Develops a new conceptualisation of lawfare that recognises the polysemantic nature of the term. Illustrates the multifaceted character of lawfare with a wide range of historical and contemporary cases from across the globe, and analyses the implications of actors pursuing political objectives through legal means. Will appeal to scholars and students of law, international relations, political science, anthropology, and sociology.

This book employs a policy-based approach to examine the emerging governance structure in Taiwan, one of several countries in East Asia where democratic consolidation is firmly established. Each chapter provides a detailed investigation of reforms that have helped to strengthen Taiwan's democracy in such areas as elections, civil service recruitment, economic policy, social policy, environmental protection, civil rights, response to the COVID-19 pandemic, civil-military relations, and foreign and mainland China policy. As a study of Taiwan's democratic governance, this book will be of interest to students and scholars of Asian politics, comparative politics, democracy, and Taiwan.

The approaches of EU institutions and the US to democracy assistance often vary quite significantly as both actors choose different means and tactics. The nuances in the understandings of democracy on the part of the EU and the US lead to their promotion of models of democratic governance that are often quite divergent and, in some respects, clashing. This book examines the sources of this divergence and by focusing on the role of the actors' "democratic identity" it aims to explain the observation that both actors use divergent strategies and instruments to foster democratic governance in third countries. Taking a constructivist view, it demonstrates that the history, expectations and experiences with democracy of each actor significantly inform their respective definition of democracy and thus the model of democracy they promote abroad. This book will be of key interest to scholars, students and practitioners in democracy promotion, democratization, political theory, EU and US foreign policy and assistance, and identity research.

Karl R. Popper is widely regarded as one of the most influential 20th century philosophers. In this new biography, Weinert provides a comprehensive and accessible account of his life and work, also addressing Popper's role as a public intellectual. Drawing on a wide range of sources and interviews with former colleagues and collaborators, he recounts not only the wide interest from the scientific community, but also the inspiration that politicians took from Popper's work. The book surveys the vast and varied intellectual landscape of Popper's philosophical journey during his long career: from the natural and social sciences (physics, evolution, sociology) to political philosophy and the philosophy of mind. It pays significant attention to Popper's critical method - i.e., the notion that ideas and institutions should be exposed to rigorous tests - the approach that led him to a fervent defence of objectivity, rationality and realism, against all forms of irrationalism, as well as a passionate advocacy of freedom, social justice and liberal democracy, against all forms of authoritarianism. The book brings Popper into focus as a modern Enlightenment philosopher.

This book explores the changes in political communication in light of the development of a public opinion mediated by web 2.0 technologies. One of the most important changes in political communication is related to the process of disintermediation, i.e. the process by which digital technologies allow citizens to compete in the public space with those agents who, traditionally, co-opted public opinion. However, while disintermediation has undeniably generated a number of advances, having linked citizens to the public debate, the authors highlight some aspects where disintermediation is moving away from a rational and inclusive public space. They argue that these aspects, related to the immediacy, polarization and incivility of the communication, obscure the possibilities for democratization of digital political communication.

Lurking in the back of the minds of many students of American government is the question, "How well does the American political system work?" This book examines this in a way that is broad in approach and accessible to readers. Such an ambitious examination of the effectiveness of the American policymaking system leads to one inescapable question: how can you measure "effectiveness?" The answer taken in this book is to employ a number of different criteria. These criteria include: * the public's attitudes towards the institutions of government * the degree in which all participate equally in political activities * the level of which public policy is responsive to public opinion * the ability of the actors in the process to create effective public policy * the extent the political system imposes costs and benefits on us equally, regardless of our economic condition race, gender, or age In doing so, this book ties together and expands upon numerous scholarly studies conducted on American public policymaking and uses David Truman's Systems Model as a conceptual guide. Because of the large amount of data presented, the book will also serve as a reference source for others conducting research on American public policy.

