Most African economies range from moderately advanced capitalist systems with modern banks and stock markets to peasant and pastoral subsistent systems. Most African countries are also characterized by parallel institutions of governance – one is the state sanctioned (formal) system and the other is the traditional system, which is adhered to, primarily but not exclusively, by the segments of the population in the subsistence peasant and pastoral economic systems.

Traditional Institutions in Contemporary African Governance examines critical issues that are largely neglected in the literature, including why traditional institutions have remained entrenched, what the socioeconomic implications of fragmented institutional systems are, and whether they facilitate or impede democratization. The contributors investigate the organizational structure of traditional leadership, the level of adherence of the traditional systems, how dispute resolution, decision-making, and resource allocation are conducted in the traditional system, gender relations in the traditional system, and how the traditional institutions interact with the formal institutions.

Filling a conspicuous gap in the literature on African governance, this book will be of great interest to policy makers as well as students and scholars of African politics, political economy and democratization.

Table of Contents

1. Institutional Fragmentation in Africa and its implications

2. Leadership Structures and Adherence Levels of Traditional Institutions

3. Traditional Institutions of Governance in a democratic South Africa

4. Traditional Institutions of the Booranaa and the Nuer in Ethiopia

5. Traditional Institutions in Somaliland

6. Traditional Institutions of the Gurage People

7. Traditional Institutions of the Meru, Pokot, and Mijikenda Communities in Kenya

8. Eritrea’s Experience in Reconciling the Formal and Traditional Institutions in Its judicial system

9. The relevance of Lesotho’s chieftainship system to contemporary governance

10. "Civil Chieftaincy" in African Governance

11. Relevance of Traditional Institutions and How they might be Reconciled with the Formal Institutions

12. Conclusion: Lessons Learned and Policy Implications

A detailed case study of provincial politics during the decade-long Cultural Revolution, which analyzes the form and changing nature of mass organizations established in China by 1966. The text traces their evolution, activities and ultimate dissolution ten years later.

Competitive elections have become an institutionalized feature of contemporary Indonesia's politics. This, together with other considerations, makes it reasonable to call Indonesia the world's third largest democracy. Nonetheless, democratic elections in Indonesia are both more complex and interesting than is commonly understood. This book explores how local elections in Indonesia have affected the development and dynamics of Indonesia's fledgling democracy. Based on fine-grained analyses of elections in five localities, the book shows how Indonesia's transition to direct elections of local government executives has transformed party politics and elite development at local levels of governance. Employing the methods of political anthropology and informed by a critical reading of theories of democracy and decentralization, the book presents detailed analyses of elections in five localities across four Indonesian provinces. The book calls attention to the ambiguous relation between formal democratic reforms and political behavior. It illustrates how local elite politics has evolved within the context of political and administrative reforms, whose announced goals are to improve the representativeness and responsiveness of political institutions. This book provides a window onto local political processes that will be of interest to students and scholars of politics in Southeast Asia and beyond.

The key aspect of the changing fortunes of British towns explored in this book is the ability of individual localities to exercise any control over their growth and decline. Arising out the the Changing Urban and Regional System in the UK research program, this book examines local political initiatives seeking to influence economic and social development. The books states that the 1980s have seen local government in the UK facing two challenges: to survive in the face of Thatcher government hostility and to adapt to the powerful forces of economic restructuring. This book examines what has happened in a range of seven selected localities, identifies the conditions that make for successful policy interventions, and explores the future role of local government. The book is intended for students and lecturers of urban and regional studies, sociology and urban geography.

In many respects, New York City is an unnatural wonder, quite unlike any other American city and also unlike megacities in other industrial countries. Its government and politics, its physical attributes-like the celebrated skyline and high population density-and many of its social characteristics-like the extraordinarily high percentage of the city's population that is foreign-born-are different. But New York City at the same time shares with other American cities an array of political and governmental institutions, practices, traditions, and pressures, ranging from the long dominance and then long decline in the role of party organizations in local government to the city's ultimate dependence on outside actors and forces to shape its political destiny.

