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Books > Social sciences > Politics & government > Political structure & processes
There have been many serious abuses of presidential power in recent decades, including Watergate, the Iran-Contra scandal, and the Lewinsky affair, subsequently Americans have demonstrated renewed interest in discussing the relationship between character and political leadership. Through an investigation of the life and career of George Washington, often considered the exemplary moral president, the chapters offer a balanced scholarly contribution to this analysis. Fishman, Pederson, Rozell, and their contributors examine the legacy of Washingtons presidency. Leading political scientists and historians describe and evaluate the impact of Washington's leadership on the institution of the presidency and on those who have since occupied the Oval Office. In the contemporary era of almost endless speculation about the role of character in presidential leadership, an analysis of Washington's character and the model he established is especially germane. The chapters provide diverse interpretations of the value of understanding Washington's leadership and the character of the modern presidency. Some of the scholars conclude that Washington indeed laid the foundation for good character and strong leadership in the presidency. Others take a more critical approach and see Washington, like many of his successors, as a fallible human being who possessed both character strengths and weaknesses. The lasting value of this analysis for political scientists, historians, and other students of the American presidency is that it demonstrates the continued vibrant debate over Washington's authentic legacy to the office.
This book is committed to provide a holistic view of corruption in the public construction sector, a sector that has been perceived as the most corrupt in the world. Relying on the new findings achieved from a series of qualitative and quantitative studies, this book unveils the specific forms of corruption, the principal causes of corruption, and the prevailing anti-corruption strategies that are used by the current practice. Furthermore, this book provides two metrics that can assess the potential of corruption and the risk of collusion in given public construction projects, respectively. This book will enhance industry and research communities' understandings of corruption in the public construction sector. It is also informative to policy-makers and can help them come up with some more effective strategies to eliminate corruption in the public construction sector.
The process of nominating two persons who will ultimately compete for the presidency is long, complicated, exhausting, and expensive. The 1988 presidential primary campaigns were no exception, as Democratic and Republican candidates spent countless hours and millions of dollars to win votes and delegates in caucuses and primaries across the country. Speeches, debates, and media advertisements helped spread the candidates' messages and policies to the voters. A different, fresh, and informative forum for each of the candidates was introduced by the Kennedy School of Government in "Candidates '88," a series of live, hour-long interviews with Marvin Kalb followed by questions from the audience of Harvard faculty and students. Broadcast nationally by PBS, this highly praised series made an important contribution to the presidential selection process and had a significant impact on the voters' understanding of the 1988 campaign, the candidates, and the issues. Now the complete interviews have been collected in "Candidates '88," a volume that captures the substantive, revealing, and lively conversations between Marvin Kalb and the candidates. The book includes an insightful introduction by Marvin Kalb in which he examines the special political climate of 1988; explores why George Bush was the only candidate who decided not to participate in "Candidates '88"; discusses the power of the camera, the most coddled and cherished piece of technology in the history of presidential politics; and reflects on the problems of the nominating process and the need for reform. The volume also includes brief political biographies of all of the candidates written by Hendrik Hertzberg.
Asian Leadership in Policy and Governance examines contemporary challenges facing public leaders in Asia, providing insight into leadership processes and contexts past practices affecting effective governance and policy leadership. The book provides a broad range of insightful and detailed cases of international and domestic interest in East and Southeast Asia, and is relevant to all disciplines concerned with politics, public governance and public affairs. The cases cover such topics as regional development and integration, transnational migration, and domestic topics of economic, political and educational development. The volume is informed by modern notions of leadership which include governance in a polycentric world (including civil society), the rise of a new generation, regionally and globally connected problems, expectations for increased integrity, transparency and effectiveness from its leaders, and enduring expectations that leaders and nations meet their populace's needs for health, prosperity and security. Such a focus on Asian leadership in modern context makes this book timely and interesting.
