Shinoda provides an analytical framework for examining the role of the prime minister in Japan's political decision making. He shows that two dimensions of fraction within the government and the ruling party--interagency rivalry and intraparty factions--confront the prime minister whenever a major policy issue needs to be resolved. Despite these obstacles, Shinoda shows that the prime minister can be effective.

First, Shinoda identifies the sources of power available to Japanese prime ministers--some from legal authorities and others from informal sources. Because prime ministers must rely on informal sources of power to effectively utilize institutional sources of power, their effectiveness varies depending on their background, experience, political skills, and personality. Shinoda identifies six major informal sources of power: power base within the ruling party, control over the bureaucracy, ties with the opposition parties, public support, business support, and international reputation. The national leader's leadership style can be defined depending on which sources of power they utilize in the policy process. He presents both successful and unsuccessful case studies--Hashimoto's administrative reform, Takeshita's tax reform, and Nakasone's administrative reform-- illustrate how different prime ministers have succeeded or failed in applying their political resources. After examining these three case studies, Shinoda uncovers four types of leadership among Japanese prime ministers. A major analytical resource for scholars and students of Japanese politics and political economy and comparative politics.

Smeared by cheap innuendo and false accusations alleging he is responsible for having allowed a bomb aboard Pan Am 103, Micheal T. Hurley, career law enforcement veteran, faces a dilemma as real as his lifetime savings: bet everything that truth would win out in a court of law or just surrender to that which he knows to be wrong. Succumb or fight? Capitulate or resist?

"I Solemnly Swear" captures his answer to that dilemma and presents a diverse group of heroes and traitors, lawmen and outlaws, the innocent and the guilty who bounce between Seattle, Larnaca, London, Washington, DC, Frankfurt, and Fort Lauderdale.

In an international game of cat and mouse, Hurley spends his last three years as a DEA Supervisory Special Agent being jerked around by a media that is all too willing to criticize the US Government and to mar Hurley's reputation as a competent international narcotics agent. This is his story.

"An outstanding biography of the most unusual and controversial king of the 20th century. Highly recommended."--"CHOICE"

"Vivid and atmospheric, but based on solid and scrupulous research, this is an outstanding account of one of the most intriguing figures in twentieth-century Balkan history. Non-specialists will read it with pleasure and fascination, and even specialists in Albanian history will find much to learn here from Jason Tomes's marvelously lucid analysis of the politics and diplomacy of the period."
--Noel Malcolm, author of Bosnia: A Short History" and Kosovo: A Short History"

"Very well researched, critical yet balanced, this is the best book about Zog to have appeared in any language."
--Bejtullah Destani, Director of the Centre for Albanian Studies

Shortly before 5 p.m. on Saturday, September 1, 1928, Europe gained a new kingdom and its only Muslim king: 32-year-old Zog I of the Albanians. Few foreign journalists were present in the Parliament House in Tirana to hear him swear his oath on the Koran and the Bible, yet the birth of the Kingdom of Albania--a native monarchy, not an alien imposition--did not go unnoticed abroad.

King Zog (1895-1961) was a curiosity, and so he has remained: the most atypical European monarch of the twentieth century, a man entirely without royal connections who created his own kingdom. By contemporaries, he was variously labeled "the last ruler of romance," "an appalling gangster," "the modern Napoleon," "the finest patriot," and "frankly a cad." Even today his reputation is disputed, but Zog is undeniably one of the foremost figures in Albanian history. Though notorious for cut-throat political intrigue, he promised tobring order and progress to a land that had long known little of either. "It was I who made Albania," he claimed.

Zog's reign ended in 1939; Italian Fascists forced him into exile and post-war Stalinists kept him there despite his best efforts to return. In this first full biography, Jason Tomes explores the reality behind the man described in "The Times" as "the bizarre King Zog" and shows him to have been the product of a unique time and place. Tomes invites readers to set aside their assumptions about modern European monarchy and meet a king who fired back at assassins and paid his bills with gold bullion.

This volume examines letters, newspaper articles, and eyewitness accounts from 1776-1794, documenting James Monroe's time in the Continental Army, in state and national government, and as an attorney, while also revealing aspects of his personal life. These rarely seen documents provide great insight into both Monroe's public activities and his private life. Read letters he wrote from the battlefield to George Washington. Better understand his political views by reading the correspondence he had with Thomas Jefferson and Patrick Henry. Read a letter Monroe wrote to his wife--the only letter he did not destroy after her death. This extraordinary collection is ideal for undergraduate students, as well as for scholars interested in learning more about James Monroe's personal life.

