This book is a unique contribution to the study of democratization in Hong Kong, with chapters including the legal tradition in Hong Kong, the features of Hong Kong's indigenous democracy, the 2014 Umbrella Movement, and the evolution of the Chief Executive election.

This new book examines the House of Lords in both its Parliamentary and its judicial capacity. A total of 14 contributors discuss such important topics as the membership of the House,how the House compares with other second chambers in bicameral legislatures elsewhere, the role of the Lord Chancellor, the rules concerning discussion of sub judice matters and the stance taken by the Law Lords towards European Community law. At a time when the future of the House is once again under active consideration, the book serves to remind readers of the significance of the institution to the British constitution. It will be of interest to students of government and law as well as to practitioners in the field, including Parliamentarians and judges. The issues dealt with in this book go to the heart of how democracy manifests itself in the United Kingdom today.'. Contributors: Michael Rush, Nicholas Baldwin, Rodney Brazier, Paul Carmichael, Andrew Baker, Patricia Leopold, Gavin Drewry, Sir Louis Blom-Cooper, Brice Dickson, Barry Fitzpatrick, Anthony Bradney, Patricia Maxwell, Kenny Mullan, Simon Lee.

As citizens, why do we care about the everyday life of ministers and civil servants? We care because the decisions of the great and the good affect all our lives, for good or ill. For all their personal, political, and policy failings and foibles, they make a difference. So, we want to know what ministers and bureaucrats do, why, and how. We are interested in their beliefs and practices.
In Everyday Life in British Government, a fascinating, new piece of political anthropology, R.A.W. Rhodes uncovers exactly how the British political elite thinks and acts. Drawing on unprecedented access to ministers and senior civil servants in three government departments, he answers a simple question: 'what do they do?' On the basis of extensive fieldwork, supplemented by revealing interviews, Rhodes tries to capture the essence of their everyday life, describes the ministers' and permanent secretaries' world through their own eyes, and explores how their beliefs and practices serve to create meaning in politics, policy making, and public-service delivery. Everyday Life in British Government goes on to analyze how such beliefs and practices are embedded in traditions; in webs of protocols, rituals, and languages.
The story Rhodes has to tell is dramatized through in-depth accounts of specific events to show ministers and civil servants 'in action'. He challenges the conventional constitutional, institutional, and managerial views of British governance. Instead, he describes a storytelling political-administrative elite, with beliefs and practices rooted in the Westminster model, which uses protocols and rituals to domesticate rude surprises and cope with recurrent dilemmas.

This book describes the process of amending the federal constitution as defined in Article V by means of a convention for proposing amendments. It shows that the constitution can be amended in two ways: either by ratifying an amendment proposed by the Congress or by ratifying an amendment proposed by a convention. Article V requires the Congress to call a convention whenever the legislatures of two thirds of the states request one. The federal constitution has been amended twenty-seven times. All 27 amendments were proposed by the Congress. There has never been an Article V amendatory constitutional convention in the 230 year history of the nation. Over the years, every state in the union has asked for a convention at one time or another. Congress has never acknowledged those requests or evaluated them. The history of the 1787 constitutional convention in Philadelphia shows that the founders intended the Article V convention to be a means for the states to seek amendments which the Congress refuses to consider. The book describes the efforts of a number of citizens groups that are trying to get an Article V convention, and it describes the weaknesses and strengths of each. It comes to several conclusions: A. That the Congress will never voluntarily call a convention no matter how many petitions are received, because a convention might propose amendments which would decrease the powers or prerogatives of Congress. B. That the states have the right to call an Article V convention without the concurrence of the Congress whenever two-thirds of the states wish to participate. C. That citizens of the several states have the constitutional right to organize a convention for proposing amendments, without the call of Congress or the approval of the state legislatures. D. That no amendment proposed by a convention, of any kind, will become a part of the federal constitution unless it is ratified by three quarters of the states, as required by Article V. The book urges the convening of a constitutional convention by the voluntary action of citizens, and recommends a number of matters that should be on its agenda.

