The Frontiers of Democracy offers a comprehensive examination of restrictions on the vote in democracies today. For the first time, the reasons for excluding people (prisoners, children, intellectually disabled, non-citizens) from the suffrage in contemporary societies is critically examined from the point of view of democratic theory.

This volume offers a comparative analysis of Japanese and Russian politics in the 2010s, examining both domestic dimensions and foreign policy. A bi-national collaborative effort, the volume is structured to offer perspectives on each country from both Russian and Japanese scholars. An introduction by Takashi Inoguchi gives a historical overview of the two countries' paths to development as 'late comers' vis-a-vis the West in the late nineteenth century. The analysis that follows reveals that Japan and Russia have come to acquire genuinely striking contrasting features: frequent leadership change despite extraordinary societal stability and continuity in Japan and infrequent leadership change despite extraordinary ups and downs in Russia.

The book provides the first comprehensive comparative analysis of the development of EU enlargement conditionality across four different enlargement waves - the first (2004) and the second (2007) phase of the Eastern enlargement, the EU enlargement to Croatia (2013), and the ongoing enlargement round involving Turkey and the Western Balkans.

"Like national identity, national days involve a process of 'othering', saying who you are, as much as who you are not. If some countries (such as Scotland and Ireland) celebrate them far more strongly than their neighbour, England, why is that? Why is there no British day? Why should near-neighbours, Sweden, Norway and Finland, have such different traditions of national remembering? What if a national day and its associations are so tied into a previous political regime that they have become an embarrassment? Germany, Italy and South Africa have undergone radical political changes in the last 60 years, and with these, complex processes of forgetting and remembering. If national days have considerable political significance, whether positive or negative, they are also of major economic worth. Just as 'heritage' is not simply a matter of history, but of markets, so 'national days' have the potential to be major icons of national tourism. "--Book cover.

This book analyzes how international organizations and the European Union engage with civil society to pursue their policy goals. Multi-stakeholder initiatives, private-public partnership, sub-contracting, political alliances, hybrid coalitions, multi-sectoral networks, pluralist co-governance, and indeed foreign policy by proxy are all considered. Bringing together the most advanced scholarship, the book examines trade, environment, development, security, and human rights with reference to both EU and global institutional settings such as the WTO, UN Climate Summits, FAO, IFAD, ICC, UNHRC, UNSC, and at the EU level the DG FISMA, TRADE, CLIMA, DEVCO, HOME and ECHO. The book also studies the use of NGOs in the foreign policy of the EU, USA, and Russia. This changing politics and the polarized debate it has generated are explored in detail.

In an increasingly multicultural world, the relationship between language and identity remains a complicated and often fraught subject for most societies. The growing political salience of questions relating to language is evident not only in the expanded implementation of new policies and legislation, but also in heated public debates about national unity, collective identities, and the rights of linguistic minorities. By taking a comprehensive approach that considers both the inclusive and exclusive dimensions of linguistic identity across Europe and North America, the studies assembled here provide a sophisticated look at one of the global era's defining political dynamics.

The analysis in this book disputes entrenched interpretations of the comparative political economy of industrialized democracies. It questions, in particular, the widely-held assumption that social democratic governments will defend the interests of labor. The evidence shows that labor has become split into two clearly differentiated constituencies: those with secure employment (insiders) and those without (outsiders). The book focuses on three policy areas: employment protection (representing the main concern of insiders), and active and passive labor market policies (the main concern of outsiders). The main thrust of the argument is that the goals of social democratic parties are often best served by pursuing policies that benefit only insiders. The implication of the book's insider-outsider model is that social democratic government is associated with higher levels of employment protection legislation but not with labor market policy. The book also argues that there are factors can reduce insider-outsider differences and weaken their influence on social democratic governments. These hypotheses are explored through the triangulation of different methodologies. The book provides an analysis of surveys and macrodata, and a detailed comparison of three case-studies: Spain, the UK and the Netherlands. Its reinterpretation of the challenges facing social democracy will represent a significant contribution to the comparative politics and political economy literatures.

Asia's rising power and wealth offer its many oppressed ethnic minorities hope for greater political freedom and an end to violence. But the reality of this hope is cast into doubt by acute separatist conflict. This book provides fresh and factual assessments of separatist struggles and prospects for conflict resolution in eight countries of Asia.

"Offices in Brussels representing the interests of regional actors in the EU have carved out a niche position within Europe's expanding multi-level political system. They are now the most visible indicators of the growing role played by EU regions. How can we understand their contribution to EU governance? What do they deliver to Europe's regions? This book covers these issues"--

International experts analyze Pakistan's security and insurgency issues, looking at the threats posed to and by this nuclear-armed Islamic nation. The only country in Islamic world to be formed in the name of Islam and a nuclear power, Pakistan today is struggling for its very existence and is at war with itself. "Pakistan's Quagmire" focuses on the insurgency in Pakistan, a security problem not only for the country, but also for the region and the rest of the world. To foster a thorough understanding of the many aspects of the issue, the book looks at both theoretical and practical aspects, from international relations, conflict processes, and political Islam to the annihilation of the TTP, the presence of Al-Qaeda in tribal regions, and the role of Pakistani military and agencies. The essays are contributed by international scholars, journalists, economist, nuclear security experts, security analysts, and strategists. A unique contribution, "Pakistan's Quagmire" will be an essential resource for students in conflict processes, security studies, political Islam, and US foreign policy as well as for policymakers and professionals looking to better grasp the quagmire caused by insurgency and the ongoing war on terror in Pakistan.

