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Books > Social sciences > Politics & government > Central government > General
Drawing from recent streams of scholarship, Democratizing Europe provides a renewed portrait of EU government that point at the enduring leading role of independent powers (the European Court, Commission and Central Bank). Vauchez suggests that we recognize this centrality and adjust our democratization strategies accordingly.
In responding to the question as to whether Russia has re-emerged as a great power, the authors trace the major lines of foreign and security policy under Vladimir Putin. The authors argue that Putin and his advisors are committed to re-establishing Russia as a great power and that the existence of nuclear weapons and the revival of the Russian economy have provided the foundations for an expanded Russian role in global affairs.
An assessment of the recent unprecedented Taiwanese democratic elections, which, despite threats from Beijing, set the stage for genuine democracy in Taiwan. A firsthand account of three crucial elections in the 1990s, two of which were unprecedented: the 1994 election of the first governor of Taiwan and the 1996 presidential election. The latter marked the first direct election of a chief executive in Taiwan or any Chinese nation in 5,000 years of Chinese history. This study considers the political environment in which these elections were held, particular political issues, party strategies and campaigns, and election results. Taiwan is now in the final stage of democracy, and its impressive political modernization is one proof of its new status. The 1995 legislative election and the 1996 presidential election were held amidst Beijing's intimidation in the form of missile tests close to Taiwan's shores, massive military excercises, and verbal threats. Such posturing forced the United States to send aircraft carriers to the area in response. Taiwan's remarkable progress has begun to draw the attention of the leaders of developing countries who have come to see Taiwan's political modernization as a model for their own nations.
Homeland Security Cultures: Enhancing Values While Fostering Resilience explores the role that culture plays in the study and practice of homeland security in an all-hazards, whole-community, and all-of-government scope. It does so by analyzing and discussing strategic, organizational, operational, and social cultures in the U.S. Homeland Security Enterprise, as well as from an international perspective. The focus is on how knowledge and interpretation, normative values, common symbols, and/or action repertories inform the evolution of the homeland security mission space and the accomplishment of homeland security functions. Contributions also address institutional changes designed to foster a more coherent common homeland security culture. This textbook will make a contribution to the evolution of homeland security as a policy area and a field of study by offering actionable insight as well as critical thinking from scholars and practitioners on how cultural aspects matter in balancing security against liberty, in managing complex risks, in enhancing collaboration across sectors, and in explaining how a resilient nation can be fostered while enhancing liberal and democratic values.
The European Union began in 1957 as a treaty among six nations but today constitutes a supranational polity - one that creates rules that are binding on its 15 member countries and their citizens. In this majesterial study, a team of distinguished scholars offers a fresh and coherent explanation of the remarkable development of the EU, drawing evidence from both broad data and focused case studies.
The arrival of the welfare state in Western Europe brought with it a vast expansion in the role of government. That expansion led to fears that the increased expectations of citizens would lead to government overload and `ungovernability'. This book sheds new and surprisingly light on the whole idea of a crisis of ungovernability. It begins by examining the expanding scope of government in the post-War period. Drawing on a vast data set stretching back over the last two decades and right across Europe, the book reveals public attitudes towards the range and extent of government activity. Changes in the public's political agenda are identified, along with attitudes towards the size of government, taxation, and the equality and security goals of the welfare state. Attitudes towards government intervention in the economy, the environment, and the media are also examined. The final chapters assess the significance for governments of beliefs about the scope of government. Series description This set of five volumes is an exhaustive study of beliefs in government in post-war Europe. Based upon an extensive collection of survey evidence, the results challenge widely argued theories of mass opinion, and much scholarly writing about citizen attitudes towards government and politics. The series arises from a research project sponsored by the European Science Foundation. Reviews of the series: `The quality of the empirical analysis is consistently high...[an] important collection of empirical studies addressing the debate about the "crisis of representation" in Europe.' Journal of Public Policy `These volumes contain the work of many of the most important scholars in the field of public opinion in Europe today...These five volumes represent a major contribution to comparative politics, especially the study of mass politics. The chapters provide a wealth of information about public opinion in contemporary Europe and the relationship between state and society...The volumes clearly will be read by all students of European politics...' Times Educational Supplement `The Beliefs in Government series is a monumental achievement. It tells us at least everything we want to know about the structure of European public opinion'. The Good Society
Through the new use of new empirical evidence derived from analysing employment services, gender equality policies and flexicurity in Greece and Portugal, this book provides compelling new insights into how European Employment Strategy (EES) can influence the domestic employment policy of European Union member states.
