This book examines the governability crisis faced by Israeli governmental institutions. For a long period of time, observers of Israel's government have reported the same phenomena: instability in most political positions not allowing for proper policy design, enhanced control of the bureaucracy over the policy making process, and complete uncertainty regarding the implementation of policies by the bureaucracy. However, while one expects that with such a toxic combination of all the wrong policy making components Israel would collapse, Israel has been able to achieve quite impressive landmarks in its overall performance. During the first decade of the 21st century, Israel became an OECD member and enjoyed high growth when the world was facing stagnation and economic collapse. Israel's government, which regularly faces quandaries in a variety of policy fields, is able to initiate large scale policies when needed. Yet, this same government refrains from initiating large-scale reforms in institutional structures. Hence, for analysts of political institutions, the Israeli state of affairs is one of choice: while initiating changes to reform and overhaul the Israeli institutional system is possible it is also perilous. To cope with that duality Israeli political leadership on all sides has developed a variety of mechanisms that allow them to provide the policy output needed so as to maintain the status-quo. This book examines these mechanisms as they exist in different facets of government work and explains their output and persistence. Examples include coalitional making and breaking, the ways in which ruling coalitions maneuver in parliament, and policy design and implementation. The book also explores the problem that exists in Israel's governability: the lack of a strategic high-order far sighted decision making. Finally, it offers a method of electoral reform that can address both of these systemic maladies.

The book theoretically examines the recent and topical debates over democracy and social rights, arguing that there are four fundamental rights that should be constitutionalized; minimum income; housing; healthcare; and education. The theoretical discussion is explored within an analysis of important legal cases.

Five presidents (Eisenhower, Reagan, Clinton, Bush, and Obama) have been elected to and served a second term. Seemingly free from electoral pressure, each president has taken a unique approach to their second term, and the book seeks to unpack the rationale behind their decisions and actions in their final years of power.

How do outside factors affect public administrators' decisions to make changes in their organizations? How do they manage those changes? "The Management of Change" answers these questions theoretically and empirically. In addition to providing a conceptual framework for public sector managers and administrative consultants, this unique book also presents real-life case studies, following actual administrators over a 20-year period and examining their decisions.

The U.S. government is an ever-more-complex system that few American citizens comprehend in any detail. Even some of its most basic operations, seemingly clear in concept, are in reality intricate and obscure. Although textbooks explain how the government is supposed to work in theory, they don't reveal how it actually works in practice. This book offers a concise and objective explanation of government operations, mapping the federal government's branches, departments, agencies, corporations, and quasi-official bodies--and the bureaucracies that support them. The authors effectively bridge the gap between the government's ideal, balanced structure, laid out in the Constitution, and its actual institutionalized form today, making this a superb resource for students and citizens at large. Coverage of the government's inner workings includes such subjects as executive-branch appointments, domestic and foreign policy development and execution, the federal budget, the legislative process, the Congressional committee system, the drawing of Congressional districts, the levels of the federal judiciary, aides in all three branches, and the various government offices and oversight agencies. BL25 black-and-white photographs BLFigures and charts capturing the structure of the federal government and many aspects of its functioning, such as the federal budgeting process, the apportionment of electoral votes, and U.S. government receipts and outlays BLTimelines BLQuick-reference chart listing past presidents, their years in office, and their party affiliation

This important new text brings together an outstanding group of international scholars to look at the current state of electoral politics around the world. Elements of the modern (or American) model of election campaigning have been adopted in many countries in recent years--including the use of mass media, the personalization of campaigns, use of public opinion polls, and a general professionalization of campaigns--and conditions would seem to favor the spread of that model. Contributors to this volume, from established democracies, new and restored democracies, and democracies facing destabilizing pressure, examine the extent to which electoral politics in their countries have been affected by the emergence of high-tech professional campaigns. Countries examined provide a cross-section of today's democracies, including the United States, Britain, Sweden, Germany, Russia, Poland, Spain, Israel, Italy, Argentina, and Venezuela. The work will be of interest to scholars and students alike in political communication, political parties and elections, and comparative politics.

