https://thesis.eur.nl/col/4319/ List of Publications en https://thesis.eur.nl/pub/9259/ Fri, 01 Dec 2006 00:00:01 GMT <div>Azevedo, Marcia Reis de</div> International migration has become a much debated issue since the 1990s. It has moved from an internal administrative matter to a top national security issue, especially after the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001, in the United States. The usual notion of a migrant is that of an unskilled person which comes from a developing country, trying to get a job in any of the developed areas of the world where they will then settle d?wn (Augustin, 2003: 32). However, this is only one type in this category. Migrants can be high skilled or low skilled individuals, they can come both from developing as well as developed countries, they may be migrants due to family formation or reunion, and there are also those who are forced to migrate - asylum seekers and refugees - which are not to be seen as migrants. https://thesis.eur.nl/pub/8812/ Fri, 01 Dec 2006 00:00:01 GMT <div>Liban, M.O.</div> The paper addresses local conflicts between Somali and Oromo people in the context of resent state political and structural changes in Ethiopia. The aim is to explore the underlying causes of conflicts and the intervention mechanisms used under firmly centralized governance system, and the impact of 1991 ethnically-based decentralization system on the local conflicts between Somali and Oromo communities along the border between the two states. The paper argues that the 1991 decentralization system have aggravated the already existed local resource use conflicts between different pastoral and agro-pastoral Somali and Oromo communities. There has been a long history of cultural and linguistic integrations between these two groups who live in geographically mixed settings. There has also been an ongoing cycle of resource conflicts mainly created by the physical mobility of pastoralist in search of water and pasture. This created a fierce competition over land and water sources live in an environment known to endemic poverty, recurrent droughts, and where these vital resources are scarce. In resent times however, the existed local resource conflicts have taken political dimensions mainly due to the state political and structural changes in the country. The 1991 state political and structural changes in the country demanded the formation of ethnically-based regional states in previously non ethnic-based provincial administrations ruled by highly centralized governments in the past. Consequently, the question of demarcating the boundary between culturally and geographically mixed neighboring societies like Somali and Oromo has resulted in disagreements and fresh disputes between the newly formed regional states. The paper examines the emerging challenges of the local conflicts between Somali and Oromo people along the border between the two states. Especial emphasis is given to the cases of Ma'eso and Babile districts. In doing so, the paper addresses issues such as causes, consequences and resolution mechanism used during Derg regime and under the current EPRDF led government. https://thesis.eur.nl/pub/9350/ Sat, 01 Dec 2007 00:00:01 GMT <div>Onen, David Michael</div> The National Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADS) was designed based on the need to empower farmers - particularly the poor and women - to demand and control agricultural advisory services and increase participation of the people in decision- making with the goal of reducing poverty. The purpose of this study was to find out whether the implementation ofNAADS in Nebbi district was participatory. The study took critical look at Farmer Institutional Development (FID), Advisory and Information Services and Participatory Planning, Enterprise Selection and Technology Development as key units of analysis. https://thesis.eur.nl/pub/11327/ Mon, 31 Dec 2007 00:00:01 GMT <div>Nalukui Milapo</div> https://thesis.eur.nl/pub/7129/ Tue, 01 Jan 2008 00:00:01 GMT <div>Nachiappan, Karthik</div> https://thesis.eur.nl/pub/7138/ Tue, 01 Jan 2008 00:00:01 GMT <div>Beyene, Zigiju Samuel</div> This paper evaluates the role of microcredit programs in poverty alleviation in Addis Ababa City by taking two microcredit institutions: Addis Credit and Saving Institution and Africa Village Financial Service. Secondary data from different sources as well as primary data from the clients of both institutions were collected and analysed. Moser’s Asset Vulnerability Framework is also employed as an analytical tool. It is found that AdCSI and AVFS failed to alleviate poverty in Addis Ababa, for very different reasons: AdCSI has effectively excluded the poor, and AVFS has failed to improve the situation of the poor. The result also implies that both AdCSI and AVFS have benefited men more than women. https://thesis.eur.nl/pub/7136/ Tue, 01 