Magister Philosophiae - MPhil / This study is about Gender and small-scale enterprises following recent economic reforms in Tanzania. It deals with a case study of women entrepreneurs in Dar-es- Salaam, focusing on their prospects and problems, and the mechanisms they use to survive in a competitive free market. There is concern among policy analysts and gender activists that the economic reforms have negatively affected women entrepreneurs more than their male counterparts (Tibaijuka, 1992). However, these concerns have not yet been substantiated through detailed empirical evidence. The findings of my study reveal that it is a combination of factors which lead women entrepreneurs to establish small-scale enterprises. These motivating reasons are to fulfil the needs of their families such as school fees of their children. Similarly, Tanzanian women entrepreneurs start a small business so as to supplement their insufficient incomes, achieve independence and as a substitute to paid employment. However, they experience a variety of problems, such as the lack of business premises, high rental costs at commercial areas, competition, lack of start-up and working capital from banks and micro-financial institutions, lack of information, and bureaucracy around business licenses. Women entrepreneurs have developed various tactics to handle such difficulties they encounter in their businesses. These are: locating their enterprises in near or around their homes, employing relatives and other people, charging competitive and differentiated prices, diversifying their businesses, working for extra hours, and establishing informal credit associations. The recommendations are: the government should clarify and shorten the procedures of licenses and business premises acquisition, provide more commercial areas with cheaper rentals. Similarly, the government should be sympathetic towards women when it formulates and implements its developmental policies, women should be informed about available training opportunities. Future studies should investigate a larger sample of women entrepreneurs in small-scale enterprises involved in other sectors using the feminist research methods.

The role of national education systems is changing, and many drivers of this phenomenon have been identified (Green, 1997). On the one side, there is a growing convergence in global education policy developments given by globalisation processes, on the other side, a political and ideological discourse has spread that promotes education as essential to the achievement of a model of economic productivity and competitiveness (Ball, 2013). The current research aims to shed light not only on the degree to which national education policy in the last two decades have been influenced by this movement, referred to as the Global Education Reform Movement (GERM) by Sahlberg (2016), but also on its possible consequences on equity. In order to do so, three western and European countries have been chosen: England, Sweden, and Italy. Through a mixed-method approach, in which the analysis of policy reforms is combined with PISA secondary data, each country’s specific political landscape and variation in socio-economic inequalities in the period between 2000 and 2020 is discussed. The final comparison between the countries allows seeing that even if all three countries present features of the GERM in the policy reforms enacted from the 2000s on, the consequences on equity are ambiguous. While the three countries present divergent trends both in PISA results and indicators of socio-economic inequalities, one common phenomenon worth deepening considering the increasing focus on standards is the steep increment in scores’ variation.

Ethiopia is a country that for centuries has been dominated by men. However, since 2018, the Prime Minister Abiye Ahmed has introduced gender reforms, including a gender balanced cabinet. The purpose of this study is to evaluate how the gender reforms affect three non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in their work to empower women. The paper focuses on the following research questions: 1) How do non-governmental organisations work with women empowerment in Ethiopia? 2) To what extent and how have non-governmental organisations been affected by the gender reforms of the Ethiopian government that took office in 2018? 3) How have Ethiopian women been affected by the gender reforms of the Ethiopian government that took office in 2018 according to non-governmental organisations? The paper follows the theoretical framework by Dibie and Dibie, and Bratton as analytical framework. The methodological framework that has been used is a qualitative method, conducting semi- structured interviews. The NGOs main approach in relation to women empowerment is Self Help Groups (SHGs) and Women Watch Groups. The NGOs are unanimous that the gender reforms have improved NGOs relationship with the government due to a new law that was implemented in relation to the reforms. Finally, the NGOs have a positive image of Ethiopian women’s future and argues that the gender reforms empower women.

