Which kind of decisions are passed by Cabinet in coalition governments? What motivates ministerial action? How much leeway do coalition parties give their governmental representatives? This book focuses on a comparative study of ministerial behaviour in Germany, Belgium, Italy and the Netherlands. It discredits the assumption that ministers are 'policy dictators' in their spheres of competence, and demonstrates that ministers are consistently and extensively constrained when deciding on policies. The first book in a new series at the forefront of research on social and political elites, this is an invaluable insight into the capacity and power of coalition government across Europe. Looking at policy formation through coalition agreements and the effectiveness of such agreements, Coalition Government and Party Mandate will be of interest to students and scholars of comparative politics, governance and European politics.

Today new and ever more pernicious forms of terrorist violence threaten the world. Because these new forms of violence are so often linked to religious radicalism, modern terrorism has challenged the secular ethics of contemporary civil society. There is a pressing need to understand modern religious movements that have added militancy and belligerence as fundamental elements of religious practice. Contributors to this volume painstakingly tackle the question of how to define the contours of current religious fundamentalism as they examine the private and public postures of fundamentalist rhetoric, the importance of its regional variants, and the damage it can do to regional and national education systems. Their analysis tracks trends in religious movements that aspire to radicalize, reform, and violently topple governments and nations, while highlighting the difference between fundamentalist interpretations and other longstanding juridical, political, and intellectual traditions.

This innovative Handbook offers a new perspective on the cutting-edge conceptual advances that have shaped - and continue to shape - the field of intervention and statebuilding. Bringing together leading global scholars, the Handbook on Intervention and Statebuilding offers a cross-cutting perspective on a wide array of themes. Chapters cover democracy promotion, transitional justice and humanitarianism, as well as the involvement of drones and cyber technology in conflicts. Employing state-of-the-art perspectives on the most crucial themes, this Handbook explores issues at the heart of contemporary statebuilding. This Handbook will be critical reading for researchers at all levels in the broad field of international relations and peace and conflict studies. Upper-level students of political science will also benefit from the breadth of topics covered.

"The Constitution is America's moral sail, and we must hold to the courage of the conviction that fills it, a conviction that we can all be equal citizens of a moral republic. That is a noble faith, and only optimism can redeem it." So writes Ronald Dworkin in the introduction to this characteristically robust and provocative new book in which Dworkin argues the fidelity to the constitution and to law demands that judges make contemporary judgements backed on political morality, and why it encourages, or ought to encourage, an open display of the true grounds of judgement. The book discusses almost all of the great constitutional issues of the last two decades including abortion, affirmative action, pornography, race, homosexuality, euthanasia and free-speech and in doing so consistently offers a liberal view of the American Constitution. Dworkin's "moral reading" proposes that we all, judges, lawyers, citizens - interpret and apply the abstract language of the Constitution on the understanding that they invoke moral principles about political decency and justice. The "moral reading" therefore brings political morality into the heart of constitutional law. This book is intended for

This book explores the interaction of the EU in Greece, Slovenia, Croatia, and Macedonia in three key policy sectors cohesion, border managements and the environment and assesses the degree to which the European Union s engagement with the democracies of South East Europe has promoted Europeanization and Multi-Level Governance.

Although there is a tendency to view the Balkans as peripheral, this book argues that South East European states are central to what the EU is and aspires to become, and goes to the heart of many of the key issues confronting the EU. It compares changing modes of governance in the three policy areas selected because they are contentious issues in domestic politics and have trans-boundary policy consequences, in which there is significant EU involvement. The book draws on over 100 interviews conducted to explore actor motivation, preferences and perceptions in the face of pressure to adapt from the EU and uses Social Network Analysis. Timely and informative, this book considers broader dilemmas of integration and enlargement at a time when the EU s effectiveness is under close scrutiny.

The European Union and South East Europe will be of interest to students and scholars of European politics, public policy, and European Union governance and integration.

In this stimulating volume, Stephen M. Krason considers whether the Founding Fathers' vision of the American democratic republic has been transformed and if so, in what ways. He looks to the basic principles of the Founding Fathers, then discusses the changes that resulted from evolving contemporary expectations about government. Referencing philosophical principles and the work of great Western thinkers, Krason then explores a variety of proposals that could forge a foundation for restoration.

Acknowledging that any attempt to revive the Founders' views on a democratic republic must start in the public sphere, Krason focuses on concerned citizens who are aware of the extent to which our current political structures deviate from the Founders' vision and want to take action. Ultimately, a democratic republic can exist, be sustained, and flourish only when there is a deep commitment to it in the minds and norms of its people.

