Christina Tausa

Citation

Thesis Title
Conflicting Power Paradigms in Samoa's Traditional Democracy- From tension to a process of harmonization?

The tension between democracy and Samoa’s traditional leadership system continues to prevent genuine and responsive partnerships from developing. This has resulted in a power struggle evident in Samoa’s status quo. This study explored some of the reasons for this tension through action research. It identified a lack of meaningful civic education, insufficient dialectical exchange and an absence of political understanding and socialization as some of the main reasons for the conflicting power paradigms. The process of Architectonics, whereby the excellence of democracy depends on the excellence of Faamatai and vice versa, was used to harmonize the two systems. Ms Laalaai-Tausa’s study contributes to the field of political science, particularly the democratization paradigm, which continues to occupy the thinking of many scholars and the work of many national, regional and international agencies.

Supervisors
Associate Professor Malakai Koloamatangi
Professor Bethan Greener