Tesi sul tema "- Political stability Social stability Afghanistan"

Thesis (M.S. in Defense Analysis)--Naval Postgraduate School, December 2003.
Thesis advisor(s): Hy S. Rothstein, Kalev K. Sepp. Includes bibliographical references (p. 162-175). Also available online.

The Communist Party of China CCP) controls all political, economic, and military issues in China. In the absence of elections, the only route of recruitment at higher levels of the political hierarchy in the Party is an official promotion. The scholarship on promotions offers two main explanations for advancement inside the Communist Party of China: (i) informal connections between high officials and candidates, and (ii) merit of candidates. This scholarship disregards, however, the importance of achievement of political targets by the candidates, specifically, their ability to deliver social stability. Like every authoritarian regime, the CCP faces threats from the masses over which the elites rule. Reducing social mobilization is a key component of the CCP’s rule. In the past decade, labor strikes have become offensive in nature with workers demanding better conditions and espousing democratic values, thus challenging the Party’s dominant position in Chinese society. In order to minimize collective activities of Chinese citizens, provincial officials use censorship of the media, including posts on the social media websites, threats of job termination, as well as threats of deportation from urban areas. For that reason, those provincial officials who minimize the number of labor protests increase their chance of promotion to the Politburo. Furthermore, avoiding unrest should matter more for the promotion of party secretaries than governors, whose domain is economic growth. To evaluate my argument, I analyze promotions of provincial leaders to the Politburo in 2003-2017. The data yield that—consistent with my argument—provincial leaders’ ability to minimize labor strikes increases their chances of promotion. In addition, positive economic performance matters more for the promotion of governors than of party secretaries.

Participation in Peace Support Operations (PSOs) is one of the most common military duties assigned to present-day Western soldiers. Previous research concerned with the psychological effects of these missions on the individual soldier has focused on issues of mental health and how to ensure military effectiveness. This study takes a different perspective, and examines how PSOs affect the political psychology of the peace soldier, asking: how and to what extent do the sociopolitical psychological orientations of the individual soldier change as a consequence of peace support operations? The study combines theory from clinical, social, and personality psychology to construct a framework for understanding how and why the values and the attitudes toward violence of the soldier may be affected by PSO deployments. It is argued that although combat exposure may cause changes in attitudes and values, these variables will overall remain stable across the deployment. Stability is predicted to be the norm due to the importance of certain attitudes and values to the soldierly identity, and owing to the good person-environment fit that the deployment provides for the soldiers. It is also argued that the individual’s personality traits will predict levels of change and stability. Empirically, two Swedish contingents deployed to northern Afghanistan under the auspices of NATO’s ISAF mission are analyzed. Change and stability are examined by combining statistical analyses of surveys with in-depth interviews carried out at both the pre- and post-deployment stages. As hypothesized, the study finds that both values and attitudes exhibit high levels of stability across the mission. Contrary to expectations the soldiers’ experiences of combat exposure had little to no effect on attitudes and values. Combat exposure was, however, limited during the deployments studied. Finally, the individual’s personality traits are identified as being relatively potent factors for inducing change and stability. By demonstrating that low-exposure PSOs have only minor effects on the sociopolitical psychological orientations of soldiers, the study advances knowledge of the political psychology of the peace soldier and provides additional contributions to the fields of value and personality psychology. Among other things, the study demonstrates the stability of values in a very challenging environment, and how personality traits affect change and stability in values.

The WikiLeaks Afghanistan war logs contain nearly 77,000 reports of incidents in the US-led Afghanistan war, covering the period from January 2004 to December 2009. The recent growth of data on complex social systems and the potential to derive stories from them has shifted the focus of journalistic and scientific attention increasingly toward data-driven journalism and computational social science. In this paper we advocate the usage of modern statistical methods for problems of data journalism and beyond, which may help journalistic and scientific work and lead to additional insight. Using the WikiLeaks Afghanistan war logs for illustration, we present an approach that builds intelligible statistical models for interpretable segments in the data, in this case to explore the fatality rates associated with different circumstances in the Afghanistan war. Our approach combines preprocessing by Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) with model trees. LDA is used to process the natural language information contained in each report summary by estimating latent topics and assigning each report to one of them. Together with other variables these topic assignments serve as splitting variables for finding segments in the data to which local statistical models for the reported number of fatalities are fitted. Segmentation and fitting is carried out with recursive partitioning of negative binomial distributions. We identify segments with different fatality rates that correspond to a small number of topics and other variables as well as their interactions. Furthermore, we carve out the similarities between segments and connect them to stories that have been covered in the media. This gives an unprecedented description of the war in Afghanistan and serves as an example of how data journalism, computational social science and other areas with interest in database data can benefit from modern statistical techniques. (authors' abstract)

