![]() |
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
|
Your cart is empty |
||
|
Books > Social sciences > Politics & government > Central government > General
Why does public management - the art of the state - so often go wrong, producing failure and fiasco instead of public service? What are the different ways in which control or regulation can be applied to government? Why do we find contradictory recipes for the improvement of public services? Are the forces of modernity set to produce world-wide convergence in ways of organizing government? This important new study aims to explore such questions, central to current debates over public management. Combining contemporary and historical experience, it employs grid/group cultural theory as an organizing frame and method of exploration. Using examples from different places and eras, the study seeks to identify the recurring variety of ideas about how to organize public services. And contrary to widespread claims that modernization will bring a new global uniformity, it argues that variety is unlikely to disappear from doctrine and practice in public management.
The British, Irish, Russian, American, German, and Austrian contributors examine the intricate nature of the mass repression unleashed by the Stalinist leader of the USSR during 1937-38. The first part of the collection deals with annihilation policies against the Soviet elite and the Communist International. The second section of the volume looks at mass operations of the secret police (NKVD) against social outcasts, Poles and other 'hostile' ethnic groups. The final section comprises micro-studies about targeted victim groups among the general population.
Privatization has been the spearhead of the moves towards de-regulation that have characterized economic policy in the last decade. "Privatisation - A Global Perspective" documents the developments in privatization in 25 country studies. It presents a comprehensive and detailed survey of the privatization phenomena and focuses on specifics. The main features of each country's privatization programme are outlined and then particular successes and problems are highlighted. Material from developed, developing and formerly socialist countries is included in a comparable format, and the distinguishing features of comparison and contrast, as well as broad conclusions, are presented in the concluding review by the editor. The authors include professors, ministers, public enterprise executives, practising accountants and other specialists.
First Published in 1993. Using four in-depth case studies, this book greatly adds to our understanding of what are often called subgovernments. A work of solid social science with a welcome feel of reality, this is essential reading for anyone interested in public policy-making.
Under the Color of Law constitutes a full and critical scholarly commentary to the text of five key Bush administration legal memoranda formative of U.S. counterterrorism policy from 2001 to 2009. This volume is dedicated to the idea that these documents are worthy of being read and critically examined in themselves as primary text, precisely because the act of critical assessment may yield meaningful policy reform in the ongoing debate facing the nation over balancing security interests with the preservation of civil liberties. This volume is intended to provide counterpoint for, and antithesis to, positions vigorously defended by President Bush's attorneys working at the OLC inside the Department of Justice, and it is designed to be used primarily in conjunction with and examined as response to the Bush-era documents themselves. Martin Henn investigates five central questions, each framed around commentary to a specific administration document. This work addresses the Yoo-Flanigan Memorandum of September 25, 2001, and asks whether any President has constitutional power to initiate a foreign war without congressional authorization. Regarding President Bush's November 13 executive order of 2001, Henn asks whether an emergency of war permits any President to usurp judicial and legislative powers to interpret law and define and punish offences against the law of nations. Along with many other questions these documents initiate, the author carefully analyzes and seeks to answer questions regarding the Bush administration, the use of interrogational coercion and torture in the war on terror.
First Published in 1993. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an Informa company.
The political, social and economic changes which overtook England in the early seventeenth century forced Parliament to adapt from a medieval institution into one with authority over all facets of society; studies focus on particular cases. The political, social and economic changes which overtook England in the early seventeenth century were both powerful and dramatic, forcing Parliament to adapt from a medieval institution into one with authority over all facets ofsociety. Dynastic change, union with Scotland, fiscal reform, civil war, revolution and Restoration required Parliament not only to be at work, but also to discover how to work. These studies focus on change and development in three areas: firstly, the institution of Parliament itself, exploring its growing institutional sophistication and the problems connected with attendance, workload and physical environment; secondly, on Parliament's role within theinstitutional set-up of the constitution, and the structure and relationships of power within the governance of the country; and thirdly, on the public perception of Parliament, and the practicalities of the relationship between Parliament and the wider world. Contributors: JOHN ADAMSON, ROBERT ARMSTRONG, DAVID DEAN, MICHAEL GRAVES, PAUL M. HUNNYBALL, SEAN KELSEY, CHRISTOPHER KYLE, JASON PEACEY, PAUL SEAWARD.
Moving from the adoption of the "post-Stalin" Constitution of 1977 through its subsequent implementation under Brezhnev, Andropov, and Chernenko to the radical legal "restructuring" of the Gorbachev years, Robert Sharlet traces the gradual evolution of a nascent constitutionalism in the erstwhile USSR. Sharlet, a noted authority on Soviet law and constitutional development, demonstrates the gradual transformation of law from an instrument of Communist Party rule into the new "rules of the game" for nonauthoritarian political development. In effect, he argues, one of Gorbachev's most durable achievements may be his redefinition of Soviet politics into a legal idiom along with his relocation of policymaking from behind the closed doors of Party conclaves into the more open, emergent arena of constitutional government. In analyzing the politics of law from the Brezhnev era to the rise of Yeltsin, the author takes account of the "war of laws", the symbolic uses of the Soviet constitution, and even the fact that the leaders of the failed coup attempted to justify their seizure of power on constitutional grounds. Constitutionalism has sufficiently suffused Soviet public life, the book concludes, that most of the sovereign republics as successors to the former USSR, have begun designing their futures - to varying degrees - in constitutional forms.
