Do International Criminal Tribunals trigger social change, provide reconciliation, stabilize fragile post-conflict societies? Many authors claim they do, but they base their assumptions mainly on theoretical considerations and opinion polls. The editors and authors of this book take a different position: based on extensive field research in nine European and African countries, they examine whether tribunal decisions resulted in changes in media frames about the conflicts which gave rise to the creation of these tribunals. International Tribunals hardly ever shape or change the grand narratives about wars and other conflicts, but they often manage to trigger small changes in media frames which, in some cases, even lead to public reflexion about guilt and responsibility and more awareness for (the respective enemy's) victims. On an empirical basis, this book shows the potential of International Criminal Justice, the possibilities, but also the limits of International Criminal Tribunals. Volume 2 presents the evidence from Kenya, Rwanda, Sudan and South Sudan.

Political Power and Economic Inequality offers a balanced comparative analysis of worldwide income inequality. Charles F. Andrain explores the ways that government institutions, political parties, private corporations, labor unions, and protest movements influence public programs. How do these organizations mobilize resources so that their preferences become government decisions? What impact do these policies have on different geographic regions, occupations, ethnic-religious groups, and genders? Drawing on comprehensive worldwide data, the author highlights the similarities and differences among nations. By focusing on global trends, he explains the connections that link domestic conditions with foreign trade, overseas investment, labor migration, and communications media. Andrain argues that the globalization of income inequality explains contemporary political life in the United States as well as in other parts of the world. To fully understand global income distribution, we need to grasp how historical changes affect these trends, why social movements stage protests against the growing income gap, and how a comparative approach best explains income differences. Andrain's tightly written interdisciplinary study stresses the impact of this problem on political life and social change in the United States, Europe, Asia, and Latin America. The comparative evidence probes the full dynamics of this controversial issue and its consequences for society as a whole.

This book is the first in a planned trilogy by Pippa Norris on challenges of electoral integrity to be published by Cambridge University Press. Unfortunately too often elections around the globe are deeply flawed or even fail. Why does this matter? It is widely suspected that such contests will undermine confidence in elected authorities, damage voting turnout, trigger protests, exacerbate conflict, and occasionally lead to regime change. Well-run elections, by themselves, are insufficient for successful transitions to democracy. But flawed, or even failed, contests are thought to wreck fragile progress. Is there good evidence for these claims? Under what circumstances do failed elections undermine legitimacy? With a global perspective, using new sources of data for mass and elite evidence, this book provides fresh insights into these major issues.

In this book, Carol Mershon and Olga Shvetsova explore one of the central questions in democratic politics: How much autonomy do elected politicians have to shape and reshape the party system on their own, without the direct involvement of voters in elections? Mershon and Shvetsova's theory focuses on the choices of party membership made by legislators while serving in office. It identifies the inducements and impediments to legislators' changes of partisan affiliation, and integrates strategic and institutional approaches to the study of parties and party systems. With empirical analyses comparing nine countries that differ in electoral laws, territorial governance, and executive legislative relations, Mershon and Shvetsova find that strategic incumbents have the capacity to reconfigure the party system as established in elections. Representatives are motivated to bring about change by opportunities arising during the parliamentary term, and are deterred from doing so by the elemental democratic practice of elections.

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.

This book delves into the Fast Track Land Reform Programme (FTLRP) in Zimbabwe to provide insight into how it facilitated the delivery of housing for low-income urban households. It highlights the politics of land reforms and the power of community engagement in housing development in urban areas. Prior to the FTLRP, the Zimbabwean governments had never embraced popular modes of housing production as key factors in urban development. In the area of low-income housing, informal housing schemes have always been treated with apathy and indifference. This left the conventional mode of housing production to be the only legitimate means to house low-income households despite its shortcomings. However, the onset of the FTLRP in 2000 resulted in homeless urban households grasping the opportunity to invade farms for housing development. Through the lenses of Marxism and Neoliberalism, this book analyses housing schemes that emerged and the overall impact of the FTLRP on housing and land delivery in Harare. This analysis is based on empirical evidence obtained from key informants and household surveys conducted in Harare. The authors argue that the FTLRP provided a platform for innovativeness by households, supported by the unpronounced national urban vision and prowess of the political leadership. Hence the success of these housing schemes can be measured by acquisition of land which guarantees households access to the city. However, some of these housing schemes pose challenges - key among them being lack of infrastructure. The book concludes by presenting a new model for effective delivery of land and housing for the urban poor. This is envisaged as a useful policy tool for urban planners, housing experts, land economists, urban and regional geographers, as well as sociologists, political scientists and social workers engaged in public administration of land and housing.

