Local participation can and does influence the political process. Local Politics and Participation in Britain and France, first published in 1990, provides a unique comparative study of the involvement of average citizens in local politics and government between national elections. The work of Professor Mabileau and his colleagues will illuminate the nature of contemporary processes of participation at a time when the local level of government, administration and participation democracy are topics of renewed interest in all Western democracies. French and British teams explore the salient differences between the two local government systems - both of which have been reformed. Through a series of local case studies, they examine levels of individual and group participation, mobilisation into single-issue protest groups, links between councillors and the local electorate, and the importance of local context in participation patterns. Local Politics and Participation in Britain and France is a product of collaborative research carried out at the Universities of Manchester and Bordeaux. The results are based on surveys of ordinary people as well as on interviews with local leaders. They will be equally of interest to academics - students and specialists of British and French politics, local government, participation and democratic theory - and to local party workers and activists.

This monograph ties in the scholarly debate on Chinese village elections and their consequences for China's political system. It draws on comparative fieldwork conducted in six villages in two counties in Jiangxi and Jilin Provinces and one district in Shenzhen between 2002 and 2005, producing data from some 140 in-depth interviews of villagers and local officials up to the prefectural level. The major objective of this book is as much a critical assessment of the research literature of Chinese village elections published over the last fifteen years as to sharpen the reader's sight for the scope and limits of this important reform to generate regime legitimacy in the local state, an issue which has so far been neglected in the study of Chinese village elections. It hence contributes to our understanding of the nexus between political participation and cadre accountability at the grassroots, and highlights a number of factors ensuring the persistence of one-party rule in contemporary China.

As democracy is disrupted by globalization, the solution is to globalize democracy. This book explores the causes of the current crisis of democracy and advocates new ways for more representative, effective, and accountable governance in an interdependent world. Part 1 analyzes the split of the middle class and the subsequent political polarization which underlies people's dissatisfaction with the way democracy works in developed countries. It also addresses the role of political emotions, including disappointments about unmet expectations, anger incited from opposition candidates, fear induced from government, and hope wrapping up new proposals for reform and change. In Part 2, the authors argue that a more effective governance would require reallocations of power at local, national, continental and global levels with innovative combinations of direct democracy, representative government, and rule by experts. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of political science, comparative politics, international relations, political economy and democratic theory, as well as general readers interested in politics and current events.

2018 marks the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement. When it was signed few would have imagined Brexit. This book examines the impact of the Good Friday Agreement on internal and cross-border political and economic cooperation between Northern Ireland, Ireland and Britain, in the context of Brexit. It also examines the impact of Brexit to date and concludes with some scenarios about the longer-term impact of Brexit on the Good Friday Agreement itself and on Northern Ireland's constitutional status. The volume comprises chapters from leading academics in the fields of Northern Irish and comparative politics who deal with economic and political aspects of the Good Friday Agreement, making an original contribution to the current debates on conflict resolution. It provides a theoretical framework by renowned expert on consociationalism, Brendan O'Leary, as well as a chapter on the British-Irish Relationship in the 21st Century by renowned Northern Ireland specialist John Coakley. This book was originally published as a special issue of Ethnopolitics.

China faces the problem of collaboration deficiency in local governance of metropolitan areas. With the evolution of regional spatial structure in China, this book is timely with its analysis on how China can approach current problems in China's regional governance through a holistic collaborative governance mechanism. The book applies the governance theory to the local government in metropolitan areas and explains how this approach may help to equalize regional public resources allocation. The author puts forth a convincing case for the use of holistic collaborative governance to better understand the problems of China's local government in metropolitan areas and to promote regional government collaboration. The book also looks at cross-jurisdiction collaboration organization, collaborative mechanism of local government, private sector and non-governmental organizations in public affairs (environmental protection, transportation, public health, water resources).

