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Books > Social sciences > Politics & government > Political control & freedoms > Political control & influence
The "British Elections and Parties" series publishes research on
parties, elections and voting behaviour in Britain, providing
analyses of current and historical developments. It is produced
under the auspices of the Political Studies Association's Election,
Public Opinion and Parties study group.
Japan's Meiji Restoration brought swift changes through Japanese adoption of Western-style modernization and imperial expansion. Fanning the Flames brings together a range of scholarly essays and collected materials from the Hoover Institution Library & Archives detailing how Japanese propaganda played an active role in fostering national identity and mobilizing grassroots participation in the country's transformation and wartime activities, starting with the First Sino-Japanese War to the end of World War II.
Republic to restoration cuts across artificial divides between periods and disciplines,often imposed for reasons of convenience rather than reality. Challenging the traditional period divide of 1660, essays in this volume explore continuities with the decades of civil war and the Republic, shedding new light on religious, political and cultural conditions before and after the restoration of church and king. Transdisciplinary in conception, it includes essays on political theory, poetry, pamphlets, drama, opera, art, scientific experiment and the Book of Common Prayer. Essays in the volume variously show how unresolved issues at national and local level, including residual republicanism and religious dissent, were evident in many areas of Restoration life, and were recorded in memoirs, diaries, plays, historical writing, pamphlets and poems. An active promotion of forgetting, and the erasing of memories of the Republic and the reconstruction of the old order did not mend the political, religious and cultural divisions that had opened up during the Civil War. In examining such diverse genres as women's religious and prophetic writings, the publications of the Royal Society, the poetry and prose of Marvell and Milton, plays and opera, court portraiture, contemporary histories of the civil wars, and political cartoons, the volume substantiates its central claim that the Restoration was conditioned by continuity and adaptation of linguistic and artistic discourses. Republic to restoration will be of significant interest to academic researchers in a wide range of related fields, and especially students and scholars of seventeenth-century literature and history. -- .
Much has been written about the laogai (sometimes likened to the Soviet gulag) in the People's Republic of China. Depending on the source, the prisons are described as nonexistent, enlightened institutions, or hellish places that subject the inmates to degradation and misery. The system is commonly thought of (by admirers and critics alike) as having a measurable impact on the national economy and providing significant resources to the state. Based on research in classified documents and extensive interviews with former prisoners, judicial personnel, and other insiders, and featuring case studies dealing with the three northwestern provinces, this book examines such assertions on the basis of the facts about this underexamined subject in order to arrive at a detailed, objective, and realistic picture of the situation. In the case of each province under study, the authors discuss the history of the provincial prison system and the impact that each has had at the macro, meso, and micro levels.
Bringing together a body of related research which has recently developed in Critical Discourse Analysis, this book is the first to address the role of perspective in socio-political discourse. Specifically, the contributions to this volume seek to explore, from a cognitive standpoint, the way in which perspective functions in three dimensions - space, time, and evaluation - to enact ideology and persuasion. A range of discourse genres are analysed, including political discourse, media discourse, and songs used as political tools. Starting from the contention that discourse processing relies on the same mechanisms that support our understanding and experience of space, the book finds a recurrent theme in the way in which perspectival concepts like distance and focus, prompted by linguistic signs, feature in our discursively constructed knowledge of social and political realities. By highlighting the complex nature of perspective-taking in ideological discourse, the volume sets the agenda for further research in this area. The book will appeal to linguists, discourse analysts, media scholars, and political scientists, and all who are interested in the relationship between language and cognition in the socio-political domain. This book was originally published as a special issue of Critical Discourse Studies.
The referendum first became established with voter ratification of the Massachusetts Constitution in 1780. Other types were adopted in the nineteenth century, largely through the efforts of Progressives and Populists seeking to authorize voters to utilize the initiative-referendum and protest referendum. Certain referenda, particularly on adoption or amendment of constitutions and local government charters, are well established and non-controversial. Other referenda, the general initiative-referendum and the protest referendum, have been controversial since their inception. Zimmerman analyzes a number of general initiative and protest referendum campaigns in order to develop conclusions as to their desirability and the need for reform. Experience with the various types of referenda reveal the need for the development of a general theory of their use, combining elements of the theory of representative democracy based on the leadership-feedback model and the theory of direct democracy based upon decision making by assembled voters. Referenda experience also reveals that certain types of referenda would be unnecessary if each state government devolved broad powers to general purpose local government. Zimmerman's analysis of the development of the 16 types of referenda and their attributes and defects will be a major resource for scholars, students, policy makers, and the general public interested in issues of local and state government effectiveness and accountability.
