![]() |
![]() |
Your cart is empty |
||
Books > Social sciences > Politics & government > Central government > General
“Did C. Y. Leung achieve his goals? Did he perform his duty to the Hong Kong people as their third Chief Executive?” To answer these questions, this book presents a rational, research-based critique of the C. Y. Leung Administration that governed in Hong Kong from 2012 to 2017. It is a sweeping and original publication that covers various aspects of governance, including politics, economics, healthcare, human rights, civil service, housing, urban planning, youth, and legislative council elections as well as Hong Kong’s relationship with Taiwan, Mainland China, and Western countries. Written by a team of expert authors from various fields, this book is one of the first comprehensive academic discourses on issues facing the Administration. The first chapter sets the tone of the book, with the subsequent chapters providing additional details confirming the general conclusions of the authors concerning the C. Y. Leung Administration. Written for scholars and community members interested in Hong Kong governance, this book is an anthology of articles that present a complex and comprehensive critique of one specific Chief Executive’s period of influence and how his administration’s policies still affect the Hong Kong community today.
The subject of this book is one of the most central and timely in Public Administration - how to make sense of critical theory, and (especially) how to assess its implications for everyday practice. Charles Frederick Abel and Arthur Sementelli argue that Evolutionary Critical Theory - a synergistic employment of the methodologies of traditional social science, institutionalism, and hermeneutics - provides fresh insights into the core issues of Public Administration theory and practice. While some may argue that public administration theory is an oxymoron, this ground-breaking volume explodes that notion and argues that Evolutionary Critical Theory is an especially helpful and powerful tool for administrative scholars and practitioners in their quest to realize good government.
This book is unique in analysing the new Scottish Parliament from a systematically comparative perspective. Its basic premise is that since devolution in 1999 Scotland can be considered a Scandinavian-style democracy with several features of a Scandinavian-style parliament. The basic research question, therefore, is: 'Has the Scottish Parliament in its first four-year term manifested a Scandinavian-style politics in the sense that there has been a high incidence of inter-party negotiation within parliament?' The architects of the Scottish Parliament saw the committees as the motor of a 'new politics' and gave them extensive powers. Outside Austria, only the Swedish and Icelandic committees have comparable powers. Accordingly, the study sets out to describe and analyse the workings of the committees in the Scottish, Swedish and Icelandic parliaments. The concluding chapter also discusses the operation of the Danish, Finnish and Norwegian committees. The book draws on in-depth interviews with the chairs of the Scottish, Swedish and Icelandic committees. The first six chapters are organised around the theme 'The Scottish Parliamentary Committees. The Motor of a New Politics?' Chapters
The news media, especially television, have become a fixture on Capitol Hill in the past twenty years. Making Laws and Making News describes the interactive relationship between the press and Congress that strongly affects the news, the legislative process, and the types of laws enacted. Instead of focusing on how reporters decide who and what to cover and how news is resented, Cook examines the other side of the equation--the relationship between the media strategies of House members press offices and the legislative strategies of the members themselves. The book won the 1990 Benjamin Franklin Award for Excellence in Independent Publishing.
The Clinton administration's National Performance Review of the federal government (also called the Reinventing Government Initiative) is the eleventh effort this century to improve the executive branch and reform the federal service. Most previous efforts have faltered. How can present and future recommendations avoid the same fate? This book provides practical and timely guidance to those trying to improve government performance. The focus of successful attempts, the authors argue, should be sustained evolution, not bursts of invention aimed at sweeping transformation. Specific proposals address ways to change government over the long term, ways to streamline bureaucracy, attract more resourceful and innovative workers, and make agencies more responsive to their customers, the citizens.
In the 1950s, public relations practitioners tried to garner respectability for their fledgling profession, and one international figure helped in that endeavor. President Dwight D. Eisenhower embraced public relations as a necessary component of American democracy, advancing the profession at a key moment in its history. But he did more than believe in public relations-he practiced it. Eisenhower changed how America campaigns by leveraging television and Madison Avenue advertising. Once in the Oval Office, he maximized the potential of a new medium as the first U.S. president to seek training for television and to broadcast news conferences on television. Additionally, Eisenhower managed the news through his press office, molding the role of the modern presidential press secretary. The first president to adopt a policy of full disclosure on health issues, Eisenhower survived (politically as well as medically) three serious illnesses while in office. The Eisenhower Administration was the most forthcoming on the president's health at the time, even though it did not always live up to its own policy. In short, Eisenhower deserves credit as this nation's most innovative public relations president, because he revolutionized America's political communication process, forever changing the president's relationship with the Fourth Estate, Madison Avenue, public relations, and ultimately, the American people.
