Guided by Gramsci's question of why so many victims support the labyrinth of their oppression, Robert A. Williams queries garrison state machinations in electioneering to promote hegemony. This pioneering ethnography explores the role and function of the U.S. garrison state in U.S. electioneering through participant observation of the United States's largest third party-the Libertarian Party (LP)-as a window to wider sociocultural dynamics of covert power in U.S. politics. Some three decades of insider membership roles within Libertarian Party electioneering combined with two years of doctoral fieldwork provide an ethnographic window into cultural hegemony in U.S. electoral politics and sociological analysis of the information warfare that sustains it. Anchored in original and extensive participant observation including interviews and surveys, this ethnography of United States's sociologically understudied Libertarian Party (LP) probes the power of cultural hegemony to constrain human agency in electioneering. Through a privileged membership point of view by becoming the phenomenon, the author provides a critically reflective analysis of the sociocultural context in which LP electioneering unfolds. Membership roles in Libertarian electioneering range from donors to candidates, from volunteers to party officials, and from anti-authoritarian libertarians to authoritarian conservatives. Exploring its transition from a radical anti-establishment party to a party more in line with mainstream opinion, Williams shows how a member's relations of shared cultural logics constrain her or his behavior to ultimately reproduce garrison state social practices.

Debatable Humor represents the first systematic foray into understanding the use of humor by politicians on the campaign trail. Using content analysis of primary debates for both Republican and Democratic parties during the 2008 presidential election, Patrick A. Stewart considers not just how humor was used, who used it, and how successful these attempts at humor were, but he also gives readers insight regarding why humor and the laughter that results is an important part of politics. Not only can humor reveal a candidate s intelligence, values, personality, and his/her connection with the audience, it also reveals the underlying values of egalitarian political systems.

During the twentieth century, and particularly between the 1930s and 1950s, ideas about the nature of constitutional government, the legitimacy of judicial lawmaking, and the proper role of the federal courts evolved and shifted. This book focuses on Supreme Court justice Louis D. Brandeis and his opinion in the 1938 landmark case Erie Railroad Co. v. Tompkins, which resulted in a significant relocation of power from federal to state courts. Distinguished legal historian Edward A. Purcell, Jr., shows how the Erie case provides a window on the legal, political, and ideological battles over the federal courts in the New Deal era. Purcell also offers an in-depth study of Brandeis's constitutional jurisprudence and evolving legal views. Examining the social origins and intended significance of the Erie decision, Purcell concludes that the case was a product of early twentieth-century progressivism. The author explores Brandeis's personal values and political purposes and argues that the justice was an exemplar of neither "judicial restraint" nor "neutral principles," despite his later reputation. In an analysis of the continual reconceptions of both Brandeis and Erie by new generations of judges and scholars in the twentieth century, Purcell also illuminates how individual perspectives and social pressures combined to drive the law's evolution.

This book analyses the formulation, interpretation and implementation of sharia in Pakistan and its relationship with the Pakistani state whilst addressing the complexity of sharia as a codified set of laws. Drawing on insights from Islamic studies, anthropology and legal studies to examine the interactions between ideas, institutions and political actors that have enabled blasphemy laws to become the site of continuous controversy, this book furthers the readers' understanding of Pakistani politics and presents the transformation of sharia from a pluralistic religious precepts to a set of rigid laws. Using new materials, including government documents and Urdu language newspapers, the author contextualises the larger political debate within Pakistan and utilises a comparative and historical framework to weave descriptions of various events with discussions on sharia and blasphemy. A contribution to the growing body of literature, which explores the role of state in shaping the religion and religious politics in Muslim-majority countries, this book will be of interest to academics working on South Asian Politics, Political Islam, Sharia Law, and the relationship of Religion and the State.

Since the adoption of the 1947 Constitution of Japan, the document has become a contested symbol of contrasting visions of Japan. Japanese Constitutional Revisionism and Civic Activism is a volume which examines the history of Japan's constitutional debates, key legal decisions and interpretations, the history and variety of activism, and activists' ties to party politics and to fellow activists overseas.