Franklin Roosevelt was not only the first US president to be covered by public opinion polls, but his ratings have consistently exceeded those of all subsequent sitting presidents, save for John F. Kennedy. Moreover, Roosevelt also stands out with a popular appeal that is unsurpassed by any of his successors serving at least a full term. The key to his approval, as this book shows, was wartime leadership, not economic performance. It began with policies preparing the nation for war in the two years before formal entry. To use FDR's own coinage, it was making the United States the "arsenal of democracy" in the battle against tyranny. That pursuit, not the New Deal, earned him high marks with the American people and re-election to an unprecedented third term. World War II-and its heavy human toll-did nothing to diminish FDR's popularity. As such, the FDR experience defies major paradigms of presidential politics. Yet, Roosevelt has been relatively ignored by scholars of public opinion. What can FDR's experience teach us and his successors about rousing broad public support, particularly during wartime? What light does his success shed on the failures of Presidents Truman, Johnson, and George W. Bush in Korea, Vietnam, and Iraq? On key issues, mainly with foreign policy, FDR had to contend with an American public that opposed his plans at the outset. Helmut Norpoth argues that Roosevelt had an unparalleled ability for leadership, especially through the fabled "fireside chats" and his appreciation of opinion polls, that enabled him to move the public to embrace his policies. In this book, Norpoth takes an in-depth look at how FDR's leadership swayed public opinion, comparing his experience to his successors to draw broad conclusions about what makes for successful presidential politics.

From July 3-6, 1986, Americans hailed the 4th of July and the centennial of the Statue of Liberty in a celebration that became officially known as Liberty Weekend. In this study, David Procter analyzes the process of enacting political culture by examining how various political, religious, and ethnic groups transformed the experience of Liberty Weekend into a validation of their own individual social and political agendas. Broader in scope than any previous published work on political culture and the political ideal of liberty, Procter's work vividly demonstrates the rhetorical process by which American politicians, pundits, and community spokespersons convert political celebration into motivation for sociopolitical goals.

Following an introductory chapter on the relationship between symbols and culture, Procter provides an overview of the analysis of political culture as well as general comments on Liberty Weekend itself. Subsequent chapters analyze how specific groups used the weekend to further their own sociopolitical goals. Procter explains how blacks transformed the celebration into competing statements of community identity, explores how Ronald Reagan converted the event into a celebration of his Revolution, and examines how a nationalist group cast the event into a motive for an involved or confrontational American foreign policy. He then synthesizes the significant themes and symbolic clusters from these three chapters to determine what these webs of discourse can tell us about American political culture. Procter concludes that each group called on the ideograph Liberty to justify their specific, yet diverse, political agendas and that these disparate groups were able to use this common symbol because fundamentally Liberty represents America's cultural persona of pursuing a dream of success and achievement. Ideal as supplemental reading for courses in political communication and rhetorical criticism, this book represents a major contribution to our understanding of the complex nature of American political culture.

"Things You Never Knew or Were Told Not to Believe" reveals facts about Abraham Lincoln that most Americans do not know and will find hard to believe. It also documents untold facts about our Civil War, American Imperialism, and the biggest con perpetrated on African Americans. It describes a second Civil War that began in 1865 and explains the genesis of public welfare and modern slavery with consequences that have made the black race a perpetual underclass.

Author Robert Price documents the current war on black men and its devastating effects on black families. He believes few people know that Lincoln fought to prevent a second Civil War and its tragic lasting sectional and racial hostilities. He traces a clear history of the castration of Congress and the trashing of our Constitution by our Supreme Courts and presidents, who have assumed imperialistic powers.

Price cites past and present examples of misused power and force, including the war against marriage by radical feminists and foolish restrictions on personal freedoms by religions and our government. He suggests commonsense measures to reverse the nation's course, regain lost freedoms, reduce class warfare, stop the war on the black race, and remove barriers to good racial relationships and the upward mobility of African Americans.

Jon Lendon offers a bold new analysis of how Roman government worked in the first four centuries AD. A despotism rooted in force and fear enjoyed widespread support among the ruling classes of the provinces on the basis of an aristocratic culture of honour shared by rulers and ruled.

This book presents a set of original and innovative contributions on state, institutions and democracy in the field of political economy. Modern political economy has implied the interaction between politics and economics to understand political, electoral and public issues in different nations, and in this volume a group of leading political economists and political scientists from Europe, America and Asia provides theoretical advances, modelling and case studies on main topics in political economy. The analysis of the role and performance of politics and democracy in diverse nations implies the study of the organization of the state, lobbying, political participation, public policies, electoral politics, public administration and the provision of public services. This book provides advances in the research frontier of these topics and combines historical evidence, institutional analysis, mathematical models and empirical analysis in an interdisciplinary approach. Political and social scientists, economists and those interested in the performance of states, democracy and elections can find new research results in this volume.