The 2008 presidential nominations were unprecedented in many ways. Marking another step in the democratization of the selection process and a surprising loss of control by party elites, the contests in both parties were unusually competitive and the outcomes belied the predictions of experts. This book offers a fresh look at the role of parties, the constraints of campaign finance, the status of front-runners, and the significance of rules, race, and gender in the post-reform era. In this volume, leading scholars assess the state of the process with original research about money, scheduling, superdelegates, and the role of race and gender in voting. Original analyses show how changes in campaign finance and the scheduling of primaries and caucuses helped determined the outcomes in both parties. Race, once thought of as a handicap, proved an asset for the Obama campaign. 2008 marked another milestone in the democratization of the nominations process with expanded participation by rank and file voters in donating money, voting, and using the Internet. This timely book provides a glimpse into the future of party nominations and elections.
Most Americans would probably be surprised to hear that, in 1959,
James Burnham, a leading political thinker questioned whether
Congress would survive, and whether the Executive Branch of the
American government would become a dictatorship. In the last
decade, members of Congress have impeached a president, rejected or
refused to consider presidential nominees, and appear in the media
criticizing the chief executive. Congress does not exactly appear
to be at risk of expiring. Regardless of how we perceive Congress
today, more than forty years after "Congress and the American
Tradition" was written, Burnham's questions, arguments, and
political analysis still have much to tell us about freedom and
political order.
The City and Sex examines American political sex scandals at the national level. Studying these events over time with an emphasis on the evolving responses of both statesmen and citizens reveals the republic's deteriorating moral health and illuminates the country's dangerous tendency toward servitude. Using scandals as a window through which to glimpse our deterioration, the book identifies a trajectory of decline beginning in the twentieth century, by which Americans became less tutored in virtue, less spirited in citizenship, less agreed on questions of moral significance, and ultimately less dexterous in exercising the skills of self-government. It seeks to show that the freedom from virtue won through the collapse of moral standards has produced an American citizenry increasingly prone to the kind of dependence and enslavement Alexis de Tocqueville cautioned against in the 1830s.
The readings in this collection provide a comprehensive guide to the established knowledge and emerging issues regarding democratizing public bureaucracies by making them socially representative. The book includes both classic and cutting-edge works, and presents a contemporary model for analyzing representative bureaucracy that focuses on the linkages between social origins, life experiences, attitudes, and administrators' decision making. The selections address many of the leading concerns of contemporary politics, including diversity and equal opportunity policy, democratic control of administration, administrative performance, the pros and cons of the new public management, and reinventing government. Many of the field's most cited works are included. Each chapter starts with an introductory summary of the key questions under consideration and concludes with discussion questions. With it's extensive selection of classic and contemporary readings, the book will have wide application for courses on bureaucracy, public administration, and public sector human resource management.
The readings in this collection provide a comprehensive guide to the established knowledge and emerging issues regarding democratizing public bureaucracies by making them socially representative. The book includes both classic and cutting-edge works, and presents a contemporary model for analyzing representative bureaucracy that focuses on the linkages between social origins, life experiences, attitudes, and administrators' decision making. The selections address many of the leading concerns of contemporary politics, including diversity and equal opportunity policy, democratic control of administration, administrative performance, the pros and cons of the new public management, and reinventing government. Many of the field's most cited works are included. Each chapter starts with an introductory summary of the key questions under consideration and concludes with discussion questions. With it's extensive selection of classic and contemporary readings, the book will have wide application for courses on bureaucracy, public administration, and public sector human resource management.
