As things stand, a commitment to weak democracy and strong constitutionalism ensures that a range of elite groups, actors, and institutions - political, economic, intellectual, and legal - hold considerable sway over constitutional matters, leaving less room for the participation of ordinary people. With the continued primacy of liberal constitutionalism, constitutional law has come to represent and facilitate the centrality of judicial power and authority. In Democracy and Constitutions, Allan C. Hutchinson warns against this deference to a legal elite on questions of constitutional meaning. For Hutchinson, an over-reliance on constitutional law, and a lack of attention to democratic politics, keeps people from influencing the moral and political character of society; it saps civic energies and relegates ordinary people to the sidelines. Engaging and provocative, Democracy and Constitutions charts a course away from the elitism of the present and toward a more democratic future, one that re-balances society's commitment to both democracy and constitutions. Advocating for a strong democracy and weak constitutionalism, this book places ordinary people at the institutional heart of government and politics, arguing that such a re-calibration is better for democracy and for society.

As migration alters the southern political landscape, partisan battle lines will be drawn between the Democrat-leaning areas of growth and the increasingly Republican areas of decline and stagnation. The Democratic Party is gaining support in the South, but the prevailing explanations of partisan shift fail to capture how and why this transformation has come about. In Movers and Stayers, Irwin Morris develops a new theory that explains the Democrats' renewed influence in the region and empirically demonstrates the influence of population growth. As Morris shows, migratory patterns play a significant role in politics, and urbanization is driving polarization in the South. Those who move to cities-the "movers" of Morris's framework-do so for jobs, and they tend to be progressive, young, well-educated Democrats. Their liberal views tend to be reinforced by the diversity of the communities in which they choose to live, and their progressivism fosters similar values among long-term residents. At the same time, "stayers" (long-term residents) absorb the consequences-or "community threat"-of this large-scale migration. While white stayers tend to become more conservative, the effects on voter behavior play out differently across racial lines. Both movers and stayers are altering the southern political landscape and polarization nationwide. Powerfully counterintuitive, Movers and Stayers provides a game-changing way of understanding one of the most confounding trends in American politics.

On marijuana, there is no mutual federal-state policy; will this cause federalism to go up in smoke? More than one-half the 50 states have legalized the use of marijuana at least for medical purposes, and about a dozen of those states have gone further, legalizing it for recreational use. Either step would have been almost inconceivable just a couple decades ago. But marijuana remains an illegal "controlled substance" under a 1970 federal law, so those who sell or grow it could still face federal prosecution. How can state and federal laws be in such conflict? And could federal law put the new state laws in jeopardy at some point? This book, an edited volume with contributions by highly regarded legal scholars and policy analysts, is the first detailed examination of these and other questions surrounding a highly unusual conflict between state and federal policies and laws. Marijuana Federalism surveys the constitutional issues that come into play with this conflict, as well as the policy questions related to law enforcement at the federal versus state levels. It also describes specific areas such as banking regulations in which federal law has particularly far-reaching effects. Readers will gain a greater understanding of federalism in general, including how the division of authority between the federal and state governments operates in the context of policy and legal disputes between the two levels. This book also will help inform debates as other states consider whether to jump on the bandwagon of marijuana legalization.

This volume traces the logic of urban political conflict in late medieval Europe's most heavily urbanized regions, Italy and the Southern Low Countries. The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries are often associated with the increasing consolidation of states, but at the same time they also saw high levels of political conflict and revolt in cities that themselves were a lasting heritage of this period. In often radically different ways, conflict constituted a crucial part of political life in the six cities studied for this book: Bologna, Florence, and Verona, as well as Liege, Lille, and Tournai. The Logic of Political Conflict in Medieval Cities argues that such conflicts, rather than subverting ordinary political life, were essential features of the political systems that developed in cities. Conflicts were embedded in a polycentric political order characterized by multiple political units and bases of organization, ranging from guilds to external agencies. In this multi-faceted and shifting context, late medieval city dwellers developed particular strategies of legitimating conflict, diverse modes of behaviour, and various forms of association through which conflict could be addressed. At the same time, different configurations of these political units gave rise to specific systems of conflict which varied from city to city. Across all these cities, conflict lay at the basis of a distinct form of political organization-and represents the nodal point around which this political and social history of cities is written.

