Leading the problems most critical to government decision makers worldwide are those that derive from privatization, democratization, and decentralization. Dr. Nagel and a panel of academics and practitioners help clarify the ways in which problems traceable to these trends are being handled -- and how they might be handled better -- in light of the goals, experiences, constraints, and other factors affecting participants in world governance. Among the many important features of the book is its interdisciplinary approach and the way it offers African, Asian, Latin American, European and North American viewpoints. It also combines the perspectives of liberal and conservative ideologies. Cross-national with concrete examples and broad concepts and principles carefully detailed, the book is an important source of background and insight. Nagel and the contributors make clear that privatizing can involve shifting from government to private operations, with or without government ownership and with or without liberal contract provisions to protect consumers, workers, or the environment. They show that democratization can include the expansion of political participation and can give minorities the legal right to convert the majority to their positions, possibly the technological and economic facilitators as well. They also investigate ways in which national or state governments can be involved as "high units" in decentralization processes, but show that decentralization can involve local governments, neighborhoods, businesses, or even individuals as the lower or "decentral units." Throughout, the book offers alternative positions and discusses their consequences from a variety of cross-nationaland interdisciplinary perspectives.

This book strives to answer two interrelated questions: Why have certain states in the Americas been more successful than others at creating stable democratic regimes? Why have certain states in the Americas failed to create stable democratic regimes? To answer both questions, the author focuses on four states - the United States, Argentina, Chile, and Peru. Throughout the analysis, he isolates and evaluates the conditions that helped or hindered the development of each state and of its political regime. He presents his conclusions in the form of time-related explanatory hypotheses. By identifying and examining the conditions that brought about the transformation of each states and of its political regimes, this study ultimately facilitates a discussion of the future of democracy in each of these countries as well as in the world.

This book addresses current changes of education policies in a context of globalisation. It does so by focusing on the implementation of performance-based accountability policies in France and in Quebec (Canada). It questions the trajectory of these policies, their mediations and their instrumentation in various territories and schools through a theoretical framework which combines a North American neo-institutionalist approach with the perspective of the French sociologie de l'action publique. The book extends the current international literature on English-speaking experiences of hard accountability to research on "soft" accountability policies and proposes a deep investigation in two highly contrasted education systems. This investigation is multilevel and has led to field research both in schools, in intermediate authorities, and in central administrations for three years. The research presented in the book addresses the international literature on accountability in public administration and in education, the current transformations of governance in education, as well as the forms taken by the globalisation of education policies in countries differently exposed to international influences. The comparison highlights a convergent neo-statist trajectory of the performance-based accountability policy in the two countries, various forms of governance by results enacted at the local and meso level, and more intense impacts of these policies on schools and teacher's practices in Quebec than in France.

There have been volumes upon volumes written about the US Constitution, but many of them just confuse things.

William James, a longtime student of the US Constitution, relies on James Madison, its recognized father, as well as Alexander Hamilton and John Jay to reveal the document's true meaning in this detailed analysis.

James reveals what the Founding Fathers really intended the Constitution to do, and he also shares forgotten truths, such as:

"Natural born" means that a child is born from parents who are both citizens of the United States.

The Second Amendment simply recognizes two unalienable rights; one is the right of free states to organize a militia, and the other is the right of citizens to keep and bear arms.

Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal is believed by many to have prolonged and exacerbated the Great Depression. More importantly, the New Deal was unconstitutional.

James also explores how politicians consistently come up short in applying constitutional principles and how lawyers deliberately confuse people about the Constitution's meaning.

Stop accepting what politicians say at face value, and empower yourself with the knowledge you need to stand up for your rights with "The Constitution and What It Means."