Many hoped or feared that Antonin Scalia's appointment to the Supreme Court in 1986 would guarantee a conservative counter-revolution that would reverse the liberal jurisprudence of the Supreme Court under Chief Justice Earl Warren and which was continued to some extent under the Burger Court though the influence of Justice William Brennan. In addition, President Reagan described Scalia's nomination as part of a project to remake the role of the Court, promote an interpretive approach of originalism, and shift authority and discretion to the States. Yet by the time of his death in 2016 it was unclear to what extent Scalia had effected the legal, institutional, or political revolutions that had been anticipated. While the Court did move to the right doctrinally, and reversed or modified many Vinson-Warren-Burger precedents, Scalia's influence on constitutional jurisprudence turned out to be far less than it could have been, and his ability to persuade other Justices to adopt his legal views-both substantively and methodologically-was less than many mainstream media accounts recognize. Scalia's institutional and political legacies are similarly complex: he was neither as transformative a figure as some of his allies might have hoped nor so unimportant as some of his detractors might have wished. The fact that his death and the controversy surrounding his replacement is so intense speaks to the fragile legacy that Scalia really has had on the Supreme Court after 30 years. This book will assess Scalia's legacy in an edited volume that assembles leading legal and political science scholars who will evaluate his impact across a range of jurisprudential, institutional, and political issues.

What are individual rights? What is freedom? How are they related to each other? Why are they so crucial to human life? How do you protect them? These are some of the questions that A Declaration and Constitution for a Free Society answers. The book uses Objectivist philosophy-the philosophy of Ayn Rand-to analyze subjective, intrinsic, and objective theories of rights and show why rights and freedom are objective necessities of human life. This knowledge is then used to make changes to the Declaration of Independence and U.S. Constitution. Through these changes, the book shows the fundamental legal requirements of a free society and why we should create such a society. It demonstrates why a free society is morally, politically, and economically beneficial to human beings.

Donald Trump's policies, from his travel ban to his approval of the Dakota Access Pipeline, have prompted an immediate response from concerned liberals. Yet what effect can protest truly have in the face of the awesome power of the executive branch? Do everyday citizens have a role in safeguarding our Constitution? Or must we rely on the federal courts, and the Supreme Court above all, to protect our dearly held rights? In Engines of Liberty, the esteemed legal scholar David Cole argues that we all have a part to play in the grand civic dramas of our era. Examining the most successful rights movements of the last 30 years, he reveals how groups of ordinary Americans have worked together to defend and expand our civil liberties. The lesson of the fight for marriage equality is the value of strategy of state-level activism. In the NRA's successful efforts to swing elections and influence state and federal law, we can see the power of groups that build loyal, active, and uncompromising memberships. The fight for human rights during the Iraq war illustrates how activist groups can encourage foreign populations and governments to challenge the president when our domestic institutions fail to. In a new Introduction written for the paperback edition, Cole urges us to view these past efforts as a blueprint for activism in our own era. From travel rights to protections for transgender students, and from voting rights to environmental issues, Engines of Liberty is an essential guidebook for concerned citizens seeking to defend the law of the land.

Herbert Hoover rose from a rudimentary background to establish himself as a self-made millionaire and leading progressive reformer. Until the disaster that hit the nation in 1929, Hoover was known globally as the "Great Humanitarian" who had saved the lives of scores of millions of Europeans and Asians during and following WWI. As Secretary of Commerce through the twenties, the "Great Engineer" constructed, tooled, and fine-tuned the most powerful economy in the world. Hoover was celebrated as a representative product of America's rise to global domination and a formidable voice for progressivism who could finish the job in the White House. The Depression was Hoover's undoing, but historians recognize they must take account of his considerable contributions to the creation of "twentieth-century America." As we learn more of that America, Hoover makes "more sense." With due consideration of Hoover's accomplishments, one can further understand the construction of the American industrial and corporate economy, progressivism and the New Deal, and political posturing throughout the century. Equally significant, one can comprehend twentieth-century "cash-box" culture and Hoover's formidable contributions as a public servant to the commodification of American life. He endeavored to establish that all could fulfill a secure, middle-class life-in essence, achieve the "American Dream." This concept in part was created by Hoover, who also was considered one of the nation's public-relations geniuses. The political establishment continues to build upon the social and cultural foundation he laid. That foundation, while under stress, remains fundamentally sound as the nation enters the twenty-first century. The criticisms rained down upon American materialism echo dangers Hoover warned against. He subscribed to the maxim that a genuinely good society is not one premised upon material values; it is established upon a widely distributed sense of well-being grounded in service and compassion. Hoover never lost sight of the imperative of selflessness for the good of others, the nation, and oneself within an individualistically driven society rich in comforts and security. He sedulously worked to create a middle-class identity which spoke to material well-being and fundamental decency. A true believer, Herbert Clark Hoover energetically embraced the "American Promise."

The Imperiled Presidency: Presidential Leadership in the 21st Century calls for a dramatic re-evaluation of the American president's role within the separation of powers system. In contrast with claims by academics, pundits, media, and members of Congress, this provocative new book argues that the contemporary American presidency is too weak rather than too strong. Cal Mackenzie offers the contrarian argument that the real constitutional crisis in contemporary American politics is not the centralization and accumulation of power in the presidency, but rather that effective governance is imperiled by the diminished role of the presidency. The product of more than three years of research and writing and nearly four decades of the author's teaching and writing about the American presidency, The Imperiled Presidency is the first book-length treatment of the weaknesses of the modern presidency, written to be accessible to undergraduates and interested citizens alike. It engages with a wide range of literature that relates to the presidency, including electoral politics, budgetary politics, administrative appointments, and the conduct of foreign affairs. It would be a useful complement to courses that rely primarily on a single textbook, as well as courses that are built around more specific readings from a range of books and articles.