A Historical Guide to U.S. Government chronicles the growth of the federal branch of the American government from its modest beginnings to its current status as the largest institution in the world. Consisting of 183 alphabetically arranged entries ranging from brief descriptions of commissions and committees to 5,000-word interpretive essays covering such issues as accountability and the impact of new technologies, A Historical Guide to U.S. Government is an outstanding source of information for all students of one of the world's most complex institutions.
This volume thoroughly examines the operations and politics of the U.S. Congress. It guides readers to their own assessment of congressional politics and provides them with the basis for future reading and study of the subject. The American Congress: A Reference Handbook covers Congress from its inception to the present day, discussing the constitutional functions of Congress and how they have evolved over time. It presents a detailed discussion of 15 problems with which Congress copes, some associated concerns with those problems, and how they might be resolved. The book opens with a brief history of Congress and how it has changed over time. It discusses a series of problems and concerns, and proposed solutions to those problems. It also comprises nine original essays by other scholars and persons involved in congressional politics as well as profiles of the major organizations and actors involved. Data and documents and a detailed chronology of Congress from 1789 to 2018 allow readers to situate significant legislation within the history of Congress, while an annotated list of sources-the major books and scholarly journals concerned with Congress in addition to a number of feature-length films and videos-provide readers with vetted resources for further study. Presents the major functions of Congress and how they have evolved Discusses proposed solutions to more than a dozen major problems facing Congress and enables readers to judge for themselves whether or not such solutions are likely to work or may have unforeseen consequences Synthesizes a comprehensive body of scholarly discussion on Congress, providing readers with a foundation for additional reading and research Explains why hyper-partisan politics, also known as "tribalism," has developed in Congress and why it leads to a stalemate in lawmaking Provides readers with an understanding of the checks and balances system, and why Congress often fails to exercise those powers
A magnificently researched, dramatically told work of narrative nonfiction about the history, evolution, impact, and ultimate demise of what was known in the 1930s and 1940s as President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Black Cabinet. In 1932 in the midst of the Great Depression, Franklin Delano Roosevelt won the presidency with the help of key African American defectors from the Republican Party. At the time, most African Americans lived in poverty, denied citizenship rights and terrorized by white violence. As the New Deal began, a "black Brain Trust" joined the administration and began documenting and addressing the economic hardship and systemic inequalities African Americans faced. They became known as the Black Cabinet, but the environment they faced was reluctant, often hostile, to change. "Will the New Deal be a square deal for the Negro?" The black press wondered. The Black Cabinet set out to devise solutions to the widespread exclusion of black people from its programs, whether by inventing tools to measure discrimination or by calling attention to the administration's failures. Led by Mary McLeod Bethune, an educator and friend of Eleanor Roosevelt, they were instrumental to Roosevelt's continued success with black voters. Operating mostly behind the scenes, they helped push Roosevelt to sign an executive order that outlawed discrimination in the defense industry. They saw victories--jobs and collective agriculture programs that lifted many from poverty--and defeats--the bulldozing of black neighborhoods to build public housing reserved only for whites; Roosevelt's refusal to get behind federal anti-lynching legislation. The Black Cabinet never won official recognition from the president, and with his death, it disappeared from view. But it had changed history. Eventually, one of its members would go on to be the first African American Cabinet secretary; another, the first African American federal judge and mentor to Thurgood Marshall. Masterfully researched and dramatically told, The Black Cabinet brings to life a forgotten generation of leaders who fought post-Reconstruction racial apartheid and whose work served as a bridge that Civil Rights activists traveled to achieve the victories of the 1950s and '60s.
This book seeks to trace the main dimensions of recent conflicts
between central departments of governments and local authorities
and to reveal something of their significance. It does so by
focusing on the role of law in shaping the central-local government
relations which is neglected in many contemporary studies and yet
is of vital importance in identifying the character of that
relationship. Precisely why they should be so is not self-evident.
The main objective of this introduction therefore is to highlight
the importance of this dimension to the study of central-local
relations and then to explain the way in which the key themes of
the study are to be addressed.