Globalization, modernization, and technologization have brought rapid social and economic change while also increasing diversity of democratic societies. Plurality of democracy, once viewed as a progressive ideology, has been met by the movement of identity politics to the margins of society. Although social movements demanding recognition on the part of groups that were once invisible to mainstream society have brought attention to systemic inequities, prejudice, and discriminatory policies, other groups feeling a loss of status and a sense of displacement have pushed back with counterclaims and protests. These conflicting narratives have fractured society and segmented the populace along narrowly defined identities, creating a new era of democracy and isolationism. Today in the United States we see the troubling effects of increasingly polarized political discourse: amplified gridlock within government, the politicization and fragmentation of economic and social life, and the suppression of the spread of information across ideological lines. The socio-political climate in America is characterized by skepticism, hostility, distrust, claims of fake news, and unwavering opposition. The divide within our nation has shifted the narrative of democracy from promoting the common good to protecting the interests of likeminded factions and the preservation of power and privilege. In recent decades, researchers focused attention on studying the social, geographic, political, and technological polarization in the United States. Trends manifest in myriad ways, both in politics and in everyday life, and expose the divergence between urban and rural communities. These inquiries also suggest that causes and effects of identity politics and polarization are too complex to be studied within the confines of a single discipline. Its exploration, therefore, requires participation and collaboration from scholars in many different fields, particularly those working in the social sciences. In this edited volume, we seek to leverage this research capacity to engage the reader in studies and instruction concerning the divide within and the intersections of realities, facts, theories, and practices in social science education.

Since the first elections of 1994, the South African constitution officially guarantees and promotes a wide range of political and civil rights and institutionalizes the separation of powers with an independent judiciary. This has made South Africa a political symbol of change, hope and democracy in Africa and around the world. However, since the introduction of free and fair electoral processes and with ANC dominating the presidency and the parliamentary seats, the political scene has been scattered by democratic challenges. South Africa remains a flawed democracy, combining free elections and respect for basic civil liberties with problems of governance, an underdeveloped political culture, and low levels of public participation. Today, South Africa stands at a crossroads. While the constitutional democracy has survived, South African democracy seems to have weakened by state capture, internal ANC implosion, corruption, societal polarization, social exclusion, xenophobia, and threats of state economic bankruptcy. South Africa faces growing discontent symbolized in intensified societal and political debates, protests and demonstrations providing for the question if this is a sign of dissatisfied citizens demanding deeper democracy or activities questioning the established constitutional democracy from an anti-democratic, populist, and radical point of view. South Africas Democracy at the Crossroads explores the question; what are the challenges to future democratization in South Africa?

This book assesses the quality of Czech democracy relative to both its postcommunist peers and older EU members. Motivated by the authoritarian tendencies and illiberal outcomes in the postcommunist region, it explores the extent to which the Czech Republic is genuinely an outlier within the region and why. The book elaborates on an original conception of democratic quality that emphasizes three aspects of governance: citizen rule, political equality, and good citizenship. The authors show that while the Czech Republic falls short of Western democracies on these standards, it does perform better than most of its peers. The book includes original data on campaign promises, dual mandates, legislative productivity, the wealth of MPs, the opinions of millionaires, women's representation, and the stability of public preferences along with comparative analyses of a host of other indicators. The book will appeal to those interested in the politics of Eastern Europe and new democracies, those working in the rapidly growing fields of democratic quality and populism, and NGOs concerned with the development of new democracies around the world.

Now in paperback with a new preface by the authorAmericans have long been protective of the country's sovereignty all the way back to George Washington who, when retiring as president, admonished his successors to avoid "permanent" alliances with foreign powers. Ever since, the nation has faced periodic, often heated, debates about how to maintain that sovereignty, and whether and when it is appropriate to cede some of it in the form of treaties and the alliances about which Washington warned. As the 2016 election made clear, sovereignty is also one of the most frequently invoked, polemical, and misunderstood concepts in politics particularly American politics. The concept wields symbolic power, implying something sacred and inalienable: the right of the people to control their fate without subordination to outside authorities. Given its emotional pull, however, the concept is easily high-jacked by political opportunists. By playing the sovereignty card, they can curtail more reasoned debates over the merits of proposed international commitments by portraying supporters of global treaties or organizations as enemies of motherhood and apple pie. Such polemics distract Americans from what is really at stake in the sovereignty debate: the ability of the United States to shape its destiny in a global age. The United States cannot successfully manage globalization, much less insulate itself from cross-border threats, on its own. As global integration deepens and cross-border challenges grow, the nation's fate is increasingly tied to that of other countries, whose cooperation will be needed to exploit the shared opportunities and mitigate the common risks of interdependence. The Sovereignty Wars is intended to help today's policymakers think more clearly about what is actually at stake in the sovereignty debate and to provide some criteria for determining when it is appropriate to make bargains over sovereignty and how to make them.

