Michael E. Porter’s 1980 book Competitive Strategy is a fine example of critical thinking skills in action. Porter used his strong evaluative skills to overturn much of the accepted wisdom in the world of business. By exploring the strengths and weaknesses of the accepted argument that the best policy for firms to become more successful was to focus on expanding their market share, he was able to establish that the credibility of the argument was flawed.

Porter did not believe such growth was the only way for a company to be successful, and provided compelling arguments as to why this was not the case. His book shows how industries can be fragmented, with different firms serving different parts of the market (the low-price mass market, and the expensive high-end market in clothing, for example) and examines strategies that businesses can follow in emerging, mature, and declining markets. If printing is in decline, for example, there may still be a market in this industry for high-end goods and services such as luxury craft bookbinding.

Porter also made excellent use of the critical thinking skill of analysis in writing Competitive Strategy. His advice that executives should analyze the five forces that mold the environment in which they compete – new entrants, substitute products, buyers, suppliers, and industry rivals – focused heavily on defining the relationships between these disparate factors and urged readers to check the assumptions of their arguments.

Porter avoided technical jargon and wrote in a straightforward way to help readers see that his evaluation of the problem was strong. Competitive Strategy went on to be a highly influential work in the world of business strategy.

This scholarly collection presents some of the most important classical and contemporary texts of relevance to political sociology. Volume I offers an overview of the sociological approach to the concepts of power and the state; it examines state theory in the 1970s from both a Marxist and Capitalist point of view, the recent shift of political power from the state to other areas of society, this issue of citizenship, and the welfare state. Volume II focuses on the most important political formations and processes in modern societies: democracy, revolution and totalitarianism. It also looks more broadly at political processes in non-industrial societies and at recent historical and sociological analyses of global political systems. Volume III offers analyses of the principal political ideologies and movements of the twentieth century. Other topics covered include military power and regimes and the social bases of politics such as classes and elites, ethnicity, gender and religion.

** Named one of the 'Best Reads' of 2010 by The Times **In the early 1990s South Africa was repetitively rocked by violent incidents that often threatened to derail the delicate peace process and negotiations for a new state. Among these was a right-wing conspiracy to ruin the 1994 election by staging a coup d etat from the northwest of the country, aided by mutinous elements in the SA Defence Force. Harris relates grippingly how some of the biggest bombs in the country 's history were exploded in the then Transvaal, and, with moving sympathy, the desperate plight of the right-wingers in their pitiful invasion of the then homeland of Bobhuthatswana.But the biggest drama was perhaps the attempt to break into the electronic counting system of the election, for whose supervision Harris was responsible. Harris has one at the edge of one 's seat as he tells of the drama behind the scenes, eleventh-hour meetings with Mandela and de Klerk, the plans to make the results flow again, and of how closely the country steered away from disaster and ended giving itself a miracle result.

Understand the theoretical and practical aspects of political marketing! Over the past few years political marketing strategies have been refined with the help of new findings in political science research. Campaigns and Political Marketing clearly discusses the most recent political science research studies and theories that political activists and professionals can apply to effectively campaign for an issue or candidate. This text is an invaluable compilation of research, theory, and practical application from political science experts across the country that guides readers through the complexities of everyday political marketing and campaigning. Readers get the critical knowledge needed on how to best affect public viewpoints and gain the strongest advantage over the opposition. Campaigns and Political Marketing is packed with information and insights every political activist will find useful. It coherently explains the real world of campaign politics and elections, presenting the everyday issues that political consultants face in the field, all made easily understandable even to the novice. This scholarly examination provides lessons that can be effectively applied to just about any situation. Political crises and scandals are discussed in detail, with research and historical studies that illuminate practical ways to deal with any problem. The book is extensively referenced and uses graphs and charts to clearly explain research findings. Campaigns and Political Marketing answers these tough questions: What is the role of professional campaign consultants and their value? How have the past four presidential elections revised the state presidential vote forecasting equation? How does interest groups' resource distribution differ from resource allocation decisions made by candidates' organizations and the national political parties? How does congressional campaign candidate scheduling differ from legislative candidate scheduling? How effective are attack messages in generating media coverage early in a campaign? How do political professionals define campaign crises? What are the differences in public reaction when a candidate from one or the other of the two major parties is in a scandal? How is public opinion affected when tragedy strikes a political candidate? Campaigns and Political Marketing is stimulating, idea-generating reading that is perfect for educators and students in marketing, communications, and political science; practitioners in campaigns and marketing; and political activists of all types.

