Agriculture and the third enlargement of the EEC : a study of negotiation

This thesis uses the agriculture chapter of the EEC's third enlargement negotiations to examine two related topics: negotiation, and the ability of single states (Spain and Portugal) to negotiate with collective entities (the EEC). In doing so, it fills two gaps in the current literature. Firstly, by focusing on the Iberian side of accession, it covers aspects of the negotiations hitherto only cursorily examined by other studies of the enlargement. Secondly, it exposes the weaknesses of prevailing theories of negotiation.Furthermore, it shows that no theory yet exists which takes account of single state-collective entity negotiations. This justifies the use of the descriptive process approach to examine the third enlargement as a case. The use of the descriptive process approach provides a means of organizing, interpreting and evaluating the complex phenomenon called negotiation. It enables the use of techniques from other approaches without sacrificing details for the sake of theoretical consistency. Secondly, it enables an examination of the internal constraints facing parties to any negotiation. Finally, it gives a sense of the bargaining dynamics present in all" negotiations

Legal Mobilization in Large-Scale Land Deals

Zusammenfassung Die Autorin untersucht, wie lokale Akteure, die von großflächigen Landinvestitionen betroffen sind, ihre Interessen mit rechtlichen Normen schützen. Erfolgsbedingungenwerden durch rechtliche, soziale Mobilisierungs- und Business Management Perspektiven identifiziert und in vier Fallstudien aus Sierra Leone und den Philippinen spezifiziert. Die Befunde zeigen die Relevanz der nationalen rechtlichen Opportunitätsstrukturen, der Stärke von Unterstützungsnetzwerken sowie der Charakteristika von Unternehmen. Auch die Rolle von politischen Eliten und die Einigkeit lokaler Akteure ist zentral. Das Buch ist für Leser und Leserinnen aus Wissenschaft und Praxis relevant, die sich für die Interaktion von rechtlichen Möglichkeiten und lokalen Reaktionen bei großen Investitionsprojekten interessieren. Mit Fallbeispielen aus dem Globalen Süden leistet die Arbeit einen Beitrag zur Literatur zu rechtlicher Mobilisierung. Damit fokussiert das Buch auf ein weniger erforschtes Phänomen sozialer Mobilisierung. Abstract This book enquires how local communities affected by large-scale land deals make use of legal norms to protect their interests. It combines legal, social mobilisation and business management approaches to identify conditions that promise success in this respect, which are explored in four case studies from two countries: Sierra Leone and the Philippines. The findings of these studies show the relevance of the national legal opportunity structure, strong support networks and the specific characteristics of a company in this regard. The role of political elites and the unity of local actors are also discussed. This book is especially relevant for academics and practitioners interested in the relationship between legal frameworks and local reactions to foreign investors. It also contributes to the research literature on legal mobilisation by going beyond the Western world. Finally, the book offers perspectives on the ‘middle ground’ of social mobilisation phenomenons, which are neither social movements nor everyday resistance

The EU as a Confederal Union of Sovereign Member Peoples: Exploring the potential of American (con)federalism and popular sovereignty for a constitutional theory of the EU

This thesis explores a conception of the EU as a modified confederal system of sovereign member peoples and their states. A confederal conception which demonstrates how, contrary to popular belief, European integration does not conflict with sovereignty or democracy. For, properly conceived and constituted, the EU reasserts the sovereignty of the member peoples, and liberates national democracy from the confines of the state. To this end, this thesis reconnects the EU to two classic constructs of constitutional theory: confederalism and sovereignty. Two powerful but unfashionable constructs whose joint potential for European integration remains largely unexplored and undervalued. The primary instrument to explore this potential is comparative. The EU is contrasted with the rather unknown but rich example of the American Articles of Confederation, and their evolution into the now famous American federate system. A comparison with the confederal roots of the United States which is revealing for both confederalism and sovereignty, and illustrates the potential of linking both for a constructive constitutional theory of the EU. A theory which does not have to overcome history and the statal system it has created, but connects with it. A theory, therefore, that may help to recapture the EU and the increasing authority it wields, both in theory and in practise.  The thesis is subdivided in three parts. Part I addresses confederalism. It demonstrates how the constitutional system of the EU combines a confederal foundation with a federate superstructure, and explores the particular strengths, weaknesses and limits of this modified confederal system. Part II discusses sovereignty. It first demonstrates how the EU forms a logical confederal evolution of popular sovereignty, and how European integration does not conflict with sovereignty. Subsequently, it shows how the concept of confederal sovereignty equally helps to dispel the presumed conflict between statism and pluralism, how it respects and conciliates national and EU claims to supremacy, and how it allows a confederal evolution of national democracy, which updates democracy to the global reality it is to control. Part III applies the findings of Part I and II to the EMU crisis and the challenge of establishing an effective democratic foundation for the EU at the national level. An application which demonstrates the concrete and attractive contributions a confederal approach can make to addressing some of the core challenges facing the EU.Book (monograph

The BG News April 2, 1987

The BGSU campus student newspaper April 2, 1987. Volume 69 - Issue 103https://scholarworks.bgsu.edu/bg-news/5643/thumbnail.jp

Principles and Tools for Designing Strategies for Sustainable Urban Development: A “Process-based” and “Action-oriented” Approach at Neighbourhood Level