"An indispensable and provocative guide through the thicket of today's most challenging constitutional controversies by some of the most eminent judges of their time. It offers an invaluable peek behind the curtain of judicial decision making." -David Cole, Professor of Law, Georgetown University The Embattled Constitution presents the fourth collection of the James Madison lectures delivered at the NYU School of Law, offering thoughtful examinations of an array of topics on civil liberties by a distinguished group of federal judges, including Justice Stephen Breyer of the U.S. Supreme Court. The result is a fascinating look into the minds of the judges who interpret, apply, and give meaning to our "embattled Constitution." In these insightful and incisive essays, the authors bring to bear decades of experience to explore wide-ranging issues. Are today's public schools racially segregated? To what extent can the federal courts apply the Bill of Rights without legislative guidance? And what are the criteria for the highest standards of judging and constitutional interpretation? The authors also discuss how and why the Constitution came to be embattled, shining a spotlight on the current polarization in both the Supreme Court and the American body politic and offering careful and informed analysis of how to bridge these divides. Contributors include Marsha S. Berzon, Michael Boudin, Stephen Breyer, Guido Calabresi, Robert H. Henry, Robert Katzmann, Pierre N. Leval, M. Blane Michael, Davis S. Tatel, J. Harvie Wilkinson, III, and Diane P. Wood.

Ever since Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. used "imperial presidency" as a book title, the term has become central to the debate about the balance of power in the U.S. government. Since the presidency of George W. Bush, when advocates of executive power such as Dick Cheney gained ascendancy, the argument has blazed hotter than ever. Many argue the Constitution itself is in grave danger. What is to be done? The answer, according to legal scholars Eric Posner and Adrian Vermeule, is nothing. In The Executive Unbound, they provide a bracing challenge to conventional wisdom, arguing that a strong presidency is inevitable in the modern world. Most scholars, they note, object to today's level of executive power because it varies so dramatically from the vision of the framers of the Constitution. But Posner and Vermeule find fault with James Madison's premises. Like an ideal market, they write, Madison's separation of powers has no central director, but it lacks the price system which gives an economy its structure; there is nothing in checks and balances that intrinsically generates order or promotes positive arrangements. In fact, the greater complexity of the modern world produces a concentration of power, particularly in the White House. The authors chart the rise of executive authority, noting that among strong presidents only Nixon has come in for severe criticism, leading to legislation which was designed to limit the presidency, yet which failed to do so. Political, cultural and social restraints, they argue, have been more effective in preventing dictatorship than any law. The executive-centered state tends to generate political checks that substitute for the legal checks of the Madisonian constitution. Piety toward the founders and a historic fear of tyranny have been powerful forces in American political thinking. Posner and Vermeule confront them both in this startlingly original contribution.

Jason Frank's Publius and Political Imagination is the first volume of the Modernity and Political Thought series to take as its focus not a single author, but collaboration between political philosophers, in this very special case the collective known by the pseudonym: Publius. Publius, of course, comprised the most influential of the American Founders - from James Madison to Alexander Hamilton to John Jay - particularly as the United States Constitution was being debated among the newly independent states. As the lofty dreams of some were countered by the pragmatic realism of others still, the founding and shaping of our governmental philosophy took root in this imagined Publius, this public mind, and it is where those on any side of a contemporary issue draw their argumentative and philosophical strength.

Party funding has given rise to great controversy since 1997, and continues to do so. In recent years, row has followed row - from million-pound donations, to the so-called 'loans for peerages' affair. The question was the subject of an official investigation by Sir Hayden Phillips, whose blueprint for reform was produced in March 2007. This book charts the evolution of the party funding problem in recent years and explores the weaknesses of the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000, which was enacted in a vain attempt to clean up British politics. The book sets out a number of core principles which should inform the development of public policy in this field, and examines the different strategies for the implementation of these principles. Having regard to the experience of othercountries, including Canada, Germany and Sweden, a radical framework ofreform is proposed, designed to address the emerging crisis of party government with serious implications for democracy itself. The main concern is with the development of bold reform initiatives to encourage political parties to recruit and retain members, and give members rights in relation to the government and administration of these parties. This thoughtful yet hard-hitting account by one of the leading scholars in the field will be of interest to constitutional lawyers and political scientists, as well as journalists and those with an interest in the way we are governed.

