This book shows how specific historical events and societal forces within Nigeria transcend the choices its political leaders have made to influence the course of the state's political development. Kalu N. Kalu describes a variety of factors that have contributed to the challenges facing state-building and political institutions in Nigeria. Chief among them are the nature of interest aggregation, the dynamics of conflict, and the patterns of state intervention in matters dealing with secularism, distributive politics, economy, security, and autonomy. Kalu succeeds in constructing a more organic concept of political development in Nigeria by creating a model based on rentier politics that captures the critical relationship between state power and economy. By doing so, he goes beyond current scholarship about Nigeria and demonstrates the need for a restructuring of its institutions, offering insight into an enduring narrative that continues to shape Nigerian politics.

Grand Theater examines bureaucracy not as a readily identifiable structure but rather as a process of day-to-day operation. Thus it is concerned with how agencies of both the communist party and the state apparatus not only implemented directives from above but also responded to perceived successes and failures, chose to produce, share, and conceal information, and reacted when common citizens injected themselves into governance by making demands and complaints. It concentrates on the 1930s as a seminal period when Stalin's regime established a hypercentralized system that dominated the Soviet Union until its collapse and the Russian Federation since then. It also focuses on the administration of schools as the primary window through which to examine governance because of the importance of education to Soviet authorities, most notably Stalin himself, and the accessibility of archival documents in this field, one not classified as particularly sensitive. Grand Theater provides novel insights into the functioning of Stalinist bureaucracy, brings to the forefront a new understanding of center-periphery relations, and reveals the important role of individuals in what has heretofore been largely regarded, when beyond the Kremlin's inner circle, as a highly impersonal system. It also examines in unprecedented ways the reciprocal relationship between ideology and policy formation, on the one hand, and actual administrative practices, on the other, a relationship that more often than not had negative and dysfunctional consequences for both the governed and governing. Holmes argues that the Soviet administrative system during the 1930s was much like grand theater. The documents produced for and by that system were the script for a discursive theatrical reality that inspired neither a careful appraisal of problems nor a dispassionate search for workable solutions.

All of America's crucial presidential votes -- arranged by state and by county within a state -- are collected in two unparalleled volumes. No other book set provides the accessible and easy to use information about presidential votes in every county in the nation for the past 80 years.

The first volume covers elections from Warren G. Harding's landslide in 1920 through Dwight D. Eisenhower's second term. Volume 2 begins with the election of John F. Kennedy in 1960 and carries through the latest controversial national vote in 2000 that brought George W. Bush to the White House.

Both volumes are organized the same: the front section containing national summary tables of the state by state vote and Electoral College vote for each election. A chapter for each state follows, beginning with a summary of the statewide vote and Electoral College, a county outline map, and the county-by-county details of each election. Sizable votes for third party candidates are also provided, as are summaries of presidential primary elections.

For quick access to the most reliable data ever published on presidential elections, America at the Polls is in a class by itself.

This edited collection brings together enterprising pieces of new research on the many forms of organization in East and Southeast Asia that are sponsored or mandated by government, but engage widespread participation at the grassroots level. Straddling the state-society divide, these organizations play important roles in society and politics, yet remain only dimly understood. This book shines a spotlight on this phenomenon, which speaks to fundamental questions about how such societies choose to organize themselves, how institutions of local governance change over time, and how individuals respond to and make use of the power of the state.

The contributors investigate organizations ranging from volunteer-based organizations that partner with government in providing services for homeless children, to state-managed networks of neighborhood- or village-level associations that perform representative as well as administrative functions and seeks to answer a number of questions:

• When do the "vertical," top-down imperatives of the state stifle "horizontal" solidarities, and when might the two work in harmony?
• Are useful social and administrative purposes served by this type of fusion?
• Does it amplify or merely muffle citizens? voices?
• What does it tell us about existing accounts of community, social capital, "synergy," "complementarity," "subsidiarity," and related concepts?

