Proposing a novel approach to understanding the contemporary political landscape, Akram draws on the work of Pierre Bourdieu and Margaret Archer on agency and argues the need for an in-depth engagement with concepts of agency to improve the reach and scope of political analysis. Is the way that people engage with politics changing? If so, how well-equipped are we to document and explain the extent and range of the ways in which people are engaging in politics today? This book tackles these questions through a blend of theoretical reflection and empirical research, shedding new light on the relationship between arena and process definitions of politics, and how the social relates to the political. Hitherto unexplored features of agency such as the unconscious and the internal political conversation are shown to be critical in exploring how people mobilise today and how they make sense of their political engagement. Two in-depth case studies of the internal political conversations that individuals hold as well as an analysis of the 2011 UK riots are presented. Making a case for the role of self-expression in politics, this book will be of use for graduates and scholars interested in British politics, political theory, social theory, political sociology, the theory and practice of political engagement and political behaviour.

The growing influence of Russia on the Western far right has been much discussed in the media recently. This book is the first detailed inquiry into what has been a neglected but critically important trend: the growing links between Russian actors and Western far right activists, publicists, ideologues, and politicians. The author uses a range of sources including interviews, video footage, leaked communications, official statements and press coverage in order to discuss both historical and contemporary Russia in terms of its relationship with the Western far right. Initial contacts between Russian political actors and Western far right activists were established in the early 1990s, but these contacts were low profile. As Moscow has become more anti-Western, these contacts have become more intense and have operated at a higher level. The book shows that the Russian establishment was first interested in using the Western far right to legitimise Moscow's politics and actions both domestically and internationally, but more recently Moscow has begun to support particular far right political forces to gain leverage on European politics and undermine the liberal-democratic consensus in the West. Contributing to ongoing scholarly debates about Russia's role in the world, its strategies aimed at securing legitimation of Putin's regime both internationally and domestically, modern information warfare and propaganda, far right politics and activism in the West, this book draws on theories and methods from history, political science, area studies, and media studies and will be of interest to students, scholars, activists and practitioners in these areas.

Last Lectures on the Prevention and Intervention of Genocide is a collection of hypothetical 'last lectures' by some of the top scholars and practitioners across the globe in the fields of human rights and genocide studies. Each lecture purportedly constitutes the last thing the author will ever say about the prevention and intervention of genocide. The contributions to this volume are thought-provoking, engaging, and at times controversial, reflecting the scholars' most advanced thinking about issues of human rights and genocide. This book will be of great interest to professors, researchers, and students of political science, international relations, psychology, sociology, history, human rights, and genocide studies.

This title was first published in 1980:

One of the main themes running through Gandhi's life and work was the battle against evil. This book offers a fascinating reconstruction of Gandhi and the doctrine of Ahimsa or non-violence. Gandhi's moral perfectionism is contrasted with other forms of perfectionism, but the book stresses that Gandhi also offered a doctrine of the second best. Following Gandhi, the author argues that outward violence with compassion is intrinsically not as good as non-violence with compassion, but it is a second best that is sometimes a necessary evil in an imperfect world. The book provides an illuminating analysis of coercion, non-co-operation, civil disobedience and necessary evil, comparing Gandhi's ideas with that of some of the leading western moral, legal and political philosophers. Further, some of his important ideas are shown to have relevance for the working of the Indian Constitution. This book will be essential for scholars and researchers in moral, legal and political philosophy, Gandhi studies, political science and South Asian studies.

Informal dimensions of European integration have received limited academic attention to date, despite their historical and contemporary importance. Particularly studies in European integration history, while frequently mentioning informal processes, have as yet rarely conceptualised the study of informality in European integration, and thus fail usually to systematically analyse conditions, impact and consequences of informal action. Including case studies that discuss both successful and failed examples of informal action in European integration, this book assembles cutting-edge research by both early-career and more experienced scholars from all over Europe to fill this lacuna. The chapters of this volume offer a guide to the study of informality and show how informality has impacted European integration history and the functioning of the EC/EU as well as other European organisations in a variety of ways. Reflecting the diversity of studies within this burgeoning field of research, within and across several academic disciplines, the book approaches the informal dimensions of European integration from different disciplinary, methodological and thematic angles. This book will be of key interest to students and scholars of European integration, EU politics/studies, European politics, European Union history, and more broadly to comparative politics and international relations.

