Founded by MK Gandhi early in his career, the Natal Indian Congress is one of the oldest political organizations in South Africa. This book traces its course through colonial anti-Asiatic feeling, past apartheid, and into the new democracy.

In Cuba Was Different, Even Sandvik Underlid explores the views of Cuban authorities, official press, and Party members as they reflect back on the collapse of Soviet and Eastern European socialism. In so doing, he contributes to a better understanding as to why the Cuban system - often associated with Fidel Castro's leadership - did not itself collapse. Despite the loss of its most important allies, key ideological referents, and even most of its foreign trade, Cuba did not embrace capitalism. The author critically examines and analyzes the collapse of the USSR and Eastern Europe as reported in the Cuban Communist Party newspaper Granma, both as they unfolded and subsequently through the lens of additional interviews with individual Party members. This focus on Cuba's Communist Party provides new perspectives on how these events were seen from Cuba and on the notable resilience of many party members.

Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Turkey relentlessly persecuted any form of Kurdish dissent. This led to the radicalisation of an increasing number of Kurds, the rise of the Kurdish national movement and the PKK's insurgency against Turkey. Political activism by the Kurds or around Kurdish-related political demands continues to be viewed with deep suspicions by Turkey's political establishment and severely restricted. Despite this, the pro-Kurdish democratic movement has emerged, providing Kurds with a channel to represent themselves and articulate their demands. This book is timely contribution to the debate on the Kurds' political representation in Turkey, tracing the different forms it has taken since 1950. The book highlights how the transformations in Kurdish society have affected the types of actors involved in politics and the avenues, organisations and networks Kurds use to challenge the state. Based on survey data obtained from over 350 individuals, this is the first book to provide an in-depth analysis of Kurdish attitudes from across different segments of Kurdish society, including the elite, the business and professional classes, women and youth activists. It is an intimate portrait of how Kurds today are dealing with the challenges and difficulties of political representation.

Die laaste vier jaar van dr. H.F. Verwoerd se bewind is gekenmerk deur belangrike gebeurtenisse in suidelike Afrika, soos die toekenning van selfregering aan die Transkei, die verslag van die Odendaalkommissie oor S.W.A., die uitspraak in die Rivonia-saak, die aanvang van die Oranjerivierskema, die uitspraak van die Internasionale Geregshof in Den Haag oor die S.W.A.-mandaat, die eensydige onafhanklikheidsverklaring van Rhodese en die wapenverbod teen S.A. deur die V.N. Hierdie boek bevat ’n seleksie uit dr. Verwoerd se toesprake wat nie voorheen gepubliseer is nie.

In this book, Anthony Williams investigates the history of Christian Socialist thought in Britain from the late nineteenth to mid-twentieth century. Through analysis of the writings of ten key Christian Socialists from the period, Williams reframes the ideology of Christian Socialism as a coherent and influential body of political thought - moving the study of Christian Socialism away from historical narratives and towards political ideology. The book sheds new light on a key period in British political development, in particular Williams demonstrates how the growth of the Christian Socialist movement exercised a profound impact on the formation of the British Labour party, which would go on to radically change 20th century politics in Britain.

For the first eighteen months of Jeremy Corbyn's leadership, Labour MPs were in open revolt. The party seemed to be heading back to the early 1980s, when old-school Marxists tried and failed to take over the party, at a shocking electoral cost. The snap general election called by Theresa May for 8 June 2017 looked set to consign Labour to the history books. But the best-laid plans of mice and men... How long can the uneasy peace between moderate, anti-Corbyn MPs and the leader's loyal grassroots activists last? What does Jeremy Corbyn's Labour Party have in common with the Labour Party of Attlee, Wilson and Blair? Is there even a future for either version of `democratic socialism' in the twenty-first century? Or is the Labour Party, as generations of voters have known it, finally coming to the end of its useful life? The seeds of Labour's travails and its hostile takeover by the hard left were sown years earlier, during the turbulent, chaotic last years of the Labour government. In Ten Years in the Death of the Labour Party, columnist and former Labour MP Tom Harris turns the spotlight on the decisions that doomed the party's fortunes and the people who made them.

