Sinn Fein is one of the most controversial and uncompromising parties in Irish politics. Brian Feeney presents a comprehensive account of the role of Sinn Fein in Irish history since the inception of the movement in 1905 when Arthur Griffith first published The Sinn Fein Policy. Sinn Fein has survived an extraordinary history in politics and has seen some of the most famous names in Irish history pass through its ranks. This book examines the party in terms of the men who have led it and their progress through the electoral mechanism, the party's relationship with the IRA and the British and Irish governments, and, of course, its role in the current peace process. This is an important and timely book from an esteemed journalist, and an impartial analysis of Sinn Fein's involvement in Irish politics, north and south, over the last hundred years.

This book is a study of the centrality of racism in the construction and maintenance of class-based societies in Britain, the United States, and Western Europe. It combines analysis of historical and contemporary material to provide the reader with a better understanding of contemporary forms of racism.

The essays challenge assumptions of both racial superiority and inferiority and of "natural" racial antagonism. The book is intended for those readers concerned with understanding and changing our increasingly unequal and unjust societies as well as for those studying the issues of race relations, social structure, and equality in an academic setting.

Taking an innovative approach to the subject, this book looks at how U.S. presidents and their administrations' policies from the late 1960s to 2017 have led to rampant over-imprisonment and a public policy catastrophe in the United States. Mandatory minimum sentencing; "three-strikes-and-you're-out" legislation; harsher sentences and less parole and probation. The result of draconian criminal justice policies in the last six decades is that the United States is the largest incarcerator in the world, surpassing Russia and China, with significant overrepresentation of African Americans and Latinos in U.S. prisons, especially for low-level, nonviolent drug offenses. Presidents and Mass Incarceration: Choices at the Top, Repercussions at the Bottom shows how American presidents from Lyndon B. Johnson to Donald J. Trump have operated as significant political criminal justice entrepreneurs and how the leadership choices made at the top by these chief executives continue to have severe repercussions for the citizens at the lowest levels of our communities. Author Linda K. Mancillas references State of the Union Addresses, presidential initiatives, laws passed by Congress, Supreme Court decisions, and public opinion on high-profile crime events to assemble a cohesive framework of data that supports each president's impact on the incarceration explosion. Readers will come away with a greater appreciation for the complexity and magnitude of the political, economic, and societal issue of over-imprisonment that both the federal and state governments are attempting to address. Explains how presidential "tough-on-crime" rhetoric fueled by the public's fear of crime led to the war on crime, the war on drugs, and the war on gangs, resulting in the nation becoming known as "Prison America" Presents undeniable evidence that U.S. presidents have played a major role in America's imprisonment tragedy Provides a careful analysis of mass incarceration through presidential leadership to document how seemingly well-intentioned choices made at the top have had devastating repercussions on the bottom realm of our society

America's historic greatness is in decline, subverted by moneyed special interests and their lobbyists who game our political system to thwart the people's majority will to end military adventures undertaken as corporate boondoggles, curb global warming, make equitable minimum wage adjustments, foster stem cell research, and establish universal health care. Based on extensive and deep interviews, Moss portrays the motivations and modus operandi of each of the types of players in the corruption of the American political system to betray the legitimate interests of the American people. He quantifies the gains reaped by the system manipulators and by indirect beneficiaries, and measures the historic deterioration in the quality of our political candidates and elected officials as a function of campaign finance distortions. Selling Out America's Democracy focuses on composite types of the political players who are the tools of connivance and objects of control by the special interests: * Democratic congressional staff * Republican congressional staff * Washington lobbyists * media representatives * diplomats * non-profit citizen advocacy group staff Moss concludes by advancing a program of policy changes calculated to revive our democracy.

This book presents new research results on the challenges of local politics in different European countries, including Germany, the Netherlands, the Nordic countries and Switzerland, together with theoretical considerations on the further development and strengthening of local self-government. It focuses on analyses of the most recent developments in local democracy and administration.

The proper role of government is among the most politically contentious issues of our time. Behind the legal technicalities of recent reforms and disputes in the courts lie issues of profound significance for local democracy. This book shows how fundamental disagreements over the nature of local government and politics permeate the law and how law, in turn, shapes and influences local politics.