Moving from the adoption of the "post-Stalin" Constitution of 1977 through its subsequent implementation under Brezhnev, Andropov, and Chernenko to the radical legal "restructuring" of the Gorbachev years, Robert Sharlet traces the gradual evolution of a nascent constitutionalism in the erstwhile USSR. Sharlet, a noted authority on Soviet law and constitutional development, demonstrates the gradual transformation of law from an instrument of Communist Party rule into the new "rules of the game" for nonauthoritarian political development. In effect, he argues, one of Gorbachev's most durable achievements may be his redefinition of Soviet politics into a legal idiom along with his relocation of policymaking from behind the closed doors of Party conclaves into the more open, emergent arena of constitutional government. In analyzing the politics of law from the Brezhnev era to the rise of Yeltsin, the author takes account of the "war of laws", the symbolic uses of the Soviet constitution, and even the fact that the leaders of the failed coup attempted to justify their seizure of power on constitutional grounds. Constitutionalism has sufficiently suffused Soviet public life, the book concludes, that most of the sovereign republics as successors to the former USSR, have begun designing their futures - to varying degrees - in constitutional forms.
This volume brings together leading scholars from the US, Europe and Asia in search of new perspectives on and answers to questions about how a country's defence burden might affect welfare provision and economic growth, and vice versa. The essays examine and compare the historical experiences of a variety of developed and developing countries and include analyses of: - the link between defence spending and economic performance in the United States - the causes of Britain's relative decline - the institutional setting for Japan's pursuit of comprehensive national security - the influence of military spending on the developmental progress of Asia's newly industrializing countries - the patterns of business cycles and military hostility in the Middle East. The contributors offer new insights and often surprising findings regarding the relationship between defence burden and political economy. The essays are therefore highly pertinent to the ongoing scholarly and policy debates about the process of a peace dividend in the wake of the Cold War s demise. This book should be of interest to postgraduates of politics, international relations, international political economy.
First Published in 2015. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an Informa company.
Ever since the behavioral revolution reached Communist studies more than 2 decades ago, Western scholarship has tended to ignore the powerful and unwieldy institutional structure of the Soviet government. Today, suddenly, it is clear that the dramatic political and legislative reforms of the Gorbachev years will remain incomplete as long as the issues of state bureaucratic power and executive prerogative are unresolved. This volume, brings together original studies of the Soviet executive under Gorbachev by specialists including Barbara Chotiner, Stephen Fortescue, Brnda Horrigan, Ellen Jones, Wayne Limberg, T.H. Rigby and Louise Shelley. Among the topics covered are the major economic, national security and law enforcement ministries, the presidency, the cabinet and questions of presidential-ministerial, presidential-presidential, legislative-executive and party-state relations.
First Published in 2015. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an Informa company.
Ever since the behavioral revolution reached Communist studies more than 2 decades ago, Western scholarship has tended to ignore the powerful and unwieldy institutional structure of the Soviet government. Today, suddenly, it is clear that the dramatic political and legislative reforms of the Gorbachev years will remain incomplete as long as the issues of state bureaucratic power and executive prerogative are unresolved. This volume, brings together original studies of the Soviet executive under Gorbachev by specialists including Barbara Chotiner, Stephen Fortescue, Brnda Horrigan, Ellen Jones, Wayne Limberg, T.H. Rigby and Louise Shelley. Among the topics covered are the major economic, national security and law enforcement ministries, the presidency, the cabinet and questions of presidential-ministerial, presidential-presidential, legislative-executive and party-state relations.
First Published in 1993. Using four in-depth case studies, this book greatly adds to our understanding of what are often called subgovernments. A work of solid social science with a welcome feel of reality, this is essential reading for anyone interested in public policy-making.
A selection of papers from an April 1990 Carl Albert Center conference commemorating the bicentennial of the US Congress and the centennial of the U. of Oklahoma. The conference was entitled Back to the Future: the US Congress in the 21st Century, and its focus was on change and candidate-centered
The authors explore the many ways that gender and communication intersect and affect each other. Every chapter encourages a consideration of how gender attitudes and practices, past and current, influence personal notions of what it means not only to be female and male, but feminine and masculine. The second edition of this student friendly and accessible text is filled with contemporary examples, activities, and exercises to help students put theoretical concepts into practice.
