Embracing some of Germany's best known writers, academics, journalists and philosophers, the Conservative Revolution in the Weimar Republic was the intellectual vanguard of the Right. By approaching the Conservative Revolution as an intellectual movement, this study sheds new light on the evolution of its ideas on the meaning of the First World War, its appropriation of the work of Friedrich Nietzsche, its enthusiasm for political activism and a strong leader, and its ambiguous relationship with National Socialism.

This volume proposes a capacity-centered approach for understanding American bureaucracy. The administrative institutions that made the country a superpower turned out to be fragile under Donald Trump's presidency. Laboring beneath systematic accusations of deep statism, combined with a market oriented federal administration, bureaucratic capacity manifested its decay in the public health and constitutional cataclysms of 2020, denting America's global leadership and contributing to its own people's suffering. The authors combine interviews with a historical examination of federal administrative reforms in the backdrop of the recent pandemic and electoral tumult to craft a developmental framework of the ebb and flow of capacity. While reforms, large and small, brought about professionalization and other benefits to federal administration, they also camouflaged a gradual erosion when anti-bureaucratic approaches became entrenched. A sclerotic, brittle condition in the government's capacity to work efficiently and accountably arose over time, even as administrative power consolidated around the executive. That co-evolutionary dynamic made federal government ripe for the capacity bifurcation, delegitimization, and disinvestment witnessed over the last four years. As the system works out the long-term impacts of such a deconstruction, it also prompts a rethinking of capacity in more durable terms. Calling attention to a more comprehensive appreciation of the dynamics around administrative capacity, this volume argues for Congress, citizens, and the good government community to promote capacity rebuilding initiatives that have resilience at the core. As such, the book will be of interest to citizens, public reformers, civic leaders, scholars and students of public administration, policy, and public affairs.

How to better coordinate policies and public services across public sector organizations has been a major topic of public administration research for decades. However, few attempts have been made to connect these concerns with the growing body of research on biases and blind spots in decision-making. This book attempts to make that connection. It explores how day-to-day decision-making in public sector organizations is subject to different types of organizational attention biases that may lead to a variety of coordination problems in and between organizations, and sometimes also to major blunders and disasters. The contributions address those biases and their effects for various types of public organizations in different policy sectors and national contexts. In particular, it elaborates on blind spots, or 'not seeing the not seeing', and different forms of bureaucratic politics as theoretical explanations for seemingly irrational organizational behaviour. The book's theoretical tools and empirical insights address conditions for effective coordination and problem-solving by public bureaucracies using an organizational perspective.

A revised edition of the Notting Hill Editions essay collection by the late Sir Roger Scruton with a new introduction by Douglas Murray. Confessions of a Heretic is a collection of provocative essays by the influential social commentator and polemicist Roger Scruton. Each "confession" reveals aspects of the author's thinking that his critics would probably have advised him to keep to himself. In this selection, covering subjects from art and architecture to politics and nature conservation, Scruton challenges popular opinion on key aspects of our culture: What can we do to protect Western values against Islamist extremism? How can we nurture real friendship through social media? Why is the nation-state worth preserving? How should we achieve a timely death against the advances of modern medicine? This provocative collection seeks to answer the most pressing problems of our age. In his introduction, the bestselling author and commentator Douglas Murray writes of what it cost Scruton to express views considered unpalatable, and of the importance of these ideas after Scruton's death.

An exploration of how the Olympics are organized in response to risk. This book looks at the tension between the riskiness of mega-events, attributable to their scale and complexities, and the societal, political and organizational pressures that exist for safety, security and management of risk - leading to changes in how the Games are governed.

This book describes how governments formulate policies, draft legislation, and manage stocks of legislation and how approaches to these tasks are converging. That convergence has developed over 30 years through the work by the OECD in its studies on regulatory reform and the work of other international organizations to improve regulatory management. The Institutions of the European Union and its member states, OECD member countries and a growing number of developing and transitional countries have developed a policy best described as 'Better Regulation.' That policy is characterized using regulatory impact assessment, improving public consultation, and reducing administrative burdens. The policy has brought improvements in legislative drafting and managing stocks of legislation. The book concludes with a description of the impact of information technology on governments and how the challenges posed by the Internet, globalization and pandemics are being met by new approaches to regulating to ensure its benefits exceed its costs.

