Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
|
Your cart is empty |
|||
Books > Social sciences > Politics & government > Political control & freedoms > General
Between 1963 and 2008 Kenya experienced systematic atrocities, economic crimes, ethnic violence, and the illegal taking of land. To come to terms with these historical injustices and gross violations of human rights, the Kenyan Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission (TJRC) was established. From the perspective of an insider and academic expert, The Kenyan TJRC: An Outsider's View from the Inside reveals for the first time the debates and decisions made within the Commission, including how the Kenyan Commission became the first such commission to recommend that its Chair be prosecuted for gross violations of human rights. This book is one of the few insider accounts of a truth commission, and one of the few that reflects on the limitations and opportunities of such a commission. The Kenyan TJRC provides lessons and recommendations to those interested in addressing historical injustices through a truth commission process. The full copy of the Final Report of the Kenyan TJRC, along with other supporting documents, can be found at the following site: https://digitalcommons.law.seattleu.edu/tjrc/
An exploration of military responses to revolutions and how to predict such reactions in the future We know that a revolution's success largely depends on the army's response to it. But can we predict the military's reaction to an uprising? How Armies Respond to Revolutions and Why argues that it is possible to make a highly educated guess—and in some cases even a confident prediction—about the generals' response to a domestic revolt if we know enough about the army, the state it is supposed to serve, the society in which it exists, and the external environment that affects its actions. Through concise case studies of modern uprisings in Iran, China, Eastern Europe, Burma, and the Arab world, Zoltan Barany looks at the reasons for and the logic behind the variety of choices soldiers ultimately make. Barany offers tools—in the form of questions to be asked and answered—that enable analysts to provide the most informed assessment possible regarding an army's likely response to a revolution and, ultimately, the probable fate of the revolution itself. He examines such factors as the military's internal cohesion, the regime's treatment of its armed forces, and the size, composition, and nature of the demonstrations. How Armies Respond to Revolutions and Why explains how generals decide to support or suppress domestic uprisings.
A hands-on, practical approach to training your K9 for IGP levels 1, 2 and 3 Learn how to: Implement a successful training program for the three phases of Schutzhund: tracking, obedience and protection. Use expert tips and advice for passing the IGP trials. Become a better trainer by understanding the theory behind the most effective K9 training techniques. K9 Schutzhund Training provides beginners with an excellent introduction to the field and helps expert trainers stay on top of their game with the latest techniques. Using proven methods rooted in classical and operant conditioning, Dr. Resi Gerritsen and Ruud Haak, world-renowned specialists in training working dogs, have developed this practical and positive Schutzhund training program. The excellent results trainers achieve through positive reinforcement prove the effectiveness of Resi and Ruud's methods, which are based on more than 30 years of research and experience. In Resi and Ruud's definitive guide for modern Schutzhund training, you'll find the advice and encouragement you need to help you succeed in the IGP trials.
A Brief History of South Africa is an introduction to South African history from the earliest times to the Mandela Presidency. Using both a narrative chronology and thematic chapters, the book encourages critical thinking about how history shaped South Africa. While presenting an account of colonisation and the policies of successive governments, A Brief History portrays the resistance to colonisation, segregation and apartheid, including the role of political, social and trade union movements. A Brief History does not aim to be comprehensive, but rather provides the basic facts for the general reader. The book can also act as a study guide for both formal and non-formal adult education. Equally important, A Brief History can be used to strengthen history teaching in schools. The book provides history teachers with the opportunity to expand their own knowledge, especially if they do not have a history qualification. Each chapter points readers to a range of further readings with a variety of historical interpretations, and provides questions for group discussion.
Russian Politics Today: Stability and Fragility provides an accessible and nuanced introduction to contemporary Russian politics at a time of increasing uncertainty. Using the theme of stability versus fragility as its overarching framework, this innovative textbook explores the forces that shape Russia's politics, economy, and society. The volume provides up-to-date coverage of core themes - Russia's strong presidency, its weak party system, the role of civil society, and its dependence on oil and gas revenues - alongside path-breaking chapters on the politics of race, class, gender, sexuality, and the environment. An international and diverse team of experts presents the most comprehensive available account of the evolution of Russian politics in the post-Soviet era, providing the tools for interpreting the past and the present while also offering a template for understanding future developments.
