What are the political motivations behind firms' decisions to adopt policies that self-regulate their behavior in a manner that is beyond compliance with state, federal and local law? Public Forces and Private Politics in American Big Business advances a new understanding of the firm as a political actor that expands beyond the limited conceptualizations offered by economists and organization theorists. Timothy Werner develops a general theory of private politics that is tested using three case studies: the environment, gay rights and executive compensation. Using the conclusions of these case studies and an analysis of interviews with executives at 'Fortune 500' firms, Werner finds that politics can contribute significantly to our understanding of corporate decision-making on private policies and corporate social responsibility in the United States.

Saudi Vision 2030 and the National Transformation Plan 2020 are governmental initiatives to diversify Saudi Arabia's economy and implement nationwide social changes. Media and scholarly attention often describe the success or failure of these ambitious visions. This book shifts the focus to instead examine and evaluate the actual processes of domestic policymaking and governance that are being mapped out to achieve them. The book is unique in its breadth, with case studies from across different sectors including labour markets, defence, health, youth, energy and the environment. Each analyses the challenges that the country's leading institutions face in making, shaping and implementing the tailored policies that are being designed to change the country's future. In doing so, they reveal the factors that either currently facilitate or constrain effective and viable domestic policymaking and governance in the Kingdom. The study offers new and ground-breaking research based on the first-hand experiences of academics, researchers, policy-makers and practitioners who have privileged access to Saudi Arabia. At a time when analysis and reportage on Saudi Arabia usually highlights the 'high politics' of foreign policy, this book sheds light on the 'low politics' to show the extent to which Saudi policy, society, economics and culture is changing.

On April 4, 1864, Abraham Lincoln made a shocking admission about his presidency during the Civil War. "I claim not to have controlled events," he wrote in a letter, "but confess plainly that events have controlled me." Lincoln's words carry an invaluable lesson for wartime presidents, writes Andrew J. Polsky in this seminal book. As Polsky shows, when commanders-in-chief do try to control wartime events, more often than not they fail utterly.
In Elusive Victories, Polsky provides a fascinating study of six wartime presidents, drawing larger lessons about the limits of the power of the White House during armed conflict. He examines, in turn, Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama, showing how each gravely overestimated his power as commander-in-chief. In each case, these presidents' resources did not match the key challenges that recur from war to war. Both Lincoln and Johnson intervened in military operations, giving orders to specific units; yet both struggled with the rising unpopularity of their conflicts. Both Wilson and Bush entered hostilities with idealistic agendas for the aftermath, yet found themselves helpless to enact them. With insight and clarity, Polsky identifies overarching issues that will inform current and future policymakers. The single most important dynamic, he writes, is the erosion of a president's freedom of action. Each decision propels him down a path from which he cannot turn back. When George W. Bush rejected the idea of invading Iraq with 400,000 troops, he could not send such a force two years later as the insurgency spread. In the final chapter, Polsky examines Barack Obama's options in light of these conclusions, and considers how the experiences of the past might inform the world we face now.
Elusive Victories is the first book to provide a comprehensive account of presidential leadership during wartime, highlighting the key dangers that presidents have ignored at their peril.

Until now public-sector reform and evaluation have mostly been discussed as separate fields and by separate 'communities'. This book aims at closing the gap in the international debate and literature by exploring the connections, and the interdependence, which exist between public-sector reform and evaluation. This book aspires to bring the discussion to a new level.With an assembly of articles written by internationally renowned scholars and experts, Evaluation in Public-Sector Reform is unique in its broad geographical range. It explores countries such as Australia, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden and the USA, as well as categorically addressing countries which have so far remained conspicuously neglected in the international debate, including: the Netherlands, Germany and Italy as Continental European countries, and Japan and Latin America. This unusually broad focus brings to the fore the double function which evaluation has typically acquired in the context of public-sector reforms: its twofold mission is, on the one hand, to create transparency - promoting internal tools and procedures in public administration - and on the other, to produce external evaluative information, analyses and research on the processes and results of public-sector reforms. So, evaluation is experiencing a new ('third') wave, which is explicitly shown in this book. Academics, practitioners and students will be attracted to the book, first, for the broad regional scope of the overview presented on public-sector modernisation, and second, for exploring and highlighting evaluation in its 'Siamese-twin'-like connection with public-sector reform.

Taiwan has become a significant player on the world stage in many areas and has developed a distinct international profile and influence. Its pro-active foreign policy firmly reminds the world of a new political entity's achievement, aspirations and unfulfilled ambitions. This pioneering book discusses Taiwan's pragmatic diplomacy as a way of seeking legitimacy, survival and development for a burgeoning nation-state, against the dynamic changes in domestic and international scenes and tumultuous relations with China. With special reference to Taiwan's relations with Southeast Asia, a key region in Taiwan's international linkages, the book investigates three major pillars sustaining Taipei's unorthodox diplomacy. These three pillars are: Taiwan's investment and trade prowess, and the global networks built by its business elite; its special relations with global ethnic Chinese communities; and transnational activism of Taiwan's political, social and religious groups, in a so-called 'total diplomacy'. Political Scientists, students and international policy makers along with anyone interested in the changing role of China and Taiwan on the world stage will find this book lively and informative.

