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Books > Social sciences > Politics & government > Political ideologies > General
The Muslim Brotherhood is the most significant and enduring Sunni Islamist organization of the contemporary era. Its roots lay in the Middle East but today it is both a local and global movement. Under the slogan that "Islam is the solution" the Muslim Brotherhood and its ideologues have impacted on the political evolution of the region. The Muslim Brotherhood is variously regarded as a true force for moderation among Islamists or a facade behind which lies a terroristic fundamentalist threat which could undermine global security agendas. The Arab Spring has brought the Muslim Brotherhood to the fore of regional politics once more. The face of the Brotherhood and its ambitions are slowly being realised as state-based power is re-ordered across the Middle East. The book will examine the genesis and evolution of the Muslim Brotherhood in the Middle East with chapters devoted to specific cases and localities where the Brotherhood and its ideas have made and are making important impacts on society, the state and politics. Within these chapters the author will assess in detail the dynamics of particular themes of Islamist politics associated with the Brotherhood such as democracy, equality, pan-Islamism, radicalism, violence, reform, the Palestine issue and gender. This will reveal an evolutionary trend within the movement since its founding in Egypt in 1928 to its manifestation as the largest Sunni Islamist movement in the Middle East in the 21st century. Drawing on a wide range of sources and interviews with the leaders and cadres this book presents an evolving standpoint of a newly resurgent movement that is significantly organised to take the opportunities for power and electoral competition offered by the Arab Spring. The book will also question whether the Muslim Brotherhood can demonstrate to its sceptics that an accommodation with democracy and the presence of a secular trend within the region can be made. The book will also be the first study to deal with the ascension to power, through the ballot box, of the Muslim Brotherhood (including in its localised forms) in the Palestinian territories, Tunisia, Egypt and elsewhere to analyse the impact of this in terms of Western policy debates on whether and how they should engage with this manifestation of political Islam.
Iron Cages addresses the crisis of the African postcolonial state by exploring the interaction between the 'iron cages' of expert knowledge - of which social science paradigms are taken as emblematic - and lived worlds as experienced by 'ordinary' Africans. The book focuses on two paradigms in particular, modernization theory and Marxism-Leninism, and argues that they were designed not so much to chart the mutable and permeable contours of local landscapes as to affirm the immutable, purportedly scientific, reality tracks embedded in each paradigm. A related investigative trajectory targets the interface between social science paradigms and political ideologies, and argues that the frontier between scientific observation and ideological conviction often is honored more in the breach than in the observance. Author Alison Jones concludes that, by relegating lived worlds to shadowy and insubstantial landscapes of non-being, social science paradigms are implicated in the inability of political ideologies to make sufficient sense to African constituencies. A negative consequence is that in a number of cases, 'national unity' either disintegrates altogether or is coercively enforced by incumbent regimes. However, two African leaders - Amilcar Cabral of Guinea-Bissau and Julius Nyerere of Tanzania - broke free from paradigmatic constraints by consciously seeking to bridge the gap between expert knowledge and local worlds. In so doing, they created a third space of humanist enunciation informed by - but not exclusive to - the lived experience of African peoples. By situating local specificities within global contexts, they flagged a way forward for the continent and her many countries.
Many feminists have engaged with the man-made concepts and approaches of traditional political analysis to produce an increasingly sophisticated and wide-ranging body of thought. The starting point of this book is the belief that such work is not simply 'something for the girls'; rather, it has profound and complex implications without which our understanding of political processes and ideas would be impoverished. This book provides an accessible overview and assessment of the impact of recent feminism by bringing together leading feminist and pro-feminist political theorists and analysts, to focus on key concepts, such as rationality, citizenship, democracy and democratisation, development and empowerment. Each chapter takes a 'malestream' concept and examines both the critical debates around it and feminist reactions/critiques. It then analyses the significance and implications of feminism for the concept, considers whether it can simply be extended to include women, or whether it should be radically transformed or even abandoned, and assesses whether feminist input has become part of the mainstream debate or remains marginalised. -- .
This book examines Japan’s relationship with Myanmar from the passage of its constitution in May 2008 to the February 2021 coup d’état that finished its transition to a ‘disciplined democracy.’ It explores the nexus between security and political economy in the context of changing regional dynamics. Focusing on the impact of Japan’s relations with Myanmar on people in Myanmar and beyond, the author argues that the Japanese government and businesses side lined ‘universal values’ for profit at the expense of human security.
