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Books > Social sciences > Politics & government > Comparative politics
Although ambivalence characterizes the stance of scholars toward the desirability of close opinion-policy linkages in general, it is especially evident with regard to immigration. The controversy and disagreement about whether public opinion should drive immigration policy are among the factors making immigration one of the most difficult political debates across the West. Leading international experts and aspiring researchers from the fields of political science and sociology use a range of case studies from North America, Europe and Australia to guide the reader through the complexities of this debate offering an unprecedented comparative examination of public opinion and immigration. part one discusses the socio-economic and contextual determinants of immigration attitudes across multiple nations part two explores how the economy can affect public opinion part three presents different perspectives on the issue of causality - do attitudes about immigration drive politics, or do politics drive attitudes? part four investigates how several types of framing are critical to understanding public opinion and how a wide range of political factors can mould public opinion, and often in ways that work against immigration and immigrants part five examines the views of the largest immigrant group in the U.S. - Latinos - as well as how opinions are shaped by contact with and opinions about immigrants in the U.S. and Canada. An essential read to all who wish to understand the nature of immigration research from a theoretical as well as practical point of view.
An original theory and meticulous analysis of how advocates of political secularization emerged historically and why they succeeded in some contexts but not others. Why do some countries adopt secular institutions while others do not? In The Origins of Secular Institutions, Zeynep Bulutgil develops a theory that combines ideational and organizational mechanisms to explain how institutional secularization occurs. She first focuses on why political groups with a secularizing agenda emerge. Her argument is that the circulation of Enlightenment literature among the elite and associations through which the elite could exchange ideas were the main factors that influenced the early emergence of secularizing political movements. She then turns to the conditions under which these movements succeed. Secularizing political groups are at a comparative disadvantage when it comes to recruiting grassroots support because, unlike religious actors, they cannot rely on a pre-existing institutional structure. They become likely to overcome this obstacle if they have time to build a robust organization before religious political movements emerge. Bulutgil supports these arguments by combining statistical analysis of original historical data with comparative analysis of countries in Europe (France, Spain, The United Kingdom) and the Middle East/North Africa (Turkey, Morocco, and Tunisia). An authoritative explanation of why political secularization occurred in some countries but not others, this book will reshape our understanding of an issue of unsurpassed importance for over two centuries: the effects of modernity on politics.
This book provides new perspectives on recent Asian dynamism which go beyond the mainstream views, by attempting to situate the recent economic expansion within a broader analysis of capitalist accumulation and the various processes that it generates both within and across economies. The contributions in the book include analyses of recent growth patterns in both China and India; assessments of the sustainability of such growth and potential constraints and pitfalls; the role of international finance in affecting both national and international growth and employment patterns; the factors determining particular accumulation strategies and the results of these strategies. These forces within the two economies of China and India are situated within a broader assessment of the impacts on the world economy, by identifying long run tendencies in international capitalism and changing patterns of uneven development. Specific issues emerging within the Asian region are identified, including not just the relations between the three large Asian economies, but also the wider geopolitical implications as well as the political economy of these changes. This book therefore provides a more comprehensive examination of the longer run dynamics of the global capitalist system in which these economies are necessarily destined to play more significant roles in future.
Volume Three of the Classics of Comparative Policy Analysis, contains chapters concerned with "Regional Comparisons and Policy Analysis" - one of the most prevailing approaches in comparative public policy. Through the prism of inter-jurisdiction comparisons of similarities and variations, they address comparisons in specific policy sectors, governance or institutional constructs, and political regimes. The foci are, nevertheless, on those comparisons between countries or regions, which help to lesson-draw by identifying and understanding the variation in policy analysis and policy making that exists within or across regions. One benefit of regional comparisons is that it often allows studies to hold constant many variables, ranging from colonial legacy to federal systems, or from language to specific traditions, and more effectively isolate dependent variables. Regional organizations like the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) or European Union are also considered as catalysts for regional policy approaches and harmonization, and occupy a major role in this volume. The chapters address a broad and diverse number of countries and geographical areas: Latin America, North America, East Asia, Southeast Asia, Southern Africa, the Baltic states, the Nordic states, Western Europe, Central Europe, Eastern Europe, and Europe as a whole. "Regional Comparisons and Policy Analysis" will be of great interest to scholars and learners of public policy and social sciences, as well as to practitioners considering what can be learned or facilitated through methodologically and theoretically sound approaches. The chapters were originally published as articles in the Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis which in the last two decades has pioneered the development of comparative public policy. The volume is part of a four-volume series, the Classics of Comparative Policy Analysis including Theories and Methods, Institutions and Governance, Regional Comparisons, and Policy Sectors. Each volume showcases a different new chapter comparing domains of study interrelated with comparative public policy: political science, public administration, governance and policy design, authored by the JCPA co-editors Giliberto Capano, Iris Geva-May, Michael Howlett, Leslie A. Pal and B. Guy Peters.
