Partisan rancor and the public exchange of incivilities among members of Congress have become rampant on Capitol Hill and in the media studios since the 1980s. Polarization between mutually repugnant congressional factions has reached the point that the legislative process is paralyzed and democracy is hobbled. Ahuja documents the rise of incivility and partisan shrillness in Congress, traces its complex causes, identifies its adverse consequences for the functioning of democratic government, and prescribes remedies to curb destructive partisanship and restore dignity and efficiency to the workings of Congress. Partisan rancor and the public exchange of incivilities between members of Congress have become rampant on Capitol Hill and in the media studios since the 1980s. Polarization between mutually repugnant congressional factions has reached the point that the legislative process is paralyzed and democracy is hobbled. Ahuja documents the rise of incivility and the partisan shrillness in Congress, traces its complex causes, identifies its adverse consequences for the functioning of democratic government, and prescribes remedies to curb destructive partisanship and restore dignity and efficiency to the workings of Congress. Ahuja catalogs the most shocking examples of the abrasive new confrontational style as practiced by the likes of Gingrich, Burton, and Pelosi in the House, and by Boxer, Santorum, and Lott in the Senate. He contrasts this new style of congressional comportment with the decorum and pragmatism of the old style exemplified by such leaders as Foley, Hamilton, and Michel in the House, and by Dirksen, Mansfield, and Moynihan in the Senate. Ahuja identifies six causes of the rise of partisanship and incivility among congressional members: *Political redistricting and imposition of party discipline. *rising influence of adversarial special-interest groups. *adversarial format fostered by the 24-hour news cycle. *rising use of short-term consultants. *increasing insertion of wedge issues. *avoidance of social interaction among opposing members. The author prescribes measures for restoring civility and moderating partisanship in Congress: reapportioning legislative districts; restricting the influence of consultants, media, and interest groups; and regularizing social interaction among congressional opponents.

This cutting edge collection examines Japan's population issue, exploring how declining demographic trends are affecting Japan's social structure, specifically in the context of Greater Tokyo, life infrastructure, public finance and the economy. Considering the failures of past Japanese policies from the perspective of population, national land, and politics, it argues that the inability of past administrations to develop a long-term and comprehensive policy has exacerbated the population crisis. This text identifies key negative chain reactions that have stemmed from this policy failure, notably the effect of population decline on future economic growth and public finances and the impact of shrinking municipalities on social and community infrastructure to support quality of life. It also highlights how population decline can precipitate inter-generational conflict, and impact on the strength of the state and more widely on Japan's international status. Japan is on the forefront of the population problem, which is expected to affect many of the world's advanced industrial economies in the 21st century. Based on the study of policy failures, this book makes recommendations for effective population policy - covering both 'mitigation' measures to encourage a recovery in the depopulation process as well as 'adaptation' measures to maintain and improve living standards - and provides key insights into dealing with the debilitating effects of population decline.

Media Power, Media Politics, Second Edition, examines the role and influence of the media in every sphere of American politics. Organized thematically, the book analyzes the relationship between the media and key institutions, political actors, and nongovernmental entities, as well as the role of the new media, media ethics, and foreign policy coverage. Written clearly and concisely by leading scholars in the field, the chapters serve as broad overviews to the issues, while discussion questions and suggestions for further reading encourage deeper inquiry. Updated throughout, the second edition includes expanded coverage of the evolving role of new media, a new chapter on terrorism and the media, and new pedagogical exercises and featured interviews with journalists, bloggers, and media advisers.

Young people, crime and delinquency are words that are commonly linked in public perception and young people are often blamed for social ills. Their deviancy and threat to social control has been held to be a social fact from Plato to today. This book subjects that 'fact' to critical examination through consideration of youth justice systems in six different countries, drawing on sociological and criminological analysis as well as expert practitioner opinion. This book's comparative, cultural approach allows for consideration of the impact of new and emergent systems of communication and discourse and considers how these may impact future constructions of delinquency at a local and global level. Understanding changing constructions of delinquency, the systems and responses we already have and their strengths and weaknesses enables critique about what we do and what we know, and allows us to imagine how it might be otherwise.

