'one of the year's most exciting releases' - The Herald China is building the world's first digital totalitarian state, a system of hitherto unimaginable social and political control. Internet freedom has been eliminated and ubiquitous surveillance cameras employ the latest facial recognition technology. Through flagrant cyber espionage, it has plundered Western technology on a massive scale, bullied Western tech companies and academics (though many have been willing accomplices) and intimidated critics worldwide. In doing so, it has become a model for aspiring dictators everywhere. Ian Williams examines the extraordinary rise of the Chinese surveillance state, showing how it has been driven by the enigmatic Xi Jinping, now effectively president for life, and how it impacts the daily lives of Chinese citizens, particularly dissidents and those from ethnic minorities. Supporting interviews and first-hand accounts from those whose lives have been turned upside down or worse highlight the chilling and ruthless efficiency with which the government can now act. The book also considers the wider implications for the rest of the world. How to deal with an increasingly strident, aggressive Beijing is one of the biggest challenges facing the West in what has become a technological Cold War.

Contributing to the literature on democratic transitions and with a focus on institutional bargaining, in this fascinating book the Hungarian case is contrasted with those of Poland, South Africa and China to explore the contours of what bargaining strategies affect outcomes. The result is increased understanding of how actors and their interaction can make peaceful transitions are possible.

This book explores theories of conflict and peacebuilding and applies them to case studies from the Asia Pacific region, seeking to shift attention to the inherency of conflict, the constant danger of re-emergence, and the need to establish mechanisms to resolve it. The authors argue that the central focus of peacebuilding should not be state-building per se, but rather the creation of effective mechanisms for peaceful resolution of both past and newly emerging conflicts. To do so, it is important to consider the entire process of creating peace, to contemplate the linkages between conflict, resolution, and post-conflict peacebuilding, rather than focus only on the period of institution-building.

The presidency of Tsai Ing-wen coincided with momentous shifts in Taiwan's domestic and international affairs. On the back of a growing popular mandate, President Tsai sought to assert the autonomy and independence of Taiwan. These moves were mirrored by an increasing nationalization under the grip of Xi Jinping who asserted China's right to "unify" the island by force if necessary. These dynamics have propelled Taiwan to the limelight of international attention. This book offers a timely, detailed, and much needed analysis of the multitude of internal and external factors that have impacted the domestic and international affairs of Taiwan. The thoughtful and convincing analyses would be appreciated by policy-makers, think-tankers, and scholars alike. Professor Emilian Kavalski

This book provides an in-depth analysis of how constitutionalism and diversity can be friends and foes alike in contemporary multinational democracies. By focusing mainly on the dynamics between Quebec and Canada and comparing these with ongoing issues in Catalonia and Spain, Flanders and Belgium, and South Tyrol and Italy, the authors offer new insights into the public management of national diversity. In doing so, they sought to unpack the numerous challenges divided societies are facing. The pieces that together form the title of this book are not merely of symbolic significance. Constitutionalism v Diversity: Essays on Federal Democracy echoes the four underlying principles of the Canadian Constitution that the Supreme Court of Canada identified in its famous 1998 Reference re Secession of Quebec. These are (1) federalism, (2) democracy, (3) constitutionalism and the rule of law, and (4) protection of minorities. While these four concepts are at the very core of both authors' argument and approach, the Supreme Court of Canada's Secession Reference is guiding them through the book by providing a robust and meaningful theoretical and analytical framework. These principles appear as universal normative parameters societies should see as ideals to pursue and translate - while adapting their content to the specific context - into concrete institutions and practices. Even more today this book shows the great analytical value of these four principles to critically appraise of the way multinational liberal democracies in general and federal systems in particular are evolving.

'To pun, Pierre brings globalization down to earth. After all the hype, he serves as an experienced and trustworthy guide to the key question of how far nation states are 'forced' to follow global trends. His answers are nuanced, well-evidenced, and thought-provoking. This should find a place on many reading lists.' - Christopher Pollitt, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium Globalization raises important questions about the governing capacity of domestic institutions. In Globalization and Governance, Jon Pierre studies the impact of international norms and prescriptions on domestic governance in Japan, Sweden and the United States. The empirical analysis is focused on economic governance, administrative reform and intergovernmental relationships. Drawing on survey data, documents and interviews, the analysis finds that domestic institutions still intrinsically shape domestic governance. International norms towards deregulation and market-based administrative reform confront domestic institutions with prescriptions for reform but the three countries provide only very few examples of unmitigated domestic implementation. What Jon Pierre calls 'the microfoundations of globalization'-the assessment, adoption or rejection of international norms and ideas in vogue-is a complex process where domestic institutions and path dependencies remain at the helm. The most important exception to this pattern is governance during financial crises where countries are dependent on conditioned support from transnational institutions. This insightful and informative book will appeal to researchers, academics, post-graduate, as well as undergraduate, students in governance, political economy and international relations. Contents: 1. Globalization and the State 2. Globalization and Domestic Governance 3. Still Governing the Economy? Economic Governance 4. Cities and Regions in a Globalized World: Inter-Governmental Relationships 5. Modernizing the State: Administrative Reform 6. Conclusions: Domestic Governance in a Globalizing World References Index

