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Books > Social sciences > Politics & government > Local government > General
How can women wear diamonds when babies cry for bread?" Kate
Barnard demanded in one of the incendiary stump speeches for which
she was well known. In A Life on Fire, Connie Cronley tells the
story of Catherine Ann "Kate" Barnard (1875-1930), a fiery
political reformer and the first woman elected to state office in
Oklahoma, as commissioner of charities and corrections in
1907-almost fifteen years before women won the right to vote in the
United States. Born to hardscrabble settlers on the Nebraska
prairie, Barnard committed her energy, courage, and charismatic
oratory to the cause of Progressive reform and became a political
powerhouse and national celebrity. As a champion of the poor,
workers, children, the imprisoned, and the mentally ill, Barnard
advocated for compulsory education, prison reform, improved mental
health treatment, and laws against child labor. Before statehood,
she stumped across the Twin Territories to unite farmers and miners
into a powerful political alliance. She also helped write
Oklahoma's Progressive constitution, creating what some heralded as
"a new kind of state." But then she took on the so-called "Indian
Question." Defending Native orphans against a conspiracy of graft
that reached from Oklahoma to Washington, D.C., she uncovered
corrupt authorities and legal guardians stealing oil, gas, and
timber rights from Native Americans' federal allotments. In
retaliation, legislators and grafters closed ranks and defunded her
state office. Broken in health and heart, she left public office
and died a recluse. She remains, however, a riveting figure in
Oklahoma history, a fearless activist on behalf of the weak and
helpless.
Framing Borders addresses a fundamental disjuncture between
scholastic portrayals of settler colonialism and what actually
takes place in Akwesasne Territory, the largest Indigenous
cross-border community in Canada. Whereas most existing portrayals
of Indigenous nationalism emphasize border crossing as a site of
conflict between officers and Indigenous nationalists, in this book
Ian Kalman observes a much more diverse range of interactions, from
conflict to banality to joking and camaraderie. Framing Borders
explores how border crossing represents a conversation where
different actors "frame" themselves, the law, and the space that
they occupy in diverse ways. Written in accessible, lively prose,
Kalman addresses what goes on when border officers and Akwesasne
residents meet, and what these exchanges tell us about the
relationship between Indigenous actors and public servants in
Canada. This book provides an ethnographic examination of the
experiences of the border by Mohawk community members, the history
of local border enforcement, and the paradoxes,
self-contradictions, and confusions that underlie the border and
its enforcement.
England is ruled directly from Westminster by institutions and
parties that are both English and British. The non-recognition of
England reflects a longstanding assumption of 'unionist statecraft'
that to draw a distinction between what is English and what is
British risks destabilising the union state. The book examines
evidence that this conflation of England and Britain is growing
harder to sustain, in light of increasing political divergence
between the nations of the UK and the awakening of English national
identity. These trends were reflected in the 2016 vote to leave the
European Union, driven predominantly by English voters (outside
London). Brexit was motivated in part by a desire to restore the
primacy of the Westminster Parliament, but there are countervailing
pressures for England to gain its own representative institutions,
and for devolution to England's cities and regions. The book
presents competing interpretations of the state of English
nationhood, examining the views that little of significance has
changed, that Englishness has been captured by populist
nationalism, and that a more progressive, inclusive Englishness is
struggling to emerge. We conclude that England's national
consciousness remains fragmented due to deep cleavages in its
political culture, and the absence of a reflective national
conversation about England's identity and relationship with the
rest of the UK and the wider world. Brexit was a (largely) English
revolt, tapping into unease about England's place within two
intersecting Unions (British and European), but it is easier to
identify what the nation spoke against than what it voted for.
Using a traditional historical-institutional approach, The Canadian
Regime introduces students to the idea of the regime, which is a
lens through which they can see how institutions interact with the
basic principles of the political order. The authors explain how
the Canadian liberal democratic regime was founded on the
fundamental principles of liberty, equality, and consent and
discuss the ways in which Canada's institutions have developed and
operate in accordance with these principles. The authors also
examine how the regime has at times failed to follow these
principles, particularly with respect to Canada's Indigenous
peoples in Canada, and how reforms to Canada's governing
institutions challenge historical assumptions concerning
parliamentary government and federalism. Now in its seventh
edition, The Canadian Regime continues to provide the most
accessible introduction to Canadian politics, making Canada's
unique government and systems clear to students. This edition is
updated with the results of the 2019 federal election.
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.
Effective governance is vital for all nations and can be made
easier with advanced technology and communication. Through various
collaborative efforts and processes, developing nations can enhance
their economies with multi-level governance. Multi-Level Governance
in Developing Economies is a collection of innovative research on
the applications and theories of multi-level governance in the
developing world. It illustrates the practical side of multi-level
governance by emphasizing special policies such as immigration,
innovation, climate, local government, and construction. While
highlighting topics including Europeanization, politics of the
developing world, and immigration policies, this book is ideally
designed for academicians, policymakers, government officials, and
individuals seeking current research on the usage and impact of
multi-level governance in emerging economies.
Using a traditional historical-institutional approach, The Canadian
Regime introduces students to the idea of the regime, which is a
lens through which they can see how institutions interact with the
basic principles of the political order. The authors explain how
the Canadian liberal democratic regime was founded on the
fundamental principles of liberty, equality, and consent and
discuss the ways in which Canada's institutions have developed and
operate in accordance with these principles. The authors also
examine how the regime has at times failed to follow these
principles, particularly with respect to Canada's Indigenous
peoples in Canada, and how reforms to Canada's governing
institutions challenge historical assumptions concerning
parliamentary government and federalism. Now in its seventh
edition, The Canadian Regime continues to provide the most
accessible introduction to Canadian politics, making Canada's
unique government and systems clear to students. This edition is
updated with the results of the 2019 federal election.
Cities affect all our lives. Fernand Braudel identified their three
functions,providing security,shelter and markets. Ideologists like
Ebenezer Howard (garden cities) and Le Corbusier (monumental
redevelopment) suggested how cities should work. Jane Jacobs showed
how they actually work. Civilizing Cities expands considerably from
these foundations in three parts: past, present and future. To
address these issues, we need to replace 'normative' and
'market-led' planning ideologies based on the bulldozer, with
pragmatic planning based on small-scale incrementalism and
'intensification'. We also need practical sustainable policies,
which the National Planning Policy Framework signally fails to
provide. Finally, we need politicians with the intellectual rigour,
social understanding and felt need for fairness, like Clement
Attlee, Lloyd George and, in Birmingham, Joseph Chamberlain. He or
she will need to reset the balance between central and local
government, make taxes more consistent (a bedroom tax just on the
poor?) and reform the House of Lords as a Citizens Assembly. The
book concludes with conclusions to be drawn from the Covid-19
pandemic. These include giving local councils many more essential
public functions in the prevention and management of future health
crises, returning planning to its public health roots and creating
healthier cities with less pollution, inequality, unemployment and
isolation.
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