The book evaluates the importance of constitutional rules and property rights for the German economy in 1990-2015. It is an economic historical study embedded in institutional economics with main references to positive constitutional economics and the property rights theory. This interdisciplinary work adopts a theoretical-empirical dimension and a qualitative-quantitative approach. Formal institutions played a fundamental role in Germany's post-reunification economic changes. They set the legal and institutional framework for the transition process of Eastern Germany and the unification, integration and convergence between the two parts of the country. Although the latter process was not completed, the effects of these formal rules were positive, especially for the former GDR.
Instant New York Times Bestseller Washington Post Bestseller USA Today Bestseller Indie Bound Bestseller Authors Round the South Bestseller Midwest Indie Bestseller New York Times bestselling author Sarah Kendzior documents the truth about the calculated rise to power of Donald Trump since the 1980s and how the erosion of our liberties made an American dema-gogue possible. The story of Donald Trump's rise to power is the story of a buried American history - buried because people in power liked it that way. It was visible without being seen, influential without being named, ubiquitous without being overt. Sarah Kendzior's Hiding in Plain Sight pulls back the veil on a history spanning decades, a history of an American autocrat in the making. In doing so, she reveals the inherent fragility of American democracy - how our continual loss of freedom, the rise of consolidated corruption, and the secrets behind a burgeoning autocratic United States have been hiding in plain sight for decades. In Kendzior's signature and celebrated style, she expertly outlines Trump's meteoric rise from the 1980s until today, interlinking key moments of his life with the degradation of the American political system and the continual erosion of our civil liberties by foreign powers. Kendzior also offers a never-before-seen look at her lifelong tendency to be in the wrong place at the wrong time - living in New York through 9/11 and in St. Louis during the Ferguson uprising, and researching media and authoritarianism when Trump emerged using the same tactics as the post-Soviet dictatorships she had long studied. It is a terrible feeling to sense a threat coming, but it is worse when we let apathy, doubt, and fear prevent us from preparing ourselves. Hiding in Plain Sight confronts the injustice we have too long ignored because the truth is the only way forward.
This book examines how China's decentralization process has affected and will affect the country's macroeconomic performance and the functioning of the market. With an innovative application of game theory, the author develops an analytical framework that can explain the behaviour of the central and local governments under alternative institutional environments. The study also suggests how to establish desirable rules of games in China's political and economic institutions through appropriate reforms.
Although much has been written about Richard Nixon the man and the politician, comparatively little attention has been paid to Nixon the public speaker. This is unfortunate because it was through public speaking that Nixon, an introverted, private man, first captured public attention, won a seat in the House of Representatives, advanced to the Senate, held on to his vice presidential nomination, lost and won the presidency, and eventually molded a constituency that carried him to one of the most overwhelming presidential election victories in American history. It was also through public speaking that President Nixon attempted to defend himself against charges related to the Watergate incident and sought to save himself from impeachment. When his rhetorical efforts failed to rouse popular support, he had no choice but to resign. This volume examines the combination of personal characteristics and artistic choices that made Richard M. Nixon a successful, albeit extremely controversial, public speaker from 1946 to the present. Based on Nixon's own writings, primary materials found in special collections, a number of rhetorical studies by communication scholars, and historical case studies, the most complete picture yet of Nixon as a rhetorical strategist emerges. The study of Nixon's rhetoric is the study of many important issues, from the alleged threat of subversive communism to Vietnam to Watergate, confronting America from 1946 to 1974. It is also the study of the man himself because Nixon took an active role in the composition of all his important addresses. That both the highs and lows of Richard Nixon's career were marked by public address makes the rhetoric of Richard Nixon aworthy subject for anyone interested in political science, history, or communication and persuasion.
This book is an examination of minority government performance in conjunction with the territorial distribution of state power and the territorial interests of political parties. It examines political institutions, and the reconcilability of party goals and the contingent bargaining circumstances, in multilevel and territorial perspectives.
The Politics of Evidence Based Policymaking identifies how to work with policymakers to maximize the use of scientific evidence. Policymakers cannot consider all evidence relevant to policy problems. They use two shortcuts: 'rational' ways to gather enough evidence, and 'irrational' decision-making, drawing on emotions, beliefs, and habits. Most scientific studies focus on the former. They identify uncertainty when policymakers have incomplete evidence, and try to solve it by improving the supply of information. They do not respond to ambiguity, or the potential for policymakers to understand problems in very different ways. A good strategy requires advocates to be persuasive: forming coalitions with like-minded actors, and accompanying evidence with simple stories to exploit the emotional or ideological biases of policymakers.