'Intensely readable... A stimulating and necessary redress' David Kynaston, Spectator Politicians say social mobility is real... this book proves otherwise. From servants' children who became clerks in Victorian Britain, to managers made redundant by the 2008 financial crash, travelling up or down the social ladder has been a fact of British life for more than a century. Drawing on hundreds of personal stories, Snakes and Ladders tells the hidden history of how people have really experienced that social mobility in both directions. It shows how a powerful elite on the top rungs have clung to their perch, as well as introducing us to the unsung heroes who created more room at the top. As we face political crisis after crisis, Snakes and Ladders argues that only by creating greater opportunities for everyone to thrive can we ensure the survival of our society. 'A fascinating, important book' Mail on Sunday 'A trove of stories of human hope and disappointment' New Statesman 'Fascinating... A rich and well-observed historical account' Financial Times
The debates between Daniel Webster of Massachusetts and Robert Hayne of South Carolina gave fateful utterance to the differing understandings of the nature of the American Union that had come to predominate in the North and the South, respectively, by 1830. To Webster the Union was the indivisible expression of one nation of people. To Hayne the Union was the voluntary compact among sovereign states. Each man spoke more or less for his section, and their classic expositions of their respective views framed the political conflicts that culminated at last in the secession of the Southern states and war between advocates of Union and champions of Confederacy. "The Webster-Hayne Debate" consists of speeches delivered in the United States Senate in January of 1830. By no means were Webster and Hayne the only Senators who engaged in debate "on the nature of the Union." Well over a score of the Senate's members spoke in response in sixty-five speeches all told, and these Senators did not merely echo either of the principals. The key speakers and viewpoints are included in "The Webster-Hayne Debate." The volume opens with Hayne's speech, which, as Herman Belz observes, turned debates on "the public lands" into "a clash between state sovereignty and national sovereignty, expounded as rival and irreconcilable theories of constitutional construction and the nature of the federal Union." Webster responded, Hayne retorted, and Webster concluded with an appeal to "Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable," in what later historians would deem to be "the most powerful and effective speech ever given in an American legislature." Other speeches in the volume are by Senators Thomas Hart Benton, John Rowan, William Smith, John M. Clayton, and Edward Livingston. Together, these speeches represent every major perspective on "the nature of the Union" in the early nineteenth century.Herman Belz is Professor of History at the University of Maryland, and the author most recently of "A Living Constitution or Fundamental Law?: American Constitutionalism in Historical Perspective and Abraham Lincoln, Constitutionalism, " and "Equal Rights During the Civil War Era."
American Girls and Global Responsibility brings together insights from Cold War culture studies, girls' studies, and the history of gender and militarization to shed new light on how age and gender work together to form categories of citizenship. Jennifer Helgren argues that a new internationalist girl citizenship took root in the country in the years following World War II in youth organizations such as Camp Fire Girls, Girl Scouts, YWCA Y-Teens, schools, and even magazines like Seventeen. She shows the particular ways that girls' identities and roles were configured, and reveals the links between internationalist youth culture, mainstream U.S. educational goals, and the U.S. government in creating and marketing that internationalist girl, thus shaping the girls' sense of responsibilities as citizens.
In a sweeping review of forty truth commissions, Priscilla Hayner delivers a definitive exploration of the global experience in official truth-seeking after widespread atrocities. When Unspeakable Truths was first published in 2001, it quickly became a classic, helping to define the field of truth commissions and the broader arena of transitional justice. This second edition is fully updated and expanded, covering twenty new commissions formed in the last ten years, analyzing new trends, and offering detailed charts that assess the impact of truth commissions and provide comparative information not previously available. Placing the increasing number of truth commissions within the broader expansion in transitional justice, Unspeakable Truths surveys key developments and new thinking in reparations, international justice, healing from trauma, and other areas. The book challenges many widely-held assumptions, based on hundreds of interviews and a sweeping review of the literature. This book will help to define how these issues are addressed in the future.
In 2013, Edward Snowden revealed that the NSA and its partners had been engaging in warrantless mass surveillance, using the internet and cellphone data, and driven by fear of terrorism under the sign of security . In this compelling account, surveillance expert David Lyon guides the reader through Snowden s ongoing disclosures: the technological shifts involved, the steady rise of invisible monitoring of innocent citizens, the collusion of government agencies and for-profit companies and the implications for how we conceive of privacy in a democratic society infused by the lure of big data. Lyon discusses the distinct global reactions to Snowden and shows why some basic issues must be faced: how we frame surveillance, and the place of the human in a digital world. Surveillance after Snowden is crucial reading for anyone interested in politics, technology and society.
