In his most explicitly political work to date, Pierre Bourdieu speaks out against the new myths of our time - especially those associated with neo-liberalism - and offers a passionate defence of the public interest. The withdrawal of the state from many areas of social life in recent years - housing, health, social services, etc. - has produced growing despair in the most deprived sections of the population; the dismantling of public welfare in the name of private enterprise, flexible markets and global competitiveness is increasing the misery of those who have suffered most. In this sharp, uncompromising attack on neo-liberalism and those who champion it - from the IMF to the President of the Bundesbank, from politicians to academic commentators - Bourdieu stands up for the interests of the powerless and helps to give a voice to those individuals, groups and social movements whose views are rarely heard in the dominant media.

A powerful plea for a new internationalism which would seek to defend the public interest and the social rights of ordinary people against the new prophets of the marketplace, this important and timely book by one of Europe's most outstanding intellectuals deserves to be widely read.

First published in 1911, this pioneering and ambitious work provides a history of the evolution of republican thought and practice in Europe from the fall of the Roman Empire to the beginning of the twentieth century.

Based a series of lectures delivered by the author at Lowell Institute in 1910, this is a comprehensive treatment of the subject which moves deftly from the political thought of the middle ages through to the rise of Protestantism, the wave of revolution across Europe in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, concluding with an analysis of the republican cause and the permanence of the Republican idea in the consciousness of Europe.

How and why democratic governments in Latin America have implemented neoliberal developmental policies such as freeing exchange rates, privatizing state-owned companies, reducing governmental budget deficits through reduction in size of the government, reducing tariffs, and encouraging foreign private investments is discussed in this work. This study follows the ideological progress of some of the populist leaders and parties towards democratic neoliberalism. The work examines the topic on three levels: the national level represented by Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Argentina; the subregional level represented by Mexico and the North American free trade agreements, the Commercial Union of Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay; and the hemispheric level represented by Latin America, the United States, and the IMF.

No theory is more passionately and widely defined, or decried, than is liberalism in contemporary Anglo-American philosophy. But what is this theory, on which so much ink is spilled? This collection of original essays by leading specialists in political philosophy, legal theory, and economics offers answers to that question, by exploring the theoretical commitments of liberals and some of the practical implications of their view. Among the topics explored is the distinction between liberalism and conservatism, and the degree to which liberals must be committed to neutrality, individualism, equality, freedom, and a contractarian theory of justification. The practical implications of liberalism are further examined by considerations of the proper role of the liberal state in undertaking egalitarian redistribution, the provision of public goods, and retributive punishment. The papers assembled by Narveson and Dimock will be of benefit to anyone working in the areas of political philosophy, political theory, or political economics.

Liberalisms, a work first published in 1989, provides a coherent and comprehensive analytical guide to liberal thinking over the past century and considers the dominance of liberal thought in Anglo-American political philosophy over the past 20 years. John Gray assesses the work of all the major liberal political philosophers including J. S. Mill, Herbert Spencer, Karl Popper, F. A Hayek, John Rawls and Robert Nozick, and explores their mutual connections and differences.

The concept of the 'smart city' as the confluence of urban planning and technological innovation has become a predominant feature of public policy discourse. Despite its expanding influence, however, there is little consensus on the precise meaning of a 'smart city'. One reason for this ambiguity is that the term means different things to different disciplines. For some, the concept of the 'smart city' refers to advances in sustainability and green technologies. For others, it refers to the deployment of information and communication technologies as next generation infrastructure. This volume focuses on a third strand in this discourse, specifically technology driven changes in democracy and civic engagement. In conjunction with issues related to power grids, transportation networks and urban sustainability, there is a growing need to examine the potential of 'smart cities' as 'democratic ecologies' for citizen empowerment and user-driven innovation. What is the potential of 'smart cities' to become platforms for bottom-up civic engagement in the context of next generation communication, data sharing, and application development? What are the consequences of layering public spaces with computationally mediated technologies? Foucault's notion of the panopticon, a metaphor for a surveillance society, suggests that smart technologies deployed in the design of 'smart cities' should be evaluated in terms of the ways in which they enable, or curtail, new urban literacies and emergent social practices.

Citizenship implies exclusion of non-members. Migrations, processes and policies of first admission and incorporation of ethnically and culturally diverse newcomers are among the most hotly contested political issues, especially in a world of gross inequalities. This comparative and interdisciplinary collection sees distinguished moral and political philosophers, historians, sociologists, anthropologists and political scientists from America, Australia and Europe criticize existing institutions and increasingly restrictive policies and look for alternatives more in line with principles and constitutions of liberal democratic welfare states.

Adapting the green critique of the external costs of economic growth, this volume examines the links between stress, social division and excessive competition that are associated with the neoliberal discourse. Discourse analysis is used in a critical manner to examine the way that environmental issues are shaped. The book challenges established notions of the role of scientists, environmental groups and the widely presumed centrality of rational choice analysis in political science is questioned.