Written by a foremost authority in the field of US Constitutional law, this book will appeal to those interested in American history, society, and politics.

Can Justice Department officials effectively investigate wrongdoing within their own administration without relying on an independent counsel? In Prosecution among Friends political scientist David Alistair Yalof explores the operation of due process as it is navigated within the office of the attorney general and its various subdivisions. The attorney general holds a politically appointed position within the administration and yet, as the nation's highest ranking law enforcement officer, is still charged with holding colleagues and superiors legally accountable. That duty extends to allegations against those who had a hand in appointing the attorney general in the first place: Even the President of the United States may be enmeshed in a Justice Department investigation overseen by the attorney general and other department officials. To assess this fundamental problem, Yalof examines numerous cases of executive branch corruption-real or alleged-that occurred over the course of four decades beginning with the Nixon administration and extending up through the second Bush administration. All of these cases-Watergate, Whitewater, and others-were identified and reported to varying degrees in the press and elsewhere. Some garnered significant attention; others drew only limited interest at the time. In all such cases the attorney general and other officials within the executive branch were charged with initially assessing the matter and determining the proper road for moving forward. Only a handful of the cases resulted in the appointment of a statutorily protected independent counsel. The primary focus of this book and the case studies that support it center on how the conflicting loyalties of the attorney general and others are resolved when executive branch corruption is at issue. As Yalof demonstrates, the particular circumstances surrounding a given investigation matter a great deal. When the media spotlight, for example, is not so glaring, career prosecutors with limited partisan biases can effectively treat the case like other routine matters. Prosecution among Friends affords readers a greater understanding of the political and legal tradeoffs inherent when the executive branch must investigate and prosecute its own.

With the publication of volumes 21 and 22, Johns Hopkins University Press completes the Documentary History of the First Federal Congress, 1789-1791, a comprehensive edition that presents the official records (volumes 1-8) and the unofficially reported debates (volumes 9-14) of this essential congress, as well as eight volumes of correspondence. These letters and other documents bring the official record to life, illustrating the often informal political negotiations of a young nation's earliest leaders and revealing the world they lived in. Volume 21 begins with a section describing the move to Philadelphia's Congress Hall. Third Session correspondence, arranged chronologically from November 1790 to March 1791, when Congress officially concluded its business, follows. Several key and potentially divisive issues-including a national bank, a tax on domestically produced spirits, and the final location of the permanent seat of the federal government-occupied the time and attention of Congress during this short session. In addition, reports of a successful attack on US troops by Native Americans in the Northwest Territory were the impetus for moves to increase the size of the military while continuing to negotiate with the Indian nations. Volume 22 is unique among the correspondence volumes in that it is topical. It begins with a section of firsthand accounts about Congress that were written after it adjourned, some as late as the 1840s. This is followed by sections of documents relating to the 1790 Treaty of New York with the Creek Nation and its aftermath, as well as the experience of FFC incumbents during the second federal election. The final section includes letters and other documents dated 1789 to 1791 that the editors discovered after the publication of the volume in which they would have otherwise appeared. The documents gathered here include selections from a book of poems by Representatives Thomas Tudor Tucker and John Page, and Page's wife, Margaret Lowther, as well as listings from the New York Society Library's ledger that recorded book loans to members in 1789 and 1790, when Congress met in New York City's Federal Hall. The final volume concludes with an extensive editorial apparatus, including the biographical gazetteer and index for the two-volume set. This extensive index continues the editors' policy of indexing all concepts to provide intellectual access.

State Capacity in East Asia examines states and state capacity in four countries that have experienced rapid economic growth over several decades. The book argues that states still matter, although modern market forces and transnational corporations exert tremendous pressures. The capacity of the East Asian state to adapt and develop new institutions is empirically illustrated as well as theoretically contextualized.

Is the nation state under siege? A common answer is that globalization poses two fundamental threats to state sovereignty. The first concerns the unleashing of centrifugal and centripetal forces - such as increasing market integration and the activities of institutions like the IMF, World Bank, and WTO - that imperil state sovereignty from 'outside' the nation state. The second threat emanates from self-determination movements that jeopardize state sovereignty from 'inside'. Rigorously analyzing popular hypotheses on globalization's effect on state sovereignty from a broad social sciences perspective, the authors use empirical evidence to suggest that globalization's multilevel threats to state sovereignty have been overestimated. In most instances globalization is likely to generate pressure for increased government spending while only one form of market integration - foreign direct investment by multinational enterprises - appears to increase any feeling of economic insecurity. This volume will be invaluable to course instructors at both graduate and undergraduate levels, policy makers and members of the general public who are concerned about the effects of globalization on the nation-state.

