In recent years the agenda of how to 'deal with the past' has become a central dimension of the quality of contemporary democracies. Many years after the process of authoritarian breakdown, consolidated democracies revisit the past either symbolically or to punish the elites associated with the previous authoritarian regimes. New factors, like international environment, conditionality, party cleavages, memory cycles and commemorations or politics of apologies, do sometimes bring the past back into the political arena. This book addresses such themes by dealing with two dimensions of authoritarian legacies in Southern European democracies: repressive institutions and human rights abuses. The thrust of this book is that we should view transitional justice as part of a broader 'politics of the past': an ongoing process in which elites and society under democratic rule revise the meaning of the past in terms of what they hope to achieve in the present. This book was published as a special issue of South European Society and Politics.

This resource uses primary documents and contextualizing essays to illuminate how America's presidents have responded to major tests of their leadership and approached their role and responsibilities in times of national crisis. Presidents hold the attention of the public like no other political actor. In addition, because of their unique role in the constitutional system, presidents often take immediate, unilateral action in the face of national emergencies. Exploring key events, crises, and disasters through the lens of presidential responsiveness, this text reveals not only the larger historical context but also the authority of presidents in meeting the "felt necessities of the time," deepening readers' understanding of those touchstone events. Comprehensive in temporal and topical scope, the book covers crises and disasters from the presidency of George Washington through Donald Trump's first two years in office. Important events covered include natural disasters, wars, assassinations, terrorist attacks, mass shootings, economic crises, riots, tragedies, and political scandals. Each event is explored through a primary document that reveals key dimensions of the presidential response to the crisis or disaster in question and contextual headnotes and essays that provide additional insights into the political, economic, and cultural contexts in which that event occurred and to which the president responded. Provides readers with an understanding of the dynamics that shaped presidential responses to crises and disasters in American history Allows readers to hear directly from presidents during times of national crisis, uncertainty, and mourning through primary documents Provides important information about the circumstances and settings in which the presidents made their statements to the American people (and the wider world) in contextual headnotes for each primary source Contextualizes the extent and limits of presidential authority and influence in times of national crisis, scandal, disaster, or tragedy in introductory essays from the author

The post-Cold War has witnessed enormous levels of western peacekeeping, peacemaking and reconstruction intervention in societies emerging from war. These western-led interventions are often called 'liberal peacebuilding' or 'liberal interventionism', or statebuilding, and have attracted considerable controversy. In this study, leading proponents and critics of the liberal peace and contemporary post-war reconstruction assess the role of the United States, European Union and other actors in the promotion of the liberal peace, and of peace more generally. Key issues, including transitional justice and the acceptance/rejection of the liberal peace in African states are also considered. The failings of the liberal peace (most notably in Iraq and Afghanistan, but also in other locations) have prompted a growing body of critical literature on the motivations, mechanics and consequences of the liberal peace. This volume brings together key protagonists from both sides of the debate to produce a cutting edge, state of the art discussion of one the main trends in contemporary international relations. This book was originally published as a special issue of Global Society.

The Constitutional History and Law of Sierra Leone (1961-1995) is a legal analysis of the complex interaction between constitutional norms and institutional and societal forces. Sierra Leone, a new Commonwealth state once regarded as a model of British parliamentary democracy in West Africa, offers both an extraordinary constitutional setting and a fertile source of material for legal analysis in that it has not escaped the wave of revolutionary change and constitutional instability that has swept the new Commonwealth after independence. In this book the author examines, from a comparative perspective, the complex interaction of constitutional standards and institutional and societal forces as a constraining influence on constitutional democracy in Sierra Leone. This book illustrates Sierra Leone's experience with one of constitutional law's most fundamental and enduring problems--the delicate relationship between its legal and political components.

Congress is frequently said to be 'broken', 'dysfunctional', and 'weak', but how does the contemporary Congress really work? Does Congress have the capacity to solve major policy problems? Can it check an aggrandizing executive, oversee a powerful Federal Reserve, and represent the American people? Can Congress cope with vast changes in the American political economy, including rising income inequality? Congress and Policy Making in the 21st Century takes a fresh look at the performance of Congress in the domestic arena, focusing on issues such as immigration, health care, and the repeal of 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell'. With original contributions from leading scholars, this important volume examines how Congress tackles - and fails to tackle - key policy challenges in an era of growing social diversity and ideological polarization. Rich in analysis and illuminating detail, the book reveals the full complexity of the institution at work.