Jan 2008 00:00:01 GMT <div>Awiti, Victoria Phildah</div> The Kenya government designed a new strategy for enhancing community development in 2003 through an Act of Parliament (CDF Act 2003). This Act saw the establishment of Constituencies Development Fund. These are funds meant for initiating development projects at the constituency level. The CDF Act gives provision for earmarking at least 2.5% of ordinary government revenue for the CDF kitty.75% of it is distributed equally to all the 210 constituencies in the country and the remaining 25% is further distributed basing upon the poverty index of constituencies. The Act establishes four committees to facilitate the efficient implementation and management of the fund .However one of them stands out as it is the one that handles the money directly and that is the Constituency Development Committee The agenda behind its establishment was to promote equitable distribution of resources through out the country by channelling resources direct to all the constituencies regardless of their political affiliation. However research on the use of these funds reveals that the establishment of the fund was merely to enable all national politicians to have direct access to state resources for their own benefit. In trying to meet the objectives of the study which were to find out whether the fund is contributing towards efficiency in resource use or has been hijacked by politicians for purposes of furthering their interests, the theory of instrumentality of political disorder was employed. The main aspects of the theory employed were; politicians favour law levels of political institutionalisation as it accommodates corruption and patronage. Based on findings, the study confirms that low levels of institutionalisation are highly favoured by the Kenyan political elite (MPs) as it facilitates the process of wealth accumulation through corruption and also gives room for creating new platforms for patronage. https://thesis.eur.nl/pub/7133/ Tue, 01 Jan 2008 00:00:01 GMT <div>Archi, Rumana Amin</div> This paper examines accountability process in the Local small Non- Government Organization (NGO) in Bangladesh with special attention to the responsiveness to the beneficiaries. The research finds that upward accountability demands of donors and government are not necessarily conducive to the qualities of the NGOs that are necessary to address their downward accountability demand. The study explores different mechanisms that NGOs practice to address the accountability demand. These mechanisms are generally put into place to provide accountability to donors, government and oversight agencies. The study suggests these mechanisms are too intense for local small NGOs. To practice these mechanisms efficiently, local small NGOs have taken different strategies, such as: increase managerial staff in the organization; decrease time for learning and reflection; organize special training etc. This study suggests these strategies have the tendency to drive NGOs away from their beneficiaries. https://thesis.eur.nl/pub/7135/ Tue, 01 Jan 2008 00:00:01 GMT <div>Kamble, Swati Mukund</div> https://thesis.eur.nl/pub/7134/ Tue, 01 Jan 2008 00:00:01 GMT <div>Chandrasekharan, Sandhya</div> The paper argues that the idea of India’ as something shared above particularistic identities, especially of religion and caste, is an idea that has not gone deep yet with vast groups, even amongst the relatively privileged sections of Indian society. Since 2000 three different sets of Social Studies textbooks have been used in the school system that caters to this relatively privileged, and expanding, English speaking section of Indian society. The paper situates these texts in the context of the ideological moorings of the ruling political parties that commissioned them and examines their discourses on Democracy. The exercise is used to deliberate upon the issues and prospects in the deepening of democracy in the ideational sphere through school education. https://thesis.eur.nl/pub/7131/ Tue, 01 Jan 2008 00:00:01 GMT <div>SALAZAR, TATIANA TICONA</div> higher public legitimacy level than a democratic one. It used the Fujimori and Toledo regimes as case studies The methodology involved applying (neo)populism, democracy, democratization, and ‘hybrid’ regimes theory to understand the mechanisms that allowed Fujimori to legitimize his regime, and that (supposedly) prevented Toledo from doing so. The analysis found that a combination of factors were favorable for Fujimori and working against Toledo. While Toledo’s luxurious lifestyle alienated him form the masses, he was unable to concentrate the amount of power that Fujimori did. Hence, the Fujimori regime could approve ‘popular’ reforms that increased public support, which could then be used to gain more power. This ‘vicious cycle of legitimization’ that kept the Fujimori regime in power