Focusing on the institutions and players of central and local government during an era of great transformation, Peter Jupp examines the cohesive nature of the British state, and how Britain was governed between 1688 and 1848.

Divided into two parts, bisected by the accession of George III in 1760, this study:

• examines the changes to the framework and function of executive government
• presents an analysis of its achievements, the composition and functions of Parliament
• explores Parliamenta (TM)s role in government
• looks at the interaction between the executive, Parliament and the public.

Providing new insights into the formulation of notions and traditions of legislation, the public sphere and popular politics, The Governing of Britain is an essential guide to a formative era in political life.

The European Union faces a set of inter-related crises that it struggles to contain and address. By exploring how the EU responds to crises and conflict, this volume addresses both its resilience and vulnerability. The EU faces significant challenges: European integration is increasingly politicised; democratic politics within member states are increasingly volatile; challenger parties threaten the status quo; and party systems are shifting throughout Europe. These crises test both the EU and individual states, especially those that had to exchange interdependence in the Union for dependence on the Troika. Despite the tension of hard times, this volume points to patterns of continuity and change as the single market, somewhat side-lined and forgotten in the heat of crises, retains its role as the hard core of the Union and the EU's most significant achievement. This book was originally published as a special issue of West European Politics.

Recent confrontations between constitutional courts and parliamentary majorities, for example in Poland and Hungary, have attracted international interest in the relationship between the judiciary and the legislature in Central and Eastern European countries. Several political actors have argued that courts have assumed too much power after the democratic transformation process in 1989/1990. These claims are explicitly or implicitly connected to the charge that courts have constrained the room for manoeuvre of the legislatures too heavily and that they have entered the field of politics. Nevertheless, the question to what extent has this aggregation of power constrained the dominant political actors has never been examined accurately and systematically in the literature. The present volume fills this gap by applying an innovative research methodology to quantify the impact and effect of court's decisions on legislation and legislators, and measure the strength of judicial decisions in six CEE countries.

Secrecy is a prevalent feature of politics within and among liberal democratic states, as well as in the relations between states and international organisations. However, surprisingly little research in political science has explored the effects of secrecy on policy making; the evolution of the regulatory frameworks that govern the use of secrecy; and the tensions between secrecy and transparency. This fascinating volume examines secrecy in European politics across a range of EU and national settings and policy domains, exploring the technological, social and political developments which appear to signal the end of privacy and the rapid expansion of political secrecy in European multi-level settings. Consequently, the tensions between democratic accountability with its transparency requirements, and political secrecy, which is typically justified on grounds of effectiveness of state action, have become more marked and more politicised. Engaging with these developments, the authors focus on actors' motivations in secret politics; institutional perspectives that highlight contestation over secrecy norms; and organisational perspectives that emphasise the diversity of secrecy cultures. This book will be of great interest to students, researchers and professionals of political science and law. It was originally published as a special issue of the journal West European Politics.

This book provides a rigorous and cross-disciplinary analysis of this Melanesian nation at a critical juncture in its post-colonial and post-conflict history, with contributions from leading scholars of Solomon Islands. The notion of 'transition' as used to describe the recent drawdown of the decade-long Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI) provides a departure point for considering other transformations - social, political and economic -under way in the archipelagic nation. Organised around a central tension between change and continuity, two of the book's key themes are the contested narratives of changing state-society relations and the changing social relations around land and natural resources engendered by ongoing processes of globalisation and urbanisation. Drawing heuristically on RAMSI's genesis in the 'state- building moment' that dominated international relations during the first decade of this century, the book also examines the critical distinction between 'state-building' and 'state formation' in the Solomon Islands context. It engages with global scholarly and policy debates on issues such as peacebuilding, state-building, legal pluralism, hybrid governance, globalisation, urbanisation and the governance of natural resources. These themes resonate well beyond Solomon Islands and Melanesia, and the book will be of interest to a wide range of students, scholars and development practitioners. This book was previously published as a special issue of The Journal of Pacific History.

