Why is it that government debt in the developed world has risen to world war proportions in a time of peace? This can largely be attributed to governments maintaining welfare expenditures beyond what tax revenues allow. But will these governments refrain from doing what is necessary for economic growth for fear of losing their electorate?

Throughout World War II, Detroit's automobile manufacturers accounted for one-fifth of the dollar value of the nation's total war production, and this amazing output from ""the arsenal of democracy"" directly contributed to the allied victory. In fact, automobile makers achieved such production miracles that many of their methods were adopted by other defence industries, particularly the aircraft industry. In Arsenal of Democracy: The American Automobile Industry in World War II, award-winning historian Charles K. Hyde details the industry's transition to a wartime production powerhouse and some of its notable achievements along the way. Hyde examines several innovative cooperative relationships that developed between the executive branch of the federal government, U.S. military services, automobile industry leaders, auto industry suppliers, and the United Automobile Workers (UAW) union, which set up the industry to achieve production miracles. He goes on to examine the struggles and achievements of individual automakers during the war years in producing items like aircraft engines, aircraft components, and complete aircraft; tanks and other armoured vehicles; jeeps, trucks, and amphibians; guns, shells, and bullets of all types; and a wide range of other weapons and war goods ranging from search lights to submarine nets and gyroscopes. Hyde also considers the important role played by previously underused workers-namely African Americans and women-in the war effort and their experiences on the line. Arsenal of Democracy includes an analysis of wartime production nationally, on the automotive industry level, by individual automakers, and at the single plant level. For this thorough history, Hyde has consulted previously overlooked records collected by the Automobile Manufacturers Association that are now housed in the National Automotive History Collection of the Detroit Public Library. Automotive historians, World War II scholars, and American history buffs will welcome the compelling look at wartime industry in Arsenal of Democracy.

This edited collection outlines the issues central to youth engagement in research and social innovation. Youth-driven innovation for social change is increasingly recognized as holding potential for the development of sustainable strategies to tackle some of the most pressing global challenges of our time. The contributors provide additional knowledge concerning what actually constitutes an enabling environment, as well as the most effective approaches for engaging youth as architects of change. While sensitive to the need for contextual appropriateness, the volume contributes to the development of shared understandings and frameworks for engaging and spurring youth-driven innovation for social change worldwide. Youth-Driven Social Innovation showcases examples of youth engagement in frugal and reverse innovation worldwide, alongside examples which demonstrate the tremendous potential of South-South learning, but also learning and youth innovation in the Global North. It will be of interest to students and scholars across a range of disciplines including education, sociology, anthropology, public health, and politics.

Cyberculture and the Subaltern: Weavings of the Virtual and Real, edited by Radhika Gajjala, maps how voice and silence shape online space in relation to offline actualities. Thus, it weaves the virtual and real in relation to so-called old and new technologies using globalization and technology as the frame for examination. Implicit in this investigation is the question of how offline actualities and online cultures are in turn shaped by online hierarchies, as well as different kinds of local access to global contexts. This book reveals the logic of particular global-local directions that emerge within digital, transnational capital and labor flows. To this end, the contributors to this volume examine various sites and intersections through critical lenses enabled by conversations and writings in subaltern studies, affect theory, postcolonial feminist theory, critical cultural studies, communication studies, critical development studies, and science and technology studies. Contexts explored in this collection include microfinance online, handloom contexts from India and Africa in relation to development discourse, new technologies, and virtual world marketing. Through actual auto-ethnographic engagement, Cyberculture and the Subaltern reveals the interdependence of the economic, political, cultural, and social in the production of the subaltern online.

This is the first full-length presentation of a republican alternative to the liberal and communitarian theories that have dominated political philosophy in recent years. The latest addition to the acclaimed Oxford Political Theory series, Pettit's eloquent and compelling account opens with an examination of the traditional republican conception of freedom as non-domination, contrasting this with established negative and positive views of liberty.
The first part of the book traces the rise and decline of this conception, displays its many attractions, and makes a case for why it should still be regarded as a central political ideal. The second part of the book looks at what the implementation of the ideal would require with regard to substantive policy-making, constitutional and democratic design, regulatory control and the relation between state and civil society. Prominent in this account is a novel concept of democracy, under which government is exposed to systematic contestation, and a vision of state-societal relations founded upon civility and trust.
Pettit's powerful and insightful new work offers not only a unified, theoretical overview of the many strands of republican ideas, but also a new and sophisticated perspective on studies in related fields including the history of ideas, jurisprudence, and criminology.