David A. J. Richards's Resisting Injustice and The Feminist Ethics of Care in The Age of Obama: "Suddenly,...All The Truth Was Coming Out" builds on his and Carol Gilligan's The Deepening Darkness to examine the roots of the resistance movements of the 1960s, the political psychology behind contemporary conservatism, and President Obama's present-day appeal as well as the reasons for the reactionary politics against him. Richards begins by laying out the basics of the ethics of care and proposing an alternative basis for ethics: relationality, which is based in convergent findings in infant research, neuroscience, and evolutionary psychology. He critically analyzes patriarchal politics and states that they are rooted in a reactionary psychology that attacks human relationality and ethics. From there, the book examines the 1960s resistance movements and argues that they were fundamentally oriented around challenging patriarchy. Richards asserts that the reactionary politics in America from the 1960s to the present are in service of an American patriarchy threatened by the resistance movements ranging from the 1960s civil rights movements to the present gay rights movement. Reactionary politics intend to marginalize and even reverse the ethical achievements accomplished by resistance movements-creating, in effect, a system of patriarchy hiding in democracy. Richards consequently argues that Obama's appeal is connected to his challenge to this system of patriarchy and will examine both Obama's appeal and the reactions against him in light of the 2012 presidential election. This book positions recent American political development in a broad analysis of the role of patriarchy in human oppression throughout history, and argues that a feminist-based ethics of care is necessary to form a more humane and inclusive democratic politics.

This book reveals the complex relationship between elite perceptions and behaviour, and governance, in China. It moves away from existing scholarship by focusing on functionaries, grass-roots elites, leading intellectuals, and opinion-makers in China and by looking beyond the top leadership, makes a significant contribution to our understanding of shared governance and broadened political participation in China. The chapters in this collection explore the elites' role as opinion-makers, technical experts, producers of knowledge, and executives or managers, and pose a number of questions, the answers to which are crucial to understanding future political and economic development in China. What are elite perceptions of governance, inequality and justice; what do the elites mean by good governance; what is the influence of non-Chinese Communist Party elites in policy-making and implementation in China; how have they exerted their influence in the PRC and influenced its direction of future development; and what have grass-roots elites contributed to governance in local communities? Providing a keen insight into the role elites have played in governing China since 1978, this book is a pioneering effort to bring together elite studies and governance studies. As such, it will be highly relevant for policy-makers within international organizations, governments, and NGOs outside China as well as appealing to scholars and students interested in Chinese politics and governance.

The first definitive account of the rise and fall of the Secret Service, from the Kennedy assassination to the alarming mismanagement of the Obama and Trump years, right up to the insurrection at the Capitol on 6 January 2021 - by the Pulitzer Prize winner and #1 New York Times bestselling co-author of A Very Stable Genius Carol Leonnig has been reporting on the Secret Service for The Washington Post for most of the last decade, bringing to light the secrets, scandals, and shortcomings that plague the agency today - from a toxic work culture to dangerously outdated equipment to the deep resentment within the ranks at key agency leaders, who put protecting the agency's once-hallowed image before fixing its flaws. But the Secret Service wasn't always so troubled. The Secret Service was born in 1865, in the wake of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, but its story begins in earnest in 1963, with the death of John F. Kennedy. Shocked into reform by its failure to protect the president on that fateful day in Dallas, this once-sleepy agency was radically transformed into an elite, highly trained unit that would redeem itself several times, most famously in 1981 by thwarting an assassination attempt against Ronald Reagan. But this reputation for courage and excellence would not last forever. By Barack Obama's presidency, the once-proud Secret Service was running on fumes and beset by mistakes and alarming lapses in judgement: break-ins at the White House, an armed gunman firing into the windows of the residence while confused agents stood by, and a massive prostitution scandal among agents in Cartagena, to name just a few. With Donald Trump's arrival, a series of promised reforms were cast aside, as a president disdainful of public service instead abused the Secret Service to rack up political and personal gains. To explore these problems in the ranks, Leonnig interviewed dozens of current and former agents, government officials, and whistleblowers who put their jobs on the line to speak out about a hobbled agency that's in desperate need of reform. 'I will be forever grateful to them for risking their careers,' she writes, 'not because they wanted to share tantalising gossip about presidents and their families, but because they know that the Service is broken and needs fixing. By telling their story, they hope to revive the Service they love.'