Understand the theoretical and practical aspects of political marketing! Over the past few years political marketing strategies have been refined with the help of new findings in political science research. Campaigns and Political Marketing clearly discusses the most recent political science research studies and theories that political activists and professionals can apply to effectively campaign for an issue or candidate. This text is an invaluable compilation of research, theory, and practical application from political science experts across the country that guides readers through the complexities of everyday political marketing and campaigning. Readers get the critical knowledge needed on how to best affect public viewpoints and gain the strongest advantage over the opposition. Campaigns and Political Marketing is packed with information and insights every political activist will find useful. It coherently explains the real world of campaign politics and elections, presenting the everyday issues that political consultants face in the field, all made easily understandable even to the novice. This scholarly examination provides lessons that can be effectively applied to just about any situation. Political crises and scandals are discussed in detail, with research and historical studies that illuminate practical ways to deal with any problem. The book is extensively referenced and uses graphs and charts to clearly explain research findings. Campaigns and Political Marketing answers these tough questions: What is the role of professional campaign consultants and their value? How have the past four presidential elections revised the state presidential vote forecasting equation? How does interest groups' resource distribution differ from resource allocation decisions made by candidates' organizations and the national political parties? How does congressional campaign candidate scheduling differ from legislative candidate scheduling? How effective are attack messages in generating media coverage early in a campaign? How do political professionals define campaign crises? What are the differences in public reaction when a candidate from one or the other of the two major parties is in a scandal? How is public opinion affected when tragedy strikes a political candidate? Campaigns and Political Marketing is stimulating, idea-generating reading that is perfect for educators and students in marketing, communications, and political science; practitioners in campaigns and marketing; and political activists of all types.

Hugo Grotius (1583-1645), the Dutch jurist and philosopher, is a key theorist of the post-mediaeval state. According to Grotius, the state is not subject to any terrestrial superior, either political or ecclesiastical. His political writings develop the consequences of this condition including the construction of state authority in terms of 'natural rights', acknowledging the right to self-protection and the needs of individuals. A further development is the idea that the state is the instrument of justice beyond its own boundaries. He asserted that there were universal moral standards that could be used to judge questions of international conflict. This universal morality was based on two prinicples: that self-preservation is always legitimate; and that wanton injury of another is always illegitimate. [On this foundation, rules for reconciling conflict could be erected and the existence of civil society explained.] These views have characterised much political thought from Grotius' day to the present and have played their part in the history of international law. This collection of articles presents in chronological order the writings of 20th century authors on Grotius and covers such topics as the life of Grotius, the evolution of his ideas, his contribution to the theory of `natural law' and his wider significance as a political thinker.

Aristotle (384-322 BC) was born in Northern Greece. He moved to Athens where he associated himself with Plato's academy. He later became tutor to the young Alexander the Great at the Macedonian court but returned to Athens in 335 to found his own school of philosophy. Aristotle's basic political contention was that the state is a natural entity and is the perfect form of human community. This view of man's relation to the state has been one of the most persistent in the history of political thought and has been developed in many ways by a multitude of thinkers. [In his own writings Aristotle developed and explained existing political arrangements rather than offering radical alternatives, and this conservative practicality was highly regarded by political thinkers prior to 1789. On the other hand, the high evaluation which Aristotle placed on the middle orders of society appeals to readers of a more egalitarian age.] The articles in this scholarly collection offer insights into many areas of Aristotle's work, including forms of government, the place of the individual in relation to the state and ethical, economic and sociological considerations.

