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.

In the 1960s, students of Spelman College, a black liberal arts college for women, were drawn into historic civil rights protests occurring across Atlanta, leading to the arrest of some for participating in sit-ins in the local community. A young Howard Zinn (future author of the worldwide best seller A People's History of the United States) was a professor of history at Spelman during this era and served as an adviser to the Atlanta sit-in movement and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Zinn mentored many of Spelman's students fighting for civil rights at the time, including Alice Walker and Marian Wright Edelman. As a key facilitator of the Spelman student movement, Zinn supported students who challenged and criticized the campus's paternalistic social restrictions, even when this led to conflicts with the Spelman administration. Zinn's involvement with the Atlanta student movement and his closeness to Spelman's leading student and faculty activists gave him an insider's view of that movement and of the political and intellectual world of Spelman, Atlanta University, and the SNCC. Robert Cohen presents a thorough historical overview as well as an entree to Zinn's diary. One of the most extensive records of the political climate on a historically black college in 1960s America, Zinn's diary offers an in-depth view. It is a fascinating historical document of the free speech, academic freedom, and student rights battles that rocked Spelman and led to Zinn's dismissal from the college in 1963 for supporting the student movement.

The UK's leading Green Political Theorist presents the first book-length treatment of the relationship between citizenship and the environment. He offers an innovative, international, intergenerational, and justice-based conception of citizenship which will change the way we think about the environment and our responsibilities to it.

"The State of Loyalism in Northern Ireland" examines the changes and developments within parliamentary Loyalism throughout the Northern Ireland peace process. Drawing from interviews with key players, it charts the drama of tensions, debates and negotiations and provides a compelling inside account.

Mirbagheri traces the revival of Islamic/ist movements, and embarks on a theoretical study of some of the fundamental concepts in Islam and International Relations such as the self, Jihad, peace and universalism. Contemporary cases of conflict in the Middle East are analysed to pose a challenge to the universalist discourse of Western liberalism.

This book unpacks the developing new world order in an era of politics that seemingly eschews globalization and international cooperation. As leaders around the world are using more nationalistic rhetoric, they are backing those words up with policies that are dividing the population and bringing an end to the diverse, multicultural, and postmodern aspects of the era of globalization. This does not bode well for international politics and cooperation on issues of grave concern such as global terrorism, climate change, and of course, the COVID-19 pandemic. This book would be one of the first texts published in 2021 that details the aftermath of the 2020 election, and foreshadowing events to come based on the outcome of the election in the USA and progression of politics (namely nationalism/isolationism) afterwards. Global politics have been shifting at an alarming rate under the Trump administration and other leaders around the world who govern in the same ideological bent. This book is especially of interest to political science departments, those interested in the 2020 campaign, international relations scholars/students and more.

Ever since the highly controversial appointment of a pious president in the secular Turkish Republic in 2007, both the Turkish state and society have been deeply divided over the issue of piety and Muslim politics. The essays in this book reveal and analyze specific affinities between the types of secularisms and pieties in a nation-state, by highlighting that secular state and the devout are neither friends nor strangers. Through ongoing interactions between the state and pious actors, state secularism and religious society mutually form, inform and transform each other. The contributors use fresh data and a variety of primary research methods to explore all the facets of the state-society relationship. They consider the implications of their findings for freedom and democracy in the state, while challenging impartial and reductionist views that represent dynamic politics as a zero-sum game, such as Islamization of the market and/or the state, or secularization of Islam and the end of Islamic politics.

The re-emergence of China as an economic superpower during its systemic transition is an astonishing phenomenon. China and Post-Socialist Development is the first comprehensive attempt to frame China's advancements within the context of the East Asian developmental miracle, against the background of post-socialist transformation, asking how has it happened and where does China go from here? In this book the author argues that as China transits from central planning to market, it tries to imitate the institutions and policies of Japan and South Korea during their high growth periods of the second half of the twentieth century. China's approach - broadly in opposition to the neo-liberal doctrine - has brought impressive results, leading the author to make important predictions about the future. This book is for everybody who is interested in China, development and post-socialist transformation.

Labour's 1997 victory was widely credited to the party's reinvention of itself as New Labour. This book argues that the transformation of the Labour Party is best understood as the product of Thatcherism, and marks the emergence of a new consensus in British politics. Despite Labour's claim to be re-applying traditional values, Tony Blair's politics owe more to neo liberalism than any traditional social democratic perspective. This wide ranging and controversial assessment of both Thatcherism and New Labour is used to illustrate a new theory as to how the process of political change takes place in practice.

Find inspiration in these selected speeches from the 44th president of the United States.

This curated collection of landmark speeches chronicles Barack Obama's presence on the national stage, covers his signature policy initiatives, and addresses major moments in American life and history during his eight-year term as the 44th president of the United States. Also included are speeches he made after he left the White House—most notably, his eulogy for John Lewis and his speech at the 2020 Democratic National Convention.