"Entitlement Politics" describes partisan attempts to shrink the size of government by targeting two major federal health care entitlements. Efforts to restructure or eliminate entitlements as such, and to privatize and decentralize programs, along with more traditional attempts to amend and reform Medicare and Medicaid have radically transformed policymaking with respect to these programs. However, they have failed to achieve fundamental or lasting reform. Smith combines historical narrative and case studies with descriptions of the technical aspects and dynamics of policymaking to help the consumer understand how the process has changed, evaluate particular policies and outcomes, and anticipate future possibilities. His account intentionally goes at some length into the substance of the programs, the policies that are involved, and the views of different protagonists about the major issues in the dispute. One unhealthy consequence of politicizing Medicare and Medicaid policy has been to separate public debate from the technical and organizational realities underlying issues of cost containment or program structure. Smith considers this development unfortunate, since it leaves even informed citizens unable to evaluate the claims being made. Ironically, strife over Medicare has complicated the political and policy issues in American life. Only a serious and genuine bipartisan effort bringing forth the best efforts of both political parties--and some of the best industry leaders and policy experts in the field--is likely to achieve genuine reform. The more people and parties know about the history, politics, and policies of these programs, the better our prospects for devising workable, equitable, and lasting solutions. This volume leads the way toward that understanding.
The revolution in public management has led many reformers to call for public managers to reinvent themselves as public entrepreneurs. Larry D. Terry opposes this view, and presents a normative theory of administrative leadership that integrates legal, sociological, and constitutional theory.
The laws that legislatures adopt provide a crucial opportunity for elected politicians to define public policy. But the ways politicians use laws to shape policy vary considerably across polities. In some cases, legislatures adopt detailed and specific laws in an effort to micromanage policymaking processes. In others, they adopt general and vague laws that leave the executive and bureaucrats substantial discretion to fill in the policy details. What explains these differences across political systems, and how do they matter? The authors address these issues by developing and testing a comparative theory of how laws shape bureaucratic autonomy. Drawing on a range of evidence from advanced parliamentary democracies and the U.S. States, they argue that particular institutional forms--such as the nature of electoral laws, the structure of the legal system, and the professionalism of the legislature--have a systematic and predictable effect on how politicians use laws to shape the policymaking process.
Is American democracy being derailed by the United States Senate filibuster? Is the filibuster an important right that improves the political process or an increasingly partisan tool that delays legislation and thwarts the will of the majority? Are century-old procedures in the Senate hampering the institution from fulfilling its role on the eve of the 21st century? The filibuster has achieved almost mythic proportions in the history of American politics, but it has escaped a careful, critical assessment for more than 50 years. In this book, Sarah Binder and Steven Smith provide such an assessment as they address the problems and conventional wisdom associated with the Senate's long-standing tradition of extended debate. The authors examine the evolution of the rules governing Senate debate, analyze the consequences of these rules, and evaluate reform proposals. They argue that in an era of unprecedented filibustering and related obstructionism, old habits are indeed undermining the Senate's ability to meet its responsibilities. Binder and Smith scrutinize conventional wisdom about the filibuster --and show that very little of it is true. They focus on five major myths: that unlimited debate is a fundamental right to differentiate the Senate from the House of Representatives; that the Senate's tradition as a deliberative body requires unlimited debate; that the filibuster is reserved for a few issues of the utmost national importance; that few measures are actually killed by the filibuster; and that senators resist changing the rules because of a principled commitment to deliberation. In revising conventional wisdom about the filibuster, Binder and Smith contribute to ongoing debates about the dynamics of institutional change in the American political system. The authors conclude by suggesting reforms intended to enhance the power of determined majorities while preserving the rights of chamber minorities. They advocate, for example, lowering the number of votes required to end debate while increasing the amount of time for senators to debate controversial bills. Reform is possible, they suggest, that is consistent with the Senate's unique size and responsibilities.