Regionalization in general and regional integration in particular have taken place at a growing pace since the end of the Cold War, when states were set free from various security overlays. Regional integration is 'logical' as it is supposed to advance wealth and peace. Still, the picture is far from clear and the process of regional integration is not automatic; disintegration takes place, as we saw in the cases of the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia to mention a few. This is the case not only in states recently brought together but also in traditional states like Britain, The Netherlands and Spain where strong groups strive for independence. In some places regionalization is flourishing, but regional integration is not. Some regional integration projects like the North American Free Trade Agreement and Mercosur seem to stagnate. Certainly there are limits to regional integration. This comprehensive volume, written by high profiled academics, covers these themes by examining eleven cases ranging from the lack of integration in the Arctic and the Middle East, to ongoing or progressing integration in Europe to uncover what 'blocks' regional integration, the results of which are used for developing new theoretical insights.

The emergence of new technologies and business models such as data analytics, online platforms, and artificial intelligence has shaken the economy and society at their foundations. Recently, it has become apparent that public authorities must take a pro-active role to define the rules of the newly emerged markets before potential issues and concerns cement. How rules are currently written determines who will exert a stronger influence on the economy and society in the coming years. This is key reason why digital policymakers are currently exposed to tremendous pressure by stakeholders. This book takes a journey through all the main areas in the digital economy that beg for policy action. Readers may learn about the general features of a digital economy and the EU long term strategic plans to govern it. They may learn about telecom markets, the data economy, the digitization of the public sector, cybersecurity, the platform economy, liability for online content, e-commerce, the sharing economy, the impact of technology on labour markets, digital inequality, disinformation, and artificial intelligence. This book provides students with the background knowledge and analytical tools necessary to understand, analyse, and assess the impact of EU digital policies on the European economy and society. The approach is both theoretical and applied. The main goal is to prepare students to give informed and economically sound advice to an EU policymaker for digital affairs.

With the demise of the Old Regionalist project of achieving good regional governance through amalgamation, voluntary collaboration has become the modus operandi of a large number of North American metropolitan regions. Although many researchers have become interested in regional collaboration and its determinants, few have specifically studied its outcomes. This book contributes to filling this gap by critically re-evaluating the fundamental premise of the New Regionalism, which is that regional problems can be solved without regional/higher government. In particular, this research asks: to what extent does regional collaboration have a significant independent influence on the determinants of regional resilience? Using a comparative (Canada-U.S.) mixed-method approach, with detailed case studies of the San Francisco Bay Area, the Greater Montreal and trans-national Niagara-Buffalo regions, the book examines the direct and indirect impacts of inter-local collaboration on policy and policy outcomes at the regional and State/Provincial levels. The book research concentrates on the effects of bottom-up, state-mandated and functional collaboration and the moderating role of regional awareness, higher governmental initiative and civic capital on three outcomes: environmental preservation, socio-economic integration and economic competitiveness. In short, the book seeks to highlight those conditions that favor collaboration and might help avoid the collaborative trap of collaboration for its own sake. More specifically, this research concentrates on the effect of bottom-up, state-mandated and functional collaboration, the moderating role of regional awareness, governmental initiative and civic capital on environmental preservation, socio-economic integration and economic competitiveness. In short, the book seeks to understand whether and how urban regional collaboration contributes to regional resilience.

One of the greatest challenges in the twenty-first century is to address large, deep, and historic deficits in human development. Democracy at Work explores a crucial question: how does democracy, with all of its messy, contested, and, time-consuming features, advance well-being and improve citizens' lives? Professors Brian Wampler, Natasha Borges Sugiyama, and Michael Touchton argue that differences in the local robustness of three democratic pathways - participatory institutions, rights-based social programs, and inclusive state capacity - best explain the variation in how democratic governments improve well-being. Using novel data from Brazil and innovative analytic techniques, the authors show that participatory institutions permit citizens to express voice and exercise vote, inclusive social programs promote citizenship rights and access to public resources, and more capable local states use public resources according to democratic principles of rights protections and equal access. The analysis uncovers how democracy works to advance capabilities related to poverty, health, women's empowerment, and education.