This book addresses one of the most relevant challenges to the sustainability of the European Union (EU) as a political project: the deficit of citizens' support. It identifies missing elements of popular legitimacy and makes proposals for their formal inclusion in a future Treaty reform, while assessing the contribution that the EU may make to global governance by expanding a credible democratic model to other international actors. The contributors offer perspectives from law, political science, and sociology, and the 15 case studies of different aspects of the incipient European demos provide the reader with a comprehensive overview of these pertinent questions. The edited volume provides a truly interdisciplinary study of the citizens' role in the European political landscape that can serve as a basis for further analyses of the EU's democratic legitimacy. It will be of use to legal scholars and political scientists interested in the EU's democratic system, institutional setup and external relations.

This edited volume follows up from Global Perspectives on US Foreign Policy: From the Outside In in providing unique perspectives on US foreign policy from citizens of countries affected. This approach allows the voices of those less commonly heard to be presented as part of the broader debate about US democracy assistance policies around the globe. Contributions from experts in the Middle East, Africa, the Americas, and Eastern Europe are included to ensure the most pressing issues of international relations in our time are addressed. This book should be read by anyone interested in the United States and global politics as it provides a fuller view of the world.

Well-written and well-researched and strikes a good balance between theoretical arguments and concrete analyses of a specific, relevant case - Bolsonaro's Brazil. Extremely timely, and the fact that it doesn't only consist in an analysis of Bolsonaro's Brazil, but also offers a philosophically informed account of notions and phenomena such as biopolitics, neoliberalism, etc., ensures that the book will remain relevant even in the future. Andre Duarte is a well-known political philosopher and critical theorist whose work is already widely influential in Latin America and Europe (France, Spain).

Well-written and well-researched and strikes a good balance between theoretical arguments and concrete analyses of a specific, relevant case - Bolsonaro's Brazil. Extremely timely, and the fact that it doesn't only consist in an analysis of Bolsonaro's Brazil, but also offers a philosophically informed account of notions and phenomena such as biopolitics, neoliberalism, etc., ensures that the book will remain relevant even in the future. Andre Duarte is a well-known political philosopher and critical theorist whose work is already widely influential in Latin America and Europe (France, Spain).

In the twenty-first century, democracies across the globe are in crisis. The strength of basic democratic institutions and core enduring political principles and values are eroding in key regions and countries. Authoritarian regimes are rising and populist leaders are emerging. Democracy in Crisis across the World weaves threads of history and politics in two parts to analyze how long this trend may last and what the future may bring. By first examining the state of democracy in Sub-Saharan Africa, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East and North Africa, the second part of the collection highlights to democratic trajectory of India, China, Russia, and the United States. Ending with a look at how the world's governments have responded to the coronavirus pandemic, contributors argue that unless democracy is defended with resolution and nurtured with resilience, it will fall.

This book tackles the question of why the United States is so resistant to radical change towards economic justice and peace. Taking full stock of the despair that launched the popular support for Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump, Swanger historicizes the political paralysis of post-1974 United States that deepened already severe economic inequalities, asking how the terrain for social movements in the early twenty-first-century US differs from that of the 1960s. This terrain is marked by the entrenchment of neoliberalism, anti-intellectualism, and difficulties paradoxically posed by the ease of social media. Activists now must contend with a paralyzing "post-factual" moment. Alain Badiou's thought informs this book on breaking through contemporary political paralysis.

This volume provides a fresh perspective on current democratic theory and practice by recovering the rich evaluations of democracy in the history of political thought. Each author addresses a single thinker's reflections on the virtues and defects of democracy and the relationship between democracy and other regimes. Together, these essays explore the tensions within the democratic way of life that arise from an attachment to equality, liberty, citizenship, law, and the divine. Above all, this work aims at recovering a more complex understanding of democracy, connecting the perennial questions of political philosophy to the perplexities and crises of modern democracy.

In this text, specialists on Europe, the Americas, and Japan explore why democracies have succeeded and failed over the past 100 years. Each essay applies the perspective of the social historian - a focus on mentalities, social movements, and the relationship between states and societies - to explain why political participation has changes as it has. What emerges are national portraits of the social origins of democracy, as well as comparative explanations that take global processes and national peculiarities into account.