Technological progress in the 21st Century still remains monopolized by the developed countries, thereby determining the direction and rhythm of growth in developing countries which must import their technological infrastructure. This colonialized model of industrialization leads to a perpetual outflow of resources abroad and to structured social exclusion that placed narrow limits on democracy and the distribution of overall wellbeing. Why did Latin American societies fail to create an internal division of labour that could adequately provide for the development of productive forces? How did this affect the prospects for democracy in the region? Development and Democracy: Relations in Conflict examines the conflicting relations between technological development and democracy as they unfold in a new and ever more challenging environment. Contributors are: Irma Lorena Acosta Reveles, Leonel Alvarez Yanez, Jesus Becerra Villegas, Ximena de la Barra, Hector de la Fuente Limon, R. A. Dello Buono, Sergio Octavio Contreras Padilla, Silvana Andrea Figueroa Delgado, Victor Manuel Figueroa Sepulveda, Ernesto Menchaca Arredondo, Miguel Omar Munoz Dominguez, Alexandre M. Quaresma de Moura, Cristina Recendez Guerrero.
Recent technological advancements have made it possible to use moderated discussion threads on social media to provide citizens with a means of discussion concerning issues that involve them. With the renewed interest in devising new methods for public involvement, the use of such communication tools has caused some concern on how to properly apply them for strategic purposes. The Handbook of Research on Using New Media for Citizen Engagement provides emerging research exploring the theoretical and practical aspects of how social media should be added to public-involvement activities such as citizen juries, public deliberation, and citizen panels. Readers will be offered insights into the critical design considerations for planning, carrying out, and assessing public-involvement initiatives. Featuring coverage on a broad range of topics such as citizen journalism, online activism, and public discourse, this book is ideally designed for corporate professionals, broadcasters, news writers, column editors, politicians, policy managers, government administrators, academicians, researchers, practitioners, and students in the fields of political science, communications, sociology, mass media and broadcasting, public administration, and community-service learning.
On March 4, 1789, New York City's church bells pealed, cannons
fired, and flags snapped in the wind to celebrate the date set for
the opening of the First Federal Congress. In many ways the
establishment of Congress marked the culmination of the American
Revolution as the ship of state was launched from the foundation of
the legislative system outlined in Article I of the Constitution.
This interdisciplinary collection of essays by a constitutionalist and a political sociologist examines how fragmented societies can be held together by appropriate and effective constitutional arrangements providing for bonds of democratic citizenship. Exploring the political order dilemmas of capitalist democracies, the authors address moral and institutional prerequisites on which the deepening of European integration depends. The desirability of such deepening is currently contested, with the membership of some states (and their compliance with the spirit of the Union's treaties) at stake. The authors do not consider the `renationalisation' of Europe to be a feasible (and even less so a desirable) way out of Europe's current malaise. Yet whatever the way out, charting it calls not just for the vision and imagination of political elites but also for the intellectual efforts of social scientists. With this book, Preuss and Offe contribute to those efforts. Key Features: * original insights on the nature of the European crisis * analysis of how fragmented societies can be held together by appropriate constitutional arrangements * how state sovereignty and federal structures can be merged * account of the moral prerequisites and resources of democratic polities * dilemmas of political order under democratic capitalism
This book systematically assesses the value systems of active Muslims around the globe. Based on a multivariate analysis of recent World Values Survey data, it sheds new light on Muslim opinions and values in countries such as Indonesia, Iran, Tunisia, Egypt and Turkey. Due to a lack of democratic traditions, sluggish economic growth, escalating religiously motivated violence, and dissatisfaction with ruling elites in many Muslim countries, the authors identify a crisis and return to conservative values in the Muslim world, including anti-Semitism, religious and sexual intolerance, and views on democracy and secularism, business and economic matters. Based on these observations, they offer recommendations for policymakers and civil societies in Muslim countries on how to move towards tolerance, greater democratization and more rapid economic growth.