This work offers the best of both worlds: broad analysis of the first five presidential administrations and specific excerpts from original documents supporting and opposing the presidents' positions. George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and James Monroe speak for themselves as they argue for their positions on the key political, social, and economic issues of their time in excerpts from primary sources. Excerpts from opposing positions on each issue give the presidents' critics a voice. An explanatory overview of each issue will help students to understand the argument and the context of the issue and to apply critical thinking skills to their understanding. The section on each president includes entries on 4-5 key issues of his administration, from the president's title at the beginning of Washington's administration to American Indian removal at the close of Monroe's term.

Primary documents include presidential memoirs, speeches, and letters, congressional speeches, Supreme Court decisions, newspaper editorials, and comments from prominent private citizens. An introductory overview of each president's administration provides a useful window through which to assess the specific debates and documents addressed. A timeline provides a chronological backdrop for the subject, and recommended readings following each section offer helpful direction for further study. Though the founding presidents remain revered today for their pioneering accomplishments in the early nation, this work reminds readers that the first executives faced ongoing opposition from members of the legislature, judiciary, and general public. Readers will gain a grounded understanding of the contested issues of the young nation and the way early decisions impacted our political system across time.

Students will be able to debate the key political, social, and economic issues and initiatives of each President covered here by using this rich source of pro and con primary documents contemporary to the time. Carefully selected presidential statements and opposition statements on each major issue of the presidents' administrations, along with accompanying explanatory material, will help students to debate the issues and apply critical thinking skills to their understanding of U.S. history. This volume covers the Presidencies of Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, Woodrow Wilson, Warren G. Harding, and Calvin Coolidge. The section on each president includes entries on 5-9 key issues of his administration, from enforcing anti-trust legislation at the beginning of Roosevelt's administration to arguments over the value of the Kellogg-Briand Peace Pact to outlaw war that closed the Coolidge era. Primary documents include presidential speeches, letters, memoirs and autobiographies, congressional speeches, Supreme Court decisions, statements by opposition groups, newspaper editorials, and comments from prominent private citizens.

Students will be able to trace ongoing arguments over significant political, social and economic issues during the course of these five administrations that comprise the Progressive Era, the war years, and the postwar return to normalcy, years that witnessed perhaps the greatest period of transformation in U.S. history. These presidents took varying positions on the increasingly activist role of government, the growing power of business, the issue of tariffs, the rights of workers, women, and children, the problems of minority groups, the question of immigration, the issue of isolationism or intervention abroad, and the growing concern over the environment. The section on each president features an introductory overview of the key issues of his administration, followed by an entry on each issue. Each entry contains an overview of the issue and discussion of the opposing viewpoints, followed by a statement from the president and the text of a document taking an opposing point of view. The section on each president concludes with suggested reading for further study. A timeline of the period puts all the issues in chronological context.

This collection examines the political themes and strategies utilized by candidate Bush in 1988 and President Bush in 1992, as told by the actual players as well as presidential and political scholars. Also considered are the role of the Vice President, the Cabinet, relations with Congress and the Supreme Court, the presidency and the media, and the role of the First Lady.

This volume focuses on the political world inside the Bush White House. Domestic political actors and institutions such as the vice president, chief of staff, Congress, and the Supreme Court all interact to create a president's political world. In George Bush's inaugural speech he spoke of the keys to success, saying these ideas are timeless: duty, sacrifice, commitment. These themes are seen by many of the writers in the collection as characterizing the political world of George Bush.

Equal consideration is given to the political themes and strategies utilized by candidate Bush in 1988 and President Bush in 1992. Also considered are the role of the Vice President, the Cabinet, relations with Congress and the Supreme Court, the presidency and the media, and the role of the First Lady. Essential reading for scholars and other researchers of the Bush presidency and American history of the late 1980s.

Though many studies of contemporary campaigns focus on brief political advertisements and the growing impact of technology on contemporary campaigns, the definitive statements of most candidates are still made in public addresses. Friedenberg examines the first public address made by an American presidential candidate on his own behalf. The circumstances giving rise to William Henry Harrison's 1840 address, and the themes that he developed in that address are strikingly contemporary, serving as an appropriate prelude to the examinations of contemporary political speaking that follow. Those examinations focus on notable campaign speeches by John F. Kennedy, Barry Goldwater, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Bill and Hillary Clinton, and George W. Bush. Each study examines a key event that foreshadowed the speech studied. Each study presents a rhetorical biography of the speaker including a discussion of the speechwriting team and preparation techniques utilized by the speaker. Each study presents a thorough study of the campaign context in which the speeches were presented. Each also presents a close reading and rhetorical analysis of the speech itself and observations on the impact of the speech. Cumulatively, Friedenberg's studies help to illustrate how, even in today's high-tech political environment of 30-second ads and candidate Web sites, public speeches continue to play a crucial role in political campaigning. Of particular interest to scholars and students involved with political communication and political American campaigning.

