This book considers the status of constitutional literacy in the United States along with ways to assess and improve it. The author argues that pervasive constitutional illiteracy is a problem for both law enforcement agencies and for ordinary citizens. Based on the author's decades of teaching in law enforcement agencies around the country, this book argues for the moral and pragmatic value of constitutional literacy and its application in twenty-first century society.

This book examines issues of race and policing through the lens of representative bureaucracy theory. According to representative bureaucracy theory, demographic correspondence between government employees and the local population can lead to more favorable outcomes for minority groups. It argues that police forces with higher minority composition will have more positive outcomes across measures such as fewer excessive force complaints and fewer fatal encounters with officers. Additionally, the book asserts that more representative forces will demonstrate responsiveness and accountability by implementing policies such as citizen review boards for excessive force complaints. It does this by first providing a brief overview of issues surrounding race and policing in America, documenting racial representation occurring in local police forces nationwide, and exploring the potential causes and consequences of underrepresentation. It concludes by discussing the implications of our findings and offer potential policy remedies and solutions that local law enforcements can pursue in order to reduce minority underrepresentation and improve policing outcomes.

Victor Dalmau is a young doctor when he is caught up in the Spanish Civil War, a tragedy that leaves his life - and the fate of his country - forever changed. Together with his sister-in-law, he is forced out of his beloved Barcelona and into exile in Chile. There, they find themselves enmeshed in a rich web of characters who come together in love and tragedy over the course of four generations, destined to witness the battle between freedom and repression as it plays out across the world.

Over the past three decades, market reforms have transformed public services such as education, health, and care of the elderly. Whereas previous studies present markets as having similar and largely non-political effects, this book shows that political parties structure markets in diverse ways to achieve distinct political aims. Left-wing attempts to sustain the legitimacy of the welfare state are compared with right-wing wishes to limit the state and empower the private sector. Examining a broad range of countries, time periods, and policy areas, Jane R. Gingrich helps readers make sense of the complexity of market reforms in the industrialized world. The use of innovative multi-case studies and in-depth interviews with senior European policymakers enriches the debate and brings clarity to this multifaceted topic. Scholars and students working on the policymaking process in this central area will be interested in this new conceptualization of market reform.

This book is a treatise against neoliberalism illuminated by the path of China. China is a model to be mimicked, but more so theoretically than by replication. If anything, nations of the global South must rid themselves of neoliberally imposed 'one-size-fits all' models, instrumentalised to shift value to US empire. Neoliberal models, robbing nations of their histories and resources, are negative 'best practice' serving the interests of the hegemon. Developing nations need to search for the theory that corresponds to their own conditions and development strategies. China's experience, anchored in labour as the historical agent, offers numerous theoretical cues as to how to build comparable home-grown paths. Thinking development with a subject voids reductionist politics in favour of sober class analysis. The study concludes by restating the age-old wisdom that there is no development without the rule of labour.

This edited collection explores the role of Euroscepticism in the European Parliament (EP) elections of 2014 both in particular EU Member States and across broader regions. It shows how the "second rate" features of elections with no clear agenda-setting role facilitated the astonishing success of Eurosceptic parties while the traditionally "second order" nature of purely legislative elections amplified this outcome, giving it a quite different character than the outcome of any previous EP elections, with potential in turn to affect outcomes of later national elections as well. The chapters draw on a number of different methodological approaches and focus on different perspectives regarding how Euroscepticism played a role in the election context, investigating public opinion, party strategies and media coverage; and assessing how these elections created links to national party politics with likely consequences for electoral success of Eurosceptic parties in future national elections and referendums. This book will be of particular interest to students and scholars in the fields of European politics, voting behavior Euroscepticism.

Since the end of the Cold War many new countries have been created, and several new wars have broken out, resulting in new forms of politics and government for which Cold War paradigms are inadequate. Using extensive exhibits, this book provides a comparative framework for understanding governance in today's world. The author selects 100 countries as worthy of greater investigation, highlighting 50 of them as prone to ethnic-based problems and 33 as beset by violent domestic conflict, and provides a comparative political analysis of their governing structures.

The 100 countries covered are spread equitably across five geographical zones--Europe, Islamic Zone, Africa, Asia, and the Western Hemisphere. Dividing the 100 selected states into polity types, the author studies five civilian polities encompassing 50 states and five military polities embracing another 50 states. The volume relates polity types to the ethnic and military challenges facing them and analyzes the phenomena of nationalism and militarism. In addition to numerous tables and other exhibits, the author uses Formats of Analysis for the orderly display of comparative data on states of particular polity types. This study provides the student of comparative politics with analytic and conceptual tools to understand governance in the post-Cold War world. The work is a worthy addition to the literature of comparative political analysis.