"Well-researched and straightforward"
--"International Affairs, Oct. 2001"

"This is a well-documented and perceptive analysis of the workings of the Syrian regime and of the problems confronting the country...well worth reading"
--"International Journal, Autumn 2001"

For more than thirty years Hafez al-Asad has ruled Syria with an iron fist. Six U.S. presidents and eight Israeli prime ministers have come and gone, but Asad remains, one of the last of the old generation of Arab leaders. But in the post-Cold War Middle East Asad and his country are faced with an array of bewildering choices. Will they allow greater civil liberties and economic liberalization, or assert strong, centralized one-party control of the state? Will they make peace with Israel, and at what price? Will they cement their growing relationship with the United States or return to the hostilities of the past?

Eyal Zisser tackles these questions and gets inside the mind of the man President Clinton called "the smartest leader in the Middle East." He also examines the peculiar dynamics of the Asad family with its Byzantine power plays and competing factions. He tells the fascinating story of how Asad struggles to appease his relatives and his clan while his son waits in the wings to assume power and his brother plots from abroad to gain control of the nation he regards as rightfully his.

Asad's Legacy is the most up-to-date, thorough treatment of Asad's role in the history and politics of the contemporary Middle East. Zisser sheds new light on the story of Asad's rule over his nation and points the way to the future of Syria and the entire region.

This book provides fresh perspectives in the legal study of the Court of Justice of the European Union. In the context of European studies, the Court has mainly been analysed in light of its central role in the process of continental integration. Moreover, the Court has traditionally been studied by specialists for its important role as an agent of comparative law. This book studies the evolution of the Court itself, rather than that of the EU legal order in its judge-made dimension, and addresses several institutional aspects of its structure and organization, selected and constructed as a complete range of symptomatic figures of judicial institutionalisation. In doing so, the author seeks to showcase how the development and the institutional evolution of the CJEU happened through a selective internalization of comparative influences.

This book gives a historical and contemporary overview of the redistricting process, using North Carolina for the different political, electoral, and legal issues and debates over the practice of drawing legislative district boundaries. Redistricting has been characterized as "the most political activity in America," and North Carolina has often been at the heart of recent controversies over this particular activity. In fact, the Tar Heel state was once described as "long notorious for (its) outrageous reapportionment." Through legislative construction to significant legal challenges, the Tar Heel state has been a noted case study for the past thirty years. From the contentious issues of redistricting principles to the matters of gerrymandering, based on race and politics, North Carolina's past three decades have seen major U.S. Supreme Court cases deal with redistricting controversies. By exploring this state's dealings with gerrymandering and redistricting, readers will have a better sense of the dynamics facing the nation as it confronts the 2020 Census and the subsequent redistricting efforts in 2021.

When parties undergo abrupt organisational changes between elections - such as when they fuse, split, join or abandon party lists - they alter profoundly the organisation and supply of electoral information to voters. The alternatives on the ballot are no longer fixed but need to be actively sought out instead. This book examines how voters cope with the complexity triggered by party instability. Breaking with previous literature, it suggests that voters are versatile and ingenious decision-makers. They adapt to informational complexity with a set of cognitively less costly heuristics uniquely suited to the challenges they face. A closer look at the impact of party instability on the vote advances and qualifies quintessential theories of vote choice, including proximity voting, direction-intensity appeals, economic voting and the use of cognitive heuristics. The rich and nuanced findings illustrate that political parties hold a key to understanding voter behaviour and representation in modern democracy.

In 1890, Mississippi called a convention to rewrite its constitution. That convention became the singular event that marked the state's transition from the nineteenth century to the twentieth and set the path for the state for decades to come. The primary purpose of the convention was to disfranchise African American voters as well as some poor whites. The result was a document that transformed the state for the next century. In Sowing the Wind, Dorothy Overstreet Pratt traces the decision to call that convention, examines the delegates' decisions,and analyzes the impact of their new constitution. Pratt argues the constitution produced a new social structure, which pivoted the state's culture from a class-based system to one centered upon race. Though state leaders had not anticipated this change, they were savvy in their manipulation of the issues. The new constitution effectively filled the goal of disfranchisement. Moreover, unlike the constitutions of many other southern states, it held up against attack for over seventy years. It also hindered the state socially and economically well into the twentieth century.

