This book explores the relationship between bureaucrats and elected politicians in Bangladesh and discusses how this impacts governance and development in the country from an empirical perspective. It looks at the interplay of politics and bureaucracy in ancient societies, western democracies and in the developing world while highlighting the uniqueness of the Bangladesh experience and its indigenous contexts of local governance. The author presents a historical overview of the nature of political development, shift of regimes in Bangladesh, and the role of various agents and stakeholders. Through a detailed study, the book provides an analytical and theoretical framework to understanding the linkages between politics and bureaucracy, governance and development in South Asia and Bangladesh, with implications for geopolitics and economic growth. This book will be of interest to scholars, researchers and students of political economy, development studies, public administration, comparative politics as well as to policymakers, bureaucrats, government bodies, and especially those concerned with Bangladesh.

Transitional societies struggling to build democratic institutions and new political traditions are faced with a painful dilemma. How can Government become strong and effective, building a common good that unites disparate ethnic and class groups, while simultaneously nurturing democratic social rules at the grassroots? Professor Fuller brings this issue to light in the contentious, multicultural setting of Southern Africa. Post-apartheid states, like South Africa and Namibia, are pushing hard to raise school quality, reduce family poverty, and equalize gender relations inside villages and townships. But will democratic participation blossom at the grassroots as long as strong central states so necessary for defining the common good push universal policies onto diverse local communities? This book builds from a decade of family surveys and qualitative village studies led by Professor Fuller at Harvard University and African colleagues inside Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa.

Economists and political scientists deal with three major areas of concern: the effect of moving large numbers of welfare recipients into labor markets, the planned federal reforms in the health-care field that will shift costs to the state and local sectors, and trends in federal aid. Focusing on the impact of US devolution of responsibility and costs to the states, they find that the state economies can accommodate the challenges generally, but that the effect of welfare reform is too long-range to be adequately assessed in the near-term.

The foundings of constitutional democracies are commonly traced to singular moments. In turn, these moments of national origin are characterized as radical political innovations, notable for their civic unity, perfect legitimacy and binding authority. In constitutional democracies, this common view is particularly attractive, with original founding events, actors, and ideals continuously evoked in everyday politics to legitimize state authority and unify citizens. Angelica Maria Bernal challenges this view of foundings, however, explaining that it is ultimately dangerous, misguided, and unsustainable. Beyond Origins argues that the ascription of a universal authority to original founding events is problematic because it limits our understanding of subsequent foundational changes, political transformation and innovation. This singular view also confounds our ability to account for all of the actors and venues through which foundation-building and constitutional transformation occurs. Because such understandings of national foundings obscure the many power struggles at work in them, these origin stories are invalid. In the wake of these limited views of national founding, Bernal develops an alternate approach: "founding beyond origins." Rather than asserting that founding events are authoritatively settled and relegated to history, this framework redefines foundings as contentious, uncertain, and incomplete. Indeed, the book looks at a wide variety of contexts - early imperial Rome; revolutionary Haiti and France; the mid-20th century, racially-segregated United States; and contemporary Latin America - to reconsider political foundings as a contestatory and ongoing dimension of political life. Bridging classic and contemporary political and constitutional theory with historical readings, Bernal reorients understandings of political foundings, arguing that it is only through context-specific and pragmatist understandings of democratic origins that we can realize the potential for radical democratic change.

