Using the historic Minnesota state government shutdown of 2011 as a backdrop, Interfaith Advocacy describes the work of the Joint Religious Legislative Coalition, an interfaith advocacy group that brings together leaders from Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, and Muslim traditions to advocate on behalf of a range of policies. As the nation's first statewide interfaith lobbying group, the story of the JRLC facilitates an examination of the role of political advocacy groups in state level American politics: what they are, how and why they form, how they mobilize citizens to participate in the political process, how they work to influence government, and what their impact is on American democracy. With research based on two years of in-depth interviews, participant observation, and analysis of archival records, this volume offers proof that it is possible to build successful long term political coalitions among improbable allies. The book investigates both the strengths and weaknesses of this model of advocacy and concludes that the presence of religious advocacy groups in the political process offers substantial benefits of representation, concern for underrepresented issues and groups, and the development of networks of social capital. Interfaith Advocacy is grounded in the theoretical literature of political science but also accessible to all readers who have an interest in political advocacy, state politics, or religion and politics.

To see like a city, rather than seeing like a state, is the key to understanding modern politics. In this book, Magnusson draws from theorists such as Weber, Wirth, Hayek, Jacobs, Sennett, and Foucault to articulate some of the ideas that we need to make sense of the city as a form of political order. Locally and globally, the city exists by virtue of complicated patterns of government and self-government, prompted by proximate diversity. A multiplicity of authorities in different registers is typical. Sovereignty, although often claimed, is infinitely deferred. What emerges by virtue of self-organization is not susceptible to control by any central authority, and so we are impelled to engage politically in a world that does not match our expectations of sovereignty. How then are we are to engage realistically and creatively? We have to begin from where we are if we are to understand the possibilities. Building on traditions of political and urban theory in order to advance a new interpretation of the role of cities/urbanism in contemporary political life, this work will be of great interest to scholars of political theory and urban theory, international relations theory and international relations.

This book examines one of the most high-profile municipal privatizations-the privatization of New York City's Central Park. The fiscal crisis of the 1970s established the political and cultural opening for privatizations, which were justified on the basis of increasing efficiency. However, as Cooke demonstrates, these justifications were deliberately blind to the social and economic implication of privatization. This fascinating account moves beyond the hackneyed pro- versus anti-privatization debate by reconceptualizing the park's privatization as an ensemble of contradictory class effects. It also highlights the immense theoretical and policy space for radically reconsidering and rethinking privatization processes in both the municipal and global contexts.

First published in 1985, Between Centre and Locality provides the detailed accounts of the relations between central and local government in Britain since 1970s. The confrontation of centre and locality has been a constant theme of political debate and legislative action since Mrs Thatcher came to power. It discusses range of policy issues including education, the police, housing, race relations and finance. In addition, theoretical chapters are included which set the empirical studies in the broader context of theories of the State and of policy making. The chapters have each been written by an acknowledged authority on the particular subject and are based upon extensive research. The book will be of interest not only to academics in a number of fields but also to politicians, officers, and civil servants in central and local government.

The Semantic Web, extends the popular, day-to-day Web, enabling computers and people to effectively work together by giving information well-defined meaning. Knitting the Semantic Web explains the interdisciplinary efforts underway to build a more library-like Web through "semantic knitting." The book examines foundation activities and initiatives leading to standardized semantic metadata. These efforts lead to the Semantic Web-a network able to support computational activities and provide people with services efficiently. Leaders in library and information science, computer science, and information intensive domains provide insight and inspiration to give readers a greater understanding of the evolution of the Semantic Web. Librarians and information professionals are uniquely qualified to play a major role in the development and maintenance of the Semantic Web. Knitting the Semantic Web closely examines this crucial relationship in detail. This single source reviews the foundations, standards, and tools underlying the Semantic Web and presents thoughtful perspectives in the context of 2.0 developments. Many chapters include figures to illustrate concepts and ideas, and the entire text is extensively referenced. Topics in Knitting the Semantic Web include: RDF, its expressive power, and its ability to underlie the new Library catalog card for the coming century the value and application for controlled vocabularies SKOS (Simple Knowledge Organization System), the newest Semantic Web language managing scheme versioning in the Semantic Web Physnet portal service for physics Semantic Web technologies in biomedicine developing the United Nations Food and Agriculture ontology Friend Of A Friend (FOAF) vocabulary specification-with a real world case study at a university Web/Library 2.0 and more Knitting the Semantic Web is a stimulating resource for professionals, researchers, educators, and students in library and information science, computer science, information architecture, Web design, and Web services.

