The thesis investigates the policy-making process underpinning the poverty-alleviation programmes created in Chile during the 1990s and the first part of the 2000s. Three programmes developed by the governing Concertacion Alliance during this period are selected. The un-researched characteristic of this subject in Chile is the main reason for choosing this topic. The thesis maps and explains the policy-making process of the three programmes, by identifying main events, actors and mechanisms behind the unfolding of events. Data is obtained from 32 interviews applied to key process actors to obtain their narratives of the processes. The Multiple Streams Model of the policy-making process is employed as theoretical framework. Results highlight that the processes occur in a highly closed fashion inside government. The main actors involved are the President and his ministers who are able to command the events that lead to the creation of a new programme. The political stream plays a fundamental role in the process as the pro-equity approach of the governing coalition creates a window of opportunity for the introduction of poverty-alleviation programmes. The problems stream is also important, thanks to the availability of poverty statistics that are produced every two years by the Concertacion Alliance governments. However, the processes differ from the Multiple Streams Model as no independent policy stream was found to exist. Instead, solutions are created by governments in a punctuated manner and during a short timeframe to accomplish political deadlines, when the government considers that the problem deserves to be addressed. The absence of a policy stream is explained by the policy monopoly that the government enjoys in the poverty arena, where no policy contestants exist. In particular, Chilean social policy experts constitute a small and non-articulated group of individuals usually excluded from the policymaking process, enabling the government to ignore them.

The purpose of my dissertation is to further our understanding of why some states restricted immigrant access to welfare in the 1990s while other states granted immigrants access to social programs. With the passage of the Personal Responsibility Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA), many states diverged from equal access to welfare programs, such as Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF), for immigrants arriving after 1996. Very little scholarly work examines the variance in immigrants’ access to welfare programs. Current research studying welfare attitudes and policy has largely failed to investigate whether and how the influx of immigrants over the last three to four decades has decreased public support for welfare programs and resulted in policies that both decrease benefit levels and restrict access to programs based on citizenship. This is a serious shortcoming because immigration since the 1970s represents the largest population shift since the early 20th century, a change that has increased the size of the underclass and transformed the cultural and racial makeup of theUnited States. Accordingly, in my dissertation, I will examine how changes to the American political environment, immigration levels and the increasing number of immigration media stories, trigger authoritarian attitudes that in turn form a breeding ground supporting restrictive welfare programs. The results from the individual-level analysis provide strong evidence that authoritarians prefer less welfare spending, fewer immigrants, and a waiting period before immigrants can access welfare programs. In addition, authoritarians view immigrants as a threat due to their perceived failure to socially conform to American society. Building on these individual-level results, I find that states with large authoritarian populations are more likely to adopt restrictive welfare policies.

Before the passage of the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA), the relationship between undocumented immigrants and the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) was highly antagonistic. Undocumented immigrants were distrustful of the immigration service due to its deportation mission that implemented deceitful tactics, which included using immigrant children to lure their undocumented parents and sending letters to immigrants promising legalization only to deport them once they arrived to INS offices among many others. However, this changed for a brief period after the passage of IRCA when INS transformed its image in the eyes of immigrants and became their amigo – their friend. INS accomplished this by engaging in a furious public relations campaign and training their staff to be supportive of immigrants as they applied for legal status – unprecedented measures for an agency that was set on deporting immigrants. Immigrants began to trust INS and went to them for help to get legalization during IRCA, something that experts thought would be impossible. While the literature on IRCA has studied its legislative history, short-term effects and long-term impact, it has overlooked the central question this study analyzes: why did INS implement unprecedented measures to help undocumented immigrants attain legalization? Using congressional hearings on INS, interviews and public statements made by INS officials, institutional evaluations of IRCA’s implementation, news articles and secondary data, I show that INS was going through a legitimation crisis, meaning that Congress and other overseeing institutions questioned INS’ effectiveness and management leading to stagnation in INS’ growth, something INS wanted to change. Implementing the legalization component of IRCA successfully was one way in which INS could regain its standing in the eyes of Congress, which meant helping immigrants attain legal status. In other words, the interests of immigrants and INS converged during IRCA leading to a change in INS’ behavior. To understand this process, this study shows how INS went from being la migra (immigration services) to el amigo of undocumented immigrants during IRCA. / text