The author's concise and erudite exposition makes the book highly relevant to the study of liberalism and ideologies. Recommended for political scientists, economists, philosophers, and for all levels of students and faculty.' - R.J. Vichot, Florida International University;This book restates and defends the classical liberal case for minimal government, arguing that such government would best advance human well-being in all societies. The classical liberal ideal is defended against its main contemporary opponents, taken to be modern welfare liberals, communitarians, and conservatives. These variously oppose minimum government in the names of equality, community, and the need for states to retain the patriotic allegiance of their citizens which conservatives maintain minimal government is unable to do.

Sir Charles Dilke's claim to a leading place in the pantheon of Victorian radicalism, with Cobden, Bright and Chamberlain, has been overshadowed by the sensational divorce case in 1886 that ruined his career. Yet his political abilities were great and his career a most remarkable one. He was regarded by many of his contemporaries as a likely successor to Gladstone and a probable future Prime Minister. It can be argued that his political eclipse was a crucial contributing factor to the Liberal Party's failure to provide a viable alternative to the rise of the Labour Party.
This is the first new biography of Dilke since Roy Jenkins' "Sir Charles Dilke: A Victorian Tragedy," published in 1958. David Nicholls has used substantial new material to provide what is likely to be the definitive work on Dilke, shedding new light on his character, personal life and political career, as well as on the famous divorce scandal. This highly readable book is both an account of a remarkable man and an important contribution to the understanding of Victorian politics.

Seeks to uncover an analyze various relationships between liberalism and nationalisms, rational identities and modernity concepts, nations and empires, nation-states and nationalities, tradions and modernities, images of the self and the others, modernization strategies and identity creations.

Updated for Obama's last year in office, the liberal syndicated radio and television host Bill Press reflects on how the Obama administration has failed and disillusioned the American left. The bestselling liberal syndicated radio and television host Bill Press turns a critical eye on Barack Obama and assesses why his performance as president on issues liberals care deeply about has failed the American left. Press argues efficiently that Obama may have drawn the wrong lessons from the enthusiastic crowds that swarmed around him on the campaign trail in 2008--instead of seeing the potential and desire for a stronger progressivism, Obama tried to rise above and unite the parties. The tragedy of the Obama presidency is that, by trying to be the first "post-partisan" president, he ended up being one of the weakest. On issues as far ranging as gun safety to health care to foreign policy, Obama has let voters down by simply not doing enough or taking the wrong actions. As Press describes it, liberals began the Obama presidency with high hopes, and they now near its end with deep disappointment and a sense of buyer's remorse.

"This book examines the possibility of reconciliation between liberalism and Shiite Islam. By examining two key liberal theories, this book shows that secular liberalism is not justifiable in the view of Shiite Islamic thought. Yet, since the liberal state is tolerant of Shiite Muslim citizens, at the practical level, there is no ground for conflict between liberal societies and Shiite Muslim minorities. Therefore, whilst Shiite Muslims at home should refrain from constructing the basic structure of their societies in accordance with liberal theory, Shiite Muslim minorities of liberal societies should accept the basic structure of these societies in return for receiving freedoms, protections, and opportunities." -- Book jacket.

For Hayek, spontaneous order - the emergence of complex order as the unintended consequence of individual actions that have no such end in view - is both the origin of the Great Society and its underlying principle. These sometimes critical essays assess Hayek's position and argue that his work can inform contemporary social and political dilemmas.

A growing interest in political Islam, also called Islamism, has assumed significant ideological and intellectual dimensions especially in recent years. Rather than viewing it as Islam versus the rest, or tradition against modernity, this volume, without overlooking the tensions, also acknowledges the mutualities. It centres on issues such as the Rushdie affair, conflictive pluralism in South Asia and its linkages with the crucial regional themes like the Kashmir dispute, Iranian revolution, civil war in Afghanicstan and Western public diplomacy.

This book examines China's process of democratic transition, and the role of state and society in this process.

This work shows the importance of analyzing the "low" politics of areas that have traditionally been dominated by "high" politics. The role of bodies such as the Liberal Summer School and the Women's Liberal Federation are examined, along with the work of thinkers such as JM Keynes and Ramsay Muir. The text should make two major contributions to our knowledge of the role of international relations in British politics in the inter-war years. First, by analysing the Liberal Party's principles and policies on international relations, it offers a perspective on British Liberalism. Second, by exploring the Liberal Party's alternative to the Baldwin-Chamberlain policy of appeasement, it enters the historical debate on the options open to Britain in the 1930s, and shows that there was a Liberal alternative to appeasement.