Regionalism is under stress. The European Union has been challenged by the Eurozone crisis, refugee flows, terrorist attacks, Euroscepticism, and Brexit. In Latin America, regional cooperation has been stagnating. Studying Europe and Latin America within a broader comparative perspective, this volume provides an analytical framework to assess stress factors facing regionalism. The contributors explore how economic and financial crises, security challenges, identity questions raised by immigration and refugee flows, the rise of populism, and shifting regional and global power dynamics have had an impact on regionalism; whether the EU crisis has had repercussions for regionalisms in other parts of the world; and to what extent the impact of stress factors is mediated by characteristics of the region that may provide elements of resilience. Written by specialists from Europe and Latin America with a shared interest in the new field of comparative regionalism, this book will be an invaluable resource for students, scholars and policy specialists in regional integration, European politics, EU studies, Latin American studies, and international relations and international law more generally.

Regionalism is under stress. The European Union has been challenged by the Eurozone crisis, refugee flows, terrorist attacks, Euroscepticism, and Brexit. In Latin America, regional cooperation has been stagnating. Studying Europe and Latin America within a broader comparative perspective, this volume provides an analytical framework to assess stress factors facing regionalism. The contributors explore how economic and financial crises, security challenges, identity questions raised by immigration and refugee flows, the rise of populism, and shifting regional and global power dynamics have had an impact on regionalism; whether the EU crisis has had repercussions for regionalisms in other parts of the world; and to what extent the impact of stress factors is mediated by characteristics of the region that may provide elements of resilience. Written by specialists from Europe and Latin America with a shared interest in the new field of comparative regionalism, this book will be an invaluable resource for students, scholars and policy specialists in regional integration, European politics, EU studies, Latin American studies, and international relations and international law more generally.

This book explores the role of mayors in navigating the realities of living and governing under Nazi occupation. In Western Europe under Nazi occupation, mayors of villages and cities were forced into strategic cooperation with the occupier. Mayors had to provide good governance, mediate between occupier and populations, maintain personal legitimacy, and build local consensus. However, as national systems underwent authoritarian reform and collaborationists infiltrated administrations, local governments were gradually turned into instruments of Nazi control and repression. Nico Wouters uses rich new archival data to compare the realities of local government in three countries. Looking at topics such as food supply, public order and safety, forced labour, the repression of resistance, the persecution of the Jews and post-war purges, this book redefines our knowledge of collaboration, resistance and accommodation during Nazi occupation.

This book addresses the meanings and implications of self-organization and state society relations in contemporary Nigerian politics. The conventional wisdom in public choice theory is that self-organization could generate collective action problems, via the tragedy of the commons, or the prisoner's dilemma, or a condition akin to Hobbes' state of nature, where selfish interests produce social conflict rather than cooperation. In the absence or unwillingness of the state to provide such services, entire communities in Nigeria have had to band together to repair roads, build health centers, repair broken transformers owned by the public utilities company, all from levies. Consideration of post-authoritarian state-civil society relations in Nigeria began in a situation where the state was deeply embroiled in a morass of economic and political crises, further complicating these relations, and lending urgency to questions about state capacity, as well as the nature of the relationship between state and civil society, and their implication for the social, economic and political health and well being of the democratizing polity and its citizens.

First published in 1984. This book is a detailed study of the way in which the growing Labour movement gradually ousted the Liberals in West Yorkshire between 1890 and 1924. It demonstrates the basis of old Liberalism and the strength of local non-conformity, and its powerful links with the textile and engineering industries. It shows how the Liberalism of this district was dominated by small groups of well-to-do leaders involved in these main industries. This study also shows the gradual breakdown of the political consensus established between the Liberal party and the working classes and explains how the increasing opposition to Liberalism was channelled into the socialist movement. In all, the authors present a thorough and extensive study of the political changes in a particularly interesting part of the British Isles.