The American vice presidency, as the saying goes, 'is not worth a bucket of warm spit.' Yet vice presidential candidates, many people believe, can make all the difference in winning-or losing-a presidential election. Is that true, though? Did Sarah Palin, for example, sink John McCain's campaign in 2008? Did Joe Biden help Barack Obama win? Do running mates actually matter? In the first book to put this question to a rigorous test, Christopher J. Devine and Kyle C. Kopko draw upon an unprecedented range of empirical data to reveal how, and how much, running mates influence voting in presidential elections. Building on their previous work in The VP Advantage and evidence from over 200 statistical models spanning the 1952 to 2016 presidential elections, the authors analyze three pathways by which running mates might influence vote choice. First, of course, they test for direct effects, or whether evaluations of the running mate influence vote choice among voters in general. Next, they test for targeted effects-if, that is, running mates win votes among key subsets of voters who share their gender, religion, ideology, or geographic identity. Finally, the authors examine indirect effects-that is, whether running mates shape perceptions of the presidential candidate who selected them, which in turn influence vote choice. Here, in this last category, is where we see running mates most clearly influencing presidential voting-especially when it comes to their qualifications for holding office and taking over as president, if necessary. Picking a running mate from a key voting bloc probably won't make a difference, the authors conclude. But picking an experienced, well-qualified running mate will make the presidential candidate look better to voters---and win some votes. With its wealth of data and expert analysis, this finely crafted study, the most comprehensive to date, finally provides clear answers to one of the most enduring questions in presidential politics: can the running mate make a difference in this election?

The American vice presidency, as the saying goes, 'is not worth a bucket of warm spit.' Yet vice presidential candidates, many people believe, can make all the difference in winning-or losing-a presidential election. Is that true, though? Did Sarah Palin, for example, sink John McCain's campaign in 2008? Did Joe Biden help Barack Obama win? Do running mates actually matter? In the first book to put this question to a rigorous test, Christopher J. Devine and Kyle C. Kopko draw upon an unprecedented range of empirical data to reveal how, and how much, running mates influence voting in presidential elections. Building on their previous work in The VP Advantage and evidence from over 200 statistical models spanning the 1952 to 2016 presidential elections, the authors analyze three pathways by which running mates might influence vote choice. First, of course, they test for direct effects, or whether evaluations of the running mate influence vote choice among voters in general. Next, they test for targeted effects-if, that is, running mates win votes among key subsets of voters who share their gender, religion, ideology, or geographic identity. Finally, the authors examine indirect effects-that is, whether running mates shape perceptions of the presidential candidate who selected them, which in turn influence vote choice. Here, in this last category, is where we see running mates most clearly influencing presidential voting-especially when it comes to their qualifications for holding office and taking over as president, if necessary. Picking a running mate from a key voting bloc probably won't make a difference, the authors conclude. But picking an experienced, well-qualified running mate will make the presidential candidate look better to voters---and win some votes. With its wealth of data and expert analysis, this finely crafted study, the most comprehensive to date, finally provides clear answers to one of the most enduring questions in presidential politics: can the running mate make a difference in this election?

In the 1850s, a startling new political party appeared on the American scene. Both its members and its critics called the new party by various names, but to most it was known as the Know Nothing Party. It reignited political fires over nativism and anti-immigration sentiments. At a time of political uncertainty, with the Whig party on the verge of collapse, the Know Nothings seemed destined to replace them and perhaps become a political fixture. Historian Marius M. Carriere Jr. tracks the rise and fall of the Know Nothing movement in Louisiana, outlining not only the history of the party as it is usually known, but also explaining how the party's unique permeation in Louisiana contrasted with the Know Nothings' expansion nationally and elsewhere in the South. For example, many Roman Catholics in the state joined the Know Nothings, even though the party was nationally known as anti-Catholic. While historians have largely concentrated on the Know Nothings' success in the North, Carriere furnishes a new context for the evolution of a national political movement at odds with its Louisiana constituents. Through statistics on various elections and demographics of Louisiana politicians, Carriere forms a detailed account of Louisiana's Know Nothing Party. The national and rapidly changing Louisiana political landscape yielded surprising, credible leverage for the Know Nothing movement. Slavery, Carriere argues, also played a crucial difference between southern and northern Know Nothing ideals. Carriere delineates the eventual downfall of the Know Nothing Party, while offering new perspectives on a nativist movement, which has appeared once again in a changing, divided country.

Few Americans and even fewer citizens of other nations understand the electoral process in the United States. Still fewer understand the role played by political parties in the electoral process or the ironies within the system. Participation in elections in the United States is much lower than in the vast majority of mature democracies. Perhaps this is because of the lack of competition in a country where only two parties have a true chance of winning, despite the fact that a large number of citizens claim allegiance to neither and think badly of both. Or perhaps it is because in the U.S. campaign contributions disproportionately favor incumbents in most legislative elections, or that largely unregulated groups such as the now notorious 527 organizations have as much impact on the outcome of a campaign as do the parties or the candidates' campaigns. For instance, in two of the last six presidential elections, the winner of the popular vote lost the election in the Electoral College; in two others, a change of fewer than 100,000 votes in selected states would have led to the same result. These factors offer a very clear picture of the problems that underlie our much trumpeted electoral system. The third edition of this Very Short Introduction analyzes these issues and more. Accounting for changes in electoral coalitions and the extent to which the American electorate is polarized in the wake of Donald Trump, L. Sandy Maisel explains how the system actually works while shining a light on some of its flaws. He also looks closely at turnout questions; efforts both to ease access to the ballot in some states and to restrict access in others; and the role of social media in campaign strategy.