The people who run our government are affected by money just like the rest of us. Over the years, many of these officials have worried about meeting mortgage payments, holding off creditors, and avoiding bankruptcy. Others made fortunes by devoting their time to supervising their business interests. Either way, these distractions affected the lives of everyday citizens--from the price of shirts to the decisions for war or peace. In school, students are taught about governmental principles underlying political controversies, but instructors seldom talk about money that presidents and cabinet members stood to gain or lose, depending on who prevailed in a political dispute. This book will help fill the gaps in that knowledge. To ignore the business activities of our leaders is to ignore most of their adult lives. Having such awareness allows voters to see motivations in government decisions that may otherwise be obscure. Concentrating on presidents and cabinet members, from the birth of the U.S. through the Carter administration, this book tells how they and their associates gained and lost wealth, and how this affected their nation's well-being.

In this timely, informative edited volume, major Iranian scholars and civic actors address some of the most pressing questions about Iranian civil society and the process of democratization in Iran. They describe the role of Iranian civil society in the process of transition to democracy in Iran and offer insight about the enduring legacy of previous social and political movements--starting with the Constitutional Revolution of 1906-- in the struggle for democracy in Iran. Each contributor looks at different aspects of Iranian civil society to address the complex nature of the political order in Iran and the possibilities for secularization and democratization of the Iranian government. Various contributors analyze the impact of religion on prevailing democratic thought, discussing reformist religious movements and thinkers and the demands of religious minorities. Others provide insight into the democratic implications of recent Iranian women's rights movements, call for secularism within government, and the pressure placed on the existing theocracy by the working class.The contributors address these and related issues in all their richness and complexity and offer a set of discussions that is both accessible and illuminating for the reader.

This book offers a new view suggesting that European integration has been driven by political rather than economic considerations. The author makes it clear that from the end of the Second World War any plan of economic or monetary cooperation in Europe was almost exclusively motivated by politics. He argues that the very foundation of the organization of Western Europe was based on preventing further conflict between France and the newly partitioned Germany. Specifically, Robert Lieshout analyzes the initial stages of European cooperation between 1947 and 1957. He demonstrates that European institutions usually associated with economic integration, such as the European Economic Community, were actually laid to achieve the political aim of reconciliation between France and Germany. The fact that the very reasons for establishing a more formal organization of Europe have changed, i.e. the re-unification of Germany in 1990, makes for an interesting conclusion on future developments in European integration. This book will be warmly welcomed by both academics and students interested in European integration, international political economy, history, international relations, European Studies and economics.

In the 1990s China embarked on a series of political reforms intended to increase, however modestly, political participation to reduce the abuse of power by local officials. Although there was initial progress, these reforms have largely stalled and, in many cases, gone backward. If there were sufficient incentives to inaugurate reform, why wasn't there enough momentum to continue and deepen them? This book approaches this question by looking at a number of promising reforms, understanding the incentives of officials at different levels, and the way the Chinese Communist Party operates at the local level. The short answer is that the sort of reforms necessary to make local officials more responsible to the citizens they govern cut too deeply into the organizational structure of the party.

"How can anyone claim to really understand our Constitution without knowing what these critical traditions had to say?" -Michael Wallace, Professor of History, John Jay College. "A real contribution to the subject of democracy and liberalism." -John Ehrenberg. "Does a marvelous job of returning the Constitution to its proper sphere, the product of the rough and tumble of politics." - Malcom M. Feely, author of Judicial Policy Making and the Modern State. "The United States Constitution is a provocative book, much needed for overdue rethinking on the Constitution proper and its amendments. By making available "the underside of criticism and protest that has accompanied the Constitution from its inception" the book cuts through a mountainous mass of conventional bombast, one-sided versions and outright fabrications regarding the Constitution. In clarifying what makes the Constitution's clock tick, the book lives up to its subtitle. -Ira Gollobin, National Emergency Civil Rights Committee NEVER BEFORE ASSEMBLED IN A SINGLE VOLUME-the major writings on the Constitution from six critical traditions. Here is THE OTHER SIDE in most of the key disputes over the Constitution from 1789 to the present, the side that was barely heard during the recent Bicentennial celebrations. Yet, it was often the popular side, raising many troublesome questions about the nature of American democracy that still remain to be answered. Now that the applause has subsided, every fair- minded person will want to know what these critics of the Constitution have to say about who did, and is still doing, what to whom, and why. Section 1 outlines the main events and problems that led up to and contributed to the calling of the Constitutional Convention in 1787. Section 2 concentrates on what actually happened at the convention. Section 3 deals with the two-hundred-year history of interpretations and amendments that followed. Section 4 offers a number of ideas that should prove helpful in constructing the adequate theory of the Constitution that still eludes us. Skillfully woven into one volume the forty contributors include voices as varied as those of Gore Vidal, I.F. Stone, Ralph Nader, E.P. Thompson, Howard Zinn, Sheldon S. Wolin, Joan Hoff, Karl Marx, Jackson Turner Main, Charles A. Beard, and W.E.B. Du Bois joined--perhaps surprisingly--by Woodrow Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Thurgood Marshall. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jonathan Birnbaum is the editor of Racial Profiling (forthcoming) and the co-editor of Civil Rights Since 1787: A Reader on the Black Struggle (also available from NYU Press). His work has appeared in the Guardian, New Politics, Socialism and Democracy, New Political Science, and other publications. Bertell Ollman, one of America's most prominent Marxist scholars, is a Professor of Politics at New York University. He is the author of Alienation, Dialectical Investigations, and How to Take an Exam . . . And Remake the World.