Over the past few decades and throughout the world, numerous government-initiated experiments and attempts at directly engaging and including citizens have emerged as remedies for a variety of problems faced by modern democracies, including political disaffection and insufficient capacity to deal with the complexity inherent in many contemporary public problems, such as climate change and segregation. In practice, these attempts are given many names, such as citizen panels, deliberative fora, collaborative dialogues, etc. In the academic literature as well, the phenomenon falls under many different headings, for instance collaborative, deliberative or interactive governance. Participatory Governance and Representative Democracy refers to this empirical phenomenon as local participatory governance, that is, government-sponsored direct participation between invited citizens and local officials in concrete arrangements and concerning problems that affect them. Participatory governance, we argue, may take many forms, regarding (1) type of interaction and type of communication between participants within the specific participatory arrangement (e.g., deliberative vs. aggregative) as well as regarding (2) the relation and connection between the specific arrangement and the more traditional representative structures (e.g., compatible, incompatible, transformative or irrelevant). The proposed edited volume addresses the matter of institutionalization, highlighting the difficulties associated with establishing stability and a shared understanding of the roles and rules among citizens, local politicians and administrators in participatory arrangements.

This study examines how the shared cultural values of employees in a Polish firm influence management attempts top transform organizational practices in a newly privatized factory. By introducing a foreign management approach, Total Quality Management (TQM), the management of this factory presents a potential conflict of values between the employees and the management philosophy. Tracing the historical and contemporary impact of traditional, political and religious influences in Poland and utilizing ethnographic techniques of observation, interviews, and secondary source data, the author identifies four patterns of shared mindsets. These mindsets, insecurity and instability, distrust, reluctance to assume responsibility and a struggle between individualism and collectivism generate resistance to the successful implementation of TQM in this factory.
Organizational studies research has identified cultural differences in values but previous studies have not examined the congruence assessment that employees make when confronted with a management intervention, such as TQM. The author finds that an incongruence between societal values and the values the employees perceive are embedded in the TQM approach produced actual outcomes that are not consistent with TQM objectives of empowerment, teamwork, visionary leadership and continuous improvement of quality. Employees demonstrated a reduced sense of empowerment, team goals that are counterproductive to organizational goals, autocratic leadership and an increased focus but not sustainable effort toward improving quality.
The book examines the reasons for these results through detailed description and extensive quotations from employees both inside the Polish firm and throughout Polish society.

The recent devolution to the states of responsibilities previously held by the federal government -- a key goal of the deficit-reduction, smaller-government agenda of the 1990s -- has far-reaching implications for state budgets. At the moment, a strong economy has put most states into a strong enough fiscal condition to shoulder such burdens as welfare reform and public investment. But beneath the current surpluses are structural problems that are unlikely to withstand the next economic downturn; as a result, any essential public needs will be left unmet. This book deal with three major areas of concern: first, the effect of moving large numbers of welfare recipients into labor markets; second, the planned federal reforms in the health care field that will shift costs to the state and local sector; and third, trends in federal aid. A basic finding of these essays is that state economies can accommodate these challenges generally speaking, but the effect of recent welfare reform presents a problem too long-range to be adequately assessed in the near-term.

This book explores experiences, issues and challenges which have emerged since Constitutional status was granted to the local bodies at grassroots level in India in the early 1990s. Among other issues, it focuses on: the contrasting political ideas of Mahatma Gandhi and B. R. Ambedkar on Panchayati Raj Institutions the legal and constitutional prov

Your roadmap to community leadership: This significant guide puts the tools of democracy into everyones hands. Based on the best of Blandin Foundations 20-year experience in developing community leaders, it gives community members like yourself the tools to bring people together to make changes. Here are some of the useful resources you'll find: Identifying Community Assets; Community Problem Analysis; Accessing Community Data; Appreciative Inquiry; Translating Vision to Action; Interpersonal Communication for Leaders; Managing Interpersonal Conflict as a Leader; Building Social Capital Across Cultures; Network Mapping: Locating Your Social Capital; Stakeholders Analysis; Building Coalitions; Building Effective Community Teams; Recruiting and Sustaining Volunteers; Getting the Most from Your Meetings. Across the country, individuals and groups are hearing a bugle call to action. Rural, urban, rich, poor, left, right, and everywhere in between community members are waking up to bridge differences and make their communities the best they can be. If you want to make a difference where you live, this book is your roadmap. If you attend early and late night meetings to figure out what needs to get done, this book is your handbook. If you give your time and energy to make things happen, this book is your guide. If you work to involve your neighbors to solve problems, this book is your ally. Carefully crafted examples based on real-life leadership issues help you see how to put the tools of leadership to work where you live, today. Whether you are an active community member who wants to make a difference, a nonprofit leader serving the community, a leadership advisor, a government liaison called on to convene the community, a business leader, a public servant, or a foundation program officer specializing in community needs, you will find in this book the tools and theories essential to getting your work done.