"Engaging and inspiring . . . Reading this book should make you want to vote." Barack Obama In a world of sound bites, deliberate misinformation, and a political scene colored by the blue versus red partisan divide, how does the average educated American find a reliable source that's free of political spin? What You Should Know About Politics . . . But Don't breaks it all down, issue by issue, explaining who stands for what, and why-whether it's the economy, income inequality, Obamacare, foreign policy, education, immigration, or climate change. If you're a Democrat, a Republican, or somewhere in between, it's the perfect book to brush up on a single topic or read through to get a deeper understanding of the often mucky world of American politics. This is an essential volume for understanding the background to the 2016 presidential election. But it is also a book that transcends the season. It's truly for anyone who wants to know more about the perennial issues that will continue to affect our everyday lives. The third edition includes an introduction by Naomi Wolf discussing the themes and issues that have come to the fore during the present presidential cycle.

Ideology and Organization in Indian Politics examines the immense changes that have occurred in Indian politics over the past decade and its impact on the Indian National Congress. The impact is most apparent in the changing fortunes of the Congress party, which suffered two major defeats in 2014 and 2019 elections, bringing the party's crisis to the front and centre of public debate. This book seeks to understand the reasons for these enormous changes by looking first at the underlying conditions that led to the decline of the Congress and, second, the challenges' both external and internal' confronting the Congress and, while doing so, estimating its impact on Indian politics and on the Congress. More specifically, it looks at how important ideological debates provoked by the rise of majoritarianism, the Gujarat model, hypernationalism, the secular retreat, and the curbs and restrictions on the opposition influenced Congress. Exploring ideological shifts and organizational limits that shaped the decline of the Congress makes a compelling case for the significance of the Congress story in understanding the larger political transformation underway in India. The argument centers on the Congress party, but comparatively speaking, it has relevance for the experience of centrist and centre-left parties in other countries, which too suffered a decline in the context of the upsurge of populist nationalism and right-wing politics in the past few years. Analysis of political change in India in the past decade affords insights into the processes of transformation and polarization that grounded the Congress party and centrist parties in other countries as well.

Differing moral views are dividing the country and polarizing the left and the right more than ever before. This book offers unique solutions to improve communication and understanding between the two factions to fix our fractured political system. Morality is at the heart of political contention in American society. Unfortunately, our polarized belief systems severely inhibit the achievement of bipartisan compromises. A Battlefield of Values: America's Left, Right, and Endangered Center provides a candid but nonjudgmental examination of what people think and believe-and how this informs our divisions over core values. By addressing how individuals believe rather than how they vote, the book illuminates why 21st-century America is so conflicted politically and religiously; exposes what matters most to those on the right and left of the political, religious, and cultural spectrum; explains why the members of the endangered center in American life-the moderates-are struggling to make sense of the great divide between conflicting ideologies; and predicts how a degree of reconciliation and detente might be possible in the future. Authors Stephen Burgard and Benjamin J. Hubbard build a powerful case for how authentic communication between political factions is integral to bettering our society as a whole. Along the way, they illustrate the impact of religion and media on American belief systems and also explore the inability of news media to serve as mediators of this dilemma. This work will fascinate lay readers seeking perspective on our current political stalemate as well as serve college students taking courses in political science, communications, journalism, anthropology, or religious studies. Provides a unique analysis that shows how our seemingly irreconcilable differences can be turned into assets for transforming the United States into a better country Offers informed perspectives of American conflict from authors with more than 50 years of experience combined in their respective fields Explores a future using religion, technology, and science to mend distrust and tune up our political system Presents information and concepts appropriate for an academic lesson plan or for any civics-savvy reader