"A guide to competencies needed by the federal government's new top officials. The transition from one president to another, regardless of which party wins the 2016 elections, will mean many things, one of which is that some 3,000 to 4,000 new senior presidential appointees will take office in the first months of 2017. They will join some 6,000 members of the Senior Executive Service and nearly 1,000 admirals and generals already working in the top ranks of government. But the little-known truth is that the federal government has no formal, or even informal, continual learning program for its new high-level managers. If history is a guide, many of the next president's appointees will never have served in the federal government or, indeed, at any level of government. This means that they will need to hone their considerable skills to meet new challenges. This new, revised, and updated edition of the The Presidential Appointee's Handbook is intended to fill the need for learning by helping new presidential appointees develop the knowledge, skills, and capabilities they will need in their challenging assignments. Additionally, the new edition provides frameworks for success in areas such as strategic foresight, planning for results, risk management, and resilience that are designed to give appointees templates for achieving their goals. Blending theory with the demands of day-to-day practice, the book clarifies the roles and responsibilities of top government executives, helps them build a network of shared experiences and relationships, and lays out common competencies and codes of proper behavior for government leaders at all levels. "
When David Cameron and Nick Clegg stepped out into the rose garden at No. 10 to launch the first coalition government since the Second World War, some doubted whether the coalition could survive a full term - or even a full year. Five years later, this bold departure for British politics had weathered storms, spending cuts and military strikes, rows, referendums and riots.In this compelling insider account, David Laws lays bare the inner workings of the coalition government from its birth in 2010 to its demise in 2015. As a key figure at the heart of government, he witnessed first-hand the triumphs, the tantrums and the tactical manoeuvrings.Now, he brings this experience to bear, revealing how crucial decisions were made and uncovering the often explosive divisions between and within the coalition parties. Honest, insightful and at times shocking, Coalition shines a powerful light on perhaps the most fascinating political partnership of modern times.
In early 2010 Russia once again entered a turbulent period. From the system of property distribution, to structure of the political elites and relations between the Center and the regions - various spheres of Russian life are in a state of flux. Two major factors are driving this change: oil prices which are unlikely to grow the way they did in the 2000s and the rapidly deteriorating efficiency of governance. Relations between federal and regional elites, as well as public activism, are derived from these two factors and play an important role of their own. Will change take an evolutionary path or is Russia facing another revolution? The book offers a view of the Russian future until 2025 based on thematic scenarios created by an international team of Russia scholars whose expertise range from politics and economics to demographics and foreign policy.
Preponderance in U.S. Foreign Policy: Monster in the Closet identifies and explains the factors contributing to the presence and severity of blunders, or gross errors in strategic judgment resulting in significant harm to the national interest, in U.S. foreign policy since 1945. It contends that when U.S. policymakers overestimate the capacity of American power to transform the politics of other states, the likelihood of a foreign policy resulting in a blunder increases. It concomitantly contends that the prevailing grand strategy of American preponderance since the Second World War precipitates the frequency and severity of foreign-policy blunders. The dissertation pursues four original lines of research: (1) the presentation of a sui generis framework for foreign-policy evaluation; (2) the new delineation of the concept and classification of the foreign-policy blunder; (3) the gathering of empirical data with regard to the decision-making of policymakers and the results of two corresponding foreign-policy blunders, the Vietnam War and the Iraq War; and (4) the demonstration of the two contentions within the overarching research question of what factors contribute to the presence and severity of blunders in modern U.S. foreign policy. The book presents a theoretical model examining and explaining the cultural and ideational connections between the pursuit of the grand strategy of American preponderance, decision-making in U.S. foreign policy, and blunders in modern U.S. foreign policy.
Political parties can make or break women's attempts to stand for political office, yet there have been surprisingly few systematic studies into the 'secret garden' of political recruitment. This book investigates this under-researched area, bringing together insights from feminist and new institutional theory to explore and understand the gendered dynamics of institutional innovation and change in candidate selection and recruitment. Drawing on an original empirical case study of candidate selection in post-devolution Scotland, Gender and Political Recruitment highlights the complex and gendered dynamics of institutional design, continuity and change in the political recruitment process and illustrates the difficulties of reforming recruitment in the face of powerful institutional and gendered legacies. |
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