At the heart of modern democracy lies the public sphere, which is most centrally shaped by those actors that integrate it discursively: the mass media. The media draw together the different strands of political debates; they grant access to some actors and arguments while excluding others and thus decisively mould the political process. In this book, Thomas Haussler examines how the media reflect and react to the wider context in which they are embedded. More specifically, he focuses on whether their discourse demonstrates systematic differences with regard to the two main public sphere types that they co-constitute, according to deliberative theory, focussing in particular on the work of Jurgen Habermas. The Media and the Public Sphere promotes a deeper and more detailed understanding of the political process by foregrounding the complex relationships between the media and the public discourse they constitute. It examines how the media co-create relationships of power, analyses the structure of these discursive networks and illuminates the effects that different deliberative coalition types have on political debates.
Refugees, Environment and Development is concerned with the complex interrelationships between forced migration, natural resource management and 'sustainable development'. The book challenges the growing rhetoric that refugees 'cause' environmental degradation, and that environmental decline is promoting a new wave of 'environmental refugees'. Drawing on examples from Africa, Asia and Latin America, as well as detailed case studies of the Rwandan emergency of 1994-96, and lesser known refugee movements to Guinea and Senegal in West Africa, the book argues against a neo-Malthusian view of the relationship between population, environment and migration. The author explores alternative approaches to the dynamic processes of social and environmental change in refugee situations. This is an ideal text for undergraduate and postgraduate students concerned with environment, development and migration studies, as well as policy-makers and practitioners in the field.
Memory of the Argentina Disappearances examines the history of the production, public circulation, and the interpretations and reinterpretations of the Nunca Mas report issued by Argentina's National Commission on the Disappearance of Persons (CONADEP). It was established in 1983 by constitutional president Raul Alfonsin to investigate the fate of thousands of people who had been disappeared by the state during the seventies. Upon publication in 1984, Nunca Mas became a bestseller, was translated into several languages and won greater public importance when the military juntas were brought to trial and the court accepted the report as key evidence. The report's importance was further enhanced with the adoption of CONADEP and Nunca Mas as models for truth commissions established in Latin America, and when it was postulated as a means for conveying an awareness of this past to Argentina's younger generations. This book contributes to understanding the political processes that led to Nunca Mas becoming the way in which Argentines remembered the disappearances and the country's political violence, and how its meaning is modified by new interpretations. Given the canonical nature of Nunca Mas, the book sheds light on the most substantial changes and the continuities in Argentina's social memory of its recent past.
Much has been written about the laogai (sometimes likened to the Soviet gulag) in the People's Republic of China. Depending on the source, the prisons are described as nonexistent, enlightened institutions, or hellish places that subject the inmates to degradation and misery. The system is commonly thought of (by admirers and critics alike) as having a measurable impact on the national economy and providing significant resources to the state. Based on research in classified documents and extensive interviews with former prisoners, judicial personnel, and other insiders, and featuring case studies dealing with the three northwestern provinces, this book examines such assertions on the basis of the facts about this underexamined subject in order to arrive at a detailed, objective, and realistic picture of the situation. In the case of each province under study, the authors discuss the history of the provincial prison system and the impact that each has had at the macro, meso, and micro levels.
The standard view of the transition is based on a distinction between campaigning and governing, with election day as the marker: campaigning before, preparing to govern after. Yet changes are blurring the distinction between the two activities. The Clinton transition in 1992 is the watershed case. Dubbed the "worst" for failing to meet many of the standard tests, Clinton and his aides, nevertheless, were attuned to a campaigning style of governing that was fine-tuned after the 1994 mid-term election. Future transitions will be judged by a revised set of expectations. The conventional rules will be supplemented by tests that account for campaigning as integral to governing. What is called the "permanent campaign" is upon us. Presidents in the 21st century will prepare to govern more publicly from the start, anxious to establish and enhance their status in a more communal style of governing. This book considers the critical ten weeks of transition for recent party changes in the White House (Nixon, Carter, Reagan, Clinton) and signals a pivotal change for the future. Charles Jones identifies the conventional expectations for an effective transition in regard to such topics as dismantling the campaign, connecting with Congress, establishing a theme, and relating to the press.