Australia's Prime Minister and premier diplomat in the 1930/1940s, this new biography presents him as a consistent internationalist and places him in a global context. Stanley Melbourne Bruce was at the centre of Imperial politics for more than two decades from the early 1920s until the end of the Second World War. This new biography presents Bruce as a consistent internationalist. Educated in Melbourne and Cambridge, Bruce, as a businessman, was alive to the importance of international commerce, and particularly Anglo-Australian trade. This lay at the core of his internationalism, which took the form in the 1920s of encouraging the political and economic integration of the British Empire. Bruce's punitive treatment of militant Australian trade unionists and his upholding of constitutionalism and law and order in the 1920s was part of an effort to defend one form of internationalism, commitment to the British Empire, against the competing international ideology of communism. While continuing to support a unified British Empire acting as a progressive force in world affairs, Bruce championed stronger international collaboration through the League of Nations and the United Nations and through cooperation between the Empire and the United States.

We may think we know Sarah Palin from all the coverage she has received in the political arena, but one-side depictions but media coverage is limited and, Sarah would even say, biased. OUR SARAH is also a bit biased since it's written by Sarah's dad and brother with contributions from many friends and colleagues--these are the people who know her--and love her--best.
Combining the appeal of Sarah Palin's bestselling book, "Going Rogue, " with the flavor of the hugely successful TV show "Sarah Palin's Alaska," here are intimate stories from Sarah's life along with a celebration of growing up in and sharing all that Alaska means to Sarah and her family. Sarah's dad and brother share great family stories of life in the last frontier--from hiking, camping, fishing, hunting and gold-mining, to marathon running, teaching and community service--first in small ways and then on a national stage. Structured around themes of family, faith, independence, resilience, character, risk-taking and adventure--here is a full and loving portrait of where Sarah Palin came from and what made her the person she is today.

As Madam Speaker, Nancy Pelosi has broken new ground for women in American politics and has become a notable role model for young women. Yet hers has hardly been a Cinderella career. Pelosi was virtually born into politics, and her series of firsts--first female minority whip in the U.S. House; first female minority leader; and, finally, first female Speaker--was preceded by three decades of service as a political organizer, candidate, and U.S. representative. All along she balanced her political career with her role as a wife and the mother of five children. In this book a distinguished Washington journalist traces Pelosi's classic rise through the political ranks, culminating in her historic elevation to the Speaker's chair--and explains how Pelosi's career and legislative priorities have been shaped by her gender.

Any programmer working with text files needs a way to deal with Microsoft Word documents and their underlying Rich Text Format. RTF is notoriously difficult to work with, and our handy quick reference is the only book available on what many developers call this maddeningly unstructured format. Small and easy to use on the job, the RTF Pocket Guide focuses on the workhorse codes that programmers can't do without, including text style codes, paragraph formatting codes, and page formatting codes - all with many examples of real use.

Known as the "savior of the Union" during the Civil War, General Grant went on to serve as the 18th president of the United States from 1869-1877. This first volume of his memoirs was completed just days prior to his death from throat cancer in 1885.

Scholarly definitions of elites as those who wield political power and control distribution of resources in their locales consistently leave out their capacity to shape morality, civic ethics and the legitimacy of power relations beyond material domination. In this insightful ethnography of Rundu, a frontier town in Namibia, Mattia Fumanti highlights the fundamental contribution elites make to the public space through their much-praised concept of civility and their promotion of nation-building at the local level. In centring his argument on the moral agency of elites over three generations and their attempts to achieve distinction in public life, this book counters an often found and over-generalized view of postcolonial African states as weak, ruling through authoritarian, greedy and corrupt practices. By looking at the intricate ways in which the biographies of a middle-range town and its inhabitants are interwoven, this study draws very different conclusions from the grand narratives of pathologies, chaos and crisis that characterize much of the accepted discourse of African urbanization derived from the study of large cities. Focusing on how generational relations between elites have both shaped, and are shaped by, the transitions from apartheid and civil war to independence and postindependence, the book illuminates public debates on the power of education, the aspirations of youth, the role of the state and citizen, delivery of good governance and the place of ethnic and settler minorities in post-apartheid southern Africa. This book is a vibrant antidote to Afro-pessimism and views that emphasize the spectacle of disaster, kleptomania and corruption of the weak state. By examining the rhetoric of public morality Fumanti challenges this but is, nevertheless, also critical of the ruling elite. This is a sophisticated and nuanced analysis of how small-town elites emerge and how they see the world, a group of people who are potentially vital players in the evolving shape of African cultures and moralities, who have not received the scholarly attention they deserve. Robert Gordon, University of Vermont and University of the Free State The Politics of Distinction tackles a perennial anthropological subject with immense brio. Using the most contemporary of social theories and ethnographic methods, Mattia Fumanti addresses the enduring but elusive nexus of inter-generational consciousness and of the ambivalences between generations. That the two generations in this Namibian border town see themselves as the architects and inheritors of liberation imbues their provincial relations with echoes of grand history. Anyone interested in African elite formation, post-colonial governance, and the dividends and distinctions of education, or simply looking for a finely crafted contemporary ethnography, will find Fumanti's a compelling narrative. Richard Fardon, Professor of West African Anthropology at SOAS