The Constitution of the United States created a representative republic marked by federalism and the separation of powers. Yet numerous federal judges--led by the Supreme Court--have used the Constitution as a blank check to substitute their own views on hot-button issues such as abortion, capital punishment, and samesex marriage for perfectly constitutional laws enacted by We the People through our elected representatives.
Now, The Politically Incorrect Guide(tm) to the Constitution shows that there is very little relationship between the Constitution as ratified by the thirteen original states more than two centuries ago and the "constitutional law" imposed upon us since then. Instead of the system of state-level decision makers and elected officials the Constitution was intended to create, judges have given us a highly centralized system in which bureaucrats and appointed--not elected--officials make most of the important policies.
In The Politically Incorrect Guide(tm) to the Constitution, Professor Kevin Gutzman, who holds advanced degrees in both law and American history:
* explains how the Constitution was understood by the founders who wrote it and the people who ratified it * follows the Supreme Court as it uses the fig leaf of the Constitution to cover its naked usurpation of the rights and powers the Constitution explicitly reserves to the states and to the people * shows how we slid from the Constitution's republican federal government, with its very limited powers, to an unrepublican "judgeocracy" with limitless powers * reveals how huge swaths of American law and society were remade in the wake of Supreme Court rulings * reveals how the Fourteenth Amendment has been twisted to use the Bill of Rights as a check on state power instead of on federal power, as originally intended * exposes the radical inconsistency between "constitutional law" and the rule of law * contends that the judges who receive the most attention in history books are celebrated for acting against the Constitution rather than for it
As Professor Gutzman shows, constitutional law is supposed to apply the Constitution's plain meaning to prevent judges, presidents, and congresses from overstepping their authority. If we want to return to the founding fathers' vision of the Republic, if we want the Constitution enforced in the way it was explained to the people at the time of its ratification, then we have to overcome the "received wisdom" about what constitutional law is. The Politically Incorrect Guide(tm) to the Constitution is an important step in that direction.

Invoked by politicians, promoted in policy, and sought by migrants, citizenship is a crucial marker of what makes being a member of society valuable, and of what membership entails in a world of fluid boundaries. This volume explores questions of admission to the state and to citizenship, the justifiability of criteria and the impact of exclusions.

Many people merely shake their heads when they hear of another useless $10 million federal study, but those same people go nuts when their city approves a thousand dollars for new plants for city hall. Does this mean that hometown politics are just "petty"?

Author Tony Corvo doesn't think so. Expanding on what he has learned as a founding member of his local political action committee, Corvo satirically interweaves local, state, and federal politics as he explains his view of the world-a view that also foresees serious consequences for the United States of America.

In "All Politics Is Loco: Musings from the Conservative Next Door," Corvo introduces us to the "movers and shakers" in the political arena, including:

.Psychosocial-babblers
.Educationologists
.Peeps in the hood
.Propagandists
.Legal unprofessionals
.Jocks and moochers

From educational matters to local politics, Corvo leads you through a myriad of political and social issues with his distinctive and downright funny style.

The possibility that the European Union might expand to thirty members in the first quarter of the next millenium poses fundamental questions about the objectives and processes of the EU.
This study addresses many of the key issues raised by the increasing exapnsion of the EU. Analysing the traditional 'Community method' of expansion and finding many short comings with its ability to handle future enlargement, Chris Preston explores:
* the past experience of enlargement and the lessons that can be drawn
* the impact that enlargement has had on EU policies, institutions and the new members themselves
* the likely future developments in the enlargement process
Focusing on the Mediterranean, Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet countries, this book will be essential reading for students, specialists and practitioners of European Politics.

Is the United States Congress dead, alive, or trapped in a moribund cycle? When confronted with controversial policy issues, members of Congress struggle to satisfy conflicting legislative, representative, and oversight duties. These competing goals, along with the pressure to satisfy local constituents, cause members of Congress to routinely cede power on a variety of policies, express regret over their loss of control, and later return to the habit of delegating their power. This pattern of institutional ambivalence undermines conventional wisdom about congressional party resurgence, the power of oversight, and the return of the so-called imperial presidency. In Congressional Ambivalence, Jasmine Farrier examines Congress's frequent delegation of power by analyzing primary source materials such as bills, committee reports, and the Congressional Record. Farrier demonstrates that Congress is caught between abdication and ambition and that this ambivalence affects numerous facets of the legislative process. Explaining specific instances of post-delegation disorder, including Congress's use of new bills, obstruction, public criticism, and oversight to salvage its lost power, Farrier exposes the tensions surrounding Congress's roles in recent hot-button issues such as base-closing commissions, presidential trade promotion authority, and responses to the attacks of September 11. She also examines shifting public rhetoric used by members of Congress as they emphasize, in institutionally self-conscious terms, the difficulties of balancing their multiple roles. With a deep understanding of the inner workings of the federal government, Farrier illuminates a developing trend in the practice of democracy.

