Increased flows of people, capital, and ideas across geographic borders raise urgent challenges to the existing terms and practices of politics. Comparative political theory seeks to devise new intellectual frames for addressing these challenges by questioning the canonical (that is, Euro-American) categories that have historically shaped inquiry in political theory and other disciplines. It does this byanalyzing normative claims, discursive structures, and formations of power in and from all parts of the world. By looking to alternative bodies of thought and experience, as well as the terms we might use to critically examine them, comparative political theory encourages self-reflexivity about the premises of normative ideas and articulates new possibilities for political theory and practice. The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Political Theory provides an entry point into this burgeoning field by both synthesizing and challenging the terms which motivate it. Over the course of five thematic sections and thirty-three chapters, this volume surveys the field and archives of comparative political theory, bringing the many approaches to the field into conversation for the first time. Sections address geographic location as a subject of political theorizing; how the past becomes a key site for staking political claims; the politics of translation and appropriation; the justification of political authority; and questions of disciplinary commitment and rules of knowledge. Ultimately, the handbook demonstrates how mainstream political theory can and must be enriched through attention to genuinely global, rather than parochially Euro-American, contributions to political thinking.

Despite increasing interest in how involvement in local government can improve governance and lead to civic renewal, questions remain about participation's real impact. This book investigates participatory budgeting--a mainstay now of World Bank, UNDP, and USAID development programs--to ask whether its reforms truly make a difference in deepening democracy and empowering civil society. Looking closely at eight cities in Brazil, comparing those that carried out participatory budgeting reforms between 1997 and 2000 with those that did not, the authors examine whether and how institutional reforms take effect.
"Bootstrapping Democracy" highlights the importance of local-level innovations and democratic advances, charting a middle path between those who theorize that globalization hollows out democracy and those who celebrate globalization as a means of fostering democratic values. Uncovering the state's role in creating an "associational environment," it reveals the contradictory ways institutional reforms shape the democratic capabilities of civil society and how outcomes are conditioned by relations between the state and civil society.

Over the last five decades American cities have been transformed as profoundly and tumultuously as they were during the industrial revolution. In contrast to that earlier era, this contemporary transformation has been stimulated and guided by governmental intervention. John H. Mollenkopf analyzes the government programs and the supporting political coalitions that made this intervention possible. His book shows how the success of these programs, developed largely by urban liberal Democrats, led to new conflicts that ultimately undermined urban development policy. Using Boston and San Francisco as case studies, the author shows how urban development programs influenced and were influenced by big-city politics. He denies that the current impasse in national politics and urban development stems from technical inadequacies in existing policies. Instead, he argues, it results from failure to reconcile the conflicting interests of dominant urban economic institutions and the urban populace--a failure that led not only to the collapse of the postwar urban development consensus but to the disarray of the Democratic party itself. His suggestions as to how consensus can be restored will fascinate anyone concerned with the future of American politics and the American city.

This book, written by a leading sociologist, tells Edinburgh's modern story and unveils its power structure. It examines its politics, formal and informal; its changing political economy; and the rise of its status as Festival city. Behind all this lies a complex system of money and culture, of presumed social status tied into a hierarchy of schools and institutions, universities, banks and finance houses. The book explores arguments about what sort of city Edinburgh should be and what it should look like. It examines planning controversies, from post-war developments through various 'holes in the ground' up to and including The Trams controversy. Studying Edinburgh lets us draw lessons about cities in general, and their roles in the modern world.

The Context of Legislating provides a much-needed examination of how the rules, resources, and political conditions within and surrounding different institutions raise or lower the costs of legislating. Using data tracking over 1,100 legislators, 230 committees and 12,000 bills introduced in ten state lower chambers, Shannon Jenkins examines how political conditions and institutional rules and resources shape the arc of the legislative process by raising the costs of some types of legislative activity and lowering the costs of others. Jenkins traces these important contextual effects across the legislative process, examining bill introduction, committee processing and floor passage of bills in these legislatures. The analysis reveals that institutional variables shape the legislative process on their own, but they also have important interactive effects that shape the behavior of actors in these chambers. After tracing these effects across the legislative process, the book concludes by examining the practical implications of these analytical findings. How can the rules of institutions be designed to create effective legislatures? And what do these findings mean for those who seek to shape the policies produced by these institutions? Understanding of how the context of legislating shapes the outputs of legislatures is a critical element of understanding legislatures that has been sorely missing. An original and timely resource for scholars and students researching state legislatures and state politics.