Some of the most populated and storied American cities had mayoral elections in 2013. Open contests in New York City, Los Angeles and Boston, for example, offer laboratories to examine electoral trends in urban politics. Cities are facing varied predicaments. Boston was rocked by the bombing of the marathon on April 15. Detroit is roiled by being the largest U.S. city to declare bankruptcy, and Chicago, which had an open, competitive election in 2011, is dealing with significant gun violence. San Diego's mayor resigned in August 2013 due to sexual harassment charges and other mayors are surrounded by corruption scandals. Houston and St. Louis had non-competitive elections recently but their mayors are notable for their tenure in office and emphasis will be on public policy outcomes in those cases. Leaders in most cities face dramatic changes and challenges due to economic and social realities. The Keys to City Hall offers a complete and succinct review and analysis of the top mayoral campaigns in major American cities in recent years as well as the politics and public policy management of those urban areas. Emerging theories of urban governance, demographic changes, and economic conditions are examined in introductory chapters; the introduction will provide a unique and comprehensive focus on major trends in advertisement, changes in campaign strategies, fundraising, and the use of social media at the local level. In Part Two, scholars with expertise in local politics, urban public policy, and the governance explore some of the largest and most noteworthy U.S. cities, each of which has a recent, competitive mayoral election. They will also provide updated data on mayoral powers and problems faced by local executives. Written as lively narratives in a highly readable style, this book advances theory on urban politics by reviewing developments in the field and aligning theoretical approaches with realities on the ground based on the most recent elections and governance structures. As such, it will be a much needed resource to scholars interested in local politics, and the public policy debates of specific major urban and metropolitan areas.

How do the foreign policy priorities of Latino Americans relate to U.S. foreign policy in general and U.S. policy toward Latin America in particular? Public policy elites and the general U.S. public doubt the depth of Latino patriotism, suspecting Latinos of representing their homelands' interests over and above those of the U.S. Through a series of studies surveying Latinos throughout the U.S., this book demonstrates that Latino Americans are more like other Americans with respect to foreign policy than is popularly assumed. At the same time, differences between and among various Latino communities (e.g., those with ties to Colombia, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, and Mexico) exist, and may be a source of growing Latino political power perhaps more relevant to domestic politics than to foreign policy.

Rebecca Browning Rankin was a politician in the best sense of the word. She supervised the New York Municipal Reference Library for 32 years until her retirement in 1952. Serving in many key policy-making positions, both on mayoral committees and in professional organizations, Rankin was an excellent lobbyist for the role of information in educating the electorate. She published over fifty articles and books on aspects of city government and libraries, and delivered weekly radio speeches on WNYC from 1928 to 1938. Her career as a librarian, author and radio commentator demonstrates the use of research in the formation of public policy decisions and provides a unique perspective on politics in New York. Rankin also served as president of several library organizations including the Special Library Association, which she led to national status during her tenure. During the Depression, she established the Association's employment service and worked with Mayor Fiorello La Guardia and other library officials to provide pensions for public librarians in New York City. Rankin and La Guardia shared the belief that government should carry out the will of the people and care for their needs, and the two worked together to make this a reality. Quotations from primary sources in the archives of the New York Public Library and the City of New York give the book a strong narrative style. Focusing on Rankin's efforts to document New York City's past as its unofficial historian, the book examines the city's political history during the first half of the twentieth century and illuminates the relationship of the local government with one of its great cultural institutions, the New York Public Library.

Whether in the northern provinces of Argentina, the central states of Mexico, or the southern states of the United States, less-than-democratic subnational regimes are often found within democratic national political systems. However, little is known about how or if these subnational pockets foster political attitudes and behavior that threaten the democratic norms that exist at the national level. Life in the Political Machine offers one of the first systematic explorations of the ways in which subnational "dominant-party enclaves" influence citizens' political attitudes and behaviors through a focus on the provinces and states of Argentina and Mexico. Specifically, the authors find starkly divergent patterns of political attitudes and behaviors among citizens in dominant-party enclaves as opposed to those living in competitive multiparty systems. In the latter, the authors find a political culture that approximates what scholars have long documented in established democracies. In the former, they uncover three factors-the politicization of the rule of law, an uneven electoral playing field, and the partisan cooptation of state resources-that strongly shape citizens' understanding of democratic principles, accountability, and political participation. The authors argue that this environment erodes public support for democracy at the national level and that these local strongholds of illiberalism thus provide added fuel to the recent drift from democracy globally. Ultimately, this book calls for greater attention to subnational variations in citizens' political attitudes and behaviors in order to more fully understand the process through which a national democratic political culture can emerge.

