This unique guide helps to answer two important questions for researchers planning to use government information sources. First, over which aspects of individual, organizational, national, and international affairs does the U.S. government exert authority or influence? Second, which units of the federal government are empowered to probe and pursue these matters? The contents and format of Jerrold Zwirn's new research aid offer a concise, yet complete, overview of contemporary public affairs and governmental policy agents. In this guide, Zwirn provides the researcher with comprehensive coverage of the issues and topics addressed by all key units of the national executive and legislative branches. He identifies each entity that exercises jurisdiction over a specific subject in order to facilitate optimum access to the entire domain of federal business and the corresponding sources of federal information. By using a tandem subject and author approach, the guide enables users to focus quickly on functions assigned or implied by a legal mandate. This scheme records and reveals the relationships between formal powers and official authors. Zwirn's immediate aim is to assist those who plan to enter and explore the federal information thicket. His ultimate goal is to devise a framework that can be adapted to the dynamic character of national governance and its information output. Access to U.S. Government Information will be an essential tool for political scientists, legal researchers, librarians, and anyone interested in public policy, policymakers, and the links between them.

In 2008, the economic relationship between the United States and China almost collapsed due to a crisis at two American mortgage corporations, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. This book explains how that crisis came about, and analyzes the consequences and implications.

In Unravelling the Social Formation: Free Trade, the State and Business Associations in Turkey, Akif Avci examines the role of business associations and the state in Turkey in analysing the dialectical relationship between global free trade and Turkish social formation since 2002. The manuscript constructs a three-levels analysis based on the social relations of production, forms of state and world order. It explores the class characteristics of the business associations, the role of the Turkish state in the process of integration into global capitalism, and at the same time, internalisation of the global class relations inside Turkish social formation. It offers a fresh evaluation of imperialism theories and the uneven and combined development (U&CD) approach from a neo-Gramscian perspective.

"The Politics and Government of Switzerland" is one of very few English language studies of contemporary Swiss politics. Drawing on recent research in Switzerland, and the author's own observations, it offers wide coverage of Swiss political forces, processes and policies. Church argues that Switzerland is actually a vibrant and pluralist polity, in which politics are increasingly competitive. However, it still retains some distinctive characteristics like direct democracy, which mean that the Swiss people play a larger role than in other countries.

Responding to a critical need in government for ways to manage costs better and improve productivity, The author gives practitioners and advanced students of public administration not just the statistical methods they require but also the hands-on skills they need and will use daily. His book introduces cost and management accounting, shows how to use decision-making tools in solid problem-solving situations, and lays out measures to help manage an organization's productivity. Also covered are such topics as cost estimation, benefit-cost analysis, simulation, inventory analysis, network modeling, mathematical programming, game theory, and more. The result is a readable and focused resource that facilitates the reader's grasp of two of the most critical elements in the successful operation of any organization: cost and optimization.

The book is organized in three parts. Part I deals with costs in government and emphasizes cost behavior, cost analysis, and cost accounting. Part II treats basic optimization techniques that are useful in cost management. Included are classical optimization, network analysis, mathematical programming, and games and decisions. In Part III the author deals with special cases in cost and optimization, particularly multivariate analysis, productivity management, and some related topics in general management. The book succeeds in presenting these complex issues clearly and in an accessible manner, and adds examples from public sector experience which will resonate with practitioners and students alike.

No other narrative account of Abraham Lincoln's life has inspired such widespread and lasting acclaim as Charnwood's Abraham Lincoln: A Biography. Written by a native of England and originally published in 1916, the biography is a rare blend of beautiful prose and profound historical insight. Charnwood's study of Lincoln's statesmanship introduced generations of Americans to the life and politics of Lincoln and the author's observations are so comprehensive and well-supported that any serious study of Lincoln must respond to his conclusions.

Addressing an under-studied aspect of U.S. foreign policy towards sub-Saharan Africa, Hendrickson provides a critical historical analysis of institutions designed to promote private investment in the region. She draws attention to the interaction between strategic factors, domestic interests, and the ideas used to achieve consensus on policy.

What policy is best for the United States to reduce the threat of Islamic extremist terrorism? Recent American presidents have applied alternative conflict resolution approaches. Clinton practiced conflict avoidance, talking tough but rarely retaliating against anti-American terrorist attacks. G. W. Bush adopted a fighter approach and the Global War on Terrorism and military interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq reflect this strategy. Obama introduced a third alternative: problem solving and extending peaceful overtures while keeping up resistance. Will the strategy succeed? Feste analyzes presidential rhetoric on counterterrorism policy through the lens of issue framing, enemy aggression, self -hardship, and victimization expressed in a variety of speeches delivered by these chief executives to highlight and compare their conflict resolution strategies.