"This timely book provides insight into the changing role of the 'hospital' in the face of technological, organizational innovation and ever-tightening health budgets."James Barlow, Imperial College Business School, UK "This book covers various relevant aspects of the hospital in different states and contexts. Underlining the importance of business models for future hospitals, this publication presents models of care from a historic and a current perspective. All authors possess a deep insight into different health care systems, not only as scholars but as experts working for world-renowned health policy institutions such as the World Health Organization, the World Bank or the European Observatory for Health Systems."Siegfried Walch, Management Center Innsbruck, Austria "For an organisation like mine, representing those involved in the strategic planning of healthcare infrastructure, this book provides invaluable insights into what really matters - now and for the future - in the complex and contentious field of hospital development."Jonathan Erskine, European Health Property Network, Netherlands This book seeks to reframe current policy discussions on hospitals. Healthcare services turn expensive economic resources-people, capital, pharmaceuticals, energy, materials-into care and cure. Hospitals concentrate the use and the cost of these resources, particularly highly-trained people, expensive capital, and embedded technologies. But other areas of health, such as public health and primary care, seem to attract more attention and affection, at least within the health policy community. How to make sense of this paradox? Hospitals choose, or are assigned, to deliver certain parts of care packages. They are organised to do this via "business models". These necessarily incorporate models of care - the processes of dealing with patients. The activity needs to be governed, in the widest senses. Rational decisions need to be taken about both the care and the resources to be used. This book pulls these elements together, to stimulate a debate.

This book offers an empirical and theoretical account of the mode of governance that characterizes the Bologna Process. In addition, it shows how the reform materializes and is translated in everyday working life among professors and managers in higher education. It examines the so-called Open Method of Coordination as a powerful actor that uses "soft governance" to advance transnational standards in higher education. The book shows how these standards no longer serve as tools for what were once human organizational, national or international, regulators. Instead, the standards have become regulators themselves - the faceless masters of higher education. By exploring this, the book reveals the close connections between the Bologna Process and the EU regarding regulative and monitoring techniques such as standardizations and comparisons, which are carried out through the Open Method of Coordination. It suggests that the Bologna Process works as a subtle means to circumvent the EU's subsidiarity principle, making it possible to accomplish a European governance of higher education despite the fact that education falls outside EU's legislative reach. The book's research interest in translation processes, agency and power relations among policy actors positions it in studies on policy transfer, policy borrowing and globalization. However, different from conventional approaches, this study draws on additional interpretive frameworks such as new materialism.

What happens in Congress affects all of our lives and extends into every corner of the economy. Because so much is at stake there, businesses and other interest groups spend billions of dollars each year trying to influence it.

Yet, most of these efforts are doomed to futility from the outset. Only a small percentage of the bills introduced in Congress actually become law, and most interested parties do not fully understand why those few bills succeed. More importantly, how to get Congress to do what they want remains a mystery to them. It is as if everyone in the place is speaking in the ancient Greek of the first democracy.

This book will help you understand Congress. Written from the perspective of one who has helped put a lot of bills on the President s desk and helped stop a lot more, this book explains in everyday terms why Congress behaves as it does. Then it shows you how you can best deploy whatever resources you have to move Congress in your direction.

You need no longer wonder what goes on in Congress. The book will allow you to read the news every day and understand what drives congressional actions. More importantly, you will no longer waste your time and money on lobbying and advocacy strategies that do not help your cause or, worse yet, actually hurt it. You will also learn when congressional actions can and cannot happen allowing you to spend your resources elsewhere if necessary.

Because you have limited time, this book sticks to the basics and its chapters are short so that it can be digested rapidly in smaller chunks. Its advice applies to anyone who wants to affect the outcomes in Congress.