Sol Plaatje is celebrated as one of South Africa’s most accomplished political and literary figures. A pioneer in the history of the black press, editor of several newspapers, he was one of the founders of the African National Congress in 1912, led its campaign against the notorious Natives Land Act of 1913, and twice travelled overseas to represent the interests of his people. He wrote a number of books, including – in English – Native Life in South Africa (1916), a powerful denunciation of the Land Act and the policies that led to it, and a pioneering novel, Mhudi (1930). Years after his death his diary of the siege of Mafeking was retrieved and published, providing a unique view of one of the best known episodes of the South African War of 1899–1902. At the same time Plaatje was a proud Morolong, fascinated by his people’s history. He was dedicated to Setswana, and set out to preserve its traditions and oral forms so as to create a written literature. He translated a number of Shakespeare’s plays into Setswana, the first in any African language, collected proverbs and stories, and even worked on a new dictionary. He fought long battles with those who thought they knew better over the particular form its orthography should take. This book tells the story of Plaatje’s remarkable life, setting it in the context of the changes that overtook South Africa during his lifetime, and the huge obstacles he had to overcome. It draws upon extensive new research in archives in southern Africa, Europe and the US, as well as an expanding scholarship on Plaatje and his writings. This biography sheds new light not only on Plaatje’s struggles and achievements but upon his personal life and his relationships with his wife and family, friends and supporters. It pays special attention to his formative years, looking to his roots in chiefly societies, his education and upbringing on a German-run mission, and his exposure to the legal and political ideas of the nineteenth-century Cape Colony as key factors in inspiring and sustaining a life of more or less ceaseless endeavour.

Nick Greiner was an unusual post-war Premier of NSW. He came into office in 1988 wanting to do more than change lifestyles, win re-election and remain popular, and he proceeded to implement a wide-ranging and enduring transformation of what he called "NSW Inc." Greiner's personal story is also unusual. Born in Budapest, the elder son of a Hungarian father and Slovak mother, Nick arrived in Sydney in 1951 at the age of three. His parents' encounters with Nazi and then Communist persecution explain their determination to leave Europe, to 'make good' in Australia, and to encourage their two boys to assimilate. From an early age, Nick wanted to be the best. He came top or amongst the top in every year at school, in the Economics Faculty at the University of Sydney, and at the Harvard Business School. Frustrated by his father's 'European ways' of running the family timber business, he went into politics. Within three years this self-styled 'non-politician' and Liberal Party 'outsider' was elected Leader of the demoralised State Liberals, and within another five years led the Coalition to a landslide election victory. He brought to the premiership, and his later very successful business career, the habits of thought which his Harvard and post-Harvard experience had cultivated: a commitment to change and a willingness to take risks, an emphasis on evidence-based, rational and strategic approaches to decision-making, a concentration on outcomes rather than processes and on practical solutions rather than ideological consistency. Greiner's departure from politics was equally unusual. Having almost lost the unlosable election of May 1991, he took the 'political' option of securing a job in the Public Service for a dissident Liberal in order to reclaim his seat. ICAC, his creation, found him guilty of 'corrupt conduct' within the meaning of his legislation. The Labor Opposition and three high-minded Independents, supported by an equally high-minded media, hounded him out of office before the Court of Appeal overturned a finding which looks even more absurd in the light of recent ICAC investigations. This book sets out to describe and explain Greiner's life in politics, to tell the story of someone who made a difference and yet who, being a manager and strategist rather than a conventional politician, contributed to his own undoing.