First published in 2006. Feudalism is normally associated with eighteenth-century France only in its more bizarre survivals, as in The Marriage of Figaro, when his seigneur claims the rights to spend the first night with the bride. If feudalism menat no more in the eighteenth century than a few quaint customs that could tickle an audence at the Comedie Francaise, why did French writers attack it so furiously? The author suggests that contemporary writers saw remnants of the feudal regime as important less in themselves, than as symbols of an attitude of mind which the 'enlightened' among them would no longer tolerate. Instead of representing the ideas of the eighteenth century through the eyes of a few outstanding writers, Dr Mackrell has tried to reconstitute the intellectual climate of the ancien regime from the works of largely unknown historians, jurists, economists and others. In this way he illuminates the rich texture of eighteenth-century French thought, without which the ideas of Voltaire, Montesquieu and even Rousseau lose much of their meaning. This study breathes life into the fierce controversies that shook the Age of Reason long before the outbreak of Revolution.

How did the federal government change from the weak apparatus of the antebellum period to the large, administrative state of the Progressive Era? To Enlarge the Machinery of Government explores the daily proceedings of the U.S. House and Senate from 1858 to 1891 to find answers to this question.

Through close readings of debates centered around sponsorship, supervision, and standardization recorded in the Congressional Globe and Congressional Record during this period, Williamjames Hull Hoffer traces a critical shift in ideas that ultimately ushered in Progressive legislation: the willingness of American citizens to allow, and in fact ask for, federal intervention in their daily lives. He describes this era of congressional thought as a "second state," distinct from both the minimalist approaches that came before and the Progressive state building that developed later. The "second state" era, Hoffer contends, offers valuable insight into how conceptions of American uniqueness contributed to the shape of the federal government.

Access to land and property is vital to people's livelihoods in rural, peri-urban, and urban areas in Africa. People exert tremendous energy and imagination to have land claims recognized as rights with a variety of political, administrative, and legal institutions. This book is dedicated to a detailed analysis of how public authority and the state are formed through debates and struggles over property in the Upper East Region of Ghana. While scarcity may indeed promote exclusivity, the evidence from this book shows that when there are many institutions competing for the right to authorize claims to land, the result of an effort to unify and clarify the law is to intensify competition among them and weaken their legitimacy. The book particularly explores how state divestiture of land in 1979 encouraged competition between customary authorities and how the institution of the earthpriest was revived. Such processes are key to understanding property and authority in Africa.

Rome acquired her great empire under republican institutions. These institutions were held to be remarkably stable because they were a mixture of monarchy, oligarchy and democracy, created by natural evolution not by a lawgiver. The Republic was also a classic example of a largely unwritten constitution, like that of Britain, and so it has bearing on modern political theory.

When In Search of the Republic was originally published in 1987, scholarly interpretations of the concept of virtue in the American founding were considered peripheral to mainstream political theory. Since then, the authors' arguments that public virtue, civic responsibility, and private morality were at the heart of the Founding Fathers' political thought is now accepted by a growing number of contemporary political theorists. This revised edition includes a new preface that places In Search of the Republic within the context of contemporary debates over the role of virtue and religion in early American political discourse. This is a superb introduction for students and scholars interested in learning about the moral, political, and constitutional theories of the Founding Fathers.

The modern Chinese state has traditionally affected every major aspect of domestic society. With the growing liberalization of the economy, coupled with increasingly complex social issues, there is a belief that the state is retreating from an array of social problems from health to the environment. Yet, a survey of China's contemporary political landscape today reveals not only a central state which plays an active role in managing social problems, but also new state actors at the local level which are increasingly seeking to partner with various non-governmental organizations or social associations.

This book looks at how NGOs, social organizations, business associations, trade unions, and religious associations interact with the state, and explores how social actors have negotiated the influence of the state at both national and local levels. It further examines how a corporatist understanding of state-society relations can be reformulated, as old and new social stakeholders play a greater role in managing contemporary social issues. The book goes on to chart the differences in how the state behaves locally and centrally, and finally discusses the future direction of the corporatist state.

Drawing on a range of sources from recent fieldwork and the latest data, this timely collection will appeal to students and scholars working in the fields of Chinese politics, Chinese economics and Chinese society.