One important tradition in political science conceives of the Civil War in the United States serving as the functional equivalent of the English and French Revolutions, bringing with it the victory of liberal democratic industrialism over aristocratic agriculturalism. From this perspective, the Civil War is notable for its impact on the American state. Surprisingly however, little attention has been paid to the distinguishing features of this historic rupture in American politics. Through primary source research and the re-analysis of the rich historical literature about the antebellum era and the causes of the Civil War, Lawrence A. Anderson explores the relationship between federalism and the movement for secession in the United States during the pre-civil war era. Focusing primarily on South Carolina, Anderson carefully revisits theory on institutional analysis of political development to expose what caused secession in the United States.

This book focuses on the practice and experience of urban delicacy governance in Xuhui District, Shanghai. As we know, urbanization is the inevitable course for agricultural civilization to move towards industrial civilization. Over the past forty years, the urbanization of China has developed rapidly and has become an important push for economic development and social progress. At the same time, the rapid expansion of city scale, the shortage of public services, environmental pollution, traffic congestion, housing tension, as well as other urban pain points have emerged, and these have brought about serious challenges to urban governance. Delicacy management is the concentrated expression of modern scientific management theory and the inherent requirement to realize the modernization of national governance systems and governance capability. From delicacy management to delicacy governance, urban governance needs the transformation of logic. Shanghai has been identified as the only super city in the Yangtze River Delta and East China. It is of great significance to understand the theory and practice of urban governance in Shanghai. Meanwhile, Xuhui District is one of the seven central urban areas in Shanghai with a profound historical background, important institutions, advanced science and education.

California is at a tipping point. Severe budget deficits, unsustainable pension costs, heavy taxes, cumbersome regulation, struggling cities, and distressed public schools are but a few of the challenges that policymakers must address for the state to remain a beacon of business innovation and economic opportunity. City Journal has for years been cataloging the political and economic issues of our nation's largest metropolitan areas, and in this collection compiled and introduced by City Journal editor Brian C. Anderson, the cracks in California's flawed policy plans are displayed in detail, and analyzed by a diverse set of experts in the state's design. The list of contributors includes: Steven Malanga, William Voegeli, Joel Kotkin, Wendell Cox, Arthur B. Laffer, Steven Greenhut, Victor Davis Hanson, Heather Mac Donald, John Buntin, Ben Boychuk, Tom Gray, Andrew Klavan, Troy Senik, Larry Sand, Michael Anton, and Guy Sorman. While there is plenty of literature on California's history, topography, and attractions, The Beholden State: California's Lost Promise and How to Recapture It is the first book examining in rigorous detail how a place seen just a generation ago as the dynamic engine of the American future could, through bad policy ideas, find itself with among the highest unemployment rates and poorest educational outcomes in the country. The book is as thoroughly analytical as it is pragmatically proscriptive, complete with policy solutions mapping the way forward for a struggling state.

The secession of South Sudan in July 2011 took place against the backdrop of the Arab Spring, spurring hopes of a "new beginning" that might lead to a more just, democratic Sudan. Nonetheless, the years following secession have witnessed new wars, growing unrest, and renewed calls for the removal of the Islamist regime in Khartoum. This book examines how the Islamist project has shaped developments in Sudan, with a particular focus on how divisive policies at the local and regional levels have created growing regional subcultures of ethnic violence and fragmentation - as well as renewed struggles to fight continued marginalization.

In defence of councillors is an unashamed defence of local representative democracy and of those elected to serve as councillors from the often ill-informed, ill-judged and inaccurate criticism made by the media, government and public, of councillors' personal, political and professional roles. By using qualitative research from a number of related projects, the book examines the roles, functions and responsibilities of councillors and the expectations placed upon them by citizens, communities and government. It also examines the impact council membership has on other facets of the councillor's life. The book examines how councillors develop strategies to overcome the constraints and restrictions on their office so as to be able to govern their communities, balance their political and public life and democratise and hold to account a vast array of unelected bodies that spend public money and develop public policy without the electoral mandate and legitimacy held by our councillors. -- .

This is a revision and update of Zimmerman's classic study of relations between state and local government. The first edition, published in 1983, was based on three decades of research into intergovernmental affairs and examined the legal, financial, and structural foundations of state-local relations. This new edition adds a fourth decade of research and brings the work up to date through the early 1990s, adding a chapter on state mandates and local governments, reviewing and analyzing the changes in fortune of state and local governments, and the impact of those changes on their relations between each other and between themselves and the federal government.

Examining the genral character and key issues of local politics, People, Power and Place discusses the effect of local government policieson the general population and identifies those who gain or lose under them. Based on a comparitive investigation of Britain and the United States, the book explores the changing influences of institutions and individuals in local political systems and activity. This perspective, first published in 1991, illustrates the role of national, international and historical factors in the evolution of local government as well as outlining the practice of local politics in both countries.