Since 1974, when the current wave of democratisation began, the movement towards democracy in Asia has remained limited. Many countries in Asia, in fact, are not making a decisive move towards democracy, and find themselves struggling with the challenges of democratic consolidation and governance. Focusing on Indonesia, Thailand and Korea, this book analyses why democratisation is so difficult in Asia. The book investigates the dynamics by which citizens embrace democratic rule and reject authoritarianism, and also compares these dynamics with those of consolidating democracies around the world. The book looks at the forces that affect the emergence and stability of democracy, such as elite interactions, economic development and popular attitudes as beliefs and perceptions about the legitimacy of political systems have long been recognised as some of the most critical influences on regime change. The book also discusses what it is about the nature of public opinion and the processes of day-to-day democratic participation that have made these countries vulnerable to repeated crises of legitimacy. Using Indonesia, Korea, and Thailand as case studies, this book highlights the uniqueness of the Asia's path to democracy, and shows both the challenges and opportunities in getting there. The book will be of interest to students and scholars of Asian Politics, Comparative Politics and International Studies.

This book examines the use of game elements to encourage citizens to participate in political decision-making and the planning of large-scale public sector projects. It argues that success is based on a personal concern with the project and a belief in the influence on political decision making, but also on fun. Without fun, only a very small group of the 'usual suspects' will participate, especially in classic policymaking approaches like citizens' panels which require time and physical attendance. The book also examines the relationship between representative democracy and citizen participation from the perspective of direct democratic instruments in Germany. Readers from different countries with different political systems can decide for themselves, if and how the results from Germany are transferable to their respective conditions. Grounded in theoretical literature and statistical data, the book also makes use of narratives, applying a 'storytelling' approach to the case studies.

This book focuses on how diverse developments are reflected in the rise of the security groups in Bali, Indonesia. Bali's security groups pose many interesting questions. Why did they put up so many huge posters around the streets of southern Bali promoting themselves? Are their claims to represent the community plausible or are they "gangs"? How are they shaped by Indonesia's violent past? How does Hinduism affect their gender politics? Do they promote illiberal populism or ethnic and religious tolerance? Does their central role in money politics prevent local democratization? Rather than write bottom-up history or bring the state back in, this collection as a whole draws on the ideas that circulate among leaders. These circulating ideas construct contemporary politics around both reinterpretations of old practices and responses to problems around tourism, gender, populism, religion, and democracy.

Democracy is on the run, and elected governments are suffering from a legitimacy crisis. Legislatures are increasingly seen as unrepresentative. To give legitimacy to democratic government, experts argue that we need more democracy and more opportunities for direct citizen participation. Representative democracy needs to be complemented by forms of direct engagement, such as referendums, popular votes, the recall, citizens' juries, eDemocracy, etc. This is what we term Complementary Democracy. In this book experts from the worlds of practice and theory come together to explain - and occasionally critique - these complements to representative democracy. The volume provides an invaluable starting point for anyone who wants to know more about the new directions of democratic governance, and hopes to inspire those who seek to build stronger democracies.

Albania's democratic transition - one of the longest and most arduous of post-communist Europe - has failed to produce consolidated institutions. Therefore, this book undertakes the first comprehensive review of Albania's military and judicial reform - from 1992 to 2009 - to ascertain why military reform produced substantial institutionalisation and judicial reform did not. The author analyses the different outcomes by outlining how political elites constructed the interests that shaped their subsequent political actions. Overall, this book presents a novel theoretical account for institutionalisation in emerging democracies and sheds light on two of Albania's most important democratisation reforms. The book will appeal to practitioners working on institutionalisation reforms, institutionalist and democratisation researchers interested in post-authoritarian transitions, and area study scholars focusing on Albania and the Western Balkans.