"By providing a practical guide to lobbying, Persuading Congress demystifies the ways in which citizens can influence legislation and achieve their public policy objectives. Anyone who wants to make a difference through legislation -- not just executives -- needs to read this book, master its lessons, and keep it handy."
- F. Christopher Arterton, Dean, Graduate School of Political Management, The George Washington University

"This revealing book pulls back the curtain on the Congressional decision-making process and, best of all, provides invaluable advice to corporate executives on effectively influencing not just national and local legislation but the corporate environment as well."
-- Robert Clements, Chairman & CEO, EverBank Financial Corp.

"The Constitution gives Americans the right to petition their government for a redress of grievances. And no legislature is more accessible to its own people than the United States Congress. But rights and access alone do not translate into effective engagement or useful political action. In Persuading Congress, Joseph Gibson, a longtime veteran of Capitol Hill, offers masterful counsel to anyone who wants to work well with Congress. In Washington, there are well over 10,000 registered lobbyists. Very few grasp and convey the keys to successful advocacy as well as Gibson does."
- Martin Gold, Covington & Burling, Washington, DC

45 chapters

Summary of Contents

Part I: How Congress Works
A. The Internal Dynamics of Congress
B. External Influences on Congress

Part II: How You Can Influence Congress
A. Facts of Life
B. Personal Tools
C. Intellectual Tools
D. Environmental Tools
E. Practical Tools
F. Opportunities
G. Long-Term Considerations

Appendices

Index

Complete Table of Contents online at www.PersuadingCongress.com

Explores and documents the causes and effects of the long history of vote denial on American politics, culture, law, and society. The debate over who can and cannot vote has been "on trial" since the American Revolution. Throughout U.S. history, the franchise has been awarded and denied on the basis of wealth, status, gender, ethnicity, and race. Featuring a unique mix of analysis and documentation, Voting Rights on Trial illuminates the long, slow, and convoluted path by which vote denial and dilution were first addressed, and then defeated, in the courts. Four narrative chapters survey voting rights from colonial times to the 2000 presidential election, focus on key court cases, and examine the current voting climate. The volume includes analysis of voting rights in the new century and their implications for future electoral contests. The coverage concludes with selections of documents from cases discussed, relevant statutes and amendments, and other primary sources. A timeline giving the history of voting rights from 1619, when Virginia planters voted for the first time, to 2000, when the Supreme Court invalidated Florida's recount process, which ultimately determined the outcome of the election Excerpts of key legal documents including Reynolds v. Sims (one person, one vote) and Bush v. Gore (debate over nationalization of voting rights)

When Governor Mitch Daniels (Indiana) compared testifying before Congress to getting a root canal, he was being polite. Sitting vulnerably at a witness table under hot television lights while members of the House or Senate stare down at you from above is not just intimidating; it can wreck your career, your company, and your credibility if you say the wrong thing.

As a practical guide to assist witnesses and their organizations in preparing and delivering Congressional testimony, this book is designed for use by anyone or any organization called upon to testify before a committee of Congress, and for those who are providing assistance in preparing the testimony and the witness. This book serves as a guide through the unique maze of the Congressional hearings process for virtually any witness or organization, including federal departments and agencies, the federal judiciary, members and staff of the legislative branch itself, associations, corporations, the military service branches, NGOs, private and voluntary organizations (PVOs), public interest entities, state and local governmental officials and institutions, and individuals who are chosen to appear as a witness before Congress for any reason on any topic.

Similarly, in the world of academics and scholarship, this reference work can be helpful to scholars and writers in think-tanks and research organizations, as well as to faculty, researchers and students engaged in the study of law, business, government, politics, political science and the legislative processes of government.

This book can also serve as a reliable reference source and helpful tool for law, lobbying, government relations, accounting, and other public policy-related service industry professionals who are involved with the Congressional hearings process on behalf of their clients', their customers' and their own public policy, legislative and government relations interests.

"Testifying Before Congress" demystifies the Congressional hearings process, and assists witnesses and their organizations to be well-prepared when appearing before a Congressional committee to testify.

The principles in this book may also be used by those preparing for hearings before federal agencies and international tribunals, as well as state and local governmental bodies. However, the major thrust of this work focuses on the distinct Congressional hearing process and its major elements.