Your roadmap to community leadership: This significant guide puts the tools of democracy into everyones hands. Based on the best of Blandin Foundations 20-year experience in developing community leaders, it gives community members like yourself the tools to bring people together to make changes. Here are some of the useful resources you'll find: Identifying Community Assets; Community Problem Analysis; Accessing Community Data; Appreciative Inquiry; Translating Vision to Action; Interpersonal Communication for Leaders; Managing Interpersonal Conflict as a Leader; Building Social Capital Across Cultures; Network Mapping: Locating Your Social Capital; Stakeholders Analysis; Building Coalitions; Building Effective Community Teams; Recruiting and Sustaining Volunteers; Getting the Most from Your Meetings. Across the country, individuals and groups are hearing a bugle call to action. Rural, urban, rich, poor, left, right, and everywhere in between community members are waking up to bridge differences and make their communities the best they can be. If you want to make a difference where you live, this book is your roadmap. If you attend early and late night meetings to figure out what needs to get done, this book is your handbook. If you give your time and energy to make things happen, this book is your guide. If you work to involve your neighbors to solve problems, this book is your ally. Carefully crafted examples based on real-life leadership issues help you see how to put the tools of leadership to work where you live, today. Whether you are an active community member who wants to make a difference, a nonprofit leader serving the community, a leadership advisor, a government liaison called on to convene the community, a business leader, a public servant, or a foundation program officer specializing in community needs, you will find in this book the tools and theories essential to getting your work done.

This volume addresses the issues arising from the recent devolution referenda by exploring the historical development of the proposals, the importance of national and regional identities, the changing policies of the political parties and the approaches of business and other major groups towards devolution. It also looks at the impact on electoral reform coming from the proposal that proportional representation be used to elect the regional assemblies and how the new assemblies are to be financed. Finally the book discusses the implications of a devolved British state where different countries and regions achieve different levels of autonomy at different paces.

This volume addresses the issues arising from the recent devolution referenda by exploring the historical development of the proposals, the importance of national and regional identities, the changing policies of the political parties and the approaches of business and other major groups towards devolution. It also looks at the impact on electoral reform coming from the proposal that proportional representation be used to elect the regional assemblies and how the new assemblies are to be financed. Finally the book discusses the implications of a devolved British state where different countries and regions achieve different levels of autonomy at different paces.

'An intimate, insightful portrait of an extraordinarily private leader' WALTER ISAACSON From the bestselling author of Enemies of the People An intimate and deeply researched account of the extraordinary rise and political brilliance of the most powerful - and elusive - woman in the world. Angela Merkel has always been an outsider. A pastor's daughter raised in Soviet-controlled East Germany, she spent her twenties working as a research chemist, only entering politics after the fall of the Berlin Wall. And yet within fifteen years, she had become chancellor of Germany and, before long, the unofficial leader of the West. Acclaimed author Kati Marton sets out to pierce the mystery of this unlikely ascent. With unparalleled access to the chancellor's inner circle and a trove of records only recently come to light, she teases out the unique political genius that is the secret to Merkel's success. No other modern leader has so ably confronted authoritarian aggression, enacted daring social policies and calmly unified an entire continent in an era when countries are becoming only more divided. Again and again, she's cleverly outmanoeuvred strongmen like Putin and Trump, and weathered surprisingly complicated relationships with allies like Obama and Macron. Famously private, the woman who emerges from these pages is a role model for anyone interested in gaining and keeping power while staying true to one's moral convictions. At once a riveting political biography, an intimate human portrait and a revelatory look at successful leadership in action, The Chancellor brings forth from the shadows one of the most extraordinary women of our time.