In an era of promises to create smaller, more limited government, Americans often forget that the federal government has amassed an extraordinary record of successes over the past half century. Despite seemingly insurmountable odds, it helped rebuild Europe after World War II, conquered polio and other life-threatening diseases, faced down communism, attacked racial discrimination, reduced poverty among the elderly, and put men on the moon. In Government's Greatest Achievements, Paul C. Light explores the federal government's most successful accomplishments over the previous five decades and anticipates the most significant challenges of the next half century. While some successes have come through major legislation such as the 1965 Medicare Act, or large-scale efforts like the Apollo space program, most have been achieved through collections of smaller, often unheralded statutes. Drawing on survey responses from 230 historians and 220 political scientists at colleges and universities nationwide, Light ranks and summarizes the fifty greatest government achievements from 1944 to 1999. The achievements were ranked based on difficulty, importance, and degree of success. Through a series of twenty vignettes, he paints a vivid picture of the most intense government efforts to improve the quality of life both at home and abroad from enhancing health care and workplace safety, to expanding home ownership, to improving education, to protecting endangered species, to strengthening the national defense. The book also examines how Americans perceive government's greatest achievements, and reveals what they consider to be its most significant failures. America is now calling on the government to resolve another complex, difficult problem: the defeat of terrorism. Light concludes by discussing this enormous task, as well as government's other greatest priorities for the next fifty years.
The nation's federal, state, and local public service is in deep trouble. Not even the most talented, dedicated, well- compensated, well-trained, and well-led public servants can serve the public well if they must operate under perverse personnel and procurement regulations that punish innovation and promote inefficiency. Many attempts have been made to determine administrative problems in the public service and come up with viable solutions. Two of the most important--the 1990 report of the National Commission on the Public Service, led by former Federal Reserve chairman Paul A. Volcker, and the 1993 report of the National Commission on the State and Local Public Service, led by former Mississippi Governor William F. Winter--recommended " deregulating the public service." Deregulating the public service essentially means altering or abolishing personnel and procurement regulations that deplete government workers' creativity, reduce their productivity, and make a career in public service unattractive to many talented, energetic, and public-spirited citizens. But will it work? With the benefit of a historical perspective on the development of American public service from the days of the progressives to the present, the contributors to this book argue that deregulating the public service is a necessary but insufficient condition for much of the needed improvement in governmental administration. Avoiding simple solutions and quick fixes for long-standing ills, they recommend new and large-scale experiments with deregulating the public service at all levels of government. In addition to editor John DiIulio, the contributors are Paul A. Volcker, former chairman of the FederalReserve, now at Princeton University; former Mississippi Governor William F. Winter; Gerald J. Garvey, Princeton; John P. Burke, University of Vermont; Melvin J. Dubnick, Rutgers; Constance Horner, former director of the Federal Office of Personnel Management, now at Brookings; Mark Alan Hughes, Harvard; Steven Kelman, Harvard; Donald F. Kettl, University of Wisconsin at Madison; Mark H. Moore, Harvard; Richard P. Nathan, State University of New York at Albany; Neal R. Peirce, The National Review; and James Q. Wilson, UCLA.
The twelve years of Lee Teng-hui's presidency were marked by a series of contrary trends: tremendous progress in the consolidation of Taiwan's democracy; deterioration of the Kuomintang's popularity and the spread of "black and gold politics" (the influence of organized crime and corruption in the political system); a growing role for Taiwan in international affairs; and periodic and often intense conflicts with China. Lee himself was viewed as a heroic figure by some and reviled by others. In this book some of the most influential scholars on Taiwan's domestic politics and international relations assess Lee Teng-hui's presidency and his legacy for Taiwan's current leaders and the political system as a whole.
The 12 years of Lee Teng-hui's presidency were marked by a series of contrary trends such as progress in the consolidation of Taiwan's democracy, and periodic conflicts with China. This book assesses the complex legacy of Lee Teng-hui by looking at his accomplishments and setbacks. |
![]() ![]() You may like...
Cyber-Physical Systems for Social…
Maya Dimitrova, Hiroaki Wagatsuma
Hardcover
R7,081
Discovery Miles 70 810
International Symposium on Mathematics…
Tsuyoshi Takagi, Masato Wakayama, …
Hardcover
R1,671
Discovery Miles 16 710
Systems, Decision and Control in Energy…
Vitaliy Babak, Volodymyr Isaienko, …
Hardcover
R2,903
Discovery Miles 29 030
Introduction to Parallel Computing - A…
Wesley Petersen, Peter Arbenz
Hardcover
R6,204
Discovery Miles 62 040
|