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Books > Social sciences > Politics & government > Political structure & processes > General
Zimmerman places in perspective the important roles played by interstate compacts and interstate administrative agreements in the governance systems of the United States. Compacts are identified and classified by type. Particular emphasis is placed on federal government promotion of compacts, including the U.S. Congress enactment of federal-state compacts in which the federal government joins member states as partners to achieve stated goals. Formal and informal interstate administrative agreements have increased in number dramatically during the past six decades and relate to both minor and very important issues. Credit for many interstate administrative agreements must be ascribed to associations of state government officers which encourage their members to promote interstate cooperation and also draft model state laws and administrative agreements. Although compacts and agreements have lubricated the functioning of the United States governmental system, as Zimmerman makes clear, the full potential of compacts and agreements has not been achieved to date, and he makes recommendations to improve the level of interstate cooperation. An important resource for scholars and students of American government--federal, state, and local--as well as administrators and policymakers.
The nine essays in this volume examine women's public and private lives from sixteenth century England to twentieth-century Chicago, from Queen Elizabeth I to Jane Addams of Hull House. Editor Janet Sharistanian's main purpose in organizing these essays is to offer a response to and a critique of theories of the domestic/public split in Western ideology and history that have emerged from feminist anthropology.
From the outset, Silvio Berlusconi's career was expected to be short, and he has been considered finished several times, only to have reemerged victorious. This fascinating political and historical study shows that Berlusconi's success and resilience have lain in his ability to provide answers to longstanding questions in Italian history.
This book discusses parliamentary oversight and its role in curbing corruption in developing countries. Over the past decade, a growing body of research at the global and regional levels has demonstrated that parliamentary oversight is an important determinant of corruption and that effective oversight of public expenditure is an essential component of national anti-corruption strategies and programs. However, little research has been undertaken at the country level regarding how parliamentary oversight is undertaken, which oversight mechanisms are effective or on how national parliaments interact with other anti-corruption stakeholders. This book presents the results of a new large-scale, quantitative analysis which identifies the mechanisms through which institutional arrangements impact corruption, specifically through country case studies on the Caribbean region, Ghana, Myanmar, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Uganda. Addressing a gap in scholarly knowledge while presenting practical policy advice for parliaments and for anti-corruption assistance agencies, this book will be of use to scholars interested in development, anti-corruption, public finance, as well as members of parliament, anti-corruption practitioners, and organizations working in parliamentary strengthening.
The inability of many democratic governments in Africa to govern
effectively has been an important factor in the many problems that
the continent and its constituent countries have faced over the
past decades. The question for scholars has been in learning what
has caused the endemic failure of public institutions throughout
Africa and understanding how to create good government in the
future of the continent. Strongly supported by empirical evidence,
this book challenges the existing literature on the subject by
breaking with the traditional notion among academics that the key
to good government in Africa is through the creation of unique
administrative structures, or at the very least developing
significantly adapted foreign structures with an emphasis on the
specific structure of African societies. Instead the author
contrasts this notion with theories from other research fields
suggesting that public officials are likely to be interested in
following professional norms and that organizations generally
strive to imitate each other, regardless of geographical location.
This book presents rich original empirical research from the field
of state audit in Sub-Saharan Africa where the above different
theoretical approaches are empirically explored. The research
results contradict many assumptions made in the literature on
development and points to the importance of adding other
dimensions, such as professional norms, to nuance the discussion of
the future of the African continent.
The Book of Lord Shang was probably compiled sometime between 359 and 338 BCE. Along with the Han Fei-Tzu, it is one of the two principal sources of Legalism, a school of Chinese political thought. Legalism asserts that human behavior must be controlled through written law, rather than ritual, custom or ethics, because people are innately selfish and ignorant. The law is not effective when it is based on goodness or virtue; it is effective when it compels obedience. This is essential to preserve the stability of the State. Reprint of Volume XVII in Probsthain's Oriental Series. With a Chinese index and an index of names and references."The Book of Lord Shang or Shang-tzu is said to consist of 29 paragraphs, of which the text for nos. 16, 21, 27, 28 and 29 being no longer extant. The translation of Prof. Duyvendak therefore covers only twenty-four paragraphs and is based on an edition published by Yang Wan-li in 1793, which was reprinted by the Ch -chiang-shu-ch in 1876 in the "Collection of Twenty-two Philosophers." Of all the editions published before or after that date, this is the best known. (...) The Chinese text of the Book, like many other ancient writings, is obscure in some parts and corrupt in others. (...) The reviewer is therefore forcibly struck by the faithfulness, definiteness and clearness of Dr. Duyvendak's translation." --13 Chinese Soc. & Pol. Sci. Rev. 459-460, 462 1929.J.J.L. Duyvendak 1889-1954] was an interpreter for the Dutch embassy in Peking from 1912-1918. In 1919 he became a lecturer in Chinese at the University of Leiden. He was the author of China's Discovery of Africa; Lectures Given at the University of London on January 22 and 23, 1947 (1949) and edited and translated several works, including The Diary of His Excellency Ching-shan; Being a Chinese Account of the Boxer Troubles by Shan Jing (1924). He established the Sinological Institute at the University of Leiden in 1930. It is now one of the leading libraries for Chinese Studies in the Western world.