Traditional studies of the modernization-instability thesis have neglected the simultaneous influence of time and place on the relationship between modernization (social mobilization and political participation) and political instability, and the possible causal linkage between the two concepts. Empirical support for modernization-instability hypothesis will be obtained if and only if there is a strong positive correlation between modernization and political instability and the former causes the latter unidirectionally. Only then can one assert that modernization is exogenous, and that a policy geared toward restricting modernization is a proper anti-instability policy. This work attempts to address the question of correlation and causality through a pooled time-series cross-sectional data design and the use of Granger-causality tests. Particular attention is paid to the error structure of the models. Using pooled regression, a model of political instability is estimated for a total of 35 countries for the period 1960-1982. Granger tests are performed on twelve separate countries randomly selected from the 35. The results indicate that there is the expected positive relationship between modernization and political instability. Further, political institutionalization and economic well-being have strong negative influence on political instability. With regard to causality, the results vary by country. Some countries experience no causality between modernization and political instability, while some witness bidirectional causality. Further, some nations experience unidirectional causality running from modernization to political instability, while some depict a reverse causation. The main results suggest that modernization and political instability are positively related, and that political instability can have causal influence on modernization, just as modernization can exert causal influence on political instability.

Youth exclusion in a society is a major issue in many parts of the globe, and particularly in the Arab world. It limits the succession of social movements leading to political stability and leaves a relevant part of the society alienated from political processes. For this reason, this thesis aims to introduce and highlight youth as a source for political and social development, using Lebanon as a case study through the theoretical lens of empowerment theory. The work carried out understands empowerment theory as a useful theoretical framework in Political Science, and its contribution to the case under scrutiny will rest upon three interrelated categories: individual empowerment, collective empowerment, and social and political change as a subsequent. The research focuses on the capacity development of young Lebanese people through their participation in a UNDP program. Using content analysis of a UNDP report and semi-structured interviews conducted with youth (20-28) as well as with the youth focal point in UNDP, the thesis systemically examines and evaluates the extent to which Lebanese youth are feeling empowered by the UNDP for creating social change and reducing political instability. The results and findings of the research suggest that if organizations such as the UNDP place more attention on youth, they are likely to have a greater political and social impact on social and political development.