was unavailable to Toledo, who never enjoyed the sufficient popularity to get it started. Aside from the presence of populist elements and the use of ‘hybrid’ regimes, there were other factors affecting the public legitimacy levels of the regimes. These are: the role of crises, public weariness with neoliberalism, the international community, the Fujimori legacy, and Peruvian civic culture. While Fujimori enjoyed a favorable context for a populist, the opposite was true for Toledo. Arguably, then, his neopopulist tactic was destined to fail. The study concludes by outlines its contribution and areas for further research. https://thesis.eur.nl/pub/7123/ Tue, 01 Jan 2008 00:00:01 GMT <div>Zeb, Bilal Aurang</div> https://thesis.eur.nl/pub/7128/ Tue, 01 Jan 2008 00:00:01 GMT <div>Salazar, Juan Carlos Triviño</div> Communal Councils in Venezuela are the last experiment of participatory democracy that the government has created in order to achieve the promised transformation of the revolutionary process started in 1998. Throughout the country thousands of these self-governing units at community level have been formed with the goal of addressing the people's most urgent needs. The creation of a new political elite under President Hugo Chavez Frias, who has been ruling the country since 1998, has created serious social cleavages which have been conducive of high levels of political confrontation. The success of the model of communal councils in the communities depends in part on the maturity of the government to isolate this experiment of popular participation from the political antagonisms lived in the country. This research has explored in the field the reality of this situation and how promising these councils are in the task of achieving a true transformative participation. https://thesis.eur.nl/pub/7127/ Tue, 01 Jan 2008 00:00:01 GMT <div>Xhaferri, Elona</div> https://thesis.eur.nl/pub/7126/ Tue, 01 Jan 2008 00:00:01 GMT <div>Short, David</div> As an important player in global affairs, any political response to climate change will need to involve the United States. After withdrawal from the Kyoto Protocol, the United States government further constrained climate initiatives by first failing to recognize carbon dioxide under the Clean Air Act (CAA) and then denying California the CAA waiver exemption to implement their Pavley vehicle emission standard. This paper then seeks to explore the space for state climate initiatives in the context of US environmental federalism. While scholars have looked at specific aspects within the debate such as the legality of the CAA, there isn’t any work that assesses comprehensively the entire picture by raising theoretical questions and answering them with empirical evidence from the Californian experience. This papers attempts to fill that void in existing literature. The research concludes that California is in fact unravelling trends of (traditional) environmental federalism and by virtue of the exclusive CAA waiver is furthermore reversing federalism by setting its own policy that other states are choosing to implement. https://thesis.eur.nl/pub/7124/ Tue, 01 Jan 2008 00:00:01 GMT <div>MEJIA, DANIEL A. ABREU</div> This research presents an insight of the problematic relation between the leading oil private industry and climate change mitigation. An analysis of these private firms’ energy forecasts is carried in reference with the internationally agreed knowledge-based criteria for preventing the consequences of climate change, and with alternative scenarios elaborated by one international agency and a major NGO. At its core this paper argues that energy and climate change scenarios from the leading private energy firms are more than technical forecasting exercises. They also have a political dimension that aims at influencing the public debate to support in the foreseeable future an energy system dependent on fossil fuels, in spite of potential negative environmental consequences. This argument will be approached through a political economy perspective on global environmental governance. And a neo-Gramscian analytical framework will be applied, privileging the discursive level dimension in the analysis of the climate change mitigation position of the leading private firms in the energy sector. https://thesis.eur.nl/pub/7122/ Tue, 01 Jan 2008 00:00:01 GMT <div>Sharma, Amrita</div> https://thesis.eur.nl/pub/7130/ Tue, 01 Jan 2008 00:00:01 GMT <div>Dei, Manorama</div> Access to information and freedom of expression are integral aspects of democratic process of governance. Citizens right to access and inspect public documents promotes openness, transparency, accountability in administration. This consequently promotes better controls over corruption and mismanagement, the bane of Indian democracy. India has evolved from a new nation, protective about its industry, culture and identity, to a nation welcoming globalization, privatisation and liberalization in early 1990s. From Official Secrecy Act, India has moved on to the Right to Information Act, 2005 (RTI). The RTI aims to empower the citizens and to enforce accountability of the duty bearers so that the money spent and actions taken were in accordance with the provisions of law. But to make it work, people's awareness, the willingness to struggle to exercise their rights and the duty bearers' commitment to greater is necessary. Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) is the local self-governing body that looks after the development of Bhubaneswar, the capital of Orissa. It serves as an interesting study. Every construction work undertaken carries official disclosures about the amount spent and work done. But the people's perception of high corruption and lack of openness has not changed substantially since 2005. This study revealed the workings and the different stakeholders' perspectives. There has been greater openness at the higher level, but, there is greater need for improvement at the lower level of the municipal corporation. The study suggests to the duty bearers must take the responsibility of providing free access to information seriously. https://thesis.eur.nl/pub/7125/ Tue, 01 Jan 2008 00:00:01 GMT <div>Shapiro, Daniel</div> The UK is proclaiming to be a leader in combating climate change; through ambitious and groundbreaking policies, public pronouncements, and interactions among its European counterparts, the UK is positioning itself as the forerunner in the fight to reduce carbon emissions and promote renewable technology. However, upon closer examination, there seems to be a discrepancy between what the UK government is saying in its regulatory policy, and the actions that energy companies are taking in response to this policy. In other words, there is an apparent gap in compliance between government policy and industry reaction. Actual records of carbon emissions and renewable energy growth show a much more grim picture of UK progress. As a comparative case, Germany has shown a much narrower gap in compliance, and I aim to expose these differences by examining the effectiveness of the two key environmental regulatory mechanisms in each country: the Renewables Obligation in the UK and the EEG in Germany. Having shown that the cases of the UK and Germany are different, there are many explanatory factors for this, including culture, political parties, history, national preferences, and many more. I have chosen governance as the factor of focus in this paper; governance is the collection of rules, norms, and institutions that oversee the creation, implementation, and enforcement of environmental regulatory policy. And, because governance is the focus, I will draw on the body of literature Varieties of Capitalism and its principle Co- Convergence Theory, which dichotomises two main types of economies: Liberal Market Economies (LMEs) and Coordinated Market Economies (CMEs). Using this theoretical underpinning, I will attempt to show that these categorisations, under which the UK and Germany fall, are helpful explanations for the creation of the RO and the EEG in each country, respectively. Once these parallels are drawn, the argument becomes clearer as to why the UK is exhibiting a wider gap in compliance between its stated policy goals and corresponding energy industry reaction. https://thesis.eur.nl/pub/7132/ Tue, 01 Jan 2008 00:00:01 GMT <div>Joksić, Mladen</div> This paper examines the consequences of the mode of extrication for democratic consolidation in the context of regime hybridity. It provides an in depth analysis of one instance of so called electoral revolution: Serbia’s ‘Bulldozer’ revolution witnessed in October 2000. Applying the concept of path dependency, it seeks to understand how the remnants of the Milosevic regime have stood in the way of democratic reform. The primary argument brought forth in this paper is that while pacts forged between members of Serbia’s democratic opposition and members of the previous regime’s security sector enabled the immediate transition from regime hybridity to electoral democracy, their long-term effect would be to preserve the previous practices, prerogatives, and powers of Milosevic’s security sector. Ultimately, the legacies of this reserved domain would hinder the completion of democracy in Serbia. The core argument of this paper thus challenges the assumptions of both transitological and post-transitological studies. While the former argue that pacted transitions have beneficial consequences for democratic consolidation, the latter locate the major drivers of regime change in exclusively bottom-up initiatives. This paper’s findings question both of these interpretations, and thus challenge scholars and practitioners alike to reconceptualise their understandings of transitional processes.