Until recently, historians have defined the Commonwealth Caribbean territories by their relationship with Britian and have attributed little importance to American relations with these territories. Fraser provides a reinterpretation of U.S. policy toward the West Indies since 1940. He establishes links between Afro-West Indian groups and African Americans who successfully influenced both American and British policy in the West Indies. Thus, he explores a little-understood and little-studied aspect of American policy toward Britain's disengagement from empire after 1945 and the way decolonization in the Caribbean helped to shape the pattern and strategy of the Anglo-American relationship from Roosevelt to Kennedy. The book will force a rethinking of American policy toward the West Indies since 1940, the impact of race on American foreign policy, and the historiography of inter-American relations.

This introduction to social theory addresses key issues in sociological, political, and cultural analysis through the unifying theme of social conflict, cohesion, and consent. Structured around the major theorists in the field, Joseph examines such thinkers as Marx and Engels, Gramsci, Durkheim, Parsons, Weber, The Frankfurt School, and Foucault. Through their ideas, core social concepts and key features of modern society are introduced, including structure and agency, ideology, discourse and legitimation, the state, the economy, and civil society. Dealing with both contemporary social debates and established theoretical approaches, Social Theory serves as a uniquely useful introduction for both politics and sociology students.

Alexander is among the most experienced observers of Latin American politics and has been an active correspondent with major figures of the region for decades. In this volume, he provides interview transcripts and letters from most of the recent presidents of Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, and Venezuela. With some of the correspondence and interviews extending over a considerable period of time, the shifting views and attitudes as well as the comments on other key players makes for fascinating insights into the politics of Latin America.

This volume is a continuation of Alexander's earlier "The ABC Presidents "(Praeger, 1992). This material is of considerable importance to political scientists and other Latin American Studies researchers.

The Supreme Court's intervention in the 2000 election will shape American law and democracy long after George W. Bush has left the White House. This vitally important book brings together a broad range of preeminent legal scholars who address the larger questions raised by the Supreme Court's actions. Did the Court's decision violate the rule of law? Did it inaugurate an era of super-politicized jurisprudence? How should Bush v. Gore change the terms of debate over the next round of Supreme Court appointments?

The contributors -- Bruce Ackerman, Jack Balkin, Guido Calabresi, Steven Calabresi, Owen Fiss, Charles Fried, Robert Post, Margaret Jane Radin, Jeffrey Rosen, Jed Rubenreid, Cass Sunstein, Laurence Tribe, and Mark Tushnet -- represent a broad political spectrum. Their reactions to the case are varied and surprising, filled with sparkling argument and spirited debate. This is a must-read book for thoughtful Americans everywhere.

This volume examines the shift in the emphasis of the United States Congress from a deliberative body to a focal point for political pressures. The Executive, other federal departments, special interest groups, and professional lobbyists exert increasing and, what some believe is undue, influence on Congress. The result has been to distract the Congress from its primary responsibilities of representation and law making. Invisible handshakes with special interests and political action committees--as opposed to study and deliberation--have an increasing impact on the drafting of legislation. This work analyzes these and other problems and offers some recommendations for change. It also gives a firsthand account of some of the important debates and issues that have shaped Congressional procedures.

This work will be of interest to scholars in U.S. history and government, political science, and contemporary issues. It will also be of interest to legislators at all levels of government.

Comparative Public Policy provides the first truly systematic and comprehensive account of the transformation of the post-war state in the advanced countries of the Western world. The author generates new research findings which show how the economic, social and political changes of the post-war era have reshaped modern public policy across the OECD region. Francis G. Castles examines the growth of big government and the emergence of the modern welfare state and identifies ways in which the role of the state has impacted on labour markets and such personal issues as home ownership, fertility and divorce. He explains why the trajectory of policy transformation has varied from country to country, with immediate post-war policy laggards sometimes becoming leaders, and erstwhile policy pioneers on occasions stagnating. This innovative book presents a wealth of background data and a huge range of new findings, covering 12 policy areas in 21 advanced industrialized countries over a period of more than three decades. Comparative Public Policy is essential reading for students and scholars who wish to understand the dynamics of contemporary social and political development.