This study investigates the subject of Muslims’ citizenship in contemporary Western European societies from the viewpoint of John Rawls’s political liberalism, in particular in light of the ‘idea of public reason’ [see John Rawls, Political Liberalism, expanded edition (New York: Columbia University Press, 2005) and the 1997 essay “The Idea of Public Reason Revisited,” originally published in University of Chicago Law Review 64 (1997), 765-807 and now included in Political Liberalism, expanded edition, 440-490]. By its very nature, political liberalism does not prescribe a single model for being Muslim in contemporary Europe. Thus, one may wonder if it is too vague as a point of departure for the analysis. On the other hand, however, here I argue that political liberalism specifies a peculiar evaluative framework that allows citizens to answer questions such as “What is politically at stake when citizens of Muslim faith are publicly presented as permanent aliens in contemporary European societies?”, “On what grounds is such exclusion based?”, and “What requirements can European citizens be reasonably expected to meet?” in a distinctively political way and, ideally, to solve the political and social problems from which those questions spring. In this research, I claim that public reason provides a common discursive platform that establishes the ground for a public political identity and for shared standards for social and political criticism. Together, these two elements solve the two dimensions of the problem of ‘stability for the right reasons’ (in Rawls’s terms) in contemporary European societies, because they secure both the political inclusion of Muslims on an equal footing as citizens and civic assurance that they will remain committed to fair terms of social cooperation. A joint solution of these two apparently conflicting demands of stability for the right reasons (i.e. inclusion and mutual assurance) requires an effort in political reconciliation. After having compared public reason citizenship with two prominent normative alternatives, I will conclude that the former is an adequate ideal conception of citizenship for European societies. Finally, I will apply the justificatory evaluative methodological framework (whose requirements I will specify starting from the idea of public reason itself) to a conception of citizenship elaborated by one of the most renowned Muslim public intellectuals in Europe: Tariq Ramadan. (I justify the choice of this author in sections 2.3 and 6.1). Such an evaluation sheds light on one of the main insights of this research, that is, the idea that public reason makes a decompression of the public space possible: it frees the public space from those forces that would prevent citizens from the possibility of exercising effectively their two moral powers (once more in Rawls’s words, the ‘capacity for a sense of justice and for a conception of the good’) as free equals. In this sense, public reason tries to reconcile ideal political consensus and the fact of reasonable pluralism on a public political ground. I believe that this is the deepest meaning of what Rawls calls ‘reconciliation through public reason’: its aspiration is to reabsorb reasonable pluralism politically without annihilating it.This research is structured in three parts: the first is methodological, the second is reconstructive, and the third is evaluative. Each part is composed of two chapters.In chapter one (“General Framework”), I begin from some empirical observations about the role of perceptions and identities in relation to the issue of Muslims’ citizenship in contemporary Europe. I claim that from this point of view Islam seems to “make problem” in a very specific sense. This does not mean that Islam is a problem, but that Islam is frequently publicly presented and perceived as a problem. This is the background problem from which my work starts. Thus, I explore some dimensions of such a problem (see 1.1). Subsequently, I provide a more specific formulation of the research problem and questions and of the aims of this study. Then, the main research question (Q) is stated in these terms: Which ideal conception of citizenship should provide the common normative perspective in contemporary Western European societies, which are characterised by both demands of inclusion of Muslims and the need for solving a ‘problem of mutual assurance’ [on which, see in particular Paul Weithman, Why Political Liberalism? On John Rawls’s Political Turn (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010)] concerning citizens’ commitment to shared terms of social cooperation, so that those societies can be stable for the right reasons? In order to answer this question, I also specify three sub-questions that I call respectively Q1, Q2, and Q3 (see 1.2).In chapter two (“Toward a Justificatory Evaluative Political Theory”), I firstly try to frame the problem of public justification within Rawls’s political liberalism (see 2.1). I then consider a specific approach to the question of Muslim citizenship in liberal democracies which can be adopted from a Rawlsian perspective: namely, reasoning from conjecture (see 2.2). Finally, I explain my own approach (which I call justificatory evaluative political theory) by means of comparison with the method of reasoning from conjecture (see 2.3). In presenting the evaluative framework specified from a political liberal standpoint, I point out three political liberal evaluative requirements: the reciprocity requirement (RR), the consistency requirement (CR), and the civility requirement (CiR).Chapter three (“What is Public Reason?”) deals with the history of the notion of public reason from Kant to Rawls and its enunciation within Rawls’s work (see 3.1 and 3.2 respectively). In doing so, I also identify three specifications for the three political liberal evaluative requirements considered in the second chapter. Furthermore, in chapter three I also unpack CR in three different dimensions (PR1, PR2, and PR3).Chapter four (“Public Reason and Religion. Reinterpreting the Duty of Civility”) completes the reconstructive stage by analysing Rawls’s ‘wide view’ of public reason and two major lines of objection to it (see 4.1). After having discussed such criticisms, I then introduce my own interpretation of the ‘proviso,’ which is structured around a two-level (or bifurcate) model of the ‘duty of civility’ (see 4.2).Chapter five (“Reconciliation through Public Reason: Justificatory Evaluative Political Theory between Modelling and Application”) bridges the second and the third part, that is, the reconstructive and the evaluative stage respectively. In the first section of the chapter, I summarise the political liberal evaluative requirements developed in the second part. In doing this, my purpose is to present my justificatory evaluative model of public reason citizenship (see 5.1). In the second section, I firstly argue that a conception of citizenship grounded in public reason is not only possible in existing European societies, but also preferable if compared with alternative conceptions (I consider liberal multiculturalism and Cécile Laborde’s critical republicanism [Cécile Laborde, Critical Republicanism: The Hijab Controversy and Political Philosophy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008)]) with reference to the problem under scrutiny in this research. In conclusion, I show that public reason citizenship is able to solve the theoretical problem and the main research question mentioned above: Which ideal conception of citizenship should provide the common normative perspective in contemporary Western European societies, which are characterised by both demands of inclusion of Muslims and the need for solving a problem of mutual assurance concerning citizens’ commitment to shared terms of social cooperation, so that those societies can be stable for the right reasons? In the final part of chapter five, I try to demonstrate that public reason citizenship can both include Muslim citizens and solve the assurance problem because it provides both shared standards for political criticism and a common political identity on the basis of which citizens politically recognise one another as free equals. If my argument succeeds, then public reason citizenship not only could but also should be adopted as the ideal conception of citizenship in European societies (see 5.2).In the sixth chapter (“Tariq Ramadan’s European Muslims and Public Reason”) I apply the evaluative framework based on public reason to the conception of citizenship for Muslims in Europe developed by Tariq Ramadan. (According to a principle introduced in chapter two which I call the “plausibility principle” PP, I argue that Ramadan’s theory of citizenship can be plausibly presented as a “European Muslim” approach to the issue of citizenship, see 6.1). The purpose of such an evaluative work is twofold. Firstly, it aims at examining whether and how the idea of public reason accounts for a version of European citizenship for Muslims coming from Muslims themselves. Secondly, it aims at disclosing whether what such a Muslim conception of citizenship in Europe says about the two dimensions of ‘stability for the right reasons’ of the system of social cooperation (namely, inclusion and ‘mutual assurance’) is consistent with the provisions of public reason citizenship (see 6.2-6.5).
Doctorat en Sciences politiques et sociales
N.B. 1) Le lieu de défense de la thèse en cotutelle est ROME (Luiss Guido Carli)2) L'affiliation du co-promoteur de la thèse en cotutelle (Sebastiano Maffettone) est: LUISS Guido Carli
info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

