised expectations that the legislature would reassert its policy-making role, which had diminished during the preceding thirty years. My study examines the influence of these changes on the congressional decision-making process, including their impact on the important role played by external actors, interest groups and especially the President, who reacted to these changes. The study examines the process through an analysis of the development and passage of the most controversial provision, dealing with oil-price controls (Title IV), of Congress' major energy bill of 1975, the Energy Policy and Conservation Act (H.R. 7014). On 15 December 1975, Congress passed the Energy Policy and Conservation Act (EPCA) which President Gerald R. Ford signed into law on 22 December. The EPCA (Public Law 94-163) extended oil-price controls until 1979. The oilpricing provision had significant national and international economic and political implications. Merely to trace the tortuous chronicle of oil-pricing policy would be informative. But this study will go further by using this account to analyze congressional decision-making in the period immediately following Congress' attempts at reform. My study shows that although reforms eroded old norms and power centres, significantly altering some aspects of congressional decision-making (again primarily in the House), they did not create institutional mechanisms or distribute internal powers in such a way that Congress could independently initiate and develop comprehensive national policies. Congress remained more dependent on the President than many of its members understood. The final substance of the oil-pricing policy reflected the characteristic congressional decision-making process, which had become even more dispersed as it was democratized by reform. The committee system, without a strong executive or party control, divides issues in a way that limits decision-makers' options.

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