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Books > Social sciences > Politics & government > Political structure & processes > Political leaders & leadership
This is a concise and accessible examination of the postwar years and the major trends and themes which originated in this period of US history.
An excellent introduction to the formidable life and career of Peter the Great and his impact on Russia. M.S. Anderson assesses his aims and achievements at home and abroad, and examines the pressures and restrictions that shaped his attitudes and limited his actions.
This invaluable account provides an excellent introduction to the Presidency of John F. Kennedy.
This concise and up-to-date assessment of Richelieu's career provides an enthralling introduction to the character and exercise of his power. Richelieu governed France for 18 years until his death. Until the mid-20th century he was viewed by Anglo-Saxon historians as cold, clever and ruthless. Recent interpretations have been more favorable, however, and in this incisive study R. J. Knecht uses recent research to reassess Richelieu's career and achievements.
This new title in the "Profiles in Power Series" examines the astonishing career of The Younger Pitt. A phenomenon, dead at 46, he was not only Britain's youngest, but also her second longest, serving Prime minister, who acted as premier for 19 of his 25 yeas in Parliament. Provides a concise analytical examination of a critical period in British history and Pitt's role in these events, including Britain's international resurgence after the loss of America and the long struggle against Revolutionary and Napoleonic France. For those interested in British history. Hardcover 0-582-05278-5 $ 69.95y
Written in preeminent legislative studies scholar Richard Fenno's "homespun" story-telling style, Congressional Travels argues that authenticity -- knowing what a representative is like in his/her district and looking beyond mere roll-call voting -- contributes significantly to understanding the full body of work done by our members of Congress. It further posits that the best way to gain a sense of authenticity is to do what Fenno is most famous for, i.e., making multiple trips and spending a great deal of time observing representatives at home in their districts, with their constituents. The book is engaging, quietly provocative, and unique, offering an alternative to what some consider the increasingly specialized and technical nature of political science. This tenth anniversary edition includes an illuminating new Foreword by renowned congressional scholar Morris P. Fiorina, adding to the appreciation of Richard Fenno and this work over the years.
Tensions between central authorities and subnational units over centralization and fiscal autonomy are on top of the political agenda in many developing federal countries. This book examines historical changes in the balance between the resources that presidents and governors control and the policy responsibilities they have to deliver. It focuses on Argentina and Brazil, the most decentralized federal countries in Latin America, with the most powerful sub-national governments in the region. Using formal modelling, statistical tools, and comparative historical analyses, it examines substantive shifts in the allocation of resources and the distribution of administrative functions and explains under which conditions these changes occur. In doing so, it presents theoretical and comparative implications for the study of fiscal federalism and the functioning of developing federal democracies. This text will be of key interest to scholars and students of federalism, intergovernmental relations, decentralization, and sub-national politics and more broadly to those studying comparative politics, democratization, political elites, public policy and economics.
Adolf Hitler is perceived to be the most evil political leader of
twentieth century Europe. Hitler draws on his background and
involvement in the rise of National Socialism, the government of
the Third Reich, leadership of the Second World War in Germany and
his psychology to discuss Hitler's credentials as a
revolutionary.
An introduction to the main issues of American foreign policy as it has evolved during the first post-Cold War presidency. There are substantive excerpts from major presidential policy statements to illustrate the points and turning points discussed in each chapter. The collection is intended as a supplementary text in American foreign policy and contemporary international relations. It includes a bibliography and a guide to accessing contemporary foreign policy information on line.
An introduction to the main issues of American foreign policy as it has evolved during the first post-Cold War presidency. There are substantive excerpts from major presidential policy statements to illustrate the points and turning points discussed in each chapter. The collection is intended as a supplementary text in American foreign policy and contemporary international relations. It includes a bibliography and a guide to accessing contemporary foreign policy information on line.