Intelligence: The Secret World of Spies--An Anthology, is the most up-to-date reader in intelligence studies. Editors Loch K. Johnson and James J. Wirtz present a diverse, comprehensive, and highly accessible set of thirty-three readings by leading experts in the field. This unique volume features coverage of many topics including methods of intelligence collection, intelligence analysis, the danger of intelligence politicization, relationships between intelligence officers and the policymakers they serve, covert action, counterintelligence, accountability and civil liberties, and the global struggle against ISIS.
Mass communication is used by governments to support their war efforts while media images are created or manipulated to inform, persuade or guide the consumers of those images. But this book looks beyond the obvious. The contributors examine historical and contemporary examples that reflect the role of the media or mass communication or both during wartime. The essays highlight the centrality of communication to the perpetuation and to the resolution of war, suggesting that the symbiotic relationship between communication and war is as important to understand as war itself.
Republicanism is a powerful resource for emancipatory struggles against domination. Its commitment to popular sovereignty subverts justifications of authority, locating power in the hands of the citizenry who hold the capacity to create, transform, and maintain their political institutions. Republicanism's conception of freedom rejects social, political, and economic structures subordinating citizens to any uncontrolled power - from capitalism and wage-labour to patriarchy and imperialism. It views any such domination as inimical to republican freedom. Moreover, it combines a revolutionary commitment to overturning despotic and tyrannical regimes with the creation of political and economic institutions that realise the sovereignty of all citizens, institutions that are resilient to threats of oligarchical control. This volume is dedicated to retrieving and developing this radical potential, challenging the more conventional moderate conceptions of republicanism. It brings together scholars at the forefront of tracing this radical heritage of the republican tradition, and developing arguments, texts, and practices into a critical and emancipatory body of political and social thought. The volume spans historical discussions of the English Levellers, French and Ottoman revolutionaries, and American abolitionists and trade unionists; explorations of the radical republican aspects of the thought of Machiavelli, Marx, and Rousseau; and theoretical examinations of social domination and popular constitutionalism. It will appeal to political theorists, historians of political thought, and political activists interested in how republicanism provides a robust and successful radical transformation to existing social and political orders.
From the 1960s to the 1990s, seven members of the Quimpo family dedicated themselves to the anti-Marcos resistance in the Philippines, sometimes at profound personal cost. In this unprecedented memoir, eight siblings (plus one by marriage) tell their remarkable stories in individually authored chapters that comprise a family saga of revolution, persistence, and, ultimately, vindication, even as easy resolution eluded their struggles. Subversive Lives tells of attempts to smuggle weapons for the New People's Army (the armed branch of the Communist Party of the Philippines); of heady times organizing uprisings and strikes; of the cruel discovery of one brother's death and the inexplicable disappearance of another (now believed to be dead); and of imprisonment and torture by the military. These stories show the sacrifices and daily heroism of those in the movement. But they also reveal its messy legacies: sons alienated from their father; daughters abused by the military; friends betrayed; and revolutionary affection soured by intractable ideological differences. The rich and distinctive contributions span the martial law years of Ferdinand Marcos's rule. Subversive Lives is a riveting and accessible primer for those unfamiliar with the era, and a resonant history for those with a personal connection to what it meant to be Filipino at that time, or for anyone who has fought political repression.
Public opinion is one of the most elusive and complex concepts in
democratic theory, and we do not fully understand its role in the
political process. "Reading Public Opinion" offers one provocative
approach for understanding how public opinion fits into the
empirical world of politics. In fact, Susan Herbst finds that
public opinion, surprisingly, has little to do with the mass public
in many instances.
Northern Ireland has entered what is arguably the key phase in its troubled political history -- truth recovery and dealing with the legacy of the past -- yet the void in knowledge and the lack of academic literature with regard to victims' rights is particularly striking. This book analyzes truth recovery as a fundamental aspect of the transition from political violence to peace, democracy and stability in post-conflict Northern Ireland. Kirk Simpson argues that it is essential for any process of truth recovery in Northern Ireland to provide the victims of political violence with the opportunity to express and articulate their narratives of suffering within the context of public dialogic processes. He outlines a unique and original model: that victims of political violence should be enabled to engage in meaningful truth recovery through a Habermasian process of public democratic deliberation and communication involving direct dialogue with the perpetrators of such violence. This process of 'communicative justice' is framed within Habermas' theory of communicative action and can help to ensure that legitimate truth recovery publicly acknowledges the trauma of victims and subjects perpetrator narratives of political violence to critical scrutiny and rational deconstruction. Crucially, the book aims to contribute to the empowerment of victims in Northern Ireland by stimulating constructive discussion and awareness of hitherto silenced narratives of the conflict. This difficult and unsettling interrogation and interpretation of the conflict from a comparatively 'unknown perspective' is central to the prospects for critically examining and mastering the past in Northern Ireland.
