<p><font size="3"> <p>The development of the Internet and other information and communication technologies (ICT) in recent decades represents a material foundation for a networked society and the emergence of new economies (Knowledge Society) and is now directly affecting individuals and whole societies. ICT is now an indisputable component of addressing the major issues of equity, sustainability and global competitiveness. Being still in its early developmental phase in many developing countries (such as South Africa), Knowledge Society requires profoundly new ways of thinking, working and living, which includes building of new capacities for the entire nation. These capacities are inter alia inevitably associated with the use of ICT and are often referred to as e-skills. These skills broadly described as the ability to develop and use ICT to adequately participate in an environment increasingly dominated by access to electronically enabled information and a well-developed ability to synthesise this into effective and relevant knowledge.&nbsp / <font size="3">In order to address a considerable deficiency in e-skills (estimated shortage of 70000 e-skilled people), the South African government through the Department of Communication has established the e-Skills Institute (e-SI) with the mandate to concentrate on the development of adequate skills to allow its citizens to improve their capacities to use all forms of ICT at work, in their education, in their personal lives and in their governance. In this regard, the e-SI is also responsible for creating appropriate policies which should be linked to other relevant national (e.g. Medium Term Strategic Framework (MTSF), 2009 &ndash / 2014) and international (e.g. UN Millennium Development Goals - MDGs) developmental strategies. However, while participating in the development of the current national e-skills policy (the National e-Skills Plan of Action &ndash / NeSPA</font><font size="1">1</font><font size="3">), the author realised that there were not readily available guidelines or frameworks that could advise policy development in this area. It seems that much space in the policy development is left to the policy-makers own values, experience, expertise, judgement, the influence of lobbyists and pressure groups, pragmatism, or based on the resources available, than on evidence. Thus, this study set the following objectives:</font><font size="3"> <p> To understand the theoretical and contextual background of policy-making / </p> <p> <p> To explore existing policy-making frameworks that might be relevant to e-skills policy-making / </p> <p> To identify and classify e-skills related elements obtained from pertinent literature / </p> <p> To verify these policy-making elements by interviewing experienced policy-makers in the fields of ICT and e-skills / </p> <p> To suggest a framework for e-skills policy-making in the South African developmental context / and</p> <p> To explain the use of the elements within the proposed e-skills policy-making framework.</p> </p> <p>These objectives were achieved by reviewing the pertinent literature, which led to the construction of the conceptual model for e-skills policy-making in South Africa. This model consists of eight elements: (i) Context-related awareness, (ii) Collaborative e-skills ecology, (iii) Excellence education for all, (iv) Futures of ICT capabilities and knowledge infrastructure, (v) Research and development, (vi) Cost and affordability, (vii) E-inclusion and (viii) Monitoring and evaluation. This model was subsequently empirically tested using the Interpretive hermeneutic research approach by interviewing a number of policy-makers in the fields of e-skills or broader field of ICT policy-making. The empirical findings confirmed validity of the above e-skills policy-making elements but also elicited two new elements: (ix) Integration and systemic approach and (x) Aggregation. Consequently, these elements were assembled together into a framework for e-skills policy-making in South Africa. In order to make the proposed e-skills policy-making framework operational, the next step of this study was to relate this framework to the policy-making processes. This was done by positioning elements of e-skills policy-making framework within the EU &quot / Policy making 3.0&quot / process model. The main contribution of this study is seen in the fact that it brings a novel e-skills policy-making framework particularly design for the South African context but keeping in mind that it can possibly be used in other similar developing countries. Theoretically, this study has added to the academic understanding of significance of certain concepts for e-skills policy-making derived from the pertinent literature but&nbsp / also those identified empirically by this research. Now this study can be used for a practical implementation and also as a base for further academic research. This study also has some limitations mainly seen through a fairly small research sample caused by absence or unavailability of experienced policy-makers. However, it is believed that this limitation did not limit validity of results and the practical and academic contribution of this study.</p> </font></p> </font></p>