In the early decades of the twentieth century, prostitution was one of only a few fates available to women and girls besides wife, servant, or factory worker. At the turn of the century, cities across China began to register, tax, and monitor prostitutes, taking different forms in different cities. Intervention by way of prostitution regulation connected the local state, politics, and gender relations in important new ways. The decisions that local governments made about how to deal with gender, and specifically the thorny issue of prostitution, had concrete and measurable effects on the structures and capacities of the state.
This book examines how the ways in which local government chose to shape the institution of prostitution ended up transforming local states themselves. It begins by looking at the origins of prostitution regulation in Europe and how it spread from there to China via Tokyo. Elizabeth Remick then drills down into the different regulatory approaches of Guangzhou (revenue-intensive), Kunming (coercion-intensive), and Hangzhou (light regulation). In all three cases, there were distinct consequences and implications for statebuilding, some of which made governments bigger and wealthier, some of which weakened and undermined development. This study makes a strong case for why gender needs to be written into the story of statebuilding in China, even though women, generally barred from political life at that time in China, were not visible political actors.

Social scientists have regularly proclaimed the end of territory under successive waves of modernization, yet it continually re-emerges as a key principle of social, economic, and political organization. Rather than a de-territorialization we are witnessing a rescaling of social life as functional systems, identities, and political expression migrate to new levels. This is not new, but is a recurrent feature of the European state. States have sought to reassert control over these new spaces, while political and social movements have sought to politicize them and open them up to popular influence. The result has been the emergence of the meso-level or region as set of contested spaces, and increasingly as a level of government. Social and economic interests are refracted at these new territorial levels to reshape the policy agenda and create new social alliances and conflicts. Regions have emerged as spaces for public policy, with significant divergences over economic development, welfare policies, public services and environmental issues. Rescaling poses important normative questions about self-determination and social solidarity. These cannot definitively be resolved but are reframed, with new forms of self-government being possible and social solidarity emerging at new levels. Competitive regionalism has become a dominant theme but there is no generalized race to bottom as regions respond to the challenge in multiple ways. Regions are not going to replace the nation-state as they remain loosely-bounded and contested spaces but territory continues to reshape European polities. Drawing on a rich interdisciplinary literature and on original research, the volume provides a fresh and engaging analytical approach to the understanding of territory and power in contemporary Europe.

In the efficient delivery of local public services, size matters. Many countries around the world have vertical government structures that are perceived as inefficient because of their high levels of jurisdictional fragmentation. This timely volume examines the different strategies used to address local government fragmentation and their observed results and consequences. Expert contributors in economics and political science offer a comprehensive breakdown of the issue of local jurisdiction fragmentation and provide recommendations for successful policy reform. Topics discussed include economies of scale, the costs and benefits of voluntary and forced amalgamation programs, the correlation between government size and corruption, privatization, and inter-municipal cooperation. A combination of theory and empirical evidence provides depth and makes this book an invaluable addition to the literature. Economists, public administrators and political scientists will find much of interest in this innovative volume, as will professors, students and international institutions with an interest in local government structure and reform. Contributors: R. Andrews, G. Bel, N. Charron, B. Dafflon, L. de Mello, B. Dollery, J. Fernandez-Albertos, N. Fiorino, E. Galli, J.L. Gomez-Reino, B. Grant, M. Kortt, S. Lago-Penas, V. Lapuente, J. Martinez-Vazquez, M.A. Nelson, F. Padovano, M.E. Warner

This book examines the process, policies, and politics of urban development in China, with particular attention to city region governance, urban redevelopment, and urban–rural interaction through intensive theoretical discussions and extensive case studies. It offers ample data, pictures, and illustrations to provide readers with a deep understanding of urban policies and policies in China. The regional and metropolitan perspective is emphasized to analyze the urban–rural transition and how it affects urban governance. This book develops a well-grounded political economy analysis to examine how city region development and governance evolve in China. Such development is the focal point of China’s continuing urbanization, and its impact needs to be carefully analyzed. In the end, this book aims to foster discussions that may lead to serious consideration on China’s future urbanization route.

As unique as is Utah's formative history of civil and religious conflict, its political institutions today broadly resemble those found in other American states. While its majority Mormon population translates into an enormous Republican advantage in local and national elections, Utahns have taken a more centrist stance on some issues such as immigration, while Utah itself has become the third-fastest-growing state in the country since 2000. The mostly geographically rural state is demographically urban, and Salt Lake County is now a swing county in some elections. Utah Politics and Government offers an accessible analysis of Utah's political cultures, starting with the state's unique pioneer heritage, its development into a secular American state, and its explosive modern growth. The book covers the state constitution and its place in the federal system, ongoing public lands disputes, and major political institutions. Several original datasets covering the last thirty years in Utah politics provide contemporary context and analysis. The final chapter offers practical advice to citizens wishing to engage with their elected officials. Adam R. Brown has written a book that is beneficial not only for educational purposes but also for the average citizen who wishes to understand how Utah's government operates, get involved in state politics, and make informed choices.