There have been numerous accounts exploring the relationship between institutions and firm practices. However, much of this literature tends to be located into distinct theoretical-traditional 'silos', such as national business systems, social systems of production, regulation theory, or varieties of capitalism, with limited dialogue between different approaches to enhance understanding of institutional effects. Again, evaluations of the relationship between institutions and employment relations have tended to be of the broad-brushstroke nature, often founded on macro-data, and with only limited attention being accorded to internal diversity and details of actual practice. The Handbook aims to fill this gap by bringing together an assembly of comprehensive and high quality chapters to enable understanding of changes in employment relations since the early 1970s. Theoretically-based chapters attempt to link varieties of capitalism, business systems, and different modes of regulation to the specific practice of employment relations, and offer a truly comparative treatment of the subject, providing frameworks and empirical evidence for understanding trends in employment relations in different parts of the world. Most notably, the Handbook seeks to incorporate at a theoretical level regulationist accounts and recent work that link bounded internal systemic diversity with change, and, at an applied level, a greater emphasis on recent applied evidence, specifically dealing with the employment contract, its implementation, and related questions of work organization. It will be useful to academics and students of industrial relations, political economy, and management.

The book shows how transitional justice experiences influence domestic change and what the role of the international community in these processes is. It is divided into three thematic parts. The first one presents regional and local transitional justice efforts, aiming at showing different mechanisms implemented within transitional justice mechanisms. The following part deals with the role and impact of international criminal tribunals set up to prosecute grave human rights abuses. The third part is devoted to the role of the international community in mass atrocity crimes prevention. The contributions prove that transitional justice measures are not universal. Rather, they must be characterized by the principle of local ownership and be crafted to circumstances on the ground.

This book argues that ancient and modern African indigenous knowledges remain key to Africa's role in global capital, technological and knowledge development and to addressing her marginality and postcoloniality. The contributors engage the unresolved problematics of the historical and contemporary linkages between African knowledges and the African academy, and between African and global knowledges. The book relies on historical and comparative political analysis to explore the global context for the application of indigenous knowledges for tackling postcolonial challenges of knowledge production, conflict and migration, and women's rights on the continent in transcontinental African contexts. Asserting the enduring potency of African indigenous knowledges for the transformation of policy, the African academy and the study of Africa in the global academy, this book will be of interest to scholars of African Studies, postcolonial studies and decolonisation and global affairs.

This book provides an up- to- date discussion of the effect of crises on European identities in the post- Soviet states. In doing so, the book presents an original study on dynamics of European identities during four crises in Georgia and Ukraine. More specifically, it considers the comparative impact of two colour revolutions and wars involving Russia on European identity constructions in Georgian and Ukrainian public identity discourses, studied through national mass media. It compares outcomes of change and continuity during such "big bang" events in identity discourses and establishes scope conditions that allow or inhibit change. The major finding of the study is that the selected events can indeed instigate sudden shifts in European identity discourses but only when the elite power structure also changes in such hybrid regimes, as Ukraine and Georgia. These changes include shifts in elite groups and in the relative power they hold in the overall power structure.

This book examines the multifaceted nature of conflict and the importance of the socio-economic and political contexts of conflict and violence and shows how to support ongoing initiatives and programs to build sustainable peace on the African continent. Drawing on a range of conceptual framings in the study of peace and conflict, from gender perspectives to institutionalist to decolonial perspectives, the contributors show how peacebuilding research covers a whole range of questions that go beyond concerns for post-conflict reconstruction strategies. Chapters focus on the methodological, theoretical and practical aspects of peacebuilding and provide a toolbox of perspectives for conceptualizing and doing peacebuilding research in Africa. Anchored in African-centered perspectives, the book encourages and promotes high-quality interdisciplinary research that is conflict-sensitive, historically informed, theoretically grounded and analytically sound. This book will be of benefit to scholars, policy makers and research institutions engaged in peacebuilding in Africa.

Mass attachment to religion is rapidly declining in most of the world; Why, and What comes next? The world is becoming less religious. Since 2007, there has been a pervasive decline in religious belief and most of the world's people now say that God is less important in their lives than they said He was in the quarter century before 2007. The American public showed the most dramatic shift of all. The United States, which for many years stood as a highly religious outlier among the world's high-income countries, now ranks as the 12th least religious country for which data are available. Many factors contributed to this dramatic worldwide shift, but as Inglehart shows, certain ones stand out. For centuries, virtually all major religions encouraged women to stay home and produce as many children as possible; and they sternly discouraged divorce, abortion, homosexuality, contraception, and any other form of sexual behavior not linked with reproduction. These norms were necessary for societies to survive when facing high infant mortality and low life expectancy: societies that didn't instill them tended to die out. Recent technological advances have greatly increased life expectancy and cut infant mortality to a tiny fraction of its historic levels, making these norms no longer necessary for societal survival. These norms require repressing strong natural urges, but, since they present traditional norms as absolute values, most religions strongly resist change. The resulting tension, together with the fact that rising existential security has made people less dependent on religion, opened the way for an exodus from religion. Utilizing a massive global data base, Inglehart analyzes the conditions under which religiosity collapses, and explores its implications for the future.

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.

The modernization of the legal systems of the post-Soviet states is a paramount objective of the EU. Nevertheless, the transfer and the integration of norms of the acquis communautaire into the local legal systems have progressed at a different pace and within different scopes. This volume compares the legal systems of Russia and the 6 countries participating in the Eastern Partnership Program and assesses the status quo with special emphasis on business law.