This comprehensive volume provides crucial insights from contemporary academics and practitioners into how positive interventions might be made into post-secular political spaces that have emerged in the wake of the economic, political, and social upheavals of the 2008 global financial crisis. The failure of liberal democracy to deal effectively with such challenges has led to scapegoating of the poor, immigrants, and Muslims, and contributed to the populist electoral success of, among others, the Leave campaign during the 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum, and Donald Trump's Presidential campaign. These shocks have highlighted contemporary political spaces defined by what has been termed 'all the posts': postmodern, post-Christendom, post-liberal, post-political, and post-secular. This collection examines emerging attempts to understand and advance the cause of wellbeing within this context. The authors address a variety of key issues including: (re)configuring mythologies for the common good; deploying love and friendship politically; motivating new social movements; valuing the other; recovering displaced and devalued political narratives; finding alternatives to the previously dominant neo-liberalism; listening deeply for social transformation; and overcoming adversarial party politics. This book was originally published online as a special issue of the journal Global Discourse.

There is a wealth of published material which analyzes large-scale international development plans and policies. This collection shifts the focus away from this to examine the conflicts and realities of development at a local, empirical level. It provides a series of case studies which illuminates the attitudes and actions of those involved in local development.
The material is drawn from Southern and Eastern Europe, Asia and Africa. All the contributors use rigorous anthropological methods of analysis to shed light on the place of personal sentiment and identity in reactions to planned development schemes. In a world where direct action and public protest are routine responses to local development plans, they show how protesters, developers and politicians often hold very different fundamental views about the environment, society, government and development which go beyond partisan economic and political interests.

This collection shifts the focus away from this to examine the conflicts and realities of development at a local, empirical level. It provides a series of case studies which illuminate the attitudes and actions of those involved in local development schemes. The material is drawn from Southern and Eastern Europe, Asia and Africa. All the contributors use rigorous anthropological methods of analysis to shed light on the place of feelings of personal sentiment and identity in reactions to planned development schemes. In a world where direct action and public protest are routine responses to local development schemes, they show how protesters, developers and politicians often hold very different fundamental views about the environment, society, government and development which go beyond partisan economic and political interests. This collection provides a comparative perspective on the context of development, and should be of interest to social anthropologists, planners, development workers and specialists in development studies.

An original work on American cities and the ongoing "urban crisis". Using the metaphor of the socially constructed organization of space, Bartlett takes a broad view of the evolution of urban America, from its historical roots to the present; he then examines the way in which current policies have responded to, and affected the organization of space (covering housing, transportation, government and other urban problems). He concludes with a look to the future of American cities, how they will impact and be impacted on by changing commercial and labor markets, by the problems of poverty and cultural change. In an epilogue, he explores possible ways to overcome the "social dilemmas", while recognizing the difficulty of this undertaking.

A thoroughly unique perspective to the study of cities, this book is about how space is used in America and how it changes as the "logic of location" evolves historically. Starting with the assumption that cities are fundamentally unnatural" phenomena, it unravels the interactions of technological advances that have made them possible and policies that have given them shape.

Two decades since the enactment of South Africa’s present constitution, the durability and endurance of ‘past’ inequalities and injustices illustrate that the ‘new South Africa’ – lauded as a miracle nation with the best constitution in the world – can no longer be regarded as an unqualified success. The legal and constitutional foundations of post-1994 South Africa are in a process of renegotiation that invites new and alternative perspectives and approaches.

