Updated for Obama's last year in office, the liberal syndicated radio and television host Bill Press reflects on how the Obama administration has failed and disillusioned the American left. The bestselling liberal syndicated radio and television host Bill Press turns a critical eye on Barack Obama and assesses why his performance as president on issues liberals care deeply about has failed the American left. Press argues efficiently that Obama may have drawn the wrong lessons from the enthusiastic crowds that swarmed around him on the campaign trail in 2008--instead of seeing the potential and desire for a stronger progressivism, Obama tried to rise above and unite the parties. The tragedy of the Obama presidency is that, by trying to be the first "post-partisan" president, he ended up being one of the weakest. On issues as far ranging as gun safety to health care to foreign policy, Obama has let voters down by simply not doing enough or taking the wrong actions. As Press describes it, liberals began the Obama presidency with high hopes, and they now near its end with deep disappointment and a sense of buyer's remorse.

How should we study government?
How do we know what we know about British government?
What is governance?

Governance in Britain has changed enormously in the past twenty years from the market led Thatcher years to Blair's 'joined up government'. This book, written by two leading scholars, is a major contribution to our understanding of the theoretical approaches to governance and of how British politics actually works in practice. The authors provide a radical challenge to traditional accounts of British politics, such as the Westminster model, and instead offer a highly original interpretive approach. The combination of innovative theory and rich empirical detail make this controversial book essential reading for students and scholars of British politics.

President Bush's number-one management initiative for the federal government is the Strategic Management of Human Capital. According to Knowledgeworkers.com, human capital is the accumulated value of an individual's intellect, knowledge, and experience. In the U.S. federal government, a human capital crisis exists. The factors contributing to a human capital dilemma include a knowledge bleed due to retirement eligibility, changing perspectives on work, and escalating knowledge loss. According to a Joint Hearing on the Federal Human Capital, by 2005, more than half of the 1.8 million non-postal civilian employees will be eligible for early or regular retirement. An even greater percentage of the Senior Executive Service, the government's core managers, will be eligible to leave.
All government agencies are required to develop a human capital strategy by 2005. Many of these agencies have scored a "red" (lowest rating) on the Government Scorecard in the way they are approaching their strategic management of human capital. This book is an executive briefing on developing a successful human capital strategy based on lessons learned from analyzing existing strategies at government agencies such as NASA.
Using a knowledge management perspective, Liebowitz identifies four pillars of an effective strategy and gives examples of these in practice.
* President Bush's number-one management initiative for the federal government is the Strategic Management of Human Capital: The topic of this book
* All government agencies are required to develop a plan by 2005--this is the first book to address this need
* Provides a simple framework government agencies can use to develop theirstrategy

Following the return of Hong Kong to Chinese sovereignty, it appears that the 'high degree of autonomy' promised to Hong Kong is limited in many ways. China's reservations about the development of democracy in Hong Kong lies at the heart of the problem. The conceptual inadequacies set out in the Basic Law, Hong Kong's mini-constitution, show a correlation between a lack of democracy and a loss of autonomy. This book argues that genuine autonomy from the central government in Beijing is impossible without a democratic system in Hong Kong. Developments since the handover have, however, demonstrated that democratic trends have been halted and even reversed and that democracy is not likely to be established in Hong Kong in the near future.

eBook available with sample pages: 0203401921

Welfare States and Public Opinion comprises an informed inquiry into three fields of social policy health policy, family policy, and unemployment benefits and social assistance. Though the analyses stem from research spanning fifteen countries across Europe, the conclusions can be applied to social policy problems in nations worldwide. Combining a detailed analysis of the institutional structure of social policy with the study of public attitudes toward healthcare, family policy, and benefits for the unemployed and poor, this book represents a new stream in public opinion research. The authors demonstrate that the institutional designs of social policies have a great impact on inequalities among social groups, and provide best practices for gaining public support for social policy reform. The wealth of information found in this comprehensive study will be of interest not only to scholars and students of sociology, political science, social policy, public policy and law, but to health and social policymakers the world over. Contents: 1. Introduction 2. Perceptions of Welfare State Institutions: Theories and Concepts 3. Healthcare Our Greatest Good? 4. Family Policy One for All? 5. Public Support for Unemployment Benefits and Social Assistance Schemes Money for Nothing or Help in Dire Straits? 6. Conclusion: Comparing Public Attitudes in Three Fields of Social Policy Bibliography Index

A resource for administrators seeking innovative ideas and supporting precedents in formulating policy, this book also provides a useful textbook for public administration and policy students. It employs a wealth of case studies in budgeting and financial management to demonstrate strategies in system implementation, policy formulation, government accounting, auditing, and financial reporting. With contributions from leading experts, it clarifies procedures to solve cutback and downsizing dilemmas using theoretical models, and provides pragmatic approaches to managing financial activities under budgetary strain. It also covers the evolution of a debt management policy.