This study charts the continuous power struggles of Pakistan's ruling elites from independence in 1947 to the rise of Benazir Bhutto. It argues that the legacy of the British Empire, with its method of divide and rule, has made the chance of democracy succeeding in Pakistan slight. With rulers more interested in personal aggrandizement and maintaining a minority power base, Pakistan has suffered from a lack of forward-thinking politicians interested in uniting the country and the various ethnic factions. In this book, Ashok Kapur shows how Pakistan's political problems are the result of anti-democratic intervention by the Army, the colonial legacy of minority rule, geographical borders which reflect the administrative interests of British India and divided ethnic communities, a lack of social cohesion, no sense of nationhood and ethnic rivalry and corruption.
Portfolio allocation in presidential systems is a central tool that presidents use to deal with changes in the political and economic environment. Yet, we still have much to learn about the process through which ministers are selected and the reasons why they are replaced in presidential systems. This book offers the most comprehensive, cross-national analysis of portfolio allocation in the Americas to date. In doing so, it contributes to the development of theories about portfolio allocation in presidential systems. Looking specifically at how presidents use portfolio allocation as part of their wider political strategy, it examines eight country case studies, within a carefully developed analytical framework and cross-national comparative analysis from a common dataset. The book includes cases studies of portfolio allocation in Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, the United States, Peru and Uruguay, and covers the period between the transition to democracy in each country up until 2014. This book will be of key interest to scholars and students of political elites, executive politics, Latin American politics and more broadly comparative politics.
This title was first published in 2000: A history of the ideas behind public policy studies, which can be defined as the study of the nature, causes and effects of government decisions for dealing with social problems.
This title was first published in 2003. How was public policy and economic development in Nigeria affected under the period of military control between 1966 and 1999? What is the nature and scale of change that Nigeria will have to undergo in order to achieve its current development goals? Initially providing a history of Nigeria along with a framework for understanding the nature, scope and magnitude of the military and public management problems within the country, this timely and rewarding book addresses both of these questions. It analyzes the institutions that make and implement public policy in the Nigerian political arena, and examines the route that Nigeria could take in order to enhance its public management capacities. Although the specific focus is on Nigeria, the mode of analysis used is transferable to a wide variety of developing nations. The book will foster an understanding among scholars, development planners, military officers and policy makers of the tasks and challenges facing Nigeria and many sub-Saharan African nations in the twenty-first century.
This book gathers the most influential authors on role research and legislative studies to examine the different roles that MPs are playing in modern-day legislatures. It provides a comprehensive and critical overview of current research on legislative roles, summarises previous research, presents a large variety of methodological approaches and also explores the latest developing approaches to role theory. The concept of political roles has become increasingly relevant for understanding contemporary political systems. Parliamentary, legislative and representative roles are professional roles that provide a way of connecting the individual legislator to their institution that can also explain a legislator's attitude and behaviour. Drawing upon case studies with as much as 40 years of data that include Germany, the Netherlands, UK, Austria, Hungary, Australia, New Zealand and the European Parliament, this book examines the link between representative roles, different institutional settings and parliamentary behaviour. It argues that the roles MPs play depend of who they think they should represent; between their voters, their party, the people of their country and also themselves, conflicts of loyalty can occur. This book provides a framework to analyse MPs' choices by searching both the reasons for their views about representation, and the consequences of those views in parliament. Parliamentary Roles in Modern Legislatures will be of strong interest to students and scholars of government, legislative studies, political parties, comparative politics, political sociology and deliberative democracy.
With a public career spanning 62 years, William Gladstone dominated the Victorian political arena. He remains, however, an enigmatic figure; a high Anglican, Tory protectionist who became leader of the Liberals, a party associated with free trade and religious non-conformity. This biography examines both Gladstone and the environment in which he operated, concentrating in particular on the political and social composition of the party which he led. The author argues that the parliamentary "Gladstonian Liberals" were far from unqualified supporters of Gladstone, and that much of Gladstone's power was derived from his popularity amongst the electorate. The text concludes with an assessment of Gladstone's achievements and his political legacy.
The Trouble with America critiques the theory and practice of American government, focusing on the fatal flaws of America's core political arrangements. Institutionalized pluralism, the structural dispersal of power, generates government too weak to solve our public problems. American constitutionalism, the limitation of government power and authority, protects property rights far better than it defends our civil liberties, and it offers little or no protection for non-citizens. Capitalism is a hyper-competitive and grossly unfair economic system, which rewards pre-existing wealth far better than hard work or talent, and encourages petty materialist consumption of mostly low-quality goods, undermining taste as well as fairness. Taken together, pluralism, constitutionalism, and capitalism in America harm our society in a myriad of ways, leaving us with inadequate representation, poor leadership, social and political paralysis and irresponsibility, unrealistic self-images, and scandalously poor domestic and foreign policies. This book will prove a valuable supplement in American government courses, an alternative to the centrist material currently dominating textbooks on this subject. |
You may like...
|