An examination of the skillful political maneuvering of William Borah and Hiram Johnson, two of the post-war leaders of Republican progressivism, this study analyzes efforts to prevent U.S. entry into the League of Nations despite overwhelming support for the organization among both Democrats and Republicans. Following the debacle of the 1912 election, the leadership of the Republican Party embarked on a strategy of reconciliation designed to end the acrimony between progressive and conservative factions so that it could unite against the Democratic Party. A small group of progressive Republicans quickly realized that they could threaten to resume infighting and could, thus, influence policy making on important foreign policy issues. This political environment enabled William Borah and Hiram Johnson to have an extraordinary influence over the Republican Party's position concerning the League of Nations, an organization which they regarded as an agency for the perpetuation of European empires and, therefore, a threat to American democracy. Borah and Johnson effectively intimidated their party leadership and blocked the American participation in the League. Once this pattern was established, it would continue to influence Republican Party actions, in particular the construction of the Republican Party platform in 1920, the U.S. position regarding the Washington Conference on Naval Disarmament, and the issue of U.S. membership in the World Court.

In this stimulating and carefully researched study, Conteh-Morgan offers a multidimensional look at the political economy of African states. While many books focus on explanations of the processes and outcomes of political transitions, this work demonstrates a deeper understanding of democratization by combining macro and micro issues and actors, and historical and contemporary dynamics, into a theoretical framework that underscores anomalies, dilemmas, and paradoxes in the political transformation of Africa. Offering one of the first detailed and balanced evaluations of democratization, Conteh-Morgan breaks new ground by providing thought provoking insights into political transitions in developing countries. The work will be of interest to scholars in comparative politics, development studies, and African studies.

Millard Fillmore began his presidency on July 10, 1850, immediately passing the Fugitive Slave Act, and forever damaging his political career. Abolitionists and antislavery politicians were appalled and in 1852 Fillmore was denied nomination for a second term. Four years later he campaigned again for the presidency to no avail. As the decade came to an end, Millard Fillmore was no more than an obscure name in history. Today, historians are finding new interest in Fillmore and his politics on slavery. Many believed he tolerated injustice for what he perceived was the greater good. In this comprehensive bibliography, students will find citations and sources for information on Millard Fillmore's childhood and personal life, presidency and post-presidential career. Students can easily access specific information through the table of contents and author and subject indexes.

Through the shadowy persona of ""Deep Throat,"" FBI official Mark Felt became as famous as the Watergate scandal his ""leaks"" helped uncover. Best known through Hal Holbrook's portrayal in the film version of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein's All the President's Men, Felt was regarded for decades as a conscientious but highly secretive whistleblower who shunned the limelight. Yet even after he finally revealed his identity in 2005, questions about his true motivations persisted. Max Holland has found the missing piece of that Deep Throat puzzle-one that's been hidden in plain sight all along. He reveals for the first time in detail what truly motivated the FBI's number-two executive to become the most fabled secret source in American history. In the process, he directly challenges Felt's own explanations while also demolishing the legend fostered by Woodward and Bernstein's bestselling account. Holland critiques all the theories of Felt's motivation that have circulated over the years, including notions that Felt had been genuinely upset by White House law-breaking or had tried to defend and insulate the FBI from the machinations of President Nixon and his Watergate henchmen. And, while acknowledging that Woodward finally disowned the ""principled whistleblower"" image of Felt in The Secret Man, Holland shows why that famed journalist's latest explanation still falls short of the truth. Holland showcases the many twists and turns to Felt's story that are not widely known, revealing not a selfless official acting out of altruistic patriotism, but rather a career bureaucrat with his own very private agenda. Drawing on new interviews and oral histories, old and just-released FBI Watergate files, papers of the Watergate Special Prosecution Force, presidential tape recordings, and Woodward and Bernstein's Watergate-related papers, he sheds important new light on both Felt's motivations and the complex and often problematic relationship between the press and government officials. Fast-paced and scrupulously fact-checked, Leak resolves the mystery residing at the heart of Mark Felt's actions. By doing so, it radically revises our understanding of America's most famous presidential scandal.

The end of the Cold War, the cessation of superpower rivalry, and the demise of apartheid in South Africa have offered Africans another opportunity to engage in effective institutional reform and state reconstruction. This book emphasizes the importance of institutions to economic growth and development and, using public choice theory, provides guidelines that can be used to initiate and implement an effective people-driven institutional reform program on the continent.

An analysis of the first half of Francois Hollande's five-year presidential term that examines the strengths and weaknesses of presidential politics following the Left's return to power in 2012 and puts forward an interpretation of the underlying nature of contemporary French politics, and the French Fifth Republic.

The constituent power of the people is one of the fundamental ideas of modern politics. It was first articulated during the early modern revolutions when the idea was deployed to legitimize the revolution and to develop constitutions. This study sketches the historical background and the articulation of the idea of constituent power of the people, using the threefold meaning of the idea initially suggested by Carl Schmitt: constituent power being power above the existing constitutional order, power within that order, and power beside the constitutional order. These conceptions are not only discussed in the historical context they were articulated in but also placed within the framework of contemporary political and constitutional thought. In doing so, this book explores the various emphasizes that different theorists place on the role of constituent power in democracies to provide a comprehensive understanding of how this cornerstone of political thought has evolved since it was first posited in the 18th Century.