When the United States was born in 1776, Americans viewed the role of government as the protection of their individual rights, or liberty. At that time, and now again 200 years later, the enemy of individual liberty is an intrusive and regulation obsessed government. Over time, the ideology of democracy-the idea that the role of government is to carry out the will of the people, has displaced the ideology of liberty. Holcombe narrates an account of the political history that transformed the fundamental principle of American government form liberty to democracy. And why that shift from the protection of liberty to democratic collectivism has serious and negative economic and political consequences.
The Nigerian Legal System covers the whole spectrum of Nigerian law and encompasses source materials and analyzes them in a manner unprecedented by any work on the Nigerian legal system. Volume I, Public Law has thirteen chapters on constitutional development, customary law with regards to human rights, and criminal law and procedure among others. Volume II has seventeen chapters on private law that includes inheritance and succession, commercial business, trade and investments, and intellectual property. Volume III has thirteen chapters on international law.
Political parties are essential for parliamentary democracy, the form of government that prevails in most European states. But how have parties adapted to modern society - not least a new layer of political decision-making in the EU? Should we talk of a crisis of party democracy?This book reports the findings of a comparative survey of parties in four Nordic countries: Denmark, Finland and Sweden, all EU member states; and Norway, which remains outside the Union. Using original data, it explores how power is exercised within party organisations and their respective parliamentary groups. Within an analytical framework that envisages a party as a series of delegation relationships, the book illuminates how leaders are chosen, how election candidates are selected, how manifestos are written - and how a party's various elements are co-ordinated. For all the challenges posed by multi-level governance, parties retain much of their capacity for making democracy work.
Since the middle of the eighteenth century, elections for public office in the United States have generated significant popular interest. Many accounts from that time to the present have documented the widespread participation and enthusiasm generated by the quest for voter approval. But until now, no one has attempted a comprehensive, comparative history of American electioneering. Historian Robert J. Dinkin does just this in a pathbreaking study that shows how campaigning evolved from the simple forms of earlier days to the complex, expensive races of the present day. Dinkin discusses the changing nature of vote-getting techniques during the past 250 years. He covers state and local elections as well as national campaigns and the different practices common to each type of election. He demonstrates how a changing social structure influenced American politics, and, as a result, changed elections, candidates, and campaign techniques. Among the influences Dinkin considers are increased competition, the role of political factions and parties, the use of souvenir paraphernalia, and the impact of technology and the media. As the first book of its kind, this new work will be welcomed by scholars and students of American history and politics.
In this work of historically informed political theory, Kimberly Smith sets out to understand how nineteenth-century Americans answered the question of how the people should participate in politics. Did rational public debate, the ideal that most democratic theorists now venerate, transcend all other forms of political expression? How and why did passion disappear from the ideology (if not the practice) of American democracy? To answer these questions, she focuses on the political culture of the urban North during the turbulent Jacksonian Age, roughly 1830-50, when the shape and character of the democratic public were still fluid. Smith's method is to interpret, in light of such popular discourse as newspapers and novels, several key texts in nineteenth-century American political thought: Frederick Douglass's Fourth of July speech and Narrative, Angelina Grimke's debate with Catharine Beecher, Frances Wright's lectures, and Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin. Such texts, Smith finds, highlight many of the then-current ideas about the extremes of political expression. Her readings support the conclusions that the value of rational argument itself was contested, that the emergent Enlightenment rationalism may have helped to sterilize political debate, and that storytelling or testimony posed an important challenge to the norm of political rationality. Smith explores facets of the political culture in ways that make sense of traditions from Whiggish resistance to Protestant narrative testimony. She helps us to understand such puzzles as the point of mob action and other ritualistic disruptions of the political process, our simultaneous attraction to and suspicion of politicaldebates, and the appeal of stories by and about victims of injustice. Also found in her book are keen analyses of the antebellum press and the importance of oratory and public speaking. Smith shows that alternatives to reasoned deliberation -- like protest, resistance, and storytelling -- have a place in politics. Such alternatives underscore the positive role that interest, passion, compassion, and even violence might play in the political life of America. Her book, therefore, is a cautionary analysis of how rationality came to dominate our thinking about politics and why its hegemony should concern us. Ultimately Smith reminds the reader that democracy and reasoned public debate are not synonymous and that the linkage is not necessarily a good thing.
