Since 9/11, a new configuration of power situated at the core of the executive branch of the U.S. government has taken hold. In Crimes of Power & States of Impunity, Michael Welch takes a close look at the key historical, political, and economic forces shaping the country's response to terror.

Welch continues the work he began in Scapegoats of September 11th and argues that current U.S. policies, many enacted after the attacks, undermine basic human rights and violate domestic and international law. He recounts these offenses and analyzes the system that sanctions them, offering fresh insight into the complex relationship between power and state crime. Welch critically examines the unlawful enemy combatant designation, Guantanamo Bay, recent torture cases, and collateral damage relating to the war in Iraq. This book transcends important legal arguments as Welch strives for a broader sociological interpretation of what transpired early this century, analyzing the abuses of power that jeopardize our safety and security.

This study synthesizes and summarizes the theoretical arguments and empirical evidence that suggest that competition works remarkably well to reduce costs and improve efficiency and innovation, even in an arena where competition has typically been ignored--government-financed services. The arguments and data marshaled here, drawn primarily from the American experience, portray the substantial benefits to consumers and taxpayers that can result from efforts to increase competition in commercial services previously operated as government monopolies.

Competition in Government-Financed Services will help fortify the efforts of competition advocates, both in the United States and in the emerging market economies of Eastern Europe and the developing world, to get on with the job of strengthening competition and opening their systems to market forces.

This book demonstrates how the Thalidomide catastrophe of the 1960s and the BSE crisis of the 1990s led to regulatory regimes for pharmaceuticals and foodstuffs in Europe. However, the developmental paths of these regimes differ - and so does the efficiency and legitimacy of regulatory policy-making.

Martin Luther King Jr. was neither an advocate for nor an enemy of gay rights, but this has not stopped both sides of the debate from using his words in their arguments. His widow, Coretta Scot King, cited them in her campaign for gay rights, while his daughter Bernice appealed to them in her public rejection of same-sex marriage. This fascinating situation--a familial and wider conflict over the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. in relation to gay rights--poses the problem that Michael G. Long addresses in this groundbreaking volume.

This book provides an up-to-date account of housing policy systems in eight countries - Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Taiwan, Thailand and Singapore. With one chapter devoted to each country, there are, in addition, introductory and concluding chapters, in which the editors identify both the similarities in the problems faced, and in the approaches adopted, by the governments of the Asian countries - setting them apart from the West - as well as the differences that indicate the variety of Asian solutions.

This book looks at the past and present condition of Russian nationalism. Its chapters examine the influence of tsarist and Soviet official policies upon national identity, and seek to explain the broader political, social and cultural factors which helped or hindered the ambitions of rulers. The changeability of Russian national consciousness is exmphasised. Several chapters also highlight the various long-standing inhibitions to the emergence of a consolidated civic nationalism in a Russian Federation which gained its independence at the break-up of the USSR.

British Counterinsurgency examines the insurgencies that have confronted the British State since the end of the Second World War, and at the methods used to fight them. It looks at the guerrilla campaigns in Palestine, Malaya, Kenya, Cyprus, South Yemen, Oman, and most recently in Northern Ireland, and considers the reasons for British success or failure in suppressing them. It provides a hard-nosed account of the realities of counterinsurgency as practiced by the most experienced security establishment in the world today.

Snaking 2,540 miles from Montana to the Mississippi River, the Missouri is the longest waterway in the nation. Its basin--stretching 530,000 square miles--extends broadly into ten states and twenty-five Indian reservations. For millions of years the river and its tributaries meandered untamed. But that irrevocably changed with the passage of the Pick-Sloan Plan, part of the Flood Control Act of 1944.

In "River of Promise, River of Peril," John Thorson takes the first comprehensive look at how and why the Missouri River basin-now with six major dams and hundreds of miles of navigation canals-has become one of the most significantly altered drainage systems in the country. He also looks at the consequences.

The Pick-Sloan Plan, he argues, has not fared well over time, particularly in its failure to provide an effective blueprint for regional river management. Persistent conflicts over the river, he contends, illuminate important weaknesses of federalism in dealing with regional resources, the most glaring being the exclusion of any proactive role for Indian tribal governments.

To support his argument, Thorson examines the physical, demographic, and political features of the river basin; analyzes the comprehensive river development that gave birth to the Pick-Sloan Plan; reveals why the original goals of the legislature were never achieved; explores the deep-seated and continuing tensions between basin governments; and investigates how Indian tribes, the river's ecology, and federalism have been damaged as the river has been developed. He also describes the various associations created and later abandoned from the sixties to the eighties and assesses their virtues and limitations.

