This book, part of a series, seeks to re-conceptualize Asian geographies; rather than a static East Asia core, this volume analyzes Asia's southern fringe, as symbolized in the trading group ASEAN and its role in Asia's evolving international relations. The contributors include many leading experts in the field, ensuring that this book will be the go-to text for students, scholars, and civil society decision makers exploring Asia's contemporary political spectrum in real time.

This book presents a study of the relationship between Cabinet-level Ministers and top civil servants in Ireland. The nature of this relationship can potentially have far-reaching effects on people's lives as it can influence the type of public policy agreed at top levels of government. A total of sixteen interviews were carried out for the research, eight with retired Cabinet-level Ministers and eight with retired Secretaries General of Irish government departments. Anonymity, not just for the participants but also for the government departments in which they had served, was vital to the success of the research. Also vital was the fact that only retirees were interviewed as this removed the fear for participants that their careers might suffer if they spoke too frankly. The result is a collection of interviews containing frank and open views on the relationship between Ministers and their officials and on how this relationship influences public policy development.

This edited collection examines the politics of semi-presidential countries in the Caucasus and Central Asia. Semi-presidentialism is the situation where there is both a directly elected fixed-term president and a prime minister and cabinet that are collectively responsible for the legislature. There are four countries with a semi-presidential constitution in this region - Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Kyrgyzstan. The authors introduce the concept of semi-presidentialism, place the countries in a general post-Soviet context, and compare them with Kazakhstan. They investigate the relationship between semi-presidentialism in the formal constitution and the verticality of power in reality, explore the extent to which semi-presidentialism has been responsible for the relative performance of democracy in each country, and chart the relationship within the executive both between the president, prime minister and ministers, and between the executive and the legislature. <

Tourism is a vital tool for political and economic change. Calls for boycotts by tourists of countries reflect the huge impact that tourist activity and the tourism industry has on political change.

In the 21st century, new kinds of challenges resulting from
interdependence among states and globalization have had a determining
impact of the conduct of diplomacy.
Diplomacy has become
multifaceted, pluri-directional, volatile and intensive, due to
the increased complexity in terms of actors, dialogues subjects, modes of
communication, and plurality of objectives. This unique text,
written by a leading scholar and Foreign Service expert, examines all
such factors to provide the definitive guide to diplomacy as it is
practiced today. With a multitude of examples from around the world,
including the US, UK, EU, Africa, Asia, and Latin America, the book
covers the spectrum of diplomacy practice, including regional diplomacy,
diplomacy of small states, performance management, handling of
decisions and crisis, use of information technology, and reform in foreign
ministries. Also included are chapters on craft skills and practical
exercises.
21st Century Diplomacy
will be essential to anyone learning diplomacy, and will also
support courses in international relations, foreign policy, and
intercultural communication.

This book explores the opportunities and obstacles to a presidential system in Turkey as proposed by the Justice and Development Party (AK Party). Since the formation of Turkey's parliamentary system in 1909, there have been many attempts to replace it with an elected executive branch. After the referendum for constitutional amendment to elect the president by the people in 2007 and the elections of 2014, these discussions have increased in intensity. The author explores these debates chronologically and discusses the broader theoretical framework of these different government systems. He also adds a comparative analysis of elections and democratic transition between Turkey, Tunisia, and Egypt.

This book compares British, French, and American legislative debates on woman suffrage and women's rights. Beginning with an analysis of Tocqueville and J.S. Mill on the impact of suffrage, the book continues with analysis of floor debates, comparing gender style, the French on parity and the Americans on the ERA and concluding with modern debates.

The third edition of Media, Politics and Democracy examines the fraught debate over media influence, who wields it and what effect social and traditional media has on what we think, how we behave, and how we vote. Charting the media conglomerates of old, the alarming rise of the Tech Giants in recent decades, concerns over 'fake news', and the use of social media by political candidates, this book places contemporary anxieties into historical context and compares the response to such issues across different states and societies. Using examples from around the world, Street tackles the changing nature of political communications and brings under scrutiny the question of how a democratic society can function alongside a democratic media. Suitable for students studying politics and the media, political communications and other related fields. New to this Edition: - Completely revised and updated version of Mass Media, Politics and Democracy. - Includes a new chapter on the power of the Tech Giants. - Contains detailed accounts of the significance of figures such as Donald Trump, Rupert Murdoch and Mark Zuckerberg. - Student questions and issues for debate interspersed throughout the book.