Cities constitute essential parts of the solution to many of the current sustainable development challenges. They have a major role to play in sustainable development both as crucial “engines” of socio-economic growth and significant “originators” of environmental loads. The special significance of cities for sustainable development is also reflected in the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 11 “Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable” of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. To organize and to support a sustainable urban development is, however, a particularly complex task to accomplish for any local authority or stakeholder group. The reasons for this complexity are related to the amplitude of the sustainability concept, to the variety and changing nature of the factors to be taken into account, as well as to the challenge for balancing the needs and interests of different stakeholder groups involved in – or affected by – urban interventions. The neighbourhood, as a more manageable urban unit than the city, and as a promising level to test out new ideas and ways of achieving sustainable urban development, has increasingly been acknowledged by research, policy and industry. The thesis therefore investigates new approaches to support sustainable urban development at the neighbourhood scale, with a specific focus on the neighbourhoods in Europe. Existing literature indicates that prevailing approaches are traditionally prescriptive and outcomes-based and fail to acknowledge the process nature of sustainable urban development. Furthermore, their contribution commonly starts and ends with the measurement of indicators and the provision of assessment results in the form of static “snap-shots” without those being reflected in specific possibilities for action in the local area. This hardly solves the problem of the (further) development of existing neighbourhoods. Decoding these results into context-specific strategies and actions, as well as ways of managing these actions, remains a challenge and an area not much researched yet. To remediate these weaknesses and gaps, the thesis proposes a comprehensive and integrated conceptual “process-based” and “action-oriented” overall framework which combines three approaches: (1) a step-by-step structured workflow model that decomposes the process of SUD into manageable tasks and incorporates all necessary quality requirements that should accompany a transition to sustainability; the purpose is to support the preparation phase of sustainable urban development process; (2) a methodology for identifying problem areas, their respective tradeoffs, as well as selecting, organising and describing indicators in an action-oriented fashion; the purpose is to provide a new proposal for linking indicators to possibilities for action so that their use does not only focus on assessing but also guiding development; (3) a methodology for prioritising and selecting concrete strategies and actions for neighbourhoods. The usefulness of the latter is illustrated by the means of a hypothetical case, and with the help of a web-based tool built by the author specifically for the multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) method ELECTRE III. The originality of this research lies in that such a comprehensive framework, bringing all the above-mentioned elements together into one coherent solution, has not been available until now. The value of the research is that the proposed overall framework can be a helpful decision support tool for any neighbourhood in Europe which is developing a sustainable development plan

Leviathan Lost: The Impact of State Capacity on the Duration and Intensity of Civil Wars

While wars between nations have declined over the past twenty years, intrastate conflicts are on the rise. Scholars are now examining the conditions under which civil war is likely to break out, to last longer, and to intensify, and the strength of the local government has emerged as a critical factor that could potentially mitigate the harms posed by civil wars. This thesis addresses two research questions: what is the impact of state strength on (1) conflict duration and (2) conflict intensity? To answer these research questions, I conduct several quantitative analyses of all internal conflicts occurring in the years 1960-2015, examining the relationship between state strength and conflict duration and battle deaths per year. This thesis ultimately finds that state strength, as proxied by military, fiscal, and bureaucratic capacities, is negatively correlated with conflict intensity but is positively correlated with conflict duration. This thesis concludes with the presentation of two case studies – the First Congo War and the Troubles of Northern Ireland – to illustrate how strong states may experience longer, but less bloody, civil wars

The Hilltop 4-20-1990

This document created through a generous donation of Mr. Paul Cottonhttps://dh.howard.edu/hilltop_198090/1251/thumbnail.jp

The protection of minority rights: a comparative survey with special reference to South Africa's constitutional options

The purpose of this dissertation is firstly to define and analyse the concept of minority rights and to place it in perspective in relation to surrounding concepts such as communalism, ethnicity, groups and individualism. This is done through a critical discussion of various theoretical perspectives relating to the subject matter. Comparisons are drawn between the policies of various plural societies aimed at accommodating their ethnic diversity, either constitutionally or through methods that lack legitimacy. This is followed by a discussion and evaluation of consociational democracy and federalism as possible solutions to the problems created by ethnicity and minorities in a plural society. Having made the hypothesis that democracy is best served in a multi-ethnic society by a system that emphasizes group rights in addition to individual rights and which accepts the notion of government through consensus, the emphasis then moves to the particular nature of the South African minority question. The policies of the various actors on the South African political scene towards minority rights are analysed critically. Attention is given to factors which may influence group formation in a system emphasizing voluntary association, such as race, ethnicity, class and ideology. There is also a discussion of the nature of the rights which minorities may claim and emphasis is placed on the requirement that minorities should be able to levy strategic influence without disrupting the society as a whole. Finally, this dissertation deals with the question of which constitutional alternatives offer the most promising solution to the problems caused by South Africa's cultural diversity. Although a political system emphasizing individual rights might come closest to the liberal ideal and may be suitable to an ethnically homogeneous country, the violent history of plural societies where group rights have been neglected, indicate the need for a pluralist solution in South Africa. While there is a strong tendency among Blacks to view the concept of minority rights as yet another Apartheid ploy to maintain White domination and privileges, the purpose of this paper has been to prove that minority rights is a universal concept and is not a creation of Apartheid, although the National Party has managed to almost irreversibly taint it. Yet, in a system of group formation through voluntary association, the concept of minority rights can serve as a powerful tool to help facilitate a negotiated settlement towards a predominantly Slack government based on consensus. A true power-sharing consensus-orientated constitution has been found in Lijphart's notion of a consociational democracy and the view is taken that the Natal-KwaZulu Indaba's constitutional proposals is an example of such a constitution