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Books > Social sciences > Politics & government > Comparative politics
A collection of state of the art reflections by fourteen leading experts in the field of multinational federalism. Seymour and Gagnon have gathered contributions from philosophers, political scientists and jurists dealing with the accommodation of peoples in countries like Belgium, Canada, Europe, Great Britain, India and Spain.
This book looks at how both advocacy groups in New Zealand and Australia use political marketing to conduct advocacy and support Israeli and Palestinian public diplomacy and nation branding. The focus lies on their marketing orientation, segmentation/ targeting/ positioning (STP), and internal marketing practices. The theoretical framework will draw upon several political marketing frameworks and concepts including the product/sales/market-oriented framework, the STP process, and Petitt's internal stakeholder marketing approaches. The book examines four case studies: (1) the Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa (PSNA), (2) the Israel Institute of New Zealand (IINZ), (3) the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC), and (4) the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network (APAN). To ensure balance and comparison, four groups representing both the pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian camps in NZ and Australia were selected. Other criteria included their broad scope of activity, approachability and accessibility, as well as connections to state actors through advocacy, public diplomacy, and nation branding.
This edited volume examines the form and operation of intergovernmental relations in divided societies. Using eight country case studies, it explores the interplay between politicised ethno-cultural diversity and intergovernmental relations (IGR) in countries where the distinctive identity of at least one subnational unit is acknowledged in a form of territorial autonomy. The book examines whether and how the distinctive identity of particular subnational units and the attending competing constitutional visions shape the dynamics of IGR. The goal here is not simply to determine whether intergovernmental interactions in such societies are less cordial and more conflictual than in other societies. Such interaction in any society could be strained as a result of disagreement over specific policy objectives. The question is whether the distinctive identity of particular subnational units and the attending competing constitutional visions themselves have been a primary source of intergovernmental tension. The book also examines the impact of identity politics on institutions and instruments of IGR, determining whether the ethno-cultural divide and the tension it creates have the tendency to affect the type of institutions and instruments employed in IGR. It is also about the relevance and effectiveness of institutions and instruments of IGR in acknowledging and accommodating the distinctive identities and specific demands of subnational units, thereby contributing to the peaceful management of divided societies.
What explains differences in the lobbying behaviour of interest groups? And what consequences do these differences have for the access that interest groups can gain to decision-makers and the influence that they can exert on policy outcomes? Building on an unprecedented amount of empirical evidence on lobbying in Europe, this book puts forward a distinction between lobbying insiders and lobbying outsiders. Lobbying insiders, most prominently business interests, try to establish direct contacts with decision-makers, enjoy good access to executive institutions, and manage to shape policy outcomes when mobilizing the public on an issue is difficult. Lobbying outsiders, in particular citizen groups such as consumer, environmental or health non-governmental organizations, put greater emphasis on mobilizing the public or changing public attitudes, find it easier to gain access to legislative decision-makers, and have the greatest impact on outcomes on issues that are amenable to an outside lobbying campaign. The book shows that a single argument, building on group type as the main variable, can explain variation across interest groups in their choice of strategy, their access to decision-makers, and the conditions under which they can exert influence. The existence of lobbying insiders and lobbying outsiders has important implications for both our understanding of political decision-making and the normative appraisal of contemporary democracy.
Since ancient times, terror tactics have been used to achieve political ends and likely will continue into the foreseeable future. Preserving national security and the safety of civilian populations while maintaining democratic principles and respecting human rights requires a delicate balancing act. In democracies, monitoring that balance typically falls to the courts. Courts and Terrorism examines how judiciaries in nine separate nations have responded, not just to the current wave of Al Qaeda threats, but also to nacro-trafficking, domestic terrorism, and organized crime syndicates. Terrorism is not a new phenomenon, and even though the reactions have varied significantly, common themes emerge. This volume discusses eleven case studies and analyzes the experiences of these various nations in their battles with terrorism to reveal the judicial quandary for democratic governance and the rule of law in the twenty-first century.
This book analyses the reasons for women's participation in the various Lebanese and Palestinian militias involved in the Lebanese Civil War (1975-1990). Whilst most existing accounts of the Civil War in Lebanon either overlook the roles and experiences of women entirely or focus on women as victims or peacemakers only, 'Women and the Lebanese Civil War' highlights that women were involved as militants (and often also as fighters) in all of the militias partaking in the war. Analysing individual motivations, organisational characteristics, security-related aspects and societal factors, the book explains why women were included as fighters in some of the militias but not in others. Based on extensive fieldwork in Lebanon, the book is the first comprehensive study of female perpetrators and supporters of political violence during the Lebanese Civil War. Beyond the case of Lebanon, it questions widespread assumptions about the roles of women at times of violent conflict and war.