This dissertation examines the role of education in the formation of the Singapore developmental state, through a historical study of education for citizenship in Singapore (1955-2004), in which I explore the interconnections between changes in history, civics and social studies curricula, and the politics of nation-building. Building on existing scholarship on education and state formation, the dissertation goes beyond the conventional notion of seeing education as providing the skilled workforce for the economy, to mapping out cultural and ideological dimensions of the role of education in the developmental state. The story of state formation through citizenship education in Singapore is essentially the history of how Singapore’s developmental state managed crises (imagined, real or engineered), and how changes in history, civics and social studies curricula, served to legitimize the state, through educating and moulding the desired “good citizen” in the interest of nation building. Underpinning these changes has been the state’s use of cultural constructs such as Confucianism and Asian values to shore up its legitimacy. State formation in Singapore has been very successful, as evidenced by its economic prosperity and education has played a key role in this success. However, the “economic growth at all costs” ethos comes, arguably, at a price – the potential loss of zeitgeist, or the loss of the “World-Soul”. Nation building in the sense of fostering a sense of rootedness and belonging to the country in its citizenry – the “World-Soul” – had to be relegated to the backburner in the relentless pursuit of economic development, in order to sustain and legitimize the developmental state. By harnessing the educational sphere for its economic growth objectives through the discourse of crisis, the developmental state gained political legitimacy in the eyes of a citizenry increasingly accustomed to educational mobility and material wealth, even if at the expense of political freedoms.

Magister Commercii (Information Management) - MCom(IM) / The development of the Internet and other information and communication technologies (ICT) in recent decades represents a material foundation for a networked society and the emergence of new economies (Knowledge Society) and is now directly affecting individuals and whole societies. ICT is now an indisputable component of addressing the major issues of equity, sustainability and global competitiveness. Being still in its early developmental phase in many developing countries (such as South Africa), Knowledge Society requires profoundly new ways of thinking, working and living, which includes building of new capacities for the entire nation. These capacities are inter alia inevitably associated with the use of ICT and are often referred to as e-skills. These skills broadly described as the ability to develop and use ICT to adequately participate in an environment increasingly dominated by access to electronically enabled information and a well-developed ability to synthesise this into effective and relevant knowledge. In order to address a considerable deficiency in e-skills (estimated shortage of 70000 e-skilled people), the South African government through the Department of Communication has established the e-Skills Institute (e-SI) with the mandate to concentrate on the development of adequate skills to allow its citizens to improve their capacities to use all forms of ICT at work, in their education, in their personal lives and in their governance. In this regard, the e-SI is also responsible for creating appropriate policies which should be linked to other relevant national (e.g. Medium Term Strategic Framework (MTSF), 2009 – 2014) and international (e.g. UN Millennium Development Goals - MDGs) developmental strategies. However, while participating in the development of the current national e-skills policy (the National e-Skills Plan of Action – NeSPA1), the author realised that there were not readily available guidelines or frameworks that could advise policy development in this area. It seems that much space in the policy development is left to the policy-makers own values, experience, expertise, judgement, the influence of lobbyists and pressure groups, pragmatism, or based on the resources available, than on evidence. Thus, this study set the following objectives:  To understand the theoretical and contextual background of policy-making;  To explore existing policy-making frameworks that might be relevant to e-skills policy-making;  To identify and classify e-skills related elements obtained from pertinent literature;  To verify these policy-making elements by interviewing experienced policy-makers in the fields of ICT and e-skills;  To suggest a framework for e-skills policy-making in the South African developmental context; and  To explain the use of the elements within the proposed e-skills policy-making framework. These objectives were achieved by reviewing the pertinent literature, which led to the construction of the conceptual model for e-skills policy-making in South Africa. This model consists of eight elements: (i) Context-related awareness, (ii) Collaborative e-skills ecology, (iii) Excellence education for all, (iv) Futures of ICT capabilities and knowledge infrastructure, (v) Research and development, (vi) Cost and affordability, (vii) E-inclusion and (viii) Monitoring and evaluation. This model was subsequently empirically tested using the Interpretive hermeneutic research approach by interviewing a number of policy-makers in the fields of e-skills or broader field of ICT policy-making. The empirical findings confirmed validity of the above e-skills policy-making elements but also elicited two new elements: (ix) Integration and systemic approach and (x) Aggregation. Consequently, these elements were assembled together into a framework for e-skills policy-making in South Africa. In order to make the proposed e-skills policy-making framework operational, the next step of this study was to relate this framework to the policy-making processes. This was done by positioning elements of e-skills policy-making framework within the EU "Policy making 3.0" process model. The main contribution of this study is seen in the fact that it brings a novel e-skills policy-making framework particularly design for the South African context but keeping in mind that it can possibly be used in other similar developing countries. Theoretically, this study has added to the academic understanding of significance of certain concepts for e-skills policy-making derived from the pertinent literature but also those identified empirically by this research. Now this study can be used for a practical implementation and also as a base for further academic research. This study also has some limitations mainly seen through a fairly small research sample caused by absence or unavailability of experienced policy-makers. However, it is believed that this limitation did not limit validity of results and the practical and academic contribution of this study.

