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 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.

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.

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.

There have been few studies of the Law Lords, and no study of them by a political scientist for more than ten years. This book concentrates on the arguments the Law Lords use in justifying their decisions, and is concerned as much with the legal methodology as with the substance of their decisions. Very close attention is paid to the different approaches and styles of judicial argument, but the book is not restricted to this traditional analytic approach. One chapter applies the statistical techniques Americans call 'jurimetrics' and have successfully used on the US Supreme Court. The main theme is that the Law Lords enjoy and fully utilise far more discretion in their judgements than is normally admitted, and that much depends on exactly which judges happen to hear a case. the second part of the book shows the impact this extreme discretion has had in shaping both public law and areas of civil law.

Japan's Civil Service System is a comprehensive description of the organization, staffing, and actual daily workings of the postwar Japanese government bureaucracy. Written for students of Japanese government, comparative government, and public policy, the book is based on research in both the U.S. and Japan and numerous interviews with Japanese government officials. At a time when the present system is the subject of fierce debate within Japan--between critics who seek to remove Western influence and supporters who cite the system's productivity and efficiency--this systematic study of its history, personnel, and policy-making process is especially valuable.

Under pressure from both the Federal government and private citizens, local and state governments are restructuring their services, including the areas of education, highway, and transportation. While the federal government wants to reassign responsibilities to local governments, voters want greater efficiency and lower taxes via privatization. This edited collection considers these pressures, the responses from state and local governments, and specific experiments in privatizing local services.

The book's opening chapter presents an overview of the changing landscape, while the following chapters consider possibilities in both education and highway services. In education, interdistrict school choice and state-local structures are considered. Highway services are seen in federal-state and state-private relationships. Reporting on a variety of experiments, each chapter illustrates a type of service or arrangement for restructuring governmental services.

As the fortieth anniversary of the Nixon resignation approaches, it is time to take a fresh look at Watergate's impact on the American political system and to consider its significance for the historical reputation of the president indelibly associated with it.

In this revealing book Nobel Laureate Glenn T. Seaborg tells what it was like to be chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission during the Nixon presidency. He draws extensively from his meticulously kept diary, enabling the reader to be a fly on the wall during meetings with Nixon, Henry Kissinger, and other key policy makers. During the Nixon period, the debate over how to deal with the Soviets on nuclear issues and arms control remained central. On the domestic scene efforts to promote and regulate the growth of a nuclear power industry were complicated by a rising tide of environmental protest. Dr. Seaborg describes how the Atomic Energy Commission, shorn of much of the political immunity of its early years, sought to maintain its programmes and ultimately its very existence, while besieged by competing pressures from the White House, other government agencies, anti-nuclear activists, industry, state governments, and Congress.

Contributors to this Hansard Society/Palgrave volume consider how British government and politics changed as Tony Blair gave way to Gordon Brown. "Gordon at the Helm" looks at a range of factors under Brown such as public opinion, party and opposition politics, British government and administration, public policy, local government and foreign policy.

This account of US foreign policy reveals the story of the covert activity in Indonesia undertaken by President Eisenhower and Secretary of State John Foster Dulles in the late 1950s.

Social security systems throughout the world are faced with unprecedented challenges in response to growing criticisms about unacceptable expenditures for government programs and questions about the appropriate role of government in providing social protection through social insurance and social assistance programs. The challenges are also a result of dramatic demographic, social, and cultural changes around the world. A variety of radical and modest reform measures are currently being discussed which have the potential of significantly impacting the means of income and health care for the elderly, children, and families.

This book examines these challenges from the perspective of local analysts in both industrial and economically developing nations. The purpose of the analysis is to promote a better understanding of the integral role that social security plays in the social and economic development of diverse societies. The chapters examine the wide range of challenges to social security in Britain, Egypt and Turkey, the Netherlands, Poland, the United States, Uruguay, and Zimbabwe. An overview of the most prevalent issues are discussed, including fiscal viability, economic development, equity, administration, public confidence, and the role of social security as the primary government instrument for social protection against the loss of income and health. Essential reading for students and researchers in social policy, gerontology, and comparative social welfare.

The International Directory of Government is the definitive guide to people in power in every part of the world. All the top decision-makers are included in this one-volume publication, which brings together government institutions, agencies and personnel from the largest nations (China, India, Russia, etc.) to the smallest overseas dependencies (Guadeloupe, Guernsey and Christmas Island, etc). Institutional entries contain the names and titles of principal officials, postal, e-mail and internet addresses, telephone and fax numbers, and other relevant details. Key features: - comprehensive lists of government ministers and ministries - coverage of state-related agencies and other institutions arranged by subject heading - details of important state, provincial and regional administrations, including information on US states, Russian republics, and the states and territories of India.