This book, which originated from the broadly held view that there is a lack of Rule-of-law in Mexico, and from the emphasis of traditional academia on cultural elements as the main explanation, explores the question of whether there is any relationship between the system of constitutional review and thus the 'law' as such and the level of Rule-of-law in a given state. To do so, it elaborates a theoretical model for achieving Rule-of-law and compares it to the constitutional review systems of the United States, the Federal Republic of Germany, and Mexico. The study concludes that the two former states correspond to the model, while the latter does not. This is fundamentally due to the role each legal system assigns to ordinary jurisdiction in carrying out constitutional review. Whereas the US and Germany have fostered the policy that constitutional review regarding the enforcement of basic rights is the responsibility of ordinary courts, Mexico has relied too heavily on the specialized constitutional jurisdiction.

This book brings a radically new voice to the debate in the field of Chinese politics and labor movement. Using a psychological and cognitive approach, the author examines workers and activists' everyday interpretation of the source of their problems, their prospect of labor movements, and their sense of solidarity. The project shows how workers themselves have become a part of the apparatus of state repression and argues that Chinese workers have not acquired sufficient cognitive strength to become the much hoped-for agent for political change, which hinders labor activism from developing into a sustainable social movement. Multidisciplinary in its approach, the monograph provides analysis of Chinese politics, labor studies, international political economy, social movements, and contentious politics.

Leading governance theorist Jonathan S. Davies develops a rich comparative analysis of austerity governance and resistance in eight cities, to establish a conjunctural perspective on the rolling crises of neoliberal globalism. Drawing on a major international study of eight cities, Davies employs Gramscian regime analysis to consider the consolidation, weakening and transformation of urban governance regimes through the age of austerity. He explores how urban governance shapes variations in austere neoliberalism, tackling themes including collaboration, dominance, resistance and counter-hegemony. The book is a significant addition to thinking about how the era of austerity politics influences urban governance today, and the potential for alternative urban futures.

Increasingly flexible labour markets and reforms of old-age pension systems are still ranking high on the political agenda of European countries. This volume investigates whether, and to what extent, the interplay between pension reforms and the spread of 'atypical' employment patterns and fragmented careers has a negative influence uponeconomic security in old age. The volume, therefore, analyzes the flexibility-security nexus by focusing on the post-retirement phase, thus extending the conventional narrow concept of 'flexicurity'. The book also questions whetherreforms of public and private pension schemes compensate or aggravate the risks of increasingly flexible labor markets and atypical employment careers after retirement? Around this overarching research question, the various contributions in the volume employ the same analytical framework in order to map, and then compare, the developments in seven European countries - Denmark, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland, and the UK - which present different labour market arrangements and various degrees of flexibility, as well as diverse pension systems.

This edited volume explores the Israeli-Turkish relations in the 2000s from a multi-dimensional perspective providing a comparative analysis on the subjects of politics, ideology, civil society, identity, energy, and economic relations. The contributors from both countries offer insights on the complex situation in the Middle East which is important for the understanding of the contemporary region. The work will appeal to a wide audience including academics, researchers, political analysts, and journalists.

This book examines how opposition groups respond to the dilemma posed by authoritarian elections in the Arab World, with specific focus on Jordan and Algeria. While scholars have investigated critical questions such as why authoritarian rulers would hold elections and whether such elections lead to further political liberalization, there has been comparatively little work on the strategies adopted by opposition groups during authoritarian elections. Nevertheless, we know their strategic choices can have important implications for the legitimacy of the electoral process, reform, democratization, and post-election conflicts. This project fills in an important gap in our understanding of opposition politics under authoritarianism by offering an explanation for the range of strategies adopted by opposition groups in the face of contentious elections in the Arab World.

This book seeks to understand the politics of nationalism in the buffer zone between Russia and the West: Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Moldova, as well as Russia itself. It problematizes the official ways of defining the nation, and thus citizenship, in the light of "frozen" ethno-territorial conflicts and broader geopolitical discrepancies between Russia and the West. The author analyzes the politics of birthright citizenship policy in these countries and rejects the assumed connection between territorial nation-building and liberal democracy. The project will interest academics and graduate students in the fields of comparative and post-Soviet politics, nationalism, and citizenship, and international relations policy professionals.

This book presents an analysis of five anticorruption agencies (ACAs) from Serbia, Macedonia and Croatia, exploring the impact of organisational factors and leadership on their enforcement patterns during the first decade of the transitional reforms (2001-2012). Contrary to the conventional theory of agency insulation, the analysis reveals that the ACAs' de facto autonomy was not crucially shaped by their statutory independence, but rather by the reputational management of their leaders. The book draws on a mixture of qualitative and quantitative analysis to document these reputational strategies and how they shaped the ACAs' de facto autonomy. The findings also suggest that that the ACAs' organisational model - defined by the delegated mandate and powers (preventative vs suppressive) - represented a key variable that mediated under which conditions high de facto autonomy can be achieved. The book offers contributions to the study of anticorruption policy and ethics regulation, as well as the wider inquiry into drivers of agency independence, particularly in transitional contexts.

