In the first dialogue of its kind after the abandonment of communism in Eastern Europe, philosophers from Russia, Hungary, Canada, and the United States engage in a timely and searching exchange of views. In a critical examination of MarxisM's theory and practice, they ask: What in it was true and relevant to human progress? What are its successes, limitations, and failures? How can it be improved?

This volume brings together scholars from Russia, Hungary, Canada, and the United States to analyze and discuss the past, present, and future status of Marxist philosophy. Their contributions take on special significance in light of the changes in the economies and governments of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, and the displacement of Marxism as the official state philosophy.

The essays examine questions fundamental to Marxist philosophy: the hegemonic and post-hegemonic role of Marxism in social movements; the creative presence of Marxism in the history of philosophy and thought; its successes and the causes of its failures in theory and practice; the pathways of correction; the need to broaden Marxism by making use of Western concepts; and many other critical questions that must be raised to understand the ongoing development of Marxist thought. Essential reading for all scholars and researchers concerned with the place of Marxism in history and thought.

Lister traces the little known story of how the first confederal type unions sprang up in ancient Greece, and how they were revived in medieval and early modern times, not just in Switzerland and the Dutch Republic, but in New England's colonies of the 17th century.

Following an introduction in which the nature of confederal type governance is described, Lister examines the ancient Greek sympolities (the precursors of full-scale confederations), the Hanseatic League, the old Swiss Confederation, the Dutch Republic, and, finally, the United Colonies of New England. Each chapter closes with a series of conclusions regarding unions. Lister concludes the book with a summary of the achievements of the early confederations. This detailed synthesis of what is known of the little studied early confederations will be of primary interest to scholars and students of international relations, military history, and political theory.

A short but engaging look at what makes Denmark one of the least corrupt countries in the world. Corruption is a profoundly destructive force around the world, but why does its extent vary so drastically among countries? In Corruption, Mette Frisk Jensen closely links the level of corruption in a country to its wealth, the happiness of its citizens, and the level of trust citizens have in their government. Covering the shifting concept of corruption from ancient Greece to modern-day cases, Frisk Jensen discusses why corruption has historically been low in Denmark in particular. She outlines how transparency, meritocratic recruitment, bureaucratic autonomy, high standards of accountability, and impartial legal institutions have been used to combat corruption and what lessons can be learned from these policies. Reflections In Reflections, a series copublished with Denmark's Aarhus University Press, scholars deliver 60-page reflections on a key concept that encapsulates their years of study and research. These books present unique insights on a wide range of topics and concepts-everything from love, trust, and play, to corruption, welfare, and sleep-that entertain and enlighten readers with exciting discoveries and new perspectives.

From Eisenhower to Obama, this book provides a comprehensive analysis of the policies Congress and the president have proposed and passed to protect the environment over time. The U.S. federal government first began to consider legislation to protect the environment and natural resources in 1940s. Since that time, Congress and the president have considered and passed numerous environmental policies-laws that serve to protect the quality of the air we breathe, the water we drink, the natural beauty of the land, and the animals that live both on land and in the water. In Making Environmental Law: The Politics of Protecting the Earth, experienced and accomplished environmental law researcher Nancy E. Marion shows what policies Congress have proposed and passed to protect the environment over time. Each chapter focuses on the members of Congress's response to a different environmental concern, such as ocean dumping, pesticides, and solid waste. With "green" awareness now affecting every aspect of our modern world, this text serves as an invaluable reference for students and researchers who need a deeper historical background on the political aspects of these issues. Tables summarize key legislative acts Index of all bills listed in the text An appendix with a timeline of important dates in the history of environmental law

What affect does Islamic political culture have on democracy and human rights practices? It has been argued that Islam facilitates authoritarianism, contradicts the values of Western societies, and significantly affects important political outcomes in Muslim countries. This view, Price argues, is based primarily on analysis of Islamic political theory and ad-hoc studies of individual countries, which do not consider other factors. Through rigorous evaluation of the relationship between Islam, democracy, and individual rights at the cross-national level, Price suggests that too much emphasis is being placed on the power of Islam as a political force. Comparative case studies, which focus on factors relating to the interplay between Islamic groups and regimes, economic influences, ethnic cleavages and societal development, are used to explain the variance in the influence of Islam on politics across eight nations.