The Nigerian state has been oil-rich for decades, and yet perennially incapable of converting its oil resources into wealth for ordinary Nigerians. Adeoye O. Akinola tackles this "vexed" oil question by examining the political economy of efforts to deregulate the Nigerian downstream oil industry. Focusing on themes of globalization and democratization, this book considers how a resource-rich developing country like Nigeria can exploit the opportunities of globalization and navigate the pressures of democratization and the challenges of liberalization. Pairing sophisticated theoretical frameworks with firsthand accounts from actors in the oil industry, this book identifies the root causes of Nigeria's development struggles and offers practical policy solutions for successfully deregulating the oil sector. For public officials and policymakers as well as researchers, this book offers a critical new lens on the future of natural resource management in Nigeria and the Global South.

"First Person Political illuminates why people run for and serve in state legislatures from the standpoint of the legislators themselves and in a way that increases our appreciation of representative democracy. Part of the charm of this book is that it is intensely personal and, therefore, compelling."
--Karl Kurtz, co-author of "Republic on Trial: The Case for Representative Democracy"

aAt a time when public disillusionment with elected leaders and political institutions is increasing rapidly, it is refreshing to read a book that highlights the selfless nature of public service....This is a wonderful read. The book realistically portrays the various stages in a legislatoras life and the challenges one faces while in office.a
--"Perspectives on Politics"

"First Person Political fills an important void in our understanding of politicians and politics. Through a combination of surveys and the tools of the political scientist, Reeher provides for the reader both empathy and insight into what makes politicians tick at the state legislative level. We may not like what our state legislators do, but reading this work will help us understand much better who we elect and the constraints that operate on them."
--Thomas J. Volgy, author of "Politics in the Trenches: Citizens, Politicians, and the Fate of Democracy"

aAn informative, sophisticated, and entertaining book. Reeher's interviews with three sets of state lawmakers in three distinct legislatures provide candor, real food for thought, and wonderful insights. First Person Political stands as a real contribution to understanding legislative politics, the people who practice these politics, and how to gently nudge politiciansto provide candid glimpses of their world.a
--Burdett Loomis, co-author of "The Sound of Money: How Political Interest Groups Get What They Want"

In First Person Political, Grant Reeher combats the public's alienation from and distrust of politicians by putting a personal face on everyday political life. Through moving personal interviews, Reeher allows legislators to tell their own stories about how and why they came to politics, the experience of serving in their state legislature, their decisions to stay or leave, and the many trials they face in the name of public service. Reeher contends that these politicians do have the public good in mind and often suffer great personal losses for their chance to represent the people and fight for what they think is right. His research also shows that those who choose to run for office often come from a background of deep community involvement.

Reeher argues against public cynicism about our elected officials, and his profiles stir not only our praise and respect for these legislators, but also a greater belief in the democratic process itself. The excerpts from his interviews provide a rarely afforded intimate look at these politicians. What emerges from these stories is a humane and believable portrait of public servants acting on behalf of the public good, a portrait that should provide some comfort, perhaps even inspiration, for citizens concerned about the state of American democracy.

We may think we know Sarah Palin from all the coverage she has received in the political arena, but one-side depictions but media coverage is limited and, Sarah would even say, biased. OUR SARAH is also a bit biased since it's written by Sarah's dad and brother with contributions from many friends and colleagues--these are the people who know her--and love her--best.
Combining the appeal of Sarah Palin's bestselling book, "Going Rogue, " with the flavor of the hugely successful TV show "Sarah Palin's Alaska," here are intimate stories from Sarah's life along with a celebration of growing up in and sharing all that Alaska means to Sarah and her family. Sarah's dad and brother share great family stories of life in the last frontier--from hiking, camping, fishing, hunting and gold-mining, to marathon running, teaching and community service--first in small ways and then on a national stage. Structured around themes of family, faith, independence, resilience, character, risk-taking and adventure--here is a full and loving portrait of where Sarah Palin came from and what made her the person she is today.

This book provides an in-depth analysis of public opinion patterns among Muslims, particularly in the Arab world. On the basis of data from the World Values Survey, the Arab Barometer Project and the Arab Opinion Index, it compares the dynamics of Muslim opinion structures with global publics and arrives at social scientific predictions of value changes in the region. Using country factor scores from a variety of surveys, it also develops composite indices of support for democracy and a liberal society on a global level and in the Muslim world, and analyzes a multivariate model of opinion structures in the Arab world, based on over 40 variables from 12 countries in the Arab League and covering 67% of the total population of the Arab countries. While being optimistic about the general, long-term trend towards democracy and the resilience of Arab and Muslim civil society to Islamism, the book also highlights anti-Semitic trends in the region and discusses them in the larger context of xenophobia in traditional societies. In light of the current global confrontation with radical Islamism, this book provides vital material for policy planners, academics and think tanks alike.