Following on from Introducing Town Planning andImplementing Town Planning, this third volume in the series examines the scope and nature of modern town planning in greater depth. It investigates the theories and preoccupations which inform the current planning agenda, compares this with earlier objectives, and discusses likely future trends. Written by a team of expert contributors under the general editorship of Clara Greed, the book begins with a review of town planning and then goes on to discuss the major themes in five parts: the economic context of town planning planning for housing planning for sustainability planning for city centres or decentralisation changing agendas and agencies Within this contextualising framework the contributors investigate many of the current, and often conflicting, urban policy issues challenging the planning profession. Over and above a commitment to traditional, physical land use matters, planning practitioners nowadays must take on board new priorities, deriving from the environmental movement, the European Union, the economic climate, changing local authority structures, and legislative frameworks. The contributors discuss these new agendas, and demonstrate how they link to inner city regeneration, city centre management, sustainability issues, and wider social policy and urban governance questions. This volume incorporates a more discursive and reflective approach to studying, and thus constitutes a valuable text for final year undergraduate and postgraduate courses in town planning, surveying, building, architecture, and housing, as well as RTPI, RICS, CIOH, CIOB, ASI, ISVA and RIBA courses. It will be of interest to a wider readership studying urban economics, urban sociology, social policy and urban geography, and to young professionals in both the public and private sector of the property world.

How is peace built at the local level? Covering three Lebanese municipalities with striking sectarian diversity, Saida, Bourj Hammoud and Tyre, this book investigates the ways in which local service delivery, local interactions and vertical relationships matter in building peace. Using the stories and experiences of municipal councillors, employees and civil society actors, it illustrates how local activities and agencies are performed and what it means for local peace in Lebanon. Through its analysis, the book illustrates what the practice of peacebuilding can look like at the local level and the wider lessons - both practical and theoretical - that can be drawn from it.

This edited volume approaches regionalism as one potential pattern in a changing global order. Since the end of the Cold War, different forms of territorialization have emerged and we are confronted with an increasing number and variety of actors that are establishing regional projects. This volume offers an innovative contribution to the study of this new complexity by exploring constellations of regional actors, spatial scales and imaginations beyond state-centred perspectives as well as on multiple, often overlapping levels. The chapters analyse the emergence, trajectories and outcomes of regionalisms from the perspective of the Global South, specifically concentrating on regional projects in Latin America and Africa, but also in the Asia-Pacific. They attempt to identify the specific conditions and junctures of different forms of region-making in their external (global) and internal (local/national) dimensions. The volume also places special emphasis on interactions, spatial entanglements and comparisons between regionalisms in different parts of the world. By expanding beyond the perspective of North-South transfers, this book seeks to better understand the dynamics and diversity of interregional interactions. This volume will appeal to scholars of global studies, international political economy, international relations, human geography, and development studies, as well as area studies specialists who focus on Latin America and Africa.

During 2008, the Democrats achieved in Florida a goal that had eluded them in all but three of the national elections since 1964: victory in the presidential race. Despite this success, the Republicans retained their dominance in the U.S. Congress and in the Florida State Legislature. The 2008 Elections in Florida utilizes multiple types of data to provide an explanation for the disparate outcomes of these elections. The book chronicles changes in voter registration and turnout over time and compares the electoral behavior of groups in Florida to that in the nation as a whole. It examines the importance of legislative apportionment, term limits and incumbency to the outcome of congressional and state legislative races and provides important clues to the future of electoral behavior in one of the nation's most important states.

This textbook explains the complexities of the policy-making process in a refreshingly clear way for students who are new to this subject. It explains:

• How policy originates, is refined, legitimised, implemented, evaluated and terminated in the forms of theoretical models of the policy process
• Which actors and institutions are most influential in determining the nature of policy
• The values that shape the policy agenda such as ideology, institutional self-interest and resource capabilities
• The outcome of policies, and why they succeed or fail
• The main policy theories including the very latest insights from network theory and post-modernism
• How national policy is influenced by globalization

The text is fully illustrated throughout with a broad range of national and international case studies on subjects such as the banking crisis, the creation of unitary authorities and global environmental policy and regulation.