The work of Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527) has a variety of meanings for different interpreters. Some attribute to him a new 'scientific method' of drawing conclusions from practical or historical experience in order to form rules for successful political behaviour, with its emphasis on man's behavioural patterns rather than on moral precepts as a basis for politics. Others attribute to him a belief in the autonomy of the state - that the state is a structure governed by its own laws of development and that it finds its justification only in terms of its success. Others again emphasise his republicanism and see him as a theorist of the modern state. [Some believe his first name is the proper basis of an appellation of the Devil.] Although a lucid writer in many respects, the metaphorical way in which Machiavelli expressed some of his key concepts and his preference for working through examples rather that elaborating principles has given much scope for debate about his actual intentions. These volumes present in chronological order the most significant articles on Machiavelli written in the 20th century and offer a representative selection of the numerous interpretations of his work.

Plato of Athens (c 429-347 BC) is the earliest European thinker whose thoughts on politics survive to any great extent. His work, contained in The Republic, the Statesman, the Laws and the unfinished Critias, amongst other works, has made major contributions to the agenda of Western Political thought and its content. [In The Republic, Plato's preoccupation was the concept of the just individual and the just state.] His view that intellect and political authority should be correlated has been a major theme of political thought down the centuries, influencing both authoritarian and egalitarian attitudes to government and democracy. In his later work Plato's concern shifted from the question of justice to questions of the competence of rulers, which in The Statesman he treated as of the first importance, and eventually to the role of law and a mixed constitution, along with religion, in guaranteeing political order. The papers in this authoritative selection explore various aspects of Plato's thought including social structure, education, freedom, property, the status of women, human motivation and racism in addition to his views on law, reason and justice. The vast array of topics covered shows how Plato's work adumbrates many of the concerns of political thought up to the present day and indeed is still relevant in our modern age.

Born in what is now Algeria, Augustine trained in classical Latin rhetoric and became a professor of rhetoric in Rome. He later studied neo-Platonic philosophy and experienced a conversion to Christianity in 386. [Through his numerous theological writings, Augustine became one of the major architects of Latin Christian political theory at a time when Roman civilization was in decline.] In his work `The City of God', Augustine developed his most influential doctrines: on history, grace and predestination, free will, a true republic, the duties of Christians to the state, the just war, the relationship of the institutional Church to secular government and the `city of God' to 'the city of man'. This notion of the two cities influenced political theory throughout the next 800 years and beyond. [The political theories of Augustine rest on his profoundly pessimistic view that human nature is corrupted beyond any hope of rational self-amelioration and that man tends naturally to do evil rather than to do good. As a consequence of this, political association is, for Augustine, an instrument of coercion and protection from harm rather that an instrument of human fulfilment.] Augustine's ideas were adopted and rejected in turn throughout the middle ages as men attempted to reconcile his negative views of the necessity of the state with the more optimistic views of Aristotle, rediscovered in the 13th century. The Reformation in the 16th century saw a revival of the influence of Augustine's thought and his political opinions have special resonances for the 20th century. The stimulating articles contained in these two volumes serve to explain and to explore the development of Augustine's ideas on society and politics.

John Locke (1632-1704), the English philosopher, has had a wide-ranging influence on modern political thought. Locke's political philosophy is based on the premise that by nature human beings are equal and that therefore no-one is under the authority of another unless by his own consent. In Locke's view, natural law constitutes and protects rights of life, liberty and property. His writings are a turning point in the theory of natural rights, linking constitutionalism and toleration. The impact of his ideas can be seen in the American constitution, in the French Revolution and in the development of modern liberalism. His theory of property is a basis for modern discussion of the subject and its emphasis on labour as a source of value and entitlement forms the background for the later economics of both Adam Smith and Karl Marx. The articles contained in these volumes have been carefully selected in order to put Locke's work in a wider context. They explore various aspects of Locke's political theory and investigate his theories on property, natural law, the `state of nature' and toleration.

