New Hampshire: First in the presidential primaries, it sets the stage and affects candidates' odds of success or failure. Every four years, this small, proudly distinctive state is the center of America's political universe. Candidates' performances, especially in comparison to expectations, influence the competition for the country's highest office. Scala explains the importance and peculiarities of New Hampshire, providing both historical context and insights, based on extensive interviews, into the tensions between local politics and the national agendas of candidates. New Hampshire's sympathy for reformist candidates has the paradoxical effect of jumpstarting the campaigns of those candidates least representative of voters nationally, and Scala explores the tremendous implications for presidential politics. Scala explains what it takes for candidates to make the Granite State a launching pad rather than a crash landing.

Sinn Fein has undergone a startling transformation in the last two-and-a-half decades. Under the leadership of its two principal figures Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness the mainstream party of Irish republicanism has changed beyond almost all recognition. It has moved from the margins of political life, on both sides of the Irish border, to a position where it occupies the Deputy First Minister's chair in Northern Ireland and was viewed, until recently, as the coming force in southern Irish politics. In this book, the contours of Sinn Fein's recent evolution are considered, with particular emphasis on the various strategic objectives that the party has set itself. Sinn Fein's attitude to the Northern Irish peace process is considered at length here and the book challenges the 'conventional wisdom' that would juxtapose republican 'politics' and republican 'war' the notion being that, during the 1990s, republicans exchanged the latter for the former and were, therefore, 'tamed' into becoming a 'normal' political party. The central argument here is that such a view rests on a false dichotomy. It has been said that 'war is merely the continuation of politics'; with respect to Sinn Fein, it is argued, the inverse formulation needs also to be considered, with republican politics seen, by republicans themselves, as an extension of the war. In following through this line of argument, this book attempts to consider republicans on their own terms; to take their thoughts and words 'seriously' and to examine their recent history accordingly.

The patent disconnection between the institutions of the European Union and the citizens of Europe has been widely attributed by political leaders and scholars to a 'communications gap', that is, to the way EU affairs are mediated by the media, and to the apparent lack of interest by national elites in conveying the importance of Europe. This book challenges this 'mediation theory' and suggests instead a cultural and systemic explanation for the distant and bureaucratic character of the European Union. Apportioning the blame for the communication gap to the media and national politicians neglects two real deficits which prevent Europe from enjoying a vibrant public sphere: a deficit of domesticisation, a popular disconnection with the idea of the EU, and a deficit of politicisation with European politics, it being difficult to categorise as through traditional methods of 'left vs. right'. This book suggests that popular disengagement with the EU is a consequence of the fact that Europe as a cultural community is an interdependent continent rather than a nation and that, as an political institution, the EU is a pseudo-confederation full of anti-publicity bias, elite-driven integration, corporatism and diplomacy. The result is a book that is an essential read for students and scholars of political communication and of the European Union.

This provocative book addresses the ideological and political crisis of the Western left, comparing it with the problems facing leftist politics in Russia and other countries. The author presents a radical critique of the current state of the Western left which puts discourse above class interest and politics of diversity above politics of social change. The trajectory away from class politics towards feminism, minority rights and the coalition of coalitions led to the destruction of the basic strategic pillars of the movement. Some elements of this broad progressive agenda became mainstream, but in fact this made the crisis of the left even deeper and contributed to the disintegration of the left's identity. The author demonstrates that a simple return to 'the good old times' of classical socialist politics of the industrial age is not possible, suggesting that class politics must be redefined and reinvented through the experience of new radical populism. This book speaks directly to the way the identity politics/class politics divide has been framed within the English-speaking world. It will be of great interest to scholars and students of political science and political sociology, international relations, security studies and global studies, as well as socialist activists.