Combining both a clear summary of debates and theories in public policy and a new and original approach to the subject, this book is essential reading for students of public policy and policy analysis.

Rise, Decline and Renewal tells the remarkable story of the Maine Democratic Party - how it suddenly rose from irrelevance in 1954 with the election of Governor Ed Muskie, successfully challenged the ruling Republican Party over the next two decades, and initiated a creative period of wide-ranging reforms that produced a model government for a state long perceived as a cultural and economic backwater. Prosperity was clouded by leadership failures, however, then succeeded by political and institutional decline. The vision that had once galvanized Democrats faded, elected officials clung to power, and legislators failed to provide good representation for the citizens who'd empowered them. The final chapters describe how Maine's largest political party can again seize the initiative, energize a new generation of young people, and govern in the public interest once more.

The last three decades in Turkey have seen an extensive shift towards a neoliberal agenda. Turkey has made many attempts at reforming existing governance systems in an effort to be accepted into the European Union, attracting the attention and curiosity of public management scholars worldwide. New Public Management in Turkey is the first book to analyze large-scale public administration reforms in Turkey according to the underlying principles of democracy, transparency, accountability, and localization. Systematically examining the literature on Turkish local government over a 25-year period, this book presents a comprehensive look at reform and its consequences through the lens of comparative public administration. The scholarly contributions to this volume from academics teaching at universities throughout Turkey offer a multi-dimensional and multi-functional analysis embracing a variety of viewpoints. Utilizing Turkey's rapid adaptations to the changing trends in public management as a case study, this book will serve as a unique and valuable policy guide for politicians and legislators seeking to develop a democratic and localized governance structure in a variety of contexts.

This book offers a new interpretation of the evolution and modernization of social order in China's grass-roots communities. Traditionally, social order at the grass-roots level was maintained through an organic combination of self-rule by the people and authority rule by political leaders. As a hybrid form of social order, therefore, it not only has features of autonomy but also reflects the power of the state apparatus. Despite the modernization of the nation-state, the old rules sustaining social order at the grass-roots level are still very much in effect and have seamlessly integrated into the new social structure. Unless we fully appreciate this fundamental continuity, we would not be able to understand how social order at the grass-roots level today is upheld and functions. And the modernization of social order at the grass-roots level is most fruitfully studied from the perspectives of the construction of modern public social relations and the development of grass-roots systems of social autonomy.

The rise of the Islamic State has dramatically forced a recalculation of political order and security in the Persian Gulf and broader Greater Middle East by the United States and its allies and adversaries, including, most notably, Iran, Israel and Saudi Arabia. Since the Arab Spring of 2011, the Islamic State has altered the military balance in the Syrian intra-state conflict and captured significant territory in Iraq. Its military successes has attracted foreign fighters from more than 100 countries, drawn in some cases by a sophisticated recruitment strategy that effectively combines a jihadist message with a social media outreach program targeting vulnerable Muslim populations in the region and the West. The Islamic State has prompted renewed American and allied military intervention in Iraq and Syria, and complicated the US relationship with its Iranian adversaries. The New Islamic State examines the rise of the religious extremist organization from the ashes of al-Qaeda in Iraq to its current efforts in Syria and Iraq and is designed to provide a comprehensive overview of the Islamic State, its effects on the Persian Gulf and Greater Middle East, and the response of both regional and great powers. The book is suitable for academics, policymakers and the general public.

The democratization of a national government is only a first step in the diffusion of democracy throughout a country's territory. Even after a national government is democratized, subnational authoritarian enclaves often continue to deny rights to citizens of local jurisdictions. Edward L. Gibson offers new theoretical perspectives for the study of democratization in his exploration of this phenomenon. His theory of boundary control captures the conflict pattern between incumbents and oppositions when a national democratic government exists alongside authoritarian provinces (or states ). He also reveals how federalism and the territorial organization of countries shape how subnational authoritarian regimes are built and how they unravel. Through a novel comparison of the late nineteenth-century American Solid South with contemporary experiences in Argentina and Mexico, Gibson reveals that the mechanisms of boundary control are reproduced across countries and historical periods. As long as subnational authoritarian governments coexist with national democratic governments, boundary control will be at play.