The conflict between Israel and the Palestinians is one of the longest unresolved conflicts of modern times. It has brought about the early and violent deaths of tens of thousands of people, and blighted the lives of millions more. It is symbiotically linked to the wider crises that continue to engulf the wider region. The purpose of this volume is to elucidate both the nature of the conflict, but perhaps more importantly to make some tentative proposals with regard to how the conflict may eventually be peacefully concluded. The contributors offer their prognosis in light of the fact that both Israeli and Palestinian society is becoming increasingly polarised and prey to fanatics who argue that the conflict will and should be solved by the complete destruction of one side by the other. In short, this volume seeks to provide rational counter-arguments to fundamentalist bile that questions the fundamental humanity of the opposing side. This book was originally published as a special issue of the journal Ethnopolitics.

Power-sharing is an important political strategy for managing protracted conflicts and it can also facilitate the democratic accommodation of difference. Despite these benefits, it has been much criticised, with claims that it is unable to produce peace and stability, is ineffective and inefficient, and obstructs other peacebuilding values, including gender equality. This edited collection aims to enhance our understanding of the utility of power-sharing in deeply divided places by subjecting power-sharing theory and practice to empirical and normative analysis and critique. Its overarching questions are: Do power-sharing arrangements enhance stability, peace and cooperation in divided societies? Do they do so in ways that promote effective governance? Do they do so in ways that promote justice, fairness and democracy? Utilising a broad range of global empirical case studies, it provides a space for dialogue between leading and emerging scholars on the normative questions surrounding power-sharing. Distinctively, it asks proponents of power-sharing to think critically about its weaknesses. This text will be of interest to students, scholars and practitioners of power-sharing, ethnic politics, democracy and democratization, peacebuilding, comparative constitutional design, and more broadly Comparative Politics, International Relations and Constitutional and Comparative Law.

The Southeast Europe and Black Sea region presents fertile terrain for examining recent international migration trends. The contributions to this book cover a range of examples, from Ukraine and Moldova in the north, to Greece and Albania in the south. By intersecting the three key concepts of migration, transnationalism and development, they offer new insights based on original empirical research. A wide range of types of migration can be observed in this region: large-scale emigration in many countries, recent mass immigration in the case of Greece, return migration, internal migration, internal and external forced migration, irregular migration, brain drain etc. These migratory phenomena occur within the context of EU migration policies and EU accession for some countries. Yet within this shifting migration landscape of migrant stocks and flows, the fundamental economic geography of different wealth levels and work opportunities is what drives most migration, now as in the past. This book was previously published as a special issue of Southeast European and Black Sea Studies.

The idea of 'the commons' is a long-standing concept in the English-speaking world and in English law. A similar concept occurs in China. How different from or similar to the English idea of 'the commons' is the idea in China; and how is the concept applied? This book explores this important subject. It examines the subject from a philosophical and theoretical perspective; considers 'the commons' widely, including tangible commons of resources, intangible commons of culture, identity and social capital, and institutional commons of welfare, security and public goods; and goes on to examine the concept as it applies to the hydropower developments along the Lancang River, outlining the different competing interests of local people, central and provincial government, and environmental considerations. It argues that the concept of 'the commons' in China is dual-dimensional, with a vertical dimension of 'public authority' and a horizontal dimension of 'commonly sharing', that power structures in China have often been flexible and polycentric, and that, correctly applied, this approach will do much to serve the common interest of the people, ensuring positive impacts for shared prosperity for multiple stakeholders, whilst mitigating the negative impacts involved in the delivery of such positive impacts.