Provide open data, balance decisions and initiatives, and create equitable policies. Smart communities don't wait for someone to deem them smart; they take action. State and local governments worldwide have taken that first step using geographic information system (GIS) technology. Applying GIS to planning and urban design, public works operations, and racial equity and social justice has helped meet citizens' needs and improve government operations. And with advancements in smart technology, location intelligence for state and local governments is not just for GIS specialists. More informed, data-driven decisions lead to improved outcomes that can be shared and replicated in other communities, helping citizens and government collaborate for the common good. Building a Smarter Community: GIS for State and Local Government shows how government leaders in cities, counties, and states have applied GIS for improved planning, operations, and civic inclusion. In this collection of case studies and guidance to get started, learn how GIS: Helped planners visualize affordable housing patterns in Honolulu, Hawaii Radically changed stormwater management practices in Salinas County, California Improved easy access to city data, initiatives, and services in Coral Gables, Florida Supported minority-owned business during the COVID pandemic in San Rafael, California Web apps, GIS hubs and dashboards, and other GIS solutions help state and local governments develop a deeper understanding of the communities they serve within a real-world context. Sections on getting started with GIS provide helpful ideas, strategies, tools, and actions and a collection of online resources to jump-start your use of GIS for state and local government. Discover how GIS and location intelligence support state and local government decisions and citizen participation in Building a Smarter Community.

The expectations of citizens in delivery of services by government institutions have increased over the last decade. Although, governments all over the world are involved in transforming methodologies and processes to satisfy their stakeholders, still there are problems which are causing distress and waste of valuable resources. ""Integrating E-Business Models for Government Solutions: Citizen-Centric Service Oriented Methodologies and Processes"" provides a unique collection of essential tools and alternative e-business strategies that can be incorporated into e-government solutions. The goal is to help in evolving effective methodologies and processes and consequently provide cost effective and citizen-centric services. Useful to scholars, researchers, and academic institutions, this book will enable readers to examine current issues and promote research initiatives to improve service delivery in e-government.

This book showcases new research by emerging and established scholars on white workers and the white poor in Southern Africa.

Rethinking White Societies in Southern Africa challenges the geographical and chronological limitations of existing scholarship by presenting case studies from Angola, Mozambique, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe that track the fortunes of nonhegemonic whites during the era of white minority rule. Arguing against prevalent understandings of white society as uniformly wealthy or culturally homogeneous during this period, it demonstrates that social class remained a salient element throughout the twentieth century, how Southern Africa’s white societies were often divided and riven with tension and how the resulting social, political and economic complexities animated white minority regimes in the region. Addressing themes such as the class-based disruption of racial norms and practices, state surveillance and interventions – and their failures – towards nonhegemonic whites, and the opportunities and limitations of physical and social mobility, the book mounts a forceful argument for the regional consideration of white societies in this historical context. Centrally, it extends the path-breaking insights emanating from scholarship on racialized class identities from North America to the African context to argue that race and class cannot be considered independently in Southern Africa.

This book will be of interest to scholars and students of southern African studies, African history, and the history of race.

Table of Contents

1. Workers Called White and Classes Called Poor: The ‘White Working Class’ and ‘Poor Whites’ in Southern Africa 1910-1994 2. Rhodesian State Paternalism and the White Working-Class Family, 1930s-1950s 3. Immigration and Settlement of "Undesirable" Whites in Southern Rhodesia, c. 1940s to 1960s 4. White People Fit for a New South Africa? State Planning, Policy and Social Response in the Parastatal Cities of the Vaal, 1940-1990 5. Whites, but not Quite: Settler Imaginations in Late Colonial Mozambique, c. 1951-1964 6. "Village Portugal" in Africa: Discourses of Differentiation and Hierarchization of Settlers, 1950s-1974 7. Labour and Mobility on Rhodesia’s Railways: The 1954 Fireman’s Strike 8. The Dog that Didn’t Bark: The Mufulira Strike and White Mineworkers at Zambian Independence 9. Social Engineering and Scientific Management: Some Reflections on the Apartheid Public Service and Historical Process 10. White Workers and the Unravelling of Racial Citizenship in Late Apartheid South Africa

The book critically examines some of the most topical and challenging issues confronting the public sector in developing countries in an era of globalization. The contributors examine the potential and limits of managerial, fiscal and decentralization reforms and highlight cases where selective use of some of the new management reforms has delivered positive results. Looking into the future, the book provides lessons from the experience of implementing public sector reforms in developing countries.