This book analyses the politics of othering in the USA and Canada from the nineteenth century to the present day. It outlines the basis in human behaviour for 'disliking the unlike', which can take the form of ethnocentrism, racism and xenophobia, and shows how politicians take advantage of this human tendency. Seven case studies explore the use of political othering towards minority groups: Indigenous peoples, Jews, Japanese, those with left-wing views, LGBTQ individuals, Blacks, and Muslims. The book argues that prior to World War II, and with the significant exception of Blacks, the politics of othering was stronger in Canada than in the USA. After World War II, the situation reversed and the politics of othering was practiced more in the USA than in Canada. Lastly, the book explains how public policy and international issues prompted this change, discusses future trends in political othering, and offers ideas for promoting inclusion over othering.

The shooting at Virginia Tech in 2007 was one of the worst mass murders in the U.S., but it did not lead to any new federal gun control policy. In contrast, following a similar event in Montreal in 1989, Canada created new comprehensive gun policy.
Such different outcomes are the focus of this survey, which sets out to explore the gun policymaking process in the U.S. and Canada in the aftermath of major events. It explores the many factors that lead to the drastically different reactions of the federal governments in each state if the aftermath of a mass shooting or assassination. To do so, it examines such elements as institutional arrangements, interest groups pressures (NRA, e.g.), and the party in power, studying the impact of such key events as the assassinations of J.F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr., Georgina Leimonis and shootings that occurred at Columbine, Stockton, and Vernon.
A unique comparative study, Gun Policy in the United States and Canada will be an essential resource to anyone researching gun policy issues and comparative policymaking.

How do societies negotiate the apparently competing agendas of environmental protection and social justice? Why do some countries perform much better than others? Democracy in the Woods answers these questions by explaining the trajectories of forest and land rights-and the fate of forest-dependent peasants-in the forested regions of India, Tanzania, and Mexico. To organize a comparative inquiry that straddles the fields of comparative politics, historical institutionalism, and policy studies, this book develops a political economy of institutions framework. It shows that differences in structures of political intermediation-venues that help peasant groups and social movements engage in political and policy processes-explain the varying levels of success in combining the pursuits of social justice and environmental conservation. The book challenges the age-old notion that populist policies produce uniformly deleterious environmental consequences that must be mitigated via centralized systems of environmental regulation. It shows instead that the national leaders and dominant political parties that must compete for popular support in the political arena are more likely to fashion interventions that pursue conservation of forested landscapes without violating the rights of forest-dependent people. Mexico demonstrates the potential for win-win outcomes, India continues to stumble on both environmental and social questions despite longstanding traditions of popular mobilization for forestland rights, and Tanzania's government has failed its forest-dependent people despite a lucrative wildlife tourism sector. This book's political analysis of the control over and use of nature opens up new avenues for reflecting on nature in the Anthropocene.

This book applies established analytical concepts such as influence, authority, administrative styles, autonomy, budgeting and multilevel administration to the study of international bureaucracies and their political environment. It reflects on the commonalities and differences between national and international administrations and carefully constructs the impact of international administrative tools on policy making. The book shows how the study of international bureaucracies can fertilize interdisciplinary discourse, in particular between International Relations, Comparative Government and Public Administration. The book makes a forceful argument for Public Administration to take on the challenge of internationalization.

Tourism is a vital tool for political and economic change. Calls for boycotts by tourists of countries reflect the huge impact that tourist activity and the tourism industry has on political change.

This volume chronicles the policy challenges and adaptations faced and made by the South Korean government during the post-industrialization and democratization period. Following the model set by the first volume in the series, which covered the economic and social development during the developmental period from the 1960s to the 1980s, this volume examines how and to what extent the South Korean government has adapted to a variety of political, economic and social transformations since the 1990s. The book is divided in two parts. Part I reviews the changing policy environments and government policy paradigms in the wake of industrialization and democratization, focusing on the reorganization and coordination of government ministries and agencies. Part II explores key public policy areas, such as economics, social welfare, and foreign relations, where the South Korean government has successfully adapted to new policy challenges and environments. Drawing policy implications for the future actions of the South Korean government as well as for those countries wishing to replicate South Korea's success and avoid its errors, this book of interest to both scholars and policy-makers concerned with development in the Asia-Pacific.