Written as EU-Russia relations began their swift decline as a result of the Ukrainian crisis, this book examines the nature of these two actors' relationship in respect of their Partnership for Modernisation. The contributing authors look at modernisation through different lenses applying varying methodologies, delivering: historical analysis, economic analysis, levels-of-analysis debate, which brings along transnational, transgovernmental and intergovernmental relations and interrelations between the EU and its member states, discourse analysis, new institutionalism as well as policy analysis. The authors each identify the importance of modernisation for Russia, demonstrating why, despite the current state of relations between Moscow and Brussels, modernisation remains relevant for EU-Russian relations. At the same time, the plurality of the chapters shows the complexity of the relationship that will have to be taken into account in order to overcome the current crisis and construct sustainable and mutually beneficial relations.

Political scientists have always accorded interest organizations a prominent place in European Union (EU) policy-making because they connect the EU institutions to citizens, provide important information to EU policy-makers, and control resources that impact on the problem-solving capacity of EU policies. In other words, they are vital to both the input legitimacy and the output legitimacy of the EU. So far, research on interest organizations in EU policy-making has concentrated on EU-level interest organizations and EU-level politics. This edited book draws attention to the role national interest organizations play in the EU multilevel system. All contributions present state-of-the-art research on that subject in the form of theory-driven empirical analyses. Chapter 8 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 3.0 license. https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/tandfbis/rt-files/docs/Open+Access+Chapters/9781138614741_oachapter8.pdf

Since the reform and opening-up policy was implemented in China, consultations have been increasingly carried out during the policy-making process. This often involves experts, many of whom are based in think-tanks or similar institutions. The degree of access to the policy-making process varies, and consequently some experts influence the policy-making process significantly and others not. This book explores how experts in China engage with the policy-making process and the circumstances, which affect how far they are able to influence policy-making.

Originally published in 1986, Politics and Government in African States 1960-1985 deals with the politics of sub-Saharan African states since independence. Each chapter considers the formal structure of government at the time of independence and traces the subsequent changes. Each chapter also describes the development of the state machinery, the civil service, the parastatals, defence and police forces, party structure, the political opposition and trade unions. The economics of African states are dealt with insofar as they affect politics and government.

* Designed for students of public administration at every level who need to know and understand how technology can be applied in today's public management workplace * Explores the latest trends in public management, policy, and technology and focuses on best practices on governance issues. * Provides real-life examples about the need for policies and procedures to safeguard our technology infrastructure while providing greater openness, participation, and transparency * Contains all new material on blockchain technology, artificial intelligence, cryptocurrency, the latest developments in cybersecurity (including ransomware), big and visualized data, and the spread of misinformation * Includes a website maintained by the authors that contains YouTube Videos, PowerPoint presentations, sample quizzes, and group assignments for instructors to consider.

This book draws together both primary and secondary empirical research and existing literature to examine transgressive subcultural activities and engagement in digital social spaces (DSS). The book addresses four objectives: 1. To understand how young peoples' subcultures arise online and they are constructed and experienced in DSS 2. To understand how and why DSS matter to young people 3. To understand if any DSS controls exist in these online spaces and 4. To understand how identity locations such as social class, gender and ethnicity and/or their intersections shape young peoples' engagement and behaviour(s) in DSS. In addressing these objectives with a focus on European contributions, the text provides a holistic understanding of the purpose of digital social spaces in shaping young peoples' identities and self-perceptions. It will be of interest to postgraduate students, secondary school teachers, lecturers and scholars in education, sociology, youth studies and technology.

