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Books > Social sciences > Politics & government > Comparative politics
This book explores France's African intervention policy and related legitimation strategies through the United Nations, the European Union, and various ad hoc multilateral frameworks. France's enduring ability to project military power on the African continent and influence political events there has been central to its self-perception as a major power. However, since the end of the cold war, France's paternalistic interference has been increasingly questioned, not least by African audiences. This has produced a gradual and somewhat reluctant turn to multilateralism on the part of French leaders. Drawing on in-depth case studies of recent French intervention policy, this edited volume critically assesses France's efforts to reassure critics by securing multilateral endorsements; share burdens and liabilities through collective implementation; and re-affirm its status as a major power by spearheading complex missions. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Strategic Studies.
This book presents a comprehensive source document on intelligence and security oversight and review. It compares the oversight arrangements found in nine countries-New Zealand, Australia, Canada, United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Netherlands, Norway and South Africa. This is done through an analysis of a wide range of areas including statutory basis, agencies overseen, membership, tenure, appointment/dismissal, mandate, powers, access to classified information, complaints function, reporting and, in the case of parliamentary committees, the frequency of meetings. Within an annotated bibliography section Richardson and Gilmour also provide detailed summaries of other relevant research and commentary aligned with oversight and review practices. Intelligence and Security Oversight: An Annotated Bibliography and Comparative Analysis comprehensively demonstrates the powers and limitations placed with, and on, oversight bodies, appealing to academics, researchers and practitioners in the intelligence and security environment.
Between 2021 and 2031, the UK government is set to spend over GBP230 billion on its military. Who decides how to use these funds, and how can we be sure that the UK's armed forces can meet the threats of tomorrow? This book provides the answers to these crucial questions. Concentrating on decisions taken below the political level, it uncovers the factors that underpin the translation of strategic direction into military capability. In a series of interviews, over 30 top admirals, generals and air marshals give their own views on the procurement and maintenance of the nation's current and future military capability. Their unrivalled professional knowledge and experience affords a fascinating insight into the higher management of national defence.
This book is a comparative analysis of the post-communist East European radical right, both in party and non-party formation, using the West European radical right as a baseline. Minkenberg offers insights into the political field of the radical right since the onset of democracy in the region and elicits region-wide and country-specific characteristics. The book argues that due to the nature of the transition process from Soviet hegemony to national independence and from communist to democratic societies, and the unfinished process of nation-building in the region, the radical right in Eastern Europe is a phenomenon sui generis, both organizationally more fluid and ideologically more extreme than the Western counterpart. The issues covered include trends in party system and electoral developments, patterns of movement mobilization and racist activism, and the impact of the radical right on their countries' politics and policies.
Public Policy Lessons from the AIDS Response in Africa examines how the interplay between national state dynamics in Africa and the global political arena has shaped the global AIDS response, and in this context develops a framework for analysing public policy action more broadly in contemporary Africa. By applying comparative political sociology to AIDS public action, this book identifies four political models that are applicable to public initiatives. Fred Eboko goes on to test these in other domains - namely, the malaria and tuberculosis health subsectors, and the education and environment sectors. By articulating global and national connections and contributing a critical perspective grounded in African scholarship and French political science, the author builds a bold and ambitious framework with the potential to enable coherent and effective public policy action in Africa. This book will be of interest to scholars and students of public health, global health, political science, and development studies, as well as policy-level practitioners in the areas of global health and development.
While most of the scholarship on populism and populist political communication is focused on Western European countries with a long tradition of populist parties' appearance on the political scene (such as Austria, the Netherlands, Belgium, or Sweden), this volume offers an insight into populist political communication in countries less frequently covered in the English-language literature, namely Bosnia and Hercegovina, Bulgaria, France, Israel, Poland, and Romania. With the main focus on Eastern and Southern Europe, this book contributes to answering key questions regarding the relations between populist actors, media, and citizens. The publication represents an interdisciplinary approach to the populist political communication. The co-existence of different research methods and tools in that book allows us to capture the multi-dimensional nature of populism.
A stunningly novel account of why populism and fascism are on the rise in the early 21st century. Today we find in the most technologically advanced societies, wild conspiracy theories and a broad distrust of science and expertise have created deep political divisions that are splitting nations in two. Defensive Nationalism explains this paradox, using history as a guide. B. S. Rabinowitz finds that the turn-of-the 19th century was also a period of exceptional technological innovation that ended with toxic political upheavals. To investigate why, the author combines Karl Polanyi's concept of the "double movement" with Joseph Schumpeter's theory of innovation. Weaving together a fascinating narrative that spans two centuries, the book traces how the rapid transformation of transportation and communications during the Industrial Revolution and the Digital Revolution created economic interdependence and capital flows that induced radical economic, social, and political disruptions. In response, separate national-populist movements, stemming from particular national histories and struggles, arose concurrently to produce an era of "defensive nationalism." Distinguishing between creative, consolidating, and defensive nationalism, Rabinowitz offers a persuasively fresh way to study socio-political patterns across time and space.