Why are some states in India able to facilitate foreign capital inflows better while others are not? This book addresses the socio-political factors such as ideas and interests of political actors, which produce the different levels of foreign direct investment (FDI) in states of India. It studies the causal role of disparate state-society relations in the evolution of institutions facilitating and regulating FDI inflows in the states through a comparative case study on the manufacturing industries of Tamil Nadu and Odisha.

This book, written by a leading sociologist, tells Edinburgh's modern story and unveils its power structure. It examines its politics, formal and informal; its changing political economy; and the rise of its status as Festival city. Behind all this lies a complex system of money and culture, of presumed social status tied into a hierarchy of schools and institutions, universities, banks and finance houses. The book explores arguments about what sort of city Edinburgh should be and what it should look like. It examines planning controversies, from post-war developments through various 'holes in the ground' up to and including The Trams controversy. Studying Edinburgh lets us draw lessons about cities in general, and their roles in the modern world.

The concept of governance has evolved into one of the most important but also controversial concepts in urban politics. While it encourages co-operation, participation and collective construction, at the same time, it has brought about new forms of public demission, oligarchic regimes and less local democracy. The dilemmas accompanying these changes are particularly relevant when observing the cities of Southern Europe, whose socio-cultural specificities very much structure local political and policy materialisations. Bringing together a team of leading scholars from across the social sciences, this volume examines the issues of urban governance in the Southern European context. Illustrated by case studies of several main cities and metropoles on the North Mediterranean coast, it introduces and critically analyses the latest theories and approaches to urban governance. It questions how the 'real' or socio-cultural notion of city seems to have been separated from that of the 'political' city and explores how more integrated socio-political forms might be developed. It looks at current structures, dynamics and cultures of governance in urban development and questions whether they are well adapted to new realities and challenges or whether there are significant imbalances causing limited or fragmented political-administrative visions. By considering both the long Mediterranean history along with the recent but enduring global economic and political developments, this book argues that Southern European cities will have to depend greatly upon its own socio-cultural networks, dynamics and cosmopolitan evolution, making the most of the region's characteristic urban strengths, as trading hubs, with rich hinterlands and large and varied population.

Increased flows of people, capital, and ideas across geographic borders raise urgent challenges to the existing terms and practices of politics. Comparative political theory seeks to devise new intellectual frames for addressing these challenges by questioning the canonical (that is, Euro-American) categories that have historically shaped inquiry in political theory and other disciplines. It does this byanalyzing normative claims, discursive structures, and formations of power in and from all parts of the world. By looking to alternative bodies of thought and experience, as well as the terms we might use to critically examine them, comparative political theory encourages self-reflexivity about the premises of normative ideas and articulates new possibilities for political theory and practice. The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Political Theory provides an entry point into this burgeoning field by both synthesizing and challenging the terms which motivate it. Over the course of five thematic sections and thirty-three chapters, this volume surveys the field and archives of comparative political theory, bringing the many approaches to the field into conversation for the first time. Sections address geographic location as a subject of political theorizing; how the past becomes a key site for staking political claims; the politics of translation and appropriation; the justification of political authority; and questions of disciplinary commitment and rules of knowledge. Ultimately, the handbook demonstrates how mainstream political theory can and must be enriched through attention to genuinely global, rather than parochially Euro-American, contributions to political thinking.

Die Arbeit untersucht den laufenden Prozess der legislativen Anpassung des EU-Wettbewerbsrechts an die Herausforderungen der Digitalisierung. Durch einen Vergleich zwischen Stakeholder-Beitragen, Expertenberichten und Reformvorhaben wird das Potenzial eines "Partizipativen Kartellrechts" exemplarisch ausgelotet und die Transmission bestimmter Ideen nachvollzogen. Die Kombination innovativer quantitativer Methoden aus dem Feld der "Digital Humanities" mit detaillierter qualitativer Analyse erlaubt zudem, subtile Formen des Lobbyismus aufzudecken. Gegenstand der Betrachtungen sind die 108 Stakeholder-Beitrage, die im Rahmen des Konsultationsverfahren der Europaischen Kommission eingereicht wurden, der von der Kommission in Auftrag gegebene Expertenbericht, der DMA-Entwurf sowie die 10. GWB-Novelle.

