This fully updated fifth edition of An Introduction to African Politics is an ideal textbook for those new to the study of this fascinating continent. Charting trends in government over six decades of the post-colonial era, the book tackles key questions such as: How have African states made sense of their colonial inheritance? How relevant are ethnic and religious identities? Why have some states collapsed and others prospered? Why did the one-party state fail? Why is contemporary Africa now dominated by electoral authoritarian states, and not the multi-party democracies promised in the 1990s? Key features include: thematically organised, with chapters exploring issues such as colonialism, ethnicity, nationalism, religion, social class, ideology, legitimacy, authority, sovereignty and democracy; new five-part structure makes clearer Africa's political evolution over time; new chapter on the emergence of 'hybrid states' and 'electoral authoritarianism'; more coverage of twenty-first century governance trends such as China's impact, the changing role of the military, different uses of 'client-patron' networks, Western conditionality and the 'Africa rising' debate; colour presentation of maps, photos and data; boxed case studies including Mali, Tanzania, Nigeria, Botswana, Cote d'Ivoire, Uganda, Somalia, Ghana, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tunisia and Angola; each chapter concludes with key terms and definitions, questions and further reading. An Introduction to African Politics is essential reading for students seeking an accessible introduction to the complex social relationships and events that characterise the politics of post-colonial Africa.

The book is a collection of studies on the war in Ukraine. The considerations focus on different contexts of the first phase of the armed conflict. The authors try to answer questions about the motives and results of Russian disinformation and blaming Ukraine, the US and NATO for the invasion, as well as of the position of third countries towards the Russian aggression. One of the issues addressed is sexual violence in wartime and the image of women in armed conflict. The authors also analyze the aid provided by certain nations and Ukrainian national minorities in selected countries. Some chapters also examined public opinions on various war-related issues. Such a broad approach provides multidimensional view of the war while complementing earlier images of the conflict in Ukraine.

This book critically examines the intersection of religion, public health and human security in Nigeria. Focusing on Christianity, Islam, traditional religions and "intra-religious" doctrinal divergencies, the book explores the impact faith has on health-related decisions and how this affects security in Nigeria. The book assesses the connection between religion and five contemporary major health and medical issues in the country. This includes the issue of epidemics and pandemics such as the Covid-19 pandemic, vaccines, contraception, blood transfusion and the controversies associated with "miracle healing". In particular, this book explores situations where individuals have the power of choice but instead embraces faith and religious positions that contradict science in the management of their health and, in the process, expose themselves and others to personal health insecurity. It investigates aspects of human security including the wider international ramifications of health issues, approaches to cures and the interpretation of causes of diseases, as well as the ethno-religious connotations of such interpretations. Exploring key issues that have brought religion into the politics of health and human security in Nigeria, this book will be of interest to students and scholars in the field of African Religion, African Politics, African Studies, public health, security, and Sociology.

The European Union faces a set of inter-related crises that it struggles to contain and address. By exploring how the EU responds to crises and conflict, this volume addresses both its resilience and vulnerability. The EU faces significant challenges: European integration is increasingly politicised; democratic politics within member states are increasingly volatile; challenger parties threaten the status quo; and party systems are shifting throughout Europe. These crises test both the EU and individual states, especially those that had to exchange interdependence in the Union for dependence on the Troika. Despite the tension of hard times, this volume points to patterns of continuity and change as the single market, somewhat side-lined and forgotten in the heat of crises, retains its role as the hard core of the Union and the EU's most significant achievement. This book was originally published as a special issue of West European Politics.

This book constructs a measure of education inequality using time-series cross-national data and utilizes real-world examples based on author interviews. It provides insights into how classic trade theory might be applied more broadly to generate expectations not only about income distribution, but also about investment in human capital. The project explores the ways in which global trends toward urbanization and democratization might be expected to impact education inequality. The author addresses contemporary issues in politics, such as growing income inequality, the backlash against globalization and free trade, and concerns that democratic institutions are elite-dominated and unresponsive to the needs of common citizens.