Price argues that much of the political power that is attributed to Islam can be better explained by other factors. Indeed, the increasing strength of Islamic political groups has often been associated with democratization. To test these assertions, an index of Islamic political culture based on the extent to which Islamic law is utilized and how Western ideas, institutions, and technologies are implemented, has been constructed. This indicator is used in statistical analysis to analyze the relationship between Islam, democracy, and individual rights across 23 predominantly Muslim countries and a control group of non-Muslim developing nations. The results provide strong evidence that Islamic political culture does not have a significant influence on levels of democracy and the protection of individual rights in predominantly Muslim countries.

This book contains 11 essays and a comprehensive bibliography. The essays reveal the extent to which Philip K. Dick's personal obsessions pre-figured postmodernist concerns with humanity's self-alienation, cultural and personal paranoia, and the politics of simulation, deceit, and self-deception. The contributors reveal how Dick's ontological concerns, stated in his repeated questioning of "What is real?," are also political concerns. Thus, they examine the philosophical and religious foundations on which his work rests, offering much-needed arguments which reveal both his philosophical depth and the extent to which he drew from esoteric and occult religions. His cultural critique also receives significant exposition, as the contributors reveal how Dick's fiction enacts the larger cultural struggles of cold war America, with its conflicting private visions and public realities, and its personal and political loyalties. The contributors argue for the significance of heretofore neglected or marginalized texts of Dick as well, including in their discussions many early short stories from the early 1950s and neglected novels of the mid-1960s, arguing that there is a need to understand how Dick shaped (or misshaped) his fictions so as to reimagine the life of his society.

Fairness and Futurity: Essays on Environmental Sustainability and Social Justice brings together leading international figures in political theory and sociology, as well as representatives from the political community, to consider the normative issues at stake in the relationship between environmental sustainability and social justice. It raises important questions and sets out to provide the answers. If future generations are owed justice, what should we bequeath them? Is `sustainability' an appropriate medium for environmentalists to express their demands? Is environmental protection compatible with intra-generational justice? Is environmental sustainability a luxury when social peace has broken down? These essays emerged from three intensive seminars that involved participants in constant re-evaluations of their work, and which bought three distinct groups-environmental theorists, `mainstream' political theorists, and policy community members-into fruitful contact. In particular, the attempt to involve `mainstream' theorists in environmental questions, and to encourage environmentalists to use intellectual resources of political theory, should be highlighted.

This study, for the first time, uses modern political economic theory (public choice theory, public goods theory, and game theory) to create a theoretical framework for comparative political analysis. This framework, which includes the nonindustrial world, treats both violence and democratic processes as normal methods of political competition. Deductive in nature, the theory redefines political variables according to their economic counterparts. Chaffee applies microeconomic theory to generate hypotheses and conclusions, using examples from Latin America to illustrate the efficacy of the framework.

"The Economics of Violence in Latin America" will interest political scientists, economists, and policy-makers, especially those concerned with democratic theory and practice in the nonindustrialized world.

This book brings together moral and legal philosophers,criminologists and political theorists in an attempt to address the interdependence of the study of punishment and of political theory as well as specific issues, such as freedom, autonomy, coercion and rights that arise in both. In addition to new essays on the compatibility of rights and utilitarianism and of autonomy and coercion in Kant's theory, the book contains an extended treatment of the idea of punishment as communication. This theme is taken up in arguments over whether punishment is communicative, in the questions of what the content of any such communication could be in a pluralist society, and whether communicative accounts can make sense of the use of 'hard treatment'. By combining the techniques and expertise of different disciplines, the essays in this book shed new light on the problem of punishment. They also demonstrate the usefulness of that problem as a testing ground for legal and moral philosophy.