This thesis provides a historical review of the theoretical and practical influence of Protestant missionaries on the late Qing Chinese language reformers. The origins of the language reform movement have always been concealed in historical records. The missionaries’ contribution to this movement has almost entirely been forgotten. With a focus on the key figures in the language reform movement, including W.A. P. Martin, John Macgowan, Joseph Edkins, Lu Zhuangzhang, and Wang Bingyao, this thesis attempts to demonstrate the similarities between the missionaries’ views on the Chinese language and those of their Chinese assistants. The Chinese reformers’ imitations of the missionaries’ language experiments are also outlined. In the historical context of late Qing China, the Chinese reformers made language reform a way of enhancing the national strength of China. Thus, they made modifications to the original Romanized system and invented their own written forms of phonetic characters. With reference to the collaborations between China and the West, the thesis emphasizes Western influence as one of the crucial aspects of the origin of the language reform movement in China. This movement is still ongoing today with the widespread use of the pinyin input method in computers and smartphones. The thesis is divided into two chapters, analysing both the theoretical and the practical dimensions of language reform. It demonstrates how the missionaries’ critique of the perceived defects of the Chinese language and their practice of changing the linguistic situation in China strongly affected the views and practice of the Chinese reformers. It also offers a critical analysis of the Chinese reformers’ rationale, including their eagerness to advance the modernity of China. The first chapter discusses their views on the defects of the Chinese language in terms of its ideographic features, chaotic grammatical structure, and the discrepancy between speech and writing; it examines how their statements, proposals, and debates on these issues amounted to a discursive formation that defined the classical Chinese language as an inadequate instrument for China’s modernization project. I argue that the Chinese reformers accepted the missionaries’ phonocentric critique of the Chinese language and recognized the need to reform it in order to revitalize Chinese civilization. Through an examination of the genealogy of the missionaries’ influence on the practice of the early Chinese language reformers, particularly Lu Zhuangzhang and Wang Bingyao, I argue in the second chapter that the early stage of language reform in China sought its embodiment in the missionaries’ language practice: it was carried out through a combination of defence, argument, and negotiation between the Chinese reformers and the missionaries, eventually resulting in a compromise between reforming the language and preserving the cultural essence of China. With the knowledge and institutions that had been produced, the reformers’ final objective was to increase the literacy rate of the Chinese population, as this would thus strengthen the power of China as a modern nation-state. Finally, by revisiting the historical contribution of the late Qing language reformers, I argue that language reform in China is an unfinished project. / published_or_final_version / English / Master / Master of Philosophy

In order to enhance students' understanding of the interrelationships between business administration, business mathematics and accounting, the recently developed curriculum of Austrian commercial schools comprises one global subject in which the contents of these three subjects have been combined. A second subject called "business practice" has been introduced to provide sufficient time to apply the acquired business knowledge to practice-oriented tasks. The results of a formative evaluation study show that several teachers have considerable difficulties to put the main ideas of these two subjects into practice and that many students find it hard to understand the identity of these two subjects. (authors' abstract)

<p>The problem with unequal distribution of land ownership, in developing countries, has been debated in numerous papers. It is important to solve this problem and one of the major contributions in finding a solution is the implementation of a land reform. The aim of this paper is to elucidate the outcome of two different approaches to land reform, i.e. coercive and market based, and to find out how successful they are in reducing the concentration of land ownership in a sustainable direction. The conclusion of this paper is that neither of the approaches alone is successful in this task, the strength lies instead in a combination of the coercive and market based approach.</p>

<p>Abstract</p><p>The topic of this thesis is electoral systems and electoral reform in Zambia. In Africa, democratization is on its way in many countries. However, the democratic upswing in the early 1990s was in most countries followed by a standstill. In recent years the tendency has been a renewal of democratization which makes it possible to reach new heights. As a part of this recent democratic progress questions regarding constitutional reform and electoral reform have been raised. It is within that context that this thesis has its setting. In search for the incentives behind electoral reform the purpose of this thesis revolves around what the consequences are of the current electoral system in Zambia. A complimentary purpose is how an electoral reform can take place and what it might result in.</p><p>A qualitative literature study with a hermeneutic approach has been used in this thesis. A theoretical framework has been created which focuses on different types of electoral systems and their respective consequences on the political system. Important key points of electoral reform have been discussed to give an understanding and foundation for the analysis. The result of the study is that there are several negative consequences with the current electoral system in Zambia. The negative effects range from minority and gender marginalization, lacking representation, weak governments with lacking legitimacy and wasted votes. Some surprising positive traits include the absence of ethnic politization, from time to time a strong opposition and possibilities of coherent policing. It is also believed that there is a profound support for an electoral reform with in many levels of the country and there are.</p> / <p>Sammanfattning</p><p>Denna uppsats tar sin start i valsystem och valreform i Zambia. Demokratisering är ett vanligt tema i Afrika och många länder är i full gång med att befästa sin nyvunna mark. Det demokratiska uppsving som kunde ses i början av 1900-talet följdes i många länder utav ett stillestånd i utvecklingen. På senare år har en tydlig tendens kunnat ses där demokratiseringen på nytt har tagit fart. Som en konsekvens av denna nytända demokratisering i Afrika har frågor kring valsystem, valreform och dess effekter på det politiska systemet börjat att cirkulera. Det är i det sammanhanget som uppsatsen finner sig.</p><p>På uppdrag att finna vad som driver valreform, cirkulerar syftet med denna uppsats kring vilka konsekvenser det nutida valsystemet har i Zambia. Ett kompletterande syfte, eller frågeställning, för analysen vidare mot valreform och vilka utsikter som finns. En kvalitativ literaturstudie med en hermeneutisk ansats har använts i denna uppsatsen. Ett teoretiskt ramverk har skapats som fokuserar kring olika valsystem och deras respektive konsekvenser för det politiska systemet. Teorier kring valreform har också beskrivits och diskuterats fär att ge en förståelse och bakgrund till analysen. Slutsatsen för uppsatsen är att det finns många negativa kopplingar till valsystemet I Zambia. De tydligaste effekterna är att minoriteter och kvinnor blockeras från att delta i parlamentet, att svaga regeringar har funnits trots ett pluralistiskt valsystem som i sig självt har resulterat i en legitimitetsbrist och bortfallna röster. En del positiva inslag kunde även hittas, däribland en saknad av etniska konflikter, en stundom stark opposition och en möjlighet till sammanhängande politik. Som en del av resultatet verkar det också som att det finns ett stöd för en valreform på många olika nivår i Zambia. Detta anses vara nödvändigt om Zambia vill fortsätta att utveckla sin demokrati.</p>

