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
Winner of the 2021 Suraj Mal and Shyama Devi Agarwal Book Prize This book provides a socio-economic examination of the status of women in contemporary Turkey, assessing how policies have combined elements of neoliberalism and Islamic conservatism. Using rich qualitative and quantitative analyses, Women in Turkey analyses the policies concerning women in the areas of employment, education and health and the fundamental transformation of the construction of gender since the early 2000s. Comparing this with the situation pre-2000, the authors argue that the reconstruction of gender is part of the reshaping of the state-society relations, the state-business relationship, and the cultural changes that have taken place across the country over the last two decades. Thus, the book situates the Turkish case within the broader context of international development of neoliberalism while paying close attention to its idiosyncrasies. Adopting a political economy perspective emphasizing the material sources of gender relations, this book will be useful to students and scholars of Middle Eastern politics, political Islam and Gender Studies.
In government, influence denotes one's ability to get others to
act, think, or feel as one intends. A mayor who persuades voters to
approve a bond issue exercises influence. A businessman whose
promises of support induce a mayor to take action exercises
influence. In "Political Influence," Edward C. Banfield examines
the structures and dynamics of influence in determining who
actually makes the decisions on vital issues in a large
metropolitan area. This edition includes an introduction by James
Q. Wilson, who provides an intellectual profile of Banfield and a
review of his life and work.
Using New York as a lens, this book examines the Red Scare that griped America between 1919-1923 and the pattern it established for future episodes of political repression. It also presents the first in-depth study of the Soviet Bureau, the unofficial Bolshevik embassy that attempted to establish commercial ties with American businessmen, as well as the development of the Rand School as one of the nation's first working-class oriented schools.
Not long after the Allied victories in Europe and Japan, America's attention turned from world war to cold war. The perceived threat of communism had a definite and significant impact on all levels of American popular culture, from Harry Chapin's propaganda maps in Time magazine to The Bullwinkle Show. This work examines representations of anti-communist sentiment in American popular culture from the early fifties through the mid-sixties. The discussion covers television programs, films, novels, journalism, maps, memoirs, and other works that presented anti-communist ideology to millions of Americans and influenced their thinking about these controversial issues. It also points out the different strands of anti-communist rhetoric, such as liberal and countersubversive ones, that dominated popular culture in different media, and tells a much more complicated story about producers' and consumers' ideas about communism through close study of the cultural artifacts of the Cold War.
Throughout history, the natural human inclination to accumulate power has led to increases in growth and scale that have amplified major social problems. In several cases, the costs of development have been borne by the many, but the benefits have been concentrated among the few. The implications are clear: some of the world's most serious social problems -- poverty, war, pollution -- can be seen as problems of scale and power. Drawing on history, economics, anthropology, and sociology, the author argues that individuals, not social classes, have been the agents of social change. This cogent and provocative book looks at how increases in scale necessarily lead to an increasingly small elite gaining disproportionate power -- ironically making democratic control more difficult to achieve and maintain.
A myth-dispelling, comprehensive guide to the Chinese economy and its path to ascendancy. China's economy has been booming for decades now. A formidable and emerging power on the world stage, the China that most Americans picture is only a rough sketch, based on American news coverage, policy, and ways of understanding. Enter Keyu Jin: a world-renowned economist who was born in China, educated in the U.S., and is now a tenured professor at the London School of Economics. A person fluent in both Eastern and Western cultures, and a voice of the new generation of Chinese who represent a radical break from the past, Jin is uniquely poised to explain how China became the most successful economic story of our time, as it has shifted from primarily state-owned enterprise to an economy that is thriving in entrepreneurship, and participation in the global economy. China’s economic realm is colorful and lively, filled with paradoxes and conundrums, and Jin believes that by understanding the Chinese model, the people, the culture and history in its true perspective, one can reconcile what may appear to be contradictions to the Western eye. What follows is an illuminating account of a burgeoning world power, its past, and its potential future.