Co-authored by four high-profile International Relations scholars, this book investigates the implications of the global ascent of China on cross-Strait relations and the identity of Taiwan as a democratic state. Examining an array of factors that affect identity formation, the authors consider the influence of the rapid military and economic rise of China on Taiwan's identity. Their assessment offers valuable insights into which policies have the best chance of resulting in peaceful relations and prosperity across the Taiwan Strait and builds a new theory of identity at elite and mass levels. It also possesses implications for the United States-led world order and today's most critical great power competition.
This book provides a systematic analysis of the major structural and institutional governance mechanisms in Cameroon, critically analysing the constitutional and legislative texts on Cameroon's semi-presidential system, the electoral system, the legislature, the judiciary, the Constitutional Council and the National Commission on Human Rights and Freedoms. The author offers an assessment of the practical application of the laws regulating constitutional institutions and how they impact on governance. To lay the groundwork for the analysis, the book examines the historical, constitutional and political context of governance in Cameroon, from independence and reunification in 1960-1961, through the adoption of the 1996 Constitution, to more recent events including the current Anglophone crisis. Offering novel insights on new institutions such as the Senate and the Constitutional Council and their contribution to the democratic advancement of Cameroon, the book also provides the first critical assessment of the legislative provisions carving out a special autonomy status for the two Anglophone regions of Cameroon and considers how far these provisions go to resolve the Anglophone Problem. This book will be of interest to scholars of public law, legal history and African politics. The Open Access version of this book, available at https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9781351028868, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license
This book takes on the challenge of conceptually thinking Paraguayan cultural history within the broader field of Latin American studies. It presents original contributions to the study of Paraguayan culture from a variety of perspectives that include visual, literary, and cultural studies; gender studies, sociology, and political theory. The essays compiled here focus on the different narratives and political processes that shaped a country decentered from, but also deeply connected to, the rest of Latin America. Structured in four thematic sections, the book reflects upon authoritarianism; the tensions between modern, indigenous, and popular artistic expressions; the legacies of the Stroessner Regime, political resistance, and the struggle for collective memory; as well as the literary framing of historical trauma, particularly in connection with the Roabastian notion of la realidad que delira [delirious reality].
The agenda of the 11th CEE Forum Conference in Bratislava, Slovakia, held on 25-26 April 2019 was focused on the reassessment of the Central and Eastern European position in Europe and in the world, seeking for the specificities of this region, being often perceived as a double periphery - of the West and of the East. Since thirty years have passed since the disintegration of the bipolar world, the time has come for a critical reconsideration of the earlier scholarly findings or commonplaces and the formulation of more nuanced and refined conclusions. The selection of papers offered by the organizers in this volume provides an up-to-date view of the CEE region and issues and problems shared by the CEE countries
Migration and Xenophobia: A Three Country Exploration examines issues of migration and xenophobia using the experiences of three nations: the United States, South Africa, and Malta. Through the cases, Kyle Farmbry builds a larger dialogue examining issues related to patterns of movement and the xenophobic realities encountered with such migrations. The book builds upon projections from the United Nations, the World Bank, and the International Organization for Migration that say the world will experience a continued wave of movement between people and place for the foreseeable future are true, then the lessons from the nations examined here have implications for a broader set of realities related to migration. The experiences of these nations represent a microcosm of what is happening globally in relation to nation-based questions on the migration realities of the early twenty-first century.
With new assertiveness and prominence, China under President Xi Jinping is rightly considered an emerging and aggressive superpower backed by growing economic and impressive military strength. In this meticulous and balanced assessment, Robert G. Sutter traces China's actions under Xi Jinping, including the many challenges they post to the international status quo. He provides a comprehensive analysis of newly prominent Chinese unconventional levers of power and influence in foreign affairs that were previously disguised, hidden, denied or otherwise neglected or unappreciated by specialists. Sutter considers the domestic issues that preoccupy Beijing and the global factors economic and political factors that complicate and constrain as well as enhance China's advance to international prominence.