This book adopts a comprehensive approach, combining the views of economists and political scientists, to assess the threats of maintaining the non-collaborative stance that prevailed in the response to past crises, and to explore new solutions to the present emergency. The coronavirus pandemic represents a serious test for the continued existence of the European Monetary Union. It has worsened pre-existing divisions among its members and highlighted the urgent need to address institutional and governance problems that were already apparent in the aftermath of the financial crisis and sovereign debt crisis, but have now gained in relevance following the more widespread impact of the disease across the European Union. This book discusses concrete strategies to overcome the current challenges, focusing on the need to build an effective economic and monetary union. It also reflects on ways of pursuing conformity with discipline and coordination rules while also adopting a more collaborative stance that has so far been absent in the Eurozone and has consistently undermined the political and social dimensions of the common currency project.

This book explains the importance of globalization and the Belt and Road Initiative, which is one of the essential projects of President Xi Jinping, and where China fits on the global arena. Additionally, the contributors cover such important topics as China's maritime traffic, infrastructure along the modern Silk Road, the South China Sea, and China's relationship with Indonesia, Malaysia, East Timor, Hong Kong, and Macao. This edited volume will interest scholars, researchers, and students in the fields of Asian studies, globalization, political science, and Chinese politics.

This book critically examines the persistence of market orthodoxy in post-apartheid South Africa and the civil society resistance such policies have generated over a twenty-five-year period. Each chapter unpacks the key political coalitions and economic dynamics, domestic as well as global, that have sustained neoliberalism in the country since the transition to liberal democracy in 1994. Chapter 1 analyzes the political economy of segregation and apartheid, as well as the factors that drove the democratic reform and the African National Congress' (ANC) subsequent abandonment of redistribution in favor of neoliberal policies. Further chapters explore the causes and consequences of South Africa's integration into the global financial markets, the limitations of the post-apartheid social welfare program, the massive labour strikes and protests that have erupted throughout the country, and the role of the IMF and World Bank in policymaking. The final chapters also examine the political and economic barriers thwarting the emergence of a viable post-apartheid developmental state, the implications of monopoly capital and foreign investment for democracy and development, and the phenomenon of state capture during the Jacob Zuma Presidency.

Presidentialism and Democracy in East and Southeast Asia examines the impact of presidential systems on democracies by examining three distinct literatures - the perilousness of competing legitimacies of the executive and legislative branches, issues of institutional design (particularly regarding semi-presidentialism), and the rise of executive aggrandizement. Despite often intense political conflict and temporary instability in the East and Southeast Asia, presidential systems of various types - from relatively "pure" forms to semi-presidentialism and other hybrids - have largely been resilient. Although there are signs of growing autocratization in several cases, presidentialism, associated with both accommodation and conflict, has usually not driven it. This book's contributions to presidentialism debates will be of interests to students and scholars of comparative politics while it also offers detailed analysis of the presidency in these East and Southeast Asian cases.

In 1999 the Blair government introduced British devolution as part of a major program of constitutional reform. This development posed major questions concerning how relations with the EU would be affected. Previously, policymaking in the UK had been centralized on Whitehall and Westminster. However, devolution to Scotland and Wales introduced new actors; the Scottish Executive and Parliament, and the National Assembly for Wales. This study explores the institutional changes designed to accommodate these devolved authorities, while maintaining a central role for the UK government.

Providing perspectives from five Western capitals, this multinational study examines the formidable political and structural conditions for effective collaboration between NATO and the United Nations in performing peace-making and peacekeeping missions. The diplomatic and military requirements for operating principles of collective security in post-Cold War Europe are illuminated by contrasting the policies of major NATO governments. Candid assessments of the differing national attitudes that lie behind them are offered by an international team of scholars. Their analyses are set against the backdrop of the experience in Yugoslavia, and the momentous decisions on NATO's structural reform and enlargement.