Thomas More (1478-1535), English statesman, author and saint, was a lawyer, politician and diplomat, a leading member of the Renaissance of northern Europe and a defender of the Roman Catholic faith. In the history of political thought More is remembered as the author of Utopia, a little book which gave rise to a genre of literature and a name for a mode of theorising, which explicitly criticises existing political and social arrangements from a radical perspective and also offers new ideals and illustrates how these might be realised in an imaginery society. For over four hundred years the meaning of More's Utopia has confounded scholars. Many of the ideas advanced in the book, e.g. on rational religion and religious toleration, seem to be at odds with the events of More's political career and his practical religious position. Moreover there is much disagreement about the meaning and importance of the substantial satiric elements it contains. This collection contains a great variety of authoritative articles which not only investigate More's life and the influences on his work, but also offer the reader a selection of the various interpretations and comparisons of his writings that scholars have made in the course of this century.

Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) is best known for his development of the concept of sovereignty, which was treated most clearly in his great work, Leviathan. Whilst Hobbes was not the first theorist of sovereignty, he remains perhaps the most thorough exponent of the concept. His accounts of morality and religion, as well as of government, are set out in a way that precludes legitimate challenge to the sovereign's authority: and the soovereign, whether monarchical or republican or parliamentary, was taken by Hobbes to be fundamental to civil life. Much of the literature on Hobbes has been devoted to his work on sovereignty. However, this does not exhaust the interest of Hobbes' thought, and recent scholars have also investigated such topics as his conception of historiography, his natural philosophy and his account of religion, and considered how these relate to his political thought. The articles selected in these three volumes reflect these concerns and offer an exploration of Hobbes' political philosophy.

Thomas Aquinas (1224-74) was born in Naples of a powerful Italian family. He took part in the major philosophical and theological controversies of his day and fought the decisive battle which re-admitted the study of the works of Aristotle. In his work he attempted to harmonise the rational insights of the classical world with revealed Christian truths. [He reinterpreted the Augustinian view of history and politics by concluding that the state did have positive value in itself, as an expression of God's providence and will for mankind. Man fulfilled himself in two ways - as a good citizen and as a Christian seeking salvation. Aquinas is therefore seen as reconciling the views of the pagan Aristotle with the teachings of Christianity.] Aquinas' theory of the state helped to put European political thought on a new plane. This wide-ranging collection of papers investigates and illuminates various aspects of Aquinas' thought regarding Church and State, society, natural law, justice and political authority.

The work of David Hume (1711-76), the Scottish historian and philosopher, constitutes a break with the assumptions of his predecessors who suggested that our ideas and practices answered to a rational design, whether divine or human. Instead Hume emphasized the origins of our ideas in sensation, suggested that reason was properly the slave of the passions, and located the origins of social and political institutions in utility and sentiment. Hume's philosophy found its complement in his political essays and History of England, which emhphasized unintended results and the complexity of the historical process. Altogether Hume's work constitutes the first thoroughgoing attempt since the rise of Christianity to characterize human experience in terms that offered an alternative to theologically-based or para-theological theories. As such, its importance for subsequent developments, like that of Kant's work, is not to be underestimated. This significant anthology contains articles on different aspects of his thought - his historical works, his political scepticism, his concepts of justice, liberty and property and moral evaluation.

This authoritative volume traces the creation and development of the EEC as an institution and assesses its impact on the economic development of Europe and the policy areas under its control. The book includes a thorough discussion of the background and origins of the European Economic Community. In the early years of post-war Europe, the continuous search for a multilateral commercial agreement resulted in various plans for European commercial cooperation. These schemes were proposed less in a desire for European integration and supranational institutions, than in response to real economic problems and were the precursors to the formation of the EEC. The next section investigates the process of creating the EEC including the road to integration of the major founding members, and the attitude of the United States to European integration. Finally, it discusses the economic development of the EEC since 1957. It explores major themes including the impact of the Community on trade and agriculture and on competition and financial policy, as well as the effects of its own enlargement. The study ends with the steps towards closer union embodied in the Treaty of Maastricht, which signalled the transformation of the European Economic Community into the European Union.

