This dissertation analyses the process of de-secularization of the Malaysian state. It identifies the political role of Islam as an important element in explaining how the Malaysian state sustains the language of special ethnic ‘rights’ to negate the ideal of common citizenship …
The initial hypothesis of this research was that divergent regional perspectives on Asia- issues of security, political alignment and economic models- were a primary cause of the thirty-year Sino-Soviet Cold War. This implied that future stable relations between Russia and China…
This study is about how independent voters make their vote decision in presidential election focusing on electoral behaviour in South Korea. The main argument of this thesis is that voters are not very rational in voting choice when party constraints are absent. Both qualitative…
This thesis generates a greater understanding of the George W. Bush administration's Freedom Agenda for the Middle East and North Africa. It is motivated by two central research questions: How and why was the Freedom Agenda developed? And, how was the Freedom Agenda constituted?…
This thesis undertakes an explanatory case study of the Korean cultural industries policy shift recently instituted under the Kim Dae-Jung and Roh Moo-Hyun governments (1998-2008). This shift can be well positioned within the broader context of the creative turn in national cult…
This thesis entails an analysis of the relationship between space and politics in the construction and legitimisation of modern China. The thesis argues that the production of space has since the onset of modernity in China, in itself very much a spatial process, played a substa…
The thesis offers an examination of a distinct chapter in the era of economic reforms in India - the case of the state of West Bengal - and narrates the politics of an economic policy transition spearheaded by the Left Front coalition government that ruled the state from 1977 to…
This thesis' central aim is the application of a Wendtian-constructivist expansion of Regional Security Complex Theory (RSCT) on a specific case study: the South Caucasus. To that effect, three concepts of RSCT – amity/enmity, state incoherence, and great power penetration – are…
This thesis re-conceptualises civil society as a process of cross-sectoral networking and alliance building among individual activists and organisations. Civil society networks are built on personal connections and develop into flexible, often informal structures that engage in …
The success of the Government of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region's (HKSARG) e-government initiatives is dependent on the government employees' acceptance and use of the underpinning information, internet and communication technologies (IT). Unfortunately, only a few empi…
This thesis draws on a synthesis of foreign policy analysis (FPA) and constructivism in order to demonstrate how post Cold War Mongolia’s relations with the People’s Republic of China (PRC) can be analysed through a multisectoral approach to explain the dilemmas that a weak stat…
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the cold war the global economy has begun to shift its centre of gravity towards the East. This, combined with the consolidation of the power of multi-national corporations and banks and the globalisation of markets at virtua…
This thesis is devoted to a studly of the communist movement in Palestine during the British Mandate with special emphasis on its growth within the Arab section of the population. Chapter one traces the development of the Palestine Communist Party as an outgrowth of the Zionist …
In 1991, following its defeat in the first Gulf War and out of fear of a humanitarian catastrophe, the Iraqi army and state-apparatus were forced to withdraw from the three Kurdish-population governorates in Northern Iraq. This left an administrative vacuum that was filled by th…
This thesis investigates the role of politics in implementing educational reform in India during the period 1994 to 2011. Much of the recent research on politics and educational reform has been dominated by the analytical framework of formal political economy, but this framework…
This is my thesis that I explored the dynamic process and peculiarities of Korean welfare politics during the Kim Dae-Jung government of 1998-2003, which was the first administration to come to power through a peaceful turnover of political power. To this end, the research focus…
Almost inevitably on occasions, purchasers, customers or users of services will be so dissatisfied with the quality or experience of procurement that they will feel driven to make a complaint. Whether in relation to public or private sector organisations, complaints can provide …
The public's trust in government is a subject that arouses interest and debate among researchers and politicians alike. This thesis is concerned with public trust in government in China and particularly in local government. It provides insights both on the patterns of public tru…