Drawing from recent streams of scholarship, Democratizing Europe provides a renewed portrait of EU government that point at the enduring leading role of independent powers (the European Court, Commission and Central Bank). Vauchez suggests that we recognize this centrality and adjust our democratization strategies accordingly.

This book focuses on the changes currently redefining parties and party systems in Israel and India with regard to parliamentary democracy, coalitional polity, electoral profiles and social diversity. It compares the nature of parties and party systems in Israel and India since their independence and documents how the societies, states and governments have undergone significant transformations during the long course of their existence. In this regard, it also investigates the many significant similarities and glaring differences between India and Israel as two leading parliamentary democracies. Characterizing the transition of two countries' party systems as 'a shift from predominance to pluralism', the book underlines its impact on the societies, democracies and governance of the two parliamentary nations. The book combines theoretical underpinnings with an empirical understanding of the subject matter, particularly the parties, leaders, state and g overnment, pursuing an interdisciplinary approach, which would appeal to a broad readership from academe and industry alike, and a valuable guide for students and scholars of Political Science, Public Administration, Sociology, Governance and Law.

In Political Dynamics of Grassroots Democracy in Vietnam, Hai Hong Nguyen investigates the correlation between independent variables and grassroots democracy to demonstrate that grassroots democracy has created a mutually empowering mechanism for both the party-state and the peasantry.

European integration confronts us with the limits of current constitutional and democratic language. The way out of this impasse will only appear through a refinement of what we consider the European Union to be as a political entity and of our concepts of democracy. In this challenging and thoughtful new book Professor Verhoeven offers a crystal-clear synthesis and analysis of the current state of the European Union as a constitutional project. While she recognizes the continuity of this project with social contract theory and the federal ideal - and uncovers the specific aspects of democracy and constitutionalism the EU has already embraced - she shows how the terms and presuppositions of those persistent conceptual frameworks must be fundamentally revised. At the root of these necessary revisions lies the irreversible onset of multiculturalism and globalisation, twin challenges that force us to reconsider issues of sovereignty and self-governance. Professor Verhoeven does not neglect the much-debated issues at the centre of her topic. Her analysis extends to such critiques as the view of the European constitution as a Court-led process of vertical integration, the meaning of EU citizenship, variability in EU decision-making procedures, the concept of institutional balance, territorial differences in the application of EU law, the whole area of delegated rule-making and the relationship between the European and national legal orders. As a thorough investigation of how democracy and constitutionalism can be reconceptualised in order to meet the challenge of European integration, The European Union in Search of a Democratic and Constitutional Theory will greatly reward the attention oflawyers, policymakers, and scholars in the field.

For Eastern European and other countries, market democracy offers an organizing principle for reform, a model on which to base movement toward a market economy. Macesich stresses the importance of such an organizing principle, asserting that without it the state will again assume dominance and the political and economic structure will be taken over by well-organized special interests to the detriment of the rest of society. In such a scenario, reform simply perpetuates the interests of the ever-active political elite and bureaucracy. Market democracy, the culmination of more than three hundred years of economic and political thought, is centered on a pluralistic democracy with a free-market-oriented society. Proponents of market democracy do not share the Marxist pretention that commandeering society is the one way to assure prosperity and freedom; they are equally skeptical of the nationalism which has replaced Marxism in many of these countries as the guiding spirit of government. This study draws on the experience of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, demonstrating the futility of promoting narrow nationalism in the ethnic hodgepodge that constitutes the population in this part of Europe.

The volume's eight chapters look at the organization of a market democracy and the historical and theoretical principles involved. Then Macesich zeroes in on the key role of money, the constraints of nationalism; bureaucracy and market democracy; and property rights, privatization, and other issues. The volume closes with two chapters devoted to the politics of reform and a re-examination of Europe's past. This timely volume will be especially valuable to scholars in the areas of development economics, international finance and trade, political economy, political science, and socialism.

This book presents a set of original and innovative contributions on state, institutions and democracy in the field of political economy. Modern political economy has implied the interaction between politics and economics to understand political, electoral and public issues in different nations, and in this volume a group of leading political economists and political scientists from Europe, America and Asia provides theoretical advances, modelling and case studies on main topics in political economy. The analysis of the role and performance of politics and democracy in diverse nations implies the study of the organization of the state, lobbying, political participation, public policies, electoral politics, public administration and the provision of public services. This book provides advances in the research frontier of these topics and combines historical evidence, institutional analysis, mathematical models and empirical analysis in an interdisciplinary approach. Political and social scientists, economists and those interested in the performance of states, democracy and elections can find new research results in this volume.