Resettlement policies have been central to the Ethiopian development strategy in recent decades, and have resulted in contentious debates regarding their implications as a development practice based on expropriation. Researchers, politicians, and activists have provided varying perspectives which tend to either represent resettlement as a harmful detriment to local development, or a powerful tool to generate growth and economic opportunities. This thesis examines how resettlement policy has evolved as a development tool in Ethiopia during the 2000s, and to what extent it has been shaped by the developmental discourses of modernization and the developmental state. By employing Critical Discourse Analysis, the thesis tracks the interdiscursive shifts of resettlement policy across three periods to investigate how it has been continuously shaped by developmental discourses. Hence, the thesis provides insights regarding how national politics are influenced by global development discourse, and how expropriation functions as a development tool in the global political economy. The thesis concludes that resettlement has changed drastically, and become a more socially concerned and locally anchored development tool. The influence of modernization discourse has consistently been significant, but interdiscursive shifts have changed its implications, while the influence of developmental state discourse was initially significant but decreased over time. The thesis identifies decentralization and diversification as two transdiscursive movements that have shaped the evolution of the discourses, and how they have constituted of resettlement policy.

No description available.

In the last few decades, many governments around the world—especially in emerging economies—have strayed from neoliberal prescriptions to get closer to a model originating from East Asia: the developmental state. These East Asian countries (Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea and Japan) instead of just regulating market mechanisms, have exercised strong control over their economies and society through highly-ambitious long-term economic and social development programs implemented in tight partnership with the private sector. Indeed, this phenomenon is worth exploring when we ask the question of how governance and political economy is evolving in the world and what are the new approaches that can inform governments. This Ph.D. thesis focuses on the evolution of strategies for social and economic development and more specifically on the emergence of developmental states in Africa. By looking at the case of Rwanda that is often considered as a success story in Africa, the aim of this thesis is to show how much this state is transforming its institutions in line with a model that resembles the developmental state, but with its specificities and perspective. Based on a large selection of primary sources gathered in Rwanda between 2015 and 2016, we argue that the system of governance of Rwanda has evolved in a different direction than the typical neo-liberal model often advocated by the West and is following a developmentalist approach much closer to some early East Asian developmental states. The case of Rwanda is a good starting point to analyze the emergence of alternative governance models in Africa which illustrate the current change in today’s political economy.