A decade after the 9/11 attacks, this groundbreaking and brilliantly received book takes readers deep into rebellions against both autocrats and extremists that are redefining politics, culture, and security across the Islamic world and beyond.A decade after the 9/11 attacks, Robin Wright's Rock the Casbah took readers deep into rebellions against both autocrats and extremists that were redefining politics, culture, and security across the Islamic world. A year after the Arab Spring, she went back to Egypt and Tunisia where it had all started for an epilogue, The Morning After, describing the new reality--that creating a new order is as hard as ousting the old one. In this brilliant follow-up report, Wright describes the hopes and the turmoil of the region through the words of those who are living it.

This is the first work that systematically applies the comparative method to the study of social policy and administration. After a full discussion of this approach in the introduction, the book offers three authoritative national studies--France, Norway, Canada--each giving a rounded picture of social policy and administration in the particular country. Social needs, resources, and forms of social administration are related to the most significant social, demographic, economic, and political factors of the area in question. The authors trace the development of social policies and indicate the direction these policies are likely to take in the future. Comparisons between problems and solutions in all three countries, as well as in Great Britain and the United States, are made throughout. Part II contains comparative analyses of particular problems and of the different forms of social administration designed to deal with them. The problem approach is applied to five areas of social administration: social policy and social planning, social security, coordination, social policies and care for the aged and family policies. Examples are taken not only from the countries previously under study, but also from other Western nations with well-developed social service systems. A concluding chapter delineates the benefits of the comparative method as demonstrated in this volume, and outlines how the goals set forth in the introduction have been fulfilled. This unique and fascinating book will be of interest to a wide range of readers, especially those concerned with the study, the making, or the implementation and administration of social policy. It will serve as a stimulus for fresh interpretation and the re-evaluation of major social institutions here and abroad.

This book expertly traces the long, erratic, and incomplete path of Latin America's political and socioeconomic democratization, from a group of colonies lacking democratic practice and culture up to the present. Using the lens of democracy defined by the charter of the Organization of American States (OAS), it examines the periods of US gunboat diplomacy in the Caribbean Basin, the Cold War, the state terrorist dictatorships of the 1970s and 1980s, the imposition of neoliberalism in the 1990s, and the rise of the Pink Tide in the new millennium. The meaning of democracy has changed over time, from nineteenth-century liberalism--in which only a handful of wealthy males voted and individuals were responsible for their economic and social conditions--to governments in the late twentieth century that have embraced socioeconomic democracy by assuming responsibility (at least formally) for citizens' welfare. Latin America's movement toward democracy has not been linear. The book follows the appearance and evolution of both proponents and opponents of democracy over the last two centuries. The balance of these forces has shifted periodically, often in waves that swept across the entire region. Commitment to democracy does not guarantee implementation, but despite many setbacks, Latin America has made significant progress toward the democratic aspirations set forth in the OAS charter. Thorough and accessibly written, Democracy in Latin America is an essential text for students studying Latin American politics and history.

How challenger parties, acting as political entrepreneurs, are changing European democracies Challenger parties are on the rise in Europe, exemplified by the likes of Podemos in Spain, the National Rally in France, the Alternative for Germany, or the Brexit Party in Great Britain. Like disruptive entrepreneurs, these parties offer new policies and defy the dominance of established party brands. In the face of these challenges and a more volatile electorate, mainstream parties are losing their grip on power. In this book, Catherine De Vries and Sara Hobolt explore why some challenger parties are so successful and what mainstream parties can do to confront these political entrepreneurs. Drawing analogies with how firms compete, De Vries and Hobolt demonstrate that political change is as much about the ability of challenger parties to innovate as it is about the inability of dominant parties to respond. Challenger parties employ two types of innovation to break established party dominance: they mobilize new issues, such as immigration, the environment, and Euroscepticism, and they employ antiestablishment rhetoric to undermine mainstream party appeal. Unencumbered by government experience, challenger parties adapt more quickly to shifting voter tastes and harness voter disenchantment. Delving into strategies of dominance versus innovation, the authors explain why European party systems have remained stable for decades, but also why they are now increasingly under strain. As challenger parties continue to seek to disrupt the existing order, Political Entrepreneurs shows that their ascendency fundamentally alters government stability and democratic politics.