When Abraham Lincoln was sworn into office, seven slave states had preemptively seceded rather than recognize the legitimacy of his election. In his first inaugural address on March 4, 1861, Lincoln replied to the secessionists and set forth a principled defense of majority rule as “the only true sovereign of a free people.” His immediate purpose was to argue against the legitimacy of a powerful minority forcibly partitioning the United States because it was dissatisfied with the results of a free, constitutionally conducted election. His wider purpose was to make the case that a deliberate, constitutionally checked majority, though by no means infallible, was the appropriate ultimate authority not only on routine political questions but even on the kind of difficult, deeply divisive questions—like the future of slavery—that could otherwise trigger violent contests.Sovereign of a Free People examines Lincoln’s defense of majority rule, his understanding of its capabilities and limitations, and his hope that slavery could be peacefully and gradually extinguished through the action of a committed national majority. James Read argues that Lincoln offered an innovative account of the interplay between majorities and minorities in the context of crosscutting issues and shifting public opinion. This story is particularly timely today as a new minority of dissatisfied voters has threatened and enacted violence in response to a valid election. Read offers the first book focused on Lincoln’s understanding of majority rule. He also highlights the similarities and differences between the threats to American democracy in Lincoln’s time and in our own. Sovereign of a Free People challenges common assumptions about what caused the Civil War, takes seriously the alternative path of a peaceful, democratic abolition of slavery in the United States, and offers a fresh treatment of Lincoln and race.

Is the American Dream real? Do we have a right to it, or is it just suggestion? Where did it come from? Joseph Amico, the son of Sicilian immigrants, provides the answers to these key questions in this essay on American history and politics. More importantly, he explains why the dream is in jeopardy and how it can be saved.

Raised a Catholic, Amico became a skeptic of politics and government after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Later, when Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy were killed, he knew something was seriously wrong. With the war in Vietnam raging, he joined the antiwar and civil rights movements. Immersed in the politics of the day, he saw only one answer to the nation's problems: social revolution.

Now, looking both at the history and present state of the US, Amico explores what is needed to for the nation to move forward--to find a better way of doing things. Our political forefathers promoted radical principles that helped the United States and its people prosper. While we can still move in that direction, it won't happen by listening to radio and television pundits who distort the views of our forefathers. We must revisit the principles that our country was founded on and let what we know to be the truth become reality.

Amico, an ordinary citizen, seeks to shed some light on this complex subject so that "we the people" can claim what's rightfully ours instead of just dreaming.

This text studies the attitudes of the founding "fathers" toward slavery. Specifically, it examines the views of Thomas Jefferson reflected in his life and writings and those of other founders as expressed in the Northwest Ordinance, the Constitutional Convention and the Constitution itself, and the fugitive slave legislation of the 1790s. The author contends: slavery fatally permeated the founding of the American republic; the original constitution was, as the abilitionists later maintained, "a covnenant with death"; and Jefferson's anti-slavery reputation is undeserved and most historians and biographers have prettified Jefferson's record on slavery.

This book brings together several scholars to examine the relationship between guerrilla insurgencies and state building. In essays covering such societies as Mozambique, Algeria, Peru, Malaysia and Sri Lanka the authors show that the rise of guerrilla insurgency can lead states to develop far-reaching programmes of social and economic modernisation or else in some cases to disintegrate from within if the challenge of modernisation proves to be beyond their capacities. The book argues that as the last phase of colonial modernisation of developing states has finished insurgencies increasingly threaten the cohesion of less developed states in a global order in which superpower patronage has largely ended.

Is there a future without civil service and civil servants? This volume concludes a large comparative project that started in 1990. The book considers the changes in the past fifteen years, and looks to the challenges facing civil servants in the 21st century: performance, globalization and legitimacy. Given the lack of attention for civil servant "systems"as specifically public sector institutionalized arrangements in a political and societal context, this study fills a clear gap.

Prompted by unification, the German constitution has undergone the most fundamental re-examination since the foundation of the Federal Republic. The high hopes of many that the achevement of unification ould be crowned by a new constition for Germany have been dashed; but although continuity may seem to prevail, unification and, even more so, the process of European integration have provided powerful forces of constituional change. This volume seeks to identify some of the central challenges which constitional policy faces and analyzes how, and with what degree of success, they are being met.