How does feminism shake up political science, the study of politics and electoral politics? What difference do feminist political scientists and politicians make to political institutions, policy processes and outcomes? The scholarship and activism of pioneering feminist political scientist Professor Joni Lovenduski helped establish these questions on the political science agenda. This book addresses key themes in Lovenduski's seminal work. State-of-the-art chapters by leading scholars cover gender and parties; elected institutions and the state; quotas and recruitment; public opinion and women's interests. Vignettes by prominent politicians and practitioners, including Dame Anne Begg MP, Baroness Gould, Deborah Mattinson, and the Rt Hon Theresa May, bring the academic analysis to life. Deeds and Words reveals the impact of feminist interventions on politics in the round. Its groundbreaking assessment of feminist scholarship and politics offers an appraisal of, and fitting tribute to, Lovenduski's own contribution to gender studies and feminist politics.

He left school at fifteen to work as a reporter and wound up, just a few years later, as associate editor at Newsweek. He helped William F. Buckley Jr. found the National Review, worked closely with Joseph McCarthy, and became chief speechwriter for Barry Goldwater.

But true to a conscience that caused him to question the claims and authority of others, Hess eventually rejected conservatism and embraced the libertarian politics of the New Left. He dabbled with drugs, rode motorcycles, worked with the Black Panthers, got arrested while protesting the war in Viet Nam, and published an article in Playboy that defined libertarianism and ignited a national debate. As an anti-Communist he cooperated with the FBI, but as a libertarian he fought the IRS until he was nearly destitute. Whatever his political leanings, he always despised conceit, exploded intolerance, and embraced life to the fullest. He was a man who traveled in influential circles, often close to power, but, in his own words, "mostly on the edge."

Karl Hess participated in many of the defining events of 20th-century America, a self-taught boy who became a self-made journalist. Mostly on the Edge chronicles the life education of Hess, who became a defiant tester of the prevailing ideas of each decade. He lived by trial and error, and was always willing to acknowledge his mistakes.

Like Franklin and Thoreau, Hess hoped to wake up America by questioning the moral majority, fighting the Kafkaesque intrusions of government, and encouraging his family, friends, and highly influential colleagues to think for themselves. Hess provides eyewitness accounts, unique personal observations, startling and valuable insights on leadership and dissent, and, in the end, leaves behind a clear path to realizing the dream of freedom.

Michael Barr explores the complex and covert networks of power at work in one of the world's most prosperous countries - the city-state of Singapore. He argues that the contemporary networks of power are a deliberate project initiated and managed by Lee Kuan Yew - former prime minister and Singapore's "founding father" - designed to empower himself and his family. Barr identifies the crucial institutions of power - including the country's sovereign wealth funds, and the government-linked companies - together with five critical features that form the key to understanding the nature of the networks. He provides an assessment of possible shifts of power within the elite in the wake of Lee Kuan Yew's son, Lee Hsien Loong, assuming power, and considers the possibility of a more fundamental democratic shift in Singapore's political system.

In the wake of the inconclusive May 2010 general election Lord Adonis and other senior Labour figures sat down for talks with the Liberal Democrat leadership to try to persuade them to govern Britain together in a Lib - Lab coalition. The talks ultimately resulted in failure for Labour amid recriminations on both sides and the accusation that the Lib Dems had conducted a dutch auction, inviting Labour to outbid the Tories on a shopping list of demands. Despite calls for him to give his own account of this historic sequence of events, Adonis has kept his own counsel until now. Published to coincide with the third anniversary of the general election that would eventually produce an historic first coalition government since the Second World War, 5 Days In May is a remarkable and important insider account of the dramatic negotiations that led to its formation. It also offers the author's views on what the future holds as the run-up to the next election begins. 5 Days in May presents a unique eyewitness account of a pivotal moment in political history.

The study of Prime Ministers and the reform of British central government in any era is fascinating. The interaction between the temporary, often inexperienced but largely elected ministers and the experienced but theoretically subservient senior civil servants provides enormous interest. This book concentrates on the years of Harold Macmillan, Harold Wilson, Alec Douglas Home and Edward Heath--years when the battle between Civil Service and Government was most intense. What makes this book more compelling is that many of the key players, including Richard Crossman, Barbara Castle and Tony Benn, wrote their own published accounts. Eighteen months after he came to power, Harold Wilson commissioned the Fulton Committee to look at the recruitment, training and management of civil servants. The Fulton report emerged in 1968 and became legendary for its difficult gestation and for the mini civil war, which developed within Whitehall over its implementation. This is but one episode in the history of British Prime Ministers' attempts to reform the Civil Service. The Fulton report remains a landmark in the administrative history of Britain.