The idea of 'the commons' is a long-standing concept in the English-speaking world and in English law. A similar concept occurs in China. How different from or similar to the English idea of 'the commons' is the idea in China; and how is the concept applied? This book explores this important subject. It examines the subject from a philosophical and theoretical perspective; considers 'the commons' widely, including tangible commons of resources, intangible commons of culture, identity and social capital, and institutional commons of welfare, security and public goods; and goes on to examine the concept as it applies to the hydropower developments along the Lancang River, outlining the different competing interests of local people, central and provincial government, and environmental considerations. It argues that the concept of 'the commons' in China is dual-dimensional, with a vertical dimension of 'public authority' and a horizontal dimension of 'commonly sharing', that power structures in China have often been flexible and polycentric, and that, correctly applied, this approach will do much to serve the common interest of the people, ensuring positive impacts for shared prosperity for multiple stakeholders, whilst mitigating the negative impacts involved in the delivery of such positive impacts.

For a long time, India and China have been seen as the rising economic giants on the Asiatic mainland. Studies of the conflicts which have plagued the borderlands of India and China however have tended to only analyse individual case studies without attempting to compare and contrast the situation in these conflicts. This book compares and contrasts the situation in India's disputed borderlands - Kashmir and the Indian north eastern states - with China's contested borderlands - Xinjiang and Tibet. The book looks at the root causes of the conflict and how these conflicts have evolved and changed their character with the passage of time. Analysing how the countries have dealt with their territorial disputes from the 50's till more recent times, the author shows to what extent these state policies have exacerbated the already strained situation. Using primary data collected primarily through interviews, from the people/inhabitants of these conflict zones, the book throws new light on the problem. This bottom up approach allows the people to speak and provides a different understanding of the nature of the conflict, which may very well be the way forward for long lasting peace. A comparative study of the conflicts in the contested borderlands of China and India, the book will be of interest to scholars studying Asian security studies and Asian Politics particularly and Defence and Security Studies more generally.

This book explains the increasingly turbulent Sino-Japanese relations since the 2000s by innovatively investigating the formation mechanism of mutual misperception deeply rooted in China-Japan-U.S. trilateral structural dynamics. The political and security relationship has been increasingly deteriorating against the high interdependency between the world's second and third largest economies. More ironically, both sides have also shown the intent and made efforts to improve bilateral ties. The author systematically conducts a focused comparison of the evolution of the Sino-Japanese mutual perceptions and policies toward one another during the past decade and a half. Empirically, Yun Zhang closely examines five case studies that provide insights to IR students and scholars and policy makers on how misperception and mistrust have formed, replicated, and intensified.

Comparative European Party Systems, Second Edition, provides a comprehensive analysis across 48 party systems of party competition, electoral systems and their effects, and the classification of party systems and governments from 1945 through late-2018. The book consists of three parts. Part I provides a comparative and quantitative overview of party systems according to party families, patterns of party competition, electoral systems and their effects, and classification of party systems and governments. Part II consists of 38 detailed country profiles of longstanding democracies and of the European Union (plus nine profiles on regions such as in Spain and the UK), providing essential detail on the electoral systems, parties, party patterns and systems, dimensions of political competition, and governments. Part III provides an analysis of 10 additional country profiles of oscillating regimes such as Russia, Ukraine, and Balkan and Transcaucasus states. Comparative European Party Systems provides an excellent overview of topical issues in comparative election and party system research and presents a wealth of information and quantitative data. It is a crucial reference for scholars and students of European and comparative politics, elections, electoral systems, and parties and party systems.