The correlation between food insecurity and conflict has previously been studied and established in multiple studies. Furthermore, additional research has found linkages allying increased levels of female political participation and the de-escalation of conflict. Despite these facts, there are to date no studies examining whether female inclusion in peace processes has an effect on hunger. Thus, this dissertation addresses the relationship between female signatories’ presence in peace processes and food insecurity. Food insecurity is operationalized as prevalence of undernourishment, and female inclusion in peace negotiations is measured by the presence of female signatories in such processes. The study’s main conceptual claim is based on gaps found in previous literature, and argues that a higher level of female participants in peace processes leads to a lower level of food insecurity. The claim is evaluated in a quantitative statistical analysis, using data on food insecurity from the FAOSTAT Data for Food Security Indicators​, and incorporating statistics on female inclusion in peace negotiations from the ​Replication Data for Women’s Participation in Peace Negotiations and the Durability of Peace​. The analysis illustrates food insecurity’s dissemination in post-conflict societies and gender dispersals within peace negotiations, in order to demonstrate an existing correlation. Built on results from an ordinary least squares regression, the study confirms that higher presence of female signatories in peace processes decreases the likelihood of food insecurity in post-conflict societies.

In this study, the manipulations of history and language in the dystopias of &ldquo
Nineteen Eighty-Four&rdquo
by George Orwell, &ldquo
We&rdquo
by Yevgeni Zamyatin and &ldquo
Brave New World&rdquo
by Aldous Huxley are examined. The principal aim of this investigation is to demonstrate that in these imaginary societies absolute stability is achieved through the manipulations of these two domains. The thesis argues that if the domains of history and language are not taken under control, they are to provide the subjects with the standard of comparisons which would enable them to realize that they are in fact dominated. However, once these domains are manipulated, they are transformed into the means of the dystopian rulers for mentally impoverishing people in a way that they would not be capable of conceiving the flaws within the system and therefore, would not attempt to challenge the order or require a change. In this sense, it is proposed that the subjects of these closed societies, who are formed as a result of the reshaping of history and language, would lack the mental capabilities to identify their subjection and behave automatically in the manner that is imposed on them by the political order. Moreover, in this study, the relationship of the genre dystopia with political theory is explored
it is indicated that dystopias are not only literary works, but rather they are also texts of social criticism containing certain warnings about the future course of events. Relying on this argument, it is claimed that such an invasion of the minds by the control over history and language in our three dystopias is the exaggerated version of the ideological relationships of the individuals to these two realms in the contemporary societies. Thus, having in mind that in the dystopias examined here the manipulations of history and language are the preconditions of the use of other realms (such as religion, sexuality and science), it is concluded that these texts enable modern individuals to see that in order to maintain a critical distance with the established political and social order, the multiplicity of linguistic resources and knowledge of history are very crucial.