'Nick Bryant is brilliant. He has a way of showing you what you've been missing from the whole story whilst never leaving you feeling stupid.' - Emily Maitlis 'Bryant is a genuine rarity, a Brit who understands America' - Washington Post In When America Stopped Being Great, veteran reporter and BBC New York correspondent Nick Bryant reveals how America's decline paved the way for Donald Trump's rise, sowing division and leaving the country vulnerable to its greatest challenge of the modern era. Deftly sifting through almost four decades of American history, from post-Cold War optimism, through the scandal-wracked nineties and into the new millennium, Bryant unpacks the mistakes of past administrations, from Ronald Reagan's 'celebrity presidency' to Barack Obama's failure to adequately address income and racial inequality. He explains how the historical clues, unseen by many (including the media) paved the way for an outsider to take power and a country to slide towards disaster. As Bryant writes, 'rather than being an aberration, Trump's presidency marked the culmination of so much of what had been going wrong in the United States for decades - economically, racially, politically, culturally, technologically and constitutionally.' A personal elegy for an America lost, unafraid to criticise actors on both sides of the political divide, When America Stopped Being Great takes the long view, combining engaging storytelling with recent history to show how the country moved from the optimism of Reagan's 'Morning in America' to the darkness of Trump's 'American Carnage'. It concludes with some of the most dramatic events in recent memory, in an America torn apart by a bitterly polarised election, racial division, the national catastrophe of the coronavirus and the threat to US democracy evidenced by the storming of Capitol Hill.
German sociologist Max Weber's 1919 lecture Politics as a Vocation is widely regarded as a masterpiece of political theory and sociology. Its central strength lies in Weber's deployment of masterful interpretative skills to power his discussion of modern politics. Interpretation involves understanding both the meaning of evidence and the meaning of terms - questioning definitions, clarifying terms and processes, and supplying good, clear definitions of the author's own. As a sociologist accustomed to working with historical evidence, Weber based his own work on precisely these skills, solidly backed up by analytical acuity. Politics as a Vocation, written in a Germany shocked by its crippling defeat in World War I, saw Weber turn his eye to an examination of how the modern nation state emerged, and the different ways in which it can be run - interpreting and defining the different types of rule that are possible. It is testament to Weber's interpretative skills that Politics is famous above all in sociological circles for its clear definition of a state as an institution that claims "the monopoly of legitimate physical violence" in a given territory.
Michael Lynch's second edition of Mao examines the life of this controversial figure. Opening with a detailed chronology, it delves into Mao's younger years and tracks his gradual rise to power, with a chapter dedicated to the cult status that surrounded him. Through a wealth of primary and secondary sources and a balanced consideration of the conflicting views that surround Mao's leadership, this book provides a thorough exploration of Mao's political and private life. Key features of the second edition include a detailed analysis of the Long March, an account of Sino-Japanese relations and an assessment of Mao's ongoing legacy. This biography will be essential reading for anyone interested in Mao and the politics of twentieth-century China.
Judith Brown explores Nehru as a figure of power and provides an assessment of his leadership at the head of a newly independent India with no tradition of democratic politics.
The life of Harry S. Truman is one of the greatest of American stories, filled with vivid characters -- Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin, Eleanor Roosevelt, Bess Wallace Truman, George Marshall, Joe McCarthy, and Dean Acheson -- and dramatic events. In this riveting biography, acclaimed historian David McCullough not only captures the man -- a more complex, informed, and determined man than ever before imagined -- but also the turbulent times in which he rose, boldly, to meet unprecedented challenges. The last president to serve as a living link between the nineteenth and the twentieth centuries, Truman's story spans the raw world of the Missouri frontier, World War I, the powerful Pendergast machine of Kansas City, the legendary Whistle-Stop Campaign of 1948, and the decisions to drop the atomic bomb, confront Stalin at Potsdam, send troops to Korea, and fire General MacArthur. Drawing on newly discovered archival material and extensive interviews with Truman's own family, friends, and Washington colleagues, McCullough tells the deeply moving story of the seemingly ordinary "man from Missouri" who was perhaps the most courageous president in our history.