Representing seven countries: China, Japan, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, Taiwan, and Singapore this volume will be of interest to undergraduates, postgraduates and academics in Asian studies, political science, sociology, anthropology, development, history, nonprofit studies.

Upstate New York is in a malaise. This husband and wife team of sociologists, Alexander Thomas and Polly Smith, wanted to know why. They take the reader on a tour of New York in order to diagnose the problems affecting the state and what can be done to address the issues. New York was built on the strengths of its strategic location and growing population to become the 'Empire State' during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. But a combination of unfortunate decisions and the creation of new technologies in which New York was no more competitive than other states translated into New York losing its dominant position in the world economy. The result has been several decades of deindustrialization and population loss. This book includes recommendations for ideas that can be further developed by the public.

In 2006, Michigan voters banned affirmative action preferences in public contracting, education, and employment. The Michigan Civil Rights Initiative (MCRI) vote was preceded by years of campaigning, legal maneuvers, media coverage, and public debate. Ending Racial Preferences: The Michigan Story relates what happened from the vantage point of Toward A Fair Michigan (TAFM), a nonprofit organization that provided a civic forum for the discussion of preferences. The book offers a timely 'inside look' into how TAFM fostered dialogue by emphasizing education over indoctrination, reason over rhetoric, and civil debate over protest. Ending Racial Preferences opens with a review of the campaigns for and against similar initiatives in California, Florida, Washington, and the city of Houston. The book then delivers an in-depth historical account of the MCRIDfrom its inception in 2003 through the first year following its passage in 2006. Readers are invited to decide for themselves whether affirmative action preferences are good for America. Carol M. Allen reproduces the remarks delivered at a TAFM debate, along with a compilation of pro and con responses by 14 experts to 50 questions about preferences. This book will be of interest to those working in the fields of public policy and state politics.

The role of regions in the European Union has been frequently debated since the 1980s. This comprehensive book provides a thorough overview of the issue from a variety of perspectives, analysing regional governance and territorial dynamics in the EU and its member states. Focusing on the implications of the democratisation-regionalisation nexus, it argues that a 'Europe with the regions' may promote good governance and ameliorate the democratic deficits of the EU. The book's contributions offer a multidisciplinary approach to the study of governance in the EU and highlight the significance of regions and regionalisation for the EU's future. Through a combination of empirical, conceptual, theoretical and normative approaches, chapters address both intra-state and transnational developments to provide a fresh and exciting addition to the literature on new regionalism and democratic theory. Favouring a modest notion of a 'Europe with the regions' rather than the dominant maximalist vision, it embeds these developments in the ongoing debate about the future of the EU. Students and academics exploring regional governance and the EU will find this book's unique conclusions and crucial insights of great value. The book's distinct perspective on European governance will also be of benefit to policy-makers and EU think-tanks.

There are nearly 20,000 general-purpose municipal governments cities in the United States, employing more people than the federal government. About twenty of those cities received charters of incorporation well before ratification of the U.S. Constitution, and several others were established urban centers more than a century before the American Revolution. Yet despite their estimable size and prevalence in the United States, city government and politics has been a woefully neglected topic within the recent study of American political development.

The volume brings together some of the best of both the most established and the newest urban scholars in political science, sociology, and history, each of whom makes a new argument for rethinking the relationship between cities and the larger project of state-building. Each chapter shows explicitly how the American city demonstrates durable shifts in governing authority throughout the nation s history. By filling an important gap in scholarship the book will thus become an indispensable part of the American political development canon, a crucial component of graduate and undergraduate courses in APD, urban politics, urban sociology, and urban history, and a key guide for future scholarship.