Multinational federations rest on the coexistence of two or more nations within a single polity. Within these federations, minority nations play a significant role as their character differs from the other building blocks of the federation. This edited volume offers a comprehensive comparison of two such minority nations - Quebec in Canada and Wallonia in Belgium - which exemplifies many dimensions, themes and issues highly resonant to the study of federalism and regionalism across the globe. Quebec and Wallonia have experienced several decades of federal dynamics where both regions have had to find their way as a minority nation in a multinational federation. For those studying federalism and regionalism their importance lies in a number of characteristics, but principally in the fact of these minority nations have transformed into mini-states with fully fledged legislative powers within their federation. This book seeks to study the specific dynamics within these small worlds and between them and the rest of the federation. This text will be of key interest to students and scholars of federalism, nationalism and regionalism, comparative politics and policies, political ideas and social movements.
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 comprehensive volume brings together a diverse set of scholars to analyse candidate nomination, intra-party democracy, and election violence in Africa. Through a combination of comparative studies and country-specific case studies spanning much of Sub-Saharan Africa, including Kenya, Zambia, and South Africa, the authors shed light on violence during candidate nomination processes within political parties. The book covers several cases that vary significantly in terms of democracy, party dominance and competitiveness, and the institutionalization and inclusiveness of candidate selection processes. The authors investigate how common violence is during candidate nomination processes; whether the drivers of nomination violence are identical to those of general election violence; whether nomination violence can be avoided in high risk cases such as dominant party regimes with fierce intra-party competition for power; and which subnational locations are most likely to experience nomination violence. Through its focus on violence in nomination processes, this book firmly places the role of political parties at the centre of the analysis of African election violence. While adding to our theoretical and empirical understanding of nomination violence, the book contributes to the literature on conflict, the literature on democratization and democratic consolidation, and the literature on African political parties. This book was originally published as a special issue of the journal Democratization.
The EU plays an increasingly important role in issues such as the fight against organised crime and the management of migration flows, transforming the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice (AFSJ) into a priority of the EU's political and legislative agenda. This book investigates whether institutional change - the gradual communitarisation of the AFSJ - has triggered policy change, and in doing so, explores the nature and direction of this policy change. By analysing the role of the EU's institutions in a systematic, theory-informed and comparative way, it provides rich insights into the dynamics of EU decision-making in areas involving high stakes for human rights and civil liberties. Each chapter contains three sections examining: the degree of policy change in the different AFSJ fields, ranging from immigration and counter-terrorism to data protection the role of EU institutions in this process of change a case study determining the mechanisms of change. The book will be of interest to practitioners, students and scholars of European politics and law, EU policy-making, security and migration studies, as well as institutional change.
Over the last twenty years, the role of national parliaments in EU affairs has gained considerable academic attention. Much of the literature, however, has focused on parliamentary scrutiny and control in EU affairs. What tends to be generally overlooked is that the parliamentary communication function is at least as important in EU politics as the control function. Democratic legitimacy depends on a vibrant public debate on political solutions and alternatives to allow citizens to make informed political (electoral) choices and to exercise democratic control. Within the EU, it is precisely the opacity of policy-making processes and the lack of public discourse that have been defined as core problems of democratic legitimacy. Here, parliaments have the potential to provide an ideal arena for the deliberation of important European issues and thus to help overcome the much-lamented distance between European policy processes and the citizens. Yet, despite parliaments' central relevance for the legitimacy of European politics, the parliamentary communication function remains so far under researched. The volume aims at filling this gap by providing both qualitative and quantitative comparative data on various communication efforts by national parliaments. This book was originally published as a special issue in the Journal of Legislative Studies.
