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Books > Social sciences > Politics & government > Political ideologies > General
This volume combines rigorous empirical and theoretical analyses with political engagement to look beyond reductive short-hands that ignore the historical evolution and varieties of Islamic doctrine and that deny the complexities of Muslim societies' encounters with modernity itself. Are Islam and democracy compatible? Can we shed the language of 'Islam vs. the West' for new political imaginaries? The authors analyze struggles over political legitimacy since the Arab Spring and the rise of Al Qaeda and ISIS in their historical and political complexity across the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region. Distinguishing multiculturalism from interculturalism and understanding multiple modernities, philosophers in the volume tease out the complexities of civilizational encounters. The volume also shows how the Paris massacres or the Danish caricature controversy do not remain confined to Europe but influence struggles and confrontations within Muslim societies. Gender and Islam are addressed from a comparative perspective bringing into conversation not only the experience of different Muslim countries with Islamic law but also by analysing Jewish family law.
Once at the centre of the American conservative movement, bestselling author and radio host Charles Sykes is a fierce opponent of Donald Trump and the right-wing media that enabled his rise. Sykes presents an impassioned, regretful and deeply thoughtful account of how the American conservative movement came to lose its values. How did a movement that was defined by its belief in limited government, individual liberty, free markets, traditional values and civility find itself embracing bigotry, political intransigence, demagoguery and outright falsehood? How the Right Lost its Mind addresses key issues that face American conservatives under a Trump presidency. It asks why so many voters are apparently credulous and immune to factual information reported by responsible media. And why did conservatives decide to overlook, even embrace, so many of Trump's outrages, gaffes, conspiracy theories, falsehoods and smears? Can conservatives govern, or are they content merely to rage? And central to Sykes's discourse is the question of how can the right recover its traditional values and persuade a new generation of their worth.
For forty years, Harvey Mansfield has been worth reading. Whether plumbing the depths of MachiavelliOs Discourses or explaining what was at stake in Bill ClintonOs impeachment, MansfieldOs work in political philosophy and political science has set the standard. In Educating the Prince, twenty-one of his students, themselves distinguished scholars, try to live up to that standard. Their essays offer penetrating analyses of Machiavellianism, liberalism, and America., all of them informed by MansfieldOs own work. The volume also includes a bibliography of MansfieldOs writings.
Despite the proliferation of ideational accounts in the last decade or so, the debate over the role of ideas remains caught up in a series of disputes over the ontological foundations, epistemological status and practical pay-off of the (re)turn to ideational explanations. It is thus unsurprising that there is still little clarity about just what sort of an approach an ideational approach is and about what it would take to establish the kind of fully-fledged ideational research programme many seem to assume has already been developed. The contributors in this volume address these dilemmas in diverse but engagingly complementary ways. They argue that what plagues most attempts to accord ideas an explanatory role is the persistence of the perennial dualities in political analysis. In aspiring to eschew the current vogue for dualistic polemic, the present volume reveals elements of dualistic thinking in the ideational turn and assesses the impact of the persistence of these perennial dualisms in the attempt to accord ideas an explanatory role.
Cultural Politics in the 1790s examines the relationship between sentimental literature, political activism and the public sphere at the end of the eighteenth century. Drawing on critical theorists such as Habermas, Negt and Kluge, Marcuse and Foucault, it attempts to demonstrate how major literary and political figures of the 1790s can be read in terms of the broader dynamics of modernity. Reading a diverse range of political and literary material from the period, it examines how relationships between the aesthetic and the political, the private and the public, mark the emergence and consolidation of bourgeois behavioral norms and the simultaneous marginalization of potentially more radical forms of political and cultural production.
Republicanism is a centuries-old political tradition, yet its precise meaning has long been contested. The term has been used to refer to government in the public interest, to regimes administered by a collective body or an elected president, and even just to systems embodying the values of liberty and civic virtue. But what do we really mean when we talk about republicanism? In this new book, leading scholar Rachel Hammersley expertly and accessibly introduces this complex but important topic. Beginning in the ancient world, she traces the history of republican government in theory and practice across the centuries in Europe and North America, concluding with an analysis of republicanism in our contemporary politics. She argues that republicanism is a dynamic political language, with each new generation of thinkers building on the ideas of their predecessors and adapting them in response to their own circumstances, concerns, and crises. This compelling account of the origins, history, and potential future of one of the world's most enduring political ideas will be essential reading for anyone with an interest in republicanism, from historians and political theorists to politicians and ordinary citizens.
