This volume contains articles examining freedom of information statutes, including those protecting government employees who expose official misconduct. Using United States laws as examples, the articles explore the relationship of these laws to administrative and constitutional theory in the United States. In addition, they demonstrate how varying conceptions of information illuminate the controversies in the application of these laws to the revolution in the electronic storage and retrieval of information. The articles allow the reader to speculate how the connection of these laws to liberal democratic theory explains their recent adoption in several countries and their international application.

This book provides the only available historical account and comprehensive assessment of the factors surrounding the 2004 referendum on an elected assembly in the North-East region of England.

The referendum delivered a 'no' vote of considerable magnitude and called a halt to the program of gradual reform being pushed through by the Labour government. This book examines the campaigns around and the lead-up to the referendum, and offers in-depth analysis of the result, plus explorations of future options available to policy-makers around the sub-national governance of England (a key aspect of the 'English Question'). Crucially, the book contains chapters from scholars who carried out cutting-edge research at the time of the referendum and are thus in a unique position to contribute authoritatively to the historical understanding of these events. This volume will be of great benefit to students and researchers in Regional Studies, Local Government Studies and Constitutional Studies.

Liberal democracies are experiencing a major transformation of public governance by which self-regulation, co-operation and negotiation between public and private actors and across different political-administrative levels play an increasingly important role for policy-making and implementation. Using the term 'governance imagery', or what a given society envisions to be the proper way of governing public affairs, this volume examines the emergence, causes and consequences of the politics of self-governance both within relevant social science theorizing and in the everyday production of public governance in various policy areas. It questions how self-governance materialized in various areas of public governance in different liberal democracies, and the driving forces and political effects of attempts to enhance the role of self-governance. Challenging the theory and practice of public administration, The Politics of Self-Governance is an indispensable read for all those interested in new forms of public governance.

Governing the Locals demonstrates that with the exception of a brief period in 1990-92 when the local soviets fostered mass mobilization, local governments in post-Soviet Russia have actively constrained grass-roots activism. Rather than serving as instruments of the 'schooling in civil society, ' or of 'making democracy work'_as the conventional wisdom holds_local governments have been used by the regional authoritarian or ethnocratic regimes as instruments of top down social control. The author suggests that this tendency has been on the rise under President Putin, whose reforms have served to integrate local government into a centralized power vertical potentially facilitating authoritarian style social mobilization non only on a regional level, but also on a nation-wide scale. The author examines the impact of local self-governing institutions on nationalist movement mobilization in Russia. Using insights from social movement theories, Lankina argues that similar to the soviets in the Soviet system, municipalities in post-Soviet Russia continue to influence local societies through their control over social networks, material resources, and public agenda setting. Accordingly, their facilitating or constraining role crucially affects movement successes or failures. This is the first study identifying the centrality of local government for understanding the nature of state-society relations in Russia, and for explaining the broader questions of social activism or lack thereof in the post-Soviet space.

Drawing on original fieldwork in Nigeria, Portia Roelofs argues for an innovative re-conceptualisation of good governance. Contributing to debates around technocracy, populism and the survival of democracy amidst conditions of inequality and mistrust, Roelofs offers a new account of what it means for leaders to be accountable and transparent. Centred on the rise of the 'Lagos Model' in the Yoruba south-west, this book places the voices of roadside traders and small-time market leaders alongside those of local government officials, political godfathers and technocrats. In doing so, it theorises 'socially-embedded' good governance. Roelofs demonstrates the value of fieldwork for political theory and the associated possibilities for decolonising the study of politics. Challenging the long-held assumptions of the World Bank and other international institutions that African political systems are pathologically dysfunctional, Roelofs demonstrates that politics in Nigeria has much to teach us about good governance.

Local Politics: A Resource for Democracy in Western Europe examines the relationship between local institutional design and citizens' attitudes toward democracy. Translated by Angelika Vetter, this book is a unique contribution to traditional political culture research, which has focused primarily on national politics. As the last stage in the nation-state administrative apparatus, local authorities represent the synapse between the political-administrative system and the citizens. By comparing attitudes towards local and national politics in a cross-national framework, this book investigates the socialization functions of local politics including the feeling of identification or belonging, the input side of politics, and the citizens' satisfaction with local and national democracy. Following sophisticated analysis, Vetter highlights the conditions under which locally socialized political orientations may serve as a resource for democracy at higher system levels. Local Politics: A Resource for Democracy in Western Europe is a fascinating read for those interested in political science and European studies.