American constitutional lawyers and legal historians routinely assert that the Supreme Court's state action doctrine halted Reconstruction in its tracks. But it didn't. Rethinking the Judicial Settlement of Reconstruction demolishes the conventional wisdom - and puts a constructive alternative in its place. Pamela Brandwein unveils a lost jurisprudence of rights that provided expansive possibilities for protecting blacks' physical safety and electoral participation, even as it left public accommodation rights undefended. She shows that the Supreme Court supported a Republican coalition and left open ample room for executive and legislative action. Blacks were abandoned, but by the president and Congress, not the Court. Brandwein unites close legal reading of judicial opinions (some hitherto unknown), sustained historical work, the study of political institutions, and the sociology of knowledge. This book explodes tired old debates and will provoke new ones.

This book explores violence against the environment within the broad scope of transnational environmental crime (TEC): its extent, perpetrators, and responses. TEC has become one of the greatest threats to environmental and human security today, as well as a lucrative enterprise and a mode of life in many regions of the world. Transnational Spheres of Ecoviolence argues that we cannot seriously consider stopping TEC without also promoting environmental (and climate) justice. The spheres covered range from wildlife and plant crime to illegal fisheries to toxic waste and climate crime. These acts of violence against the environment are both localized in terms of event and impact, and globalized in terms of market drivers and internationalized responses. Because it is so often intimately linked to political violence, coerced labor, economic and physical displacement, and development opportunity costs, ecoviolence must be viewed primarily as a human security issue; the fight against it must derive legitimacy from impacts on local communities, and be twinned wth the protection of environmental activists. Reliance on the generosity of distant corporations or the effectiveness of legal structures will not be adequate; and militarized responses may do more harm to human security than good to nature. A transformative approach to transnational ecoviolence is a very complex task affected by the geopolitics of neoliberalism, authoritarian states, rebel factions and extremists, socio-economic patterns, and many other factors. In this challenging text, the authors capture this complexity in digestible form and offer a wide-ranging discussion of commensurate policy recommendations for governments and the general public.

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.

In this powerful and passionate critique of the 'war on terror' in Afghanistan and its extensions into Palestine and Iraq, Derek Gregory traces the long history of British and American involvements in the Middle East and shows how colonial power continues to cast long shadows over our own present.
Argues the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11 activated a series of political and cultural responses that were profoundly colonial in nature.
The first analysis of the "war on terror" to connect events in Afghanistan, Palestine, and Iraq.
Traces the connections between geopolitics and the lives of ordinary people.
Richly illustrated and packed with empirical detail.

"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 calls for a philosophical consideration of the development, challenges and successes of the European Union. The author argues that conceptual innovation is essential if progress on the European project is to be made; new meanings, rather than financial or institutional engineering solutions, will help solve the crisis. By applying a philosophical approach to diagnosing the EU crisis, the book reconsiders the basic concepts of democracy in the context of the complex reality of the EU and the globalised world where profound social and political changes are taking place. It will be of interest to students and scholars interested in EU politics, political theory and philosophy.

In this book, Mathias Albert develops an ambitious theoretical framework that describes world politics as a specific social system set within the wider political system of world society. Albert's analysis of the historical evolution and contemporary form of world politics takes the theory of social differentiation as its starting point. World politics is a specific, relatively recent form of politics and Albert shows how the development of a distinct system of world politics first began during the long nineteenth century. The book goes on to identify the different forms of social differentiation that underlie the variety of contemporary forms of organizing political authority in world politics. Employing sociological and historical perspectives, A Theory of World Politics also reflects critically on its relation to accounts of world politics in the field of international relations and will appeal to a wide readership in a range of fields.

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."

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)

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.

This book includes collective research by the Institute of Political Science of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, which is an important research institution of political science and a think-tank in China. The book was completed by the expert team of "China's Political System" headed by Director Fang Ning for several years and after several changes in their manuscripts. This book covers the core political systems of China, such as the leadership system of the Communist Party of China, the decision-making system of the Party and government in Chinese politics, the system of the people's congress, the relationship between the central and local authorities, the system of officials training and selection, the system of discipline inspection and supervision, the system of consultative democracy and the system of community-level self-governance, etc. This book aims to build a new paradigm of empirical research and introduction of the contemporary Chinese political system by using the description and research method of materialization and dynamics of the political system.

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.

This book examines the theoretical and practical relevance and challenges of the consociationalist model of democracy. Since the publication of the Politics of Accommodation (1968) and Democracy in Plural Societies (1977) Professor Lijphart's theories and practical implementations have played a key role in establishing enduring peace settlements. In this edited volume, scholars and Professor Lijphart himself critically examine the history of consocationalism and its application in areas including Northern Ireland, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Colombia. The book will be essential reading for undergraduate and graduate students of political science, comparative politics, transitional justice and peace studies. It will also be of use to practitioners ranging from diplomats to NGOs who are interested in the practical application of tested models of political accommodation.

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

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.

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

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.