By the late 1990s Green parties had entered national governments in five Western European countries - Finland, Italy, Germany, France and Belgium.This book analyzes the performance of Green parties in these five governments by answering the following questions: what are the political conditions under which Green parties have gained effective office? How do Green parties behave in government? What is the impact of Green parties on the policy performance of the national government? What is the effect of government participation on the electoral and organizational stability of the Greens?

Tavistock Press was established as a co-operative venture between the Tavistock Institute and Routledge & Kegan Paul (RKP) in the 1950s to produce a series of major contributions across the social sciences. This volume is part of a 2001 reissue of a selection of those important works which have since gone out of print, or are difficult to locate. Published by Routledge, 112 volumes in total are being brought together under the name The International Behavioural and Social Sciences Library: Classics from the Tavistock Press. Reproduced here in facsimile, this volume was originally published in 1972 and is available individually. The collection is also available in a number of themed mini-sets of between 5 and 13 volumes, or as a complete collection.

Throughout history, personal liberty, free markets, and peaceable, voluntary exchanges have been roundly denounced by tyrants and often greeted with suspicion by the general public. Unfortunately, Americans have increasingly accepted the tyrannical ideas of reduced private property rights and reduced rights to profits, and have become enamored with restrictions on personal liberty and control by government. In this latest collection of essays selected from his syndicated newspaper columns, Walter E. Williams takes on a range of controversial issues surrounding race, education, the environment, the Constitution, health care, foreign policy, and more. Skewering the self-righteous and self-important forces throughout society, he makes the case for what he calls the "the moral superiority of personal liberty and its main ingredient - limited government." With his usual straightforward insights and honesty, Williams reveals the loss of liberty in nearly every important aspect of our lives, the massive decline in our values, and the moral tragedy that has befallen Americans today: our belief that it is acceptable for the government to forcibly use one American to serve the purposes of another.

New public management is a topical phrase to describe how management techniques from the private sector are now being applied to public services. This book provides a completely up-to-date overview of the main theoretical models of public sector management, and examines the key changes that have occurred as more and more public services are contracted out to private organisations, as the public sector itself grapples with 'internal markets'. Drawing on economics, organisational theory and poliltics, Jan-Erik Lane presents new public management from an analytical perspective. This book uses game theory and empirical studies in order to assess the pros and cons of new public management.

Confronted with rising citizen discontent, the Reinventing Government movement, and new technological challenges, public organizations everywhere are seeking means of improving their performance. Their quest is not new, rather, the concern with improving the performance of government organizations has existed since the Scientific Management Movement. "Public Sector Performance" brings together in a single volume the classic, enduring principles and processes that have defined the field of public sector performance, as written in the words of leading practitioners and scholars. Taken as a whole, this volume provides a performance compass for today's public managers, helping them to reconstruct the public's confidence in, and support of, government.Defined here as managing public organizations for outcomes, performance is examined in all its varied dimensions: organizing work, managing workers, measuring performance, and overcoming resistance to performance-enhancing innovations. The selected articles are interesting, thought provoking, and instructive. They are classics in that they have been widely cited in the scholarly literature and have enduring value to public managers who seek to understand the many dimensions of performance. The book is organized into three sections: Performance Foundations, Performance Strategies, and Performance Measurement. Excerpts from additional selected articles feature special topics and wisdom from performance experts.

15 April 2016 marked 20 years since the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) hearings began. The TRC was set up to give an opportunity for perpetrators of human rights transgressions to come clean about the atrocities that happened during those evil days of apartheid. Sadly, only half of the truth came to the fore. Many families still do not know what happened to their loved ones.

There are few people better placed than Mary Burton to write about the TRC, having been one of its Commissioners. Burton’s pocket book provides an informed account from the inside of the process and workings of the TRC and a measured and balanced assessment of its outcomes and significance.

Even at the time of its existence, the TRC came in for criticism from a variety of quarters: both the African National Congress and ex-President FW de Klerk took legal action to challenge or prevent the publication of the Commission’s report; however, the Commission also fulfilled a vital and important role in the transition from apartheid to democracy, and it has become a model for other countries wishing to undertake similar journeys to deal with past atrocities and come to some kind of national resolution, reconciliation or closure.

It is rare for a scholar to revisit the scene of earlier research with a view to evaluating how that research has stood up over time. Here David E Apter does that and more. In a lengthy new introductory chapter to this classic study of bureaucratic nationalism, he reviews the efficacy of the concepts in his original study of Uganda of almost a century ago, including some, such as consociationalism', which have entered into the mainstream of comparative politics.