Thorson sees in the story of the Missouri River Basin the vertical and horizontal strains of federalism-the states chafing against federally mandated and controlled projects exacerbated by the lack of constitutional guidance for handling conflicts among neighboring states and with Indian nations. Not just bent on spotlighting problems, Thorson also evaluates different approaches for improved river system management and recommends a Missouri River management institution based on environmentally sensitive policies, a strong state role, and full participation by the basin's tribal governments.

This text on the interaction between public health policies and social inequality probes three issues: what groups wield the greatest influence over the policy process? Who gains most from health policies? And how can we best understand the policy link between health and social inequalities? A theory of social opportunities clarifies the reasons for policy effectiveness, particularly the impact of public programmes on the environmental and personal conditions that improve people's health.

The East Asian Crisis of 1997 and the following economic meltdown has raised new questions about the role of public policy in Asian economic growth and the best mix of policies to insure the survival of economic growth. Although economists agree that macroeconomic stability, the encouragement of exports and FDI inflows, and the development of human resources have been important in East Asian growth, they do not agree on whether industry specific policies have been useful. The policy experiences of the countries are diverse and do not show a strong relationship between policies and success. Bringing together the work of development economics experts, this book looks at the role of economic policy in East Asian development, the challenge of the economic meltdown, and the critical issues raised by that meltdown.

Based on research and conferences at the International Centre for the Study of East Asian Development in Kitakyushu, Japan, the book opens with general chapters considering the policies behind East Asian growth, then discusses the policies of each country in country specific chapters. Up to date in its discussion, the book considers the questions raised by the crisis of 1997 from a variety of perspectives.

This open access handbook provides a multilevel view on family policies, combining insights on family policy outcomes at different levels of policymaking: supra-national organizations, national states, sub-national or regional levels, and finally smaller organizations and employers. At each of these levels, a multidisciplinary group of expert scholars assess policies and their implementation, such as child income support, childcare services, parental leave, and leave to provide care to frail and elderly family members. The chapters evaluate their impact in improving children's development and equal opportunities, promoting gender equality, regulating fertility, productivity and economic inequality, and take an intersectional perspective related to gender, class, and family diversity. The editors conclude by presenting a new research agenda based on five major challenges pertaining to the levels of policy implementation (in particular globalization and decentralization), austerity and marketization, inequality, changing family relations, and welfare states adapting to women's empowered roles.

Prevailing interpretation in international political economy following the work of such analysts as Easterly and Alesina, is that ethnic and linguistic diversity is harmful to economic development because it is a source of division and even destructive political conflict. This study takes a very different view. It argues that ethnic and linguistic diversity is a source of creativity and productivity in society and therefore is an indispensable component of economic development. Based on an examination of advanced-industrial (OECD) countries, this is the first study to show at the macro-level across countries that ethnic and linguistic diversity is a positive source of creativity for society. Extensive econometric analysis backs up the empirical findings of the study. This work promises to steer international political economy in a new direction. It will highlight the positive contributions to entrepreneurship, technological innovation, and economic growth in the modern society of the Information Age. An important qualification of the findings is that the study shows how important government support is for research and development. Without this support much of the creativity in society in terms of skill and manpower gets lost or wasted. This book is original and groundbreaking. It adds a new dimension to the fields of international political economy and international political finance.

This book explores the changed political environment in the United States and what it means for the policies and programs benefiting the elderly and their families. It includes chapters written by distinguished contributors, such as Fernando Torres-Gil, Assistant Secretary for Aging, Clinton Administration, and discusses specific, realistic policy options for the future. New Directions in Old-Age Policies suggests that old-age policy in the changed political environment is a paradox of competing agendas: individual versus fiscal responsibility in policy choices, doing more for the elderly and their families with fewer public resources, and prioritizing the status qou or change in policy decisions for the elderly.

The purpose of this book is to break a number of the conventions of research texts by writing an academic text on methodology as a case study of building case studies, one that cites classic works in the field and contains autobiographical considerations throughout its account, one that narrates the conscious process of designing a framework from the range of philosophies that were involved in chronicling this topic.