Politicians are reviled. From jokes on late-night TV talk shows to radio show rants and from public opinion polls to ubiquitous conventional wisdom-politicians are among the most despised professional class in modern society. Drawing on seminal work in political science, Stephen K. Medvic convincingly argues to the masses that this blanket condemnation of politicians is both unfair and unwarranted. While some individual politicians certainly deserve scorn for misjudgments, moral failings, or even criminal acts, the assumption that all of them should be cast in a similar light is unjustified. More importantly, that deeply cynical assumption is dangerous to the legitimacy of a democratic system of government. Politicians, as a class, deserve respect, not out of blind obedience to authority but because democratic deliberation requires it. Medvic explains how cognitive biases in the way people reason often lead us to draw unjustified conclusions of politicians in general based on the malfeasance of some. Scandals involving politicians are likely to be remembered and to serve as "evidence" of the belief that "they all do it." Most politicians, in fact, care deeply about their cities, states, and nation. But they face a trap of unrealistic and contradictory expectations from the public about how politicians should behave. Medvic, in turn, demonstrates the necessity of ambition, the utility of politics for resolving conflicts peacefully, and the value of ideology in framing political choices. In the end, citizens must learn to tolerate the inherent messiness of politics as the only viable alternative to violent conflict. In the process, we must embrace our role in the political system as well.

This book studies the role of the EU in peace and security as a regional actor with global aspirations, in the context of challenged and changing multilateralism.

Multilateralism, governance and security are three concepts that have attracted a great deal of attention in the past decade and attempts to redefine them have produced lively conceptual debates. More recently, different strands of the literature have found common ground in the investigation of the EU s role in what has been labelled multilateral security governance . Despite being frequently used, the term is yet to be fully clarified, and empirically explored. To contribute further our understanding of it, this book presents a conceptual and empirical exploration of multilateral security governance and the EU s role in it. Expert contributors in the field analyze both traditional and non-traditional security areas, to investigate if and how multilateral security governance functions, and how the EU contributes (or fails to contribute) to the functioning of multilateral governance.

The EU and Multilateral Security Governance will be of interest to students, scholars and practitioners of EU politics, security studies and governance.

Bringing together scholars from a wide array of disciplines - including anthropology, economics, history, sociology, and political science - this volume addresses the problems of the regime change and state failure in Africa in the context of the global economy, but from a specifically African perspective, arguing that the underdevelopment of the African economy is linked to the underdevelopment of the continents' nation states.

The Iraq War of March 19, 2003 was an implausible war at the outset. We now understand that it could have been averted and never should have been waged. How and why did it begin? Who was responsible? This book offers a new perspective on the Iraq War and explains the dynamic relationships between the George W. Bush administration, the United States Congress, and the national news media. It is based on the "multiple streams model of political change" by John Kingdon, which says that if a unique combination of political, policy, and problem streams collide, under the right circumstances, they can create a window of opportunity for a shift in policy. It was the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, which set the stage for the emergence of three dynamic streams in the country. Fear, power, and a contentious political climate converged to produce not only a dramatic new foreign policy, but also a war with Iraq, a country which had not provoked or threatened the United States. Fear, power, and a tense political climate also influenced institutional behavior and exposed the failures of 1) The executive branch in the administration of George W. Bush, 2) The United States Congress and, 3) the national news media. All are designed and are differently responsible to protect the interests of the American people. Errors in judgment have happened throughout history with other administrations, with other Congresses, and with the news media. However, with regard to the Iraq War, it was a matter of degree and extent, especially for the President of the United States. Both the Congress and the news media were also experiencing colossal institutional changes, which influenced and hindered their performances. However, all were culpable in helping to create the Iraq war, which today stands as one of the longest military conflicts in United States history.

At the end of the twentieth century, with the economy booming and unemployment at historic lows, the American economy was a job-producing marvel. The first decade of the twenty-first century was entirely different as the worst economy in seventy years, the Great Recession, crushed the lives of tens of millions of workers and their families, forestalled careers, scrapped hopes for a college education, delayed retirements, and foreclosed family homes. American workers experienced the best and worst of times and have endured an entire "lost decade" of high unemployment, stagnant or declining incomes, and anxiety. Working Scared draws upon nearly 25,000 interviews with employed and unemployed Americans conducted from, 1998 to 2012. These "voices" of American workers tell a compelling story about wrenching structural changes and recessions during one of the most volatile periods in U.S. economic history. This book represents one of the most comprehensive social science research portraits of the views of American workers' about their jobs, the workplace, and government's role in the labor market. Working Scared will help citizens, policy makers, educators, business, union, and community leaders better understand what is happening to the United States workforce. It also describes the essential national priorities and policies that will assist frustrated, angry and scared American workers and the reforms that will help restore the American dream of secure employment and intergenerational progress.

