'Real Common Sense' seeks to revaluate what is public and what is private, explore the importance of environmental costs and demystify the false debates which distract from the really important issues and challenges that the US faces.

"The idea of revolution is to take action. The goal of revolution is positive change."
-Thomas Richard Harry "Boom A Revolting Situation"

"BOOM " is a tough-minded eye-opening appraisal of American Democracy that highlights serious lack of choice in today's political arena. Party identification is unraveling; increasingly voters opt not to be identified with them. Nothing has yet developed to fill this void. The result: millions of political "Independents" with no place to turn come election time except to these two Parties they apparently reject. Today these non-aligned conservative and liberal Americans surpass either Democrats or Republicans. Contrary to some, Independents do represent a powerful political potential-they just don't realize it yet. A plurality of our electorate, they have no option other than a least-worst political choice. That seems a democratic absurdity. That's akin to political coercion, at best; political disenfranchisement, at worst.

"BOOM " clarifies the primary historical (and on-going) antagonism in American politics and identifies what may well be the political objective of Independents. It then walks its readers through how this plurality of political orphans might achieve this goal. It's an option that doesn't rely on the failed ideological approach of today's duopoly. It could reinvigorate politics and change the direction of government towards achieving a more balanced outcome-all within our existing electoral system

In The Rise of Neoliberal Philosophy: Human Capital, Profitable Knowledge, and the Love of Wisdom, Brandon Absher argues that the neoliberal transformation of higher education has resulted in a paradigm shift in philosophy in the United States, leading to the rise of neoliberal philosophy. Neoliberal philosophy seeks to attract investment by demonstrating that it can produce optimal return. Further, philosophers in the neoliberal paradigm internalize and reproduce the values of the prevailing social order in their work, reorienting philosophical desire toward the production of attractive commodities. The aim of philosophy in the neoliberal university, Absher shows, has become the production of human capital and profitable knowledge.

British Party Politics and Ideology after New Labour brings together academics and politicians to debate the intellectual roots of the ideas that currently drive the main UK political parties. With major players responding to the arguments raised in each chapter, the book will be a must-read for anyone interested in or teaching British politics.

The events of 9/11 prompted questions as to the origins, nature and purpose of international jihadist organisations. In particular, why had they chosen to target the US and the West in general? Turner's book provides a unique, holistic insight into these debates, taking into account historical perceptions and ideology as key factors.

"The Radical Attitude and Modern Political Theory" focuses on the appearance of an attitude towards modernity that can be best described as radical. It emerges in discourses of politics and the state from the Sixteenth century onwards and can be discerned in many of the central texts of modern political theory, even those that are usually understood to be conservative in character. Accordingly, the attitude is best seen not as a coherent ideology or tradition but as a series of conceptual resources that continue to inform political discourse in the present.

A radical new interpretation of the political and intellectual history of Puritan Massachusetts, The Making of an American Thinking Class envisions the Bay colony as a seventeenth century one-party state, where congregations served as ideological 'cells' and authority was restricted to an educated elite of ministers and magistrates. From there Staloff offers a broadened conception of the interstices of political, social, and intellectual authority in Puritan Massachusetts and beyond, arguing that ideologies, as well as ideological politics, are produced by self-conscious, and often class-conscious, thinkers.

Populist forces are becoming increasingly relevant across the world, and studies on populism have entered the mainstream of the political science discipline. However, so far no book has synthesized the ongoing debate on how to study the populist phenomenon. This handbook provides state of the art research and scholarship on populism, and lays out, not only the cumulated knowledge on populism, but also the ongoing discussions and research gaps on this topic. The Oxford Handbook of Populism is divided into four sections. The first presents the main conceptual approaches on populism and points out how the phenomenon in question can be empirically analyzed. The second focuses on populist forces across the world and includes chapters on Africa, Australia and New Zealand, Central and Eastern Europe, East Asia, India, Latin America, the Post-Soviet States, the United States, and Western Europe. The third reflects on the interaction between populism and various relevant issues both from a scholarly and political point of view. Amongst other issues, chapters analyze the relationship between populism and fascism, foreign policy, gender, nationalism, political parties, religion, social movements and technocracy. Finally, the fourth part includes some of the most recent normative debates on populism, including chapters on populism and cosmopolitanism, constitutionalism, hegemony, the history of popular sovereignty, the idea of the people, and socialism. The handbook features contributions from leading experts in the field, and is indispensible, positioning the study of populism in political science.