A pioneering exploration of the phenomenon of the composite state in Eighteenth-century Europe. Employing a comparative approach, it combines the findings of new research on Ireland with broader syntheses of major composite states in Europe those of France, Austria and Poland-Lithuania.

Traditionally, France has been viewed as host to a unique set of tensions between the centre and the periphery, dating back to the Revolution and beyond, which has shaped its structures of power and marked its evolution as a modern society. This survey provides an overview of those tensions between a centralising state and the constituencies challenging it, and asks whether that model can remain viable or whether it is not, in fact, undergoing a process of profound change.

The documents assembled in this volume were selected by Sir John Neale and many of them were used in his study of the House of Commons and in his two-volume study of Elizabeth's parliaments. They may be divided into the diaries or journals complied by individual members on the one hand, and on the other, separate accounts of speeches intended for, or delivered, in Parliament, and of other proceedings relating to single issues. The principles on which this compilation has been presented are consistent with those followed in the first volume, subject to the modification adopted in the second.

This volume clearly demonstrates the diversity of our field. Twenty-two scholars have contributed thirteen unique pieces of research on a wide variety of topics including public management innovation; organizational learning; revenue forecasting; finance; qualitative research and research methods; intergovernmetnal relations; training and management information systems; bureaucratic responsibility; citizen participation; political influence of the bureaucracy; critiques of policy making; public administration research. This collection makes a rich contribution of knowledge to our field.

Much current thinking about information technology in the public sector emerges from private sector experiences. While much can be transferred from sector to sector, much cannot. O'Looney provides a rare understanding of what transfers best, and the difference a good transfer can make in establishing a successfully wired government. O'Looney provides an overall strategic orientation to the challenges that public managers will face in the new age of cyberspace. He helps decision makers and executives understand what it takes to transform an agency or organization into a model of electronic government. He includes the policies, practices, technologies, and operating tactics one needs to do it. Especially important, he helps public managers find the best fit between new technologies, their current operating practices, and the special characteristics and goals of their organizations.

"Wiring Governments" will help public managers with little technical background to navigate the IT terrain by identifying its key characteristics and explaining how to use them, not only to reform jobs but also to reinvent organizations. It explores how a fairly simple technology in the private sector--knowledge management--presents many policy and practical dilemmas in the public sector. O'Looney shows how IT systems stress existing organizational cultures. With this as a basis, he gives managers the practical advice they need to make better IT system choices, ones that match the current realities of organizational cultures as well as realistic expectations for performance gains. The book even outlines key architectural alternatives that public managers must know about when they embark on the task of building new electronic public meeting spaces.

Historians generally consider James K. Polk one of the most effective presidents in United States history. Many of them doubt, however, that President Polk would have been successful without the counsel of his wife Sarah. The president dominated his cabinet and trusted no one--except for his wife. Sarah Childress Polk (1803-1891) was a highly educated woman who became President Polks virtual secretary and more: She critiqued his speeches, evaluated his Cabinet decisions, and worked side by side with her husband. Mrs. Polk was praised for her astute views on matters of state by both Polks supporters and his opponents. She outlived her husband by 42 years, and was often consulted by politicians who respected her opinions and trusted her instincts, including Confederate and Union officers in the Civil War. This is the story of a powerful and tireless first lady who became one of the most influential Americans of the middle and late nineteenth century.

Several factors impact a developing nation's ability to manage its political and related security affairs. Thailand's search for national security is used to illustrate factors that underlie the security fabric of developing states. The author relates the state to the international environment as well as to substate elements, and analyzes the role of intra-country conflict in explaining the state's vulnerability to external intervention.

In this new approach to a comparative text in public management, Randall Baker examines how, why, and to what extent the public sector around the world has shared in the management revolution. The book is designed to isolate and demonstrate the essential American-ness of the United States' public service by holding it up to the mirror of other developed democracies. While there are lessons to be learned from other countries, Baker and his expert contributors examine the complexities of making comparisons across cultures, even within broadly similar democratic systems, and urban-industrial economies.

The volume concludes with a list of sectoral cases. These comprise most of the main dimensions of public-sector activity around the world. They are the main elements of many graduate professional degrees in public affairs, and the material has been written with the needs of both practitioners and teachers in mind. This is essential reading for all concerned with public management and administration as well as comparative government.

This volume studies Margaret Thatcher and her influence on British politics with the American reader in mind. E. Bruce Geelhoed interprets Thatcher's strengths and weaknesses as a political leader and analyzes the important trends in modern British politics. Drawing on the author's own experience as an expatriate eyewitness to the latter part of the Thatcher era, interviews with numerous British scholars and political observers, and a thorough examination of relevant published sources on the Thatcher years, this book provides an unique analysis of this extraordinary woman's leadership and the closing years of her era.