La microfinance est un moyen de lutte contre la pauvreté dans les pays en développement, à travers le financement des activités génératrices de revenus des ménages pauvres. Cependant, la meilleure manière d'aider les pauvres à avoir accès aux services financiers suscite des débats entre deux approches opposées : les welfarists et les institutionalists. Ces approches oscillent entre deux exigences fondamentales de la microfinance : le principe de solidarité qui renvoie à la performance sociale et la rentabilité de l'institution qui relève de la performance financière. Y-a- t- il arbitrage ou compatibilité entre ces deux performances? L'état d'avancement de la recherche sur cette question suggère la compatibilité, voire la complémentarité, de ces deux exigences de la microfinance.Une analyse factorielle en coupe instantanée (année 2008) sur un échantillon de 52 IMF dans 9 pays de la région MENA examine la relation entre ces deux performances. Les résultats de cette analyse soulignent que la plupart des IMF d'Egypte sont à la fois socialement et financièrement performantes alors que celles du Yémen ne sont que socialement performantes et celles de la Jordanie ne sont que financièrement performantes. Les facteurs déterminants de ces deux performances varient notamment selon le statut (ONG vs. non ONG), la maturité, la méthodologie de prêt (solidaire vs. individuel), la zone d'intervention (rurale vs. urbaine), le niveau de transparence informationnelle, la localisation géographique (pays) et la réglementation des IMF.Une étude économétrique en panel (1998-2008) examine la causalité univoque et interactive entre la performance sociale et la performance financière. Les résultats des régressions statistiquement significatives montrent que la performance sociale a un impact négatif sur la performance financière et inversement ; l'interaction à long terme entre ces deux performances est encore floue. Les résultats montrent aussi que les principaux déterminants de ces deux performances varient selon le cycle de vie de l'IMF ; la relation entre l'âge et la performance n'est pas linéaire ; la règlementation de l'IMF dépend non seulement de son pays mais aussi de son statut institutionnel ; les effets macroéconomiques sont importants dans l'atteinte de deux performances ; les IMF matures cherchent à assurer un bon taux de remboursement au lieu d'augmenter les rendements de leurs portefeuilles
Microfinance is a means of the struggle against poverty in developing countries through financing activities that generate incomes for poor households. The issue regarding the best way to provide financial services to the poor has fuelled intensive debates between two different schools of thought: institutionalists and welfarists. This opposition faces two requirements of microfinance: Targeting the poorest among the poor, which refers to the social performance and enhancing the profitability of the institution (financial performance). Is there a trade-off between these two performances or can they combine? The state of research upon this issue suggests that these two requirements are compatible and may even be complementary.Following a cross-section factor analysis, we examine the relationship between social performance and financial performance on a sample of 52 MFIs in 9 selected countries of the MENA region: Most MFIs in Egypt are both socially and financially successful, whereas those in Yemen are socially successful and those in Jordan are financially successful. The determinants of these performances vary according to the status (NGO vs. non NGO), maturity, credit methodology (collective vs. individual), the level of information disclosure, geographical location (countries) and regulations of MFIs.An econometric panel study (1998-2008) examines the unequivocal causality and causal interaction between social performance and financial performance. The regression results show that social performance has a negative impact on financial performance and conversely, and the causal interaction between these two types of performances remains unclear in the long run. The results also show that the main determinants of these two performances depend on the life cycle of MFIs, the relationship between age and performance is not linear, the regulation of MFIs depends not only on their countries but also on their institutional status, macroeconomic effects are important in achieving performances, mature MFIs seek to ensure good repayment rates instead of increasing portfolio yield