This book investigates Turkey's departure from a 'flawed democracy' under Kemalist secularism, and its transitioning into Islamist authoritarian Erdoganism, through the lenses of informal law, legal pluralism, and legal hybridity. In doing so, it examines the attempts of Turkey's ruling party (AKP) at social engineering and gradual Islamisation of the Turkish state and society, by using informal Islamist laws. To that end, the book argues that the AKP has paved the way for Islamist legal hybridity where society, state, and law, are being gradually Islamised on an ad hoc basis. Informal law and legal pluralism in Turkey have had a non-state characteristic which have permitted Muslims to solve disputes by seeking the opinions of religio-legal scholars. Yet under the AKP rule, this informal legal system has become increasingly dominated by conservatives, sometimes radical Islamists, which the governing party has taken advantage of by either formalizing some parts of the informal Islamist law, or using it informally to mobilize its supporters against the opposition.

As a result of national political and judicial actions, the political landscape of the South has experienced a partisan realignment from the Democratic to the Republican party. At the same time, the South has continued to have a tremendous impact on the national agenda through continued dominance of the national political scene through its new allegiance to the Republican party and has been instrumental in the rise of the Republican party nationally.

However, as Rhodes makes clear in this analysis, the realignment has not been uniform among the states of the region, nor has it led to the demise of the Democratic party. Although the Republican realignment appears to continue to trickle down to the local and state legislative levels, the Democratic party remains competitive across the South in most arenas. Rhodes suggests that the increasing wealth and suburbanization of the South strengthens the Republican presence and the party has maximized its growth in the South to a level of competitiveness at most electoral levels. Nonetheless, issues that have characterized politics in the South in the past--race, gender, class, and religion--continue to permeate the new politics of the South. An important analysis for scholars, students, and other researchers involved with Southern and party politics.

This book provides a comprehensive overview of the party finance regime at the level of the European Union. Based on an in-depth analysis of the interaction between European political parties and their institutional environment, it shows how the Europarties have coped with - and altered - the funding rules. The book explains why increasing party subsidies have been made available, and why considerable differences exist in how Eurosceptic and pro-European parties have used their EU funding. It also examines how party finance reform at the EU level has been at the centre of party competition, by demonstrating how the rules were strategically changed to benefit some European parties over others. Considering the strong democratic aspirations that lay at the origins of the finance regime, the book explores its consequences for party democracy and the rule of law in Europe. This book is valuable for scholars working on the European Parliament, Eurosceptic parties, EU decision-making, (European) party politics and political finance.

Focusing on the development of the Communist Party in Moscow between 1925 and 1932 and its ultimate assumption of absolute power. This volume examines in detail the political changes in Moscow, including the crisis over collectivization, and the organization strategy of the Party in Moscow.

This study is a comparative analysis of the relationship between social structure and party choice in eight West European countries. Oddbjbliogorn Knutsen analyzes the comparative strength of social structural variables, and how these have changed from the early 1970s to the late 1990s. Other factors that are considered include for which parties the structural variables have the largest impact within the various party systems and across national contexts, and for which parties are the most significant changes in support from various social groups found.

Populism is a concept that is currently in vogue among political commentators and, more often than not, used pejoratively. The phenomenon of populism is typically seen as something adverse and, in the European context routinely related to xenophobic politics. What populism exactly is and who its main representatives are, however, often remains unclear. This text has two main aims: to identify populist parties in 21st century Europe and to explain their electoral performance. It argues that populist parties should not be dismissed as dangerous pariahs out of hand but rather that their rise tells us something about the state of representative democracy. The study has a broad scope, including populist parties of various ideological kinds - thus moving beyond examples of the 'right' - and covering long-established Western European countries as well as post-communist countries in Central and Eastern Europe. It presents the results of an innovative mixed-methods research project, combining a fuzzy set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) of populist parties in 31 European countries with three in-depth case studies of the Netherlands, Poland and the United Kingdom.

This study departs from traditional interpretations of cohabitation in French politics, which suggest French institutions are capable of coping when the President and Prime Minister originate from different political parties. Instead, it offers the opposite view that cohabitation leads to partisan conflict and inertia in the policy-making process.