The aim of the thesis is to reflect on selected modernization reforms of Reza Shah in the first period of the Pahlaví dynasty (1925-1941) from the point of view of women who studied, started families and tried to work in this period. The basic source is women's memoirs published in 2018 in Iran, by Noushin Ahmadi Khorasani. The thesis examines the reaction of women to the Shah's reforms, the consequences of social changes and, more generally, a role these women played in the process of modernization of Iran. The reforms that the work focuses on are related to the position of women in society and have had an immediate impact on their lives: for example, amendments to family laws, education, job opportunities, social activities and the type of clothing. The work is divided into two parts. The theoretical part examines the political and economic background of Iran in the second half of the 19th century and in the early 20th century until the 1940s. It also discusses Reza Shah's government and its plans and reforms for modernizing Iran, and finally the living conditions of Iranian women during this period. It describes the conditions in which they lived, what limitations they faced and what activities they engaged in. In the practical part, it examines in detail the reforms of Reza Shah in the field of...

The aim of the thesis is to reflect on selected modernization reforms of Reza Shah in the first period of the Pahlaví dynasty (1925-1941) from the point of view of women who studied, started families and tried to work in this period. The basic source is women's memoirs published in 2018 in Iran, by Noushin Ahmadi Khorasani. The thesis examines the reaction of women to the Shah's reforms, the consequences of social changes and, more generally, a role these women played in the process of modernization of Iran. The reforms that the work focuses on are related to the position of women in society and have had an immediate impact on their lives: for example, amendments to family laws, education, job opportunities, social activities and the type of clothing. The work is divided into two parts. The theoretical part examines the political and economic background of Iran in the second half of the 19th century and in the early 20th century until the 1940s. It also discusses Reza Shah's government and its plans and reforms for modernizing Iran, and finally the living conditions of Iranian women during this period. It describes the conditions in which they lived, what limitations they faced and what activities they engaged in. In the practical part, it examines in detail the reforms of Reza Shah in the field of...

The diploma thesis is based on the phenomenon of Europeanization and its limits in third countries (with a focus on the European neighbourhood countries). It focuses on the influence of the European Union on the adopted electoral reforms in Georgia. It is processed in the form of diachronic comparison. Thanks to it, it will be possible to achieve an understanding of the dynamics of the changes and their development. According to the analysis of the current research of the limits of Europeanization in third countries, the main factors behind these limits have been identified. These were applied to the two pre-selected electoral reforms. It was monitored whether these factors were valid for the given reform, whether they were also valid for the second selected electoral reform over time, or whether these factors contribute to the overall failure of Europeanization in Georgia.

Thesis advisor: Marc Landy / Prior to the passage of the 17th Amendment, senators were selected by state legislators, a measure designed to remove them from fluctuations of popular whim. By 1913, reformers, having assailed members of the Senate as insular to the changing needs of their constituents, pressed for fundamental, structural reform, including direct popular elections. But few works have assessed the nature of senatorial campaigns under the indirect regime. I research contemporaneous newspaper coverage and personal correspondences of individual senators to better glean their levels of sensitivity to re-election pressures — a significant qualitative contribution to the discourse. And I measure the extent to which a state’s political conditions influenced the tendency for senators to engage in public appeals for popular support. Senatorial elections were already pseudo-democratic before 1913, experiencing an emergent element of popular legitimacy as public sentiment meaningfully informed the process and conduits for public accountability were expanding. In stark contrast to prevailing perceptions, senators were keenly sensitive to electoral pressures. By cultivating popular support, they regularly tried to bolster their positions vis-a-vis powerful party leaders, state legislators, and pivotal decision-makers. But the strategy was risky as well, for a poor showing in the November elections invited intra-party challenges. Ultimately, my dissertation tells a story of how parties adapted to changing conditions to remain politically viable and survive in a new age, granting concessions to the electorate which were designed to promote greater popular participation whilst maintaining overall control over the process. The crusade for reforming the senatorial selection method was conducted on behalf of reformers who sought to redress perceived inequalities and dysfunction in the system. Debates over the balance between democratic self-government and the importance of whom Jonathan Rauch term “the middlemen” continue to percolate, colorizing the dispute within the Democratic Party over the role of superdelegates and efforts to abolish the Electoral College. And my research explores the intersection of democratic reforms and racialized politics with the adoption of the invidious “white primary” in South Carolina and the factors which gave rise to the race-baiting, populist demagogue Benjamin Tillman — the precursor to modern-day populists and illiberal democracies. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2020. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Political Science.