This book provides readers with the first comprehensive study of South Africa's foreign policy conducted in a multilateral setting, by placing on record over 1000 of South Africa's votes at the United Nations over a 20 year period. The study investigates consistency in terms of South Africa's declared foreign policy and its actual voting practices at the United Nations. Democratic South Africa's Foreign Policy: Voting Behaviour in the United Nations offers a compendium of South Africa's United Nations behaviour during a poignant transitional period in the country's recent history. In setting out a framework for analysing the conduct of other countries' voting behaviour in parallel with this study, it can be used to advance the field as a useful comparative tool. This book presents the material needed for International Relations scholars and practitioners in the field to make a reasoned and reflective assessment of this dimension of South Africa's foreign policy.

This important new text brings together an outstanding group of international scholars to look at the current state of electoral politics around the world. Elements of the modern (or American) model of election campaigning have been adopted in many countries in recent years--including the use of mass media, the personalization of campaigns, use of public opinion polls, and a general professionalization of campaigns--and conditions would seem to favor the spread of that model. Contributors to this volume, from established democracies, new and restored democracies, and democracies facing destabilizing pressure, examine the extent to which electoral politics in their countries have been affected by the emergence of high-tech professional campaigns. Countries examined provide a cross-section of today's democracies, including the United States, Britain, Sweden, Germany, Russia, Poland, Spain, Israel, Italy, Argentina, and Venezuela. The work will be of interest to scholars and students alike in political communication, political parties and elections, and comparative politics.

In this stimulating and carefully researched study, Conteh-Morgan offers a multidimensional look at the political economy of African states. While many books focus on explanations of the processes and outcomes of political transitions, this work demonstrates a deeper understanding of democratization by combining macro and micro issues and actors, and historical and contemporary dynamics, into a theoretical framework that underscores anomalies, dilemmas, and paradoxes in the political transformation of Africa. Offering one of the first detailed and balanced evaluations of democratization, Conteh-Morgan breaks new ground by providing thought provoking insights into political transitions in developing countries. The work will be of interest to scholars in comparative politics, development studies, and African studies.

This collection argues that although constitutionalism has traditionally been the primary mechanism for facilitating the mutual accommodation of sub-state and state national societies in plurinational states.

Cities bring together masses of people, allow them to communicate and hide, and to transform private grievances into political causes, often erupting in urban protests that can destroy regimes. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has shaped urbanization via migration restrictions and redistributive policy since 1949 in ways that help account for the regime's endurance, China's surprising comparative lack of slums, and its curious moves away from urban bias over the past decade. Cities and Stability details the threats that cities pose for authoritarian regimes, regime responses to those threats, and how those responses can backfire by exacerbating the growth of slums and cities. Cross-national analyses of nondemocratic regime survival link larger cities to shorter regimes. To compensate for the threat urban threat, many regimes, including the CCP, favor cities in their policy-making. Cities and Stability shows this urban bias to be a Faustian Bargain, stabilizing large cities today but encouraging their growth and concentration over time. While attempting to industrialize, the Chinese regime created a household registration (hukou) system to restrict internal movement, separating urban and rural areas. China's hukou system served as a loophole, allowing urbanites to be favored but keeping farmers in the countryside. As these barriers eroded with economic reforms, the regime began to replace repression-based restrictions with economic incentives to avoid slums by improving economic opportunities in the interior and the countryside. Yet during the global Great Recession of 2008-09, the political value of the hukou system emerged as migrant workers, by the tens of millions, left coastal cities and dispersed across China's interior villages, counties, and cities. The government's stimulus policies, a combination of urban loans for immediate relief and long-term infrastructure aimed at the interior, reduced discontent to manageable levels and locales.

The book theoretically examines the recent and topical debates over democracy and social rights, arguing that there are four fundamental rights that should be constitutionalized; minimum income; housing; healthcare; and education. The theoretical discussion is explored within an analysis of important legal cases.