In virtually all corners of the Western world, 1968 witnessed a
highly unusual sequence of popular rebellions. In Italy, France,
Spain, Vietnam, the United States, West Germany, Czechoslovakia,
Mexico, and elsewhere, millions of individuals took matters into
their own hands to counter imperialism, capitalism, autocracy,
bureaucracy, and all forms of hierarchical thinking. Recent
reinterpretations have sought to play down any real challenge to
the socio-political status quo in these events, but Gerd-Rainer
Horn's book offers a spirited counterblast. 1968, he argues, opened
up the possibility that economic and political elites on both sides
of the Iron Curtain could be toppled from their position of
unnatural superiority to make way for a new society where everyday
people could, for the first time, become masters of their own
destiny. Furthermore, Horn contends, the moment of crisis and
opportunity culminating in 1968 must be seen as part of a larger
period of experimentation and revolt. The ten years between 1956
and 1966, characterised above all by the flourishing of
iconoclastic cultural rebellions, can be regarded as a preparatory
period which set the stage for the non-conformist cum political
revolts of the subsequent "red" decade (1966-1976).
How differing forms of repression shape the outcomes of democratic transitions In the wake of the Arab Spring, newly empowered factions in Tunisia and Egypt vowed to work together to establish democracy. In Tunisia, political elites passed a new constitution, held parliamentary elections, and demonstrated the strength of their democracy with a peaceful transfer of power. Yet in Egypt, unity crumbled due to polarization among elites. Presenting a new theory of polarization under authoritarianism, After Repression reveals how polarization and the legacies of repression led to these substantially divergent political outcomes. Drawing on original interviews and a wealth of new historical data, Elizabeth Nugent documents polarization among the opposition in Tunisia and Egypt prior to the Arab Spring, tracing how different kinds of repression influenced the bonds between opposition groups. She demonstrates how widespread repression created shared political identities and decreased polarization-such as in Tunisia-while targeted repression like that carried out against the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt led opposition groups to build distinct identities that increased polarization among them. This helps explain why elites in Tunisia were able to compromise, cooperate, and continue on the path to democratic consolidation while deeply polarized elites in Egypt contributed to the rapid reentrenchment of authoritarianism. Providing vital new insights into the ways repression shapes polarization, After Repression helps to explain what happened in the turbulent days following the Arab Spring and illuminates the obstacles to democratic transitions around the world.
This textbook examines non-traditional forms of security and expands the notion of security to include non-state actors and non-human actors. Proposing an expansive view of non-traditional forms of security that go beyond traditionally recognized issues of threats to state and national territory, this new textbook rests on the following premises: traditional state-centered threats, such as nuclear proliferation and espionage, remain a concern; old and new threats combine and create interlocking puzzles-a feature of wicked problems and wicked messes; because of the global erosion of borders, new developments of unconventional insecurity interact in ways that frustrate traditional conceptual definitions, conceptual maps, and national policies; unconventional security challenges which have traditionally been seen as "low politics" or "soft" issues are now being recognized as "hard security" challenges in the twenty-first century; many of the so-called "new" threats detailed here are in fact very old: diseases, gender violence, food insecurity, under-development, and crime are all traditional security threats, but deeply modified today by globalization. The chapters offer local and global examples and engage with various theoretical approaches to help readers see the bigger picture. Solutions are also suggested to these problems. Each chapter contains discussion questions to help readers understand the key points and facilitate class discussion. This book will be of great interest to students of international security studies, human security, global politics, and international relations.
