|
Books > Social sciences > Politics & government > Local government > General
Transoxania, Khurasan, and Tukharistan - which comprise large parts
of today's Central Asia - have long been an important frontier
zone. In the late antique and early medieval periods, the region
was both an eastern political boundary for Persian and Islamic
empires and a cultural border separating communities of sedentary
farmers from pastoral-nomads. Given its peripheral location, the
history of the 'eastern frontier' in this period has often been
shown through the lens of expanding empires. However, in this book,
Robert Haug argues for a pre-modern Central Asia with a discrete
identity, a region that is not just a transitory space or the
far-flung corner of empires, but its own historical entity. From
this locally specific perspective, the book takes the reader on a
900-year tour of the area, from Sasanian control, through the
Umayyads and Abbasids, to the quasi-independent dynasties of the
Tahirids and the Samanids. Drawing on an impressive array of
literary, numismatic and archaeological sources, Haug reveals the
unique and varied challenges the eastern frontier presented to
imperial powers that strove to integrate the area into their
greater systems. This is essential reading for all scholars working
on early Islamic, Iranian and Central Asian history, as well as
those with an interest in the dynamics of frontier regions.
Affordability, access, and accountability have long been among
the central challenges facing higher education--and they remain so
today. Here, Donald E. Heller and other higher education scholars
and practitioners explore the current debates surrounding these key
issues.
As students and their families struggle to meet rising tuition
prices, and as state funding for higher education dwindles,
policymakers confront issues of affordability within state and
institutional budgets. Changing demographics and challenges to
affirmative action complicate the admissions process even as
colleges and universities seek to diversify enrollments. And issues
of institutional accountability have forced the restructuring of
higher education governing boards and a reexamination of the role
of public trustees in governance.
This collection analyzes how issues of affordability, access,
and accountability influence the way in which state governments
approach, monitor, and set public higher education policy. The
contributors examine the latest research on pressing challenges,
explore how states are coping with these challenges, and consider
what the future holds for public postsecondary education in the
United States.
Featuring a unique storytelling approach, A Trek through American
and Texas Government follows a fictional character named Champ Cove
as he visits various government agencies and affiliated
organizations in Texas and the United States. Through the eyes of
Champ, students learn foundational information about the role and
operation of state and federal government in an engaging way.
Section I covers American governing foundations, political
geography, political culture, the impact of demographic shifts on
government, our founding governing documents, federalism, and the
history of politics in American and Texan experiences. In Section
II, students learn about ways to influence the political process,
elections from the perspective of voters and candidates, interest
groups, and political parties. Section III provides insight on the
various government agencies found in the country at the local,
state, national, and international levels, as well as how they
might interact with one another. The final section discusses
domestic policy, foreign policy, civil liberties, government fiscal
policy, and political symbols. Highly educational and an
entertaining read, A Trek through American and Texas Government is
ideal for introductory courses in government.
During the Qing dynasty (1644-1911), the province emerged as an
important element in the management of the expanding Chinese
empire, with governors -- those in charge of these increasingly
influential administrative units -- playing key roles. R. Kent
Guy's comprehensive study of this shift concentrates on the
governorship system during the reigns of the Shunzhi, Kangxi,
Yongzheng, and Qianlong emperors, who ruled China from 1644 to
1796. In the preceding Ming dynasty (1368-1644), the
responsibilities of provincial officials were ill-defined and often
shifting; Qing governors, in contrast, were influential members of
a formal administrative hierarchy and enjoyed the support of the
central government, including access to resources. These
increasingly powerful officials extended the court's influence into
even the most distant territories of the Qing empire. Both masters
of the routine processes of administration and troubleshooters for
the central government, Qing governors were economic and political
administrators who played crucial roles in the management of a
larger and more complex empire than the Chinese had ever known.
Administrative concerns varied from region to region: Henan was
dominated by the great Yellow River, which flowed through the
province; the Shandong governor dealt with the exchange of goods,
ideas, and officials along the Grand Canal; in Zhili, relations
between civilians and bannermen in the strategically significant
coastal plain were key; and in northwestern Shanxi, governors dealt
with border issues. Qing Governors and Their Provinces uses the
records of governors' appointments and the laws and practices that
shaped them to reconstruct the development of the office of
provincial governor and to examine the histories of governors'
appointments in each province. Interwoven throughout is colorful
detail drawn from the governors' biographies.
It has become all too easy to disparage the role of the US
government today. Many Americans are influenced by a simplistic
anti-government ideology that is itself driven by a desire to roll
back the more democratically responsive aspects of public policy.
But government has improved the lives of Americans in numerous
ways, from providing income, food, education, housing, and
healthcare support, to ensuring cleaner air, water, and food, to
providing a vast infrastructure upon which economic growth depends.
In What American Government Does, Stan Luger and Brian Waddell
offer a practical understanding of the scope and function of
American governance. They present a historical overview of the
development of US governance that is rooted in the theoretical work
of Charles Tilly, Karl Polanyi, and Michael Mann. Touching on
everything from taxes, welfare, and national and domestic security
to the government's regulatory, developmental, and global
responsibilities, each chapter covers a main function of American
government and explains how it emerged and then evolved over time.
Luger and Waddell are careful to both identify the controversies
related to what government does and those areas of government that
should elicit concern and vigilance. Analyzing the functions of the
US government in terms of both a tug-of-war and a collaboration
between state and societal forces, they provide a reading of
American political development that dispels the myth of a weak,
minimal, non-interventionist state. What American Government Does
represents a major contribution to the scholarly debate on the
nature of the American state and the exercise of power in America.
|
|