This book examines the link between religion and nationalism in contemporary polities. It seeks to understand the relationship between two key societal forms of diversity, comparing 12 different case studies. In some instances, religion can be the main marker of the minority nation, whereas in others, religious differences influence the identity of a nation. Through analysis of case studies on India, Russia, Israel, Canada, Chechnya, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Belgium, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Sri Lanka, Catalonia and the Basque Country, this book sheds light on the relationship between the two elements of diversity. The case studies illustrate the variety of forms of interaction between religious and nationalist interests. Expert contributors examine secular nationalism in the face of existing religious differences, secessionism and the link to religious differences, and polities in which religious divisions are decreasing. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of Political Science, Religion & Politics, Nationalism, Government, Federalism, Political Philosophy, Racial & Ethnic Politics and Comparative Politics.
Sovereignty is a foundational idea upon which regional organisation of nations is built, yet its demise has often been predicted. Regionalism, which commits states to common frameworks such as rules and norms, tests sovereignty as states relinquish some sovereign power to achieve other goals such as security, growth, or liberalisation. This book examines the practice of normative contestation over sovereignty in two regional organisations of Africa and Asia - the AU and ASEAN. A structured comparison of three case studies from each organisation determines whether a norm challenging sovereignty was accepted, rejected, or qualified. Ng has carried out interviews about, and detailed analysis of, these six cases that occurred at formative moments of norm-setting and that each had very different outcomes. This study contributes to the understanding of norms contestation in the field of international relations and offers new insights on how the AU and ASEAN are constituted.
This book provides a comparative study of the legislatures of small nations, states and territories, to explore the extent to which size is a factor in how they function and fulfil the roles and responsibility of a legislature. Though the physical nature and environment of states is a neglected subject in political science research, this book examines the impact of small state size on the structure and functions of legislatures and contributes to a better understanding of the interplay of physical and social factors. Focussing on legislatures in democratic nations or in territories that are parts of democratic units, the book features case studies on Malta, Bermuda, Jersey, Guernsey, Gibraltar, Hong Kong, Lesotho, Liechtenstein, the Isle of Man, Commonwealth Caribbean, Nunavut (Canada), Pacific islands, Swaziland, and Scotland. Contributors employ an interdisciplinary approach to examine both the outcomes and causes of different political mechanisms, and bring to the surface underlying correlation between small states through their analysis. Legislatures of Small States will be of interest to students and scholars of international politics, comparative politics and legislative studies.
Who shapes the European Union's policy towards Latin America? How has this EU policy modified individual member states' relations with the region? This book provides a comparative account of seven member states' bilateral links with Latin America since 1945, in the context of their EU membership and based on the concept of 'Europeanization'. It illustrates how and why the main architects of this EU policy have been Spain and Germany. In contrast, Poland, Sweden and Ireland, which had little previous interaction with Latin America, have developed their current relations with that region virtually as a result of their EU membership. The United Kingdom and France lie in the middle: they have been influential in certain policy-areas and key periods in history, while they have adapted to what is done at the EU level in others. Practitioners, established academic experts as well emerging scholars in the field bring to be bear a novel combination of pioneering research and cutting edge conceptual analysis on this important but neglected area of the EU's foreign relations.
A central question in political representation is whether government responds to the people. To understand that, we need to know what the government is doing, and what the people think of it. We seek to understand a key question necessary to answer those bigger questions: How does American public opinion move over time? We posit three patterns of change over time in public opinion, depending on the type of issue. Issues on which the two parties regularly disagree provide clear partisan cues to the public. For these party-cue issues we present a slight variation on the thermostatic theory from (Soroka and Wlezien (2010); Wlezien (1995)); our "implied thermostatic model." A smaller number of issues divide the public along lines unrelated to partisanship, and so partisan control of government provides no relevant clue. Finally, we note a small but important class of issues which capture response to cultural shifts.
Intergovernmental agreements are an important instrument in federal systems, establishing new social programs, regulating agricultural practices, and even changing constitutions. Despite their importance, there have only been limited attempts to understand agreements in a comparative context or to provide a theoretical framework for their study. This book addresses both of these deficiencies by comparing the use of agreements in six federations (Australia, Canada, Germany, South Africa, Switzerland and the United States) and considering why certain federations form more agreements than others. Parker analyzes the data using an institutional framework that considers the effects of seven variables, including the constitutional division of powers, the system of intergovernmental transfers, the size of the welfare state and the nature of governing institutions. In addition, the study provides the first ever comparative database of national intergovernmental agreements - a new resource for future research. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of Political Science, Federalism, Government, Political Institutions, Political Theory and Comparative Politics.
