Benazir Bhutto returned to Pakistan in October 2007, after eight years of exile, hopeful that she could be a catalyst for change. Upon a tumultuous reception, she survived a suicide-bomb attack that killed nearly two hundred of her compatriots. But she continued to forge ahead, with more courage and conviction than ever, since she knew that time was running out--for the future of her nation and for her life.

In Reconciliation, Bhutto recounts in gripping detail her final months in Pakistan and offers a bold new agenda for how to stem the tide of Islamic radicalism and to rediscover the values of tolerance and justice that lie at the heart of her religion. She speaks out not just to the West but also to the Muslims across the globe. Bhutto presents an image of modern Islam that defies the negative caricatures often seen in the West. After reading this book, it will become even clearer what the world has lost by her assassination.

In recent years serious concerns emerged over the state of European democracy. Many democracy indices are reporting a year-on-year drift towards less liberal politics in the countries of the European Union. Polls regularly suggest that the voters are coming to question democratic norms more seriously than for many decades. Here, Richard Youngs assesses these risks as many analysts, journalists and politicians stressed the danger of Europe descending into an era of conflict, driven by xenophobic nationalism and nativist authoritarians slowly dismantling liberal democratic rights. In 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic has intensified these fears. There is another side of the democratic equation, however. Youngs argues that governments, EU institutions, political parties, citizens and civil society organisations have gradually begun to push back in defence of democracy. With each chapter, Youngs shows how many governmental, political and social actors have developed responses to Europe's democratic malaise at multiple levels. Europe's democracy problems have been grave and far-reaching. Yet, a spirit of democratic resistance has slowly taken shape. This book argues that the pro-democratic fightback may be belated, but it is real and has assumed significant traction with various types of democratic reform underway, including citizen initiatives, political-party changes, digital activism and EU-level responses.

With faith in the works of words is the first book to look behind the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) and examine reconciliation's larger and fundamental role in the transition from apartheid to nonracial democracy. In doing so, it finds that there have been many beginnings of reconciliation in South Africa. Based on documents that have received little public attention, including controversial texts from the religious community and fascinating transcripts from South Africa's constitutional negotiations, the title reveals how reconciliation was used to energize the struggle against apartheid and the ways in which it underwrote the negotiated revolution, including the development of a constitution whose very promise was pegged to the willingness of South Africans to pursue the work of "reconciliation and reconstruction." Faith in the works of words challenges many common assumptions about the discourse and dynamics of reconciliation in South Africa. An important history of reconciliation’s rhetorical power, this title shows how reconciliation shaped the process of South African nation-building long before the TRC took to the stage and captured the world’s imagination.

The 2020 Presidential Election in the South details how the 2020 presidential election developed in the twelve states of the South. This edited volume features preeminent scholars of Southern politics who analyze the momentous Election of 2020. In addition to chapters organized by state, this volume also focuses upon the issues that drove southern voters, the nominations process in early 2020, as well as a chapter focusing on where the region may be headed politically in the next decade. In addition, each state chapter includes analysis on notable congressional races and important patterns at the state level. The authors also provide keen insight into the ever-changing political patterns in the region. Since the South continues to evolve in terms of politics and demographic shifts, this book will be an important tool for academics. However, the book will also enlighten journalists and political enthusiasts seeking a deeper understanding of contemporary changes in Southern electoral politics.

Why might some students convert their political interests into activism when others do not? There is a strong need to understand the changing dynamics of contemporary youth participation: how they engage, what repertoires are considered efficacious, and their motivations to get involved. This book uses the 2010/11 UK student protests against fees and cuts as a case study for analysing some of the key paths and barriers to political participation today. These paths and barriers - which include an individual's family socialisation, network positioning, and group identification (and dis-identification) - help us explain why some people convert their political sympathies and interests into action, and why others do not. Drawing on an original survey dataset of students, the book shows how and why students responded in the way that they did, whether by occupying buildings, joining marches, signing petitions, or not participating at all. Considering this in the context of other student movements across the globe, the book's combination of quantitative and qualitative methods, and its theoretical contribution provide a more holistic picture of student protest than is found in existing studies.

This book goes beyond examining Donald Trump as a unique and controversial President to place his election in a historical and systematic perspective. It offers an analysis of the 2016 presidential nominations and election, the economic and demographic foundations of the election of Mr. Trump, the realignment of the party system, ideological polarization in American politics, the realities of a postindustrial society locked in a global economy, and the outlook for American democracy in the twenty-first century.

Ten leading scholars and practitioners of politics, political science, anthropology, Israel studies, and Middle East affairs address the theme of continuity and change in political culture as a tribute to Professor Myron (Mike) J. Aronoff whose work on political culture has built conceptual and methodological bridges between political science and anthropology. Topics include the legitimacy of the two-state solution, identity and memory, denationalization, the role of trust in peace negotiations, democracy, majority-minority relations, inclusion and exclusion, Biblical and national narratives, art in public space, and avant-garde theater. Countries covered include Israel, Palestine, the United States, the Basque Autonomous Region of Spain, and Poland. The first four chapters by Yael S. Aronoff, Saliba Sarsar, Yossi Beilin, and Nadav Shelef examine aspects of the conflict and peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, including alternative solutions. The contributions by Naomi Chazan, Ilan Peleg, and Joel Migdal tackle challenges to democracy in Israel, in other divided societies, and in the creation of the American public. Yael Zerubavel, Roland Vazquez, and Jan Kubik focus their analyses on aspects of national memory, memorialization, and dramatization. Mike Aronoff relates his work on various aspects of political culture to each chapter in an integrative essay in the Epilogue.