Obama’s eloquent speaking style and ability to connect with a wide range of audiences made him one of the most admired presidents in recent memory, even as he dealt with staunch party-line opposition in Congress.

Barack Obama Selected Speeches is a volume that will appeal to those with a keen interest in history, politics, and the role that the United States has played in shaping today’s world.

The logic behind European monetary cooperation and integration can only be understood through an examination of French efforts to maximize their monetary power in relation to Germany and America. This book provides a detailed and historically-informed study of the motives and economic and political attitudes that shaped French policy on European developments over a 30-year period, from the collapse of the International Monetary System in the late 1960s and early 1970s through to the start of EMU on January 1, 1999.

Despite its prominence in public discourse, the notion of elites remains a highly contested and ambiguous part of modern political discourse. This monograph rehabilitates the idea of elites and gives it a solid theoretical footing, while relating it with the historical development of liberal thought in the west. The analysis offered in the book concentrates on the tradition of liberal political thought in France, which has consistently tackled the question of the elites, their role in society, and the process of their formation. Combining theoretical insights with practical wisdom, French liberal thinkers have seen the elite as an indispensable social category and as a vehicle for the development of human liberty. In their different prescriptive doctrines, French liberal thinkers have sought to reconcile the emergence of social elites with the requirements of social and political equality, as well as with the ongoing modernization of mores and institutions. The monograph offers a unique contribution to scholarship in modern political thought by engaging analytically with the notion of elites, as well as by offering a structured discussion on the historical development of liberalism in France.

This book explores the relationship between the religious beliefs of presidents and their foreign policymaking. Through the application of a new methodological approach that provides a cognetic narrative of each president, this study reveals the significance of religion's impact on U.S. foreign policy.

After two decades of research into the impact of the EU on domestic politics and policies, this book explores the relationship between Europeanization and EU integration. It argues that Europeanization should be considered as a stage in the development of EU integration as well as questioning the notion of incremental Europeanization.

Political legitimacy has become a scarce resource in Russia and other post-Soviet states. Their capacity to deliver prosperity has suffered from economic crisis, war in Ukraine and confrontation with the West. Will nationalism and repression enable political regimes to survive? This book studies the politics of legitimation in Post-Soviet Eurasia.

This volume addresses a recurring and seemingly intractable problem of the U.S. political system: the nonparticipation of significant numbers of citizens in the political process. Specifically, the contributors explore the reasons why half of our eligible voters fail to exercise this most basic right, even in presidential elections. Among the questions the contributors explore are: Is there a fundamental and systematic basis in participation patterns? Does social condition, class status, and social identity relate to the likelihood of voting? Does political knowledge and information relate to participation? Do patterns of participation vary among minority and politically under-represented groups? By analyzing these and other topics related to political participation, the contributors shed new light on an issue that, until now, has received only modest attention in the social scientific literature. The volume is comprised of eight chapters, each examining a particular aspect of voter participation. Following an introduction that compares turnout rates in the United States with other countries, the contributors discuss how registration practices have served to depress participation, analyze the reasons for weak participation by under-represented groups, and present a theoretical and empirical evaluation of the factors that contribute to the decision to vote or not to vote. They go on to assess the Supreme Court's role in electoral participation patterns, whether the timing of elections influences participation, and the impact of electoral arrangements on participation. The concluding chapter evaluates the policy consequences of nonvoting and the potential effects of significantly higher voter turnout in future elections. An ideal set of readings for courses in American politics, this volume offers the most comprehensive treatment yet available of the issues surrounding voter participation in the United States.

For the first time in their modern history, the Kurds in Iraq and Turkey at least are cautiously ascending. This is because of two major reasons. (1) In northern Iraq the two U.S. wars against Saddam Hussein have had the fortuitous side effect of helping to create a Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). The KRG has become an island of democratic stability, peace, and burgeoning economic progress, as well as an autonomous part of a projected federal, democratic, post-Saddam-Hussein Iraq. If such an Iraq proves impossible to construct, as it well may, the KRG is positioned to become independent. Either way, the evolution of a solution to the Kurdish problem in Iraq is clear. (2) Furthermore, Turkey's successful EU candidacy would have the additional fortuitous side effect of granting that country's ethnic Kurds their full democratic rights that have hitherto been denied. Although this evolving solution to the Kurdish problem in Iraq and Turkey remains cautiously fragile and would not apply to the Kurds in Iran and Syria because they have not experienced the recent developments their co-nationals in Iraq and Turkey have, it does represent a strikingly positive future that until recently seemed so bleak.