How does the Chinese government deal with its social problems and set up its systems of social security, health care, environmental control, population control, and economic development? In this book, Chinese and Western experts analyze the nature of public policymaking in China, specific measures and alternatives, and various methodological approaches. Students, scholars, policymakers, and practitioners in political science and public administration will find this unique study an invaluable one for understanding the little-known public policy process in China.

This expert analysis opens with two chapters providing background on the study of public policy and political science in China today. Four chapters then define specific policy problems and measures to reform the social security system, health care administration, and environmental control and to promote economic development in relation to decentralization or centralization of government administration. Two chapters describe super-optimizing analysis and solutions in policy problems. The collection closes with an insider's perspective and a frequent visitor's perspective on public policy in China today.

The first study of the Churchill government of 1951-55 based on the Prime Minister's political papers (including his correspondence with President Eisenhower) and diaries and letters of Eden, Butler and other ministers. A picture emerges, not of a Government dominated by Churchill as in wartime, but of many sharp disagreements about foreign and domestic policy. But in spite of Churchill's stroke in 1953 and Eden's serious illness they emerged to win major diplomatic successes. Meanwhile Butler and Macmillan both attained leadership status.

Evaluation research has been subject to a tremendous boom in recent years advancing to become an important instrument for analysing the effectiveness of government programmes as well as reviewing the performance of and auditing both public and private sector organisations. The purpose of this book is to explore the advances that have taken place in evaluation research and to place these advances in their correct context thus providing a comprehensive and impelling overview of the subject. As well as exploring various concepts, theories and methods used in evaluation, this volume also presents the societal function of evaluation and the social processes associated with performing effective evaluations. By using examples from all over the world the books shows the typical way in which evaluations are processed and how they can be used in a variety of policy fields. It is a must-read for students and scholars with a background in evaluation as well as newcomers to the subject who will find this new contribution to the literature on the subject an invaluable tool.

The interconnectedness of the global environment and finiteness of the earth's natural resources require an increased understanding of environmental and natural-resource policy and politics in countries around the world. This is especially true of industrializing countries where widespread ecological disturbances and rapid exploitation of natural resources are taking place. Ecological Policy and Politics in Developing Countries provides an in-depth study of ecological problems, policies, and politics in ten major industrializing countries. Each chapter discusses the increasingly international context of domestic environmental policies and explores some of the powerful interests and institutional forces that contribute to ecological problems and shape the policies to deal with them in each country. The authors identify some of the major impediments to both welldesigned environmental policies and their effective implementation. The ten countries included here -- the Czech Republic, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Nigeria, Taiwan, Thailand, Slovakia, and Venezuela -- cover five continents, over half of the world's population and most of the major industrializing countries.

The book provides a comprehensive analysis of the international development policies of ten Central and Eastern European countries that joined the EU between 2004 and 2007. The contributors offer the first thorough overview of the 'new' EU member states' development cooperation programmes, placing them in a larger political and societal context.

This edited collection provides a series of accounts of workers' local experiences that reflect the ubiquity of work's digitalisation. Precarious gig economy workers ride bikes and drive taxis in China and Britain; call centre workers in India experience invasive tracking; warehouse workers discover that hidden data has been used for layoffs; and academic researchers see their labour obscured by a 'data foam' that does not benefit them. These cases are couched in historical accounts of identity and selfhood experiments seen in the Hawthorne experiments and the lineage of automation. This book will appeal to scholars in the Sociology of Work and Digital Labour Studies and anyone interested in learning about monitoring and surveillance, automation, the gig economy and the quantified self in the workplace.

Common wealth dividends are universal cash payments funded by fees on the private use of common resources like land, minerals, and the atmosphere as a carbon sink. Thomas Paine's 1797 pamphlet Agrarian Justice and Alaska's Permanent Fund Dividend are staples in the literature on Basic Income, but there is much more to common wealth dividends beyond these highlights, and common wealth dividends have a distinctive ethical justification and distinctive policy implications that merit discussion. This monograph, the most comprehensive study of common wealth dividends to date, will be of interest to students, teachers, and advocates of Basic Income and those in the field of environmental studies, including sustainable development, natural resource management, and climate policy.

This book makes extensive use of Soviet sources to provide the first full analysis of Moscow's ballistic missile defence policy from its origins to the most recent post-Soviet developments. It considers the Soviets' motivations for pursuing an anti-ballistic missile capability and the extent of their success, and reveals that ballistic missile defence policy was used by every political leadership from Krushchev to Yeltsin as a means of sending signals about Moscow's intentions to the West.