Hans Kelsen is commonly associated with legal theory and philosophy of law. Democracy in Its Essence: Hans Kelsen as a Political Thinker instead investigates Kelsen's democratic theory as it developed between the 1920s and 1950s, which challenged the existence of democracies in many different respects. Kelsen provided a critical reflection on the strengths and problems of living within a democratic system, while also defending it against a series of specific targets: from the Soviet regime and Bolshevism to European Fascisms, from religious-based conceptions of politics to those claiming a perfect identity between capitalism and classical liberal institutions, and chiefly against all those ideologies claiming to possess objective understanding of what true freedom and true democracy signify. By seeking what he defined as the "essence" and "value" of democracy, Kelsen elaborated a pluralist, relativist, constitutional, proceduralist, and liberal theory of representative democracy, characterized by a strong recall to the values of tolerance, responsibility, and respect toward "the other" as well as to the idea of politics as space for compromise. In this book, Sara Lagi reconstructs his political theory as a relevant contribution to the twentieth-century liberal-democratic tradition of thought, while representing a stimulating reflection on the meaning and implication of democracy both as a political system and as a form of co-existence.

Public Opinion is Walter Lippmann's groundbreaking work which demonstrates how individual beliefs are swayed by stereotypes, the mass media, and political propaganda. The book opens with the notion that democracy in the age of super fast communications is obsolete. He analyses the impact of several phenomena, such as the radio and newspapers, to support his criticisms of the sociopolitical situation as it stands. He famously coins the term 'manufactured consent', for the fomenting of views which ultimately work against the interests of those who hold them. Lippmann contends that owing to the masses of information flung at the population on a daily basis, opinions regarding entire groups in society are being reduced to simple stereotypes. The actual complexity and nuance of life, Lippmann contends, is undermined by the ever-faster modes of communication appearing regularly.

At a time when many regions of the world, including Europe, see a resurgence of authoritarianism, three countries of Eastern Europe - Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova - are struggling to counter this trend with the aim of developing European-style democracies in the framework of their Association Agreements with the European Union. This book offers an in-depth analysis of this challenge, with expert contributions on the workings of these countries' democratic and judicial institutions, their anti-corruption policies and the hazards they must overcome, including the strong presence of oligarchs. Other themes include how these countries are adapting to their precarious geo-political positioning between the EU and Russia and how the quality of their political and economic governance compares with the Balkan states. The book complements three landmark Handbooks (now in their 2nd edition and also published by Rowman & Littlefield International) explaining the progress achieved in implementing the comprehensive Association Agreements that each of these countries has entered into with the EU. The struggle to advance good democratic governance in these close neighbours of the EU represents a test case of the highest strategic significance for both the EU and the three states themselves. For the most part, the jury is still out over its outcome.

Resist! pays close attention to popular culture; it examines the political ramifications of Kanye West's support of Donald Trump, the significance of Aaron Sorkin's language to American political discourse, and the casting of female emotion as a political force in House of Cards and The Handmaid's Tale. In doing so, the collection traverses the formal world of 'the political' as it relates to presidential elections and referenda, while emphasising the sociocultural and political significance of popular texts which have played a critical role in exploring, critiquing and shaping culture in the twenty first century. Popular culture is often considered trivial or irrelevant to more pressing political concerns, and celebrities are often reprimanded for their forays into the political sphere. Resist! pays close attention to texts that are too often excluded when we think about politics, and explores the cultural and political fall-out of a reality TV president and a divisive public vote on increasingly connected global audiences. In examining the cultural politics of popular media, this collection is inherently interdisciplinary, and the chapters utilise methods and analysis from a range of social science and humanities disciplines. Resist! is both creative and timely, and offers a crucial examination of a fascinating and frightening political and cultural moment.

At a time when many regions of the world, including Europe, see a resurgence of authoritarianism, three countries of Eastern Europe - Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova - are struggling to counter this trend with the aim of developing European-style democracies in the framework of their Association Agreements with the European Union. This book offers an in-depth analysis of this challenge, with expert contributions on the workings of these countries' democratic and judicial institutions, their anti-corruption policies and the hazards they must overcome, including the strong presence of oligarchs. Other themes include how these countries are adapting to their precarious geo-political positioning between the EU and Russia and how the quality of their political and economic governance compares with the Balkan states. The book complements three landmark Handbooks (now in their 2nd edition and also published by Rowman & Littlefield International) explaining the progress achieved in implementing the comprehensive Association Agreements that each of these countries has entered into with the EU. The struggle to advance good democratic governance in these close neighbours of the EU represents a test case of the highest strategic significance for both the EU and the three states themselves. For the most part, the jury is still out over its outcome.