As recently as the mid-2000s, Catalonia was described and analysed by scholars as exhibiting a non-secessionist nationalism and was seen within Europe and beyond as a role model for successful devolution which had much to teach other parts of the world. The Spanish state seemed to be on a journey towards an authentic federal order and was generally admired. However, the new century has been marked by an ever-growing independence movement, with 47.8 per cent of Catalonia voting in favour of independence in September 2015. Pro-independence mobilization has produced a rupture in political relations with the rest of Spain leading to a sovereignty struggle with Madrid. This book explores how an accumulation of long-, medium- and short-term factors have produced the current situation and why the Spanish territorial model has been unable or possibly, unwilling, to respond. The Catalan question is not purely a Spanish problem: it has direct implications for the traditional nation-state model, in Europe and beyond.

The Sino-African Partnership portrays with rigor and clarity the relationship between China and Africa by delving into the geopolitical, geo-economic, and sociocultural dynamics that underlie the extensive and deepening "South-South" cooperation between the two. The analysis highlights China's role in the partnership by underscoring its geo-strategy, multidimensional approach, and the nature of its power projection in a continent of nation-states with differing geo-strategic importance and resource endowments. Supported by a rich texture of recent historical, political, and economic insights and interactions between China and Africa reflecting established knowledge, the book also delves deep into the impact on China of globalization imperatives following the end of the Cold War and its focus on ideological rivalry. Graduate and undergraduate students, China-Africa scholars, and general readers interested in a new perspective on the relationship between the two entities will find this essential and interesting reading. It is a unique and multidimensional examination of bilateral and multilateral cooperation, relationships, and profound development in global politics between two significant developing actors. There are new insights in this study into China's power projection into Africa and the global reactions spawned by its many activities.

Who governs? And why? How do they govern? These remain vital questions in the politics of our small cities and towns. In this new book, author Daniel Bliss takes issue with those who believe that small towns and cities are fatally vulnerable to the pressures of a global economy. Based on in-depth analyses of small town America, this book demonstrates how political agency can address and solve real problems affecting US towns, including capital flight, industrial closures, and job losses. Bliss illustrates how small localities exercise choices - such as nurturing local businesses and developing infrastructure rather than engaging in a "race to the bottom," heavily mortgaging tax revenues to attract large box retailers and small box call centers while passively watching more productive firms and better-paying jobs slip away. Taking careful account of comparative literature as well as variations in city governments, their planning agencies, and their relations with state authorities, this book explores the ways in which local politicians and public planning bodies can mobilize local constituencies to weather global challenges and common structural problems such as unfavorable demographics, skill shortages and out-migration. Economic Development and Governance in Small Town America holds out the promise of meaningful democratic change even in unfavorable political and economic circumstances.

Democratization is a process of collective emancipation through self-government. Continuous political contestation is essential for emancipation but, in order to know which strategies and conditions will emancipate us, we also need to know which ones subjugate us. Political mechanisms with the capacity to modulate our individual and collective bodies and make them docile tend to be close relatives of those which make us equal and free. Drawing on the latest theories concerning globalization and democracy, this book argues that postnational and postsovereign multilevel governance regimes, including the European Union, should be understood as mechanisms of global capitalism aimed at privatizing democracy. Through a detailed applied analysis of the Basque case, the author illustrates how democratization is closely linked to ideas about territory, collective empowerment and institutional political capacity. Democratization always takes place partially: it never "ends". Contrary to the dominant thinking, this book argues that the incomplete nature of democratization is a positive aspect, with perpetual conflict leading to perpetual change. This is precisely what allows, and obliges, each generation to shape its own forms of emancipation.

"Metropolitan Governance" is the first book to bring together competing perspectives on the question and consequences of centralized vs. decentralized regional government. Presenting original contributions by some of the most notable names in the field of urban politics, this volume examines the organization of governments in metropolitan areas, and how that has an effect on both politics and policy. Existing work on metropolitan governments debates the consequences of interjurisdictional competition, but neglects the role of cooperation in a decentralized system. Feiock and his contributors provide evidence that local governments successfully cooperate through a web of voluntary agreements and associations, and through collective choices of citizens. This kind of "institutional collective action" is the glue that holds institutionally fragmented communities together. The theory of institutional collective action developed here illustrates the dynamics of decentralized governance and identifies the various ways governments cooperate and compete. "Metropolitan Governance" provides insight into the central role that municipal governments play in the governance of metropolitan areas. It explores the theory of institutional collective action through empirical studies of land use decisions, economic development, regional partnerships, school choice, morality issues, and boundary change - among other issues. A one-of-a-kind, comprehensive analytical inquiry invaluable for students of political science, urban and regional planning, and public administration - as well as for scholars of urban affairs and urban politics and policymakers - "Metropolitan Governance" blazes new territory in the urban landscape.