- Provides an up to date assessment of Africana Studies since its origins fifty years ago - Multidisciplinary, so relevant not only to students of Africana Studies, but also across auxiliary disciplines such as history, religion, literature, art, sociology, philosophy - Links Africana Studies with other emerging disciplines such as Women's Studies, Migration Studies, Ethnic Studies, and Afro-Latinix studies
Comparative Public Administration 2nd edition provides a clear introduction to the contemporary system of public administration and management in a number of significant countries. This text examines, country-by-country, the extent to which new public management, politicians and public opinion can influence bureaucracies in various countries; in addition, it explores the role of public administration systems within the wider political systems and democratic frameworks of their states. The new edition revises and updates all of the original country studies and adds three more chapters on Poland, India and China. Each chapter is written to a common framework which makes comparison easier and covers the following issues: -Political culture -The constitutional framework -The civil service -Central government agencies -Federal and local government -Financing the system -Coordinating the system -Managing the system -Accountability, secrecy and openness -Democracy and the administrative system -Further developments and issues with the system A wide number of countries are covered, including: the United States, the European Union, China, France, UK, Germany, the Republic of Ireland, Italy, India and Poland. This textbook is essential reading for students of comparative public administration.
In the 1920s and the 1930s, Turkey, Iran and Russia vehemently pursued state-secularizing reforms, but adopted different strategies in doing so. But why do states follow different secularizing strategies? The literature has already shattered the illusion that secularization of the state has been a unilinear, homogeneous and universal process, and has convincingly shown that secularization of the state has unfolded along different paths. Much, however, remains to be uncovered. This book provides an in-depth comparative historical analysis of state secularization in three major Eurasian countries: Turkey, Iran and Russia. To capture the aforementioned variation in state secularization across three countries that have been hitherto analyzed as separate studies, Birol Baskan adopts three modes of state secularization: accommodationism, separationism and eradicationism. Focusing thematically on the changing relations between the state and religious institutions, Baskan brings together a host of factors, historical, strategic and structural, to account for why Turkey adopted accommodationism, Iran separationism and Russia eradicationism. In doing so, he expertly demonstrates that each secularization strategy was a rational response to the strategic context the reformers found themselves in.
As bearers of their own emancipation, the political agency of the subaltern classes is a vexed question, a time-honoured one at that. Why do the subalterns endure injustices without revolting most of the time, but revolt sometimes against some injustices? The euphoria of 'globalisation-from-below', this book argues, skirts responsibility of addressing this question by presuming a groundswell of resistance across the world against neoliberal globalisation. In contrast to this oeuvre, Neoliberal Globalisation and Resistance from Below engages this question squarely by using the socio-historical approach to explain why the subalterns resist neoliberal globalisation in Bolivia and not in Ghana. The author urges scholars of critical political economy to pay greater attention to why the subalterns resist, rather than how they resist, or what the ideal end of their resistance should be. Such refocusing of the research and political lens will yield a more realistic picture of what is politically possible in the social context of peripheral capitalism regarding an anti-capitalist revolution. The author further argues that this refocusing will cure many of the romantic anti-capitalist claims and banal wishful thinking of a socialist revolution in peripheral capitalist regions such as Latin American, The Middle East and North Africa (MENA), and Sub-Saharan Africa. Neoliberal Globalisation and Resistance from Below will be of interest to students and scholars of African politics, neoliberalism, globalisation, political economy and subaltern politics.
Comparative Perspectives on Environmental Policies and Issues presents tools and concepts about environmental policies in several developed and developing countries. It explores a broad survey of ecological modernization theory, ecological feminism theory, environmental justice theory, the concept of sustainability, and research on environmental policies. Data were collected through surveys, interviews, and focus groups, and are used to analyze social, economic, and environmental impact on people. The book specifically discusses how the earth's basic life-supporting capital (soils, forests, species, fresh water and oceans) is degraded or depleted to provide for human needs, and how air pollution and acid precipitation, are causing widespread injury to humans, forests, and crops. Realistically, over-taxing of natural resources and ecological systems throughout the world has promoted economic growth and created increasing opportunities for people while also advancing social injustice. The use of the environment to accomplish social and economic transformation raises fundamental issues for the study of environmental policy and the natural ecological system. As human beings exploit the natural environment to meet present needs, they often will destroy resources needed for the future generations. Thus, environmental policies are enacted to ensure that social and economic impacts of the environment are compatible with the limits of natural systems. Offering an intuitive and crystal-clear explanation of the key concepts and principles of environmental policies and sustainable development, this volume is suitable not only for environmental science students, but also for instructors, practitioners, researchers, and academics.