This major new text by two leading authorities in the field provides a state-of-the-art assessment of what we know about voting behavior and the character, consequences and significance of elections in democratic states. Uniquely broad-ranging in scope, it shows how patterns of electoral behavior have evolved over time and also assesses the varying extents to which voters in different countries are able to affect the direction of government policies in practice.
Rising China has been reshaping world order for the last two decades, but this volume argues that we cannot accurately understand rising China's global impacts without first investigating whether and how its growing power resources are translated into actual influence over other states' choices and policies. Concentrating on the developing countries in East and South Asia, where the power asymmetry is greatest and China ought to have the biggest influence, the volume investigates China's influence in bilateral relationships, and on key political actors from these countries within key issue areas and international institutions. Using an influence framework, the volume demonstrates how China tends to try to gain the support of smaller and weaker countries without forcing them to change their preferences or to act against their own interests. China does purposefully coerce, induce, or persuade others to behave in certain ways, but whether and the extent to which it succeeds is determined as much by the reactions, political context and decision-making processes of the target states, as it is by how skilfully Chinese actors deploy these tools. The contributors detail how China's influence even over these weaker states does not result from easy applications of power; rather it tends to be mediated through the competing interests of target state actors, the imperatives of other existing security and economic relationships, and more complex strategic thinking than we might expect. The book's findings carry lessons for conceptual refinement, as well as policy implications for those coping with China's reshaping of international order.
The election of Barack Obama in 2008 was startling, as was the victory of Donald Trump eight years later. Because both presidents were unusual and gained office backed by Congresses controlled by their own parties, their elections kick-started massive counter-movements. The Tea Party starting in 2009 and the "resistance" after November 2016 transformed America's political landscape. Upending American Politics offers a fresh perspective on recent upheavals, tracking the emergence and spread of local voluntary citizens' groups, the ongoing activities of elite advocacy organizations and consortia of wealthy donors, and the impact of popular and elite efforts on the two major political parties and candidate-led political campaigns. Going well beyond national surveys, Theda Skocpol, Caroline Tervo, and their contributors use organizational documents, interviews, and local visits to probe changing organizational configurations at the national level and in swing states. This volume analyzes conservative politics in the first section and progressive responses in the second to provide a clear overview of US politics as a whole. By highlighting evidence from the state level, it also reveals the important interplay of local and national trends.
Shallow capital markets are a key bottleneck for private sector development in Latin America. Still, there is not a large literature on capital markets and corporate governance, or on the politics of regulatory reform and business associations, focused on this region. To help address this gap, this new book introduces private equity into the financial development debate through a Latin American lens. The author looks at the cases of Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Colombia, and Argentina. And proposes a shift in the financial development discussion from institutional explanations focused only on rules to an actor-based argument centered on the role of institutional investors, in particular pension funds .
The book"Regional Approaches to the Energy Transition", discusses the key challenges the energy transition is facing at the European and International level. It is an edited collection gathering contributions from the experts in the field bringing together internationally renowned scholars, researchers, EU officials to address the current trends in the energy transition and its dilemmas. The book places the energy transition in a wide interdisciplinary context. It looks at energy policies, legal framework, regional strategies and the difficulties in their implementation. It argues for a regional approach to the energy transition, questioning at the same time the strategies and measures put forward for its realisation. The subject matter is topical, considering recent themes that occupy global and European political agendas. In a nutshell, the volume offers insights into regional regulations, public policies and local practices on the use of clean energy. It looks first at the EU commitment and its initiatives providing some examples from the Member States. Furthermore, it offers a comparative perspective and discusses the different approaches to the energy transition from Latin America, China, Africa and Australia. It covers a wide range of topics such as the EU renewable energy policies, Green Deal and regionalisation, energy auctions in the EU, environment in contemporary constitutionalism, Human Rights considerations, the Scandinavian perspective, practical examples from Italy and Spain. Moreover, it also considers the global context, looking at State and Market in China's coal-to-gas transition, tendencies of legal regulation in the sphere of renewable energy in Russia, the energy transition in Latin-American countries, regional approach to the energy transition and electricity access initiatives in Sub-Saharan Africa, and transnationalism and the regional approach to the energy transition in Australia. The systematisation that this book offers and the exchange of good practices and experiences are useful tools for the key players to seriously engage with a just and sustainable energy transition. The proposed book is a reference and study material for academics and students, but also for the policy makers, officials and practitioners dealing with the energy transition. It provides some answers, potential solutions and alternatives to the main problems that the energy sector is facing worldwide.