This book is a critical resource for understanding the relationship between gender, social policy and women's activism in Latin America, with specific reference to Chile. Latin America's mother-centered kinship system makes it an ideal field in which to study motherhood and maternalism-the ways in which motherhood becomes a public policy issue. As maternalism embraces and enhances gender differences, it has been criticized for deepening gender inequalities. Yet invoking motherhood continues to offer an effective strategy for advancing women's living conditions and rights, and for women themselves to be present in the public sphere. In analyzing these important relationships, the contributors to this volume discuss maternal health, sexual and reproductive rights, labor programs, paid employment, women miners' unionization, housing policies, environmental suffering, and LGBTQ intimate partner violence.

A lively account of the general election of 2008 and of its profound significance for Italy and beyond. It gets to grips with the complexities of Italian politics in an exceptionally clear way. Covering the background to the election, the campaign, the parties, voting and the outcome, it is comprehensive in approach and tells a fascinating "story."

Considers how legal reforms and awareness-raising associated with building the rule of law, have engaged the popular legal consciousness, producing contradictions that have in turn shaped the nature of the resultant legality. Explores the case study of the Democratic Republic of Congo. This book will appeal to comparativists, Africanists, and socio-legal scholars.

This edited collection draws on case studies from around the world to shed light on the sometimes contentious topic of populism. Examining diverse contexts including North America, Latin America, Europe, New Zealand, and Russia, the authors employ different approaches to populist discourse to analyse key notions in populism such as 'the people' and 'the heartland' as well as the exploitation of medium and narrative. Each of the chapters in this book explores an aspect of the way in which populism constructs a political reality, with reference to such high-profile examples as Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders, the Scottish National Party, Hugo Chavez, Vladimir Putin, Barack Obama, and Winston Peters. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of both discourse analysis and political science.

This book provides an in-depth account of the politics of the Eurozone crisis in Italy, Spain, Greece, Portugal, Cyprus and Malta, mapping the positions expressed by the governments of Southern EU countries during the Eurozone crisis negotiations, including Greece's bailout deal, the so-called "Six Pack" and the "Fiscal Compact" and exploring the process of domestic preference formation. The book relies on original data resulting from fieldwork conducted in the context of the EU Commission- funded Horizon 2020 project "The Choice for Europe since Maastricht".

This book is a theoretical and empirical analysis of institutional foundation of long-term economic growth from the perspective of state-market and central-local relations. The book argues that, in order to safeguard sustainable market development, it is necessary to centralize certain functions of the state to overcome local predatory governmental rulings, and to decentralize others to increase local governmental market incentives, simultaneously. This institutional approach is conceptualized as "Dual Intergovernmental Transformation for Market Development" (DITMD). This book develops the DITMD model through an in-depth empirical comparison on contemporary China and the 19th-century United States.

Conventional wisdom emerging from China and other autocracies claims that single-party legislatures and elections are mutually beneficial for citizens and autocrats. This line of thought reasons that these institutions can serve multiple functions, like constraining political leaders or providing information about citizens. In United Front, Paul Schuler challenges these views through his examination of the past and present functioning of the Vietnam National Assembly (VNA), arguing that the legislature's primary role is to signal strength to the public. When active, the critical behavior from delegates in the legislature represents cross fire within the regime rather than genuine citizen feedback. In making these arguments, Schuler counters a growing scholarly trend to see democratic institutions within single-party settings like China and Vietnam as useful for citizens or regime performance. His argument also suggests that there are limits to generating genuinely "consultative authoritarianism" through quasi-democratic institutions. Applying a diverse range of cutting-edge social science methods on a wealth of original data such as legislative speeches, election returns, and surveys, Schuler shows that even in a seemingly vociferous legislature like the VNA, the ultimate purpose of the institution is not to reflect the views of citizens, but rather to signal the regime's preferences while taking down rivals.

examines the life and work of Mazisi Kunene explores how 'oraliterature' and cultural traditions informed Kunene's poetry draws on a range of interviews and comparative studies, the book situates Kunene's work in a wider conversation about South African social struggles. This book is an important contribution to our understanding of one of the giants of African literary history. As such, it will be of interest to researchers across African literary and postcolonial studies.

The book evaluates the importance of constitutional rules and property rights for the German economy in 1990-2015. It is an economic historical study embedded in institutional economics with main references to positive constitutional economics and the property rights theory. This interdisciplinary work adopts a theoretical-empirical dimension and a qualitative-quantitative approach. Formal institutions played a fundamental role in Germany's post-reunification economic changes. They set the legal and institutional framework for the transition process of Eastern Germany and the unification, integration and convergence between the two parts of the country. Although the latter process was not completed, the effects of these formal rules were positive, especially for the former GDR.