Despite increasing interest in how involvement in local government can improve governance and lead to civic renewal, questions remain about participation's real impact. This book investigates participatory budgeting--a mainstay now of World Bank, UNDP, and USAID development programs--to ask whether its reforms truly make a difference in deepening democracy and empowering civil society. Looking closely at eight cities in Brazil, comparing those that carried out participatory budgeting reforms between 1997 and 2000 with those that did not, the authors examine whether and how institutional reforms take effect.
"Bootstrapping Democracy" highlights the importance of local-level innovations and democratic advances, charting a middle path between those who theorize that globalization hollows out democracy and those who celebrate globalization as a means of fostering democratic values. Uncovering the state's role in creating an "associational environment," it reveals the contradictory ways institutional reforms shape the democratic capabilities of civil society and how outcomes are conditioned by relations between the state and civil society.

Durch den Ausbruch der COVID-19-Pandemie erhielt die Frage, welche Relevanz der Gedanke der Solidaritat im Bereich der Gesundheitsversorgung hat, einen besonderen Spin: Welche Einschrankungen war man bereit hinzunehmen, aus Solidaritat z. B. gegenuber der Gesundheit von Personen aus Risikogruppen? Welche Art solidarischer Unterstutzung wollte man leisten? Welche Grenzen der Solidaritat musste man sich eingestehen? Die Beitrage in diesem Band zeigen, dass wir die "Dimension Pandemie" aus unseren Debatten um Solidaritat im Gesundheitswesen kaum mehr ausnehmen koennen. Gleichzeitig verdeutlichen sie, dass wir diese Debatten schon seit langem fuhren und die Ausgestaltung der Gesundheitssysteme nicht nur in Deutschland auch vom Gedanken der Solidaritat gepragt ist.

Michael J. DeLor focuses on the fact that the operation and regulation of private electric utilities has become complicated and contentious in the United States in part because of environmental impact. As a consequence, Congress rarely passes substantive economic-based legislation dealing with the topic, and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) as the primary federal economic regulator of private electric utilities must act often without clear legislative guidance.

There are many reasons why it is important to study local politics -- political culture, government, political process -- in Communist party states. As in all politics, local politics in Communist party states are the political articulation of the local community. This is the political arena where policies concerning local issues are formulated by the officials. This is where the officials are approached by citizens with their particular demands. This is where citizens articulate their preferences, aspirations, and values through political participation. And this is where officials, both elected and appointed, are recruited. In this volume, Daniel N. Nelson has assembled a team of international scholars to consider local politics in Communist party states including the U.S.S.R., China, Poland, Yugoslavia, and Romania. Together, they explore how local social and political forces are articulated in the national and party organizations; they also reveal how the study of comparative local politics provides vitality for the study of national politics. Rather than treating local communities as receivers and translators of national inputs, the contributors demonstrate that the local dimension and national politics mutually influence one another and illuminate the social reality in communist societies.

Filme sind auf staatliche Filmfoerderung angewiesen. Die Autorin stellt in einem Rechtsvergleich die Filmfoerdersysteme in Deutschland und England einschliesslich der Foerderung auf UK-Ebene mit ihren unterschiedlichen Foerderinstrumenten gegenuber. Erstmalig wird das englische Filmfoerdersystem in seiner Gesamtheit dargestellt. Die Foerderungen werden auf eine Vereinbarkeit mit dem europaischen Beihilfenrecht untersucht, insbesondere das Tatbestandsmerkmal der staatlichen Mittel und die Rechtfertigungsgrunde. Die Autorin gibt als Resultate wertvolle Hinweise zur Korrektur von Foerdergesetzen und -richtlinien. Hervorgehoben wird das Film Tax Regime der britischen Steuererleichterungen, das sowohl Vorbild als auch Warnfunktion fur eine Weiterentwicklung des deutschen Filmfoerdersystems sein kann.

The study focuses on the earthquakes of 5 June 1688 and 14 March 1702 in Benevento, an enclave of the Papal States in the monarchy of Naples. In a multi-perspective analysis, it discusses the mental, political, and socio-economic attempts of the elites in local government and the Papal States to cope with these events. Response to these earthquakes proves to be an essential element in the struggle for supremacy, finally decided in his favour by the Archbishop of Benevento, Cardinal V.M. Orisini (later Pope Benedict XIII), who in contemporary historiography was feted as the a ~saviour of Beneventoa (TM).