La zone tropicale connaît à l’heure actuelle une réduction catastrophique de la superficie des écosystèmes forestiers qui jouent pourtant un rôle essentiel dans la régulation climatique et qui constituent un réservoir inestimable de la biodiversité. Les causes de cette déforestation sont multiples et complexes. Même si l’agriculture constitue l’une des causes majeures de la déforestation dans la plupart des régions tropicales, l’Afrique sub-saharienne a connu des influences exceptionnelles liées aux conflits sociaux qui ont entrainé un afflux massif de réfugiés ou de déplacés internes. Au Burundi, l’instabilité sociopolitique survenue en 1993 a entrainé un déplacement massif de la population constituée essentiellement d’agriculteurs. Une partie de cette population déplacée s’est réfugiée à l’extérieur du pays tandis qu’une autre s’est retrouvée dans des camps de déplacés à l’intérieur du pays. L’objectif de cette étude est de caractériser la dynamique spatio-temporelle de l’occupation du sol au sud et sud-est du Burundi en mettant un accent particulier sur l’influence de cette migration forcée de la population. La dynamique et la biodiversité végétale de la forêt de Bururi qui est située dans ce paysage anthropisé ont également été analysées. Sur la base de 6 images satellitaires et des observations sur le terrain, cette étude montre que le sud et sud-est du Burundi est caractérisé par une augmentation de l’anthropisation au fil du temps. L’impact négatif de l’instabilité sociopolitique sur la végétation naturelle a été mis en évidence par la diminution du degré d’anthropisation au fur et à mesure que la distance aux camps de déplacés augmente. Il est également confirmé par le fait que l’anthropisation de la zone située autour des camps est plus importante pour les années qui ont suivi le déclenchement de l’instabilité sociopolitique par rapport aux années antérieures. Ainsi, les résultats de cette étude ont permis de confirmer que les camps de déplacés ont significativement contribué à la dynamique de l’occupation du sol dans cette région. La création de nouvelles parcelles agricoles ainsi que la recherche du bois de chauffe autour des camps sont à l’origine de cette forte déforestation. Cette étude montre également que la distribution d’abondances des plantes de la forêt de Bururi est conforme à la distribution log série, ce qui constitue également un indicateur de sa perturbation malgré son statut d’aire protégée. L’agrégation de certaines de ses espèces arborescentes pourrait être l’une des conséquences de ces perturbations anthropiques. En outre, la prépondérance de certains arbustes pionniers généralement indicateurs des forêts tropicales africaines secondarisées, serait un indicateur d’une perturbation anthropique récente qui pourrait être attribuée à cette instabilité sociopolitique. La mise en place d’une politique nationale de réhabilitation des anciens emplacements des camps ainsi que la restauration des espèces menacées s’avèrent par conséquent indispensables./Nowadays, tropical zones are characterized by a catastrophic decline of forest ecosystems areas which play however an important role in climate regulation and biodiversity conservation. There are numerous and complex causes of deforestation. Even if agriculture is one of the main causes of deforestation in most tropical regions, sub-saharan Africa is known to have exceptional influences related to social conflicts that led to a massive flow of refugees or internal displaced population. In Burundi, socio-political instability which occurred in 1993 also led to massive waves of displaced people, essentially farmers. A part of them fled to foreign countries whereas others were kept gathered in camps throughout the country. The present study aims to analyze the land cover spatiotemporal dynamics in south and southeast of Burundi and is particularly focused on the influence of this population forced to migrate. Dynamics and plant diversity of Bururi forest located in this anthropogenic landscape were also investigated. The study combines six Landsat multispectral satellite images analysis with fielding observations. The study highlights an increase in natural vegetation disturbance by anthropogenic activities over time. The negative impact of socio-political instability has been demonstrated by an anthropization decrease when the distance from the camps increases. It is also confirmed by a high anthropogenic pressure in the camp’s surrounding zone during the period that followed the outbreak of the socio-political instability than in previous years. This result confirms that displaced population camps have significantly contributed to the land cover dynamic in the south and southeast of Burundi. Agricultural and domestic firewood collecting activities in camp’s surrounding zone are the main causes of deforestation during instability period. The observed plant species abundance distribution in Bururi forest was found similar to the log series model which also suggests the impact of disturbance on the plant abundance distribution despite the status of this ecosystem as protected area. The spatial aggregation of some of its tree species would be considered as a consequence of anthropogenic disturbance. In addition, the observed pioneer shrubs usually characteristics of secondary African tropical forests can be considered as anthropogenic recent disturbance indicators and would be attributed to the socio-political instability impact. This study recommends the establishment of a national rehabilitation policy of those disturbed zones around the camps and restoration of endangered plant species.
Doctorat en Sciences agronomiques et ingénierie biologique
info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

This research is an enquiry to find an electoral formula that conforms to Canadian constitutional values. Three core values that are pertinent to the issue of electoral systems are identified: democracy, diversity, and efficiency. Each of these core values is divided into different aspects. These aspects will form the backbone of the evaluation of different electoral systems in this work. I will begin with an evaluation of the plurality model of elections, which is currently used in Canada. I will demonstrate that many of the attributes of the current system are not in tune with Canadian constitutional values, in particular with the progressive interpretation that the Supreme Court of Canada has given to the right to vote as enshrined in Section 3 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Although the interpretation of the right to vote will be the main thrust of the constitutional scrutiny in this work, attention will also be given to other pertinent rights such as equality rights, minority rights, and the freedom of expression. Next, I will examine provincial electoral reform initiatives that were initiated in five Canadian provinces. All of these initiatives - three of which were put to referenda and eventually defeated - proposed adopting a variant of proportional representation. Accordingly, I will evaluate proportional systems according to the intended values. I will conclude that these systems have problems of their own and they also cannot strike a fine balance between competing values. In the final stage, I will make a new proposal for elections to the Canadian Parliament. First, I will demonstrate that majority systems are better candidates to attain the envisioned values. Then I will introduce a new variant of the majority model, which I call a majority-preferential two-round variant. I will demonstrate that this new variant will outperform the other variants in the attainment of values if adopted for elections to the House of Commons. Finally, I will argue that the combination of a House of Commons elected through the majority-preferential formula and a proportionally elected Senate will result in a more balanced approach to the relevant constitutional values.