This book demonstrates how people were kept ignorant by censorship and indoctrinated by propaganda. Censorship suppressed all information that criticized the army and government, that might trouble the population or weaken its morale. Propaganda at home emphasized the superiority of the fatherland, explained setbacks by blaming scapegoats, vilified and ridiculed the enemy, warned of the disastrous consequences of defeat and extolled duty and sacrifice. The propaganda message also infiltrated entertainment and the visual arts. Abroad it aimed to demoralize enemy troops and stir up unrest among national minorities and other marginalized groups. The many illustrations and organograms provide a clear visual demonstration of Demm's argument.
Young people, and in particular children, have typically been marginalised in geopolitical research, positioned as too young to understand or relate to the adult-dominated world of international relations. Integrating current debates in critical geopolitics and political geography with research in children's geographies, childhood studies and youth research, this book sets out an agenda for the field of children's and young people's critical geopolitics. It considers diverse practices such as play, activism, media consumption and diplomacy to show how children's and young people's lives relate to wider regional and global geopolitical processes. Engaging with contemporary concepts in human geography including ludic geopolitics, affect, emotional geographies, intergenerationality, creative diplomacy, popular geopolitics and citizenship, the authors draw on geopolitical research with children and young people from Europe, Asia, Australasia, Africa and the Americas. The chapters highlight the ways in which young people can be enrolled, ignored, dismissed, empowered and represented by the state for geopolitical ends. Notwithstanding this state power, the research presented also shows how young people have agency and make decisions about their lives which are influenced by wider geopolitical processes. The focus on the lives of children and young people problematises and extends what it is we think of when considering 'the geopolitical' which enriches as well as advances critical geopolitical enquiry and deserves to be taken seriously by political geographies more broadly.
Europe and World Society offers a distinctive critical approach to understanding European transformations, exploring both the progress and limitations of integration on various key policy areas such as agricultural policy, education reform, migration, and external relations, as well as the relationship between European regionalism and globalization. Due to its innovative theoretical framework, based on macro perspectives including 'World Polity Theory', developed by Stanford sociologist John W. Meyer, this collection contributes to both the recent 'sociological turn' in European studies, and to the constructivist critiques of rational choice accounts of modern Europe. At a time when the European integration project has been severely challenged by multiple economic, political, and social crises, this book offers a timely, global perspective that sheds light on the dynamism and multiplicity of the actors, discourses, and processes which underlie contemporary Europe. The book's distinctive global approach allows it to move the debate beyond state- and EU-centrism, and establish the 'missing link' between Europe and its global context. This book was published as a special issue of the Journal of Contemporary European Studies.
This important new study is an inquiry into the origins and purposes of downwardly directed violence by economic and political elites in Brazil-violence that has led to the invention and tacit approval of contemporary death squads.
One of the most closely-watched and controversial aspects of modern political campaigning is the use of negative, attack tactics. This book examines the role played by negative campaigning through a national survey of professional political consultants. Campaign consultants have become vitally important to political candidates in recent years as strategists, fundraisers, and media specialists. The research in this book focuses on how consultants define negative campaigning, including the differences between issue attacks and character attacks, how and when criticism of the opponent should be implemented, and which media should be used to deliver attack messages. A statistical analysis of the survey data reveals insights into behavioral and professional differences among consultants with regard to party affiliation, gender, age, and level of experience.
This book, the first academic book on Pakistani documentary cinema, traces the development of activist filmmaking practices in Pakistan which have emerged as a response to the consequences of religious fundamentalism, extremism, and violation of human rights. Beginning with the period of General Zia-ul-Haq's Islamization process (1977-88), it discusses a selection of representative documentary films that have critically addressed and documented the various key transformations, events, and developments that have shaped Pakistan's socio-political, socio-economic, and cultural history. Such activist filmmaking practice in Pakistan is today an influential factor in addressing the politics, and negative and oppressive effects of the Islamization era, discriminatory laws, particularly gender-discriminatory Sharia laws, violation of human and citizen rights, authoritarianism, internal strife, the spread of religious fundamentalism, and the threat of Talibanization, and oppressive tribal customs and traditions. The contribution of Pakistani documentary filmmakers stands as a significant body of work that has served the cause of human rights, promoting awareness and social change in Pakistan, particularly regarding gender rights.
