Extremist movements aren't new, but the tragic events in Oklahoma City, New York City, and elsewhere have awakened Americans to this frightening reality within our borders. What sorts of fringe groups exist? Who joins up and why? What do they want and what are they willing to do to accomplish their goals? How serious is the danger? In response to these questions, noted experts John George and Laird Wilcox have teamed up to examine the frayed edges of human behavior.
Beginning with a summary of pre-1960 movements, they then discuss conspiracy theories and what motivates extremists. Their thoroughly documented and detailed tour of contemporary groups on the "far left" and the "far right" includes recent militia groups making headlines. Included as well is an in-depth appendix on the use of fake quotes and fabricated documentsa staple of many extremist organizations.

This study offers the first detailed examination of the varied means by which parliament through its committees and the work of individual members has sought to scrutinise the British intelligence and security agencies and the government's use of intelligence.

"Aging Political Activists" is at once a series of political autobiographies, a set of personal narratives of social commitment, a model for qualitative research, and a challenge to current theory and practice in the social and behavioral sciences. It presents and examines the life stories of four individuals--close friends and former members of the Communist Party USA--revealing the ways they have developed and sustained their personal values and political outlook through a lifetime of involvement in movements for social change. Shuldiner approaches the interviews as a collaborative effort with his subjects who both describe their identities and experiences and critique the interview process, offering alternate readings of the content of their narratives or new directions for inquiry. These portraits of older activists challenge notions about the role of the personal in the development of political identity, while shifting the debate among gerontologists between activity versus disengagement in old age to a discussion of the dialectical relationship of these two aspects of human behavior throughout a lifespan.

Anika Gauja examines the complexities and tensions in the relationship between party members and parliamentarians through an in-depth analysis of the structures and processes that shape the development of party policy, and the respective role of members and parliamentarians in the formulation of policy and its transferral to the legislative arena. Providing a timely contribution to the current scholarly and public debate on the future of political parties, the book presents significant new evidence on the challenges facing both established and emerging political parties in encouraging citizen participation in policy development and counters some of the overly simplistic judgments that are often made about participation and disengagement by revealing the complexity of the relationships that are involved in modern party systems.

The follow-up volume to the same editors' New Labour in Government provides a systematic assessment of Blair's first term and the continuities and changes into his second. Bringing together specially-commissioned chapters by leading authorities in a tightly-edited format , it places particular emphasis on the evolution of New Labour's political performance, policy and statecraft set in its historical, ideological and organizational context.

This volume, covering twenty-five populist parties in seventeen European states, presents the first comparative study of the impact of the Great Recession on populism. Based on a common analytical framework, chapters offer a highly differentiated view of how the interplay between economic and political crises helped produce patterns of populist development across Europe. Populism grew strongly in Southern and Central-Eastern Europe, particularly where an economic crisis developed in tandem with a political one. Nordic populism went also on the rise, but this region's populist parties have been surprisingly responsible. In Western Europe, populism actually contracted during the crisis - with the exception of France. As for the two Anglo-Celtic countries, while the UK has experienced the rise of a strong anti-European populist force, Ireland stands out as a rare case in which no such a party has risen in spite of the severity of its economic and political crises.

Written by a team of leading experts, "The Palgrave Review of British Politics 2006" provides up-to-date coverage of developments in British government and politics. An indispensable reference book, it covers the entire political year and includes chapters on the constitution, government and administration, the law, Parliament, public policy, devolution, foreign policy, relations with the EU, local government, elections and public opinion, the party system, pressure politics, the media and democracy, plus a statistical appendix.

Amidst 'Brexit', a divided and out of power Labour Party, and the wider international rise of populism, contemporary British social democracy appears in a state of crisis. This book, a collection of essays by some of Britain's leading academics, public intellectuals and political practitioners, seeks to engage with the 'big picture' of British social democracy, both historical and contemporary, and point to grounds for greater optimism for its future prospects. It does so in honour of the renowned centre-left thinker David Marquand. Drawing on many of the themes which have preoccupied Marquand in his career and his writing, such as social democratic citizenship, values and participation, the volume offers the original perspective that social democracy is as much about cultures and mindsets as it is about economic policy or public institutions. -- .

Political parties in Europe face a crisis of legitimacy, which manifests itself through a decline in partisan identification, an increase in electoral volatility and a drop in membership figures. The development of new means of communication has transformed the way political parties relate to their constituents. In recent years political campaigning has become more centralised and more professional. Florence Faucher uses her research into party conferences as a vehicle for examining the changes that parties are undergoing as they provide a microcosm for the study of relationships between party leaders and their followers: it is where policy is decided upon and developed and where support for those plans is initiated.