In this book, originally published in English in 1953, the author, recognized as one of the best-informed experts on Eastern European politics, reconstructed during the course of a decade's work, the real history of Stalin, from his youth in Georgia to the last year of his life. Utilizing an enormous mass of largely unpublsihed documents he reconstructed a living Stalin with all his qualities and faults, crimes and achievements. He tells the secrets of Stalin's rise to power and of the extraordinary complexity and effectiveness of his tactics which can be seen in his attitude towards the problems of Marxist philosophy, in his attitude towards the German Question and his role as military commander.
The 1950s in India were a crucial transition phase where the legacy and institutions of British rule had to be transformed to fit the needs of a post-colonial state. This period is closely associated with India's first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru (1947 - 64). Selecting three key policies closely associated with him, the book traces the political origins of the Panchasheela Agreement with China in 1954, the Hindu Code Bills of 1955 and 1956 and the founding of the Planning Commission in 1950. Each provides a window into the compulsions of Indian domestic politics at the time as well as the parameters of parliamentary debate. The book goes on to discuss how these policies correspond to the pillars of Nehru's vision for a modern, independent India that encapsulated socialism, nonalignment and secularism and assesses their long-run impact in Indian politics. With a growing recognition of the resilience of India's political arrangements, the analysis is particularly relevant to those interested in the politics of transition and modernisation, and contributes to studies on Political Institutions and South Asian Politics.
This first volume of Margaret Thatcher's memoirs, which encompasses the entirety of her career as Prime Minister. Margaret Thatcher was the towering figure of late-twentieth-century British politics. This is the story of her remarkable life in her own words. This first volume of her memoirs is a riveting first-hand portrait of the events and personalities of her eleven years in power. She recalls the triumphs and the critical moments of her premiership - the Falklands War, the miners' strike, the Brighton bomb, the Westland Affair and her unprecedented three election victories. Her judgements of the men and women she encountered, whether world statesmen or Cabinet colleagues, are astonishingly frank. She is lavish with her praise; devastating with her criticism. The book reaches a gripping climax with an hour-by-hour description from inside 10 Downing Street of her dramatic final days in office. Margaret Thatcher's compelling account stands as a powerful testament to her influential legacy. Although 'The Downing Street Years' is not available as an ebook, the ebook 'Margaret Thatcher: The Autobiography' (ISBN 978-0-00-741694-3) comprises abridged versions of this and the first volume of Thatcher's memoirs, 'The Path to Power'.
Revered by Americans across the political spectrum, Barbara Jordan was "the most outspoken moral voice of the American political system," in the words of former President Bill Clinton, who awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1994. Throughout her career as a Texas senator, U.S. congresswoman, and distinguished professor at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, Barbara Jordan lived by a simple creed: "Ethical behavior means being honest, telling the truth, and doing what you said you were going to do." Her strong stand for ethics in government, civil liberties, and democratic values still provides a standard around which the nation can unite in the twenty-first century. This volume brings together several major political speeches that articulate Barbara Jordan's most deeply held values. They include: "Erosion of Civil Liberties," a commencement address delivered at Howard University on May 12, 1974, in which Jordan warned that "tyranny in America is possible" "The Constitutional Basis for Impeachment," Jordan's ringing defense of the U.S. Constitution before the House Judiciary Committee investigating the Watergate break-in Keynote addresses to the Democratic National Conventions of 1976 and 1992, in which Jordan set forth her vision of the Democratic Party as an advocate for the common good and a catalyst of change Testimony in the U.S. Congress on the confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork and on immigration reform Meditations on faith and politics from two National Prayer Breakfasts Acceptance speech for the 1995 Sylvanus Thayer Award presented by the Association of Graduates of the United States Military Academy, in which Jordan challenged the military to uphold the values of "duty, honor, country" Accompanying the speeches are context-setting introductions by volume editor Max Sherman. The book concludes with the eloquent eulogy that Bill Moyers delivered at Barbara Jordan's memorial service in 1996, in which he summed up Jordan's remarkable life and career by saying, "Just when we despaired of finding a hero, she showed up, to give the sign of democracy.... This is no small thing. This, my friends, this is grace. And for it we are thankful."