Debates about Basque self-determination were curtailed for decades by political violence, involving both the actions of ETA (Euskadi Ta Askatasuna) and the counter-terrorism activities of Spain and France. In 2011, ETA announced a permanent cessation of operations. Since then, stakeholders have become increasingly aware of the need to rethink Basque nationhood and democratic representation in light of the changing nature of nationhood and citizenship within the European Union. These issues are also topical in the French Basque country, which has witnessed a re-emergence of Basque identity politics in recent years. This book describes the contemporary re-imagining of Basque nationhood in both Spain and France. Taking a fresh look at the history of Basque nationalist movements, it explores the new debates that have emerged since the demise of non-state militancy. Alongside analysis of local transformations, it also describes the impact of global changes on ideas about Basque self-determination.
The 21st-century political landscape has been defined by deep ideological polarization, and as a result scientific inquiry into the psychological mechanisms underlying this divide has taken on increased relevance. The topic is by no means new to social psychology. Classic literature on intergroup conflict shows how pervasive and intractable these group conflicts can be, how readily they can emerge from even minimal group identities, and the hedonic rewards reaped from adopting an "us vs. them" perspective. Indeed, this literature paints a bleak picture for the efficacy of any interventions geared toward reducing intergroup discord. But advances in the psychology of moral judgments and behavior, in particular greater understanding of how moral concerns might inform the creation and stability of political identities, offer new ways forward in understanding partisan divides. This volume brings together leading researchers in moral and political psychology, offering new perspectives on the moral roots of political ideology, and exciting new opportunities for the development of more effective applied interventions.
A critical assessment of Structuralism and Post-Structuralism and their significance to Marxism and feminism. Assiter challenges commonly held views regarding Althusser's contribution to Marxism and offers an alternative to radical feminism.;The author's books include "Pornography, Feminism and the Individual" and she has edited "Radical Philosophy" for twenty years.
This book presents the raging debate on one of the most brutal political realities that India has confronted in recent years: the rising conflict between Maoist insurgent groups and the Indian State. With some of the finest writings on the subject, it brings together articles and interviews from leading authors, politicians, journalists, intellectuals, filmmakers and legal practitioners. The volume straddles between two apparently irreconcilable perspectives: (a) the view that the Maoist movement threatens the very core of democratic foundations, and should be perceived as a violent law & order situation justifying severe retaliatory measures, and (b) the counterview where Maoists are fiercely defended as revolutionaries and comrades of resistance, and the movement seen as the last-ditch struggle by those who have been abandoned over years by the State in its developmental process. The essays probe whether armed struggle is avoidable, whether the desperate desire for peace has simply been overtaken by political ideologies, and whether an inclusive developmental State policy may help restore faith in its democratic ethos. The book will be of interest to academics and students of politics, sociology, social anthropology and law. It will also be extremely useful to social workers, policymakers, politicians, bureaucrats, as well as the general reader.
2284: World Society, Iaian Vernier's Memoir is a fascinating study of mankind. Written as a work of fiction, it looks at the human condition 200 years in the future. Predicting the outcome of today's social policies, 2284 is a cultural anthropology study that adds to Itzkoff's extensive writing on the topic. Iaian Vernier writes in 2284 of the revolutionary internationalism that has been established in Nairobi, Africa. He chronicles the disasters that almost destroyed the twenty-first-century world. He describes in anecdote and philosophical depth the new scientific and secular world that has been established to bring peace, equality, ethnic diversity and democracy to humanity, while scrutinizing the plans for demographic stability that will sustain humanity into the future. In the twenty-third century, the forbidden rationality of the scientific minds of the twenty-first century have been unleashed.
The book is a collection of studies on the war in Ukraine. The considerations focus on different contexts of the first phase of the armed conflict. The authors try to answer questions about the motives and results of Russian disinformation and blaming Ukraine, the US and NATO for the invasion, as well as of the position of third countries towards the Russian aggression. One of the issues addressed is sexual violence in wartime and the image of women in armed conflict. The authors also analyze the aid provided by certain nations and Ukrainian national minorities in selected countries. Some chapters also examined public opinions on various war-related issues. Such a broad approach provides multidimensional view of the war while complementing earlier images of the conflict in Ukraine.
In Search of a Political Philosophy is an analysis of the three
democratic isms' - conservatism, liberalism and socialism - and of
the distinct nature of the all-devouring ideology - Marxist
communism. The author is concerned with the conscious and
unconscious assumptions of the proponents and followers of each
ideology, and those of their theoreticians and critics.
This book provides an overview of the state of Russia after the 2012 presidential election. It considers a wide range of both domestic and international issues, examining both the run up to and the consequences of the election. It covers political, economic, and social topics. It assesses the political scene both before and after the election, and discusses the nature of and likely future of democracy in Russia. The election's impact on the Russian economy is discussed in detail, as are Russia's relationships with the United States, the European Union, and other parts of the world.
Those with a belief in open society base the demand for liberty on
the recognition of human ignorance; we need to be free because we
are ignorant and fallible. Free social cooperation permits us to
mobilize our knowledge and develop methods of discovery through
which we can explore the unknown and continually correct our
errors. To assent to free cooperation is to accept critical
discussion, democracy and the market and in this way we are able to
increase our rationality and further political and economic
development.