Contours of African American Politics chronicles the systematic study of African American politics and its subsequent recognition as an established field of scholarly inquiry. African American politics emanates from the demands of the prolonged struggle for black liberation and empowerment. Hence, the study of African American politics has sought to track, codify, and analyze the struggle that has been mounted, and to understand the historic and changing political status of African Americans within American society. This two-volume set presents a selection of scholarship on African American politics as it appeared in "The National Political Science Review" from its initial launch in 1989 to the spring of 2009. Represented are contributions from some of the leading scholars of African American politics, who have helped to establish and sustain the field. The volumes are organized around themes that derive from the unfolding real-life drama of African American politics and its subsequent scholarly treatment. The result is a window into the political efforts that meld the historically disparate strands of black political expressions into a reconstructed and strategically nimble, electoral-based mass mobilization necessary for optimizing the impact of the African American vote. Sections in the volumes also chronicle the evolution of the National Conference of Black Political Scientists as a professional organization. The two volumes illuminate a pivotal epoch in black political empowerment and provide a context for the future of black politics.
Reaching beyond traditionally politicised scholarship to provide a unique perspective on the place of religion and culture in global and local politics, this book examines the impact of Islam on 'civilizational' relations between different groups and polities. Bassam Tibi takes a highly original approach to the topic of religion in world politics, exploring the place of Islam in society and its frequent distortion in world politics to the more radical Islamism. Looking at how this becomes an immediate source of tension and conflict between the secular and the religious, Tibi rejects the 'clash of civilizations' theory and argues for the revival of Islamic humanism to help bridge the gap. Chapters expand on:
Shedding new light on the highly topical subject of Islam in politics and society, this book is an essential read for scholars and students of international politics, Islamic studies and conflict resolution.
This book examines the development of identity politics amongst the Alevis in Europe and Turkey, which simultaneously provided the movement access to different resources and challenged its unity of action. While some argue that Aleviness is a religious phenomenon, and others claim it is a cultural or a political trend, this book analyzes the various strategies of claim-making and reconstructions of Aleviness as well as responses to the movement by various Turkish and German actors. Drawing on intensive fieldwork, Elise Massicard suggests that because of activists many different definitions of Aleviness, the movement is in this sense an "identity movement without an identity."
The secession of South Sudan in July 2011 took place against the backdrop of the Arab Spring, spurring hopes of a "new beginning" that might lead to a more just, democratic Sudan. Nonetheless, the years following secession have witnessed new wars, growing unrest, and renewed calls for the removal of the Islamist regime in Khartoum. This book examines how the Islamist project has shaped developments in Sudan, with a particular focus on how divisive policies at the local and regional levels have created growing regional subcultures of ethnic violence and fragmentation - as well as renewed struggles to fight continued marginalization.
The Muslim Brotherhood is one of the oldest and most influential Islamist movements. As the party ascends to power in Egypt, it is poised to adopt a new system of governance and state society relations, the effects of which are likely to extend well beyond Egypt 's national borders. This book examines the Brotherhood 's visions and practices, from its inception in 1928, up to its response to the 2011 uprising, as it moves to redefine democracy along Islamic lines. The book analyses the Muslim Brotherhood 's position on key issues such as gender, religious minorities, and political plurality, and critically analyses whether claims that the Brotherhood has abandoned extremism and should be engaged with as a moderate political force can be substantiated. It also considers the wider political context of the region, and assesses the extent to which the Brotherhood has the potential to transform politics in the Middle East.
This unique book analyzes the discourse of militant organizations affiliated with al-Qaeda. It interrogates the discourse of these extremist organizations, which publish their own newspapers. These publications, widely distributed to the local population, play a critical role in securing and maintaining public support for the militant organizations. The book examines how these organizations discursively construct the socio-political reality of their world, in the process defining the Self and the Other. The Self becomes umma, or the global Muslim community, while the Other becomes the West, including the United States, Israel, and India. This book presents an analysis of three historical moments-the assassination of al-Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden, the controversial YouTube video Innocence of the Muslims, and the shooting of the Pakistani child activist and Nobel Laureate Malala Yousafzai. This analysis reveals the discursive strategies used by the militant organizations to create what Foucault calls regimes of truth and articulate identities of the Self and the Other. The first of its kind, this book provides an insight into the mind-set of extremists. It presents a picture of the world that extremists construct through their own discourse and explains how extremists try to win the hearts and minds of mainstream Muslims in order to expand their support base, seek donations, and find new recruits. Understanding extremist narratives and the ways they feed the broader militant discourse may yield more meaningful and effective strategies for the West to communicate with mainstream Muslims.