Comparative European Party Systems, Second Edition, provides a comprehensive analysis across 48 party systems of party competition, electoral systems and their effects, and the classification of party systems and governments from 1945 through late-2018. The book consists of three parts. Part I provides a comparative and quantitative overview of party systems according to party families, patterns of party competition, electoral systems and their effects, and classification of party systems and governments. Part II consists of 38 detailed country profiles of longstanding democracies and of the European Union (plus nine profiles on regions such as in Spain and the UK), providing essential detail on the electoral systems, parties, party patterns and systems, dimensions of political competition, and governments. Part III provides an analysis of 10 additional country profiles of oscillating regimes such as Russia, Ukraine, and Balkan and Transcaucasus states. Comparative European Party Systems provides an excellent overview of topical issues in comparative election and party system research and presents a wealth of information and quantitative data. It is a crucial reference for scholars and students of European and comparative politics, elections, electoral systems, and parties and party systems.

The "spectre of communism" which Karl Marx confidently evoked in 1848 is now nothing more than a ghostly and ghastly nightmare, without form or substance. This is because working people have developed a love-hate relationship with capitalism. They hate insecurity, inequality, and greed, and love civic and political freedom. They love mass consumption, and accept the logic of commerce. Barreling along through wars, revolutions, epidemics, and crises of all sorts, working people in their millions have consistently dumfounded and dismayed the left, by their refusal to countenance any alternative to the capitalist mode of life. We have to ask: Is it possible to reverse this reality, and once again talk of the necessity of communism?

The 2014 Ukrainian-Crimean crisis has raised serious questions in the West about Russian motivations and future policy directions. Now more than ever, it is imperative to explore the defensive perceptions, reactions, and preparations of neighbouring countries, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia. Is there a convergence of their approaches along similar paths, or do their different cultures and historical experiences prefigure a divergence of their defense policies? While Slovakia, Hungary and Czech Republic all seem to have little concern about Russia's policies in Ukraine, the Polish response has been uniquely strong and militarized. This book will explore reasons for the different responses to the crisis. -- .

China's rise from the poverty, isolation and stagnation of the 1970s to the world's second largest economy is a transformative event perhaps unequalled in human history. The world today pays more attention to China, looks to it with more admiration than perhaps any other time. Yet, this rise also hides many deep-rooted problems and competing ideologies. Economically, socially and politically China has transformed itself but there is much that remains uncertain. This book aims to give an insight into China by exploring everyday life for her citizens, in their own voices. Providing both an overview of the political situation and context in China with ethnographic insights, The Politics of Everyday China aims to give both the new student of China and those who have encountered the subject before an insight that goes beyond the usual cliche and surface description. -- .

Having started out as a new and alternative way of thinking about policy making and governing more broadly, governance is now established as a dominant paradigm in understanding national, subnational and global politics. The long-awaited second edition of this textbook takes into account the significant growth and proliferation of the field in recent years and offers a state of the art introduction to how governance is being theorised and studied today. Written by two leading political scientists, Governance, Politics and the State considers how societies are being, and can be, steered in a complex world where states must increasingly interact with and influence other actors and institutions to achieve results. It is a valuable book for all students of governance. New to this Edition: - A fully updated and revised set of chapters, including four new chapters - on multilevel governance, global governance, metagovernance and populism and governance. - A postscript on how to study governance

The Palgrave Handbook of Global Perspectives on Emotional Labor in Public Service challenges traditional public administration theory and its disavowal of the emotive component to public service delivery. Providing a comprehensive and comparative overview of the current research in this previously understudied area, this handbook situates emotional labor within public service and establishes emotional labor within individual, organizational, cultural, and situational scenarios. With chapters spanning twelve different countries across six continents, this handbook provides groundbreaking survey research that probes the daily work experience of public servants, paying special attention to the relational aspect of public service delivery. It ultimately seeks to revise the current public service paradigm, and will be an invaluable resource to researchers, public managers, and international public service organizations as the first of its kind for the public administration market.