Populism comes in many guises. Both Berlusconi's personalization of politics and the Northern League's antiimmigrant regionalist movement are viewed as examples of the phenomenon of populism. A type of leftwing populism embodied by Hugo Chavez swept across Latin America. Insurgent and antisystem movements and parties in places as different as the Netherlands, India, Norway, Thailand, Russia and the United States have experienced what have been labeled populists movements. Such varied manifestations beg the question: what is populism? The objective of this edited volume is to provide an answer by examining "the many faces of populism." The unifying element across the different explorations of the phenomenon of populism is that there is a shared genus that allows for a typology of the different faces of populism and a demarcation of what is not a form of populism.

Politicians are polarized. Public opinion is volatile. Government is gridlocked. Or so journalists and pundits constantly report. But where are we, really, in modern American politics, and how did we get there? Those are the questions that Byron E. Shafer aims to answer in The American Political Pattern. Looking at the state of American politics at diverse points over the past eighty years, the book draws a picture, broad in scope yet precise in detail, of our political system in the modern era. It is a picture of stretches of political stability, but also, even more, of political change, one that goes a long way toward explaining how shifting factors alter the content of public policy and the character of American politicking. Shafer divides the modern world into four distinct periods: the High New Deal (1932-1938), the Late New Deal (1939-1968), the Era of Divided Government (1969-1992), and the Era of Partisan Volatility (1993-2016). Each period is characterized by a different arrangement of the same key factors: party balance, ideological polarization, issue conflict, and the policy-making process that goes with them. The American Political Pattern shows how these factors are in turn shaped by permanent aspects of the US Constitution, most especially the separation of powers and federalism, while their alignment is simultaneously influenced by the external demands for governmental action that arise in each period, including those derived from economic currents, major wars, and social movements. Analyzing these periods, Shafer sets the terms for understanding the structure and dynamics of politics in our own turbulent time. Placing the current political world in its historical and evolutionary framework, while illuminating major influences on American politics over time, his book explains where this modern world came from, why it endures, and how it might change yet again.

Focusing on the three monotheistic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, Douglas Pratt argues that despite a popular focus on Islam, extremist Jews and Christians can also enact terror and destruction. Religion and Extremism stresses that the ideological rejection of diversity underlies religious extremism resulting in violent behaviours and, increasingly, in hardening social and religious attitudes and responses. An analysis of religiously-driven terrorism reveals the presence of a distinctive and rigid form of exclusivity found in these religions. In this regard, the contemporary resurgence in totalising claims of fundamentalist ideologues is cause for particular concern. Pratt reasons that however expressed, the motif of the 'Absolute' is central to all, but how that absolute is and has been received, interpreted and responded to, is a matter of great diversity. The author asserts that theological 'Absolutism' displays an underlying dynamic whereby these three religions may be led into extremism. Religion and Extremism also explores contemporary issues of Islamophobia and mutual extremism, identified as 'reactive co-radicalization', and concludes by reflecting on how extremism today might be countered.

This book investigates whether international standards of good governance are applied to sub-state actors as well as to states. By examining the international response to self-determination claims, this project demonstrates that the international community does indeed hold sub-state groups accountable to such standards. Claimant groups that have internalized human rights and democratic norms are more likely to receive international support in the form of empowerment (promoting some form of self-governance). To illustrate the causal forces at work, the book presents three qualitative case studies--Kosovo, Nagorno-Karabakh, and the Western Sahara--to demonstrate that predictable changes in the international response occur as international perception of each claimant group's democratic record varies over time.

'Brokering Democracy in Africa' examines the achievements & limitations of democratization in Senegal, & Africa more broadly, as a result of the continuing political culture of clientelism.

"Women, War, and Violence: Personal Perspectives and Global Activism" draws upon a wide global community of activists, scholars, NGOs, and clinicians to expand the definition of how war and its violent underpinnings affects everyday women and families around the world. Benefiting from first-hand research and definitive assessments of gender-based violence interventions, it invites diverse perspectives of interdisciplinary documentation and storytelling beyond traditional academic writing. Reflecting on anti-militarist activism, structural violence, post-war atrocities, government commissions and policy solutions, WWV sheds new light on war-related gender oppression at the intersections of race, national identity, religion, and social class and the need to promote a new paradigm of the equality of men and women.