The book takes as its premise the argument that diverse learner groups are a fact of demographic change that should be considered foundational in the preparation of teachers rather than be problematized as a challenge. It promotes the idea of teacher education for inclusive education based on a consideration of what it means to educate all children together. Divided into four parts, the book considers key issues for teacher education, teacher agency, teacher education for diversity, and a research agenda for the future. In today's world, the demographic profile of students in schools is more complex than ever before, and the increasing cultural, linguistic and developmental diversity of today's classrooms, along with the pressure to achieve high academic standards for everybody has significant implications for how classroom teachers should be prepared to meet these demands. This book advances a new understanding of inclusive education that addresses the limitations inherent in current approaches that problematize differences between learner groups by promoting a view of difference as an aspect of human individuality. It considers the implications of the research evidence underpinning teacher education for diversity and makes suggestions for future research in the field.

This book deals with not just complex linkages, interactions and exchanges that form the relationship between the economic activities, human society and the ecosystems, but also the influences and impacts that each causes on the other. In recent times, this ecology-economy-society interface has received unprecedented attention within the broader environment-development discourse. The volume is in honour of Kanchan Chopra, one of the pioneers of research in these areas in India. She has recently been awarded the coveted Kenneth Boulding Award by the International Society for Ecological Economics (ISEE) and is the first Asian to receive it. The four sub-themes of the book reflect some of the important areas in the environment-development discourse - sustainability of development, institutions and environmental governance, environment and well-being, and ecosystem and conservation. Within each of the sub-themes, the policy and the practice as well as the macro and micro aspects are addressed. With contributions mainly from ecological economists and ecologists, the book's approach is interdisciplinary, both in spirit and content, reflecting the honoree's work, which went not just beyond the mainstream ideology of economics, but also the way she listened to ideas from disciplines like ecology and sociology. The volume also includes two reflective essays on academic life and works of Kanchan Chopra. The book is a valuable resource for students, teachers, researchers, practitioners and policy makers in the areas of development economics, ecological economics, environmental economics and related disciplines such as conservation, development, ecology, economics, environment, governance, health, sociology and public policy.

This book examines the intersection of globalisation and intercultural education by focusing on the trajectory of education policy: from development to adoption and implementation.The centrality of the nation-state has been constrained by a wide range of new socio-cultural, political and economic phenomena over the past decade such as globalisation, Europeanisation, modernisation, and global recession. The main implications of these developments have only just begun to unfold, and continue to be debated by policy-makers, academics, and educators. However, it is widely accepted that global socio-political and economic developments have allowed supranational institutions, functioning across nation states rather than within them, to perform many state functions with regards to education policy development and implementation. Yet, much remains unknown (and under-researched) about the impact of these still-nascent developments on the trajectory of intercultural education. This book sets out to fill in this gap by examining the intersection of globalisation and intercultural education through macro-micro integration. After all, for modern societies to establish social cohesion, education research should examine issues of citizenship, democracy, and intercultural education under the lens of globalisation.