The main purpose of this book is to explain how (mainly) American, but also British and other Western, policy makers have planned and largely managed to create an international order in their own image, the so-called 'New World Order'. It shows how this seismic shift in international relations has developed through the major global wars of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. It uses a wide variety of historical archival material to give the background to the current and historical American obsession with creating the world order, one that both reflects the American national interest but also can be said to have established the major security, economic, organisational and normative pillars of our epoch. In addition it provides excellent background reading for the current debate about American foreign policy and the origins of 'neo-conservatism' in international relations. This edition updates a very successful first edition of the title, with additional material to take into account changes in the global order since 2001 and the beginning of the 'War on Terror'. -- .
In the current neo-liberal political and economic climate, it is often suggested that a large and strong state stands in opposition to an autonomous and vibrant civil society. However, the simultaneous presence in Sweden of both a famously large public sector and an unusually vital civil society poses an interesting and important theoretical challenge to these views with serious political and policy implications. Studies show that in a comparative context Sweden scores very highly when it comes to the strength and vitality of its civil society as well as social capital, as measured in terms of trust, lack of corruption, and membership of voluntary associations. The "Swedish Model," therefore, offers important insights into the dynamics of state and civil society relations, which go against current trends of undermining the importance of the welfare state, and presents autonomous civic participation as the only way forward.
This volume examines international statebuilding in terms of language and meanings, rather than focusing narrowly on current policy practices. After two decades of evolution towards more 'integrated,' 'multi-faceted' or, simply stated, more intrusive statebuilding and peacebuilding operations, a critical literature has slowly emerged on the economic, social and political impacts of these interventions. Scholars have started to analyse the 'unintended consequences' of peacebuilding missions, analysing all aspects of interventions. Central to the book is the understanding that language is both the most important tool for building anything of social significance, and the primary repository of meanings in any social setting. Hence, this volume exemplifies how the multiple realities of state, state fragility and statebuilding are being conceptualised in mainstream literature, by highlighting the repercussions this conceptualisation has on 'good practices' for statebuilding. Drawing together leading scholars in the field, this project provides a meeting point between constructivism in international relations and the critical perspective on liberal peacebuilding, shedding new light on the commonly accepted meanings and concepts underlying the international (or world) order, as well as the semantics of contemporary statebuilding practices. This book will be of much interest to students of statebuilding and intervention, war and conflict studies, security studies and international relations.
This volume by acclaimed war reporter Clare Hollingworth , first published in 1952, surveys the politics of an area which has produced, and is likely to produce, more wars that it can consume locally. After a historical opening, about the general situation during and after the war, the author devotes chapters to the different States, and writes in some detail of the main problems affecting the area, such as oil, military power, communism and industrialization.
Few ideas have excited such passions over the years as Pan-Islam, and few have been the subject of so many contradictory interpretations. Based on a shared religious sentiment, the politics of Muslim unity and solidarity have had to contend with the impact of both secularism and nationalism. Professor Landau's study, first published in 1990 as The Politics of Pan-Islam, is the first comprehensive examination of the politics of Pan-Islam, its ideologies and movements, over the last 120 years. Starting with the plans and activities of Abdulhamid II and his agents, he covers the fortunes of Pan-Islam up to and including the marked increase in Pan-Islamic sentiment and organization in the 1970s and 1980s. The study is based on a scholarly analysis of archival and other sources in many languages. It covers an area from Morocco in the west to India and Pakistan in the east and from Russia and Turkey to the Arabian Peninsula. It will provide a unique reference point for anyone wishing to understand the impact of Pan-Islam on international politics today.
Numerous scholars have noticed that certain political institutions, including federalism, majoritarian electoral systems, and presidentialism, are linked to lower levels of income redistribution. This book offers a political geography explanation for those observed patterns. Each of these institutions is strongly shaped by geography and provides incentives for politicians to target their appeals and government resources to localities. Territorialized institutions also shape citizens' preferences in ways that can undermine the national coalition in favor of redistribution. Moreover, territorial institutions increase the number of veto points in which anti-redistributive actors can constrain reform efforts. These theoretical connections between the politics of place and redistributive outcomes are explored in theory, empirical analysis, and case studies of the USA, Germany, and Argentina.
This book explores one of the most serious strategic threats confronting the United States and Europe today: the advance of Islamism. Since September 11, Western governments have legitimized and empowered 'nonviolent Islamists' as representatives of Islam for all Muslims in the West, an approach that has worried Muslim moderates. "Citizen Islam" addresses the implications of this approach. This book opens with an overview of the theology and history of Islam, to show that violence and intolerance are not fundamental aspects for the religion. It then explains the growth of Islamism in Europe and in the United States before suggesting that both are finally beginning to recognize the threat posed by nonviolent Islamists. Lastly, it outlines steps that Western and Muslims leaders can take to strengthen moderate Islam and counter the threat of Islamism. Written by Zeyno Baran, a Turkish-born Muslim, "Citizen Islam" sheds a sharp light on Muslim communities in the West. It concludes that there is much that Western governments can still do to reverse the spread of Islamism. But they must act quickly.