Comparative Law and Society, part of the Research Handbooks in Comparative Law series, is a pioneering volume that comprises 19 original essays written by expert authors from across the world. This innovative handbook offers both a history of the field of comparative law and society and a thorough exploration of its methods, disciplines, and major issues, presenting the most comprehensive look into this contemporary field to date. In Part I, Methods and Disciplines, contributors approach critical issues in comparative law and society from a variety of academic fields, including sociology, criminology, anthropology, economics, political science, and psychology. This multidisciplinary approach highlights the importance of addressing the variance of perspectives inherent to the field. In Part II, Core Issues, chapters offer an exploration of major legal institutions, processes, professionals, and cultures associated with particular legal subjects. Since authors utilize the perspective of at least two different legal systems, this book offers a truly thorough and wide-ranging focus. The general reader, as well as students and scholars, will find this handbook useful in their continuing explorations into the interaction between law and society. Practitioners such as lawyers and judges with an interest in global perspectives of law will also find much to admire in this innovative volume. Contributors: M. Adler, N. Brewer, D.S. Clark, R. Cotterrell, B.L. Cutler, T. Ginsburg, M. Goodale, C. Guarnieri, R. Horry, B. Luppi, S.C. McCaffrey, E. Mertz, D. Nelken, F. Pakes, M.A. Palmer, F. Parisi, J.T. Polk, J.C. Reitz, R.E. Salcido, S. Stendahl, J.C. Suk, G.A. Tarr, S.C. Thaman, K. van Aeken, H.J. Wiarda

This launch volume in the Founders of Modern Political and Social Thought series presents a critical examination of Machiavelli's thought, combining an accessible, historically-informed account of his work with a re-assessment of his central ideas and arguments. Maurizio Viroli challenges the accepted interpretations of Machiavelli's work, insisting that his republicanism was based not on a commitment to virtue, greatness, and expansion, but to the ideal of civic life protected by the shield of fair laws. His detailed study of how Machiavelli composed his famous work The Prince presents new interpretations, and he further argues that the most challenging and completely underestimated aspect of Machiavelli's thought is his philosophy of life, in particular his conceptions of love, women, irony, God, and the human condition. Machiavelli will be essential for advanced students of the history of political thought.

European Stories is the first book of its kind in any European language. Its authors explore the many different ways 'public intellectuals' have debated Europe - the EU and its periphery - within distinct epistemological, disciplinary, ideological and above all national traditions. The chapters focus on the post-1989 era but with a view to the long history of the 'European idea' and its variants across the continent. To what extent such ideas frame the attitude of European publics is left open. But the authors assume that they matter to the European project as a whole. While the twelve national cases have been selected for the broad range they offer, from founding to non-EU member states, they are not exhaustive as the book is meant to encourage further research. The authors of these chapters are all themselves fully immersed in their respective public spheres although generally not strongly identified with one 'camp' or another. The expected readership is broad and interdisciplinary, ranging from political philosophy, to political science, international relations, history, sociology and the history of ideas. Beyond academia, European Stories is meant for all readers interested in the intellectual debates of our time.

The 1980s and 1990s have witnessed a wave of democratization across the world. This trend has led to some basic questions about the future of democracy and its ability to survive. This theme is examined from two focal points-that of praxis and that of security.

Major theorists such as Robert Dahl and noted democractic leaders such as former Argentine President Raul Alfonsin join forces to spell out the essential ingredients for avoiding disaster in transitional periods of post-authoritarian states. This edited collection challenges some of the existing views about democratization around the world and considers basic questions of both praxis and security. Part of this unique overview deals with practical lessons learned in various countries; part focuses on links between democracy and security. Several themes underline the work. First, that democracy cannot be made from above. Second, that the survival of democracy is directly linked to security issues. It becomes clear that the future of democracy after authoritarianism may not be as bright as thought. Excellent text for courses in world politics, democratic theory, and comparative politics.

Semi-Presidentialism is the term used to describe the constitutional arrangement where there is a directly elected president and a prime-minister who is responsible to parliament. Semi-presidential countries include France, Poland, Russia, and Ukraine. These countries share certain constitutional features, but the exercise of presidential and prime-ministerial power varies greatly from one to another. Semi-Presidentialism in Europe examines the politics of semi-presidentialsim and explores why it is that seemingly similar political systems operate in such different ways.

The third edition of this acclaimed textbook on peace-making after the First World War advances that the responsibility for the outbreak of a new, even more ruinous, war in 1939 cannot be ascribed entirely to the planet's most powerful men and their meeting in Paris in January 1919 to reassemble a shattered world. Giving a concise overview of the problems and pressures these key figures were facing, Alan Sharp provides a coherent introduction to a highly complex and multi-dimensional topic. This is an ideal resource for undergraduate and postgraduate students taking modules on the Versailles Settlement, European and International History, Modern History, Interwar Europe, The Great War, 20th Century Europe, German History, or Diplomatic History, on either history courses or international relations/politics courses.