Essentials of UK Politics and Government is the go-to textbook for all A-level Politics students studying the Edexcel specification. Building on Andrew Heywood's signature accessible style, this new fifth edition has been thoroughly updated by Kathy Schindler and Adam Tomes who draw on their experience to provide an innovative guide to UK Politics. This book covers all the core topics from Democracy and Participation, Elections and Referendums and Voting Behaviour, to the Constitution, the Prime Minister and Parliament. Packed with contemporary examples, this edition includes material on the 2017 and 2019 General Elections, Covid-19 and the latest Brexit developments. Curated pedagogical features such as Key Topic Debates, Case Studies and Synoptic Links will encourage students to strengthen their critical thinking skills and hone their ability to debate with confidence. Accompanying the book is a content-rich companion website featuring bonus case studies, further sample student answers with annotations, tips for planning and organising revision and much more. Accompanying online resources for this title can be found at bloomsburyonlineresources.com/essentials-of-uk-politics-and-government-5. These resources are designed to support teaching and learning when using this textbook and are available at no extra cost.

This book analyses social movements and radical political parties' strategies in Spain, Greece, Portugal and Italy from 2008 to today. Events in 2011 such as the Arab Spring and the indignados movement in Spain initiated a new cycle of social protest. This book explores how the economic crisis and policies of austerity have transformed and continue to transform social movements, trade unions and radical political parties in Southern Europe. The economic crisis has led to a rise in protest movements, which confront political institutions and conventional forms of democracy, and develop new spatial and organisational strategies. This book examines these cases, in addition to those groups who, contrastingly, have used institutional politics to achieve their aims, such as new political parties like Podemos in Spain or Movimento 5 Stelle in Italy. Analysing the extent to which there has been a change in approach when it comes to contesting neo-liberal capitalism, this book makes an important contribution to the study of social movements and radical politics. With a comparative perspective and an emphasis on studying the largely unexplored recent social and political dynamics in the European periphery, this book is essential reading for students, scholars and activists interested in social movements, radical politics and European politics more generally.

Fianna Fail was for most of the 20th century the democratic world's most successful political party. It dominated the politics of Ireland from 1932, when it first took power, until 2011 when it became a prominent electoral victim of the Great Recession. This book provides original research that explains how Fianna Fail became dominant and managed its coalitions of support to maintain that position for eight decades. It gathers prominent political scientists who focus on a variety of factors including its ideological flexibility, control of state resources and the venue for decision making, the party's leadership, its organisation and communications strategies. In addition the book takes a comparative approach to understanding the position of dominant parties in democratic countries, and uses empirical data to understand the sources of its support and decline. It is a book that will be of interest not only to scholars of Ireland, but also to those who wish to understand the sources of power of dominant political parties and the impact of the Great Recession on democratic politics. This book was originally published as a special issue of Irish Political Studies.

Although Canada is regarded as one of the least corrupt countries, this volume draws on wide ranging evidence and innovative research from scholars around the world to challenge this assumption. Corruption, defined as the "abuse of entrusted power for private gain," is often understood as being caused by internally motivated greed leading to prohibited acts in contravention of laws, rules and regulations. It can also be defined as "dishonest action that destroys people's trust." These traditional forms of corruption pose problems for Canada in a variety of policy domains, as well as "institutional corruption" evidenced by deception and financial inconsistency that undermine the effectiveness and transparency of policy objectives. This volume contains chapters that investigate various areas of corruption in Canada, ranging from corruption amongst the First Nations, to the armed forces, to the delivery of foreign assistance. It also offers suggestions to reduce future outbreaks of corruption. Each chapter provides detailed empirical analysis evidenced through real world examples that highlight key lessons amidst the numerous challenges posed by corruption. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Canadian Foreign Policy Journal.

Oswald Mosley has been reviled as a fascist and lamented as the lost leader of both Conservative and Labour Parties. Concerned to articulate the demands of the war generation and to pursue an agenda for economic and political modernization his ultimate rejection of existing institutions and practices led him to fascism.

As women increasingly play a role and gain ever greater prominence in congressional politics, they need to navigate the at times conflicting demands of loyalty to party culture, responsiveness to party leadership, political goals, and the need to get reelected. Based on extensive interviews and historical research, this book examines differences between Republican and Democratic political cultures, how these differences affect women members of Congress as they pursue agendas and seek to bolster their electability, and the effectiveness of women within an institution traditionally dominated by men.