Religion and politics are never far from the headlines, but their relationship remains complex and often confusing. This book offers an engaging, accessible, and balanced treatment of religion in American politics. It explores the historical, cultural, and legal contexts that motivate religious political engagement and assesses the pragmatic and strategic political realities that religious organizations and people face. Incorporating the best and most current scholarship, the authors examine the evolving politics of Roman Catholics; evangelical and mainline Protestants; African-American and Latino traditions; Jews, Muslims, and other religious minorities; recent immigrants and religious "nones"; and other conventional and not-so-conventional American religious movements. New to the Sixth Edition * Covers the 2016 election and assesses the role of religion from Obama to Trump. * Expands substantially on religion's relationship to gender and sexuality, race, ethnicity, and class, and features the role of social media in religious mobilization. * Adds discussion questions at the end of every chapter, to help students gain deeper understanding of the subject. * Adds a new concluding chapter on the normative issues raised by religious political engagement, to stimulate lively discussions.

Regions are difficult to govern - coordinating policies across local jurisdictional boundaries in the absence of a formal regional government gives rise to enormous challenges. Yet some degree of coordination is almost always essential for local governments to effectively fulfill their responsibilities to their citizens. State and local governments have, over time, awkwardly, and with much experimenting, developed common approaches to regional governance. In this revolutionary new book, authors David Miller and Jen Nelles offer a new way to conceptualize those common approaches: Regional Intergovernmental Organizations (RIGOs) that bring together local governments to coordinate policies across jurisdictional boundaries. RIGOs are not governments themselves, but as Miller and Nelles demonstrate, they do have a measure of political authority that allows them to quietly and sometimes almost invisibly work to further regional interests and mitigate cross-boundary irritations. Providing a new conceptual framework for understanding how regional decision-making has emerged in the U.S., this book will provoke a new and rich era of discussion about American regionalism in theory and practice. Discovering American Regionalism will be a future classic in the study of intergovernmental relations, regionalism, and cross-boundary collaboration.

The year 2011 will go down in history as a turning point for the Arab world. The popular unrest that swept across the region and led to the toppling of the Ben Ali, Mubarak, and Qaddhafi regimes in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya has fundamentally altered the social, economic, and political outlooks of these countries and the region as a whole. This book assesses the transition processes unleashed by the uprisings that took place in Egypt and Tunisia in 2011. The wave of unrest and popular mobilisation that swept through these countries is treated as the point of departure of long and complex processes of change, manipulation, restructuring, and entrenchment of the institutional structures and logics that defined politics. The book explores the constitutive elements of institutional development, namely processes of constitution making, electoral politics, the changing status and power of the judiciary, and the interplay between the civilian and the military apparatuses in Egypt and Tunisia. It also considers the extent to which these two countries have become more democratic, as a result of their institutions being more legitimate, accountable, and responsive, at the beginning of 2014 and from a comparative perspective. The impact of temporal factors in shaping transition paths is highlighted throughout the book. The book provides a comprehensive assessment of political and institutional transition processes in two key countries in North Africa and its conclusions shed light on similar processes that have taken place throughout the region since 2011. It will be a valuable resource for anyone studying Middle Eastern and North African politics, area studies, comparative institutional development and democratisation.

Concern is growing about children's rights and the curtailment of those rights through the excesses of neoliberal governance. This book discusses children's spatial and citizenship rights, and the ways young people and their families push against diminished rights. Armed initially with theoretical concerns about the construction of children through the political status quo and the ways youth rights are spatially segregated, the book begins with a disarmingly simple supposition: Young people have the right to make and remake their spaces and, as a consequence, themselves. This book de-centers monadic ideas of children in favor of a post-humanist perspective, which embraces the radical relationality of children as more-than-children/more-than-human. Its empirical focus begins with the struggles of Slovenian Izbrisani ('erased') youth from 1992 to the present day and reaches out to child rights and youth activists elsewhere in the world with examples from South America, Eastern Europe and the USA. The author argues that universal child rights have not worked and pushes for a more radical, sustainable ethics, which dares to admit that children's humanity is something more than we, as adults, can imagine. Chapters in this groundbreaking contribution will be of interest to students, researchers and practitioners in the social sciences, humanities and public policy.