This book offers a systematic and far-reaching account of party system institutionalization in Western Europe. Drawing upon a wide array of data and through a comparison of 20 countries from the end of WWII to 2019 across three arenas of party competition (electoral, parliamentary, and governmental ones), the empirical analysis shows that, over the past decade, the level of institutionalization in the Western European party systems has dramatically declined compared with previous decades. Electoral, parliamentary, and - in some cases - governmental instability and unpredictability have reached record-high levels. Although the impact of the 2008 Great Recession has certainly worked as a catalyst, this process of de-institutionalization has been mainly driven by long-term factors, such as cleavage decline and length of democratic experience. Moreover, its consequences are relevant not only for the relationship between parties and voters, but also for the very quality of democracy, as party system deinstitutionalization causes a decline in the citizens' satisfaction of the way democracy works and even an erosion of the 'objective' democratic standards. In a nutshell, Western Europe, once seen as the land of stability and the cradle of democracy, may have become the land of party system deinstitutionalization and incipient democratic backsliding.
This research explores one of the baffling mysteries in contemporary non-Western democracies. The conversion to a mixed system of the first-past-the-post system and proportional representation for the Japanese House of Representatives in 1994 has not realised the widely spread desire for recurrent changes of government, as the Liberal Democratic Party have maintained their grip. Dr Nagatomi monitors Japanese politics with the theories and methodologies of electoral geography. From a comparative perspective, the operation of the electoral system can mostly be explained by the geographical distributions of party supports, the arrangements of electoral constituencies and the candidacies of parties. Packed with a volume of the analyses unpublished elsewhere, this book will offer food for thought to political scientists, Asian watchers and broadly comparative researchers.
This is the first book to provide a full and dispassionate account of the politics and economics of the Eurozone crisis, focusing on the interlinked origins and impacts of the Euro-Zone crisis and the policy responses to it. The book is distinguished from existing research by its avoidance (and rejection) of the too-often simplistic analysis that has characterized political, media and regrettably some academic coverage, and by its attempt to escape from the tyranny of day-to-day events and short-term developments. Each of the contributors identifies an important question and undertakes a careful empirical, theoretically-informed analysis that produces novel perspectives. Together they seek to balance many of the existing accounts that have rushed to sometimes unwarranted conclusions, concerning, for example, the locus of institutional power in European crisis-management; the power and centrality of particular member states, notably Germany which has been attributed with 'hegemonic' status; the supposed entrapment of EU policy makers by an 'austerity ideology'; and the deep flaws that apparently afflict the solutions to the crisis put painstakingly in place, such as Banking Union. While it will be some time before the EU can put the crisis behind it, and the dust finally settles on the revised institutional system that emerges, The Political and Economic Dynamics of the Eurozone Crisis marks an important step towards a considered, reflective analysis of the tumultuous events and developments of the crisis period.
This book explores the phenomenon of total power in East Asia, with particular attention to China, Korea, and Japan. It shows how total power enables an examination of regional experience as a part of global context in order to demarcate the connections with other countries and regions that have similar political cultures, such as those in Central Asia, the Middle East, and East Africa. Moreover, it elucidates that the phenomenon of total power unpacks the interrelations not only between different countries, but also between political, economic, religious, or cultural aspects of the region as a whole, and of each country in particular. This book takes East Asia as a classic example of where total power has achieved the highest forms of development during traditional periods in the form of absolute economic dependence of society on the state, ideologically enshrined by a system of moral obligations toward supreme power that allowed for the establishment of a monopoly on forced labour, and the appropriation and distribution of social products. The author emphasizes the importance of exploring the tradition of total power with reference to the ongoing global crisis of European democracy. In doing so, the book shows that democratization has not brought qualitative changes to the political culture of East Asia. An essential interdisciplinary read for scholars studying political science, particularly East-West relations, this book situates East Asian political culture within a global context.