In 2010, the governor of Arizona signed a controversial immigration bill (SB 1070) that led to a news media frenzy, copycat bills in twenty-two states, and a U.S. Supreme Court battle that put Arizona at the cross-hairs of the immigration debate. Arizona Firestorm brings together well-respected experts from across the political spectrum to examine and contextualize the political, economic, historical, and legal issues prompted by this and other anti-Latino and anti-immigrant legislation and state actions. It also addresses the news media s role in shaping immigration discourse in Arizona and around the globe. Arizona is a case study of the roots and impact of the 21st century immigration challenge. Arizona Firestorm will be of interest to scholars and students in communication, public policy, state politics, federalism, and anyone interested in immigration policy or Latino politics.

Everything you need to know about Vote by Mail! Successful campaign manager and three-term mayor of Ashland, Oregon, Catherine Shaw presents the must-have handbook for navigating local campaigns. This clear and concise handbook gives political novices and veterans alike a detailed, soup-to-nuts plan for organizing, funding, publicizing, and winning local political campaigns. Finding the right message and targeting the right voters are clearly explained through specific examples, anecdotes, and illustrations. Shaw also provides in-depth information on assembling campaign teams and volunteers, canvassing, how to conduct a precinct analysis, and how to campaign on a shoestring budget. The Campaign Manager is an encouraging, lucid presentation of how to win elections at the local level.The sixth edition has been fully revised to include new and expanded coverage of contemporary campaign management-from digital ads and new social media tools to data-driven voter targeting tactics and vote by mail strategies.

City-country consolidation builds upon the Progressive tradition of favoring structural reform of local governments. This volume looks at some important issues confronting contemporary efforts to consolidate governments and develops a theoretical approach to understanding both the motivations for pursuing consolidation and the way the rules guiding the process shape the outcome. Individual chapters consider the push for city-county consolidation and the current context in which such decisions are debated, along with several alternatives to city-county consolidation. The transaction costs of city-county consolidation are compared against the costs of municipal annexation, inter-local agreements, and the use of special district governments to achieve the desired consolidation of services. The final chapters compare competing perspectives for and against consolidation and put together some of the pieces of an explanatory theory of local government consolidation.

In this 144-page collection of essays, some of today's most important progressive thinkers - including John Holloway, well-known Marxist philosopher Daniel Bensaid and theorist of liberation theology and the national question, Michael Lowy - discuss strategies to change the world. The Zapatista rebels and the Seattle demonstrators were the tip of an iceberg of social and political revolt against the injustices of corporate-led globalisation. In 2002 John Holloway, working in Puebla, Mexico, came forward with his book Change the World without Taking Power. The book took up a phrase used by Zapatista leader Subcommandante Marcos, that the EZLN wanted to democratise Mexico, but did not seek to 'take power'. The success of Holloway's book came from the political conjuncture - the 'spirit of the times'. For tens of thousands of global justice and anti-war activists, often influenced by the ideas of NGOs, the aim was precisely to make the world fairer and curb the power of the multinational corporations, but not necessarily to end capitalism as such. Contributions in this book show how a whole new series of experiences since the year 2000 have put Holloway's thesis to the test.

The British polity has undergone a fundamental transformation in the last decade, and in 1998 this culminated in the most radical reform of the British state since its inception in 1707. Since 1998 devolution for Scotland and Wales and power sharing in Northern Ireland have fundamentally changed the balance of power between government at the centre and the new territorial polities.

Taking this profound change as its theme, "Devolution in British Politics" is an up-to date, comprehensive and effective review of the origins and development of the devolution process. In highly readable chapters crucial aspects of devolution are considered, and the process of constitutional change and its political and institutional consequences are the principal focus of enquiry by the contributors.

With clarity and passion, "Devolution in British Politics" examines the forces at work, both historical and contemporary, that are changing the British polity. It accounts for the emergence of the cultural and political movements in the Aother nationsA that since the 1960s have demanded significant devolution of power from Whitehall and challenged the control by Westminster parties and political elites over territorial politics. "Devolution" traces the residual legacy of deep-seated cultural differences and persistent territorial interests that gave rise during the nineteenth century to political resistance to government from London, even to the idea of shared nationhood.

