This book explores the reasons behind the variation in national responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. In doing so, it furthers the policy studies scholarship through an examination of the effects of policy styles on national responses to the pandemic. Despite governments being faced with the same threat, significant variation in national responses, frequently of contradictory nature, has been observed. Implications about responses inform a broader class of crises beyond this specific context. The authors argue that trust in government interacts with policy styles resulting in different responses and that the acute turbulence, uncertainty, and urgency of crises complicate the ability of policymakers to make sense of the problem. Finally, the book posits that unless there is high trust between society and the state, a decentralized response will likely be disastrous and concludes that while national responses to crises aim to save lives, they also serve to project political power and protect the status quo. This text will be of key interest to scholars and students of public policy, public administration, political science, sociology, public health, and crisis management/disaster management studies.

Throughout the last decade, the 'gig economy' has emerged as one of the most significant developments in the world of work. As a novel, hyper-flexible form of labour, gig work features a uniquely fragmented working arrangement wherein independent workers partner with digital platform organisations to provide a range of on-demand services to customers. Work in the Gig Economy: A Research Overview provides a concise overview to the key themes and debate that encompass the gig economy literature. It covers five core themes: an introduction to gig work; classification issues; the role of technology; the experiences of gig workers; and the future of gig work. As an emerging and diverse research field, contributions stem from an array of perspectives including psychology, sociology, human resource management, legal studies, and technology management. The chapters synthesise the most prominent insights into this emerging field, key thinking on the complex relationships and conditions found in gig work, and the most significant issues to be addressed as the gig economy continues to develop. A critical introduction for students, scholars and reflective professionals and policymakers, this book provides much needed direction through the rapidly growing and expansive body of research on work in the gig economy.

This edited collection brings together researchers from education, human geography, sociology, social policy and political theory in order to consider the idea of the pedagogical state as a means of understanding the strategies employed to re-educate citizens. The book aims to critically interrogate the cultural practices of governing citizens in contemporary liberal societies. Governing through pedagogy can be identified as an emerging tactic by which both state agencies and other non-state actors manage, administer, discipline, shape, care for and enable liberal citizens. Hence, discourses of active citizenship, participatory democracy, community empowerment, personalised responsibility, behaviour change and community cohesion are productively viewed through the conceptual lens of the pedagogical state. Chapters consider the spaces of schools, universities, the voluntary sector, civil society organisations, parenting initiatives, the media, government departments and state agencies as fruitful empirical sites through which pedagogy is worked and re-worked.

This book was originally published as a special issue of Citizenship Studies.

Philosophy, Society and the Cunning of History in Eastern Europe charts the intellectual landscape of twentieth century East-Central Europe under the unifying theme of 'precariousness' as a mode of historical existence. Caught between empires, often marked by catastrophic historic events and grand political failures, the countries of East-Central Europe have for a long time developed a certain intellectual self-representation, a culture that not only helps them make some sense of such misfortunes, but also protects them somehow from a collapse into nihilism. An interdisciplinary study of this sophisticated culture of survival and endurance has been long overdue. Not only is it charming and worth studying in its own right, but with the re-integration of the 'new Europe' into the 'old' one and the emergence on the 'Western' European intellectual scene of many authors from the 'East,' such a culture will also shape the European mind of the 21st century. This volume decodes and explores this culture of 'precariousness' from the complementary angles of philosophy, political theory, intellectual history and literary studies. Expert contributors look at a wide range of topics, from philosophical martyrdom to collective suffering to geographical fatalism, and explore the works of key authors in the field including Cioran, Kolakowski, Kertesz, Bauman and Zizek. This book was originally published as a special issue of Angelaki: The Journal of the Theoretical Humanities.