This is a survey of a seminal and intensely controversial period in British history, from the union of the Crowns of England and Scotland in 1603 to the union of the Kingdoms in 1707.
The book explores the intersecting histories of the Stuart monarchies and considers how events in each nation were shaped by being part of a multiple kingdom as well as by their own internal dynamics. Throughout, special attention is given to the personalities and political style of successive rulers. Their role in precipitating two revolutions is examined against the background of longer term constitutional, religious and social themes. In particular, the parallels between James I and Charles II, and between Charles I and James II, are clearly drawn out.

Contemporary members of Congress routinely use the media to advance their professional goals. Today, virtually every aspect of their professional legislative life unfolds in front of cameras and microphones and, increasingly, online. The Public Congress explores how the media moved from being a peripheral to a central force in U.S. congressional politics. The authors show that understanding why this happened allows us to see the constellation of forces that combined over the last fifty years to transform the American political order. Malecha and Reagan's keen analysis links the new "public" Congress and the forces that are shaping political parties, the Presidency, interest groups, and the media. They conclude by asking whether the kind of discourse that this "new media" environment fosters encourages Congress to make its distinctive deliberative contribution to the American polity. This text brings historical depth as well as coverage of the most current cutting edge trends in new media environment and provides an exhaustive treatment of how the U.S. Congress uses the media in the governing process today.

Joseph de Maistre had no doubt that the root causes of the French Revolution were intellectual and ideological. The degeneration of its first immense hopes into the Reign of Terror was not the result of a ruthless competition for power or of prospects of war. He echoed Voltaire's boast that "books did it all." The philosophers of the Enlightenment were the architects of the new regimes; and the shadow between revolutionary idea and social reality could be traced directly to a fatal flaw in their thought.

De Maistre asserts that society is the product, not of men's conscious decision, but of their instinctive makeup. Both history and primitive societies illustrate men's gravitation toward some form of communal life. Since government is in this sense natural, it can not legitimately be denied, revoked, or even disobeyed by the people. Sovereignty is not the product of the deliberation or the will of the people; it is a divinely bestowed authority fitted not to man's wishes but to his needs.

The French Revolution to de Maistre's mind was little more than the expansion, conversion, pride, and consequent moral corruption of the philosophers. It differs in essence from all previous political revolutions, finding a parallel only in the biblical revolt against heaven. These sentiments are the passionate and awe-inspired language of one who sees the political struggles of his time on a huge and cosmic scale, judges events sub specie aeternitatis (under the aspect of eternity), and looks on revolution and counter-revolution as a battle for the soul of humanity. The force of this classic volume still resonates in president-day ideological struggles.

In this ambitious study, Robertson explains how the US Constitution emerged from an intense battle between a bold vision for the nation's political future and the tenacious defense of its political present. Given a once-in-a-lifetime chance to alter America's destiny, James Madison laid before the Constitutional Convention a plan for a strong centralized government that could battle for America's long-term interests. But delegates from vulnerable states resisted this plan, seeking instead to maintain state control over most of American life while adding a few more specific powers to the existing government. These clashing aspirations turned the Convention into an unpredictable chain of events. Step-by-step, the delegates' compromises built national powers in a way no one had anticipated, and produced a government more complex and hard to use than any of them originally intended. Their Constitution, in turn, helped create a politics unlike that in any other nation.