We are often faced with choices that involve the weighing of people's lives against each other, or the weighing of lives against other good things. These are choices both for individuals and for societies. A person who is terminally ill may have to choose between palliative care and more aggressive treatment, which will give her a longer life but at some cost in suffering. We have to choose between the convenience to ourselves of road and air travel, and the lives of the future people who will be killed by the global warming we cause, through violent weather, tropical disease, and heat waves. We also make choices that affect how many lives there will be in the future: as individuals we choose how many children to have, and societies choose tax policies that influence people's choices about having children. These are all problems of weighing lives. How should we weigh lives? Weighing Lives develops a theoretical basis for answering this practical question. It extends the work and methods of Broome's earlier book Weighing Goods to cover the questions of life and death. Difficult problems come up in the process. In particular, Weighing Lives tackles the well-recognized, awkward problems of the ethics of population. It carefully examines the common intuition that adding people to the population is ethically neutral - neither a good nor a bad thing - but eventually concludes this intuition cannot be fitted into a coherent theory of value. In the course of its argument, Weighing Lives examines many of the issues of contemporary moral theory: the nature of consequentialism and teleology; the transitivity, continuity, and vagueness of betterness; the quantitative conception of wellbeing; the notion of a life worth living; the badness of death; and others. This is a work of philosophy, but one of its distinctive features is that it adopts some of the precise methods of economic theory (without introducing complex mathematics). Not only philosophers, but also economists and political theorists concerned with the practical question of valuing life, should find the book's conclusions highly significant to their work.

What is the basis for choosing a nonviolent response to conflict and violence? By presenting and analyzing some of the most significant answers that have been given to this question throughout history, this anthology of writings from both Western and nonwestern traditions proposes principled and strategic nonviolence as a realistic alternative. It includes a selection of historical sources on nonviolence--ranging from the Bhagavad-Gita to the Bible--as well as a wide range of writings by authors such as Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Nelson Mandela, who have contributed to both the theory and the practice of nonviolence. Besides tracing the historical development of the concept, this volume also suggests ways of applying nonviolence to our everyday lives in the first decade of the 21st century, which the United Nations General Assembly has declared to be the Decade for Education for a Culture of Peace and Nonviolence.

Lumumba-Kasongo examines those forces that contributed to the fate of multiparty democracy in Africa. The forces include the state, political parties, ethnicity, nationalism, religion, underdevelopment, and the global market.

Multipartyism in Africa is not necessarily democratic. However, the processes toward multipartyism can produce democratic discourses if they can be transformed by popular and social movements. As the author points out, almost all social classes have demanded some form of democracy. Yet the sociological meanings and teleological perspectives of those forms of democracy depend on an individual or group's economic and educational status. The dynamics of the global context, as reflected in the adoption of the structural adjustment programs of the World Bank and the stability programs of the International Monetary Fund, are likely to produce non-democratic conditions in Africa. Lumumba-Kasongo challenges the existing paradigms on democracy and development, so the book is of considerable interest to scholars and policy makers involved with African politics and socio-economic development.

The modern city extends beyond its physical borders, pervading all aspects of our society. Celebrating 30 years of Sage's Urban Affairs Review, this book examines the state of the city as we enter the 21st century. From an interdisciplinary perspective, critical urban theorists explore a variety of discourses for representing the contemporary city. Considering the city's social and physical articulations, the prospects for continued democracy and civic engagement, and interpretations of a 'good city', these essays represent the cutting edge of urban studies.

The Urban Moment is a provocative examination of urban theory, offering European, North American, and South American perspectives. An exciting and comprehensive addition to the series, this book is critical for Urban Studies scholars as well as those studying the city in sociological, political, or cultural disciplines.