A team of specialist writers provides a detailed assessment of the causes and demands of the devolution campaign as well as:

• a review of the significance of the newly devolved arrangements that have replaced the classicBritish unitary state;
• an assessment of the impact of the constitutional changes;
• consideration of devolutionAs importance for the present and future workings of British government and politics, both at the centre and in the new territorial polities;
• a detailed discussion of the idea of political identity in Britain, and in a wider European and global context.

The Editor
Michael OANeill is Jean Monnet Professor of European Union Politics at Nottingham Trent University.

China has witnessed numerous incidents of social protests over the past three decades. Protests create uncertainty for authoritarian governments, and the Chinese government has created, strengthened, and coordinated multiple dispute-resolution institutions to manage social conflicts and protests. Accommodating the aggrieved prevents the accumulation of grievances in society, but concessions require resources. As the frequency and scale of collective action are closely tied to the political opportunity for action, the Chinese government has also contained protest by shaping the political opportunity available to the aggrieved. Cai and Chen show that when the Chinese central government prioritizes social control, as it has under Xi Jinping's leadership, it signals that it will tolerate local governments' use of coercion. The result is an environment that is not conducive to the mobilization of collective action, large-scale occurrences of which have been uncommon in China in recent years.

A team of scholars from throughout the world joins together in this volume to discuss the changes and challenges for administrative structures at the beginning of the 21st century. Focusing on democratization movements, flexibilization tendencies, the inclusion or exclusion of minority groups and the restructuring of transitional or emerging states, it provides a differentiated spatial overview of key problems currently faced in public administration. Offering a wide range of regional case studies from Eastern and Western Europe, the Middle East and Africa, it tests current theories and concepts of government and governance, space and place and society and community. In doing so, it offers valuable insights and makes policy implications.

A concise and provocative introduction to state legislative politics, State Legislatures Today is designed as a supplement for state and local government courses and upper level courses on legislative politics. The book examines state legislatures and state lawmakers, putting them in historical context, showing how they have evolved over the years, and differentiating them from Congress. It covers state legislative elections (including the impact of redistricting, candidate recruitment, etc.), the changing job description of state legislators, legislatures as organizations, the process by which legislation gets produced, and the influences upon legislators.

Comprised of a series of national case studies, this book critically examines initiatives in public participation and their relationship to developments in community governance. As such, the case studies enable national perspectives to be applied to crucial features of modern public policy and politics. Focusing on case studies in areas which are undergoing major social and institutional transformation and/or which raise particular issues because of the marginal position of the areas within their nation-states, the book also concerns itself with developments in Western European countries and why people should logically support some but not other initiatives in public participation. This book will be very useful for students and academics in areas such as politics, public administration, social policy and sociology. It should also be of interest to local activists such as councillors, members of pressure groups and those concerned about modern trends in democracy.

The first local history of Napoleonic France to appear in the English language, Inside Napoleonic France: State and Society in Rouen, 1800-1815 redresses the traditional neglect of regional history during this period. Relying on extensive French archival sources, Gavin Daly sets out to investigate the nature of the Napoleonic state and its short and longer-term impact upon local society. Specifically, it examines the question of state power and its implementation and reception at a local level, the relationship between central government and the regions, the social and economic impact of war and how the Napoleonic regime addressed Rouen's revolutionary past. Having carefully studied these issues, Daly argues that despite an unprecedented degree of social control, the Napoleonic state was not all-powerful, and that the central government's power was tempered by local considerations. It is this interaction between the representatives of central government and the regional elites which provides the central focus of the book.

These volumes provide an essential comprehensive work of reference for the annual municipal elections that took place each November in the 83 County Boroughs of England and Wales between 1919 and 1938. They also provide an extensive and detailed analysis of municipal politics in the same period, both in terms of the individual boroughs and of aggregate patterns of political behaviour. Being annual, these local election results give the clearest and most authoritative record of how political opinion changed between general elections, especially useful for research into the longer gaps such as 1924-29 and 1935-45, or crisis periods such as 1929-31. They also illuminate the impact of fringe parties such as the Communist Party and the British Union of Fascists, and also such questions as the role of women in politics, the significance of religious and ethnic differentiation and the connection between occupational and class divisions and party allegiance. Analysis at the ward level is particularly useful for socio-spatial studies. A major work of reference, County Borough Elections in England and Wales, 1919-1938 is indispensable for university libraries and local and national record offices. Each volume has approximately 700 pages.