Known by mobsters as the man who couldn t be bought Brendan Byrne pioneered New Jersey into a new era when he won the state s gubernatorial election by a landslide in the wake of political corruption scandals. A former prosecutor and New Jersey Superior Court Judge, Byrne was soon condemned as one term Byrne, the inept politician who few thought would risk the humiliation of standing for a second term. Yet Byrne surprised both friend and foe alike by pulling off the state s most remarkable political comeback. He won re-election despite his stubborn defiance of the state s political bosses by enacting the first income tax and rejecting the deal-making and back-slapping that had long been a staple of New Jersey politics. By the time Byrne left office after eight turbulent years, he had also left behind a record that few, if any, of his political descendants could match. Among his numerous accomplishments: overseeing the preservation of the Pinelands; salvaging the floundering plan to develop the Meadowlands and the New Jersey Sports Complex; implementing casino gambling in Atlantic City; and overhauling the state s failing commuter bus and rail network through the creation of a modern, efficient transit system. In his career as a political leader, Byrne dealt with colorful mobsters, political bosses, and the power-brokers of his time. Along the way he has continually demonstrated his special quirks and quick wit while forging his own unique path to enact lasting change and a luminous legacy."

This book explores theatre and performance as participatory research practices for exploring the everyday of the city. Taking an inner-city suburb of Johannesburg, South Africa as its central case study, the book consider how theatre and performance might be both useful practical tools in considering the everyday city, as well as conceptual lenses for understanding it.

The author establishes an understanding of space as ever-evolving and formed through the ongoing relationship between things, human and non-human and considers how theatre and performance offer useful paradigms for learning about and working with city spaces. As ephemeral, embodied, material artistic practices, theatre and performance mirror the nature of everyday life. The book discusses theatre and performance games and playmaking processes as offering valuable ways of discovering daily acts of place-making and providing insights that more conventional research methods may not allow. Yet the book also considers how seeing daily city life as a kind of performance, a kind of theatre in its own right, helps to further understandings of city spaces as ever evolving through complex webs of relationships.

This book will be of interest to academics, academic practitioners and post-graduate students in the fields of theatre and performance studies, urban studies and cultural geography.

Although difficult, complicated, and sometimes discouraging, collaboration is recognized as a viable approach for addressing uncertain, complex and wicked problems. Collaborations can attract resources, increase efficiency, and facilitate visions of mutual benefit that can ignite common desires of partners to work across and within sectors. An important question remains: How to enable successful collaboration? Inter-Organizational Collaboration by Design examines how these types of collaborations can overcome barriers to innovate and rejuvenate communities outlining the factors and antecedents that influence successful collaboration. The book proposes a theoretical perspective for collaborators to adopt design science (a solution finding approach utilizing end-user-centered research, prototyping, and collective creativity to strengthen individuals, teams, and organizations), the language of designers, and a design attitude as an empirically informed pathway for better managing the complexities inherent in collaboration. Through an integrated framework, evidence-based tools and strategies for building successful collaboration is articulated where successful collaboration performance facilitates innovation and rejuvenation. This volume will be essential reading for academics, researchers, leaders and managers in nonprofit, private, and government sectors interested in building better collaborations.

This book highlights the role of community trusts in social licencing through the lens of mining and mining disputes in South Africa.

Employing elements of trust, acceptance and elite interaction as a framework, this book critically investigates the underlying dynamics of community development trusts and also the response of host communities to the inherent dilemma of the SLO concept, namely social legitimation versus corporate profits. Looking at formal versus informal regulatory requirements, popular mobilisation, and the interaction between the local population and mining companies, this book constitutes a thorough look at the issues surrounding mining in South Africa and its effect on society.