"Reformatting Politics" examines the ways in which new information and communication technologies (ICTs) are being used by civil society organizations (CSOs) to achieve their aims through activities and networks that cross national borders. These new ICTs--the internet, mobile phones, satellite radio and television--have allowed these civil society organizations to form extensive networks linking the local and the global in new ways and to flourish internationally in ways that were not possible without them.
The book consists of four sections containing essays by some of the top scholars and activists working at the intersections of networked societies, civil society organizations, and information technology. The book also includes a section that takes a critical look at the UN World Summit of Information Society and the role that global governance has played and will play in the use and dissemination of these new technologies. Finally, the book aims to influence this important and emerging field of inquiry by posing a set of questions and directions for future research. In sum, "Reformatting Politic"s is a fresh look at the way critical network practice through the use of information technology is reformatting the terms and terrains of global politics.

Today's North Atlantic Treaty Organization, with nearly thirty members and a global reach, differs strikingly from the alliance of twelve created in 1949 to "keep the Americans in, the Russians out, and the Germans down." These differences are not simply the result of the Cold War's end, 9/11, or recent twenty-first-century developments but represent a more general pattern of adaptability first seen in the incorporation of Germany as a full member of the alliance in the early 1950s. Unlike other enduring post-World War II institutions that continue to reflect the international politics of their founding era, NATO stands out for the boldness and frequency of its transformations over the past seventy years. In this compelling book, Seth A. Johnston presents readers with a detailed examination of how NATO adapts. Nearly every aspect of NATO-including its missions, functional scope, size, and membership-is profoundly different than at the organization's founding. Using a theoretical framework of "critical junctures" to explain changes in NATO's organization and strategy throughout its history, Johnston argues that the alliance's own bureaucratic actors played important and often overlooked roles in these adaptations. Touching on renewed confrontation between Russia and the West, which has reignited the debate about NATO's relevance, as well as a quarter century of post-Cold War rapprochement and more than a decade of expeditionary effort in Afghanistan, How NATO Adapts explores how crises from Ukraine to Syria have again made NATO's capacity for adaptation a defining aspect of European and international security. Students, scholars, and policy practitioners will find this a useful resource for understanding NATO, transatlantic relations, and security in Europe and North America, as well as theories about change in international institutions.

The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries represent a period of remarkable intellectual vitality in British philosophy, as figures such as Hobbes, Locke, Hume, and Smith attempted to explain the origins and sustaining mechanisms of civil society. Their insights continue to inform how political and moral theorists think about the world in which we live. From Moral Theology to Moral Philosophy reconstructs a debate which preoccupied contemporaries but which seems arcane to us today. It concerned the relationship between reason and revelation as the two sources of mankind's knowledge, particularly in the ethical realm: to what extent, they asked, could reason alone discover the content and obligatory character of morality? This was held to be a historical, rather than a merely theoretical question: had the philosophers of pre-Christian antiquity, ignorant of Christ, been able satisfactorily to explain the moral universe? What role had natural theology played in their ethical theories - and was it consistent with the teachings delivered by revelation? Much recent scholarship has drawn attention to the early-modern interest in two late Hellenistic philosophical traditions - Stoicism and Epicureanism. Yet in the English context, three figures above all - John Locke, Conyers Middleton, and David Hume - quite deliberately and explicitly identified their approaches with Cicero as the representative of an alternative philosophical tradition, critical of both the Stoic and the Epicurean: academic scepticism. All argued that Cicero provided a means of addressing what they considered to be the most pressing question facing contemporary philosophy: the relationship between moral philosophy and moral theology.