Throughout history, the natural human inclination to accumulate power has led to increases in growth and scale that have amplified major social problems. In several cases, the costs of development have been borne by the many, but the benefits have been concentrated among the few. The implications are clear: some of the world's most serious social problems -- poverty, war, pollution -- can be seen as problems of scale and power. Drawing on history, economics, anthropology, and sociology, the author argues that individuals, not social classes, have been the agents of social change. This cogent and provocative book looks at how increases in scale necessarily lead to an increasingly small elite gaining disproportionate power -- ironically making democratic control more difficult to achieve and maintain.
Americans care about the public value of moral habits. They like to see virtue rewarded and vice censured, appealing as this does to the nation's deep sense that one's success rests neither in money nor in power but in one's civility. In The Soul of Civil Society Don Eberly and Ryan Streeter look beyond such abstractions as the "voluntary sector" and superficial communitarian solutions to civic anomie to identify the pivotal role played by local voluntary associations in a civil society. Not only important for the services they provide, these "little platoons," as Edmund Burke labeled them, are the public incubators of a "new" morality, their emphasis on civic engagement at the local level central to preserving America's democratic culture on the national and international stage. More than simply championing the promise of a social renaissance, The Soul of Civil Society is essential reading for those seeking to do battle with a culturally entrenched individualism that threatens the core of America's moral vitality.
Americans care about the public value of moral habits. They like to see virtue rewarded and vice censured, appealing as this does to the nation's deep sense that one's success rests neither in money nor in power but in one's civility. In The Soul of Civil Society Don Eberly and Ryan Streeter look beyond such abstractions as the 'voluntary sector' and superficial communitarian solutions to civic anomie to identify the pivotal role played by local voluntary associations in a civil society. Not only important for the services they provide, these 'little platoons, ' as Edmund Burke labeled them, are the public incubators of a 'new' morality, their emphasis on civic engagement at the local level central to preserving America's democratic culture on the national and international stage. More than simply championing the promise of a social renaissance, The Soul of Civil Society is essential reading for those seeking to do battle with a culturally entrenched individualism that threatens the core of America's moral vitality
This book describes the rise of independent mass media in Russia, from the loosening of censorship under Gorbachev's policy of glasnost to the proliferation of independent newspapers and the rise of media barons during the Yeltsin years. The role of the Internet, the impact of the 1998 financial crisis, the succession of Putin, and the effort to re-impose central power over privately controlled media empires mark the end of the first decade of a Russian free press. Throughout the book there is a focus on the close intermingling of political power and media power, as the propaganda function of the press in fact never disappeared, but rather has been harnessed to multiple and conflicting ideological interests. More than a guide to the volatile Russian media scene and its players, Media and Power in Post-Soviet Russia poses questions of importance and relevance to any functioning democracy.
No political scandal in American history has had a greater impact on America's political consciousness than the rise and fall of the "Tweed Ring" in New York City between 1866 and 1871. In an age ripe with scandal both public and private, the spectacular corruption charged to "Boss" Tweed and his associates-estimates of their extortion range from $20 million to $200 million-became an enduring symbol of the dark side of democratic politics. The Tweed Ring contributed much more than cartoonist impressions; it helped to shape a powerful theory of political reform. It was in truth one of the formative events of progressivism, that multifaceted doctrine that has evolved into the modern American creed. In this sense, the Tweed Ring was to produce not only deep misgivings about the existing regime, but an insight into how it should be reformed. Denis Tilden Lynch's biography of "Boss" Tweed was first published in 1927, in a time filled, like Tweed's, with sudden prosperity, daunting problems, and spectacular scandals. It is a straight-forward, workmanlike study, untroubled by the conceits of modern historical scholarship, and close enough to its subject's generation to have some of the immediacy of journalism. Of all the books published about the Tweed affair, Lynch's study is the only one that is a genuine biography, in which the man himself is the focus. For this reason it conveys something of the texture of daily life in New York in the nineteenth century, while bringing Tweed out from behind the shadows of Thomas Nast's leering cartoons, and presenting him, as much as is possible, as a man and not an icon. An interesting example of Americana, this volume will be of interest to historians of the period as well as those interested in American urban and political life.