One of the key shifts in contemporary politics is the trend towards greater personalization. Collective actors such as political parties are losing relevance. Citizens are slowly dealigning from these actors, and individual politicians are therefore growing in importance in elections, in government, within parties, and in media reporting of politics. A crucial question concerns how this new pattern could be restructuring politics over the long run - notably, whether the personalization of politics is changing the institutional architecture of contemporary democracies. The authors show that the trend towards personalization is indeed changing core democratic institutions. Studying the evolution of electoral systems in thirty-one European democracies since 1945, they demonstrate that, since the 1990s, there has been a shift towards more personalized electoral systems. Electoral systems in most European countries now allow voters to express preferences for candidates, not just for political parties. And the weight of these voters' preferences in the allocation of seats has been increased in numerous countries. They examine the factors that appear to be driving this evolution, finding that the personalization of electoral systems is associated with the growing gap between citizens and politics. Politicians and legislators appear to perceive the personalization of electoral systems as a way to address the democratic malaise and to restore trust in politics by reducing the role of political parties in elections. The book also shows, however, that whether these reforms have had any success in achieving their aims is far less clear. Comparative Politics is a series for students, teachers, and researchers of political science that deals with contemporary government and politics. Global in scope, books in the series are characterised by a stress on comparative analysis and strong methodological rigour. The series is published in association with the European Consortium for Political Research. For more information visit: www.ecprnet.eu. The Comparative Politics series is edited by Emilie van Haute, Professor of Political Science, Universite libre de Bruxelles; Ferdinand Muller-Rommel, Director of the Center for the Study of Democracy, Leuphana University; and Susan Scarrow, Chair of the Department of Political Science, University of Houston.
Understanding Third World Politics gives a comprehensive and critical introduction to the main theories that have been used to understand political change in developing countries. It examines the variety of political institutions and processes in the Third World and critical evaluates the major explanatory frameworks used by political scientists to understand them. The discussion is supported throughout by a wide range of topical case studies from around the world - including features on class in Brazil and democracy in India. The book concludes by considering the political instability that so frequently plagues poor countries and by identifying the conditions required to establish democratic stability. The fourth edition has been revised and updated throughout to take account of key political developments, including foreign interventions in the Middle East, state repression in North Africa, and the secession of South Sudan. Engagingly written, this text offers a clear and theoretically rigorous introduction to the politics of the Third World.
This is the first of five ambitious volumes theorizing the structure of governance above and below the central state. This book is written for those interested in the character, causes, and consequences of governance within the state and for social scientists who take measurement seriously. The book sets out a measure of regional authority for 81 countries in North America, Europe, Latin America, Asia, and the Pacific from 1950 to 2010. Subnational authority is exercised by individual regions, and this measure is the first that takes individual regions as the unit of analysis. On the premise that transparency is a fundamental virtue in measurement, the authors chart a new path in laying out their theoretical, conceptual, and scoring decisions before the reader. The book also provides summaries of regional governance in 81 countries for scholars and students alike. Transformations in Governance is a major new academic book series from Oxford University Press. It is designed to accommodate the impressive growth of research in comparative politics, international relations, public policy, federalism, environmental and urban studies concerned with the dispersion of authority from central states up to supranational institutions, down to subnational governments, and side-ways to public-private networks. It brings together work that significantly advances our understanding of the organization, causes, and consequences of multilevel and complex governance. The series is selective, containing annually a small number of books of exceptionally high quality by leading and emerging scholars. The series targets mainly single-authored or co-authored work, but it is pluralistic in terms of disciplinary specialization, research design, method, and geographical scope. Case studies as well as comparative studies, historical as well as contemporary studies, and studies with a national, regional, or international focus are all central to its aims. Authors use qualitative, quantitative, formal modeling, or mixed methods. A trade mark of the books is that they combine scholarly rigour with readable prose and an attractive production style. The series is edited by Liesbet Hooghe and Gary Marks of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and the VU Amsterdam, and Walter Mattli of the University of Oxford.
Relying on micro-evidence on the repercussions of civil conflicts, this edited book explores theories and policies of post-conflict peacebuilding. Reconsidering existing knowledge on the civil conflict and peacebuilding processes in particular, it empirically presents the relationships between conflict dynamics and citizens' norms, values, and preferences in the post-conflict context. Once it occurs, civil conflict brings enormous suffering on the local society. As a consequence of wartime coercion and violence that tear it apart, citizens come to harbor fear, distrust, and hatred of others, especially of those who are in different sociopolitical groups. This can significantly alter the pre-conflict norms and values of the citizenry and make reconciliation difficult across groups in the aftermath of the conflict. To tackle these problems, post-conflict peacebuilding should be well designed so that it can widely cover and sufficiently deal with conflict-affected citizens. This approach urges us to pay serious attention to the individual-level impact of the conflict process and dynamics. The importance of micro-level analysis does not disregard that of normative and/or macro-level approaches to the development of peacebuilding policies. However, the micro-level approach is better able to capture wartime civil-military relations that largely vary between individuals. The book is aimed at linking academic knowledge with policy development in peacebuilding. To reflect existing policy frameworks in peacebuilding, the implications of micro-evidence-based studies for conflict-affected societies are discussed here. A bottom-up approach pursued throughout this book allows us to elaborate desirable policy schemes for peacebuilding that conform to local contexts.