Current Legal Issues, like its sister volume Current Legal Problems, is based upon an annual colloquium held at University College London. Each year, leading scholars from around the world gather to discuss the relationship between law and another discipline of thought. Each colloquium examines how the external discipline is conceived in legal thought and argument, how the law is pictured in that discipline, and analyses points of controversy in the use, and abuse, of extra-legal arguments within legal theory and practice.
Law and Philosophy, the latest volume in the Current Legal Issues series, contains a broad range of essays by scholars interested in the interactions between law and philosophy. It includes studies examining the themes of the nature of law; and interactions between State, the citizen, and the law.

This book covers arguments made by various sides of the political-religious divide from the past 30 years, showing what the actual differences are between these groups. By stressing the typically ignored similarities, the book better informs partisans and the public to move debate forward.

Lentner analyzes four basic components in the formation of states: the capacity to govern, security and freedom of action, economic development strategy, and citizenship and political participation. He focuses on five Central American countries--Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. His conceptual guidelines apply to the worldwide strivings today for autonomy, unity, economic development, and democracy. His extensive research into original and little-known secondary sources from the independence of these states to the present both in the United States and Central America make this an unusually rich text for graduate students and scholars dealing with Latin American studies, Inter-American affairs, and U.S. foreign policy.

First published in 1997. Examining race, law, and religion in today's America, The Least of These highlights the power of these principles to both divide and unite, and promotes a new form of liberalism that incorporates the spiritual values long neglected by earlier progressive liberals. Relaunching the fundamental tenet of progressive liberalism-that a justly ordered society must protect the interests and promote opportunities for the least advantaged of its population-Anthony Cook argues for a revival of the progressive vision of American politics. While the affirmative action debates smolder around the country, Cook contends that the spiritual foundation of this liberal tenet must be unearthed and elaborated to fit our times before we can attempt to tackle the issues that the civil rights era has left unanswered. As the twentieth century closes, The Least of These provides a greater understanding of the roots of our ongoing socio-political struggles, and serves as an invaluable profile of progressive liberal politics from World War II to the present.

Thomas Paine was an influential revolutionary pamphleteer, whose writings were instrumental in bringing about some significant political changes. His mastery of language was rivalled only by Swift and Cobbett. British-born, he emigrated to America in 1775 where his pamphlet "Common Sense" (1776) was directly responsible for the coming about of American independence. The "Rights of Man", published in 1791 became the founding text of the British working class movement. As part of his argument for man's natural rights Paine anticipated the Welfare State, arguing as early as 1797 for poor relief, old-age pensions and unemployment projects. Paine's importance lies not so much in the depth of his political philosophy as in his great abilities as communicator of political ideas. This text dicusses and considers the various implications of Paine's writings.

This volume brings together ten experts on Latin America to evaluate Argentina's newly restored democracy. Specifically, they examine the success of economic and political programs implemented since the end of 1983 by the freely elected Alfonsin and Menem governments. Special attention is given to the efforts of democratic office holders to secure the support of powerful interest groups such as the armed forces, business, labor, and the Catholic Church. Further attention is given to Argentina's two dominant political parties, the Radicals and the Peronists, the strong personalities of presidents Alfonsin and Menem, and the contrasting efforts of these men to restructure the traditional political coalitions that have for so long immobilized the country.

This volume will be of interest to scholars and students in political science, comparative politics, and Latin American studies.

The death of General Francisco Franco in November of 1975 ended thirty-six years of fascist-style dictatorship in Spain. The subsequent transition to liberal parliamentary government was remarkably smooth, particularly when compared to the recent difficulties experienced by other states, such as the former Soviet Republics and Eastern Europe. Ortiz traces Spain's success back to the development of a liberal tradition and a public sphere in the last decades of the 19th century during the Restoration period. He uses this era as a test case to demonstrate that liberal practices can develop even within a political situation where state institutions and the social infrastructure do not necessarily support them.

"Paper Liberals" dispels the notion that Western Europe ends at the Pyrenees and argues instead that, while on the periphery, Spain should not be excluded from the mainstream of European history. Clarifying a period in contemporary Spanish history that has been largely misunderstood, this study underscores the importance of the Spanish example as a comparative model to the countries customarily thought of as the European center (Britain, France, and Germany). Ortiz examines the formation and expansion of liberal political culture during the Regency of Maria Christina from 1885 to 1902, and he details the pivotal role of the Spanish press, which dominated the public sphere of Regency Spain, as the vehicle for this remarkable transformation.

Germany's unification initially raised fears about an all-powerful and undemocratic Germany at the heart of Europe. Based on hundreds of in-depth interviews, the book examines the democratic views of parliamentarians in Germany and compares them to the views of ordinary citizens. The book argues that although the majority of Germans support democratic values, especially in western Germany, there is significant evidence for lingering authoritarianism in the East. More than just an analysis of German political culture, the book offers compelling conclusions about the future of democracy in all post-socialist states.