This rich study examines the everyday politics of a rice farming village in central Luzon. Contending that the faction and patron-client relationships emphasized by conventional studies are but one part of Philippine political life, Kerkvliet offers a nuanced and fascinating portrait of political relationships among villagers. The world he portrays is complex and multifaceted: in a period of flux, relations of status and class shift as traditional roles give way to new social identities. The author demonstrates how disputes over land or controversies around wages lie at the heart of political life regardless of whether they manifest themselves in the usual political arenas. Kerkvliet shows how everyday politics illuminates contending beliefs about what is just and who has rights to particular resources. Furthermore, relationships between people in different class and status positions are far less harmonious than they might appear on the surface. Embedded in this contentious interaction are divergent ideas about how resources should be distributed the privileged emphasize values supported by capitalism, while the poor press rights to the satisfaction of basic needs and to human dignity. A comprehensive and masterful classic, Everyday Politics in the Philippines revises our notions of political life in the developing world. Now available again with a new preface, postscript, and updated bibliography, this updated edition will be welcomed by a broad range of social scientists."
The political impulse to secede -- to attempt to separate from central government control -- is a conspicuous feature of the post-cold war world. It is alive and growing in Canada, Russia, China, Italy, Belgium, Britain, and even the United States Yet secession remains one of the least studied and least understood of all historical and political phenomena. The contributors to this volume have filled this gap with wide-ranging investigations -- rooted in history, political philosophy, ethics, and economic theory -- of secessionist movements in the United States, Canada, and Europe. Is secessionism extremist, a dangerous rebellion that threatens the democratic process? Gordon and his contributors think otherwise. They believe that the secessionist impulse is a vital part of the classical liberal tradition, one that emerges when national governments become too big and too ambitious. Unlike revolution, secession seeks only separation from rule, preferably through non-violent means. It is based on the moral idea, articulated by Ludwig von Mises in 1919, that "no people and no part of a people shall be held against its will in a political association that it does not want. The authors cite the famed 1861 attempt to create a confederacy of Southern states as legal, right, and a justifiable response to Northern political imperialism. They note that this was not the first American secession attempt -- the New England states tried to form their own confederacy during the War of 1812. This evidence, they argue, begs a reinterpretation of the U.S. Constitution along secessionist lines. Further they believe that the threat of secession should be revived as a bulwark against government encroachmenton individual liberty and private property rights, a guarantor of international free trade, and a protection against attempts to curb the freedom of association. These straightforward, pellucid arguments include essays by Donald Livingston, Murray N. Rothbard, Clyde Wilson, Thomas DiLorenzo, and Bruce Benson, among others. If overgrown nations continue to decompose, as they have for the last decade, these authors believe it is essential that secession be taken seriously, and fully understood. Secession, State, and Liberty makes a vital contribution toward that end. This stimulating, thought-provoking collection is necessary reading for intellectual historians and political scientists.
This work addresses political and historiographical uses of history. A group of leading historians and thinkers discuss questions of collective identity and representation in relation to the fluctuating concept of "Past" and its changing relevance. Among the topics are Greek historiographical questions, Balkan history, the Armenian problem, and the Plaestine historical narrative.