In this insightful book, Massimo Fichera provides an original account of European integration as a process -? completed by the creation of the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice. The study builds upon a demonstration of how European constitutionalism has been informed by a meta-rationale, which is expressed by security and fundamental rights as discourses of power. The book uses this conceptual framework to analyse the development of the EU as a polity. Chapters cover significant recent crises, including the Eurozone, refugees, the rule of law, Brexit, and constitutional identity. These events are not only recognized as being political shocks, but more meaningful and long lasting occurrences which have had, and will continue to have, a deep impact on the development of the EU as a legal and political system. In light of this, the variety of crises that have recently affected the EU are discussed with thought given to their impact as an interlinking whole. Adeptly combining both theoretical and doctrinal analysis, this book will appeal to students and scholars of both EU law and politics as well as those interested in legal and political theory more widely. Government officials, policy makers and practitioners will also find this a stimulating read.

NOW A NEW YORK TIMES, WASHINGTON POST, WALL STREET JOURNAL, USA TODAY, AND PUBLISHERS WEEKLY BESTSELLER. There has never been a more important political investigation than Robert S. Mueller III's into President Donald Trump's possible collusion with Russia. His momentous findings can be found here, complete with: The 300+ pages of the historic report, as released by the Justice Department An introduction by constitutional scholar, eminent civil libertarian, and New York Times bestselling author Alan Dershowitz. The relevant portions of Title 28 of the Code of Federal Regulations, the 1999 provisions written by former acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal, which establish and regulate the powers of the special counsel. Rod Rosenstein's 2016 order appointing Robert Mueller III as special counsel and outlining the scope of his investigation. Attorney General William Barr's four-page summary of the report, as sent to Congress. Barr's explanation of the four reasons for redacting the report, and a key for identifying them in the color-coded report The wait is over. Robert Mueller, a lifelong Republican, has concluded his investigation and submitted its findings to Attorney General William Barr. Barr has told Congress that Mueller found no proof of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, and did not come to a conclusion on obstruction of justice-neither concluding the president committed a crime nor exonerating him. But Mueller's report was over 300 pages and Barr's summary was only four pages, raising questions about the conclusions of a historic investigation. Special Counsel Robert Mueller III's probe into Russian influence on the 2016 election of Donald Trump-including links between the campaign and Russian interests, obstruction of justice by President Trump, and any other matters that may have arisen in the course of the investigation-has been the focal point of American politics since its inception in May 2017. Democrats in the US House of Representatives hoped to use the report to begin impeachment proceedings, with the support of those critical of the president. Media tracked Mueller's every move, and the investigation was subject to constant speculation by political pundits everywhere. It resulted in the indictments of Michael Flynn, Paul Manafort, Roger Stone, and many others. President Trump and his supporters affirmed that the investigation was a "witch hunt" and the product of a plot by the political establishment-the "deep state"-to delegitimize his presidency. Mueller's findings-at least according to Barr-allowed the latter to claim victory. But now, thanks to a subpoena from House Judiciary Committee chairman Jerry Nadler for the full report, a resolution from the House of Representatives to release the full report to the public (though blocked in the Senate by Mitch McConnell), and popular demand, it's time for public to judge if that is true. The Mueller investigation will join Watergate, and the Mueller Report will join the 9/11 Commission Report, the Warren Report, and the Starr Report, as one of the most important in history. The Mueller Report is required reading for everyone with interest in American politics, for every 2016 and 2020 voter, and every American. It's now available here as an affordable paperback, featuring an introduction from eminent civil libertarian, Harvard Law Professor Emeritus, and New York Times bestselling author Alan Dershowitz, who provides a constitutional, civil law-based commentary sorely needed in today's media landscape.

This study provides an analytic framework---a theory of knowledge than identifies the kinds of structures and processes required for directing human action and the criteria for evaluating them. Eugene Meehan applies his theories empirically to the real world and provides normative approaches for his generalizations about governmental and individual policies. This theoretical study builds on his earlier works and is intended for political and social scientists and graduate students. The book opens with a description of the the author's theory of knowledgement, and then identifies how to fulfill empirical and normative requirements, and how to apply the critical apparatus to governmental actions. It examines the outlook for the future, the role of the university, and past performance. It calls for an agreed epistemological base, grounded in experience for critiquing governmental policy and behavior and improving it.