In City on the Line, former Baltimore budget director Andrew Kleine asks why the way government does its most important job - deciding how to spend taxpayer dollars - hasn't changed in hundreds of years. Parts memoir, manifesto, and manual, this book tells the story of Baltimore's radical departure from traditional line item budgeting to a focus on outcomes like better schools, safer streets, and stronger neighborhoods-during one of the most tumultuous decades in the city's history. Elected officials, executives, and citizens alike will be equipped to transform budgets in their city, state, or any other mission-driven organization.

American Indian nations are sovereign political entities within the United States. They have complex relationships with the federal government and increasingly with state governments. Regulatory conflict between Native nations and states has increased as Native nations have developed their own independent economies and some states have sought to assert their control over reservation territory. This book explores the intergovernmental conflict between Native nations and states, with a focus on the tension over the enforcement of state cigarette taxes for on-reservation sales. Anne F. Boxberger Flaherty asks: when do states and Native nations come to agreement, when do they disagree, and why are states sometimes willing to extend great efforts to assert their taxes on reservations? Flaherty uses a multi-method approach, with a historical review of expanding state involvement on reservations, a quantitative analysis of state enforcement of cigarette taxes on reservations, and a qualitative analysis of several specific case studies, including the potential for intergovernmental conflict over marijuana cultivation and sales on reservations to answer these questions. This book will be interest to scholars and researchers of Indigenous Politics, Native American Indian Politics, State Politics, and Intergovernmental Politics.

English local government is in a state of decline after 40 years of incremental but cumulative centralisation by central government. This book is the first to directly address this trend's impact upon the institution of local government, a crucial element in the democratic viability of a unitary state. The process of centralisation, and its corrosive effect on the status and responsibilities of local government, have been widely recognised and deplored among politicians and senior officers within local government, and by academics with an interest in this field. However, there has been no study exploring in detail its impact, and, equally important, suggesting ways in which the growing imbalance between the powers of central and local government should be rectified. This book fills this gap. This text will be of key interest to scholars, students and practitioners of local government, and more generally to those interested in what has been happening to British politics and governance.

What do nude beaches and catfish have to do with the federal budget? Quite a bit, it turns out. Working the Federal Budget fills the need for an unvarnished, readable guide to how the federal government collects money and spends it. Centuries of political struggles over the size and funding of government have produced a dense set of budget-related laws, procedures, court decisions and outright improvisations. The resulting rules are legion, complex, and remain a secret to many. In this book, author George D. Krumbhaar unravels the complexity with a journalist's eye for clarity and a lawyer's eye for detail, explaining the system, plainly laying out the laws that lie behind it, and identifying the players that are central to decision making at various stages in the process. With chapters covering the grandiose (why we have such big deficits) and the picayune (PAYGO and its importance) in fascinating and often entertaining detail, Working the Federal Budget provides an invaluable and critical exploration of the who, the what, and the why of the budget process for readers with an interest in government relations and how the government functions-whether from Capitol Hill, the executive branch, "K Street," postgraduate studies or even civic concern.

What do nude beaches and catfish have to do with the federal budget? Quite a bit, it turns out. Working the Federal Budget fills the need for an unvarnished, readable guide to how the federal government collects money and spends it. Centuries of political struggles over the size and funding of government have produced a dense set of budget-related laws, procedures, court decisions and outright improvisations. The resulting rules are legion, complex, and remain a secret to many. In this book, author George D. Krumbhaar unravels the complexity with a journalist's eye for clarity and a lawyer's eye for detail, explaining the system, plainly laying out the laws that lie behind it, and identifying the players that are central to decision making at various stages in the process. With chapters covering the grandiose (why we have such big deficits) and the picayune (PAYGO and its importance) in fascinating and often entertaining detail, Working the Federal Budget provides an invaluable and critical exploration of the who, the what, and the why of the budget process for readers with an interest in government relations and how the government functions-whether from Capitol Hill, the executive branch, "K Street," postgraduate studies or even civic concern.

Political leadership at the local level has attracted growing attention in recent years in parallel with reforms of local government and of the municipal administration as well as the debate on a shift from government to governance. But this debate is mainly focused on single leaders, i.e. mayors or executive officers. Considering the power triangle of (i) the mayor, (ii) the municipal administration (executive officers) and (iii) the council, it is surprising that councillors have gained little interest so far. The aim of this book is to reflect on the role and task perception as well as the behaviour of councillors in the changing context of local democracy. The chapters start from a common conceptual framework. We start from the hypothesis that the role perception as well as the behaviour of councillors can not be conceived of being determined directly by (i) both formals and informal institutional structures as well as by (ii) personal characteristics. Instead, we argue that the perceptions and behaviour of councillors are depending on their notion of democracy.However, the understanding of democracy can be affected by institutional structure - but not solely by such organisational arrangements but depending on personal characteristics of the councillors. This book was published as a special issue of Local Government Studies.