A data-rich analysis of how the four inter-related crises of 2020 — the COVID-19 pandemic, the economic collapse and K-shaped recovery, the clashes over the legacy of racism and policing, and assaults on the legitimacy of democratic institutions (abetted by conspiracy theories) — shaped not only the 2020 election, but also the future of our democracy. The 2020 election cycle was one of the most tumultuous in the nation's history. Early in the cycle, a global pandemic hit the US, paralyzing much of the economy and raising a multitude of questions about how people would go about voting. Then, beginning in late spring, a series of police brutality cases set off a nationwide wave of protests and civil disturbances related to racial justice concerns. In the final phase, the president of the United States refused to accept the results and incited his followers to storm the US Capitol. How did all of these momentous events shape voters' opinions? And what impact did they have on the outcome? To answer these questions, Kathleen Hall Jamieson and her collaborators surveyed 9,000 Americans over the course of the year to determine how voters reacted to the events on the ground, the campaigns' attempts at persuasion, and the post-election chaos that followed Biden's victory. Generally, American voters saw the multitude of crises through the lens of their polarized partisan predispositions. But why? Jamieson and her co-authors first stress that America has multiple electorates, and they are exposed to different informational environments. The divergent messages they received shaped not only their vote choice, but also how they made sense of these crises. Interestingly, though, while many voters were locked in place by their partisan priors, a majority of those who ended up voting for either Biden or Trump were unsure of their choice and whether they would actually vote at some point during the year. What led to both the wavering in people's choices and the attitudes they eventually adopted were in large part due to the differing media environments enveloping them: the messages from the campaigns, from their family and friends, as well from those in mass and social media. But this is not a simple story of "echo chambers," where individuals are immersed in only one type of media — far from it. The distinct media environments in which these electorates experienced the election were in fact complex and varied, and the interaction between these different types of media was key. Indeed, most voters were subject to cross-cutting information pressures and not only one type of partisan source. This book's focus on the ebb and flow of the campaign over time and the centrality of wavering voters makes this an authoritative and essential account of one of the most momentous American elections ever.
Global history records an astonishing variety of forms of social organization. Yet almost universally, males subordinate females. How does the relationship between men and women shape the wider political order? The First Political Order is a groundbreaking demonstration that the persistent and systematic subordination of women underlies all other institutions, with wide-ranging implications for global security and development. Incorporating research findings spanning a variety of social science disciplines and comprehensive empirical data detailing the status of women around the globe, the book shows that female subordination functions almost as a curse upon nations. A society's choice to subjugate women has significant negative consequences: worse governance, worse conflict, worse stability, worse economic performance, worse food security, worse health, worse demographic problems, worse environmental protection, and worse social progress. Yet despite the pervasive power of social and political structures that subordinate women, history-and the data-reveal possibilities for progress. The First Political Order shows that when steps are taken to reduce the hold of inequitable laws, customs, and practices, outcomes for all improve. It offers a new paradigm for understanding insecurity, instability, autocracy, and violence, explaining what the international community can do now to promote more equitable relations between men and women and, thereby, security and peace. With comprehensive empirical evidence of the wide-ranging harm of subjugating women, it is an important book for security scholars, social scientists, policy makers, historians, and advocates for women worldwide.
This book traces the beginnings of democracy in the three Himalayan kingdoms of Sikkim, Nepal and Bhutan. Charting the mobilisations and political experimentations that took place in the former buffer states under monarchies to establish democratic regimes, this book investigates their varying degrees of success, and offers a critical commentary on the consequent socio-political histories of this region. The volume sheds light on the nuances of their different geo-political contexts of the three Himalayan states, while tracing the social origins of the movements. It also undertakes a close analysis of the political participation and leadership involved to understand their achievements and limitations. A comprehensive analysis of a hitherto unexplored chapter in South Asian history, it will be of an immense interest to scholars and researchers of international relations, modern history, sociology and social anthropology, politics, South Asian studies, area studies, especially Nepal and Himalayan studies, as well as policy makers and government think tanks. |
You may like...
The Campaign for Woman Suffrage in…
Brent Tarter, Marianne E Julienne, …
Paperback
The Land Is Ours - Black Lawyers And The…
Tembeka Ngcukaitobi
Paperback
(11)
Between Two Fires - Holding The Liberal…
John Kane-Berman
Paperback
(3)
Race, Class And The Post-Apartheid…
John Reynolds, Ben Fine, …
Paperback
Sitting Pretty - White Afrikaans Women…
Christi van der Westhuizen
Paperback
(1)
Extremisms In Africa
Alain Tschudin, Stephen Buchanan-Clarke, …
Paperback
(1)
Song For Sarah - Lessons From My Mother
Jonathan Jansen, Naomi Jansen
Hardcover
(3)
|