Part one: The birth of the democratic republic

Part two: The republic at war

Part three: The party in power

Part four: Fighting a total war

Part five: Economic problems

Part six: Agrarian policy

Part seven: Summation

This study is a descriptive and exploratory investigation of the emergence, evolution, growth and effectiveness of a genuine grassroots movement: the neighbors' movement (movimiento vecinal) in Caracas, Venezuela. The legitimacy of the Venezuelan democratic system has been increasingly challenged by different sectors of society alienated by traditional forms of political organization. In the Venezuela of the 1990s one encounters a civil society in search of alternative means of representation and participation that no longer conform to the structures and processes that have functioned since 1958. This study describes and assesses the struggle of one such group, neighbors in urban neighborhood associations that has felt impotent since its development in 1961, but that in the last few crisis contexts that have arisen, has demonstrated its increasing effectiveness as a political power base.

I derive for these observations that UN legitimacy is affected by processes of transformation at the global, organizational and individual level. Legitimacy is no longer a static historical and symbolic given. Legitimacy is redefined by the UN capacity to solve problems at the global level with a broad range of stakeholders, by the improvement of internal functioning and by the satisfaction of UN staff. Partnerships create a renewed political legitimacy based on a wider participation of UN stakeholders. Finally, partnerships generate an hybrid legitimacy based on performance in service delivery and on ethical and political values.

Mechanisms of governance will not be sustainable on the long run without a transformed global framework of legitimacy. Public and private actors involved in global governance need new indicators of legitimacy to structure their relationships. Such a framework should reflect a transfer of political values to the corporate sector and a transfer of business values to the UN. This research conceptualizes partnerships as a type of governance mechanism. Such mechanisms can only be characterized with organizational and political attributes. Partnerships are the results of specific organizational and political arrangements. On the long run, the consequences of partnerships are a transformation of UN organizational culture, structure, leadership and political role. More generally the UN is becoming a more strategic organization. What has an impact on staff required competencies.

The Bosnians' flight and adaptation were affected by shifts in refugee and asylum policies from a focus on third country resettlement to refugee containment in areas close to the conflict. Austria granted Bosnian refugees temporary protection status, instead of political asylum, denying them the legal right to work or to travel freely. In addition many Austrians viewed Balkan refugees as a threat to their national culture. In contrast, the American government granted Bosnians refugee status and provided an extensive resettlement program with a wide variety of services. The Bosnians were spared xenophobic sentiments expressed toward non-European refugees such as Haitians.

The Bosnians' social networks in the host society were often more influential in the process of adaptation than state-directed refugee policies. In Austria the Bosnian refugees defied legal prohibitions on employment in order to survive and to integrate. A substantial group of Bosnian refugee women in Vienna created social networks with previously-settled Yugoslav guest workers and native citizens, enhancing their chances for employment. In contrast, Bosnian refugees in New York found themselves in an extensive but confusing resettlement program, and they were often pushed into early economic self-sufficiency. The local welfare offices succeeded in denying many Bosnian refugees access to welfare programs.

Despite the differences in initial legal statuses, Bosnian refugees have held the same kind of jobs in both countries, independent of their previous careers. An unexpected result of this study was the discovery that agency among Bosnian refugee women did not imply a Western feminist attitude valorizing emancipation from patriarchy but rather universally rejected feminist attitudes.

The dissertation has discovered general trends across all track two initiatives as well as differences between the two issue areas. Findings suggest that both water and Jerusalem initiatives were successful in improving the overall relational climate as well as in instigating new learning among their participants, especially technical/professional skills and data (specifically for the Palestinians), new knowledge, and learning about the "other." However, when it comes to the transfer of these outcomes, both the Jerusalem and the water initiatives were more successful in transferring the cognitive outcomes, especially ideas, proposals, skills and data, to upwards level rather than the relational outcomes. The dissertation also found that the initiatives were more successful in impacting the processes rather than impacting the outcome at the upwards level. Both initiatives primarily employed "insider strategies" to that end. Yet, during the implementation of these strategies two conditions impeded upwards transfer: (1) asymmetry between the parties with respect to their degree of separation from the political circles and asymmetrical transfer of people from track two initiatives to negotiations and policymaking positions, and (2) participants' lack of representativeness of the typical members of the society and of the stakeholders that are able to influence the decision-making processes.

This dissertation has implications for two theoretical streams: (1) evaluation of track-two diplomacy and of transfer , and (2) the contact hypothesis theory.