This edited collection presents an innovative approach to global security regimes. Employing both conceptual and empirical studies, the volume examines three empirically-oriented sets of cases: weapons of mass destruction, humanitarian disarmament and unconventional threats. The book combines interrogations of the most prominent prohibition/regulatory regimes while covering WMDs, humanitarian issues and other agendas such as drugs, endangered species and cyber security. It will be of interest to academics and researchers in International Relations and Security Studies.

Adopting a political constitutionalist view of the British constitution, this book critically explores the history of legal and political thought on parliamentary sovereignty in the UK. It argues that EU membership strongly unsettled the historical precedents underpinning UK parliamentary sovereignty. Successive governments adopted practices which, although preserving fundamental legal rules, were at odds with past precedents. The author uses three key EU case studies - the financial transactions tax, freedom of movement of persons, and the working time directive - to illustrate that since 1973 the UK incorporated EU institutions which unsettled those precedents. The book further shows that the parliament's place since the referendum on Brexit in June 2016 and the scrutinising of the terms of the withdrawal agreement constitute an enhanced, new constitutional resettlement, and a realignment of parliament with the historical precedent of consent and its sovereignty.

This book explores the scope of reforms and changes in the social protection systems in Latin America that have started at the beginning of the 21st century. It describes how and to what extent changes in social protection systems and social policies have occurred in the region in recent decades. Taking a comparative approach, the volume identifies the triggers for the transformations and how such pressures are received by the welfare regime, or a specific policy sector, to finally yield a given type of reform. The analysis is characterized by the presence of certain factors that explain the development of social protection systems in Latin America, such as economic growth, the consolidation of democratic political regimes, and the region's Left Turns. The book also examines to what extent common challenges and processes induced by international institutions have led to convergence among countries or welfare regimes, or whether each maintains its own identity.

When is a political trial "good" or "bad" in terms of responsible governance and fairness to individuals or groups? Professors Abel and Marsh define, evaluate, and justify the usefulness of various kinds of political trials, going back through history to answer these questions in practical terms. They point to basic assumptions and various theoretical approaches and assess specific court practices and cases, while showing real dangers and opportunities that have been part of our history. They cover cases involving the establishment and free exercise clauses of the Constitution, including privacy, religious, medical, bioethical, and health-care issues that are of major concern today. This history is important to political scientists, legal scholars, lawyers, historians, and others concerned with civil rights.

"NATO and Terrorism" posits that the post 9/11 war on terrorism has had a profound effect on NATO's post Cold War structure and military missions. "NATO and Terrorism" focuses on the decades from 1989 until 2009, during which NATO underwent two major transformations. The first was the expansion from sixteen to twenty-six member states. This section traces the evolution of the new member states from communist enemies to democratic partners, looking at their differences and similarities, the reactions of their publics to membership, and their involvement in NATO activities. The second was the radical shift in the missions of the alliance and the book analyzes the military operations in Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq as well as the new issue of the Missile Shield for Europe. Both sections also look at how inclusion of more states is predicated on the conclusion that their geopolitical position makes them a barrier against terrorism centered further east and how the missions involve the struggle against several varieties of terrorism.

In this field-defining, broad approach to the study and practice of public administration, H. George Frederickson, one of the field's most respected scolars, carefully measures the meets and bounds of public administration and fixes its place in the context of changing politics, values, and ethics. He describes a robust and exciting public administration that includes, but is much more than, effective government management. The Spirit of Public Administration defines an ethic for the field that illustrates:

• What the differences are between public administration and government administration, and how these differences redefine the field
• How to practice ethical and energetic public administration in the context of contemporary politics
• Why fairness and benevolence are as important as efficiency and economy
• What implications are evident in the transition from government to governance

This book sheds light on how Member States and EU neighbours relate to Russia. It includes their historical, financial and political ties, as well as the public perception of the national population vis-a-vis Russia. Each chapter builds on these factors to elucidate the country's position towards Russia and provides a prediction on the future of these relations. This volume shows the diverse relations that the EU member states and neighbours have with Russia, spanning from tense and confrontational to more eased and friendly, highlighting the contrasts between the national state and the EU as a whole. The book also presents the reader with concrete aspects in different policy areas, via recommendations on how single countries and the EU should deal with Russia. Russia's invasion of Ukraine on 24th February 2022 will change the relationship between the West and Putin's Russia for decades to come. No doubt that this blatant violation of International Law and the incomprehensible human suffering of Ukrainian citizens will massively change the attitude of the countries analysed in this book.