In this insightful book, Alexander Styhre examines how corporations, often understood primarily as economic entities or legal devices, seek to influence and shape the market and the wider society in which they operate. Given the scope of such activities in most advanced economies, Styhre argues that corporations are political agents in their own right and that they must be critically analyzed in these terms. The book discusses the history and mechanisms of corporate law and the introduction of regulatory control to show how this has led to the development of a 'market for political influence' in the form of the lobbyism industry, think tank scholarship and advocacy, and donations to politicians and their parties. Theoretical perspectives are complemented by empirical studies as chapters analyze a variety of practices, such as corporate social responsibility commitments, in the light of corporations' political objectives. Management studies scholars and graduate students will benefit from the broadened perspective this book adds to organization theory and management studies literature. It will also prove an insightful read for policy makers and those working in regulatory agencies, as well as management consultants.

In the fourth title in the Dissident American Thought Today Series, Chilton Williamson takes on liberalism and reveals the 'faith' of the present Democratic Party as its own cultivated version of absurdity. This 'advanced liberalism' is not the liberalism of Mill, and it certainly no longer is the thinking man's party. If it were once true that conservatism is unimaginative and reactionary, the contrary is the picture of our times. Liberalism now asserts that human nature can and must be perfected, but without reference to nature. The age of the expert has been thrust upon the United States with the urgency of technique to be applied to coerce the vision of a perfect society and perfect human beings.  Williamson observes that this liberalism to nevertheless be collapsing, given the obvious opposition to the idea that it is essential to modernity. Liberalism is ironically a kind of unyielding control, "a relativist persuasion that discourages and resists fixed beliefs and certainties and the idea of truth itself." Williamson offers commentary on the present state of liberal ideas and their crimes against better judgment, and vindicates conservatism from being labeled reactionary. Liberalism is exposed as a faith we cannot accept, for it contains nothing to be believed and what it says about the order of things is pure fiction. 

A Different Perspective on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act provides a brief history of health insurance within the United States, offering an accessible perspective on the highly contentious Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). This book traces the political and financial conditions that led to the enactment of the Affordable Care Act. Thoroughly researched, A Different Perspective on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act details the drastic increase of health care expenditures in both state legislatures and the federal government, the fiscal strain experienced throughout the nation, and the main objectives of President Barack Obama s 2010 healthcare reform plan.

The Imperiled Presidency: Presidential Leadership in the 21st Century calls for a dramatic re-evaluation of the American president's role within the separation of powers system. In contrast with claims by academics, pundits, media, and members of Congress, this provocative new book argues that the contemporary American presidency is too weak rather than too strong. Cal Mackenzie offers the contrarian argument that the real constitutional crisis in contemporary American politics is not the centralization and accumulation of power in the presidency, but rather that effective governance is imperiled by the diminished role of the presidency. The product of more than three years of research and writing and nearly four decades of the author's teaching and writing about the American presidency, The Imperiled Presidency is the first book-length treatment of the weaknesses of the modern presidency, written to be accessible to undergraduates and interested citizens alike. It engages with a wide range of literature that relates to the presidency, including electoral politics, budgetary politics, administrative appointments, and the conduct of foreign affairs. It would be a useful complement to courses that rely primarily on a single textbook, as well as courses that are built around more specific readings from a range of books and articles.

This edited book, written by a collection of scholars with an interest in Northern Ireland, tracks its uneasy experience with devolution following the optimistic political period associated with the 1998 Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement. The volume brings together researchers from the Economic and Social Research Council's (ESRC) 'Devolution and Constitutional Change' Programme and other experts to record four key perspectives on Northern Ireland. First, it considers the inextricable link between devolution and constitutional developments. Second, it examines how the main political parties responded to devolution and the major challenges faced by society in moving beyond conflict (such as political symbolism, the role of women, equality and human rights issues). Third, it attempts to assess some of the workings of devolved government in its short-lived form or those seeded in devolution and carried on by direct rule ministers. Finally, Northern Irelands devolved government and associated institutions are located within the wider relationships with Westminster, the Republic of Ireland and Europe. This edited volume will be of interest to students of Irish politics and public policy, but more generally, from a comparative perspective, those with an interest in devolution and constitutional change. It may even assist politicians in Northern Ireland to reflect on the real potential to restore its devolved institutions and draw back from the brink of permanently copper-fastening 'direct rule' from Westminster. -- .