Language policies impact language choice, language prestige, and language spread. Rising regional integration, both formal and informal, adds to the sensitivity and complexity of language politics, whether in North America, South America or Europe. This book shows how language politics vary across the Americas and contrast with Europe.

This book examines the practice of international election observation in a Caribbean context. It presents a survey of the Commonwealth Caribbean perspective and a concise case study of Guyana between 1964 and 2015. This research traces the roots of election observation and how this practice became integrated into the landscape of Caribbean electoral politics. More specifically, the study examines the process by which election observers have become key actors in elections in the Commonwealth Caribbean. One of the issues the book contemplates is why Caribbean countries accept the imposition of observation within the context of sovereignty. The case of Guyana and other Anglophone Caribbean states shows the costs of not having observers have been multidimensional and have eclipsed concerns of respecting state sovereignty.

Increased investment in the mining sector in Africa is often presented as a key strategy to leverage growth and development on the continent. It has been described as a "motor for growth," which will contribute to poverty reduction. Massive investment has taken place, but the results in crucial areas such as sustainable economic and social development have been extremely disappointing. These outcomes are most frequently attributed to dysfunctional internal governance processes, mismanagement and corruption. Much attention has been given in recent years to the issue of "the poor resource governance" in mineral rich countries. In this volume, academics, policy-makers and practitioners from Africa and beyond aim to achieve a better understanding of these issues by proposing a renewal of approaches. Discussing the cases of Ghana, Mali and the Democratic Republic of the Congo they explore new ways of thinking about issues concerning governance and revenue flows.

Using the conceptual framework of populism as discourse, Ritchie Savage provides a comparative analysis of U.S. and Latin American speeches and articles covering Betancourt's Accion Democratica, Chavez, McCarthyism, and the Tea Party. In so doing, he reveals an essential structure to populist discourse: reference to the "opposition" as a representation of the persistence of social conflict, posed against a collective memory of the origins of democracy and struggle for equality, is present in all cases. This discursive formation of populism is carried out in comparisons of political discourse in the United States and Venezuela, two countries that are typically classified as empirically specific in their economic and political development and ideological orientation. Populist Discourse in Venezuela and the United States explores how instances of populism, once exceptional phenomena within modern forms of political rule, are becoming increasingly integrated with the structure of democratic politics.

This book is an examination of minority government performance in conjunction with the territorial distribution of state power and the territorial interests of political parties. It examines political institutions, and the reconcilability of party goals and the contingent bargaining circumstances, in multilevel and territorial perspectives.

This book provides an overview of governance and development in the Mesoamerican Region (MAR), the design and scope of the Plan Puebla Panama (PPP), its relationship to pre-existing regional organisms and its transformation into Proyecto Mesoamerica. The PPP was introduced as a holistic project that would reverse the cycles of poverty in Mesoamerica. However, the plan incited huge opposition from many groups within Mesoamerica, and throughout its duration few of its objectives were met. The author analyses the plan and describes the regional setting and precursors, as well as the US policy towards the Mesoamerican countries. Using this approach with an analysis of governance in Mesoamerica, this monograph shows a more complete picture of why this ambitious development project did not reach its goals and draws applicable insights to other regions where governance is complex.

For decades Foucault was mostly known for his diagnosis of modernity as a form of entrapment, both in our modes of thought and our behaviors. This book argues that Foucault's reappraisal of modernity occurs with the 1978 and 1979 lectures, in which he sketches modern power as governmentality and neoliberalism. From this perspective, Foucault's once surprising studies on the Greeks' constitution of the 'self' can be seen as a continuation of his diagnosis of late modernity, and as an attempt to retrieve a form of autonomy for our modern selves. One finds in the late Foucault a postmodern conception of reason and not a destruction of reason; but this is possible only if postmodernity is seen as a critical exercise of reason in the analysis of norms.

Development economists and practitioners agree that close collaboration between business and government improves industrial policy, yet little research exists on how best to organize that. This book examines three necessary functions--information exchange, authoritative allocation, and reducing rent seeking--across experiences in Latin America.