While political history has plenty to say about the impact of Ronald Reagan's election to the presidency in 1980, four Senate races that same year have garnered far less attention - despite their similarly profound political effect. Tuesday Night Massacre looks at those races. In examining the defeat in 1980 of Idaho's Frank Church, South Dakota's George McGovern, John Culver of Iowa, and Birch Bayh of Indiana, Marc C. Johnson tells the story of the beginnings of the divisive partisanship that has become a constant feature of American politics. The turnover of these seats not only allowed Republicans to gain control of the Senate for the first time since 1954 but also fundamentally altered the conduct of American politics. The incumbents were politicians of national reputation who often worked with members of the other party to accomplish significant legislative objectives - but they were, Johnson suggests, unprepared and ill-equipped to counter nakedly negative emotional appeals to the 'politically passive voter.' Such was the campaign of the National Conservative Political Action Committee (NCPAC), the organization founded by several young conservative political activists who targeted these four senators for defeat. Johnson describes how such groups, amassing a great amount of money, could make outrageous and devastating claims about incumbents - 'baby killers' who were 'soft on communism,' for example - on behalf of a candidate who remained above the fray. Among the key players in this sordid drama are NCPAC chairman Terry Dolan; Washington lobbyist Charles Black, a top GOP advisor to several presidential campaigns and one-time business partner of Paul Manafort; and Roger Stone, self-described 'dirty trickster' for Richard Nixon and confidant of Donald Trump. Connecting the dots between the Goldwater era of the 1960s and the ascent of Trump, Tuesday Night Massacre charts the radicalization of the Republican Party and the rise of the independent expenditure campaign, with its divisive, negative techniques, a change that has deeply - and perhaps permanently - warped the culture of bipartisanship that once prevailed in American politics.

Remember that metaphor about the frog that slowly cooks to death in the pot of increasingly warm water? Leftists have used it for years to describe how people can accept dwindling health care, fading job opportunities, eroding racial and gender equality--as long as the loss occurs gradually. Now, with Donald Trump having slouched off to Washington, most of the mainstream media are working overtime to convince us that we can still stand the heat. Leave it to John Bellamy Foster, one of the world's outstanding radical scholars, to expose Trump for who and what he is: a neo-fascist. Just at the boiling point, Foster offers us cool logic to comprehend the system that created Trump's moral and political emergency--and to resist it. In Trump in the White House, John Bellamy Foster does what no other Trump analyst has done before: he places the president and his administration in full historical context. Foster reveals that Trump is merely the endpoint of a stagnating economic system whose liberal democratic sheen has begun to wear thin. Beneath a veneer of democracy, we see the authoritarian rule that oversees decreasing wages, anti-science and climate-change denialism, a dying public education system, and expanding prisons and military--all powered by a phony populism seething with centuries of racism that never went away. But Foster refuses to end his book in despair. Inside his analysis is a clarion call to fight back. Protests, popular demands, coalitions: everyone is needed. Change can't happen without radical, anti-capitalist politics, and Foster demonstrates that--even now, with the waters ever warming--it may yet be possible to stop the desecration of the Earth; to end endless war; to create global solidarity with all oppressed people. Could a frog do that?

While significant attention in political science is devoted to national level elections, a comprehensive look at state level political dynamics in the United States is so far sorely missing, and state level electoral developments and shifts are treated as mere reflections of national-level dynamics and patterns. This book argues that this significantly impacts our ability to understand macro-level electoral shifts in the United States in general. The book analyzes gubernatorial, congressional, and presidential election results in the state of Alabama from 1945 through 2020. Comprehensive maps of county-level partisan shifts over time and comparisons between trends for different offices make it possible to isolate pivotal elections and compare state-level and national trends over time. When and where did Alabama's electorate break with the Democratic Party, and were these breaks uniform across the state? Which counties shifted the most over time, and was this shift gradual or characterized by change elections? Comprehensive electoral data, on the county- and precinct-level, make it possible to answer these questions and place state-level electoral behavior in its regional and national context. Detailed county level demographic and economic data is used to provide local context for electoral patterns, shifts, and continuities.

Despite being described as the most successful political party in any western democracy, the Liberal Party of Canada experienced its worst electoral defeat in 2011. Reduced to third-party status, the Liberal Party of Canada was seen by some experts as a spent force doomed to disappear from the Canadian political scene. And yet, just four years later, the party surged ahead once more, winning one of the most decisive elections in Canadian history. Road to Redemption offers a detailed exploration of this stunning reversal. It begins by outlining weaknesses in the party's organization and culture, weaknesses that existed long before the 2011 rout but were ignored while the party continued to win elections. Finally brought to light by the disastrous 2011 electoral campaign, these weaknesses were then systematically tackled by party elites and activists in a concerted effort to rebuild and restructure the party. Their efforts culminated in the state-of-the-art campaigns run by Justin Trudeau's Liberals in 2015 and 2019. Brooke Jeffrey argues that the remarkable turnaround of 2015 confirms the Liberal Party's exceptional ability to redefine itself and adapt to changing circumstances, a singular strength and the principal reason for the party's enduring appeal. Despite being reduced to a minority government in 2019, Jeffrey concludes that the Liberal Party and leader Justin Trudeau can take advantage of this second chance to further strengthen and consolidate the party's position for years to come.