An unfortunate consequence of the incredible explosion in the number of social science journals since the 1960s is that the literature has become highly balkanized. Today articles on politics are routinely published in so many disciplines that it has become almost impossible for scholars to trace major trends outside of their own subfields. Nor can Ph.D. candidates ensure they have mastered the literature, as it is difficult even to discover much of what has been published. This book addresses these problems by providing a much-needed general guide to important journal articles about politics. In compiling this guide to 10,000 of the most significant articles about politics that have been published in all disciplines, Brunk considered over 250,000 candidate papers. He focuses on five types of research: articles of major theoretical importance, articles offering empirical tests of theories, articles dealing with subjects not addressed elsewhere, articles providing broad reviews of the theoretical literature, and articles about politics in non-political science journals. These are grouped by subfield and by the specialized topics that have received the most intensive scholarly attention, allowing researchers easy access to the bibliographical information that they need.
Both China and Europe have in recent years witnessed the emergence
of new migration dynamics. In China, hundreds of millions of
migrant workers help to fuel China's economic growth with their
labour whislt Europe has witnessed an increase in various new forms
of migration by people from within and without seeking refuge,
family-reunion or work.
The time is ripe for a new international organization, a Global Union based upon a limited sharing of sovereignty. This book examines the successes and failures of the European Union as a sovereignty-sharing organization, and suggests that this unique institution has a critical role to play in the development of a more effective world order.
Foremost scholars explore new directions in communication research in the light of social, economic, and technological changes in recent years. They analyze differing perspectives historically, problems and opportunities in terms of information flows and filters, and new public policy and social issues and challenges. They raise major questions about future needs and trends. This interdisciplinary study delves into a number of basic concerns, such as how public agendas are formed, how shifting groups in society interpret messages differently, and how technology has changed profoundly the ways in which we communicate in the world today. This overview of the state of communication research is designed for scholars, professionals, and for student use in research methods courses.
This is a comprehensive exploration of theories of citizenship and inclusiveness in an age of globalization. The authors analyze democracy and the political community in a transnational context, using new critical, conceptual and normative perspectives on the borders, territories and political agents of the state.
Church-state relations are becoming more and more critical. Deepening controversies over church-state relations, the increasing religious pluralism of American society, and the changing makeup of the Supreme Court are forcing a rethinking of approaches to church and state in the public policy realm. Stephen Monsma offers a new approach rooted in structural pluralism as a normative way to understand church-state relations. He suggests that the government should use a principle of positive neutrality in handling church-state relations. He integrates historical, theoretical, social, and legal perspectives and writes in a lively manner for interdisciplinary audiences of students, scholars, and general readers. This study provides an historical background of church and state relations in American society and discusses the development of church-state theory and practice. The author argues that confusions today can be traced back to flaws in the disestablishment settlement of the eighteenth century, flaws which have come to light in the twentieth century. He looks at this pluralist society and the concept of positive neutrality and of religious freedom historically and theoretically and then applies his approach to current issues relating to national policy and Supreme Court decision-making.
This book offers an analysis of the origins of the crisis in Zimbabwe and why it has had such a profound impact on both the land issue and democratic politics in the Southern African region. The analysis contributes to the present debates around Mugabe, neo-imperialism and the stability in the region.
This fascinating study examines America's complex and confusing history of arguing with itself over religion and secularism, God and politics, church and state. Hundreds of books are devoted to the ever-timely subject of the separation of church and state in America, but none does exactly what Christian Nation?: The United States in Popular Perception and Historical Reality does. Unlike other studies, this intriguing examination asks the right questions, defines the terms of the debate, explores the widely diverging points of view with equal respect for all sides, and provides insightful commentary and factual conclusions that cut through the clutter. The book begins with several questions: Is the United States a "Christian Nation?" Has it ever been? Was it ever meant to be? What did the Founding Fathers say? How has this issue been interpreted by various individuals and factions over the centuries? The author then surveys the vast literature on this topic, including the U.S. Constitution and Declaration of Independence and the competing and/or complimentary views of various Founding Fathers to arrive at the answers—and, at long last, the truth.
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