Recent political developments in Spain regarding Catalonia have prompted scholars from several disciplines to research the singularity of this region and of the territories of the old Crown of Aragon. Against the backdrop of the pro-independence movement, those in favor and against have insisted on the particularity or commonality of Catalonia and the Paisos Catalans (Catalan-speaking areas) within the Spanish State. From the Catalan point of view, their singularity is not sufficiently recognized, and respect for their institutions and their autonomy is at stake to the point that many prefer to secede from Spain. Singularity or its absence play a relevant role in the construction of identity, which seems to be key in understanding many Catalans' attitudes towards the central government, a fluid concept that allows for a variety of interpretations. History of Catalonia and Its Implications for Contemporary Nationalism and Cultural Conflict is a critical reference book that centers around the topic of Catalan cultural and linguistic identity. With input from renowned scholars in several fields, the chapters explore the issue of Catalan identity from a variety of perspectives. While highlighting the legal and historical component to identity and also sociolinguistics and political linguistics, this book is ideally intended for scholars in the fields of Hispanic studies, history, linguistics, political science, and literary studies as well as practitioners, stakeholders, researchers, academicians, and students interested in contemporary politics and the political developments in Spain regarding Catalonia.

This is the first biography of one of the most interesting and controversial social theorists of our time. Murray N. Rothbard was the founder of the libertarian movement, a radical free marketeer who came of age in the era of collectivism and fought all his life for individualism and laissez-faire against overwhelming odds. The story of his life is at the same time a cavalcade of virtually all of the controversial events, ideas, and personalities of the latter part of the twentieth century.
The author of twenty-eight books and thousands of articles, Rothbard's life goal was to found a science of liberty, a comprehensive libertarian system of social thought encompassing philosophy, ethics, economics, and history. This book tells the story of the intellectual adventure that was Rothbard's life, his relationship with the great libertarian economist and philosopher Ludwig von Mises, and his intellectual growth and development as an economist and a thinker. While Rothbard's contributions to the history of social thought are important, his life story is interesting in itself: against almost impossible odds he managed to singlehandedly create the libertarian movement out of thin air at a time when such ideas were considered completely outside the pale.
An Enemy of the State traces Rothbard's ideological odyssey, from the Old Right of the Chicago Tribune and the "isolationist" America First Committee, to the conservative movement of the fifties and early sixties, to the New Left of the mid-sixties, and then on to the Libertarian Party and the post-Cold War return to his Old Right roots. Rothbard was that interesting combination, an intellectual system-builder and theorist who was also an intellectual street fighter, a scholar, and a man of action. Anyone interested in the history of ideas, whether or not they agree with Rothbard's ideology, is bound to be captivated by and drawn into the story of his fascinating life.

The Critical Black Studies Series celebrates its third volume, "Transnational Blackness," The series, under the general supervision of Manning Marable, features readers and anthologies examining challenging topics within the contemporary black experience--in the United States, the Caribbean, Africa, and across the African Diaspora. Previously published in the series are "Racializing Justice, Disenfranchising Lives: The Racism, Criminal Justice, and Law Reader" (September 2007) and "Seeking Higher Ground: The Hurricane Katrina Crisis, Race, and Public Policy Reader "(January 2008).

Celebrating the third volume of

CRITICAL BLACK STUDIES

Series Editor: Manning Marable

For many decades, black intellectuals in the United States have thought of racism as a global phenomenon. "Transnational Blackness" presents, for the first time, a comprehensive overview of the history, critical analysis, and theoretical perspectives of key black scholars and activists on the transnational dynamics of modern race and racism throughout the Americas, the Caribbean, Africa, Asia, and Europe. The book examines the social thought of, among others: W.E.B. DuBois, Eslanda Goode Robeson, Malcolm X, Huey P. Newton, and Michael Manley.

What does Pat Robertson's Christian Coalition really want? What secret agenda lies behind radio counselor James Dobson's Focus on the Family? Who are the Promise Keepers and what are their ultimate goals? Why do so many leaders of the religious right engage in gay bashing? What would these groups do to our public school system, or to our government, if they were in power? Close Encounters with the Religious Right takes you behind the scenes to answer these questions and gives the reader a rare glimpse of a world the average American may not even realize exists.
Author Robert Boston, of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, has spent the past twelve years doggedly tracking the religious right. As a "permanent resident alien" he has attended their meetings, read their publications, watched their videos, and debated their leaders in the national media. Boston contends that despite claims to the contrary, the religious right is not dead as a political force and may be stronger than ever. Backed by millions of dollars, powerful television and radio ministries that reach every corner of the nation, and slick magazines, zealous right-wing groups are still very much involved in politics and are determined to convert America into a fundamentalist "Christian" nation that conforms to their narrow definition of Christianity. The next few years, says Boston, could determine the fate of traditional American liberties like separation of church and state and freedom of the press.
Close Encounters with the Religious Right is an eye-opening expose, revealing a sometimes funny but more often disturbing world of fanaticism and extremism.