This book will be of interest to students and scholars of African studies, business in Africa, corporate responsibility, and development studies.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction: Context of community-mine relations in South Africa 2. Path dependency and social licensing 3. Mining regulatory frameworks and civil society mobilisation 4. Royal Bafokeg Nation: A model of community-based natural resource management 5. Social mobilisation against community development trusts in South Africa 6. Conclusion: Social licensing and prospects for community development

This book follows the citizenship-based approach and interrogates the policies on urban village redevelopment from a perspective of social exclusion and inclusion. It focuses on two questions: how policy makers and urban villagers understand social inclusion differently, and what makes a difference in enhancing social inclusion. Firstly, an examination of citizenship conceptions, as reflected in the Chinese traditional discourses, provides the basis for questioning the political rhetoric of social inclusion in China. Secondly, a comparison between policy makers' and villages' interpretations on urban citizenship helps explore the different understandings of citizenship between them. Finally, by studying six redeveloped urban villages in the city of Xi'an, the book identifies what villagers strive for, and discusses how their strivings make a difference in achieving social inclusion during urban village redevelopment.

Examines the internal politics of transnational environmental advocacy networks. What is the role played by local organizations in transnational environmental advocacy networks? Global Environmentalism and Local Politics revisits this question by looking at transnational environmental activism in Brazil, Ecuador, and India. Rodrigues investigates the internal politics of these networks, focusing on their internal balance of power, choice of strategies, and distribution of resources among members at the international, national, and local levels. Contrary to existing assumptions, local organizations, rather than international or national non-governmental organizations, are the key players in these networks, while at the same time mere participation in transnational advocacy efforts does not necessarily lead to the empowerment of local organizations. Participation may, for example, impose unanticipated political and technical burdens, and despite their overarching common goal of environmental preservation, network members may have different understandings of what environmentally sustainable development is and how it can be best achieved.

The authors explore the many ways that gender and communication intersect and affect each other. Every chapter encourages a consideration of how gender attitudes and practices, past and current, influence personal notions of what it means not only to be female and male, but feminine and masculine. The second edition of this student friendly and accessible text is filled with contemporary examples, activities, and exercises to help students put theoretical concepts into practice.

In this legislative autobiography Franklin L. Kury tells the story about his election to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, and later the Senate, against the senior Republican in the House and an entrenched patronage organization. The only Democrat elected from his district to serve in the House or Senate since the Roosevelt landslide in 1936, Kury was instrumental in enacting the environmental amendment to the state constitution, a comprehensive clean streams law, the gubernatorial disability law, reform of the Senate's procedure for confirmation of gubernatorial appointments, a new public utility law, and flood plain and storm water management laws. The story told here is based on Kury's recollections of his experience, supplemented by his personal files, extensive research in the legislative archives, and conversations with persons knowledgeable on the issues. This book is well documented with notes and appendices of significant documents. Several chapters provide detailed "inside" descriptions of how campaigns succeeded and the enactment of legislation happened. The passage of the environmental amendment, clean streams law, public utility code, flood plain and storm water management laws, and the gubernatorial disability law are recounted in a manner that reveals what it takes to pass such proposals. The book concludes with the author's reflections on the legislature's historical legacies, its present operation, and its future.

Creating metropolitan regions that are more efficient, equitable, and sustainable depends on the willingness of local officials to work together across municipal boundaries to solve large-scale problems. How do these local officials think? Why do they only sometimes cooperate? What kind of governance do they choose in the face of persistent problems? The Risk of Regional Governance offers a new perspective on these questions. Drawing on theory from sociology and anthropology, it argues that many of the most important cooperative decisions local officials make-those about land use planning and regulation-are driven by heuristic, biased reasoning driven by cultural values. The Risk of Regional Governance builds a sociocultural collective action framework, and supports it with rich survey and interview data from hundreds of local elected officials serving in the suburbs of Detroit and Grand Rapids, Michigan. It is a story of the Rust Belt, of how local officials think about their community and the region, and-most importantly-of how we might craft policies that can overcome biases against regional governance.

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.