Based on cases and interviews in Britain, Europe and the United States, this book explains the recurrence of regional planning and of initiatives in regional governance, in a wide range of advanced industrial countries. Providing an analysis of the nature of regional planning and governance, the book traces the development of regional planning and the institutions associated with it. It also looks at the way that regions have been changing their form under pressure from economic and political developments and examines how regional planning and governance has responded, comparing experience in the UK, the rest of Europe and the US.
In concluding that regionalism is an imperative feature of politics in most countries, associated with almost any of the variety of forms of governance, the author offers a major appraisal of the significance of regional planning in an intemational context

Several thousand new civil society organisations were legally established in Tunisia following the 2010-11 uprising that forced the long-serving dictator, Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, from office. These organisations had different visions for a new Tunisia, and divisive issues such as the status of women, homosexuality, and human rights became highly contested. For some actors, the transition from authoritarian rule allowed them to have a strong voice that was previously muted under the former regimes. For others, the conflicts that emerged between the different groups brought new repressions and exclusions - this time not from the regime, but from 'civil society'. Vulnerable populations and the organisations working with them soon found themselves operating on uncertain terrain, where providing support to marginalised and routinely criminalised communities brought unexpected challenges. Here, Edwige Fortier explores this remarkable period of transformation and the effects of opening up public space in this way.

This edited collection brings together enterprising pieces of new research on the many forms of organization in East and Southeast Asia that are sponsored or mandated by government, but engage widespread participation at the grassroots level. Straddling the state-society divide, these organizations play important roles in society and politics, yet remain only dimly understood. This book shines a spotlight on this phenomenon, which speaks to fundamental questions about how such societies choose to organize themselves, how institutions of local governance change over time, and how individuals respond to and make use of the power of the state. The contributors investigate organizations ranging from volunteer-based organizations that partner with government in providing services for homeless children, to state-managed networks of neighborhood- or village-level associations that perform representative as well as administrative functions and seeks to answer a number of questions: When do the "vertical," top-down imperatives of the state stifle "horizontal" solidarities, and when might the two work in harmony? Are useful social and administrative purposes served by this type of fusion? Does it amplify or merely muffle citizens' voices? What does it tell us about existing accounts of community, social capital, "synergy," "complementarity," "subsidiarity," and related concepts? Representing seven countries: China, Japan, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, Taiwan, and Singapore this volume will be of interest to undergraduates, postgraduates and academics in Asian studies, political science, sociology, anthropology, development, history, nonprofit studies.

This book approaches the study of AfroEurope through narrative forms produced in contemporary France, a location which richly illustrates race in European spaces.

The book adopts a transdisciplinary lens that combines critical black and urban geographies, intersectional feminism, and textual analysis to explore the spatial negotiations of black women in France. It assesses literature, film, and music as narrative forms and engages with the sociocultural and political contexts from which they emerge. Through the figure of the black flâneuse and the analytical framework of "walking as method", the book goes beneath spectacular representations of ghettoised banlieues, televised protests, and shipwrecked migrants to analyse the spatiality of blackness in the everyday. It argues that the material-discursive framing of black flânerie, as both relational and embodied movements, renders visible a politics of place embedded in everyday micro-struggles of raced-sexed subjects.

Foregrounding expressive modes and forms that have traditionally received little critical attention outside of the French and francophone world, this book will be relevant to academics, researchers, writers, students, activists, and readers with interests in Literary and Cultural Studies, African and Afrodiasporic Studies, Black Feminisms, Migration Studies, Critical Black Geographies, Francophone Studies, and the comparative framework of Afroeuropean Studies.

Table of Contents

Introduction Part I: The Long Shadow of Marianne 1. I wonder as I wander: AfroFrench visuality and walking as method 2. The map is not the territory: francophonie and the errant writer 3. Black or French: voicing the borders of black France Part II: Blackness Intra Muros 4. Naming into place: Afropeanism as a poetics of relation 5. Zara in the metro: geographic variability and the ethnographic gaze 6. Re-imagining AfroParisianism: blackness encoded; spatiality decoded Conclusion: black spatiality and the search for ouverture

The first comprehensive biographical information source to the 191 American governors who served during the period 1788-1959. Historical and political analysis accompanies each entry.