A fresh examination of the relationship between two key issues in the on-going debate on urban governance - leadership and community involvement. It explores the nature of the interaction between community involvement and political leadership in modern local governance by drawing on empirical data gathered from case-studies concerning cities in England, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, and Sweden. It presents both a country specific and cross-cutting analysis of the contributions that communities and leaders can make to more effective local governance. These country specific chapters are complemented by thematic, comparative chapters addressing alternative forms of community involvement, types and styles of leadership, multi-level governance, institutional restrictions and opportunities for leadership and involvement, institutional conditions underpinning leadership and involvement, and political culture in cities. This up-to-date survey of trends and developments in local governance moves the debate forward by analysing modern governance with reference to theories related to institutional theory, legitimation, and the way urban leadership and community involvement compliment one another. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of politics and urban governance, and to all those concerned with questions of local governance and democracy.

Cuba has experienced many social, economic, and political changes since Raul Castro retained presidency of the island nation in 2008. This comprehensive volume examines how Cuba has restructured some of its core economic policies in order to tackle stagnation; these include allowing for more legalized private enterprises, reducing the number of State-employed workers, and fostering additional outside investments. The authors explore the surge of entrepreneurial activity in tourism among Cuban residents due to these reforms, whether that be offering new tourism products or expanding traditional ones. Though the current diplomatic climate suggests continued uncertainty, the ripple effect of a potentially thawing relationship between Cuba and the USA resulted in an unexpected surge of international tourists wishing to experience Cuba before it opened to the American travel market. This book highlights the factors that are influencing, and in some cases complicating, tourism planning and development in Cuba. The authors explore a wide range of topics including tourism and land-use policy, competitiveness, responsible practices, gender and ethical advertising, the role of tour guides, emergence of casa particulares, experiential learning and solidarity, and authenticity through local art. This book will interest students, researchers, politicians and investors with a focus on Cuba. It was originally published as a special issue of the journal Tourism Planning & Development.

This comprehensive volume is the first systematic effort to explore the ways in which recognised states and international organisations interact with secessionist 'de facto states', while maintaining the position that they are not regarded as independent sovereign actors in the international system. It is generally accepted by policy makers and scholars that some interaction with de facto states is vital, if only to promote a resolution of the underlying conflict that led to their decision to break away, and yet this policy of 'engagement without recognition' is not without complications and controversy. This book analyses the range of issues and problems that such interaction inevitably raises. The authors highlight fundamental questions of sovereignty, conflict management and resolution, settlement processes, foreign policy and statehood. This book will be of interest to policy makers, students and researchers of international relations. It was originally published as a special issue of the journal Ethnopolitics.

The decade commencing with the great crash of 2008 was a watershed period for Italian politics, involving fundamental and dramatic changes, many of which had not been anticipated and which are charted in this book. This comprehensive volume covers the impact of the Eurozone crisis on the Italian economy and its relationship with the European Union, the dramatic changes in the political parties (and particularly the rise of a new political force, the Five Star Movement, which became the largest political party in 2013), the changing role of the Trade Unions in the lives of Italian citizens, the Italian migration crisis, electoral reforms and their impact on the Italian party system (where trends towards bipolarisation appear to be exhausted), the rise of new forms of social protest, changes to political culture and social capital and, finally, amidst the crisis, reforms to the welfare state. Overall, the authors reveal a country, which many had assumed was in quiet transition towards a more stable democracy, that suffers an immense shock from the Eurozone crisis and bringing to the fore deep-rooted structural problems which have changed the dynamics of its politics, as confirmed in the outcome to the 2018 National Elections. This book was originally published as a special issue of South European Society and Politics.

The study of the political economy of development in India is significant as India has emerged as one of the fastest-growing countries during the last three decades and the rate of economic growth and poverty reduction have not been matched in India's subnational states. Although the Union Government has introduced and implemented several economic reforms since 1991 to enhance the economic development, the results of implantation have varied. Governance and Development in India compares two Indian subnational states, Andhra Pradesh and Bihar. The book does not consider the state as an aggregate entity; rather, it disaggregates the state relationally and spatially. Concentrating on the micro-institutional variables and the role of regional elites, the author investigates the political roots of the divergence of development trajectories among India's subnational states since liberalization, as an essential aspect of the political economy of development in India. The book explores the black box of the multi-layered state of India and interactions among the Central Government, the states, regional leaders and other stakeholders and explains why the regional leaders have pursued divergent economic strategies using the analytical narrative research method and the subnational comparative research method. Firmly based on the theoretical foundations of the neo-institutional rational choice model of governance, polycentric hierarchy theory and the strategies for regional elite strategy analysis, combined with empirical research, this book is a valuable contribution to the fields of comparative political economy, state politics in India, governance and development in developing countries, and South Asian comparative politics.