This book analyzes how AKP's embedded intellectuals operate as media spin doctors, exploring their transformation from passionately engaged intellectuals into apparatchiks. This project adapts a post-Soviet geography approach to the media, intelligentsia, and political discourse as derivative of authoritarian regimes to the Turkish context. It offers a fresh look at the Turkish political and intellectual scene and a comparative study of the populist-authoritarian politics of Turkey. Situated in the literature on the post-Soviet authoritarian regimes and their ways of governing, as well as their manipulation of public opinion, the book analyzes AKP-aligned intellectuals as apparatchiks. Gurpinar explores the different constellations of pro-AKP intellectuals vindicating the AKP regime from various angles, including: liberal/progressive intellectuals who initially supported the party for its liberal vistas but continued their support by twisting their progressive rhetoric; Islamist intellectuals blending their Islamism with populism; and national security intellectuals who joined after the AKP came to propagate a national security agenda. The book also provides an overview of the mechanisms of political technology, including the media landscape and its running by the AKP, intellectuals themselves as operators of political technology, and the problem of "cultural power." The book will be of interest to those studying comparative authoritarian politics, populism, political communication, and scholars of Middle East and Eastern Europe.

This book is concerned with global communications revolution and political power. It offers a fascinating combination of astuteness together with intellectual provinciality.

"The Transformation of Urban Liberalism" re-evaluates the dramatic and turbulent political decade following the 'Third Reform Act', and questions whether the Liberal Party's political heartlands - the urban boroughs - really were in decline. In contrast to some recent studies, it does not see electoral reform, the Irish Home Rule crisis and the challenge of socialism as representing a fundamental threat to the integrity of the party. Instead this book illustrates, using parallel case studies, how the party gradually began to transform into a social democratic organisation through a re-evaluation of its role and policy direction. This process was not one directed from the centre - despite the important personalities of Gladstone and Rosebery - but rather one heavily influenced by 'grass roots politics'. Consequently, it suggests that late Victorian politics was more democratic and open than sometimes thought, with leading urban politicians forced to respond to the demands of party activists. Changes in the structure of urban rule produced new policy outcomes and brought new collectivist forms of New Liberalism onto the political agenda. Thus, it is argued that without the political transformations of the decade 1885-1895, the radical liberal governments of the Edwardian era would not have been possible.

An analysis of the proceedings of the 37th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Setting the Congress in its context, and focusing on the issues of political reform, economic restructuring, the nationalities question and foreign policy, this book explores the struggle for power between radicals, reformers and conservatives in the USSR. It highlights the Party's changing role in the Soviet political system and its changing relationship with the military and the KGB. It examines the ongoing reappraisal of the Soviet past, particularly the Stalin era, and its significance for the rethinking of Soviet socialism, the democratization of the society and the dismantling of the command-administrative economy. The Congress, forecast by some as heralding the demise of the CPSU as a ruling party, examines the debates raging within the Party and the wider society concerning the future of the USSR and the fate of perestroika.

Examining the social, cultural and political foundations of German political parties past and present, this book concentrates on the social context in which the parties operate. German political parties are examined both at regional level and in historical perspective.

Why would a famously centralized Latin American state begin to re-distribute political power to cities and towns? In the Dominican Republic in the years between 1994 and 2008, a pro-municipal social alliance pressed for decentralization and politicians yielded, seeking power in three-party competition. Reformers utilized the central dynamics of a patrimonial system in order to reform it as rival parties and factions formed a series of shifting temporary alliances on municipal issues. Based on contemporary files and more than 60 interviews with participants, this study examines how electoral, financial, and administrative power has been dispersed. Non-concurrent local elections made municipal political leaders more autonomous; new laws multiplied central revenue-sharing twelve-fold; the centralist Ministry of Municipalities was greatly weakened; and participatory budgeting became mandatory nation-wide. The analysis also documents the continuing power of centralist political forces and suggests innovative strategies to maintain decentralizing momentum.