This thesis reports the findings of an empirical research project investigating deprivation in a predominantly rural area of southern Scotland. Many of the social and economic problems afflicting rural communities have been investigated in recent research, and this thesis makes a contribution to this body of work by addressing the relative paucity of primary information about rural deprivation in Scotland. An extensive review of the literature on deprivation reveals that it is usually discussed with specific reference to either city or predominantly urban areas. In this study the focus was on the varied manifestations of deprivation experienced by those living in the rural areas and in small towns in an attempt to shed light on how deprivation is perceived in those two types of geographical area. Analysis of the survey data involved the use of both qualitative and quantitative methods. Considerable differences were found between the experiences and perceptions of what constitutes deprivation in small towns and in the neighbouring countryside. The findings suggested that experiences of deprivation are to a considerable extent place specific; there was not a simple 'urban' - 'rural' split. It was also apparent that small towns may have more in common with larger urban areas when it comes to socio-economic problems such as deprivation than they do with their rural hinterland. In attempting to relate experiences of deprivation to the range of anti-deprivation initiatives operating in south-west Scotland, it was found that its economic components are almost always addressed. However, other issues commonly identified by people living in disadvantaged area's have yet to be similarly addressed. The main conclusion to be drawn from this study is that while a rural-urban split exists in residents' experiences of deprivation, individual geographical areas of the same type (i.e. rural or urban areas) display unique characteristics. From this it follows that policies to counteract deprivation and associated socio-economic problems must take account of the specific needs of individual areas rather than rely on more generalised formulations.

In this educational ethnography, I focused on how parents and students enrolled in a public charter high school in Sundale City (pseudonym), Arizona made the choice to attend a charter school. I also focused on educational reforms in the context of two large district high schools to further contextualize family choice-making. In contrast to the prevailing view that it is primarily parents with the requisite cultural and social capital who access school choice, participants in this study were `forced' to choose an alternative to their neighborhood district school due to the harmful effects of being marginalized and penalized in traditional district school contexts. With implications for policy and practice, this anthropological study expands the polemic surrounding school choice by considering the discursive practices inscribed in traditional school contexts that force out disenfranchised students. Understanding of family choice-making and students' experiences contributes to theorizing social inequality and educational reform in new ways that lead to the development of equitable school spaces.

In July 1946, Harry S. Truman formed the first-ever presidential commission on higher education. Since that time, reports by commissioned panels of experts calling for reforms to postsecondary education have proliferated. The Spellings Commission on the Future of Higher Education provides yet the most recent high-profile example of how reformists may shift their sights--and their rhetorical strategies--from primary to postsecondary education. Yet, little examination has been made of how such reports harness the persuasive power of rhetoric to advance their agendas for reform. In From Sputnik to the Spellings Commission, Daylanne Markwardt bridges this gap by bringing tools of rhetorical criticism to bear on the contemporary rhetoric of higher education reform. Drawing upon rhetorical and linguistic theories, she demonstrates how two key metaphors--the first, framing higher education as a means of national defense, the second, likening it to a business or industry--have radically altered the way postsecondary education has been perceived and valued in the U.S. over the past 60 years. She also explores how a number of major ideological appeals have been used to legitimize actions and policies that have brought about sweeping changes to institutions of higher learning since the Cold War. Based upon Jürgen Habermas's theory of technological rationality, she argues that commission reports have instilled a measurement-oriented, bottom line-driven mindset, whereby the results of postsecondary learning have been reduced to those which are readily quantifiable and its worth calculated almost entirely in economic terms. As a codified response to a recurrent social situation, commission reports like those analyzed in this dissertation constitute a unique genre of reform rhetoric. Yet, they also effectively restrict women, persons of color, and other marginalized groups from the dialog surrounding higher education reform, thereby sustaining a hegemony of values asserted largely by representatives of dominant religious, political, and business interests. The author concludes that the conventions and limitations of this genre must be challenged, and the ideologies now associated with higher education rearticulated, if the humanities are to maintain their place within the evolving American university.