Bassam Tibi offers a radical solution to the problems faced by Islam in a rapidly changing and globalizing world. He proposes a depoliticization of the faith and the introduction of reforms to embrace secular democracy, pluralism, civil society and individual human rights. The alternative to this is the impasse of fundamentalism. The pivotal argument is that Islam is being torn between the pressure for cultural innovation and a defensive move towards the politicization of its symbols for non-religious ends.

"Equality of opportunity for all" is a fine piece of political rhetoric but the ideal that lies behind it is slippery to say the least. Some see it as an alternative to a more robust form of egalitarianism, whilst others think that when it is properly understood it provides us with a real radical vision of what it is to level the playing field. This book combines a meritocratic conception of equality of opportunity that governs access to advantaged social positions, with redistributive principles that seek to mitigate the effects of differences in people's circumstances. Taken together, these spell out what it is to level the playing field in the way that justice requires. Oxford Political Theory presents the best new work in contemporary political theory. It is intended to be broad in scope, including original contributions to political philosophy, and also work in applied political theory. The series will contain works of outstanding quality with no restriction as to approach or subject matter. Series Editors: Will Kymlicka, David Miller, and Alan Ryan

This book is centered on the words of leaderless resistors, men labeled as Phinehas Priests or Army of God Warriors who use force to oppose what they consider unrighteous government or ungodly laws. Positioned on America's extreme right, they are guerrilla fighters; clandestine operators who work in small cells or individually against the government and specific laws, such as those that permit abortion. Their beliefs and actions are the subject of The Phinehas Priesthood: Violent Vanguard of the Christian Identity Movement. As the book reveals, individuals who follow the Phinehas model determine that there is a higher cause, a greater good that negates all or some portion of civil law. Based on that determination, they resist perceived evil, acknowledging only the leadership of their God. The first part of this absorbing study examines organizational, resistance, and religious concepts and theories that drive these insurgents. The second part describes the beliefs, motivations, and actions of selected resistors, often using their own words to provide insights into the Christian Identity worldview and the extreme antiabortion movement. Individuals such as Walter E. Thody, Clayton Waagner, and James Kopp are quoted at length, offering firsthand perspective on the facts and events discussed.

"The nature of the state and the ideological thrust of state policies continue to shape the character of the economy and social relations in Nigeria. This book analyzes how neo-liberal state economic policies and political reforms have impacted on state-society relations, economic and class configurations, social composition of power, social welfare and cohesion in post-military Nigeria. The Nigerian state more than ever remains a contested political project, with trepidation over its course and future. This collection points to key policy recommendations that may be crucial in redirecting the future of the country"--Provided by publisher.

Political corruption has recently emerged as a key area in the study of advanced industrial nations. Not only has it become more visible than in the past, its sheer scale in some countries has had a significant impact on the functioning of their political institutions. Martin Bull and James Newell have assembled a group of experts to address the importance of this phenomenon for contemporary Western democracies—as well as for the new democracies of Eastern Europe, for the European Union, and at the international level.

This ground-breaking political history of the two Irish States provides unique new insights into the 'Troubles' and the peace process. It examines the impact of the fraught dynamics between the competing identities of the Nationalist-Catholic-Irish Community on the one hand and the Unionist-Protestant-British community on the other.

The Muslim Brotherhood is the oldest and most important international Islamist group. Aside from strong organizations in Egypt, Jordan, Syria—where it provides the main opposition--and its Palestinian offshoot Hamas which rules the Gaza Strip, the Brotherhood has become active in Europe and North America. Its flexible tactics which range from terrorism through electoral participation to social welfare activities have made it a particularly effective group. This book is the first comprehensive analysis of the Brotherhood’s organizations, doctrine, and leaders in all the main countries where it operates.

It is impossible to overstate the ways in which Claude Lefort has influenced democratic theorizing over the past three decades. With the impact he has had on some of the 20th and 21st Centuries most notable and important Political Theorists from Ernesto Laclau, Chantal Mouffe andSlavoj Zizek to Jacques Ranciere, Andrew Arato and Jean Cohen, Lefort's thought has become both radical and liberal democracy's obligatory reference and unparalleled knot of confluence. This volume brings together scholars from around the world and offers an engaging and comprehensive investigation of Lefort's intellectual dialogues and debates, his engagement with the most relevant global political events of the past decades, and his impact on current innovations in continental political and social theory. As a result this book a vital reference point for students and scholars of Claude Lefort as well as of radical and liberal democracy in general.