This book offers an original analysis of the problem of the authority of the state in democracies. Unlike many discussions of democracy that treat authority as a problem primarily of domestic politics or normative values, this book puts the international economy at the centre of the analysis. This volume shows how changes in the international economy from the inter-war years to the end of the twentieth century impacted upon the success and failures of democracy. It makes the argument by considering a range of different cases, and it traces the success and failure of democracies over the past century. It includes detailed studies of democracies in both developed and developing countries, and offers a comparative analysis of their fate. Available in paperback for the first time, this title will appeal to all those interested in democracy, the future of the state and the impact of the international economy on domestic politics. -- .

This book offers a unique analysis of the participatory spaces available for civil society organisations (CSOs) in Caribbean governance. It reveals the myriad ways in which the region's CSOs have contributed to enriching Caribbean societies and to scaffolding Caribbean regionalism, and also uncovers that despite their contributions, Caribbean CSOs (and civil society more broadly) have found limited space for involvement in governance. The author peers into Caribbean state-civil society participatory dynamics using in-depth country case studies (Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago), mini-case studies and evaluations of the approaches to inclusion within the regional institutions of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS). This novel contribution to the Caribbean civil society literature uses these assessments to make a case for regularising state-civil society collaborative practices to enhance the quality of democracy in the region.

The Intelligent Nation proposes a systemic and radical transformation of the organisation, management, ownership and performance of the services of the state by capitalising on the potential offered by contemporary information capability and fulfilling the rights and obligations both to and of citizens. In this book, John Beckford shows how, by adopting the principles of an Intelligent Organisation, the state can thrive and meet the needs of its citizens. He proposes a complete rethink of the state as the enabler or provider of public services. In particular, he points to the failure of the public sector to significantly emulate the massive gains in productivity and customer focus experienced in both manufacturing and services (e.g. finance, retailing, insurance). Governance and all public services must be redesigned to align to the contemporary needs of the citizen and exploit the power of information to enable a transformation of their effectiveness, redefine efficiency and support human-based services in crucial areas. Each chapter provides the key learning points, a discussion of the problem in theory and practice, integrated case studies, and discussion points. Written in an accessible style, the book provides thought-provoking supplemental reading for masters and undergraduate students reading organisation theory, organisation development, political science, public administration, healthcare, information systems and business and management science.

This book argues that Sierra Leone's ten-year civil conflict demonstrates the criticality of freedom of information (FOI) as a facet of good governance where corruption thrives, spanning both public and private sectors, if Sierra Leone's continued security and stability are to be ensured. It argues that it was the absence of an anti-corruption tool like FOI and its attendants, transparency, and accountability, in governance generally, and in the area of the extractive industry in particular, that lead to other social phenomena which directly sparked the war. It proffers that for the continued consolidation of peace, security, stability and development in Sierra Leone, transparency and accountability must be ensured by protecting and implementing the demand driven anti-graft FOI. Straddling the disciplines of law, political science, public policy, and history, the book's major premise is that it was the absence of FOI in the area of governance and the extractive industry, which enabled politicians, civil servants and the politically connected to ransom and exploit Sierra Leone's mineral resources for their own profit with impunity, a state of affairs which led to underdevelopment, state collapse and an embittered civil populace especially the youth. The book postulates that as such any attempt to ensure long-term peace in Sierra Leone, should seek to avoid replicating the conditions that gave rise to that gruesome conflict- elites expropriation of national resources through endemic graft. The book proposes the comprehensive and effective implementation of the Right to Information Act 2013.

The volume: • Is one of the first projects on the COVID-19 / Coronavirus pandemic and public policy • Focuses on the intersections between public health, law, security studies and cyber studies • Will be of great interest to professionals in the field of public policy, especially those working on technology and society, security studies, law, media studies and public health