Pareto and Political Theory is the first book-length study of the philosopher's importance in terms of the most fundamental issues of political discourse: individualism vs. holism, science vs. hermeneutics, laissez-faire vs. social engineering, and value relativism vs. moral absolutism. Joseph V. Femia shows that although Pareto is considered a `founding father' of both sociology and mathematical economics, his contribution to political theory is neither fully recognised nor properly explored. This is also the only book to examine Pareto's critique of Kantianism and natural law and also includes the first comparison of Pareto's thought with postmodernism and a detailed refutation of the familiar charge that Pareto was a defender of fascism. This critical, but sympathetic analysis refutes the familiar charge that Pareto was some sort of proto-fascist and instead locates him in the Machiavellian tradition of `sceptical liberalism', which scorns metaphysical abstraction and assigns ontological primacy to the individual. Though suspicious of rational schemes for human improvement, sceptical liberals are equally suspicious of the myths and rhetoric that sustain the status quo. This new volume concludes with a fascinating comparison between Pareto's scepticism and that of recent postmodernist thought, which also debunks the `grand narratives' of historical progress. This book will be of great interest to all students of politics, philosophy and sociology.

This ambitious book presents a conceptual framework for an institutional approach to economic change and economic transformation. It sheds important light on two basic concepts: social complexity and interactive governance. The first part of the book develops the theoretical foundations for dealing with social complexity, economic governance and change. The second part describes the failures and successes of different forms of governance in different cultural and institutional contexts. A major theme in the book is the significance of social context and path-dependence in the management of economic change. The book will have particular appeal to economists and political scientists concerned with the political economy of economic change and the transition process.

Welfare States and Immigrant Rights deals with the impact of welfare states on immigrants' social rights, economic well-being and social inclusion, and it offers the first systematic comparison of immigrants' social rights across welfare states. To study immigrants' social rights the author develops an analytical framework that focuses on the interplay between 1) the type of welfare state regime, 2) forms of entry, or entry categories, and 3) the incorporation regime regulating the inclusion or exclusion of immigrants. The book maps out the development of immigrants' social rights from the early postwar period until around 2010 in six countries representing different welfare state regimes: the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Sweden, and Denmark. Part I addresses three major issues. The first is how inclusive or exclusionary welfare state policies are in relation to immigrants, and especially how the type of welfare state and incorporation regime affect their social rights. The second issue concerns changes in immigrant rights and the direction of the change: rights extension versus rights contraction. The third issue is how immigrants' social rights compare to those of citizens. Part II shifts from policies affecting immigrant rights to the politics of the policies. It examines the politics of inclusion and exclusion in the six countries, focusing on social rights extension and contraction and changes in the policy dimensions of the incorporation regime that impinge on immigrant rights.

While gender and race often are considered socially constructed, this book argues that they are physiologically constituted through the biopsychosocial effects of sexism and racism. This means that to be fully successful, critical philosophy of race and feminist philosophy need to examine not only the financial, legal, political and other forms of racist and sexism oppression, but also their physiological operations. Examining a complex tangle of affects, emotions, knowledge, and privilege, The Physiology of Sexist and Racist Oppression develops an understanding of the human body whose unconscious habits are biological. On this account, affect and emotion are thoroughly somatic, not something "mental " or extra-biological layered on top of the body. They also are interpersonal, social, and can be transactionally transmitted between people. Ranging from the stomach and the gut to the hips and the heart, from autoimmune diseases to epigenetic markers, Sullivan demonstrates the gastrointestinal effects of sexual abuse that disproportionately affect women, often manifesting as IBS, Crohn's disease, or similar functional disorders. She also explores the transgenerational effects of racism via epigenetic changes in African American women, who experience much higher pre-term birth rates than white women do, and she reveals the unjust benefits for heart health experienced by white people as a result of their racial privilege. Finally, developing the notion of a physiological therapy that doesn't prioritize bringing unconscious habits to conscious awareness, Sullivan closes with a double-barreled approach for both working for institutional change and transforming biologically unconscious habits. The Physiology of Sexist and Racist Oppression skillfully combines feminist and critical philosophy of race with the biological and health sciences. The result is a critical physiology of race and gender that offers new strategies for fighting male and white privilege.