The theme of this book is the political practices by Zhejiang Government under the guidance of "China Dream" policy. It reviews the political facets of governance, The People's Congress System, the consultative system, grassroots democracy, rule of law, government function, restriction and supervision of power and the united front. These areas are the foundations of Chinese government, and are currently discussed in detail from the point of view of the Zhejiang local administration. As China has its unique political system, this book could help scholars and policy makers around the global better understand the operation of Chinese government and political goals for the future under the guidance of the statecraft.

"Your manuscript (Letters to Bloomington, Ill.) offers a great deal of wisdom to the people of America."
-Helen K. Copley, Publisher of the San Diego Union Tribune

"Some Words of Advice to the Commander-in-Chief" shares insight from a former Vietnamese officer whose thorough research has provided him with an in-depth understanding of how the Iraq War became such a quagmire and how the United States can avoid such disasters in the future.
Long-time immigrant Le Tat Dieu worked as a writer and journalist in Vietnam and fought with the Americans as a member of the South Vietnamese army. As a result, he has an interesting perspective on the Iraq War. While presenting a simple and clear analysis of the war, he reveals the ignorant and shocking miscalculations by former President George W. Bush and members of his administration that led to the eventual erosion of America's prestige around the world, the strength of its military, and the security of its people. As Le Tat Dieu exposes the horrifically wrong premises that motivated the actions of Condoleezza Rice, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Bremer, and many others, he examines the consequences of invading Iraq and the eventual occupation which no current or future United States President should ignore.

This book explores women's campaign strategies when they ran for state and national office in California from their first opportunity after state suffrage in 1911 to the advent of modern feminism in 1970. Although only 18 won, nearly 500 women ran on the primary ballots, changing the political landscape for both men and women while struggling against a collective forgetfulness about their work. Mostly white and middle-class until the 1960s, the women discussed in this book are notable for their campaign innovations which became increasingly complex, even if not consciously connected to a usable past. They re-gendered politics as political "firsts," pursued high hopes for organizational support from their women's clubs, accommodated to opportunities created through incumbency and issue politics, and explored both separatist and integrationists politics with their parties. In bringing these campaigns to light, this study explores the history of California women legislators and the ways in which women on the ballots sought to transcend gendered barriers, supporting women's equality while also recognizing the political value of connections to men in power. Organized in a loose chronology with the state's governors, this study shows the persistent nature of women's candidacies despite a recurring historical amnesia that complicated their progress. Remembering this history deepens our understanding of women running for office today and solidifies their credibility in a long history of women politicians.

This book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license. This book addresses the peculiarities of the current presidential election system not yet addressed in other publications. It argues that any rules for electing a President that may have a chance to replace the current ones should provide an equal representation of states as equal members of the Union, and of the nation as a whole. This book analyzes the National Popular Vote plan and shows that this plan may violate the Supreme Court decisions on the equality of votes cast in statewide popular elections held to choose state electors. That is, the National Popular Vote plan may violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The book proposes a new election system in which the will of the states and the will of the nation as a whole are determined by direct popular elections for President and Vice President in the 50 states and in D.C. This system a) would elect President a candidate who is the choice of both the nation as a whole and of the states as equal members of the Union, b) would let the current system elect a President only if the nation as a whole and the states as equal members of the Union fail to agree on a common candidate, and c) would encourage the candidates to campaign nationwide. The second edition has been updated to include a proposal on how to make established non-major party presidential candidates and independent candidates welcome participants in national televised presidential debates with the major-party candidates.

This book examines the process of Spanish integration into the European Community, from 1962 when Spain under the Franco regime applied to the European Community to 1985, when democratic Spain became a member of the EEC. It aims to prove that, first the European Community was the crucial external factor determining political change in Spain, and secondly that Europeanism was a mechanism of political change, as it was the only aim which unified the whole political spectrum from the Francoist establishment to the democratic opposition.