South Korea underwent a period of high economic growth which propelled it from low to high income status in just a few decades. Instrumental in this process of rapid industrial transformation was the economic bureaucracy which formulated and implemented policies. This thesis details the role played by bureaucratic organizations in South Korea’s development and how they were able to formulate successful economic policies. In analyzing the economic bureaucracy in South Korea, a framework is used to determine its level of autonomy from special interests as well as the degree of public-private cooperation. The study finds that the high levels of corporate coherence and autonomy from special interests within the economic bureaucracy can partially be ascribed to the meticulously meritocratic recruitment and promotion process which was established prior to the first years of high economic growth. At a higher level of abstraction, the study concludes that South Korea benefited from having a strong imperative to develop its economy due to numerous external and domestic conditions. Although the level of applicability in other contexts is found to be limited, the emergence of a competent and relatively incorrupt bureaucracy remains one aspect which could possibly be reproduced elsewhere.

Thailand is the 13th automotive manufacturer, and it is also the important part and component manufacturer in the world. After 2000, Toyota and GM established the R&D Centre and Production Base in Thailand. Now, Thailand has become ¡§Detroit of Asia.¡¨ How could we find the developmental model of Thailand automotive industry? Maybe it cannot be explained by one theory. So we try to select three theories, different ideology, to find the path of industrial development in three periods. Finally, we find the path of automotive industrial development in Thailand. Triple Alliance of dependency development theory let the industry updrade and become more and more important. And then, international division let Thailand became the key role of supply chain in the world. Laissez faire and compare advantage are the characteristics in this period, so we know the developmental model of neo-classical economic theory let Thailand shining in the world.

No description available.

This research has analyzed how the institutions of the merit-based bureaucratic system in the Korean Government changed from 1948 to 1963, applying the gradual institutional change theory of Mahoney and Thelen (2010). Though copious research has been produced on Korean economic development, little analysis has been made on the emergence of the Korean developmental state. This research aimed to fill in the analytical gap by examining how effective bureaucratic institutions was established in the Korean developmental state to draw out implications for the institutional change theory as well as the discussion on the developmental sate and state capacity. This research has found that the merit-based bureaucratic institutions of the Korean Government positively changed in a piecemeal approach from 1948 to 1963, though once disturbed from 1955 to 1959. Contrary to the existing literature, this research also has found that the institutional setting for the merit-based bureaucracy was set from the very beginning of the Syngman Rhee Administration; however, the selective implementation and enforcement of the rules in the Syngman Rhee period hindered the Weberian bureaucracy. This research has, therefore, drawn out that for positive institutional change, the role of the change agents is critical especially the vertical chain of reformative leadership and capable practitioners. The low level of opposition is beneficial for not only positive but also negative change. In the end, in the case of Korea, the initially ambiguous institutions provided the actors with considerable discretion to manipulate or misuse rules. As a result of the institutional reform the rules and regulations became detailed reducing the gap between what the rules say and how the rules are implemented. The empirical tests of this research have confirmed the basic assumptions of the gradual institutional change theory of Mahoney and Thelen (2010). Firstly, the empirical results have shown that the institutional change has more to do with a piecemeal internal process than to do with any external shock or event. Secondly, the gap between the existence and the enforcement of an institution has also been proved valid. Thirdly, the empirical tests have confirmed the influence of three change factors producing different types of change in the theory. Based on the empirical findings, this research has identified important implications for the institutional change theory with three key areas for improvement. The first is the validity of the three modes of change in the theory. The test has identified the need to address the different magnitudes of the three factors affecting change. This research has also identified the need to clarify the definition of gradualness and the concept of the change agents to solidify the theory. This research has also enriched the discussion on the developmental state and state capacity by identifying the limitations of the merit-based institution in different contexts. Based on the analysis, this research has drawn out four key lessons for developing countries and for the donors: the importance of the enforcement of rules; the synchronized reform coalition between committed leadership and competent practitioners; the importance of understanding local contexts; and the relationship between dictatorship and development. By analyzing the emergence of the bureaucratic institutions, this research has not only broadened our understanding of development and state capacity but also presented a practical policy solution to overcome the persistent state of incapacity in the developing countries today.