This book examines the response to right-wing extremism in the US from both the government and non-governmental organisations. It provides a detailed portrait of the contemporary extreme right in the US including interviews with several of the movement's leading figures from groups such as the Ku Klux Klan, Militias, American Renaissance and the White Aryan Resistance. The author also explains how the activities of these racist groups have been curbed due to the campaigning efforts of anti-racist and anti-fascist watchdogs who have helped to shape and influence government policy.
At fourteen, Christian Picciolini was recruited by a now notorious skinhead leader and encouraged to fight with the movement to "protect the white race from extinction." Soon, he had become an expert in racist ideology, a neo-Nazi terror who roamed the neighbourhood, quick to throw fists. By the time he left the movement years later and was able to see clearly for the first time, Picciolini found that his life was in shambles and the nation around him was coming apart. Told with startling intimacy and compassion, Breaking Hate is the inside story of how extremists have taken the reins of our political discourse and a guide to how everyday Americans can win it back. The forces pushing to polarise and radicalise us are many-from fake news to coded language to Russian trolls to a White House that often aims to inflame rather than to heal. Increasingly, the information with which we construct our world views is segregated by social media stars and advertisers with murky motives to validate our worst impulses. As Picciolini demonstrates, our modern world systematically normalises extremism in such a way that we grow blind to it, only recognising it in the wake of tragedy. Drawing on profiles of extremists that he works to free from violent ideology and on his own painful history leading and then escaping from an infamous neo-Nazi group, Breaking Hate explains why terrorism and violence have come to characterise our daily lives and why that doesn't need to be the case.
The acute poverty, underdevelopment and environmental damages that exist in the Niger Delta region despite abundance of natural resources present a paradox to anyone who cares. It is a fact, that corruption, misappropriation of fund and lack of accountability on the part of most major stakeholders are partly responsible for such paradox. There is no shortage of development theories to tackle the development problems in the region. Lacking is the political will to operate just and effective socio-economic and political structures in the country that could increase chances of development for the poor and disadvantaged in the region. Based on Amartya Sen's Capability Approach and the Catholic Social Teaching, this book presents a development ethics that can serve as ethical orientation to assist those who seek new ways to advance social and environmental development of the Niger Delta.
Recent decades have seen a consistent effort by the American educational establishment to instruct schoolchildren about the importance of "appreciating differences," all in the name of "tolerance," so as to quell burgeoning "hate." In Pernicious Tolerance, Robert Weissberg argues that educators' endless obsession with homophobia, sexism, racism, and other alleged hateful disorders is part of a much larger ongoing radical ideological quest to transform America, by first capturing education. In pursuing their objectives, radical pedagogues have abandoned the idea of tolerance of what some find objectionable. In its place they have adopted a fantasy--that tolerance can be replaced with a blank-check appreciation of diversity. Weissberg argues that this approach is guaranteed to promote civil strife. In rejecting a more workable version of tolerance, today's professional educators risk civic disaster in an effort to achieve legitimacy for those they believe are unfairly marginalized, stigmatized, underappreciated, and otherwise disdained. Weissberg also addresses the issue of an ever-expanding welfare state not only concerned with our material being, but, critically, also with our "mental health," defined as beliefs about the vulnerable or victims in waiting--women, ethnic and racial minorities, homosexuals, and others. He shows that this therapeutic state does not stop at imploring good thinking; it goes much further and criminalizes evil thoughts, as if thinking poorly of those at risk is tantamount to inflicting bodily harm. There is substantial collateral damage in this quest for tolerance; it facilitates intellectual sloth while raising anti-intellectualism to an honored professional norm.
Violent ethno-nationalist conflicts continue to mar the history of the twentieth century; yet no satisfactory answer to the question of why humans are susceptible to indoctrination by ideologies that lead to inter-group hostility has so far been found. In this volume an international team of leading scientists from many different fields approach this complex issue from a biological perspective, treating indoctrinability as a predisposition that has its roots in humanity's evolutionary past.
Politicians still call themselves socialists, conservatives and liberals, but among these groups exist very different understandings of what these terms represent. This new book provides a clear, comprehensive and up-to-date introduction to the ideas and doctrines that have shaped, and will continue to shape, British politics. The first section of the book looks at different aspects of the wider context, the nature of political doctrines or ideologies and the role they play in politics in general. The main section of the book examines individual ideologies, broadly grouped into two categories of "mainstream" ideologies--conservatism, socialism, liberalism, and nationalism--and the "fringe"--namely the Greens, the far left and the far right. British democracy, economic policy and consensus, the nature of ideological thinking and its place in politics are also considered. Finally, a short section considers the future: what forces, such as globalization and postmodernity, will shape the further development of those doctrines which are part of British politics today? -- .