This comprehensive volume explores this process of renegotiation by engaging political and intellectual contestations circulating in South African academic and public discourse relating to continuities and discontinuities between the colonial-apartheid past and the post-1994 constitutional present. The authors analyse the moral, intellectual and political unravelling of post-1994 South African constitutionalism (as legal text and political culture) and enquire whether it has been able to respond adequately to the fundamental contradictions generated by colonisation and apartheid. They also consider how centring the historical problem of European domination and conquest in Africa – and South Africa in particular – might provide an alternative frame or lens to theorise and understand contemporary South African realities.

This book marks out a complex field of contestation – involving competing histories, locations, visions and perspectives – that raises multifaceted questions regarding law, history and politics. It is the outcome of a South African Journal of Human Rights colloquium and was originally published as a special issue of the journal.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction: conquest, constitutionalism and democratic contestations

Joel M. Modiri

2. Conquest and constitutionalism: first thoughts on an alternative jurisprudence

Joel M. Modiri

3. Towards a post-conquest South Africa: beyond the constitution of 1996

Mogobe Bernard Ramose

4. Decolonising equality: the radical roots of the gender equality clause in the South African constitution

Shireen Hassim

5. Is the South African Constitution an obstacle to a democratic post-colonial state?

D. M. Davis

6. Democratic constitutionalism in the time of the postcolony: beyond triumph and betrayal

Firoz Cachalia

7. On conquest and anthropology in South Africa

Anjuli Webster

8. The liberation of history and the end of South Africa: some notes towards an Azanian historiography in Africa, South

Ndumiso Dladla

9. Contested substantive equality in the South African Constitution: beyond social inclusion towards systemic justice

Catherine Albertyn

10. Decolonisation, compensation and constitutionalism: land, wealth and the sustainability of constitutionalism in post-apartheid South Africa

Heinz Klug

11. A decolonial critique of private law and human rights

Emile Zitzke

12. South Africa’s first black lawyers, amaRespectables and the birth of evolutionary constitution

Tshepo Madlingozi

The Kurdish question remains one of the most important and complicated issues in ethnic politics in contemporary times, with the Kurds being one of the largest ethnic groups in the world without a state of their own. This comprehensive volume brings together a group of distinguished scholars to address the Kurdish question in its centennial year with a fresh analytical lens, to demonstrate that the study of Kurdish politics has developed beyond a narrow focus on the state-minority antagonism. It addresses a series of interrelated questions focusing on Kurdish politics as well as broader themes related to nationalism, ethnic mobilization, democratic struggles, and international security. The authors examine the agency of Kurdish political actors and their relations with foreign actors; the relations between Kurdish political leaders and organizations and regional and great powers; the dynamics and competing forms of Kurdish political rule; and the involvement of Kurdish parties in broader democratic struggles. Using original empirical work, they place the scholarship on Kurdish politics in dialogue with the broader scholarship on ethnic nationalism, self-determination movements, diaspora studies, and rebel diplomacy. This book was originally published as a special issue of the journal Ethnopolitics.

Battery Park City in Manhattan has been hailed as a triumph of urban design, and is considered to be one of the success stories of American urban redevelopment planning. The flood of praise for its design, however, can obscure the many lessons from the long struggle to develop the project. Nothing was built on the site for more than a decade after the first master plan was approved, and the redevelopment agency flirted with bankruptcy in 1979.
Taking a practice-oriented approach, the book examines the role of planning and development agencies in implementing urban waterfront redevelopment. It focuses upon the experience of the central actor - the Battery Park City Authority (BPCA) - and includes personal interviews with executives of the BPCA, former New York mayors John Lindsay and Ed Koch, key public officials, planners, and developers. Describing the political, financial, planning, and implementation issues faced by public agencies and private developers from 1962 to 1993, it is both a case study and history of one of the most ambitious examples of urban waterfront redevelopment.

The Local Government Review has not been a rewarding experience for the majority of authorities who were drawn into it. Although those authorities which have achieved unitary status are generally positive about the outcome, elsewhere the Review has generated frustration, loss of morate and a sense of injustice.