The last decade has seen a growing focus on producing evidence-based policy and practice in governments around the world - with a specific focus on causal evidence of the impacts of a particular policy on outcomes for citizens. The UK is a key example of this, with the establishment of 14 What Works Centres which collate, create and translate evidence in different policy and practice domains. In this book, leaders, researchers and practitioners from these institutions share insights to help understand what has worked so far in the Centres, and what could be done better in future. It offers guidance to policy makers and funders looking to establish new centres, and for academics looking to create similar institutions that can have a practical impact on the improvement of the world around us.

This book assesses the role of employers in the development of welfare state and labour market institutions. Building on an in-depth analysis of Germany, a market economy known to often provide economic benefits to firms, this book explores one of the most contested issues in the comparative and historical literature on the welfare state.

In a departure from existing employer-centered explanations, the author applies new empirical data to contend that the variation in acceptance of social reform depends more on changes in the types of political challenges faced by employers, than on changes in the type of institutions considered economically beneficial. Covering major reforms spanning more than a century of institutional development in unemployment insurance, accident insurance, pensions, collective bargaining, and codetermination, this book argues that employers support social policy as a means to contain political outcomes that would have been worse, including labour unrest and more radical reform plans. Using new and controversial findings on the role of employers in welfare state development, this book considers the conditions for a peaceful coexistence of a generous welfare state and the business world.

The Role of Business in the Development of the Welfare State and Labor Markets in Germany will be of interest to students and scholars of welfare and social policy politics, political economy and European politics.

This book discusses conservative education policies since 1979 by referring to beliefs, values and attitudes. It relates ideology to policies and provides some background about the years before 1979 definitions of Conservatism and descriptions of Tory beliefs and traditional Conservative views on education. The second part of the book provides a brief outline of the years between the 1944 Education Act and 1979.

Throughout United States history, and particularly from the 1930s through the 1960s, education was a sensitive political issue which preoccupied Congresses, Presidents and interest groups. By the time of John F Kennedy 's Presidency federal aid to education was all but inevitable but the disproportionate influence of federal aid adversaries on the House Rule Committee would permit the Kennedy Administration no margin of error. There remained in this subject an abundance of complications and contradictions. This volume addresses the central questions of Kennedy versus Congress and Kennedy versus Kennedy, using a wide range of sources to give a comprehensive focus to this area of political education.

The editors have compiled this critical and comparative study of changes which took place in the New Zealand education system in the second half of the twentieth century. For other Western societies who have felt the impact of New Right policies the New Zealand case is interesting because it provides some indication of how policies of decentralization in education might be used to develop egalitarian and democratic educational policies. In recent years there have been major changes to educational systems in the Western world. Often these changes have been justified by reference to successful educational practices in other countries. However, it is not always possible simply to abstract educational practices from one context and apply them in another successfully. Moreover claims that policies in one country are more successful than those in another have to be treated cautiously: there are always problems in making valid comparisons between the educational performances of different countries. It is important, therefore, that critical and comparative studies are made of educational systems which take full account of the contexts in which they are embedded.

Originally published in 1968, Richard Chapman's pioneering work illuminates the process of decision making by analysis of a particular example: the decision to raise the Bank Rate in September, 1957. The legal responsibility for a decision may be easy to pinpoint; in this case the Court of Directors of the Bank of England bear this but six weeks of negotiation separate their formal statement from the Chancellor of the Exchequer's advice to the Treasury to consider effecting 'a measure of deflation in the economy'. These six weeks of consultation between the Bank and the Treasury proceeding in 'the pattern of a formal dance' are analysed and a necessary by-product of this case-study is a closer understanding of how the Treasury and the Bank of England work together. These details are derived mainly from the evidence, and deductions from it, presented to the Bank Rate Tribunal and the Radcliffe Committee on the Working of the Monetary System. Professor Chapman gives his particular findings about decision making a wider application still by forming reasoned hypotheses and informed generalisations about public administration in Britain.

Because marine governance in most countries is sectoral, maritime policies are frequently fragmented, reactive, and even contradictory, meaning that marine resources are underutilized and poorly protected. To avoid these problems, the concept of integrated national maritime policy (INMP) has been developed. This book examines this concept, analysing its current application in four countries Australia, Canada, UK and USA whilst discussing at length how it might be applied to Saudi Arabia.