Using the way of storytelling, this book examines the petitions of the migrants of a dam in China. With the intensive and thorough analysis of the unique logic behind the petitions, it explores the complex relationship between Chinese peasants and governments, where people may find the key to the mysteries of Chinese society. As the first academic monograph which systematically studies petition, the peculiar Chinese social phenomenon, this book describes the collective action of the rural migrants who had fallen into poverty due to the construction of a dam in China's Three Gorges area. By investigating the ups and downs of the petitions, it reveals the operating mechanism of Chinese counties, the conflicts between the officials and the masses, as well as Chinese political culture, especially the subtle process of the contest of powers. It observes that the peasants' pursuit of justice not only temporarily maintains the balance of interests, but also makes the legitimacy of the party-state been reproduced. With substantial first-hand materials and empirical analyses, this book will be a valuable reference for scholars and students to study Chinese politics and society.

In 1890-1930, the election system in American cities introduced nonpartisan ballots into the cities. Invisible Partnership evaluates this election scheme and how it disproportionately helps Republicans win local legislative contests and shapes city councils and school boards to produce conservative and pro-developmental local policies, as it places more Republicans with such political beliefs and policy preferences in the offices. Author Chang-Ho C. Ji asserts that partisan politics is a stronger force behind city and local politics than generally thought, ultimately shaping the process and results of local elections and various policy decision-making in cities and local School districts.

Towering billboards featuring photorealistic portraits of popular cinema stars and political leaders dominated the cityscape of Chennai, in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu, throughout the second half of the twentieth century. Studying the manufacture and reception of these billboards known locally as banners and cutouts within the context of the entwined histories of the cinema industry and political parties in Tamil Nadu, Preminda Jacob reveals the broader significance of these fragments of visual culture beyond their immediate function as pretty pieces of advertising. Jacob analyzes the juxtaposition of cinematic and political imagery in the extra-cinematic terrain of Chennai's city streets and how this placement was pivotal to the elevation of regional celebrities to cult status. When interpreting these images and discussing their political and cultural resonance within the Tamil Nadu community, Jacob draws upon multiple perspectives to give appropriate context to this fascinating form of visual media."

An evaluation of presidential efforts to achieve greater control over policy implementation by intransigent federal bureaucracies. Benze [asserts] that Ronald Reagan's use of budget cuts and appointment of conservative ideologues tended to enhance presidential power more readily than attempts at bureaucratic reorganization. Based on mail surveys of more than 350 domestic administrators, the author concludes that bureaucratic acceptance of management techniques requires the kind of persuasive political skills Reagan displayed in his first term, but were lacking in the Carter Administration. He cautions that Reagan's managerial initiatives engendered morale problems, and may lack institutional permanency in the absence of constitutional and statutory changes. . . . A useful addition to upper-division and graduate collections. Choice Professor Benze's new study looks at the historical trend toward centralization of policy implementation in the president's office and shows how--and with what degree of success--the Reagan and Carter administrations have met this problem. Among the important features of the book are the wealth of empirical data provided on the presidency and the analysis of both change and continuity between administrations in the handling of specific management areas.

This book shows how specific historical events and societal forces within Nigeria transcend the choices its political leaders have made to influence the course of the state's political development. Kalu N. Kalu describes a variety of factors that have contributed to the challenges facing state-building and political institutions in Nigeria. Chief among them are the nature of interest aggregation, the dynamics of conflict, and the patterns of state intervention in matters dealing with secularism, distributive politics, economy, security, and autonomy. Kalu succeeds in constructing a more organic concept of political development in Nigeria by creating a model based on rentier politics that captures the critical relationship between state power and economy. By doing so, he goes beyond current scholarship about Nigeria and demonstrates the need for a restructuring of its institutions, offering insight into an enduring narrative that continues to shape Nigerian politics.