- Transformační proces v Alžírsku (1988-1999) Předkládaná práce analyzuje politické změny v Alžírsku po roce 1988, kdy byl po nepokojích v hlavním městě zahájen liberalizační proces a urychleny ekonomické tržní reformy. Politické reformy měly posílit postavení prezidenta Bendžedída a jeho spojenců na úkor konzervativních oponentů a zároveň obnovit legitimitu režimu. Autoři reforem každopádně nepočítali s výraznějším sdílením moci. Nečekaný úspěch islamistické strany mobilizoval konzervativce a protiislamisticky zaměřené armádní velení. Zrušení voleb kvůli jednoznačnému vítězství islamistů v lednu 1992 vedlo k eliminaci islamistické i sekulární opozice. Obnovený autoritářský režim dokázal dostat pod kontrolu islamistické povstání a s pomocí MMF i kritickou ekonomickou situaci. Návrat k ústavnímu režimu proběhl bez účasti islamistické i sekulární opozice, která byla fragmentovaná a režim ji dokázal částečně kontrolovat. Po roce 1996 byl nastolen autoritářský režim s omezenými pluralitními prvky s dominantním postavením prezidenta, které je však oslabováno výrazným vlivem armádního velení. Politické strany mohou působit, ale jejich vliv je omezen. Jisté limity má i svoboda tisku. Došlo k posílení soukromého sektoru, postavení státu je však stále výrazné a ekonomika je závislá na vývozu ropy a zemního...

Apologia of religious reforms of Josephinism after the accession of Leopold II. This thesis is based upon an apologetical work "Kontrast zwischen den Grundsätzen des Prälatenstandes in Böhmen und jenen der auf Veranlassung Kaisers Leopold II. als Großherzog von Toskana im Jahre 1786 gehaltenen Diözesansynode zu Pistoja". This file was issued in 1791 and was addressed to the Bohemian clergymen as a reply to their demands that were presented by the clergy at the Bohemian Diet after Emperor Joseph II. had died. It resumes both the significance and circumstances of the mentioned clergymen's presention and its results. It also focuses on several controversial topics, such as conflicts of demands on chande of religious life held by representants of the Church against entlightened State representatives. Not only it tries to document the reforms that had been executed by Emperor Joseph II and his brother Leopold, it also considers the most important ideological movements that form that creation of the relationship between the State and the Church within the Early Modern Period.

El presente trabajo de investigación presenta un análisis acerca de Martín Vizcarra como actor político en el marco de las consecuencias políticas y judiciales en relación con el tema de corrupción que se le acusa, primero, como gobernador regional de Moquegua (2011-2014), luego, como Ministro de Transportes y Comunicaciones del Perú (2016-2017), y, posteriormente, como máxima autoridad del país (2018-2021). Metodológicamente, se emplea la información obtenida de la documentación periodística y la estadística. En el trabajo se señala que Vizcarra construye estratégicamente una identidad política con la que se opone a la corrupción y con la que contrarresta las acusaciones o denuncias de delitos durante sus distintas gestiones contra la administración pública peruana para favorecer su imagen como político. / This research presents an analysis of Martín Vizcarra as a political actor in the framework of the political and judicial consequences related to the corruption issue he is accused of, first, as regional governor of Moquegua (2011-2014), then as Minister of Transport and Communications of Peru (2016-2017), and, later, as the highest authority of the country (2018-2021). Methodologically, the information obtained from journalistic documentation and statistics is used. The work points out that Vizcarra strategically builds a political identity with which he opposes corruption and with which he counteracts accusations or denunciations of crimes during his different actions against the Peruvian public administration in order to favor his image as a politician. / Revisón por pares