Based on the author s 39 years of teaching environmental policy,
working in Washington, and traveling, Comparing Environmental
Policies in 16 Countries offers a complete primer in environmental
dilemmas and policies from a comparative perspective. The book
covers 16 countries according to five themes: participation,
interest groups, political parties, governmental structures, and
the diplomatic agenda. The author has visited all of the 16
countries and offers original insights on the dynamics of their
policies.
This book makes a major contribution to understanding European politics and identity. It examines how politicians, cultural elites, and other actors fight over Europe's future with words and stories, telling narratives about European integration in different political, social, and cultural contexts. The chapters explore how actors formulate stories to make sense of Europe's past and contemporary challenges and to legitimise their own positions and preferences. The contributors explore themes ranging from divisive stories about the European Union (EU), mobilised in institutional reform referendums, to the top-down deployment of legitimising narratives by EU institutions, religiously inspired apocalyptic narratives of European unity, and stories about nations and Europe told by museums and academics. Combined, the chapters of this book are essential reading for everyone interested in Europe's common past and contemporary challenges, and the EU's highly contested nature in times of apparently increasing disintegration.
Urban Politics After Apartheid presents an understanding of gendered urban politics in South Africa as an interactive process. Based on long-term fieldwork in the former townships 20 years after the end of apartheid, it provides an in-depth analysis of how activists and local politicians engage with each other. Sandrine Gukelberger contributes to the ongoing debate on urban governance by adding a new historicising perspective as an entry point into the urban governance arena, based upon the political trajectories of ward councillors and activists. Integrating urban governance studies with new perspectives on policy and social movements provides insight on the everyday events in which people engender, negotiate, and contest concepts, policies, and institutions that have been introduced under the catch-all banner of democracy. By conceptualising these events as encounters at different knowledge interfaces, the book develops a locus for an anthropology of policy, highlighting everyday negotiations in urban politics. Urban Politics After Apartheid dissects the social life of policies such as Desmond Tutu's rainbow nation metaphor beyond national symbolism, and academic and public discourse that largely portray participation in South Africa to be weak, local politicians to be absent, and social movements to be toothless tigers. Proving the inaccuracy of these portrayals, this book will be of interest to students and scholars of South African politics, urban studies, political anthropology and political sociology.
A devastating challenge to the idea of communism as a 'great leveller', this extraordinarily original, rigorous, and ambitious book debunks Marxism-inspired accounts of its equalitarian consequences. It is the first study systematically to link the genesis of the 'bourgeoisie-cum-middle class' - Imperial, Soviet, and post-communist - to Tzarist estate institutions which distinguished between nobility, clergy, the urban merchants and meshchane, and peasants. It demonstrates how the pre-communist bourgeoisie, particularly the merchant and urban commercial strata but also the high human capital aristocracy and clergy, survived and adapted in Soviet Russia. Under both Tzarism and communism, the estate system engendered an educated, autonomous bourgeoisie and professional class, along with an oppositional public sphere, and persistent social cleavages that continue to plague democratic consensus. This book also shows how the middle class, conventionally bracketed under one generic umbrella, is often two-pronged in nature - one originating among the educated estates of feudal orders, and the other fabricated as part of state-induced modernization.
Tax revenues have risen robustly across Latin America in recent decades, casting doubt on the region's reputation for having states too poor to finance economic and social development. However, dramatic differences persist in the magnitude of national tax burdens and public sector size, even among seemingly similar countries. This book examines the historical roots of this variation. Through in-depth case studies of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Mexico, as well as evidence from Ecuador and Guatemala, Ondetti reveals the lasting impact of historical episodes of redistributive reform that threatened property rights. Ironically, where such episodes were most extensive, they hindered future taxation by prompting economic elites and social conservatives to mobilize politically against state intervention, forming peak business associations, rightist parties, and other formal and informal organizations that have proven to be remarkably enduring. |
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