To see like a city, rather than seeing like a state, is the key to understanding modern politics. In this book, Magnusson draws from theorists such as Weber, Wirth, Hayek, Jacobs, Sennett, and Foucault to articulate some of the ideas that we need to make sense of the city as a form of political order. Locally and globally, the city exists by virtue of complicated patterns of government and self-government, prompted by proximate diversity. A multiplicity of authorities in different registers is typical. Sovereignty, although often claimed, is infinitely deferred. What emerges by virtue of self-organization is not susceptible to control by any central authority, and so we are impelled to engage politically in a world that does not match our expectations of sovereignty. How then are we are to engage realistically and creatively? We have to begin from where we are if we are to understand the possibilities. Building on traditions of political and urban theory in order to advance a new interpretation of the role of cities/urbanism in contemporary political life, this work will be of great interest to scholars of political theory and urban theory, international relations theory and international relations.

Focusing on Karnataka in India, this study examines the implications of the model of development sought to be introduced in the entire country through the governance reforms of the post-1991 period a model that bypasses Panchayat Raj institutions (PRIs), resulting in a majority of the population being left outside the purview of development.

These changes in governance resulted in, among other things, the prolific growth of NGOs in the country, particularly in Karnataka. Explaining how community-based organizations (CBOs) set up by these NGOs have made their way into rural Karnataka, this book expresses concern over how they now perform functions that rightly belong to PRIs following the 73rd Amendment to the Constitution which devolves 29 functions to local self-government, passing on the funds they receive from the centre to their district and village branches, though these should actually go to PRIs.

The book argues that elected representatives have been put in place by the people at all levels, and it is they who should take decisions regarding the development of this country. In the post-liberalisation period, governance through institutions that eschew political decentralisation is fraught with hazards. Not only will avenues for the expression of people 's wishes be lacking in such a scenario, but there will also be increasing inequality, resulting in a skewed development. The inclusiveness which the present government seeks will elude them unless they restore and strengthen Panchayat Raj institutions.

The remarkable changes in China over the past three decades are mostly considered at the national level, whereas local government which has played and continues to play a key role in these developments is often overlooked. The themes of China s local administrative hierarchy, and its historical evolution, have until now received scant attention; this book fills that gap, and presents a comprehensive survey of China s local administration, from the province down to the township. It examines the political and functional definitions and historical origins of the nine local administrative levels or categories in contemporary China: the province, the centrally-administered municipality, the ethnic minority autonomous region, the special administrative region, the deputy-provincial city, the prefecture, the county, township and urban district. It investigates how each of the different levels of China s local administration has developed historically, both before and after 1949; and it explores the functions, political and economic, that the different levels and units carry out, and how their relationships with superior and subordinate units have evolved over time. It also discusses how far the post-Mao reforms have affected local administration, and how the local administrative hierarchy is likely to develop going forward.

Examining the genral character and key issues of local politics, People, Power and Place discusses the effect of local government policieson the general population and identifies those who gain or lose under them. Based on a comparitive investigation of Britain and the United States, the book explores the changing influences of institutions and individuals in local political systems and activity. This perspective, first published in 1991, illustrates the role of national, international and historical factors in the evolution of local government as well as outlining the practice of local politics in both countries.

This book, first published in 1979, examines the economic lives of municipal governments. Local government provides a great deal of services, all of which must be paid for. The sources of these revenues are analysed here, in three sections: bonding and debt; taxation; and other, miscellaneous sources of revenue. The bibliographic entries stretch back into the nineteenth century, and see a large postwar increase as the financial problems of municipal corporations grew alongside the growth of the suburbs.

First Published in 1931, The Development of Local Government presents a comprehensive account of the most important questions related to various aspects of local government. William A. Robson gives us an illuminating history and survey of facts about crucial themes like the municipal structure; the function of local authorities; public health administration; the danger of centralization; conflict of town and country; expansion of cities; need for reconstruction; cultural aspects of civic life; and employment of women in the municipal service. This book is a must read for students and researchers of public administration, political studies, and governance studies.

This book provides a balanced assessment of China's communist rule, its viability as well as its prospect of democracy. The People's Congresses and Governance in China presents a complex but convincing analysis of the transformation of governance in China. As the first systemic and theoretical study of China's provincial legislatures, it draws our attention to one of the most promising growth points in China's changing constitutional order. Through in depth and first hand research, the author provides a comprehensive explanation about why the provincial legislatures have acquired institutional maturation and expanded power in the context of Chinese transitional political economy. The book portrays an innovative pattern of legislative development, sums up pragmatic local strategies for market creation, and identifies multiple dynamics for promoting accountability and democracy. Based upon the case study of provincial legislatures, Ming Xia reveals the formation of a new mode of governance in China's national politics: the network structure featuring institutional arrangements and the mohe (co-operation through competition) pattern of interaction abided by the major power players. This volume will be of interest to parliamentary scholars and parliamentarians who are concerned with the role of parliaments in transitional politics and economies of both post-communist and developing countries. It will also appeal to students and researchers of Chinese politics, governance and Asian studies.