This is a comparative international study of the patterns of planning in local governments. While strategic planning has been a field of interest for public management and administrative science for over half a century there are very few cross-national studies of the specifics of planning in local governments. The book analyses the planning activities of local authorities in 7 diverse countries: France, Hungary, Romania, Russia, Spain, Turkey and USA. Although theoretical models of strategic planning are used, the book's findings point to a very diverse and interesting environment with cultural, political and legal factors playing a significant role in shaping how planning is done in each country.
With the establishment of the EU, the goals and policies pursued through European Communities, and the targets and policies covered by new action areas, which include Economic and Monetary Union, European Citizenship, Common Security and Foreign Policy which will be progressed gradually by European Union treaty, have started to be addressed as a whole. The identity of the EU at the global level has also experienced change. In this context, the EU represents a political structure on its own, with its institu-tions, activities and authority, which constitute a supranational structure. Of course, it is not possible to say that this process continues without any problems and disputes. However, when we look at the development process of the EU, it is seen that this change and the transformation continue in the context of the requirements and the process continues dynamically. In this context, this study includes other studies discussing the developments of the EU in different policy spaces. In these studies, it has been examined whether EU policies have an impact on national structures, practices and actors and if there is, how and under what conditions this has become clear.
Wrapped up in a story of the British public's' rejection of the establishment is a much darker story about shady money, untoward digital campaign tactics, and a fraught battle exploding from the highest rungs of British politics and society. Brexit: The Establishment Civil War is a crucial examination of what is now driving British politics, the dark money and forces attempting to manipulate it, and the online warfare techniques that are being deployed in modern politics. Brexit is nothing more than an establishment civil war that erupted from the upper echelons of the Conservative party and engulfed the entire country. It unleashed the growing power of big data on a divided and austerity ravaged population by pouring petrol on hot button issues like immigration and sovereignty. The Leave campaigns reached into our social divides and pulled us apart all for their own gain. Josh Hamilton examines the underlying factors that led to the Brexit vote, how technology made us more vulnerable to manipulation, how both sides of the establishment went to war over their own self-interests, and how disaster capitalists will use Brexit to further enrich themselves at the expense of the entire country.
The year 2011 will go down in history as a turning point for the Arab world. The popular unrest that swept across the region and led to the toppling of the Ben Ali, Mubarak, and Qaddhafi regimes in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya has fundamentally altered the social, economic, and political outlooks of these countries and the region as a whole. This book assesses the transition processes unleashed by the uprisings that took place in Egypt and Tunisia in 2011. The wave of unrest and popular mobilisation that swept through these countries is treated as the point of departure of long and complex processes of change, manipulation, restructuring, and entrenchment of the institutional structures and logics that defined politics. The book explores the constitutive elements of institutional development, namely processes of constitution making, electoral politics, the changing status and power of the judiciary, and the interplay between the civilian and the military apparatuses in Egypt and Tunisia. It also considers the extent to which these two countries have become more democratic, as a result of their institutions being more legitimate, accountable, and responsive, at the beginning of 2014 and from a comparative perspective. The impact of temporal factors in shaping transition paths is highlighted throughout the book. The book provides a comprehensive assessment of political and institutional transition processes in two key countries in North Africa and its conclusions shed light on similar processes that have taken place throughout the region since 2011. It will be a valuable resource for anyone studying Middle Eastern and North African politics, area studies, comparative institutional development and democratisation.
Rwanda and Burundi are strikingly similar countries that underwent democratization in the early 1990s. In both, resistance to democratic reforms led to coups d'etat and presidential assassinations. A conundrum arises in terms of what transpires next. In Rwanda, total genocide was perpetrated by extremist Hutu actors, including government officials, upon the country's Tutsi and politically moderate Hutu populations. In Burundi the coup d'etat failed and instead ushered in a lengthy period of civil war. This divergence in outcome is puzzling given the similarity of these two countries, and it is not adequately explained by studies that address collective violence in each. This book utilizes an integrative approach that facilitates the formation of an explanation that more fully accounts for variation in the type of collective violence that occurred in Rwanda and Burundi. Showing that political actors - during periods of major institutional change - do not all respond to or perceive reform in the exact same manner or in a necessarily rational manner, this book makes an important contribution to the literature on ethnic conflict, collective violence and democratization in Africa.