The task of building more energy-efficient, climate-friendly and sustainable societies is the defining challenge of the 21st century. Striving to become the world's first major renewable energy economy by 2050, Germany is a global front runner in environmental policy and practice. Requiring massive investments in green technologies and infrastructure, Germany's ambitious shift from fossil fuels and nuclear power to renewables requires nothing less than an 'energy revolution.' How and why did Europe's largest economy embrace a challenge that has been compared to the first landing on the moon? What does this transition entail? Is the German experience transferable to other industrialized nations such as the United States? Experts from business, academia, governmental agencies and non-profit think tanks offer multi-disciplinary perspectives on the experiences behind and the challenges ahead. They open up new viewpoints and avenues for shared insight on environmental governance, energy security, technological innovation, green landscape and urban design, as well as on the possibilities for transatlantic partnership and cooperation.

This book looks at the organization and strategy of state-wide parties from across some of the most important multi-layered countries in Western Europe. The volume provides the first systematic attempt to study the strategy of state-wide parties on the basis of the comparative literature on issue voting.

China and India growing interests in Central Asia disrupt the traditional Russian-U.S. "Great Game" at the heart of the old continent. Though for the moment India is unable to equally compete against the Chinese presence in post-Soviet Central Asia, New Delhi is well established in Afghanistan and has begun to cast its eyes more markedly toward the north to the shores of the Caspian Sea. In the years to come, both Asian powers are looking to redeploy their rivalry on the Central Asian and Afghan theaters on a geopolitical, but also political and economic level.

This book presents an interdisciplinary exploration of the governance of public procurement reform in Africa. Through a bottom-up approach to case studies and comparative analyses, scholars, practitioners, and social activists write about the organizational mechanisms and implementation gaps in public procurement governance in light of the general premises of national reform. Reforming the ways in which government purchases works, goods, and services from the private sector is one of the most sweeping policy reform undertaken in Africa in the past decade. Despite the transnational scope of policy change, very little is known about the mechanisms of public procurement governance at the subnational level. The argument in this volume is that policy reforms that mitigate contractual hazards along the three-dimensional "law-politics-business matrix" are more likely to bring about meaningful institutional transformation and broader social accountability. Key to substantive transformation of public procurement is the revitalization and professionalization of the public sector to meet the opportunities and challenges of development by contract.

This book analyses the diffusion of norms concerning gender-based violence and gender mainstreaming of aid and trade between the EU, South America and Southern Africa. Norm diffusion is conceptualized as a truly multidirectional and polycentric process, shaped by regional governance and resulting in new geometries of transnational activism.

This book analyzes in what way activation policies impact on given patterns of social citizenship that predominate in national contexts. It argues that the liberal paradigm of activation introduced into labour market policies in all Western European states challenges the specific patterns of social citizenship in each country.

This book explores how technological change is influencing the dynamics of relations between mainland China and Taiwan. Using the latest research, it examines the acceleration of technology-led and how it shapes three key dimensions of the cross-Strait relationship: the overarching security context; the economic context; and the cultural context.

Notwithstanding its contemporary critics, political representation remains at the core of democratic politics. Based on a comparative research project that gathered data from observations, surveys, experiments and expert interviews, this book examines the process and the quality of political representation in France and Germany from a dual perspective. First, it analyzes MPs' behavior during their district activities. Second, it investigates the perceptions and evaluations of the represented, the French and German citizens. In ten chapters different facets of MPs' activities as well as citizens' attitudes are comparatively investigated. The book is relevant for Politics scholars and practitioners at national parliaments to better understand representative democracies, and it may also contribute to improve representation itself.

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 demonstrates the integral nature of gendered issues and feminist frameworks for a comprehensive understanding of contemporary IR. It uses feminist frameworks and research to both uncover and reflect upon gender and global politics in the contemporary Asia-Pacific. It also brings together, into a coherent and accessible collection, the work of feminist scholars, teachers, and activists in international relations.

Political liberalization and economic reform, the weakening of the state, and increased global interconnections have all had profound effects on Muslim societies and the practice of Islam in Africa. The contributors to this volume investigate and illuminate the changes they have brought, through detailed case studies of Muslim youth activists, Islamic NGOs, debates about Islamic law, secularism and minority rights, and Muslims and the political process in both conflict and post-conflict settings. Their work offers fresh perspectives on the complexity of Muslim politics in contemporary Africa.

This volume has been designed as a key resource in the field of international political leadership research. Written by a team of distinguished leadership scholars from three continents and nine countries, the original chapters gathered in this volume cover all the major fields of political leadership, from executive, legislative and party leadership to leadership in social movements and international organizations. The special value and appeal of this book relates to its genuinely comparative focus that characterizes all chapters.

This wide-ranging, historically informed study examines the career of the culture concept and related notions of context in comparative and international politics, tracing connections through the disciplines of anthropology and history as well as through issues in nationalism and democracy.

The authors suggest that some of the problems of the public sector are self-inflicted and that current policies may only deliver partial success 'at a price we cannot afford'. It proposes a radical alternative and discusses practical ways it could be implemented. It also explores the threats and opportunities that such an approach might face.