Notre présence de 1990 à 2010 en qualité d’éducateur spécialisé sur Beaubreuil, quartier de la ville de Limoges, Haute-Vienne, nous a permis d’accompagner, d’observer et de prendre part pendant plus de vingt années aux processus migratoires vietnamiens. Durant tout ce temps nous avons pu constater d’un point de vue psychologique que les ruptures consécutives à l’exil, puis au choc culturel né du contact avec la société d’accueil, ont fait surgir chez les individus des problématiques complexes, notamment identitaires. Dans l’exil, pour faire face aux risques psychosociaux provoqués par l’instabilité de leur structure psychique et de leur système culturel, les vietnamiens ont investi l’espace public et l’espace privé proposés par la culture d’accueil. Ces démarches, multiples, leur ont permis dans le réaménagement de ces espaces, de retrouver, de recréer, les éléments perçus par eux comme fondamentaux de leur culture d’origine, nécessaires et indispensables au travail de rééquilibrage psychique. En France, l’injonction culturelle vietnamienne d’élaboration d’autels religieux au sein de leurs habitations a conduit les personnes à réinterpréter, au sein de dynamiques subjectives, la question des différentes composantes de leur identité, personnelle et sociale, culturelle et religieuse. Les interactions entre l’injonction de la culture d’origine et l’espace proposé par la culture d’accueil ont conduit les sujets à engager des transformations, des modifications dans l’élaboration de leurs autels religieux. En ce sens ces élaborations rendent compte et constituent des analyseurs particulièrement pertinents des processus d’interculturation
Our presence from 1990 to 2010 as a social worker in Beaubreuil, district of the city of Limoges, Haute-Vienne, allowed us to support, observe and take part for over twenty years in the Vietnamese migration processes. All this time, we noted from a psychological perspective, that ruptures, resulting from the exile, then from the culture shock, were born by contacts with the host society, have given rise to individuals, complex problems including identity ones. In exile, to face the psychosocial risks caused by the instability of their psychic structure and their cultural system, the Vietnamese have invested public and private areas offered by the host culture. These approaches, multiple, allowed them in the redevelopment of these areas, to find, to recreate the elements perceived by them as fundamental in their native culture, necessary and essential to their work of psychic restructuring. In France, the cultural injunction of religious altars development in the private sphere has led them to reinterpret in a subjective way the question of the different components of their identity personal and social, cultural and religious The interactions between the native culture injunction and the space proposed by the host culture has engaged transformations, changes in the elaboration of religious altars. In that way, they are reflecting and are forming analyzers, particularly relevant to us, the intercultural exchange process

Prenant appui sur un ensemble d'entretiens auprès des protagonistes, la base de données des émissions de titres publics du Bureau National de Crédit Public et un large corpus d'articles de presse, cette recherche analyse la relation entre ressources économiques et pouvoir politique en étudiant l'impact de l'intégration semi-périphérique au système financier mondial sur la coalition sociopolitique au pouvoir en Argentine de 1989 à 2001. Cette coalition était composée des partis politiques au gouvernement, ce qui garantissait la légitimité démocratique, des technocrates des think tanks du libéralisme économique, des grandes entreprises locales et des acteurs privés du système financier mondial. Contrairement aux pays centraux qui sont au coeur du système financier mondial et les périphériques, qui en sont exclus, l'Argentine représente un cas d'intégration "semipériphérique", c'est-à-dire, avec un accès variable au crédit privé externe en fonction de la perception des principaux acteurs privés du système financier sur le risque de défaut des paiements de la dette. Cette intégration a joué un rôle important sur la formation, la consolidation et la dissolution de la coalition socio-politique au pouvoir. D'une part, le plan de Convertibilité implique une dépendance structurelle de l'afflux de devises pourassurer la stabilité économique. D'autre part, les caractéristiques de l'intégration du système financier mondial ont été modifiées par le plan Brady, qui implique une substitution de la dette publique de prêt bancaire par des titres, et le processus de mondialisation. Contrairement aux prêts bancaires, les titres sont des produits échangés sur un marché où les prêteurs prennent des décisions d'investissement de court terme en fonction de leur perception du risque de défaut de paiement de la dette. Cette perception, qui implique une surveillance permanente sur la politique économique, détermine la capacité de l'État à s'endetter et soutenir ainsi l'afflux de devises.

Why does merit-based elite recruitment exist under authoritarianism, notwithstanding its adverse impact on elites' private interests? In my dissertation, I develop an argument that centers on the role of upward mobility in authoritarian regime dynamics. I argue that merit-based elite recruitment provides individuals from non-elite background an opportunity to move into the ruling class by effort; it enhances their perception of upward mobility and thus reduces their discontent with the status quo. An authoritarian ruler, therefore, may deliberately adopt and institutionalize meritocracy in elite recruitment to engineer limited but sustained upward mobility, which co-opts large numbers of non-elites and helps stabilize the regime. Focusing on the case of China and its national civil service examination (NCSE), I draw on qualitative, quantitative, and experimental evidence to triangulate the complex dynamic between the CCP leadership, local officials, and ordinary citizens in merit-based elite recruitment. I employ two survey experiments to demonstrate that, by imposing institutional constraints on local officials, the CCP leadership can make its commitment to merit-based recruitment credible and enforceable. Analyzing data from two national representative surveys, I find that the institutionalization of NCSE forges a widespread and persistent perception of upward mobility among citizens eligible for the exam and weakens their pressure on the regime for income redistribution; it also strengthens public support for local government and contributes to the legitimacy of the CCP regime. These findings contribute to our understanding of the effects of meritocracy under authoritarianism and highlight the importance of upward mobility in relation to regime resilience.