Puerto Rico's colonial history under the United States has shaped the character of development and education in that territory. In 1898, when the United States invaded Puerto Rico, the language, culture, and development of the latter was arrested by a colonialist mandate involving the social, political, and economic spheres. The role that the development of a mass public school system would play in sustaining colonial relationships was seen as paramount. Since then the developments in public school reform policies have contributed to and have been defined and determined within the linguistic and ideological framework of the colonizers' conceptualization of development for Puerto Rico. If development is more than growth, and if it includes self-determination and cultural expression within the context of political and economic arrangements, then Puerto Rico remains a classic example of colonialism 500 years after Columbus.
The first book to examine voter behavior from both psychological and marketing perspectives, "A Theory of Political Choice Behavior" provides the tools politicians need to understand today's voter. It puts forth a comprehensive theory of voting behavior and empirically tests it on four recent elections; its prediction rate is as high as 95 percent in some cases. Section A examines the need to understand voter behavior and analyzes the traditional methods researchers have used in the past; Section B puts forth the author's new theory; Section C tests that theory; and Section D describes its implications for the present and the future. A tested recipe book for public policymakers as well as candidates, their media people, and their campaign strategists on all levels, this volume also includes sample surveys which pollsters can use to design their own polls.
The Executive in the Constitution: Structure, Autonomy, and Internal Control is the first constitutional and legal analysis of the inner workings of the executive for many years. It aims to provoke a reappraisal, by constitutional lawyers, of the place of the executive within the constitution, by exploring an area hitherto largely neglected in constitutional law: the legal foundations of the powers and structure of the executive, and the mechanisms through which the centre of the executive seeks to control the actions of departments. The authors, both pre-eminent in the field off constitutional law, show that the machinery of executive co-ordination and control is no less crucial a dimension of the constitutional order than the external machinery of democratic and legal control. These external parliamentary and judicial controls depend for their effectiveness on the executive's ability to control itself. The plural structure of the executive, however, makes the co-ordination and control of its component parts a highly problematical pursuit. Against the background of an analysis of the executive's legal structure, the book examines in detail the controls governing departmental access to staffing, financial, and legal resources, analysing the relationship between these internal controls and the external machinery of democratic and legal control, and showing how the machinery of internal control has been shaped by the structure of the executive branch. The organization of the executive and the way it controls the actions of its departments has changed significantly in recent year. This book explores the impact of the machinery if executive co-ordination and control of the ambitious public service reform project which has been pursued by successive governments over the last twenty years, as well as of changes in the wider constitutional framework, including those stemming from the United Kingdom's membership of the European Union and the growth of judicial review. It shows how public service reforms, judicial review, and European law are changing not just the inner life of the executive government but its place in the constitution as well.
This book is a balanced account of the political, diplomatic, and military currents that influenced Japan's attempts to surrender and the United States's decision to drop the atomic bombs. Based on extensive research in both the United States and Japan, this book allows the reader to follow the parallel decision-making in Tokyo and Washington that contributed to lost opportunities that might have allowed a less brutal conclusion to the war. Topics discussed and analyzed include Japan's desperate military situation; its decision to look to the Soviet Union to mediate the conflict; the Manhattan Project; the debates within Truman's Administration and the armed forces as to whether to modify unconditional surrender terms to include retention of Emperor Hirohito and whether to plan for the invasion of Japan's home islands or to rely instead on blockade and bombing to force the surrender.
In a comparison of communication in the U.S. presidential primaries of the twentieth century, Kendall examines the role of the candidates and the media during the period of primary elections. Drawing upon information from a broad array of sources, Kendall uncovers communication patterns that transcend time regarding political image, horse race coverage, and negative campaigning. She takes a strong communication perspective, arguing that the verbal context of the presidential primaries is an important factor overlooked in traditional studies. Topics covered include the effect of party rules on communication, the role of speeches and debates, the role of political advertising, and the media's construction of the primaries in the pre- television era and the age of television. Kendall examines the 1996 primaries in light of patterns discovered in earlier years, and she makes predictions and recommendations regarding the 2000 primaries. With its century-wide scope and the variety of research methods used, the book will be of considerable value to researchers, scholars, journalists and students involved with political communication and American presidential elections.
Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.