Democratic government has now been entrenched in Poland. An increasingly significant European actor, Poland presents problematic but also stimulating challenges to new NATO and EU associates. This authoritative overview examines in depth the constitutional and governmental framework in Poland since 1989 and its central political institutions, mechanisms, and actors. Sanford demonstrates how the governmental system evolved pragmatically during the 1990s to cope with modernization and consolidated viable independent statehood consensually around Poland's hardy constitutional values.

Anika Gauja examines the complexities and tensions in the relationship between party members and parliamentarians through an in-depth analysis of the structures and processes that shape the development of party policy, and the respective role of members and parliamentarians in the formulation of policy and its transferral to the legislative arena. Providing a timely contribution to the current scholarly and public debate on the future of political parties, the book presents significant new evidence on the challenges facing both established and emerging political parties in encouraging citizen participation in policy development and counters some of the overly simplistic judgments that are often made about participation and disengagement by revealing the complexity of the relationships that are involved in modern party systems.

Mr. Beat Connects the Supreme Court History Right to You!Mr. Beat’s The Power of Our Supreme Court is the Supreme Court book of decisions that affect the everyday lives of Americans everywhere. The real democracy of America unveiled. What does the supreme court do? Sure, people care when the court makes a big ruling, but most don’t pay attention to the court’s day-to-day decisions. In this law book, Mr. Beat takes you on a journey through our Supreme Court system, what it is, who is in it and how they got to be there while foreshadowing how it shapes our very future.  A tour of the most influential cases in history. Inspired by Mr. Beat’s court series, The Power of Our Supreme Court walks through many Supreme Court history cases from landmark cases to the more obscure. Matt Beat explains how each case affects us to this day in a way that is engaging, applicable, and easy to understand, even for beginners. Inside, you’ll find: Detailed explanations of the Supreme Court, how it works, and how it affects you A Supreme Court cases book perfect for anyone interested in social science, political science, activism, or law Interesting visuals, charts, and graphs to help contextualize and breakdown the historical significance of big and small cases If you like courtroom books, legal books for lawyers, or books on politics for beginners like How Civil Wars Start, The Color of Law, or The Flip Side of History, you’ll love Mr. Beat’s The Power of Our Supreme Court.

Has the presidentialization of British electoral politics now penetrated other institutional and governmental relationships? This book argues it has in respect of the prime ministerial advisory system. The prime minister has become a president in the eyes of the electorate but remains a prime minister according to the constitution. To bridge this gap between their political and constitutional positions prime ministers have been forced to stretch the constitutional rules about advice, and presidentialize their advisory systems.

This collection presents the results of a research agenda which examines how information plays a key role in policymaking. As a very dynamic environment characterised by many different modes of information gathering and processing, the EU forms a particularly interesting case to test the politics of information approach.

Through a long public life and short presidency, Herbert Hoover carefully cultivated reporters and media owners as he rose from a relief administrator to president of the United States. During his service to government, he held the conviction that journalists were to be manipulated and mistrusted. When the nation fell into economic disaster, Hoover's misconceptions about the press and press relations exacerbated a national calamity. This book traces the entire history of Hoover's relationship with magazines, newspapers, newsreel organizations, and radio, and demonstrates how an attitude toward the U.S. press can help or hinder a public figure throughout his career. The book draws upon diaries of Hoover aides, oral histories from journalists and other media figures, newspaper and magazine clippings, radio broadcasts, newsreels, public documents, archival manuscripts, and a plethora of published secondary books and articles. This may be the most complete and best-documented study of a single president and the media.

The follow-up volume to the same editors' New Labour in Government provides a systematic assessment of Blair's first term and the continuities and changes into his second. Bringing together specially-commissioned chapters by leading authorities in a tightly-edited format , it places particular emphasis on the evolution of New Labour's political performance, policy and statecraft set in its historical, ideological and organizational context.

Friedman discusses a government system that is no longer controlled by "we, the people." Instead of Lincoln's government "of the people, by the people, and for the people," we now have a government "of the people, by the bureaucrats, for the bureaucrats," including the elected representatives who have become bureaucrats.

Timothy Heppell brings together a renowned group of contributors to consider the role of the Leader of the Opposition in British Politics. The book argues that the neglect of opposition studies needs to be addressed, especially given the increasing importance attached to the performance the Leader of the Opposition in the British political system.