This book introduces and develops the concept of geomedia studies as the name of a particular subfield of communication geography. Despite the accelerating societal relevance of 'geomedia' technologies for the production of various spaces, mobilities, and power-relations, and the unquestionable emergence of a vibrant research field that deals with questions pertaining to such topics, the term geomedia studies remains surprisingly unestablished. By addressing imperative questions about the implications of geomedia technologies for organizations, social groups and individuals (e.g. businesses profiting from geo-surveillance, refugees or migrants moving across national borders, or artists claiming their rights to public space) the book also aims to contribute to ongoing academic and societal debates in our increasingly mediatized world.
In this 1992 book John Zaller develops a comprehensive theory to explain how people acquire political information from elites and the mass media and convert it into political preferences. Using numerous specific examples, Zaller applies this theory to the dynamics of public opinion on a broad range of subjects, including domestic and foreign policy, trust in government, racial equality, and presidential approval, as well as voting behaviour in U.S. House, Senate, and presidential elections. The thoery is constructed from four basic premises. The first is that individuals differ substantially in their attention to politics and therefore in their exposure to elite sources of political information. The second is that people react critically to political communication only to the extent that they are knowledgeable about political affairs. The third is that people rarely have fixed attitudes on specific issues; rather, they construct 'preference statements' on the fly as they confront each issue raised. The fourth is that, in constructing these statements, people make the greatest use of ideas that are, for various reasons, the most immediately salient to them. Zaller emphasizes the role of political elites in establishing the terms of political discourse in the mass media and the powerful effect of this framing of issues on the dynamics of mass opinion on any given issue over time.
Our democracy today is fraught with political campaigns, lobbyists, liberal media, and Fox News commentators, all using language to influence the way we think and reason about public issues. Even so, many of us believe that propaganda and manipulation aren't problems for us--not in the way they were for the totalitarian societies of the mid-twentieth century. In How Propaganda Works, Jason Stanley demonstrates that more attention needs to be paid. He examines how propaganda operates subtly, how it undermines democracy--particularly the ideals of democratic deliberation and equality--and how it has damaged democracies of the past. Focusing on the shortcomings of liberal democratic states, Stanley provides a historically grounded introduction to democratic political theory as a window into the misuse of democratic vocabulary for propaganda's selfish purposes. He lays out historical examples, such as the restructuring of the US public school system at the turn of the twentieth century, to explore how the language of democracy is sometimes used to mask an undemocratic reality. Drawing from a range of sources, including feminist theory, critical race theory, epistemology, formal semantics, educational theory, and social and cognitive psychology, he explains how the manipulative and hypocritical declaration of flawed beliefs and ideologies arises from and perpetuates inequalities in society, such as the racial injustices that commonly occur in the United States. How Propaganda Works shows that an understanding of propaganda and its mechanisms is essential for the preservation and protection of liberal democracies everywhere.
Part of an eight-volume set which collates articles written on the history of the Jewish people in America, this volume incorporates studies of the persecution of the Jews in Germany, the respective responses of the German-American Press and the American-Jewish Press during the emergence of Nazism, and the subsequent issues of rescue during the Holocaust and policies towards the displaced.
In this new edition of Clifford's widely acclaimed book, the author expands his analysis of modern Korea to include the dramatic events of recent years. These include the imprisonment and sentencing of two former presidents of South Korea for their role in the Kwangju uprising and on various charges of corruption, the death of Kim Il Sung in the North and the resultant exacerbation of the instability of the North-South standoff, with all its military/nuclear implications, and recent labor and student protests.
This volume pulls together key documents--statutes, court decisions, FEC advisory opinions, draft legislation--and scholarly articles that are essential references for any informed discussion of campaign finance reform. Each chapter includes a set of reprinted materials preceded by an explanation of the relevant issues by the editors. Topics include the history of federal statutes on campaign finance; major Supreme Court decisions; the constitutional contours of the current debate; a roadmap to the present rules of the game; political action committees; national parties; hard and soft money; express and issue advocacy; enforcing campaign finance law; and recent innovations and proposals. The volume is designed to help reformers and interested citizens understand how current campaign finance practices have evolved from previous decisions made by legislative, judicial, and executive bodies and what might be entailed in moving the system in a desired direction. Each of the editors has extensive practical experience in the field of campaign finance. |
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