Politics and Government in South Africa introduces readers to all aspects of government and politics in South Africa, from local, to provincial, national, and on to international considerations.

The perfect guide for students and general readers, this textbook explains how South Africa’s key institutions are governed and interact with each other, and how important issues such as economics, gender, race, and class shape relations between citizens and government. Grounded in history and leading theories and debates, the book also brings in alternative perspectives from artists, writers, and popular culture, to demonstrate the diverse ways in which issues of politics and social justice are engaged with within South Africa.

Written with the needs of students at the forefront, each chapter includes:

• Review and discussion questions
• Key terms and further resources
• Fun facts in a Did you know? section
• Supplementary sources and quotations in a The Past as Present section

Interactive and engaging, Politics and Government in South Africa invites readers to consider what they would do in tackling issues such as land distribution, peacekeeping, South Africa’s role in the African Union, and military engagement abroad. It is an essential read for undergraduate students studying Political Science, International Relations, and African Studies, and for anyone looking to develop a deeper understanding of South Africa.

Despite the destabilizing potential of governing of a vast territory and a large multicultural population, the centralized government of the People's Republic of China has held together for decades, resisting efforts at local autonomy. By analyzing Beijing's strategies for maintaining control even in the reformist post-Mao era, Centrifugal Empire reveals the unique thinking behind China's approach to local governance, its historical roots, and its deflection of divergent interests. Centrifugal Empire examines the logic, mode, and instrument of local governance established by the People's Republic, and then compares the current system to the practices of its dynastic predecessors. The result is an expansive portrait of Chinese leaders' attitudes toward regional autonomy and local challenges, one concerned with territory-specific preoccupations and manifesting in constant searches for an optimal design of control. Jae Ho Chung reveals how current communist instruments of local governance echo imperial institutions, while exposing the Leninist regime's savvy adaptation to contemporary issues and its need for more sophisticated inter-local networks to keep its unitary rule intact. He casts the challenges to China's central-local relations as perennial, since the dilution of the system's "socialist" or "Communist" character will only accentuate its fundamentally Chinese-or centrifugal-nature.

Originally published in 1981 but now with a new preface, this volume provided the first detailed comparative analysis of how local authorities in the UK and W. Germany faced up to the challenge of trying to help local industry and improve employment prospects. Based on the results of case-studies the book considers the powers and resources available to local authorities and examines how the authorities are organized for this type of economic activity. The authors' analysis of the interplay of political and administrative factors will be particularly important for student and professionals in comparative public policy and public finance. The study shows how economic policy making in local government is constrained both by the higher levels of government in both countries and by the conditions in the economy operating both locally and nationally.

Provides an in-depth assessment of the fiscal health of cities throughout the U.S. Analyzes patterns of fiscal health using a unique and most accurate data source, the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) survey Offers a solid basis of empirical evidence to help practitioners better understand the environment in which they are functioning and the policy tools they need to help advocate for change Covers trends and presents quantitative case studies

This book discusses the current demographic shifts of blacks, Latinos, and other people of colour out of certain strong-market cities and the growing fear of displacement among low-income urban residents. It documents these populations' efforts to remain in their communities and highlights how this leads to community organizing around economic, environmental, and social justice. The book shows how residents of once-neglected urban communities are standing up to city economic development agencies, influential real estate developers, universities, and others to remain in their neighbourhoods, protect their interests, and transform their communities into sustainable, healthy communities. These communities are deploying new strategies that build off of past struggles over urban renewal. Based on seven years of research, this book draws on a wealth of material to conduct a case study analysis of eight low-income/mixed-income communities in Boston, New York, San Francisco, and Washington, DC. This timely book is aimed at researchers and postgraduate students interested in urban policy and politics, community development, urban studies, environmental justice, urban public health, sociology, community-based research methods, and urban planning theory and practice. It will also be of interest to policy makers, community activists, and the private sector.

Explaining local government, available at last in paperback, uniquely presents a history of local government in Britain from 1800 until the present day. The study explains how the institution evolved from a structure that appeared to be relatively free from central government interference to, as John Prescott observes, 'one of the most centralised systems of government in the Western world'. The book is accessible to A level and undergraduate students as an introduction to the development of local government in Britain but also balances values and political practice to provide a unique explanation, using primary research, of the evolution of the system. -- .

- Based on an empirical research project by experienced environmental health practitioners - Focuses on wider environmental health challenges in many developing countries - No published text currently available in this area

This work describes the operations of a typical municipal government and examines the many productivity trends that are occurring in city halls across America. Much of the focus is on the increasing need for planning in city government to ensure that productivity goals are met. It thoroughly examines the roles of the council, manager, and clerk in promoting increased productivity. It then looks at such municipal departments as legal, finance, fire, human services, library, police and public works, demonstrating proven techniques and structures in each that improve service.