Political corruption has traditionally been presented as a phenomenon characteristic of developing countries, authoritarian regimes, or societies in which the value system favored tacit patrimony and clientelism. Recently, however, the thesis of an inverse correlation between corruption and economic and political development (and therefore democratic "maturity") has been frequently and convincingly challenged. Countries with a long democratic tradition, such as the United States, Belgium, Britain, and Italy, have all experienced a combination of headline-grabbing scandals and smaller-scale cases of misappropriation. In "Corrupt Exchanges," primary research on Italian cases (judicial proceedings, in-depth interviews, parliamentary documents, and press databases), combined with a cross-national comparison based on a secondary analysis of corruption in democratic systems, is used to develop a model to analyze corruption as a network of illegal exchanges. The authors explore in great detail the structure of that network, by examining both the characteristics of the actors who directly engage in the corruption and the resources they exchange. These processes of degeneration have caused a crisis in the dominant paradigm in both academic and political considerations of corruption. The book is organized around the analysis of the resources that are exchanged and of the different actors who take part. Politicians in business, illegal brokers, Mafia members, protected entrepreneurs, and party-appointed bureaucrats exchange resources on the illegal market, altering the institutional system of interactions between the state and the market. In this complex web of exchanges, bonds of trust are established that allow the corrupt exchange to thrive. The book will serve both as a theoretical approach to a political problem of large bearing on democratic institutions and a descriptive warning of a system in peril.
This ground-breaking and innovative book examines the influence of charisma on power, authority and nationalism. The authors both apply and challenge Max Weber's concept of 'charisma' and integrate it into a broader discussion of other theoretical models. Using an interdisciplinary approach, leading international scholars draw on a diverse range of cases to analyse charisma in benign and malignant leaderships, as well as the relationship between the cult of the leader, the adulation of the masses and the extension of individual authority beyond sheer power. They discuss idiosyncratic authority and oratory, and they address how political, social and regional variations help explain concepts and policies which helped forge and reformulate nations, national identities and movements. The chapters on particular charismatic leaders cover Abraham Lincoln, Kemal Ataturk, Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Gamal Nasser, Joerg Haider and Nelson Mandela. Political Leadership, Nations and Charisma will appeal to readers who are interested in history, sociology, political communication and nationalism studies.
The government budget should be the financial mirror of society's choices. Yet most people view budgeting as the epitome of eye-glazing subjects, rarely explained in a way that is understandable to the non-specialist and too often presented without adequate consideration of a country's governance and institutional capacity. Government Budgeting and Expenditure Management fills a gap in the literature to redress these failings and does so in comparative international perspective. This book provides a comprehensive but pithy and easy-to-understand treatment of public financial management, taking into account a variety of special issues including budgeting in post-conflict situations, at subnational government levels, for military/security expenditures, and in countries with large extractive revenues. Distilling the lessons of budgeting reform in countries at different levels of income and administrative capacity, each chapter gradually progresses from the basic principles to the more technical aspects and then on to implementation issues, using concrete examples and illustrations from around the globe. Government Budgeting and Expenditure Management is ideally suited as the primary text for advanced undergraduate or graduate courses in government budgeting or public financial management, or as a supplementary text for courses in public finance, public economics, economic development, public administration or comparative politics. With its attention to practical implementation aspects, the book will also be of direct interest to practitioners, policy-makers, and government employee training organizations.
This history, originally published in 1962, by the then lone remaining figure in the leadership of the Russian Social Democratic Party, is an important contribution to the understanding of the Soviet October Revolution of 1917. It covers in detail the period from the February revolution of 1917 until the outbreak of the Second World War, passing through the phases of the October Revolution, the Peace of Brest-Litovsk, the Civil War, the struggle for the leadership of the party and the triumph of Stalin.
Chris Hani is one of the most iconic black leaders in South Africa's recent history. His assassination in 1993 by far-right wingers threatened to upset the negotiations process and required Mandela's televised address to the nation to calm tempers. This short biography brings out his role in MK and in the politics of the early 1990s, and is written by a distinguished historian who met Hani in exile in Lusaka. |
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