This book traces the economic ideology of the UK Labour Party from its origins to the current day. Through its analysis, the book emphasises key crises, including the 1926 General Strike, the 1931 Great Depression, the 1979 Winter of Discontent and the 2007/2008 economic crisis. In analysing this history, the ideology of the Labour Party is examined through four core themes: * the party's definition of socialism; * the role of the state in economic decision making; * the party's understanding of inequalities; and * its relationship with the trade union movement. The result is a systematic exploration of the drivers and key ideas behind the Labour Party's economic ideology. In demonstrating how crises have affected the party's economic policy, the book presents a historical analysis of the party's evolution since its formation and offers insights into how future changes may occur.

This major new reference surveys political parties of importance in the Americas since 1980, with the exclusion of the United States. This one-volume work is part of "The Greenwood Historical Encyclopedia of the World's Political Parties "and has been fashioned both to update Robert J. Alexander's prize-winning two-volume set published in 1982, "Political Parties of the AmericaS," and to serve as an analysis of political development and political parties in the Western Hemisphere during the last decade, an encyclopedia that can stand on its own. Like other works in this series, this volume edited by Charles D. Ameringer is intended for college, university, institutional, and public libraries.

Following a brief introduction giving some general historical background, chapters on 49 countries in North and South America and in the Caribbean are arranged alphabetically. These chapters provide some historical information, short bibliographies, and then describe political parties and current developments of note. Parties are arranged alphabetically by their English names or translations. Internal cross-references and a full index make the volume easily accessible to researchers in different fields. A chronology points to dates of importance.

Keohane examines the main British political parties' attitude to Britain's policy on three key security issues: the use of force; nuclear weapons; and security in Northern Ireland. He analyzes how each of the parties viewed conflicts at Suez, the Falklands and the Gulf, elucidates their perspective on nuclear weapons and concludes with a review of their attitude towards security in Northern Ireland. The text concludes that the parties' policies reflect their distinctive views on security, and that international conditions often severely affect the policy pursued.

The Scottish independence debate has consequences for Scotland, British politics, the future of the UK - and internationally. In Scotland Rising, Gerry Hassan addresses the key questions in this debate with a deep dive into its history, beyond the usual references to Thatcherism, Toryism and Westminster, by analysing the relative decline of the UK, the nature of the British state, its capitalist economy and politics that underpin it. At the same time, a distinctive, autonomous Scotland has emerged beyond Nichola Sturgeon's SNP and independence that has demanded more self-government. Scotland Rising highlights the importance of culture, stories and collective voices in reshaping how people see Scotland, both in during the first referendum in 2014 and again today. This debate is of relevance to everyone in the UK, including England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Can politics and democracy liberate people from the wreckage of Westminster? And if the Scots can, could it inspire others? Scotland Rising is a must-read for anyone with an interest in the future of Scotland and the UK.

"Political Parties in Post-Communist Societies "is a study of party development in the post-communist world. Set in the endogenous institution tradition, it develops an analytical framework that can be used to understand why parties form and how and why they choose certain electoral strategies once formed. The book is based on extensive fieldwork in Bulgaria and Hungary and uses the experience of parties there as well as aggregate data from 12 post-communist states to provide an explanation of the behavior of parties since 1990. The book offers some new insights into the impact of party financing, party organization and international actors on the behavior of political parties in these recently democratized political systems.

The Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS), successor to the East German Communist party, has long outlasted the state that spawned and nourished it. It now flourishes in Berlin and the territories of the old GDR, confounding the conventional political in Germany and the rest of the West. This is the first scholarly examination of the party's unexpected success as a regional party, as well as a left-wing party of protest and reform. It is a unique study of the PDS's structure, strategy and support, and of its present and future status in German politics.