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.

In this timely, informative edited volume, major Iranian scholars and civic actors address some of the most pressing questions about Iranian civil society and the process of democratization in Iran. They describe the role of Iranian civil society in the process of transition to democracy in Iran and offer insight about the enduring legacy of previous social and political movements starting with the Constitutional Revolution of 1906 in the struggle for democracy in Iran. Each contributor looks at different aspects of Iranian civil society to address the complex nature of the political order in Iran and the possibilities for secularization and democratization of the Iranian government. Various contributors analyze the impact of religion on prevailing democratic thought, discussing reformist religious movements and thinkers and the demands of religious minorities. Others provide insight into the democratic implications of recent Iranian women s rights movements, call for secularism within government, and the pressure placed on the existing theocracy by the working class. The contributors address these and related issues in all their richness and complexity and offer a set of discussions that is both accessible and illuminating for the reader."

The last decade has seen radical changes in the way we are governed. Reforms such as the Human Rights Act and devolution have led to the replacement of one constitutional order by another. This book is the first to describe and analyse Britain's new constitution, asking why it was that the old system, seemingly hallowed by time, came under challenge, and why it is being replaced. The Human Rights Act and the devolution legislation have the character of fundamental law. They in practice limit the rights of Westminster as a sovereign parliament, and establish a constitution which is quasi-federal in nature. The old constitution emphasised the sovereignty of Parliament. The new constitution, by contrast, emphasises the separation of powers, both territorially and at the centre of government. The aim of constitutional reformers has been to improve the quality of government. But the main weakness of the new constitution is that it does little to secure more popular involvement in politics. We are in the process of becoming a constitutional state, but not a popular constitutional state. The next phase of constitutional reform, therefore, is likely to involve the creation of new forms of democratic engagement, so that our constitutional forms come to be more congruent with the social and political forces of the age. The end-point of this piecemeal process might well be a fully codified or written constitution which declares that power stems not from the Queen-in Parliament, but, instead, as in so many constitutions, from 'We, the People'. The old British constitution was analysed by Bagehot and Dicey. In this book Vernon Bogdanor charts the significance of what is coming to replace it. The expenses scandal shows up grave defects in the British constitution. Vernon Bogdanor shows how the constitution can be reformed and the political system opened up in'The New British Constitution'.

Of the 347 U.S. false criminal convictions overturned so far through DNA testing 73% were based on erroneous eyewitness testimony. How could so many eyewitnesses be wrong? How Can So Many Be Wrong? answers that question. The analysis of the U.S. Supreme Court eyewitness cases shows that most the Court's holdings were likely in error. The Court-like the judges and juries in the courts below-greatly overestimated the reliability of eyewitnesses against the defendants and decided their convictions based on unsound evidence. The facts of the cases and personalities of the defendants are engaging, even compelling. An expert is needed to inform the judge and the jury of the circumstances to consider when weighing the testimony of the witness against the facts of the case. It is a clear violation of Due Process to deny the defendant the provision of an expert witness in all cases where the eyewitness testimony lacks corroboration Research assessing both cross-examination and jury instructions makes it abundantly clear that neither can effectively provide courts with the counterintuitive information necessary to evaluate eyewitness reliability. Denial of an expert is denial of Due Process.

First published in 1965, this work studies the House of Lords and the various proposals for its reform, abolition or limitation of its powers which have been made in the light o f prevailing theories of the nature and characteristics of the English government. The work also contains a history of the theory of mixed government that arose in Tudor England and lasted until well after the Reform Act of 1832. This history both illuminates the position of the House of Lords and also provides perspective for the study of Democracy in the movement for parliamentary reform. One of the book's most original features is an extensive account of Charles I's Answer to the Nineteen Propostions, out of which came the startling new theory of the constitution, known as "mixed monarchy".

Bringing together experts on regionalism and federalism this collection explores the impact of legislative regions on parties and voters. It reflects on the 1980 publication of Small Worlds by David Elkins and Richard Simeon, which outlined how and why voters and policies differ across Canadian provinces. Using recent data, the essays in this collection provide a comparative re-examination of the impact of regions.

The book explores attitude divergence in Canada and in the US, the role and impact of regional parties in Quebec, Scotland and Bavaria, the impact of multi-level governance on how citizens understand and discharge their duties and the capacity of sub-state political systems to influence general political attitudes. The result is an empirical and analytical contribution to regionalism and federalism studies that demonstrates how and why regions matter.

This book was published as a special issue of Regional and Federal Studies.