Why and how do some acts of protest trigger mass mobilization while others do not? Using the cases of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya, Mekouar argues that successful mass mobilization is the result of a surprise factor, whose impact and exceptionality is amplified by the presence of influential political agents during the early phase of protest, as well as by regime violence and unusual media coverage. Together this study argues that these factors create a perception of exceptionality, which breaks the locally available cognitive heuristic originally in favor of the regime, and thus creates the necessary conditions for mobilization to occur. This book provides a unique dialectical picture of mobilization in North Africa by focusing both on the perspective of those who mobilized against their local regimes and members of the security forces who were responsible for stopping them. Moreover, it offers a first-hand account of the tumultuous days preceding authoritarian collapse and explains the mechanisms through which political change occurs.

In 1787, the new United States of America formulated a Constitution, which for more than two hundred years has remained the greatest single advance in the long evolution of democracy and freedom. The authors of the Constitution, fearing the religious intolerance and persecution that was typical of many European governments, deliberately avoided a church-state union and limited the federal government to purely secular matters. The First Amendment explicitly stated, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; ..". In the debate over the separation between church and state, attention is often focussed solely on the national Constitution. The fact is sometimes overlooked that the state constitutions, some of which were written before the federal Constitution, include explicit protections of religious liberty and church-state separation, some even more comprehensive and specific in their guarantees and prohibitions than the U.S. Constitution. All of the state constitutions deal with religious freedom and all support the church-state separation principle. Forty-six states explicitly protect freedom of worship or conscience, while thirty-five states prohibit establishment of any state religion. Interestingly, five states still have provisions requiring that office holders believe in a Supreme Being, despite the fact that the Supreme Court declared these requirements to be unconstitutional in 1961. This comprehensive volume brings together all of the religious-liberty and church-state provisions of the fifty state constitutions. The only work of its kind, Religious Liberty and State Constitutions will serve as a useful referencework for people in the fields of education, law, and religion.

What happens to the citizen when states and nations come into being? How do the different ways in which states and nations exist define relations between individuals, groups, and the government? Are all citizens equal in their rights and duties in the newly established polity? Addressing these key questions in the contested and ethnically heterogeneous post-Yugoslav states of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia and Montenegro, this book reinterprets the place of citizenship in the disintegration of Yugoslavia and the creation of new states in the Western Balkans. Carefully analysing the interplay between competing ethnic identities and state-building projects, the author proposes a new analytical framework for studying continuities and discontinuities of citizenship in post-partition, post-conflict states. The book maintains that citizenship regimes in challenged states are shaped not only by the immediate political contexts that generated them, but also by their historical trajectories, societal environments in which they exist, as well as the transformative powers of international and European factors.

On June 1,1792, Kentucky became the fifteenth state in the new nation and the first west of the Alleghenies. Lowell Harrison reviews the tangled and protracted process by which Virginia's westernmost territory achieved statehood. By the early 1780s, survival of the Kentucky settlements, so uncertain only a few years earlier, was assured. The end of the American Revolution curtailed British support for Indian raids, and thousands of settlers sought a better life in the "Eden of the West." They swarmed through Cumberland Gap and down the Ohio River, cleared the land for crops, and established towns. The division of sprawling Kentucky County into three counties in 1780 indicated its rapid growth, and that growth accelerated during the following decade. With population increase came sentiment for separation from Virginia. Such demands had been voiced earlier, but a definite separation movement began in 1784 when a convention -- the first of ten such -- met in Danville. Not until April 1792 was a constitution finally drafted under which the Commonwealth of Kentucky could enter the Union. While most Kentuckians favored separation, they differed over how and when and on what terms it should occur. Three factions struggled to control the movement, but their goals and methods shifted with changing circumstances. This confusing situation was made more complex by the presence of the exotic James Wilkinson and the "Spanish Conspiracy" he fomented. Harrison addresses many questions about the convoluted process of statehood: why separation was desired, why it was so difficult to achieve, what type of government the 1792 constitution established, and how Governor Isaac Shelby and the first General Assembly implemented it. His engaging account, which includes the text of the first constitution, will be treasured by all Kentuckians.