Since 2001 The Democratic Republic of Congo has been engaged in a three-fold transition process towards liberalisation, democratisation, and peace. Throughout this process, external actors (donors, international financial institutions, the UN system, aid agencies) have played a leading role, effectively setting the orientations and modalities of this transition, including their institutional dimension. Congolese actors have not been passively subjected to this process, however, but have potently shaped it in various ways. This book investigates the relationship between international aid partners and various Congolese actors since 2001. It examines this relationship as an aspect of the state reform process, with particular reference to the administration. Stylianos Moshonas argues that the pace and nature of reform has been compromised by the contradictions inherent within the process itself, as advocated by international partners, and by the ability of Congolese power holders to accommodate and co-opt such reforms in line with their own political strategies. Rather than framing aid relations as the outcome of the oppositional points of view of donors and Congolese actors, this book presents a systematic focus on the compromises and accommodative characteristics that aid politics have coalesced around, as well as the contradictory positions donors have found themselves in.
In recent years, the Zimbabwe crisis rendered the country and its citizens to be a typical case of 'failed states', the world over. Zimbabwean society was and is still confronted with different challenges which include political, economic and social problems. Attempts to overcome these challenges have thrown light on the power that rests within individuals and or groups to change and even revolutionize their localities, communities, states and ultimately the world at large. Through experience, individuals and groups have promoted ideas that have aided in changing mentalities, attitudes and behaviors in societies at different levels. This book brings together contributors from various academic disciplines to reflect on and theorize the contours of power, including the intrinsic and or extrinsic models of power, which pertain to individuals, communities, and or groups in order to transform society. Reflections are on various groups such as political movements, environmental movements, religious groups, advocacy groups, gender groups, to mention but a few, as they struggle against marginalization, discrimination, exploitation, and other forms of oppression showing their agency or compliance.
Demonstrating how political culture facilitates or distorts political preferences and political outcomes, this book explores how the historical development of social conditions and the current social structures shape understandings and constrain individual and collective actions within the Nigerian political system. Political Culture, Change, and Security Policy examines the extent to which specific norms and socialization processes within the political and civic culture abet corruption or the proclivity to engage in corrupt practices and how they help reinforce political attitudes and civic norms that have the potential to undermine the effectiveness of government. It also delineates specific doctrinal models and strategic framework essential to the development and implementation of Nigeria's national security policy, as well as innovative approaches to national development planning. Professor Kalu N. Kalu offers an exhaustive study that integrates several quantitative models in addressing a series of theoretical and empirical questions that inform historical and contemporary issues of the Nigerian project. The general premise is that it is not enough to simply highlight the problems of the state and address the what question, we must also address the why and how questions that drive political change, policy preferences, and competing political outcomes.
Kenya's 2007 General Election results announcement precipitated the worst ethnic conflict in the country's history; 1,133 people were killed, while 600,000 were internally displaced. Within 2 months, the incumbent and the challenger had agreed to a power-sharing agreement and a Government of National Unity. This book investigates the role of socio-cultural origins of ethnic conflict during electoral periods in Kenya beginning with the multi-party era of democratization and the first multi-party elections of 1992, illustrating how ethnic groups construct their interests and cooperate (or fail to) based on shared traits. The author demonstrates that socio-cultural traditions have led to the collaboration (and frequent conflict) between the Kikuyu and Kalenjin that has dominated power and politics in independent Kenya. The author goes onto evaluate the possibility of peace for future elections. This book will be of interest to scholars of African democracy, Kenyan history and politics, and ethnic conflict.
South Sudan: Post-Independence Dilemmas is an interdisciplinary collection of essays which engages with the failure of the newest African State to transition itself successfully to a state and nation after its independence in July 2011. The contributors explore the prospects for new modes of politics capable of simultaneously healing and reconciling the divided communities while moving the country beyond divisive ethnic identities. As they focus on the political, historical, legal, or cultural challenges presented in the process of state formation, the chapters situate South Sudan's dilemma in its history of political elitism and gender violence, and the role of international actors in order to examine the effects of these factors and the national mechanisms which have attempted to address them. By foregrounding the relationship between the crises of the state and the politics of ethnicity in South Sudan, the book explores new potentialities in finding an alternative pathway redirect and unleash the creative energies and capacities of the peoples in South Sudan for meaningful social and economic development. As such, it will be of interest to scholars of African Politics and State Building.
Since the introduction of the fast track land reform programme in 2000, Zimbabwe has undergone major economic and political shifts and these have had a profound impact on both urban and rural livelihoods. This book provides rich empirical studies that examine a range of multi-faceted and contested livelihoods within the context of systemic crises. Taking a broad political economy approach, the chapters advance a grounded and in-depth understanding of emerging and shifting livelihood processes, strategies and resilience that foregrounds agency at household level. Highlighting an emergent scholarship amongst young black scholars in Zimbabwe, and providing an understanding of how people and communities respond to socio-economic challenges, this book is an important read for scholars of African political economy, southern African studies and livelihoods. |
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