Based on extensive fieldwork carried out in Saudi Arabia including interviews with officials in government departments with maritime responsibilities, and a survey administered to 230 stakeholders the book offers a unique insight into INMP in the Kingdom. The book provides a practical template for developing the political will and civil constituency in Saudi Arabia necessary for the introduction of INMP. In setting out in detail its benefits, this book could help build the momentum in Saudi Arabia required to implement the concept as well as attract other countries to do the same. A significant contribution to the growing literature on ocean governance, this book will be of great importance to policy makers and scholars of Middle Eastern studies, marine governance and comparative politics.

Politics and the Environment has established itself as one of the most comprehensive textbooks in this area. This new edition has been completely revised and updated whilst retaining the features and the theory-to-practice focus which made the first two editions so successful.

This text is designed to introduce students to the key concepts and issues which surround environmental problems and their political solutions. The authors investigate the people, movements and organisations that form and implement these policies, and explore the barriers which hinder successful introduction of international environmental politics.

The 3rd edition has been expanded to include:

• The shift in focus in environmental politics from sustainable development to climate change governance
• An extensive discussion on climate change: including institutional, national and global responses in the aftermath of the Kyoto protocol
• An increased international focus with more case studies from the UK, Europe, Australia and North America
• More discussion of global environmental social movements: including the US environmental organisations, in particular the Green Party and the environmental justice groups

This textbook is an invaluable and accessible resource for undergraduates studying environmental politics.

The fully revised and updated new edition of this textbook continues to provide the most accessible overview of the main approaches in the study of public policy. It seeks to review the most common and widely used frameworks in the study of policy analysis: institutions groups and networks society and the economy individual interests ideas. The book explains each one, offers constructive criticisms and explores their claims in the light of a variety of American, British and European examples. Arguing that no one framework offers a comprehensive explanation of public policy; John suggests a synthesis based on different aspects of the approaches, introducing concepts/approaches of advocacy coalitions, punctuated equilibrium and evolution as more effective ways to understand public policy. Combining both a clear summary of debates in public policy and a new and original approach to the subject, this book remains essential reading for students of public policy and policy analysis.

Based on interviews with key actors in the policy-making process, this book maps the changes in education policy and policy making in the Thatcherite decade. The focus of the book is the 1988 Education Reform Act, its origins, purposes and effects, and it looks behind the scenes at the priorities of the politicians, civil servants and government advisers who were influential in making changes. Using direct quotations from senior civil servants and former secretaries of state it provides a fascinating insight into the way in which policy is made. The book focuses on real-life political conflicts, examining the way in which education policy was related to the ideal of society projected by Thatcherism. It looks in detail at the New Right government advisers and think tanks; the industrial lobby, addressing issues such as the National Curriculum, national testing and City Technical Colleges. The author sets these important issues within a clear theoretical framework which illuminates the whole process of policy making.

How do policymakers, businesses and civil society in India approach the challenge of climate change? What do they believe global climate negotiations will achieve and how? And how are Indian political and policy debates internalizing climate change? Relatively little is known globally about internal climate debate in emerging industrializing countries, but what happens in rapidly growing economies like India's will increasingly shape global climate change outcomes. This Handbook brings together prominent voices from India, including policymakers, politicians, business leaders, civil society activists and academics, to build a composite picture of contemporary Indian climate politics and policy. One section lays out the range of positions and substantive issues that shape Indian views on global climate negotiations. Another delves into national politics around climate change. A third looks at how climate change is beginning to be internalized in sectoral policy discussions over energy, urbanization, water, and forests. The volume is introduced by an essay that lays out the critical issues shaping climate politics in India, and its implications for global politics. The papers show that, within India, climate change is approached primarily as a developmental challenge and is marked by efforts to explore how multiple objectives of development, equity and climate mitigation can simultaneously be met. In addition, Indian perspectives on climate negotiations are in a state of flux. Considerations of equity across countries and a focus on the primary responsibility for action of wealthy countries continue to be central, but there are growing voices of concern on the impacts of climate change on India. How domestic debates over climate governance are resolved in the coming years, and the evolution of India's global negotiation stance are likely to be important inputs toward creating shared understandings across countries in the years ahead, and identify ways forward. This volume on the Indian experience with climate change and development is a valuable contribution to both purposes.