In 2006, Michigan voters banned affirmative action preferences in public contracting, education, and employment. The Michigan Civil Rights Initiative (MCRI) vote was preceded by years of campaigning, legal maneuvers, media coverage, and public debate. Ending Racial Preferences: The Michigan Story relates what happened from the vantage point of Toward A Fair Michigan (TAFM), a nonprofit organization that provided a civic forum for the discussion of preferences. The book offers a timely "inside look" into how TAFM fostered dialogue by emphasizing education over indoctrination, reason over rhetoric, and civil debate over protest. Ending Racial Preferences opens with a review of the campaigns for and against similar initiatives in California, Florida, Washington, and the city of Houston. The book then delivers an in-depth historical account of the MCRI-from its inception in 2003 through the first year following its passage in 2006. Readers are invited to decide for themselves whether affirmative action preferences are good for America. Carol M. Allen reproduces the remarks delivered at a TAFM debate, along with a compilation of pro and con responses by 14 experts to 50 questions about preferences. This book will be of interest to those working in the fields of public policy and state politics.

In the years 1967-1971, Senator Margaret Chase Smith was the only female member of the Senate and her reputation of integrity and independent thinking attracted the attention of those seeking to understand and voice their opinion on the Vietnam War experience. Dear Senator Smith is an edited collection of letters that shed light on the far-reaching and polarized tensions that exploded on the scene during Lyndon Johnson's government and continued into Richard Nixon's administration. These letters written by ordinary people living in Maine touch on class, race, gender, foreign policy, patriotism, and dissent and provide valuable insight on the impact of the war on the home front, the threat of communism, and the strength of the anti-war movement. By going beyond the circle of political and anti-war elites, Dear Senator Smith shows how ordinary small-town Americans upheld or protested Cold War ideology, offered new paradigms, and generally experienced the new challenges that correlated with the battles being fought both in Southeast Asia and on the home front.

Local Government Reforms in Countries in Transition explores the impacts that the end of the Cold War and increased globalization have had on government around the world. The decentralization of national governments has led to a greater role for local governments; public administration and democrative representation are the new arena of local governments the world over. Focusing not only on countries from the former Soviet Union, but also on Israel, China, South Africa, and Egypt, the contributors to this volume present a truly global investigation of countries experiencing governmental transformation.

In today's public policy arena the regional level is gaining increased attention as problems in policy and service delivery continue to spill over traditional urban government boundaries. This authoritative work focuses on the growing role of regions in addressing and resolving local governance problems."Urban and Regional Policies for Metropolitan Livability" provides a concise, up-to-date, and systematic treatment of the problems and issues involved in urban and regional policy concerns. Each policy chapter is written by a respected expert in the area, and the book covers all the key policy issues that confront contemporary metropolitan areas, including transportation, the environment, affordable housing, crime, employment, poverty, education, and regional governance. Each chapter outlines an issue, which is followed by current thinking on problem diagnosis and problem solving, as well as the prognosis for future policy success.

In today's public policy arena the regional level is gaining increased attention as problems in policy and service delivery continue to spill over traditional urban government boundaries. This authoritative work focuses on the growing role of regions in addressing and resolving local governance problems."Urban and Regional Policies for Metropolitan Livability" provides a concise, up-to-date, and systematic treatment of the problems and issues involved in urban and regional policy concerns. Each policy chapter is written by a respected expert in the area, and the book covers all the key policy issues that confront contemporary metropolitan areas, including transportation, the environment, affordable housing, crime, employment, poverty, education, and regional governance. Each chapter outlines an issue, which is followed by current thinking on problem diagnosis and problem solving, as well as the prognosis for future policy success.