Delegating Rights Protection explores bill-of-rights outcomes in four "Westminster" countries - Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom - whose development exhibit an interesting combination of both commonality and difference. Comparative analysis of some thirty-six democracies demonstrates that the historic absence of a bill of rights in Westminster countries is best explained by, firstly, the absence of a clear political transition and, secondly, their strong British constitutional heritage. Detailed chapters then explore recent and much more diversified developments. In all the countries, postmaterialist socio-economic change has resulted in a growing emphasis on legal formalization, codified civil liberties, and social equality. Pressure for a bill of rights has therefore increased. Nevertheless, by enhancing judicial power, bills of rights conflict with the prima facie positional interests of the political elite. Given this, change in this area has also required a political trigger which provides an immediate rationale for change. Alongside social forces, the nature of this trigger determines the strength and substance of the bill of rights enacted. The statutory Canadian Bill of Rights Act (1960), New Zealand Bill of Rights Act (1990), and the Human Rights Act (UK) (1998) were prompted politically by a relatively weak and backward-looking 'aversive' reaction against perceived abuses of power under the previous administration. Meanwhile, the fully constitutional Canadian Charter (1982) had its political origins in a stronger, more self-interested and prospective need to find a new unifying institution to counter the destabilizing, centripetal power of the Quebecois nationalist movement. Finally, the absence of any relevant political trigger explains the failure of national bill of rights initiatives in Australia. The conclusionary section of the book argues that this Postmaterialist Trigger Thesis (PTT) explanation of change can also explain the origins of bills of rights in other internally stable, advanced democracies, notably the Israeli Basic Laws on human rights (1992).

This book, newly available in paperback, examines a hitherto under-researched aspect of the European Union's policy process - the extent and the nature of the involvement of central governments in the implementation of EU public policy. It discusses how the co-ordination of these institutions affects their capacity to shape the way in which the commitments that they make in Brussels are turned into concrete reality at the national level. It shows that the nature of their involvement in implementation reflects the pattern of their involvement in the formulation of EU policy. However, since implementation unfolds over long periods of time, its patterns can change over time. The author draws on empirical evidence regarding the liberalisation of public procurement to demonstrate how the institutions of central governments bring about change. Comparing the central governments of Greece, France and Britain over a twenty-five year period, the author demonstrates that - far from being the passive conduits of pressure emanating from the EU - the institutions of national central governments actively steer the implementation of EU public policy. -- .

She has a plan! Get informed about the policies of Massachusetts Senator turned presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren. This concise guide will help you decide quickly if Warren deserves your vote for the Democratic nomination and to take on Donald Trump. Warren's strong economic background sets her apart; the senator from Massachusetts defines herself as a capitalist first and seeks to make capitalism more equitable for all. She has already proposed sweeping anti-corruption reforms, refused PAC donations to her campaign, rolled out plans for college debt forgiveness and a tax on the super wealthy. Her background as a Harvard economist, author of The Two-Income Trap, and experience as an economic advisor to Barack Obama positions her well to make change happen. Warren's campaign also features popular Democratic talking points--rebuilding the middle class, ending corruption in Washington, making voting laws more democratic, bringing our troops home and stopping endless war--but it's her experience that sets her apart. From working the campaign trial for Hillary Clinton to weathering President Trump's refrain of "Pocahontas" in reference to her claimed Native American heritage, Meet the Candidates 2020: Elizabeth Warren: A Voter's Guide is your complete handbook to Elizabeth Warren's resume, campaign, and what America would look like if she won the presidency in 2020. The Meet the Candidates 2020 series is the informed voter's guide to making a decision in the 2020 Democratic primary and presidential election. Each book gives an unbiased, political insider's analysis of each contender, featuring: candidate interviews; an introduction by campaign advisor, Democratic Coalition co-founder, and Dworkin Report host Scott Dworkin; and compilation and writing by Occupy Democrats Editor at Large Grant Stern. In two hours of reading, you'll understand their defining characteristics, credentials, campaign issues, challenges, presidential chances, and everything else you need to know to decide who should challenge Donald Trump. Whether it's for Elizabeth Warren, Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, Kamala Harris, Julian Castro, Cory Booker, or another, Meet the Candidates is what you need to make an informed vote for president in 2020.