The modern state -- First and Third Worlds alike -- pushes tirelessly to expand mass education and to deepen the schools' effect upon children. First published in 1991, Growing-Up Modern explores why, how, and with what actual effects state actors so vehemently pursue this dual political agenda. Bruce Fuller first delves into the motivations held by politicians, education bureaucrats and civic elites as they earnestly seek to spread schooling to younger children, older adults and previously disenfranchised groups. Fuller argues that the school provides an institutional stage on which political actors signal their ideals and the coming of greater modernity; broadening membership in the polity, promising mass opportunity in the wage sector, intensifying modern (bureaucratic) forms of school management, and deepening a presumed commitment to the child's individual development. Fuller advances a theory of the fragile state' where Western political expectations and organisations are placed within pluralistic Third World settings, using southern Africa as an example of the dilemmas faced by the central state.

In this enlightening new look at one of our most successful, most popular, and least understood presidents, bestselling author and former Reagan aide Dinesh D'Souza shows how this "ordinary" man was able to transform the political landscape in a way that made a permanent impact on America and the world. Ronald Reagan is a thoughtful and honest assessment of how this underestimated president became a truly extraordinary leader.

Reactions to pandemics are unlike any other global emergency; with an emphasis on withdrawal and containment of the sight of the infected. Dealing with the historical and conceptual background of diseases in politics and international relations, this volume investigates the global political reaction to pandemic scares. By evaluating anxiety and the political response to pandemics as a legitimisation of the modern state and its ability to protect its citizens from infectious disease, Understanding the Politics of Pandemic Scares examines the connection between international health governance and the emerging Western liberal world order. The case studies, including SARS, Bird Flu and Swine Flu, provide an understanding of how the world order, global health governance and people's bodies interact to produce scares and panics. Aaltola introduces an innovative new concept of politosomatics' based on the relationship that links individual stress, strain, and fear with global circulations of power to evaluate increasingly global bio-political environments in which pandemics exist. This book will be of interest to students and researchers of International Relations, Global Health, International Public Health and Global Health governance.

As a book on public policy, this book is unique in addressing explicitly the role of human nature. Only with a good understanding of human nature can policy makers address their foremost needs and anticipate how people may respond to specific designs in policy. This way policy makers can avoid "unintended consequences." The book also provides a new perspective on the meaning of public interest, which is based on intellectual roots dating back to J.S.Mill and more recently Harsanyi and Rawls.

Traditionally, economists have referred to either the Hicksian criterion or the Kaldorian criterion as the yardstick to whether a policy is welfare enhancing, not realizing that both of these criteria fail abjectly in producing a convincing test for welfare improvement. This is because ex post, typically some people will gain and some people will lose from any policy. The author argues for an alternative, ex ante welfare increase criterion that is based on how people would assess a policy if they were completely impartial and totally ignored their personal interests. It applies the principles to key policy concerns such as health policy, tort law reform, education and cultural policy, and pension reform.

The healthcare reform proposals in the book illustrate the application of the principles. The author proposes a basic protection plan under which standard basic healthcare services are priced the same whether they are provided by public or private caregivers at levels that can contain both demand side and supply side moral hazard. Annual eligible healthcare expenses are capped to alleviate worries. A "Lifetime Healthcare Supplement" that includes an element of risk sharing adds to patients choice and protection without compromising fiscal sustainability.