Learning from Science and Technology Policy Evaluation presents US and European experiences and insights on the evaluation of policies and programs to foster research, innovation, and technology (RIT). In recent years, policymakers have promoted RIT policies to accelerate scientific and technological development in emerging fields, encourage new patterns of research collaboration and commercialization, and enhance national and regional economic competitiveness. At the same time, budgetary pressures and new public management approaches have strengthened demands for RIT performance measurement and evaluation. The contributors - leading experts in science and technology policy and evaluation - analyze and contrast the need and demand for RIT performance measurement and evaluation within the US and European innovation and policy making systems. They assess current US and European RIT evaluation practices and methods in key areas, discuss applications of new evaluative approaches and consider strategies that could lead to improvements in RIT evaluation design and policies. This up-to-date volume examining current and leading-edge evaluation methodologies will make a valuable addition to the libraries of research and innovation policymakers and analysts, educators and students of science and technology policy.

Old men used to sit in corner stores and discuss business, work, and politics. Women used to come together and talk about the men as they took care of the home and children, or even more recently as a part of the workforce. Today, however, politics is a shunned topic, and conversation is all but dead. It is difficult to stay informed and talk with each other about life and politics.

It is even more difficult to stay informed on a technical topic such as energy and something as double-sided as politics. Yet it is imperative that people stay informed and well-connected to direct their government.

This book shows how the government (President, House and Senate, left and right) have destroyed the energy industry, taxed the middle class, and prevented well thinking, regular folks from solving our energy supply crisis. This book has thirty-three charts and graphs, most from bi-partisan or independent government sources to make a case for less government involvement in the energy industry. There are some astonishing revelations and a compelling case for reducing air emissions by 60 percent and creating jobs at the same time by building a particular type of new generation. This is a compelling argument that has never been presented before. I hope you enjoy the read.

The allocation of subsidies is often regarded as a fundamental role of governments in order to realise and maintain benefits to society. The possibility that public subsidies could actually be counterproductive contradicts common perception. The authors of this challenging book present recent evidence which, in their view, suggests that subsidies may in fact turn out to be a contemporary plague. Public Subsidies and Policy Failures provides extensive analysis of the theory and political economy of public support policies, demonstrating how subsidies can harm the environment, distort trade, and benefit those in society who do not require support. Furthermore, they often fail to achieve the desired and expected goals. The authors employ a theoretical framework to illustrate the impact of subsidies on developed and developing economies, as well as on international trade. They examine public subsidies in various natural resource and industrial sectors and discover that many turn out to be policy failures. They also investigate the various barriers and lock-in mechanisms by which subsidies become entrenched in economic and political structures. The book goes on to propose concrete actions, policy strategies and international 'Grand Deals' which will engender effective subsidy reforms. Scholars, researchers and students will welcome this rigorous investigation into the political and economic costs and benefits of public subsidies. International trade organisations and policymakers will also benefit from the strategic emphasis.

This unique book demonstrates how instruments of economics can be usefully employed to analyse social policy. The merits and limits of social policy programmes are discussed as answers to problems of market societies. Taking this enlightened approach, the author addresses key issues such as access to health services, pension programmes, unemployment, poverty and family support. Microeconomic tools are used to evaluate the rationale behind these programmes, underpinning the theoretical propositions with strong empirical research. Unusually, economic values are shown to harmonise with, rather than condemn, ideas of social protection. Providing information about institutional structures of social policy programmes in many countries, this book will be a must for academics and students interested in social policy and the welfare state. Furthermore, those who want to follow the political and scientific discussion of social policy matters will find this book invaluable.

American manufacturing is on life support--at least, that's what most people think. The exodus of jobs to China and other foreign markets is irreversible, and anything that is built here requires specialized skills the average worker couldn't hope to gain. Not so, says Dan DiMicco, chairman and former CEO of Nucor, America's largest steel company. He not only revived a major US manufacturing firm during a recession, but helped galvanize the flagging domestic steel industry when many of his competitors were in bankruptcy or headed overseas. In American Made, he takes to task the politicians, academics, and political pundits who, he contends, are exacerbating fears and avoiding simple solutions for the sake of nothing more than their own careers, and contrasts them with the postwar leaders who rebuilt Europe and Japan, put a man on the moon, and kept communism at bay. We need leaders of such resolve today, he argues, who can tackle a broken job-creation engine by restoring manufacturing to its central role in the U.S. economy--and cease creating fictitious service businesses where jobs evaporate after a year or two, as in a Ponzi scheme. With his trademark bluntness, DiMicco tackles the false promise of green jobs and the hidden costs of outsourcing. Along the way, he shares the lessons he's learned about good leadership, crisis management, and the true meaning of innovation, and maps the road back to robust economic growth, middle-class prosperity, and American competitiveness.