Over the last decade the "transition paradigm", which is based on the conviction that authoritarian political systems would over time necessarily develop into democracies, has been subjected to serious criticism. The complex political and societal developments in the post-Soviet region in particular have exposed flaws in the claim that a shift from authoritarianism to democracy is inevitable. Using case studies from the post-Soviet region, a broad range of international contributors present an original and innovative contribution to the debate. They explore the character of post-Soviet regimes and review the political transformations they have experienced since the end of the Cold War. Through a combination of theoretical approaches and detailed, empirical analysis the authors highlight the difficulties and benefits of applying the concepts of hybrid regimes, competitive authoritarianism and neopatrimonialism to the countries of the post-Soviet space. Through this in-depth approach the authors demonstrate how "Presidents, Oligarchs and Bureaucrats" in the region lead their countries, examine the sources of their legitimacy and their relationship to the societies they govern and advance the general theoretical debate on regime change and transition paths.
This volume of cutting-edge research comparatively analyzes violent protest and rioting, furthering our understanding of this increasingly prevalent form of claim making. Hank Johnston and Seraphim Seferiades bring together internationally recognized experts in the field of protest studies and contentious politics to analyze the causes and trajectories of violence as a protest tactic. Crossnational comparisons from North America, Britain, France, Germany, Greece, Iran, Thailand, and elsewhere contribute to the volume's theoretical elaboration, while several case studies add depth to the discussion. This title will be of key importance to scholars across the social sciences, including sociology, political science, geography and criminology. Johnston and Seferiades's exciting book is a significant contribution to the study of rioting and violent protest in the contemporary neoliberal state.
This timely and insightful analysis of Conservative economic policymaking over the past half century covers the period from Ted Heath's assumption of the leadership through the Heath, Thatcher and Major governments and up to the early years of the coalition. As well as a offering a detailed commentary on the Conservative Party's macroeconomic and microeconomic policymaking for the past 50 years it also establishes a context for the controversial austerity measures implemented by the Conservative-led Coalition that established in the wake of Britain's inconclusive general election of 2010. This is a fascinating insight into policymaking within the Conservative Party as well as an indicator of the extent to which competing conservative philosophies have impacted on the policies pursued. At a time when the Conservative Party and economic policymaking loom large on the political landscape, this book is an invaluable contribution to present debates.
First published in 2003. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.
James Cone and Thomas Sowell tower as African American intellectuals who have influenced ideas around the world for decades on issues such as poverty and justice. Although Thomas Sowell writes as a secular economist, his views harmonize more genuinely with classical Christian social thought than do the liberation theology of James Cone. In the traditional black church, theology and economics have always been partners in pursuing the means of liberation for African Americans. This is the first book to put a black economist and a black theologian into direct dialogue with one another in order to distill the strengths of each discipline, thus providing a long-term vision for the economic sustainability of the black community. The implications of the Protestant teaching of sphere sovereignty and the Roman Catholic principle of subsidiarity inform the disciplines of theology, economics, and political philosophy to cast a new vision for black liberation serving religious and political theorists alike. A provocative dynamism emerges because Cone and Sowell maintain alternative and competing visions that engage classical Christian theology in different ways. This book offers the opportunity for a new trajectory of dialogue between theologians and political economists about poverty, human dignity, and justice in ways previously unexplored. The Political Economy of Liberation is an invaluable resource in courses in African American studies, race and religion, political economy, social ethics, Christianity and society, Christian social thought, social justice, and theological ethics at the upper-level undergraduate or graduate level.
This book analyzes the origins and organizational structure of Islamic State (IS), examining its military triumphs and success in securing new recruits via social media. From its base in Iraq and Syria, IS has spread globally with 17 regional affiliates from Indonesia to Nigeria and sleeper cells in at least 60 countries, capable of atrocities like the Paris attack. To understand the threat of IS, this book explores its organizational structure and underlying ideology, and implications for Western efforts to attack the leadership of IS. The ways IS has grown by swiftly adapting its military strategy, developing creative forms of funding and efforts to win hearts and minds of locals are identified. The author highlights how the competing individual national interests between the Western military alliance and local partners have served to strengthen IS. With its ideology spreading ever further, this book warns of the looming violent confrontation between democratic and Islamist forces. This volume speaks to academics in international relations, security studies and strategic studies, policy-makers and interested parties.
This book introduces identity politics into the analysis of international relations. Through the usage of identification approaches, combined with an extensive presentation of the specific features of Norwegian nation-building, it offers a lucid account of how Norway’s history and culture shape the prism through which many Norwegians view the merits of their country’s relations with the emerging European Union. |
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