This book provides a critical investigation of what has been termed the 'global justice movement'. Through a detailed study of a grassroots peasants' network in Asia (People's Global Action), an international trade union network (the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mining and General Workers) and the Social Forum process, it analyses some of the global justice movement's component parts, operational networks and their respective dynamics, strategies and practices. The authors argue that the emergence of new globally-connected forms of collective action against neoliberal globalisation are indicative of a range of place-specific forms of political agency that coalesce across geographic space at particular times, in specific places, and in a variety of ways. Rather than being indicative of a coherent 'movement', the authors argue that such forms of political agency contain many political and geographical fissures and fault-lines, and are best conceived of as 'global justice networks': overlapping, interacting, competing, and differentially-placed and resourced networks that articulate demands for social, economic and environmental justice. Such networks, and the social movements that comprise them, characterise emergent forms of trans-national political agency. The authors argue that the role of key geographical concepts of space, place and scale are crucial to an understanding of the operational dynamics of such networks. Such an analysis challenges key current assumptions in the literature about the emergence of a global civil society. -- .

The State of the nation 2016 volume uses multiple research lenses to analyse the dynamic interface of power and authority structures that characterises the state and South African society as a dynamic constitutional democracy. The volume projects these dynamics in the context of heightening contestations around structural economic, social and political problems such as unemployment, inequality, poverty and land redistribution. Is the state indeed in charge of the country’s economy and development and to what extent is the government able to effectively drive its publicly pronounced developmental state agenda? When does `leading’ become `controlling’? What are the roles of the private sector and civil society in development? To whom is the state accountable and how is it held accountable? What are the definitive signs that the South African state has been hollowed out in the interests of a market-led economy rather than functioning as a developmental or capable state? From the state’s point of view, which external role players, forces and powers are preventing the state administration and agencies from fully achieving its goals? In the context of such constraints, a range of changing dynamics—financial, constitutional, political and economic—and with a focus on the lingering remnants of the apartheid state —State of the nation 2016 analyses South Africa and how power impacts on mandates, accountability and contestations in the South African state by asking: Who is in charge?

How do political parties affect foreign policy? This book answers this question by exploring the role of party politics as source of foreign policy change in liberal democracies. The book shifts the focus from individual political parties to party systems as the context in which parties' ideologies receive precise content and their preferences are formed. The central claim is that foreign policy change arises from within transformed discursive contexts of party competition, when a new language of politics that constitutes anew parties' self-understanding of what they stand for and compete over emerges in a party system. By comparing cases of contested foreign policy change, the book shows how such transformations in party competition determine whether and when international pressures on a state will translate into decisions to institute foreign policy change and what degree of change will be ultimately implemented. With a novel framework which bridges concepts of international relations and comparative politics, the book will be of interest to researchers and students in the areas of international relations theory, foreign policy analysis and comparative politics, and generally to anyone wanting to understand how and when parties, elections and voters contribute to international change.

Liberal democracy is in trouble. This volume considers the crosscutting causes and manifestations of the current crisis facing the liberal order. Over the last decade, liberal democracy has come under mounting pressure in many unanticipated ways. In response to seemingly endless crisis conditions, governments have turned with alarming frequency to extraordinary emergency powers derogating the rule of law and democratic processes. The shifting interconnections between new technologies and public power have raised questions about threats posed to democratic values and norms. Finally, the liberal order has been challenged by authoritarian and populist forces promoting anti- pluralist agendas. Adopting a synoptic perspective that puts liberal disorder at the center of its investigation, this book uses multiple sources to build a common historical and conceptual framework for understanding major contemporary political currents. The contributions weave together historical studies and conceptual analyses of states of exception, emergency powers, and their links with technological innovations, as well as the tension-ridden relationship between populism and democracy and its theoretical, ideological, and practical implications. The book will be of interest to scholars and students of a number of disciplines in the humanities and social sciences: history, political science, philosophy, constitutional and international law, sociology, cultural studies, anthropology, and economics.

The Quadruple Innovation Helix concept is the synthesis of top-down policies and practices from Government, University and Industry balanced and shaped by bottom-up initiatives and actions by Civil Society. In addition, of significance is the complementary expansion and completion of the Quadruple Innovation Helix by the concept of the Quintuple Innovation Helix, to which an all-encompassing fifth dimension was added, namely, the Environment. This book expertly defines the impact of public policies and productive public expenditures on innovation and economic growth in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries. Economic growth is managed by the creation of differentiated productive units that interact with each other and complement each other in the production of continuous innovation. This book provides a theoretical model of economic growth to demonstrate the importance of governments in promoting innovation. It is a seminal read which scholars, governments, and NGOs will find greatly beneficial.