Using the Sudan/Darfur Conflict as a case study, this work seeks to address how and why the human security paradigm is a challenge for the African Union in its effort to establish long-term peace and stability in Africa. The purpose of the study is to assess the extent to which the human security model provides a realistic option with regard to the AU’s efforts which are aimed at enhancing peace and security in Africa. The key issues to be appraised include the extent to which AU’s policy framework for intervention in crisis situations emphasizes the need to protect the most vulnerable population groups such as non-combatant women and children, IDPs, and refugees; the parameters of the AU’s intervention framework and how effective the organization has been in addressing human security issues in Darfur; the challenges faced by the regional military forces and key development stakeholders in carrying out initiatives that will alleviate human suffering and simultaneously create conditions conducive to conflict resolution and a long term peace building process in Darfur; and proffering new prospects of action to ensure human security in armed conflicts The emergence of deep ethnic conflicts, the rise of rebel groups, and new and ambitious security initiatives have made regional efforts at establishing peace more daunting than before. The AU has started putting human beings more and more at the centre of its management of peace and security issues, but it remains severely constrained by financial and logistical problems. As a result, its success has been dependent on foreign contributions, something its predecessor (Organization of African Unity) always fought against. This study highlights the fact that AU efforts to ensure peace in Africa continue to be constantly frustrated due to the failure of African leaders to address the root threats to human security. Their failure to do so has in fact worsened the human security situation on the continent. The paper focuses on challenges faced by the AU specifically in the Darfur region, and explores whether the AU can be an actor in the promotion of human security. The main argument here is that the AU’s ownership approach to peace and security in the African continent, which emphasizes that African problems need to be solved by Africans, is fundamentally correct. However, for this to be successful Africans need to stop asking for whatever they think they can get from the international community and focus on what they really need. This does not deny the importance of promoting a strong global political will to assist African peacekeeping efforts, especially in terms of logistics and finances. Rather, the challenge for the AU is to use donor support strategically and to continue to employ a conflict preventive approach, one which places great emphasis on the significance and need for African leaders to start addressing human security issues from their root causes –whether social, economic or political. With the collaborative efforts of nongovernmental organizations, subregional organizations and the civil society, the AU could establish ‘AU alert institutions’ which will aim at ensuring that minority groups have a political voice, thus not only reducing the chances of ethnically based conflicts but also ensuring that sustainable development projects are implemented by tackling the root causes of conflict.
Thesis (M. Sc.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2009.

This thesis examines the viability of the concept of political liberalism. Since its emergence, the idea of a purely political liberalism has been the subject of a voluminous amount of discourse and debate. The concept of political liberalism has been presented as both a solution to the problems of justice and political stability troubling liberal democracies and an exemplar of all that is wrong with contemporary political philosophy; it has, quite literally, altered the landscape and the vernacular of contemporary political theory. Herein it is argued that, despite the significant amount of literature that has been devoted to the analysis of the idea of a purely political liberalism, the idea itself has yet to be subjected to the type of critique that is required if one is to assess its viability effectively. Though there have been a number of contemporary political theorists who have developed conceptions of political liberalism which they believe differ in important ways from those of their doctrinal colleagues, detailed analyses of the concept of political liberalism have and remain focussed almost exclusively on a single formulation: namely, Rawlsian political liberalism. This singular focus has precluded the completion of a comprehensive assessment of the viability of the concept (as opposed to a single conception) of political liberalism as represented both by Rawlsian and non-Rawlsian models. This thesis confronts this problem by expanding the scope of investigation to include a fulsome examination of other prominent paradigmatic conceptions of political liberalism namely, those developed by Charles Larmore and Judith Shklar and in so doing provides a more inclusive and, subsequently, thorough critique than has previously been offered. Adopting such an approach reveals that, despite protestations to the contrary, the prominent paradigmatic conceptions of political liberalism are sufficiently similar in all important respects to enable their conflation for the purpose of analysis; and when subjected to a thorough analysis, the idea of a purely political liberalism proves itself to be untenable.
Political Science
D. Litt. et Phil. (Politics)