"Quality of governance: Values and violations arrives at a time when governance faces new and often dire challenges and as traditional democratic values strain against the rise of authoritarian forms of populism and anti-government sentiment. This comprehensive volume considers these challenges from a variety of angles- transparency, bureaucratic pathologies, public values, sector relations- but at the same time manages a higher degree of integration than one usually finds in most edited volumes. The individual selections focus on topics of widespread interest but with new theories, analytical frameworks and insights. This book should be read by anyone interested the values bases of governance and in exploring good ideas about how to improve policy and management. The book serves a professional academic audience but could also prove quite useful as a text or supplementary book for graduate and undergraduate courses in public affairs."Barry Bozeman, Regents' Professor, Arizona State University, School of Public Affairs, USA. "Public governance matters. It touches almost every aspect of our lives, from the most mundane to the most important, the most commonplace to the most intimate. This book critically examines some of thorniest values and issues for governance in the 21st century -- democracy, legitimacy, accountability, transparency, integrity, professionalism, and more -- all of which are of crucial importance for practice and research on the quality of governance."Tina Nabatchi, Syracuse University, USA, Co-Chair of the Study Group 'Quality of Governance' of the International Institute of Administrative Sciences. "This volume provides an up-to-date overview of key themes and theories about the quality of governance. Many of the field's most thoughtful scholars have contributed chapters on both the positive and problematic dimensions of good governance, providing fascinating insights in this important topic. Therefore, this book is a must read for all scholars, students, and practitioners interested in improving the quality of governance in their countries and institutions."Zeger van der Wal, National University of Singapore and Leiden University The Netherlands. This volume unravels the meaning of public values for the quality of governance, for good and bad governance, and examines their significance in governance practices. It addresses public values in context, in different countries, policy sectors and levels of governance. In a series of in-depth studies, a critical eye is cast over eight central values: democratic legitimacy, accountability, transparency, integrity, lawfulness, effectiveness (in terms of service quality), professionalism and craftsmanship, and robustness. How does for instance integrity or lawfulness contribute to the accomplishment and preservation of quality, and what happens if we fail to address it adequately? This unique exercise yields important lessons on the differences in normative interpretation and application of often abstract values in the demanding administrative settings of today. Practitioners, scholars and students of public administration, public management and political science will find the volume a vital resource for theory and practice.

This book shows that constitutional courts exercise direct and indirect power on political branches through decision-making. The first face of judicial power is characterized by courts directing political actors to implement judicial decisions in specific ways. The second face leads political actors to anticipate judicial review and draft policies accordingly. The judicial-political interaction originating from both faces is herein formally modeled. A cross-European comparison of pre-conditions of judicial power shows that the German Federal Constitutional Court is a well-suited representative case for a quantitative assessment of judicial power. Multinomial logistic regressions show that the court uses directives when evasion of decisions is costly while accounting for the government's ability to implement decisions. Causal analyses of the second face of judicial power show that bills exposed to legal signals are drafted accounting for the court. These findings re-shape our understanding of judicialization and shed light on a silent form of judicialization.

This book contributes to emerging debates about Levelling Up the UK Economy, considering these alongside the nature of, and trends in, both the political economy and spatial disparities. Drawing on a complex systems framing, the book pulls together a range of evidence to provide insights about the agenda from macro, meso and micro levels of analyses, including utilising qualitative data from a small scoping study with Directors of Regeneration across several 'left behind' places and 25 residents of 'left behind' Redcar & Cleveland in Teesside. The book outlines phases in capitalism's development, particularly the shift from post-war capitalism to a post-industrial and neoliberal society and the implications for spatial inequalities. The 2022 Levelling Up White Paper is analysed alongside a focus on the role of local government relative to the agenda. The book offers an empirical case study of 'left behind' Redcar & Cleveland, exposing deindustrialisation, insecure employment, crime, anti-social behaviour and sentiments on a North South divide and Levelling Up. We suggest that only a transformative change in the political economy, including significant and sustained investment at different spatial levels, is likely to achieve the ambition to Level Up.