The displacement of population during and after the Second World War took place on a global scale and formed part of a longer historical process of violence, territorial reconfiguration and state development. This book focuses on the profound political, social and economic upheavals in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe at this time.

Globalization has reconfigured both the external institutional framework and the intrinsic operating mechanisms of capitalism. The global triumph of capitalism implies the embracing of the market by the state in all its variants, and that global capitalism is not confined to the shell of nation-state democracy. Guoguang Wu provides a theoretical framework of global capitalism for specialists in political economy, political science, economics and international relations, for graduate and undergraduate courses on globalization, capitalism, development and democracy, as well as for the public who are interested in globalization. Wu examines the new institutional features of global capitalism and how they reframe movements of capital, labor and consumption. He explores how globalization has created a chain of connection in which capital depends on effective authoritarianism, while democracy depends on capital. Ultimately, he argues that the emerging state-market nexus has fundamentally shaken the existing institutional systems, harming democracy in the process.

During the last two decades serious attempts to alter basic constitutional structures have taken place in many industrial nations, even in those often thought to have highly stable political institutions. In some cases, such as Belgium and Spain, far-reaching constitutional changes have been put in place; in others advocates of reform have achieved only partial victories or have been entirely frustrated. In all cases, controversy over the constitution has been intense, involving basic conceptions of legitimacy, representation, sovereignty and the purposes of the state. Constitutional politics often reveals much about political life of modern societies that is obscured in day-to-day events. The results of constitutional changes can significantly affect the distribution of power, the ability to manage conflict and the outcomes of policy debates. This book explores the dynamics of constitutional politics through case studies of Spain, Belgium, Canada, the United Kingdom, the United States, West Germany and Eastern Europe, including Poland, prepared by leading students of these countries. Other chapters draw out the more general patterns of constitutional politics, highlighting the pressures which lead to change, and the formidable obstacles confronting them.

This book examines the right to a neutral and detached decisionmaker as interpreted by the U.S. Supreme Court. This right resides in the Constitution's Fifth Amendment and Fourteenth Amendment guarantees to procedural due process and in the Sixth Amendment's promise of an impartial jury. Supreme Court cases on these topics are the vehicles to understand how these constitutional rights have come alive. First, the book surveys the right to an impartial jury in criminal cases by telling the stories of defendants whose convictions were overturned after they were the victims of prejudicial pretrial publicity, mob justice, and discriminatory jury selection. Next, the book articulates how our modern notion of judicial impartiality was forged by the Court striking down cases where judges were bribed, where they had other direct financial stakes in the outcome of the case, and where a judge decided the case of a major campaign supporter. Finally, the book traces the development of the right to a neutral decisionmaker in quasi-judicial, non-court settings, including cases involving parole revocation, medical license review, mental health commitments, prison discipline, and enemy combatants. Each chapter begins with the typically shocking facts of these cases being retold, and each chapter ends with a critical examination of the Supreme Court's ultimate decisions in these cases.

Die Grondwet is die hoogste wet van die republiek en raak elke landsburger op verskeie maniere. Persoonlike regte word deur die Grondwet gewaarborg. Besonderhede oor die magte en pligte van die Parliment, die provinsiale wetgewer en plaaslike owerhede word in die Grondwet uiteengesit. In hierdie publikasie word die Grondwet in maklike taal verduidelik aan die mense vir wie dit geskryf is.

This collection documents, analyses, and reflects on the Icelandic constitutional reform between 2009 and 2017. It offers a unique insight into this process by providing first-hand accounts of its different stages and core issues. Its 12 substantive chapters are written by the main actors in the reform, including the Chair of the Constitutional Council that drafted the 2011 Proposal for a New Constitution. Part I opens with an address by the President of the Republic and positions the constitutional reform in its full complexity and longer-term perspective, going beyond the frequent portrayal of that process in international discussion as being solely a result of the 2008 financial crisis. Part II offers a nuanced and contextualised reflection on Iceland's innovative approach to consultation and drafting involving lay participants, including its twenty-first-century digital take on 'the people,' which attracted international attention as 'crowdsourcing.' Part III analyses the main constitutional amendment proposals, and focuses on natural resources and environmental protection, which lie at the heart of Iceland's identity. The final part reflects on the reform's wider significance and includes an interview with the current Prime Minister, who is now taking the reform forward. The volume provides a basis for reflection on a groundbreaking constitutional reform in a democratic context. This long and complex process has challenged and transformed the ways in which constitutional change can be approached, and the collection is an invitation to discuss further the practical and theoretical dimensions of Iceland's experience and their far-reaching implications.