A multi-level analysis of Pakistani human bombs reveals that suicide terrorism is caused by multiple factors with perceived effectiveness, vengeance, poverty, and religious fundamentalism playing a varying role at the individual, organizational, and environmental levels. Nationalism and resistance to foreign occupation appear as the least relevant factors behind suicide terrorism in Pakistan. The findings of this research are based on a multi-level analysis of suicide bombings, incorporating both primary and secondary data. In this study, the author also decodes personal, demographic, economic and marital characteristics of Pakistani human bombs. On average, Pakistani suicide bombers are the youngest but the deadliest in the world, and more than 71 percent of their victims are civilians. Earlier concepts of a weak link linking terrorism with poverty and illiteracy do not hold up against the recent data gathered on the post-9/11 generation of fighters in Pakistan (in suicidal and non-suicidal categories), as the majority of fighters from a variety of terrorist organizations are economically deprived and semi-literate. The majority of Pakistani human bombs come from rural backgrounds, with very few from major urban centres. Suicide bombings in Pakistan remain a male-dominated phenomenon, with most bombers being single men. Demographic profiling of Pakistani suicide bombers, based on a random sample of 80 failed and successful attackers, dents the notion that American drone strikes play a primary role in promoting terrorism in all its manifestations. The study concludes that previous scholarly attempts to explain suicide bombings are largely based on Middle Eastern data, thus their application in the case of Pakistan can be misleading. The Pakistani case study of suicide terrorism demonstrates unique characteristics, hence it needs to be understood and countered through a context-specific and multi-level approach.

Over the past decade, the public's opinion of Congress has declined--election after election--to record lows. Mark J. Rozell examines the electorate's ongoing disgust with its legislature and the reasons for it. Putting recent Congresses in historical perspective, he notes that our modern representatives are actually "less" corrupt than those of the past, due in large measure to increased public scrutiny and ongoing tightening of ethics and conflict of interest rules. Still, the public remains skeptical, indeed hostile, toward that most representative of our national institutions. Rozell finds that much of the blame goes to highly negative press coverage of the Congress, and government in general, and that while Congress has always been a favorite target of critics and comedians, healthy skepticism has now largely been replaced by a debilitating cynicism that undermines the foundations of representative government. A major study which will be of interest to scholars and students of American politics, government, and media.

This work treats presidential leadership as persuasive communication. The major theories of presidential leadership found in the literature establish the central role of persuasion, and introduce the interpretive systems approach to political communication as a theoretical framework for the study of presidential leadership as persuasion. Case studies examine recent presidents' use of public persuasion to perform their leadership functions. Particular attention is devoted to coalitional constraints on presidential pardoning rhetoric, presidential leadership through the politics of division, the political significance of conflicting political narratives, the sermonic nature of much 20th-century presidential discourse, the difficulties inherent in persuading the public to make sacrifices, and the dangers of relying too heavily on public rhetoric. The concluding chapter considers the rhetoric that contributed to the demise of the Bush presidency, the election of Bill Clinton, and the challenges facing the Clinton presidency.

England's capture of Canada in 1760 was the culmination of the French and Indian War and of a century and a half of conflict between Britain and France for control of the North American continent. During that long period, there were several English military efforts to evict the French, but all failed. Therefore, at the war's start, few among the English entertained serious thoughts of totally evicting France from all of Canada. Nor did the French consider such a result a serious possibility. Drawing heavily on primary sources, Brecher tells the dramatic story of why the war's outcome differed so sharply from original expectations. He does so from the vantage point of France, while demonstrating in greater depth than has been available to date the linkages between France's American policy and involvement in the Seven Years' War.

Brecher provides an unprecedently full-scale analysis of the political, military, social, and economic conditions of mid-18th-century France and its North American colony, New France. That analysis also examines the direct connection between those internal conditions and the results for France of the war that ended in 1763. In doing so, Brecher assesses France's military strategy and major battles in Europe and America, as well as the diplomatic goals Versailles set for itself in the conduct of the war. Further, he describes why France concurred in leaving not only Canada, but also the vast Louisiana territory, to be divided between England and France's belated wartime ally, Bourbon Spain. Finally, Brecher explains the longer-term implications of the war for North American development and for the future of France. This is an important study for students and scholars of French and colonial American history and for the broad reading public, as well as those interested in the more recent Quebec problem.