Scholars and general readers in modern British history and politics will find this fascinating reading, both for its chronicle of the latter Thatcher years and its insightful analysis of that prime minister's strengths and weakness, accomplishments and failures.

It is often remarked that critical - and especially Marxist - state theory began to lose its central place in the study of comparative politics in the 1980s. Ironically, this shift occurred just as neoliberal policies were transforming the social form and spatial scales of the state, radically restructuring the practices of state economic intervention, and extending the capabilities of the coercive arms of the state. This volume addresses the 'impoverishment of state theory' over the last decades and insists on the continued salience of class analysis to the study of states. The book's title, State Transformations, reflects several central themes in the comparative study of states: the neoliberal restructuring of capitalist states, the changing economic and political architecture of imperialism, and the prospects of a democratic transformation of capitalist states. The essays collected here on these themes are in honor and memory of Leo Panitch, whose influential body of work has shaped debates on the state, imperialism, and socialism over the past four decades. Contributors are: Clyde W. Barrow, Caio Bugiato, Frank Deppe, Ruth Felder, Ana Garcia, Sam Gindin, Doug Henwood, Martijn Konings, Colin Leys, Sebnem Oguz, Bryan D. Palmer, Dennis Pilon, Larry Savage, Charles Smith, Michalis Spourdalakis and Hilary Wainwright

Farazmand and his contributors examine modern organization theory and behavior. They view organization in two ways: As an organization of society into public, private, and nonprofit sectors, and they examine the power structure and those power elites who determine policy choices and outcomes. They also look at organizing activity, such as creating institutional arrangements to perform certain functions or tasks, as well as organizational entities of all sizes. Using a balanced approach to analyze modern organizations' managerial expectations and individual/citizen expectations and demands, the book presents a succinct analysis of theoretical and conceptual perspectives on modern organizations, their management, and their interactions with other organizations in an environment that is becoming increasingly global and integrated worldwide. Although all organizations are covered, the emphasis is placed mainly on public organizations. The book also addresses key issues of organizational change, reform, and reorganization of governments in both theoretical and empirical ways. A key text and handbook for scholars, students, researchers, and practitioners of public administration and the management of nonprofit organizations.

This book gives the true inside picture of the CIA during the Cold War and how the agency saw the events in which it was involved. Breckinridge started his career with the CIA as a briefing officer (and within a year had become White House Briefing Officer) in 1953 and concluded it as Deputy Inspector General in 1979. The issues Breckinridge reports on--the Bay of Pigs, the Warren Commission Report, Vietnam, Watergate, Chile, plots against foreign leaders, the Ramparts controversy, Laos, the Church and Pike committees--are among the most controversial in the lives of Americans since the mid-twentieth century. Breckinridge demostrates that the CIA was not a "rogue elephant" but an agency acting under high level policy directives, and he reveals a great deal about the internal life of the CIA.

This is an interdisciplinary study of how power, security, polarity and the primacy of sovereign states play out in an international context that has witnessed the rise of non-state actors. It provides an updated analysis of the complex relationship of anarchy, power and politics by addressing issues of self-defense in a unipolar order.

Privatization of government services in the United States has accelerated in the last two decades, especially at the state and local levels. This work focuses on contracting out--the most widely used method of privatization. Contributors from academia, consulting firms, government agencies, and private providers discuss the why and how of contracting out and examine the results of contracted services, including quality and cost measures of performance. Some chapters apply economic theory to contracting out. Others examine recent case studies of contracting out initiatives.

The book begins with a thoughtful essay on the theory of privatization and examines the recent record of use in state and local governments. Section 1 takes an overview look at contracting out. Section 2 examines contracting in the criminal justice area as well as examples of contracting in such diverse areas as trash collection and the operation of golf courses. The final section looks in depth at the mechanics, obstacles, and effects of contracting. The book points out the pluses and minuses of contracting out and points to the lessons that can be learned from the recent history of this privatization technique.

This examination of the causes, severity, and implications of racially stereotyped media coverage of Congress incorporates original analysis of congressional media coverage and interviews with congressional press staff. The news media often portray African-American members as being primarily interested in race, overly concerned with local matters, and wielding little legislative influence. By contrast, the images African-American members attempt to project of themselves are more complex and comprehensive than the images the media communicate. The authors offer a psychological explanation for this phenomenon, the Distribution Effect, in which those who are numerically rare in an occupation tend to be lumped together rather than treated as individuals. Their findings suggest that it is the media, rather than members of Congress, who are responsible for the racialized images that appear regularly in the press. This results in an advantage for white incumbents trying to attract votes but presents an obstacle to be overcome for African-American politicians.

This study will appeal to political science, media studies, and racial studies scholars. It incorporates content analysis of the newest forum of communication, congressional Internet web sites, to disclose how white and African-American representatives in fact have similar media priorities.