The main theme of this study is the political economy of policy reform in less developed countries and post-socialist countries. Given the complexity of economic development and transition, Joachim Ahrens views failures in policy reform, poor public sector management, rent-seeking, corruption, and over-centralization as systematic, though not exclusive, instances of institutional failure. This interdisciplinary study looks for ways of constructing effective market-enhancing governance structures that provide appropriate incentive systems to cope with such failures. No blueprint is offered, but the book provides a conceptual governance framework that can be applied in a comparative way to analyze economic, political, and social obstacles to policy and institutional reform. The concept is not only used to analyze the politico-institutional foundation of policy reform in East Asia and Eastern Europe, but it also allows to elaborate country specific strategies to craft institutional safeguards that help overcome impediments to development and transition. This innovative book, which overcomes the conventional perspective of a government-market dichotomy, will be of interest to researchers, students, policymakers and all those concerned with the impact of the dialectic interaction between political and economic forces on economic development.

Discussing global society entails discussing the predominant characteristics of knowledge-based activities in all walks of life. Its main characteristics are based on creativity, innovation, freedom, and networking. The emergence of such a society poses several challenges to all disciplines of social sciences. Within such a context, sociologists must have practical encounters to the theoretical, methodological, and empirical challenges imposed within contemporary global society. In this vein, studying creative cities from an interdisciplinary perspective helps provide critical readings of the phenomenon and the different levels of the concept in reality. The Handbook of Research on Creative Cities and Advanced Models for Knowledge-Based Urban Development provides global models and best practices of creative cities worldwide and illustrates different theoretical blueprints for the better understanding of contemporary global society. While defining key concepts of creative cities, global society, and creative class, the book also clarifies the main differences between hubs, parks, and precincts and their contributions to knowledge-based development. Covering topics that include knowledge economy, social inclusion, and urban mobility, this comprehensive reference is ideal for sociologists, urban planners/designers, political scientists, economists, anthropologists, historians, policymakers, researchers, academicians, and students.

At the UN Climate Negotiations in Copenhagen, 117 heads of state concluded that low-carbon development is necessary in order to combat climate change. However, they also understood that transition to a low-carbon economy requires the implementation of a portfolio of policies and programs - a challenging endeavour for any nation. This book addresses the need for information about factors impacting climate policy implementation, using as a case study one effort that is at the heart of attempts to create a low-carbon future: the European Emission Trading Scheme. It explores problems surrounding the implementation of the ETS, including the role of vested interests, the impact of design details and opportunities to attract long-term investments. It also shows how international climate cooperation can be designed to support the domestic implementation of low-carbon policies. This timely analysis of carbon pricing contains important lessons for all those concerned with the development of post-Copenhagen climate policy.

This volume provides an extensive overview of the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence for the Sustainable Development Goals. The authors are experts contributing with perspectives from different fields. The comprehensive collection of chapters illustrates the pressing governance problems related to using AI for the SDGs, and case studies describing how AI is advancing and can advance the achievement of the Goals. Students, scholars, and practitioners working on AI for SDGs, the ethical governance of AI, sustainability, and the fourth revolution can find this book a helpful reference.

The book discusses the failure of many African governments in providing the social needs of the masses, thereby placing the citizenry on the desperate quest for economic resources. Unfortunately, in many African States, mineral resources are owned, explored and marketed by the machinery of the state. The problem arises when the masses begin to challenge state access and ownership of resources that are domiciled within their ancestral land, communities, and constituencies. Often the challenge and resistance to state ownership of resources is generated by communal or group sense of exploitation, negligence and widespread poverty in the face of high resource endowment and waste by the government officials.  Paradoxically, in Niger Delta of Nigeria, as discussed in the book, the state has unleashed unlimited might upon all social groups and agitators, thereby leading to the increased act of taking arms by such groups. When the informal resource agitators succeed in arming themselves, they begin to demand social and environmental justice, thereby leading to mass armed conflict between them and the government security agencies. Sometimes, the confrontation could be between them and other rival local resource actors in the informal sector of their country’s economy bearing in mind that the resources within their jurisdiction have become the central determinant of national commonwealth.   It is at that state of desperado to control access, extraction and sale of natural resources in a State, by different armed groups that the process of natural resources extraction qualifies as the most visible cause of conflicts and crises around the African continent that is the centrepiece of the book. This is quite understandable given that mineral resource is a gift of nature; and nature is that phenomenon that every human, group and nation claim to represent, or, believe to represent them.