More than 20 endorsers--who include one current and one former governor, a city mayor, corporate CEOs and industry leaders, directors of top law and lobbying organizations, the Chairman of Bank of America, several past and present top government officials and agency directors, a bar association president, law school deans and university leaders, and heads of non-governmental organizations (see all endorsements at the book's web site)-- strongly recommend this book for lobbyists, executives, associations, government officials, academics, and virtually anyone who is called to testify before Congress.

""Testifying Before Congress" is the best "how to" resource that I have seen -- it is well-researched, experience-based, and thoughtfully written, with a dash of humor added for good measure."
- Samuel M. Davis, Dean of the School of Law, The University of Mississippi

Full Table of Contents and endorsements at www.TCNTBC.com

One of the great ironies of American politics is that George McGovern, one of the most misinterpreted and misunderstood men ever to seek the presidency, was also perhaps one of the most intelligent and far-sighted. Sadly, he is generally remembered for his landslide defeat to Richard Nixon in the 1972 presidential contest. The stigma of that defeat has often overshadowed McGovern's otherwise influential and respectable career in politics. Richard Michael Marano shows that despite his infamous defeat, McGovern--very much a man of high principles--stood tall and spoke his conscience when he decided in 1983 that he would again run for the presidency. While his candidacy was at first seen by many as a pathetic attempt by a political has-been to relive past glories, McGovern quickly proved his critics wrong by running a solid, admirable campaign. In an era of conservatism, McGovern offered the American voter a clear alternative to the politics of Ronald Reagan, and his campaign helped guide the Democratic candidates onto a platform based on substantive issues and common sense ideas. Marano, a McGovern activist in the Connecticut campaign, provides an inside, yet detailed and documented, account of McGovern's last play on the national stage and all that went into it. This book is an in-depth analysis of the 1984 Democratic campaign, as well as a detailed discussion of George McGovern's common sense program for America.

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

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

First president of his generation. Second president to be impeached. Bill Clinton led the nation during eight years of unprecedented economic prosperity and peace, creating millions of new jobs, swapping deficit for surplus, and advancing his agenda of social programs. Yet he was riddled with scandal. This encyclopedia of more than 230 alphabetical entries covers all the major events, issues, and personalities of the Clinton administration, including full treatments of his impeachment, Whitewater, Travelgate, Monica, key members of his administration, Congressional opponents, foreign and domestic policy, elections, laws, terms and catchphrases, and national and foreign events that impacted Clinton's presidency. This balanced account is a perfect reference for students of, detractors from, and supporters of, William Jefferson Clinton.

Among the domestic issues covered are health care reform, gays in the military, abortion, gun control, and welfare reform. Also included are the many foreign policy issues Clinton dealt with such as Bosnia, Northern Ireland, and the Middle East. Numerous charts, tables, and graphs provide vital statistical information about legislation, the economy, federal spending, election returns, and crime during the Clinton years. A chronology of events and many photos accompany the text. Thorough cross-referencing will aid researchers, as will bibliographies of print and Internet sources following each entry.

Al Gore and the liberal left would have you believe the world is in an energy crisis. They would have you believe that only alternative energies- "green" energies-will save us from this crisis and the world from self-destruction. Gerald Westbrook has a rebuttal. Westbrook spent his career in the energy field, working with a wide variety of energy sources that have proved their efficacy, if only the "Gorons" would quiet down for a second.

"How Green Are the Gorons?: Liberal Propaganda Out of Control" is an in-depth review of our country's energy situation, written by an informed man who has been there and seen that. Westbrook discusses the research behind global warming. Pulling from his extensive experience, he provides comments and examples on key American energy sources. He would argue that it is much too soon to enter into a carbon-free world It's also much too soon to panic.

The Goron propaganda has convinced the country that we are in crisis. The current podium propaganda is so loud that it operates at the level of a nationwide white noise, blocking out analysis and debate. By utilizing our energy sources-including fossil fuels-in a cost-effective way, our energy situation will be manageable.