Japan's political stability was shattered after the general election of July 1993 when the conservative Liberal Democratic Party's thirty-eight year domination ended in defeat. This book examines the impact the 1993 general election had on Japanese politics. Although the LDP regained the position of a ruling party within a year, Hori questions whether the Japanese political system has managed to maintain the same efficacy as it had prior to 1993. Using institutional analysis Hori argues that this fundamental change caused major institutional transformations; a decline in the importance of LDP organisations in the decision-making process of the government and the Diet, weakened management of the LDP through factions, and detached attitudes of LDP members to MOF bureaucrats. Hori analyzes three cases, one prior to and two after the 1993 election, illustrating just how ineffective the close cooperation between MOF bureaucrats, LDP executives and faction leaders became.

An Introduction to Political Science in Nigeria attempts to fill the void in the literature for undergraduate and graduate students in the Third World, particularly Nigeria, that are studying the arts, humanities, social sciences, education, and law. Primarily intended for introductory courses in political science and, specifically, Nigerian government, the material covers such areas as the foundations of political science, key concepts of political thought, political systems, citizenship, world order, and politics.

The fractious relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia has long been a central concern in Washington. In the aftermath of 9/11 and amongst ongoing wars, the United States confronts an acute dilemma: how to cooperate with Riyadh against terrorism whilst confronting acute anti-Americanism? Using information gathered from extensive interviews with a plethora of officials, this book aims to analyze Saudi domestic reforms. It addresses the significant deficiency of information on such diverse matters as the judiciary and ongoing national dialogues, but also provides an alternative understanding of what motivates Saudi policy makers. How these reforms may impact on future Saudi decision-making will surely generate a slew of policy concerns for the United States and this study offers a few clarifications and solutions. This book will be of interest to anyone seeking a new perspective on the motivation behind legal and political reforms in Saudi Arabia, and the effects of these reforms beyond the Middle East.

The fractious relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia has long been a central concern in Washington. In the aftermath of 9/11 and amongst ongoing wars, the United States confronts an acute dilemma: how to cooperate with Riyadh against terrorism whilst confronting acute anti-Americanism? Using information gathered from extensive interviews with a plethora of officials, this book aims to analyze Saudi domestic reforms. It addresses the significant deficiency of information on such diverse matters as the judiciary and ongoing national dialogues, but also provides an alternative understanding of what motivates Saudi policy makers. How these reforms may impact on future Saudi decision-making will surely generate a slew of policy concerns for the United States and this study offers a few clarifications and solutions. This book will be of interest to anyone seeking a new perspective on the motivation behind legal and political reforms in Saudi Arabia, and the effects of these reforms beyond the Middle East.

Long gone are the times when class-based political parties with extensive membership dominated politics. Instead, party politics has become issue-based. Surprisingly few studies have focused on how the issue content of West European party politics has developed over the past decades. Empirically, Reshaping of West European Party Politics studies party politics in Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and the UK from 1980 and onwards. This book highlights the more complex party system agenda with the decline, but not disappearance, of macroeconomic issues as well as the rise in 'new politics' issues together with education and health care. Moreover, various 'new politics' issues such as immigration, the environment, and European integration have seen very different trajectories. To explain the development of the individual issues, this volume develops a new theoretical model labelled the 'issue incentive model' of party system attention. The aim of the model is to explain how much attention issues get throughout the party system, which is labelled 'the party system agenda'. To explain the development of the party system agenda, one needs to focus on the incentives that individual policy issues offer to large, mainstream parties, i.e. the typical Social Democratic, Christian Democratic, or Conservative/Liberal parties that have dominated West European governments for decades. The core idea of the model is that the incentives that individual policy issues offer to these vote and office-seeking parties depend on three factors, namely issue characteristics, issue ownership, and coalition considerations. The issue incentive model builds on and develops a top-down perspective on which the issue content of party politics is determined by the strategic considerations of political parties and their competition with each other. Comparative Politics is a series for researchers, teachers, and students 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 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, John and Rebecca Moores Professor of Political Science, University of Houston.

This book examines how mass media debates have contributed to the politicization of the European Union. The public controversies over the EU's attempted Constitution-making (and its failure) sowed the seeds for a process of politicization that has advanced ever since: an increasing visibility for the EU in mass-mediated public debates that is combined with a growing public contestation over Europe within national politics. The book presents an original systematic study of the emerging field of political discourse carried by the mass media in France, Germany and Britain to examine the performance of Europe's public sphere. Whilst the EU's increasing politicization can be seen as beneficial to European democracy, potentially 'normalizing' the EU-level within national politics, the same developments can also be a threat to democracy, leading to populist and xenophobic responses and a decline in political trust. Such discussions are key to understanding the EU's legitimacy and how its democratic politics can work in an era of mediated politics. The Politicization of Europe will be of interest to students and scholars of comparative politics, media studies, communication, sociology and European studies.