The Niger Delta Region has in the past two decades experienced protracted violent conflicts. At the roots of these violent conflicts are the genuine quests of the people for sustainable development that is based on social justice, equity, fairness and environmental protection. Although richly endowed, the region is hopelessly poor. This paradox of poverty in the midst of plenty has been attributed to a myriad of factors ranging from Nigeria’s centralized federalism, to ethno-regional domination, corruption, poor governance, and oil-related environmental degradation. Development in the Niger Delta is vital not only to the stability and prosperity of Nigeria, but also to global energy security. This book provides unique insights into the challenges of development and peace building in the Niger Delta, and insights into other resource-rich but poverty-stricken, conflict-prone regions of the world.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction: Natural Resource, Conflict and Sustainable Development in the Niger Delta Ibaba Samuel Ibaba, Okechukwu Ukaga and Ukoha O. Ukiwo 2. Because of Oil? Understanding the Globalization of the Niger Delta and Its Consequences Cyril Obi 3. Overcoming Tyranny and Underdevelopment in the Niger Delta Through Appropriate Human Resources Development and Utilization Samuel Ranti Akinola 4. Assessing the Human Development Efforts of the Niger Delta Development Commission Augustine Okhobo Dokpesi and Michael Irabor Ibiezugbe 5. Entrepreneurship Development and Poverty Reduction in the Niger Delta Gordon M. Bubou and Nimiye A. Egai 6. Non-Governmental Organizations and Conflict Resolution in Niger Delta: The Case of Yakubu Gowon Center’s Peace Process in Ogoni Ambily Etekpe 7. Land Reform, Land Rights, and Development Challenges in Nigeria: A Focus on the Niger Delta Yinka Kehinde Binuomoyo, Johnson B. Ogbewo, Ephraim A. Okoro, and Okechukwu Ukaga 8. Challenges to Fundamental Rights of Women in the Niger Delta Adaora Osondu 9. Conclusion: Reclaiming Politics and Reforming Governance: Options for Sustainable Peace and Development in the Niger Delta Ukoha O. Ukiwo, Okechukwu Ukaga, and Ibaba Samuel Ibaba

The first book available devoted exclusively to China's rural organizational change and the subsequent implications for rural societies and politics. Following China's successful decollectivization, diverse new organizational forms arose in response to different local situations. Yet the collective tradition did not die. The contributors dissect the closely structured relationships among the newly emerging class of rural entrepreneurs, local officials, and their family members and associates.

There are wide disparities of wealth between the different regions of China. The result has been increased tension between ethnic groups and serious divisions between China's provinces. This book offers a balanced assessment of the dynamics and consequences of the decentralization of power and resources in post-Mao China. The author argues that increasing decentralisation has unleashed much competition and emulation among local governments. He discusses also the impact on regional disparities and cleavages, and government efforts to address regional disparities. This book is an authoritative study of an issue that will remain highly visible on China's political agenda for the foreseeable future.

This comprehensive volume explores debt dynamics and the intensification of debt crises across the globe, bringing together several recent but underexplored debt crises from different regional and socioeconomic contexts. Using detailed case studies, the authors recast the perils of debt-based growth in the context of regional/global imbalances; not to advocate 'one-size-fits-all' reforms, but to point to the need for accommodating diversity. They examine how current economic developments put developing and developed countries under new strain. They also interrogate the opportunities and challenges generated for developing countries by the new development finance landscape and newly (re)emerged geopolitical tensions. The book also explores the inability of existing dominant structures and thinking to effectively manage the multiple facets of the ongoing global debt crisis, pointing to responses that exacerbate rather than address unsustainable debt dynamics. The authors illustrate the adverse effects of ad hoc crisis management mechanisms which are not fit for purpose, and indicate the negative consequences that existing policies may have for democracy. They then put forward a framework for alternative thinking as well as concrete ideas on what needs to be done, in response. This book will be of great interest to students, scholars and professionals in the field of global debt studies. It was originally published as a special issue of the online journal Third World Thematics.