Intergovernmental councils have emerged as the main structures through which the governments of a federation coordinate public policy making. In a globalized and complex world, federal actors are increasingly interdependent. This mutual dependence in the delivery of public services has important implications for the stability of a federal system: policy problems concerning more than one government can destabilize a federation, unless governments coordinate their policies. This book argues that intergovernmental councils enhance federal stability by incentivizing governments to coordinate, which makes them a federal safeguard. By comparing reforms of fiscal and education policy in Australia, Canada, Germany, and Switzerland, this book shows that councils' effectiveness as one of federalism's safeguards depends on their institutional design and the interplay with other political institutions and mechanisms. Federal stability is maintained if councils process contentious policy problems, are highly institutionalized, are not dominated by the federal government, and are embedded in a political system that facilitates intergovernmental compromising and consensus-building.

The United States and India--the most powerful and the most populous constitutional democracies, respectively--have more in common than is apparent from a casual comparison of life in, say, Agra and Omaha. While the material circumstances of an average family in the one city may be dramatically different from the circumstances of its counterpart in the other, the political cultures that protect and sometimes encroach upon the freedoms of each family are in many ways remarkably similar. The arrogant ambitions of one of Agra's representatives in New Delhi can likely find a match in the designs of one of Omaha's legislators in Washington, D.C. So, too, could we expect to find sincere concern for their constituents in the hearts of other political figures on Capitol Hill and in the Subcontinent. In this probing critical comparison of political culture in the United States and India, Professor Brij Mohan argues that much can be learned about the parochial roots and global expansion of representative government by studying both the successes and the failures--both the promise and disappointment--of these two great experiments in constitutional democracy.

Ulysses S. Grant (1822 - 1885) was the 18th President of the United States (1869-1877) immediately after he had fought in thw Civil War as a General, defeating the Confederate military. As President he led the Radical Republicans who attempted to remove all trace of Confederate nationalism and slavery. President Grant effectively destroyed the Ku Klux Klan in 1871. President Grant was a champion of African American equality and civil rights. This Collection of General Grant's writings include his complete and unabridged Personal Memoirs, State of the Union Address and Letters of Ulysses S. Grant to His Father and His Youngest Sister, 1857-78.

How does feminism shake up political science, the study of politics and electoral politics? What difference do feminist political scientists and politicians make to political institutions, policy processes and outcomes? The scholarship and activism of pioneering feminist political scientist Professor Joni Lovenduski helped establish these questions on the political science agenda. This book addresses key themes in Lovenduski's seminal work. State-of-the-art chapters by leading scholars cover gender and parties; elected institutions and the state; quotas and recruitment; public opinion and women's interests. Vignettes by prominent politicians and practitioners, including Dame Anne Begg MP, Baroness Gould, Deborah Mattinson, and the Rt Hon Theresa May, bring the academic analysis to life. Deeds and Words reveals the impact of feminist interventions on politics in the round. Its groundbreaking assessment of feminist scholarship and politics offers an appraisal of, and fitting tribute to, Lovenduski's own contribution to gender studies and feminist politics.

An unbiased examination of profiling in the criminal justice system-one of the most hotly contested public policy issues-on the streets, in the courts, and in the jails and prisons of America. In the post-9/11 world, profiling by law enforcement has become "standard operating procedure." Profiling by prosecutors, judges, and corrections officers is pervasive in other criminal justice contexts as well. Is profiling actually effective in preventing crime or identifying likely offenders and therefore justifiable? This accessible, single-volume reference book examines profiling as it pertains to the criminal justice system in the United States, providing non-partisan information that illuminates the full scope of the profiling issue and discusses the possible impact of profiling on all American citizens. Addressing this highly controversial topic holistically, the book considers questions such as whether the criminal justice system in the United States unfairly targets minorities, how the rights of minorities can be protected while enabling law enforcement to use every resource available, and whether justification for profiling techniques exists. This work will serve students at the high school and college level as well as general readers who are interested in criminal justice issues and issues relating to equality and fairness before the bar of justice. Presents essays from scholars in the field on both sides of the debate to provide fair and objective information that allow readers to consider the interests of equality and fairness on one side versus public safety and crime fighting on the other Examines profiling along a wide range of variables-race, religion, gender, and sexual orientation-rather than addressing only racial profiling Covers more recent events in profiling such as Arizona SB 1070, the "Stop and Frisk" policy in New York City, and the TSA's profiling of Muslims as well as older cases such as Whren vs. United States Provides summaries and analyses of key court cases relating to the permissibility and impermissibility of profiling

This is a wide-ranging comparative study of relationships between the indigenous leadership of traditional states and colonizing Europeans from the seventeenth to the twentieth century. It challenges stereotypes of despotic imperial power in Asian, African, and Pacific colonies and seeks to answer the fundamental question: how were European officials able to govern so many societies over such a long period of time? Colin Newbury examines the politics of pre-colonial state structures, their subversion by merchants and administrators, and the use made of indigenous leaders, and assesses the legacy of these colonial hierarchies.