This volume takes a communications-oriented approach to a wide range of topics encompassing organization, management, political theory and practice, business-government relations, innovation processes, and IT. Offering a balanced, international presentation, it contains authoritative contributions from world-renowned experts representing various disciplines, including administrative law, organizational and political theory, phenomenology, public and business management, educational technology, psychology, and other fields. The book addresses typically neglected subjects such as communicating through humor, drama, film, poetry, fiction, and other creative forms.

HIST 98 short blurb This text examines all the major themes, personalities and issues of this important period in a clear and digestible form. Illustrated with with helpful maps, charts and diagrams. "Aspects of British Political History 1914-1995" examines all the major themes, personalities and issues of this important period in a clear and digestible form. It: introduces fresh angles to long-studied topics; consolidates a great body of recent research; analyzes views of different historians; offers an interpretive rather than narrative approach; gives concise treatment to complex issues; is directly relevant to student questions and courses; is carefully organised to reflect the way teachers tackle these courses; and is illustrated with helpful maps, charts, illustrations and photographs.

This is the story of a life shaped by Egypt's national struggle and dominated by the conflict between the Arab world and Israel. It charts Sadat's progress from fanatical nationalist to Nasser's successor as President of Egypt, and from world statesman to tragic hero, who gave his life in the cause of peace. This study of one of the major figures in the struggle for peace in the Middle East, is of interest in the light of the ongoing peace process between Israel and the Palestinians.

This book is your guide to becoming an empowerment leader. Its purpose: to redirect and re-energize leadership in government.
If you are involved in any form of government leadership, this new publication will show you exactly how to develop and implement the principles of empowerment and improve quality.
Transformational Leadership in Government is written for administrators and managers who are committed to improving the efficiency and effectiveness of their staff. Koehler and Pankowski illustrate how true leadership is the creation of a working environment that encourages those closest to the problem to take the responsibility for solving it.
The authors provide new principles of leadership that will enable leaders to successfully manage any government organization. The book focuses on governmental organizations that should be customer driven, process oriented, team based, and data driven. The essence of Transformational Leadership in Government can be summed up in the words of W. Edwards Deming: Give the worker a chance to work with pride.

What role have parliaments played in the dramatic changes occurring in Eastern and Central Europe? Adopting a common research framework, the contributors analyze in detail the role and operations of parliaments in ten of the new democracies. They focus on what determines their capacity to have some impact on public policy. They identify the significance of parliaments operating in often hybrid systems of government, with the relationship between the executive and legislature not well defined, and with an absence of constraining influence that typify western political systems.

Using a broadened conceptualization of agenda setting, this volume's objective is to examine the drug issue from mid-1984 to mid-1991 to determine how drug-related issues and events -- both real and fabricated -- and the primary agendas drove the issue over time. Based on this objective, four questions are posed:
* How did the media structure interpretations of drug issues and events?
* How did the president structure public relations interpretations and presentations of issue and event information over time?
* What were the interactions of the drug-issue agendas, the president's public relations agendas, the media, and the public, while controlling the policy agenda and a real-world measure of the severity of the drug problem?
* How did the relationships of these agendas differ during the Reagan and Bush presidencies?
These questions were addressed with detailed content analyses of the media agenda over time, the presidential public relations agenda over time, and a multivariate ARIMA analysis of the time series agendas. No previous studies to date have addressed and modeled these agendas simultaneously with ARIMA modeling methods.

This book focuses on what is arguably the most devastating phenomenon in the history of modern civilization, the COVID-19 pandemic. It shows how, on the one hand, the pandemic has exposed governments the world over to deal with a major health crisis; and, on the other, efforts by the ruling forces to enforce surveillance on people and disciplining them by maneuvering cutting-edge digital technology in the name of security and safety. Second, it explores how the mainstream versions of crisis communication and risk communication face huge challenges during a pandemic. Finally, it analyses how the pandemic propels an extraordinary expansion of infodemic - rapid spread of excessive quantities of misinformation and disinformation of the fake and false variety - and how social media in particular becomes its main tool in causing subversion of the prevalent information order. Engaging, comprehensive and accessible, this book will be of immense importance to scholars and researchers of politics, especially governance and political communication, communication studies, and public health management. It will be vital for public policy professionals, experts in thinktanks, career bureaucrats, and non-governmental organizations.

The 1832 Reform Act was a watershed in the history of modern Britain, profoundly affecting the composition of parliament and the course of all subsequent legislation.
This new edition of The Great Reform Act of 1832 extends and updates Eric J. Evans's classic account of the crucial political and economic issues.
The book:
* highlights the travails of Toryism at the end of the 1820s
* clarifies complex questions of policy
* shows the connections between the Reform Act of 1832 and subsequent radical activity and reform legislation
* presents revised electoral statistics
It presents an accessible and stimulating guide to the student of modern political history.

eBook available with sample pages: 0203131894