For the Common Good showcases the insights, reflections, and recommendations of some of today's most forward-thinking and inspiring leaders, as they explore the challenges of leadership in the context of our global, 21st-century society. Featuring original essays by such luminaries as Nobel Prize winner John Hume; Leader-to-Leader Chair Frances Hesselbein; Harvard University's Howard Gardner; M.K. Gandhi Institute's Founder Arun Gandhi; poet David Whyte; and President Jimmy Carter, For the Common Good stresses the need for a new kind of leadership committed to promoting social welfare, justice, and opportunity. Against the all-too-familiar backdrop of corporate malfeasance, scandal in our religious institutions, political chicanery to serve ulterior motives, and constant reminders of the corruptive influences of power, the contributors apply their expertise in such fields as ecology, education, and conflict resolution to illuminate emerging roles and responsibilities of today's leaders. Collectively, the authors argue that because individuals, institutions, and societies are now so profoundly connected and inter-related, every decision of consequence has a ripple effect. Leaders of all stripes, including corporate executives, politicians, social activists, scientists, and educators, must display courage, integrity, humility, and the wherewithal to consider the long-term impact of their decision and actions. Most important, they must engage in dialogue and recognize that creative solutions to complex problems require collaboration across sectors and cultures to achieve common goals. The result is a provocative and multidimensional exploration of leadership in troubled and troublingtimes--but with a hopeful note that individuals and organizations will rise to the challenges.
In America, women are the clear majority of the electorate and the clear minority of elected officials overall. In 1997, women held only 21% of the seats at the state legislative level. This study finds that a significant and overlooked culprit acting to limit women's state legislative candidacies is the political party elite. Surveys of county party chairs and potential women legislative candidates were used to investigate the interaction between party leaders and women candidates and to assess its importance in the women's candidacy equation. The vast majority of potential women candidates did, in fact, respond that their parties discriminated against women candidates. Why would party leaders harbor bias against women? Party leader survey responses are consistent with the notion that most leaders are subject to the outgroup effect, which in essence means they prefer candidates in their own image. Since most party leaders are men, this encourages them to value male candidates and doubt the merits of female candidates. The findings suggest that this bias against women is most likely to occur where chairs have greater decision-making power and where chairs are leading the parties in less competititve districts. The existence of outgroup-motivated bias from party chairs is estimated to reduce the number of women state legislative nominees by one-third. Scholars interested in women in politics, political parties and recruitment, legislative elections, social psychology, and political psychology will find this book useful.
In 1602, the States General of the United Provinces of the Netherlands chartered the first commercial company, the Dutch East India Company, and, in so doing, initiated a new wave of globalization. Even though Dutch engagement in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans dates back to the 16th century, it was the dawn of the 17th century that brought the Dutch into the fold of the general movement of European expansion overseas and concomitant globalization. This volume surveys the Dutch participation in, and contribution to, the process of globalization. At the same time, it reassesses the various ways Dutchmen fashioned themselves following the encounter and in the light of increasing dialogue with other societies across the world. As such, Exploring the Dutch Empire offers a new insight into the macro and micro worlds of the global Dutchman in Asia, Africa and the Americas. The result fills a gap in the historiography on empire and globalization, which has previously been dominated by British and, to a lesser extent, French and Spanish cases.
This research contributes to the growing body of knowledge as well as offers significant theoretical contributions and policy implications. As far as the researcher's knowledge, this is the first research of its type that investigates the relationship between digital enabled transformation of government and citizens' trust & confidence in government. The proposed conceptual model also makes a novel contribution at a conceptual level, which can be used as a frame of reference by researchers as well as practitioners when planning ICT-enabled transformation projects in government. The context of the research is the Kingdom of Bahrain, the top-ranked country in ICT adoption in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region.
By comparing the importance of representative democracy to the EU as enshrined in the Lisbon Treaty with the political systems in the EU's newest member states, this study explores whether representative democracy can really exist in an enlarged EU and explores the constraints and opportunities for political parties operating the in the EU.
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