Elgar Advanced Introductions are stimulating and thoughtful introductions to major fields in the social sciences and law, expertly written by the world?s leading scholars. Designed to be accessible yet rigorous, they offer concise and lucid surveys of the substantive and policy issues associated with discrete subject areas. Mark Tushnet, a world-renowned scholar of constitutional law, has excelled in extending and revising his essential introduction to comparative constitutional law. Through an analysis of topics at the cutting edge of contemporary scholarship, this authoritative study investigates constitution making, forms of constitutional review, proportionality analysis and its alternatives, and the development of a new ?transparency? branch in constitutions around the world. Throughout, the book draws upon examples from a wide range of nations, demonstrating that the field of comparative constitutional law now truly encompasses the world. New to this revised and enlarged second edition: ? Updated and extended material to encompass the developments in practice and scholarship since the original edition?s publication back in 2014? With substantial additional attention, Tushnet analyses abusive constitutionalism, the idea of the constituent power, eternity clauses and unconstitutional amendments Recent developments in weak- and strong-form constitutional review are given fresh analysis, as well as an expanded consideration of third generation rights. Addressing the key issues of constitutional design and structure, this second edition will serve as an excellent up-to-date resource for students and scholars of comparative constitutional law.
This work, written by an expert in the politics of Mainland China and Taiwan, looks at the role the Constitution of the Republic of China has played in the development of Taiwan since 1949 and its potential influence on the People's Republic of China.The Chinese Communists conducted the first long march for the sake of the majority of Chinese people, with the victory of MAO Zedong. In the second long march, CHIANG Kai-shek and his successors tried to convert the Chinese mailand from a Communist, totalitarian system, into a democratic, prosperous one by relying on the spirit of the Republic of China (ROC) constitution and by setting itself as a good example, in gradually guaranteeing freedom and democracy. Needless to say, this march is long and difficult."Struggling Against The Chinese Communists under the Republic of China Constitution" challenges other models and theories on the study of the relationship between the ROC (Taiwan area) and mainland China or the People's Republic of China (PRC) since China became politically (as opposed to legally) divided in December 1949. Arguably, it is the ROC Constitution that has helped ROC citizens to live in a non-Communist or anti-Communist political system. Actively promoting democracy and freedom on the Chinese mainland (neidi) can further guarantee the Taiwan area's survival.The book provides valuable scholarship of interest to anyone researching the political history of China and its prospects for democratization.
This book provides a comprehensive overview of the party finance regime at the level of the European Union. Based on an in-depth analysis of the interaction between European political parties and their institutional environment, it shows how the Europarties have coped with - and altered - the funding rules. The book explains why increasing party subsidies have been made available, and why considerable differences exist in how Eurosceptic and pro-European parties have used their EU funding. It also examines how party finance reform at the EU level has been at the centre of party competition, by demonstrating how the rules were strategically changed to benefit some European parties over others. Considering the strong democratic aspirations that lay at the origins of the finance regime, the book explores its consequences for party democracy and the rule of law in Europe. This book is valuable for scholars working on the European Parliament, Eurosceptic parties, EU decision-making, (European) party politics and political finance.
This open access book features various studies on democratization, transformation, socio-economic development, and security issues in the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) geographical region and beyond. Written by experts and scholars working in the field of human dimension, security, transformation and development in Europe and Asia, particularly in post-soviet and communist countries, it examines the connectivity that the OSCE provides between the East and the West. The 2021 edition of this Compilation Series of the OSCE Academy presents studies on peace and conflict as well as political regime development in various member states of the OSCE as well as their economic, security and human rights performance and the challenges countries and society face currently. The OSCE is working in promoting Human Rights and Democratization under the notion of Human Dimension of ODIHR and is enhancing securitization and development policies in Eurasia, Europe, Central Asia and North America since 1991. 2021 marks the 30th anniversary on the tremendous efforts in promoting democracy, security and development. This compilation reviews some of these efforts in light of this anniversary, the achievements and shortcomings.
Offering a comparative perspective, this book examines working poverty -- those in work who are still classified as "poor." It argues that the growth in numbers of working poor in Europe is due to the transition from a Keynesian Welfare State to a 'post-fordist' model of production. |
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