The project of European integration now spans Europe, but in becoming bigger and broader the European Union has brought on itself significant criticism. As the EU becomes deeper, wider, and more ambitious, so opposition and scepticism become more prominent for citizens and more problematic for elites. Concerns about a 'democratic deficit' and the distance between European elites and publics have come to be a common feature of European politics. As a consequence Euroscepticism has become a part of the terrain of conflict between political parties across Europe. Opposing Europe? provides the first comprehensive review of party-based Euroscepticism across the breadth of contemporary Europe, and the first in-depth comparative academic study of Euroscepticism. This, the first of two volumes, is made up of chapters that map, describe, and analyse Euroscepticism in the party systems of a range of countries and the European Parliament. Each is written to a common frame of reference that differentiates 'hard' and 'soft' Euroscepticism. The volume looks across Europe and includes EU member states and candidate and non-member states in order to draw out comparative lessons that relate to the nature of political parties, party systems, and the domestic politics of European integration. Opposing Europe? is a groundbreaking, 'state of the art' book that provides a definitive review of a key issue in European politics. It is also one of the few attempts to integrate the fields of EU studies with both West European and East European studies in order to draw lessons about the way in which the EU interacts with domestic politics in both member and non-member states. Examining the way that parties position themselves and compete on the European issue provides powerful lessons for the trajectory of the European integration project more generally and on the prospects for the emergence of a European political system and polity.

This book shows that the discourse of the Labour party 1994-2007, revolving around three key concepts of identity, narrative and metaphor, not only reflected new Labour's policy and organisational changes, but that it was also an essential part of its successful strategies of renovation and of power legitimation.

Following a normative approach that suggests international norms and standards for elections apply universally, regardless of regime type or cultural context, this book examines the challenges to electoral integrity, the actors involved, and the consequences of electoral malpractice and poor electoral integrity that vary by regime type. It bridges the literature on electoral integrity with that of political regime types. Looking specifically at questions of innovation and learning, corruption and organized crime, political efficacy and turnout, the threat of electoral violence and protest, and finally, the possibility of regime change, it seeks to expand the scholarly understanding of electoral integrity and diverse regimes by exploring the diversity of challenges to electoral integrity, the diversity of actors that are involved and the diversity of consequences that can result. This text will be of key interest to scholars, students and practitioners of electoral studies, and more broadly of relevance to comparative politics, international development, political behaviour and democracy, democratization, and autocracy.

How safe is Turkey's liberal democracy? The rise to power in 2002 of the right-leaning Islamic Justice and Development Party ignited fears in the West that Turkey could no longer be relied upon to provide a buffer against the growth of Islamic fundamentalism in the Middle East. Once hailed by the West as a model of secularism and moderation in the Muslim world, Turkey is now seen to be under the influence of the 'creeping Islamisation' of the JDP (or AKP as it is known in Turkey). Yet to what extent has this affected the lives of Turkish citizens? Evangelia Axiarlis here explores the contribution of the JDP to civil liberties and basic freedoms, long suppressed by secular and statist Kemalist ideology, and how this has remained unexamined despite more than a decade in government. In this - the first detailed study of the policies and ideology of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdo?an's government - the author examines the extent to which the JDP has worked to improve civil life in Turkey and critically addresses whether a government built on Islamic principles can champion political reform. Exploring how Islam and democracy are neither monoliths nor mutually exclusive, this is a timely contribution to the wider understanding of political Islam.

In revisiting the Popular Front some 60 years on, this work explores the link between metropolitan France and the empire at a defining moment in their history. The contributors aim to widen our understanding of the Popular Front experience and show that it represents an important watershed in French history, marking the beginning of an irreversible process of reform that was ultimately to lead to decolonization and the end of empire.

This book is probably the most important source of evidence published up to now on the consolidation of democracy in Eastern Europe. It provides estimates of party positions, voter preferences and government policy from election programmes collected systematically for 51 countries from 1990 onwards. Time-series are presented in the text. This also reports party life histories (essential to over time analyses) and provides updated and newly validated vote statistics. All this information and much more is available on the devoted website described in the book. The final chapter gives instructions on how to access the data on your own computer. For comparative purposes, similar estimates of policy and preferences are given for CEE, OECD and EU countries. These estimates update the prize-winning data set covered in Mapping Policy Preferences: Estimates for Parties, Electors and Governments 1945-1998 - also published by OUP. A must-buy for all commentators, students and analysts of democracy, in Eastern Europe and the world.

Most comprehensive and up-to-date book available on the extreme right and anti-fascism in Australia. Multidisciplinary contributions from historians, political scientists and sociologists.

This book considers the extent to which, and in what circumstances, political parties affect public policy. It explores the regional level in Germany; using case studies in the areas of education, childcare and family, and labour market policy. In particular, the author explores whether party politicians make a difference to policies.