Before it became a federation, the United States was briefly a confederation, a much looser union composed of states rather than of peoples. Unions of states to promote ecomomic well-being and to prevent war are now being revived. Mr. Lister analyzes modern confederalism, and how it is functioning in the single market of the Europen Union and how it might function if the collective security system of the United Nations could be carried out, as originally planned, by a confederal-style partnership of the world's independent states. Political scientists have traditionally classified voluntary polities as confederations, federations, or unitary states. But they have ignored the first of these classes, perhaps because Alexander Hamilton, wishing to mobilize support for the new federal constitution, discredited not only the United States Confederation but the whole class of confederations as a viable method of governance. More than 200 years later, confederation as a form of governance is still under a cloud. Yet it has been resurfacing, largely unrecognized for what it is, in the repertory of government. In the treaties of Rome and Maastricht and in the collective security system of the Charter, the European Union and the United Nations are already involved in forms of governance that are confederal in all but name. Lister's book describes confederal governance and how such unions of states differ from intergovernmental organizations on the one hand and federations on the other. Meticulously researched and carefully argued, it draws upon his five years of study of confederal unions from Ancient Greece through the 19th-century Germanic Confederation and the German Zollverein. But his book is not a history of confederations. Instead, it shows how long-term alliances sometimes evolve into unions of states and, in time, into communities of the peoples who live in those states. It also shows how the ties of confederal union have been institutionalized in modern times in the EU and how they might be institutionalized in a global collective security body.^L ^L Finally, the book stresses the urgency of moving in this direction because we shall face a very serious security problem in the next century. With the steady leakage of nuclear materials in Russia, the non-proliferation approach to controlling weapons of mass destruction appears to be breaking down. Lister argues that if and when governments are confronted with this looming problem, perhaps in the not-too-distant future, the confederal model may be the one that they will need to have updated and at their disposal.

This text relates Hegel to preceding and succeeding political philosophers. The Hegelian notion of the interdependence of political philosophy and its history is demonstrated by the links established between Hegel and his predecessors and successors. Hegel's political theory is illuminated by essays showing its critical assimilation of Plato and Hobbes, and by studies reviewing subsequent critiques of its standpoint by Stirner, Marx and Collingwood. The relevance of Hegel to contemporary political philosophy is highlighted in essays which compare Hegel to Lyotard and Rawls.

In an increasingly multi-religious and multi-ethnic world, identity has become something actively chosen rather than merely acquired at birth. This book essentially analyzes the resources available to make such a choice. Looking into the world of intellectual India, this unique comparative survey focuses on the identity resources offered by India's traditions of reasoning and public debate. Arguing that identity is a formation of reason, it draws on Indian theory to claim that identities are constructed from exercises of reason as derivation from exemplary cases. The book demonstrates that contemporary debates on global governance and cosmopolitan identities can benefit from these Indian resources, which were developed within an intercultural pluralism context with an emphasis on consensual resolution of conflict. This groundbreaking work builds on themes developed by Amartya Sen to provide a creative pursuit of Indian reasoning that will appeal to anyone studying politics, philosophy, and Asian political thought.

This book provides a historical review of the transformation of China’s image around the world since the 1978 Reform and Opening Up. Based on a synthetic model that the author constructs for evaluating national images, together with a historical review and quantitative analysis, it discusses the issues and challenges confronting China’s image around the world since the Opening Up.  To help rectify the situation that most of the research on China’s reform efforts focuses on hard power (esp. economic power), this book, which mainly focuses on China’s soft power, reviews and assesses its global image from the three perspectives of politics, economy and culture. In the process, it sheds valuable new light on the presentation of China’s image and the world’s perceptions of China.

Blending detailed contextual analysis with issues in modern-day international relations this book provides a major new analysis of the theory of Clausewitz and its relevance to contemporary society. This book argues that Clausewitz developed a wide-ranging political theory of war by reflecting on the success, the limitations, and the failure of Napoleon's method of waging war, a theory, which is still relevant in light of contemporary conflict. This new interpretation is the result of reflecting on Clausewitz's theory in light of the new developments and lays down the foundation of a general theory of war by concentrating on Clausewitz's historical analyses of war campaigns. For the first time analysis of three paradigmatic military campaigns is placed at the centre of understanding surrounding Clausewitz's 'On War': The author argues that the limitations of Napoleon's strategy, as revealed in Russia and in his final defeat, enabled Clausewitz to develop a general theory of war. This book is a project of the Oxford Leverhulme Programme on the Changing Character of War.