This volume brings together a distinguished group of scholars working on Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union to examine in depth three waves of democratic change that took place in eleven different former Communist nations. Its essays draw important conclusions about the rise, development, and breakdown of both democracy and dictatorship in each country and together provide a rich comparative perspective on the post-Communist world. The first democratic wave to sweep this region encompasses the rapid rise of democratic regimes from 1989 to 1992 from the ashes of Communism and Communist states. The second wave arose with accession to the European Union (from 2004 to 2007) and the third, with the electoral defeat of dictators (1996 to 2005) in Croatia, Serbia, Georgia, and Ukraine. Although these three waves took place in different countries and involved different strategies, they nonetheless shared several overarching commonalities. International factors played a role in all three waves, as did citizens demanding political change. Further, each wave revealed not just victorious democrats but also highly resourceful authoritarians. The authors of each chapter in this volume examine both internal and external dimensions of both democratic success and failure.

This book offers a fresh appraisal of the nature and significance of the democratic left in the Global South. The moral and intellectual leadership of the left is shifting south from its European birthplace. It is in the Global South, and most notably in Latin America, that one finds newly self-confident progressive movements. This 'new' democratic left includes parties and social movements that not only are avoiding the familiar pitfalls that ensnared socialists and social democrats in the twentieth century, but also are coping with the realities of the twenty-first century, especially neoliberal globalization. In analyzing and illustrating three innovative strategies - moderate social democracy, radical social-democratic transition to socialism, and Left populism - this study nudges the debate about the Left out of the well-worn grooves into which it has fallen in recent decades.

This edited volume analyses different forms of resistance against international institutions and charts their success or failure in changing the normative orders embodied in these institutions. Non-state groups and specific states alike advocate alternative global politics, at the same time finding themselves demonized as pariahs and outlaws who disturb established systems of governance. However, over time, some of these actors not only manage to shake off such allegations, but even find their normative convictions accepted by international institutions. This book develops an innovative conceptual framework to understand and explain these processes, using seven cases studies in diverse policy fields; including international security, health, migration, religion and internet politics. This framework demonstrates the importance of coalition-building and strategic framing in order to form a successful resistance and bring change in world politics.

During the early Middle Ages, King Alfred (reigned 871-99) gained fame as the ruler who brought learning back to England after decades of Viking invasion. Although analysis of Alfred's canon has focused on his religious and philosophical texts, his relatively overlooked law code, or Domboc, reveals much about his rule, and how he was perceived in subsequent centuries. Joining major voices in the fields of early English law and literature, this exploration of King Alfred's influential text traces its evolution from its 9th century origins to reappearances in the 11th, 12th, and 16th centuries. Alfred's use of the vernacular and representation of secular practices, this work contends, made the Domboc an ideal text for establishing a particularly ""English"" national identity.

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.

This book presents a new organizing framework for studying democratic recession and autocratization in Southeast Asia. By introducing a new concept, “democratic backlash,” the book details how democratic recession inevitably provokes resistance that often forms the nucleus of new democratic movements, and in doing so, argues that it is important to identify these reverse trends that may eventually become dominant. The book contributes to current literature which thus far has sought to understand the causes and consequences of the decline in democracy around the world. Previous literature has focused primarily on advanced democracies, or alternatively, on large scale quantitative comparison. As such, this book helps fill a research gap with its focus on Southeast Asia, employing a comparative case study approach. Chapter authors are experts on Southeast Asia, a region that has experienced democratic recession and autocratization in a variety of ways, from rising populism to military coups.

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 provides an innovative and in-depth analysis of how attitudes towards democracy and political institutions differ across 31 countries in Europe, and how these attitudes have fluctuated over time. After addressing conceptual and measurement issues about the evaluative dimension of political support, the authors develop a unique framework assessing the role of the institutional format, the quality of the political process, macro-economic conditions and inequality to explain trends and differences in political satisfaction and trust. The book further explores how education, employment and electoral status create gaps in political support. Citizens and Democracy in Europe will be of interest to students and scholars in comparative politics, political sociology and public opinion.

The precipitous rise in global and national economic inequality, which the inexorable force of globalization promised to address with affluence and abundance for all, has returned with a vengeance. The problem of worsening socioeconomic inequality and how best to ameliorate this pernicious resurgence occupies center stage of national and international politics. This study investigates the coexistence of high rates of economic growth and unparalleled prosperity (including a review of the decline in poverty levels in China and India and many other developing countries) with rises in income and wealth inequality in the United States, China, and India. This book examines the overall effectiveness of the measures taken by these three countries to address such anomalies, and what they should do to tackle the problem of widening inequality. This study breaks new ground by providing an original comparative analysis of the challenges facing the world's three major economies.

This book's leading goal is to explain why some states in the Americas have been markedly more effective than others at forming stable democratic regimes. The six states analyzed are the United States, Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, Costa Rica, and Guatemala. The study identifies the critical challenges each state encountered at different stages of its state-creation and regime- formation processes, from the colonial period to the present. In its concluding chapter, the study presents a series of time-related hypotheses designed to capture the different evolutionary processes and explain variances in success.