Finance, Governance and Economic Performance in Pacific and South East Asia focuses on key aspects of government policy, financial systems and their links to the economic miracle in Pacific and South East Asia. It also considers the financial crises that have affected those economies and their economic progress. The contributors examine the success of governance in the form of government involvement with the macroeconomy and with the deregulation of markets. Attention is drawn not only to the need for further liberalisation, but also the need to introduce regulatory structures to produce orderly markets. The book includes contributions on financial market opening in developing countries, the impact of FDI on the economic growth of the ASEAN economies, governance, human capital, labour and endogenous growth in Asia Pacific and lessons from the financial crisis as well as an overview of finance, development and growth. This book will be welcomed by those interested in financial economics and reform, the recent Asian crisis, and growth and development in the region.

This volume draws together material from The Japan Chronicle, The Japan Gazette and the China Treaty Port foreign papers, all of which are of great historical value. The Japan and China Treaty Port foreign papers frequently contain important articles translated from the vernacular press. These original articles were often written by leading politicians and statesmen - Count Mutsu, Count Hayashi, Tang-shao-Yi, Wu-ting-Fang and Liang-chi-Chao were all prolific contributors. Written with the prospect of World War II looming, the rapid changes in the Far East happened almost without the West realising. This volume makes available key documents and analyses Japanese foreign policy with a view to directing UK handling of a delicate diplomatic situation in the Far East.

First published in 1991, this book uses a property rights perspective to analyse why there is such widespread resistance to change in the Soviet Economic System. Many within the ruling stratum benefit considerably from their positions, particularly in terms of access to goods and services. In an original conclusion Jan Winiecki argues that a cost-effective way of removing the resistance of the parasitic ruling stratum would be a system of compensatory payments.

European policies increasingly affect the daily decisions of European firms. Better understanding of the motivation and reasoning behind policies that affect industry is therefore essential to those interested in or affected by industrial policy. Industry and the European Union explores different European policy areas, focusing on aspects that are of particular importance for business. This important volume provides researchers, students and lecturers of European studies, international business and international political economy with an insight into how relevant European policies affect industry. The book will also offer all involved with industrial policy - including business associations, chambers of commerce and business information centres, as well as policymakers at regional, national and international levels - a unique and authoritative examination of industrial policy.

An engaging, inclusive history of the NHS, exploring its surprising survival—and the people who have kept it running   In recent decades, a wave of appreciation for the NHS has swept across the UK. Britons have clapped for frontline workers and championed the service as a distinctive national achievement. All this has happened in the face of ideological opposition, marketization, and workforce crises. But how did the NHS become what it is today?   In this wide-ranging history, Andrew Seaton examines the full story of the NHS. He traces how the service has changed and adapted, bringing together the experiences of patients, staff from Britain and abroad, and the service’s wider supporters and opponents. He explains not only why it survived the neoliberalism of the late twentieth century but also how it became a key marker of national identity. Seaton emphasizes the resilience of the NHS—perpetually “in crisis� and yet perennially enduring—as well as the political values it embodies and the work of those who have tirelessly kept it afloat.

Climate change is currently at the centre of scientific and political debate, and the need for well-designed international climate policies is widely recognised. Despite this, the complexity of both the climate change problem and the international negotiation process has resulted in a large number of outstanding issues which still require attention. The authors of this book attempt to address and resolve some of the problems which have remained on the climate change agenda, without serious action, for far too long.The authors contribute to the many discussions on international climate policy and provide an in-depth analysis of the main characteristics of the problem of climate change. They highlight the various potential solutions to the problem and their consequences, and look at the development and implementation of the international climate regime. Adopting a long-term perspective, they pay particular attention to the economic, institutional, political and social aspects of climate change. Issues in International Climate Policy is a comprehensive book which makes the complicated themes and issues accessible to a wider audience. It will be invaluable reading for all scientists, policymakers and environmental economists with a serious interest in climate change and the negotiation process.