Prepared by a leading Kennedy scholar, this volume is the most definitive and up-to-date bibliography on Kennedy. Unlike the earlier efforts of the 1970s and early 1980s, it covers the primary sources on Kennedy and his presidency, including letters and other manuscript material, oral histories, and both published and unpublished government documents. It also contains the scholarly secondary literature including books, articles, and unpublished doctoral dissertations and masters theses on the Kennedy era. Finally, it includes most of the contemporary articles from various magazines and journals. No other publication contains an array of sources on Kennedy and his presidency as comprehensive and detailed as this volume. The sources are annotated with descriptive or evaluative statements. Having perused the vast majority of the publications covered, the author also suggests the work that still needs to be done on Kennedy and his presidency.

This book is an examination of the manner in which American presidents respond to pandemics and other public health crises. Skidmore argues that presidential performance in dealing with emergencies and pandemics varies, but those who are informed, focused, and confident that government can work are most likely to be successful. As an example, Gerald Ford's "Swine Flu program" is widely derided as incompetent and politically motivated. Closer examination, however, suggests the contrary, demonstrating the potential of government to act quickly and effectively against public health emergencies, even when facing formidable obstacles. The American government has a mixed record ranging from excellent to unacceptable, even counterproductive, in dealing with emergency threats to life and health. Despite ideological arguments to the contrary, however, governments are important to effective responses, and in the American setting, presidential action is essential.

Margaret Hewitt discusses the growth of the factory system in England as it affected the home and family life of married women employed in mills and factories.

Today the private security industry employs approximately 1.5 million people and spends over USD52 billion annually. In contrast, public police forces employ approximately 600,000 people and spend USD30 billion annually. Private policing promises to be a big part of the response to today's increased security concerns, as citizens realize that security is much more than the presence of guards and the perception of safety. This book addresses the impact and implications of private policing on public streets, and begins with a look at private policing from conceptual, historical, economic, legal and functional perspectives. These approaches provide the background for the text, which focuses on a private policing patrol program in a community on the south side of Chicago. The text also demonstrates a number of substantive legal and public policy issues which directly or indirectly relate to the provision of security services; some people see the need for a ""dual system"" of policing - one for the wealthy and one for the poor - and others see the provision of private security as the primary protective resource in contemporary America. The author also examines how private policing is different from and similar to public policing.

This book provides an effective antidote to the small business owner's frustration with government, demonstrating how to cut through regulations, red tape, and political corruption. Even as the American economy has slumped and every institution-private, municipal, and federal-strives to cut costs, government continues to grow more complex, intrusive, and expensive. Small businesses already bear a disproportionate share of regulatory costs and suffer more than large competitors when corruption distorts local markets. This situation will soon get worse: looming federal health care as well as environmental and financial mandates will push vast new oversight responsibilities into the states-and onto businesses' backs. Amy H. Handlin applies her 20 years' experience in state government and politics to provide this practical, results-oriented guide that teaches how to successfully navigate the jungle of overlapping federal, state, and municipal rules-skills that will become more essential as regulations balloon. Readers will learn how government works, get insight into the mindset of bureaucrats and politicians, and discover specific, nuts-and-bolts strategies for dealing with even the most unwelcoming, recalcitrant, or even dishonest officials. Provides model advocacy materials Includes end-of-chapter summaries that reinforce key concepts Presents vignettes dubbed "Tales from the Dark Side" that portray the worst in government bungling and help reinforce points in the text Contains a glossary clarifying common bureaucratic and political jargon

Among the surprising events in Eastern Europe in 1989, none astonished the world more than the nonviolent overthrow of the East German Communist regime. This book examines the collapse of East Germany as it unfolded in one city, Leipzig. Analyzing the leading role of the GDR's second largest city, Bartee combines chronological and descriptive narration of events with an in-depth critique of leading actors and groups. Prominent among these are the Protestant churches and the array of opposition groups concerned for peace, freedom, human rights, justice, and the environment.

Bartee focuses in particular on the famous peace prayer services in St. Nicholas Church and the protest activities of the groups as they expanded into the mass demonstrations of late 1989. Using surveys and interviews with participants, as well as Leipzig archives, this study examines the motivations and methods of the demonstrators. Bartee concludes that, while the prayer services provided hope, inspiration, and information, the strong desire for a free, open society served as the group's chief motivation.