This is a coherent and integrated set of essays around the theme of governance addressing a wide range of questions on the organisation and legitimation of authority. At the heart of the book is a set of topics which have long attracted the attention of urbanists and urban historians all over the world: the growth and reform of urban local government, local-centre relationships, public health and pollution, local government finance, the nature of local social elites and of participation in local government. Approaching these topics through the concept of governance not only raises a series of new questions but also extends the scope of enquiry for the historian seeking to understand towns and cities all over the world in a period of rapid change. Questions of governance must be central to a variety of enquiries into the nature of the urban place. There are questions about the setting of agendas, about when a localised or neighbourhood issue becomes a big city or even national political issue, about what makes a 'problem'. Public health and related matters form a central part of the 'issues' especially for the British; in North America fire and the development of urban real estate have dominated; in India the security of the colonial government had a prominent place. The historical dynamic of these essays follows the change from the chartered governments of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries towards the representative regimes of the nineteenth and twentieth. However, such historical change is not regarded as inevitable, and the effects of bureaucratic growth, regulatory regimes, the legitimating role of rational and scientific knowledge as well as the innovatory use of ritual and space are all dealt with at length.

In our "devolutionary" era, politics at the state and local levels is more interesting than ever. This popular text is the most concise, readable, and current introduction to the field. Now in its ninth edition, the book keeps its focus on the varied and changing political and economic environments in which state and local governments function and their strengths and weaknesses in key areas of public policy.

The text is enlivened throughout by boxed sections that relate individual experiences or highlight particular issues and interesting developments. Topics covered in this edition include changing patterns of devolution and centralization in American federalism; taxation and budgeting; new approaches to welfare, education, land use, and waste management; and such "hot" issues as tort reform and the death penalty.

These volumes provide an essential comprehensive work of reference for the annual municipal elections that took place each November in the 83 County Boroughs of England and Wales between 1919 and 1938. They also provide an extensive and detailed analysis of municipal politics in the same period, both in terms of the individual boroughs and of aggregate patterns of political behaviour. Being annual, these local election results give the clearest and most authoritative record of how political opinion changed between general elections, especially useful for research into the longer gaps such as 1924-29 and 1935-45, or crisis periods such as 1929-31. They also illuminate the impact of fringe parties such as the Communist Party and the British Union of Fascists, and also such questions as the role of women in politics, the significance of religious and ethnic differentiation and the connection between occupational and class divisions and party allegiance. Analysis at the ward level is particularly useful for socio-spatial studies. A major work of reference, County Borough Elections in England and Wales, 1919-1938 is indispensable for university libraries and local and national record offices. Each volume has approximately 700 pages.

This volume shows how social diversification during the economic boom has modified political norms and public practices -- contrary to the nostalgic hopes of many establishment conservatives. White maintains that while political reforms have emerged partly from the local resources created by economic boom (as detailed in the companion volume), these reforms have equally come from new norms among individuals and small groups. In comparing China's current situation to that of other countries and their revolutions, it is clear that China's reforms have followed a similar pattern; as the revolution's wave crests, the tide predictably changes and symbolic and police centralization ebb as local governance rises. The rapid modernization of China has necessitated development of new methods of maintaining coercive order at the local level, while the state political institutions grapple with new methods for selecting new leaders and adopting new laws.

This volume shows how social diversification during the economic boom has modified political norms and public practices -- contrary to the nostalgic hopes of many establishment conservatives. White maintains that while political reforms have emerged partly from the local resources created by economic boom (as detailed in the companion volume), these reforms have equally come from new norms among individuals and small groups. In comparing China's current situation to that of other countries and their revolutions, it is clear that China's reforms have followed a similar pattern; as the revolution's wave crests, the tide predictably changes and symbolic and police centralization ebb as local governance rises. The rapid modernization of China has necessitated development of new methods of maintaining coercive order at the local level, while the state political institutions grapple with new methods for selecting new leaders and adopting new laws.

Why do authoritarian regimes survive? How do dictators fail? What role do political institutions play in these two processes? Many of the answers to these questions can be traced to the same source: the interaction between institutions and preferences. Using Egypt as a case study, Professor Mahmoud Hamad describes how the synergy between judges and generals created the environment for the present government and a delicate balance for its survival. The history of modern Egypt is one of the struggle between authoritarian governments, and forces that advocate for more democratic rights. While the military has provided dictatorial leaders, the judiciary provides judges who have the power to either support or stymie authoritarian power. Judges and Generals in the Making of Modern Egypt provides a historically grounded explanation for the rise and demise of authoritarianism, and is one of the first studies of Egypt's judicial institutions within a single analytical framework.