Julius Malema, South Africa’s eminent new socialist, was sworn in as a member of parliament on 21 May 2014, days after his political party – the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) – won more than one million votes in its first elections and secured twenty-five seats in the national assembly. It marked a new chapter in Malema’s political career but it was also a crude awakening for the Cape Town parliament: the portly rebel and his EFF colleagues marched into the chamber wearing bright red workers’ overalls and their signature red berets as they promised to take the interests of the poor to the floor of parliament. Populism in drag or simply Malema at his best? It is still too early to say. Love him or loathe him, Malema is undeniably one of the most controversial politicians of modern-day South Africa, if not a radical product of more than one hundred years of struggle politics. Following on from the success of the bestselling An Inconvenient Youth, which traced Malema’s early, poverty-stricken years in Limpopo to his political awakenings in the ANC, the party he called home until he was ousted in 2012, this revised edition charts the early days of the EFF and looks at how the party secured its first votes in 2014.
This special issue of Aphasiology brings together papers from six countries in three continents on the ways in which computers are being used in the domain. Information technology is now well established as a means of delivering treatment to people with aphasia and this issue includes papers which describe the latest ways in which this is being carried out. Doesborgh et. al. report on Multicue, a way in which the capabilities of computers are used to support cueing approaches to the treatment of naming difficulties; and Mortley et. al. use the internet as a means of delivering innovative treatment approaches to the client at home. It is important that the high tech glamour of the technology does not obscure the need to critically evaluate the contribution of this mode of treatment. Two papers, Wallesch & Johanssen-Horbach, and Wertz & Katz, review and critique the outcomes and effectiveness of computer mediated therapy. In the 21st century computers are increasingly a part of everyday life and two papers address ways in which people with aphasia may benefit from this and engage in the emerging "information society", Van de Sandt-Koenderman looks at ways in which the technology can be used to support communication in day to day life by the provision of appropriate communication aids. Egan et. al. report on training people with aphasia to access the internet on their own account so that they may fully engage with this resource as active citizens.
A sweeping account of the rise and evolution of liberal internationalism in the modern era. For two hundred years, the grand project of liberal internationalism has been to build a world order that is open, loosely rules-based, and oriented toward progressive ideas. Today this project is in crisis, threatened from the outside by illiberal challengers and from the inside by nationalist-populist movements. This timely book offers the first full account of liberal internationalism’s long journey from its nineteenth-century roots to today’s fractured political moment. Creating an international “space” for liberal democracy, preserving rights and protections within and between countries, and balancing conflicting values such as liberty and equality, openness and social solidarity, and sovereignty and interdependence—these are the guiding aims that have propelled liberal internationalism through the upheavals of the past two centuries. G. John Ikenberry argues that in a twenty-first century marked by rising economic and security interdependence, liberal internationalism—reformed and reimagined—remains the most viable project to protect liberal democracy.
This book argues that sovereignty is the first-order question of political order, and that seventeenth-century England provides an important case study in the roots of its modern iterations. It offers fresh readings of Thomas Hobbes, John Milton, and Andrew Marvell, as well as lesser-known figures and literary texts. In addition to political philosophy and literary studies, it also takes account of the period's legal history, exploring the exercise of the crown's feudal rights in the Court of Wards and Liveries, debates over habeas rights, and contests of various courts over jurisdiction. Theorizing sovereignty in a way that points forward to later modernity, the book also offers a sustained critique of the writings of Carl Schmitt, the twentieth century's most influential, if also most controversial, thinker on this topic.
The long relationship between America’s colonizing wars and virulent anticommunism The colonizing wars against Native Americans created the template for anticommunist repression in the United States. Tariq D. Khan’s analysis reveals bloodshed and class war as foundational aspects of capitalist domination and vital elements of the nation’s long history of internal repression and social control. Khan shows how the state wielded the tactics, weapons, myths, and ideology refined in America’s colonizing wars to repress anarchists, labor unions, and a host of others labeled as alien, multi-racial, multi-ethnic urban rabble. The ruling classes considered radicals of all stripes to be anticolonial insurgents. As Khan charts the decades of red scares that began in the 1840s, he reveals how capitalists and government used much-practiced counterinsurgency rhetoric and tactics against the movements they perceived and vilified as “anarchist.” Original and boldly argued, The Republic Shall Be Kept Clean offers an enlightening new history with relevance for our own time. |
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