The complex man at the center of America's most self-destructive presidency In this provocative and revelatory assessment of the only president ever forced out of office, the legendary Washington journalist Elizabeth Drew explains how Richard M. Nixon's troubled inner life offers the key to understanding his presidency. She shows how Nixon was surprisingly indecisive on domestic issues and often wasn't interested in them. Turning to international affairs, she reveals the inner workings of Nixon's complex relationship with Henry Kissinger, and their mutual rivalry and distrust. The Watergate scandal that ended his presidency was at once an overreach of executive power and the inevitable result of his paranoia and passion for vengeance.
Even Nixon's post-presidential rehabilitation was motivated by a consuming desire for respectability, and he succeeded through his remarkable resilience. Through this book we finally understand this complicated man. While giving him credit for his achievements, Drew questions whether such a man--beleaguered, suspicious, and motivated by resentment and paranoia--was fit to hold America's highest office, and raises large doubts that he was.

The emergence of Latin American firebrands who champion the cause of the impoverished and rail against the evils of neoliberalism and Yankee imperialism--Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, Evo Morales in Bolivia, Nestor Kirchner in Argentina, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador in Mexico--has changed the landscape of the Americas in dramatic ways. This is the first biography to appear in English about one of these charismatic figures, who is known in his country by his adopted nickname of "Little Ray of Hope."

The book follows Lopez Obrador's life from his early years in the flyspecked state of Tabasco, his university studies, and the years that he lived among the impoverished Chontal Indians. Even as he showed an increasingly messianic elan to uplift the downtrodden, he confronted the muscular Institutional Revolutionary Party in running twice for governor of his home state and helping found the leftist-nationalist Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD). As the PRD's national president, he escalated his political and ideological warfare against his former president, Carlos Salinas, and other "conspirators" determined to link Mexico to the global economy at the expense of the poor. His strident advocacy of the "have-nots" lifted Lopez Obrador to the mayorship of Mexico City, which he rechristened the "City of Hope." Its ubiquitous crime, traffic, pollution, and housing problems have made the capital a tomb for most politicians. Not for Lopez Obrador. Through splashy public works, monthly stipends to senior citizens, huge marches, and a dawn-to-dusk work schedule, he converted the position into a trampoline to the presidency. Although he lost the official count by an eyelash, the hard-charging Tabascan cried fraud, took the oath as the nation's "legitimate president," and barnstormed the country, excoriating the "fascist" policies of President Felipe Calderon and preparing to redeem the destitute in the 2012 presidential contest.

Grayson views Lopez Obrador as quite different from populists like Chavez, Morales, and Kirchner and argues that he is a "secular messiah, who lives humbly, honors prophets, gathers apostles, declares himself indestructible, relishes playing the role of victim, and preaches a doctrine of salvation by returning to the values of the 1917 Constitution-- fairness for workers, Indians' rights, fervent nationalism, and anti-imperialism."

Since 1974, when the current wave of democratisation began, the movement towards democracy in Asia has remained limited. Many countries in Asia, in fact, are not making a decisive move towards democracy, and find themselves struggling with the challenges of democratic consolidation and governance. Focusing on Indonesia, Thailand and Korea, this book analyses why democratisation is so difficult in Asia. The book investigates the dynamics by which citizens embrace democratic rule and reject authoritarianism, and also compares these dynamics with those of consolidating democracies around the world. The book looks at the forces that affect the emergence and stability of democracy, such as elite interactions, economic development and popular attitudes as beliefs and perceptions about the legitimacy of political systems have long been recognised as some of the most critical influences on regime change. The book also discusses what it is about the nature of public opinion and the processes of day-to-day democratic participation that have made these countries vulnerable to repeated crises of legitimacy. Using Indonesia, Korea, and Thailand as case studies, this book highlights the uniqueness of the Asia's path to democracy, and shows both the challenges and opportunities in getting there. The book will be of interest to students and scholars of Asian Politics, Comparative Politics and International Studies.

During her lifetime the name of Gertrude Bell evoked rich images of the exotic and mysterious Arab world. But her fame faded and now she is remembered only as a friend and colleague of T.E. Lawrence. She was an intrepid traveller, journeying alone through the deserts of the Middle East or scaling testing peaks in the Swiss Alps. Later, as a British political officer in Baghdad, where she died and is buried, she was able to play a considerable role in determining the future of Mesopotamia, later to be called Iraq.