Unravelling the debate about the Spanish nation and its identity in
the new democracy, this book looks at the issue as both a
historical debate and a contemporary political problem,
particularly complex due to the legacy of the Francoist
Dictatorship which deeply eroded the legitimacy of Spanish
nationalism. During and since the transition Spanish nationalist
discourse has evolved to meet the challenge of new concepts of
nation and identity. These formulations argue very different
configurations of the relationship between nation and state. While
the Constitution of 1978 defines Spain as a nation of
nationalities, many politicians and intellectuals now claim that
Spain is a nation of nations, others that it is a nation of nations
and regions, or a post-traditional nation state, or post-national
state. For the peripheral nationalists, it is merely a state of
nations and regions. What is at issue is not whether Spain exists
or not as a nation; rather, it is the traditional ways of seeing
Spain from both the centre and the periphery that are being
challenged.
Through their dramatic stories, Gopal shows that the Afghan war, so often regarded as a hopeless quagmire, could in fact have gone very differently. Top Taliban leaders actually tried to surrender within months of the US invasion, renouncing all political activity and submitting to the new government. Effectively, the Taliban ceased to exist - yet the Americans were unwilling to accept such a turnaround. Instead, driven by false intelligence from their allies and an unyielding mandate to fight terrorism, American forces continued to press the conflict, resurrecting the insurgency that persists to this day. With its intimate accounts of life in war-torn Afghanistan, Gopal's thoroughly original reporting lays bare the workings of America's longest war and the truth behind its prolonged agony.
Innovative forums that integrate citizen deliberation into policy making are revitalizing democracy in many places around the world. Yet controversy abounds over whether these forums ought to be seen as authentic sources of public opinion and how they should fit with existing political institutions. How can civic forums include less powerful citizens and ensure that their perspectives are heard on equal terms with more privileged citizens, officials, and policy experts? How can these fragile institutions communicate citizens' policy preferences effectively and legitimately to the rest of the political system? Deliberation, Democracy, and Civic Forums proposes creative solutions for improving equality and publicity, which are grounded in new theories about democratic deliberation, a careful review of research and practice in the field, and several original studies. This book speaks to scholars, practitioners, and sponsors of civic engagement, public management and consultation, and deliberative and participatory democracy.
Biometric identification and registration systems are being proposed by governments and businesses across the world. Surprisingly they are under most rapid, and systematic, development in countries in Africa and Asia. In this groundbreaking book, Keith Breckenridge traces how the origins of the systems being developed in places like India, Mexico, Nigeria and Ghana can be found in a century-long history of biometric government in South Africa, with the South African experience of centralized fingerprint identification unparalleled in its chronological depth and demographic scope. He shows how empire, and particularly the triangular relationship between India, the Witwatersrand and Britain, established the special South African obsession with biometric government, and shaped the international politics that developed around it for the length of the twentieth century. He also examines the political effects of biometric registration systems, revealing their consequences for the basic workings of the institutions of democracy and authoritarianism.
A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice "Everyone worried about the state of contemporary politics should read this book." -Anne-Marie Slaughter "A trenchant survey from 1989, with its democratic euphoria, to the current map of autocratic striving." -David Remnick, New Yorker The world is in turmoil. From Russia and Turkey across Europe to the United States, authoritarian populists have seized power as two core components of liberal democracy-individual rights and the popular will-are increasingly at war. As the role of money in politics has soared, a system of "rights without democracy" has taken hold. Populists who rail against this say they want to return power to the people. But in practice they create something just as bad: a system of "democracy without rights." Yascha Mounk offers a clear and trenchant analysis of what ails our democracy and what it will take to get it back on track. "Democracy is going through its worst crisis since the 1930s... But what exactly is the nature of this crisis? And what is driving it? The People vs. Democracy stands out in a crowded field for the quality of its answers to these questions." -The Economist "Brilliant... As this superb book makes clear, we need both the liberal framework and the democracy, and bringing them back together is the greatest challenge of our time." -Los Angeles Times "Extraordinary...provides a clear, concise, persuasive, and insightful account of the conditions that made liberal democracy work-and how the breakdown in those conditions is the source of the current crisis of democracy around the world." -The Guardian |
You may like...
Sitting Pretty - White Afrikaans Women…
Christi van der Westhuizen
Paperback
(1)
Decolonising The Human - Reflections…
Melissa Steyn, William Mpofu
Paperback
The Land Is Ours - Black Lawyers And The…
Tembeka Ngcukaitobi
Paperback
(11)
Democracy Works - Re-Wiring Politics To…
Greg Mills, Olusegun Obasanjo, …
Paperback
Extremisms In Africa
Alain Tschudin, Stephen Buchanan-Clarke, …
Paperback
(1)
|