"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

'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.

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.

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.

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.

China's growth as a major international superpower means that it is now more important than ever to understand how its politics work. Rejecting familiar discussions of China cast in terms of traditional culture, contemporary economic power or shifting official ideologies, this forward thinking work instead analyses the historically contingent mix of agents, ideas and institutions that make up the country's political life. This approach allows Sabrina Ching Yuen Luk and Peter W. Preston to pragmatically unpack the logic of contemporary politics in China. They trace the construction of the party-state system, note some of its major re-orientations and consider its present condition. The book also covers a range of hot policy topics including: internet sovereignty; the One Belt, One Road initiative; the South China Sea issue and the problems of the elderly empty nesters and left-behind children. Offering a detailed yet concise treatment of key social policy areas and other complex issues, this book will serve a broad audience of students, researchers and professionals, irrespective of discipline, along with all those with an interest in China or Chinese politics.

"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.

"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.

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.

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.

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.

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

In this incisive work, Calvin M. Hoy focuses exclusively on Hayek's philosophy of individual freedom. Beginning with an analysis of Hayek's definition of freedom, the author examines his proposed methods for preserving personal liberty through economic, legal, and governmental measures, and provides a trenchant critique of Hayek's arguments. Ultimately, Hoy demonstrates that a minimal socialist state is compatible with Hayek's principles, and that Hayek has not successfully stated a comprehensive philosophy of freedom because he focuses on the type and ignores the amount of coercion permissible in a free society.

Friedman discusses a government system that is no longer controlled by "we, the people." Instead of Lincoln's government "of the people, by the people, and for the people," we now have a government "of the people, by the bureaucrats, for the bureaucrats," including the elected representatives who have become bureaucrats.

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.

Radical new technologies are developing in Western societies at ever-increasing rates but contemporary democracies often lack the appropriate organizational forms to confront these developments. "Creative Democracy" discusses the failure of politicians and democratic institutions to cope with modern challenges, and proposes a specific strategy to address these problems in contemporary society. The authors propose new strategies to increase public awareness of, and democratic control over, major technological developments explaining the advantage of democratic discourse and consensus formation over voting, and insisting that scientists must work with politicians to formulate and articulate their alternative futures for major technological developments. Overall, "Creative Democracy" provides a thorough, scholarly and practical analysis in support of democratic dialogue.