This work provides an up-to-date and comprehensive directory and guide to over 1700 international and regional organizations around the world.

'Seldom has a senior public servant been so candid. As a key policymaker, Meredith Edwards takes us inside the process to reveal how we get the policies the affect so much of our lives.' - Paul Kelly, International Editor, The Australian'This innovative and important volume, unique in the policy literature, provides ideas and case studies of interest to everyone who cares about the quality of Australian public policy. It will be an indispensable guide to past choices, and its lessons should help shape future Australian social policy decisions.' - Dr Glyn Davis, co-author of The Australian Policy HandbookHow are social policies conceived, developed and put into practice? Based on four case studies of social policy reforms in which the author was a major player (the Child Support Scheme, AUSTUDY, the Higher Education Contribution scheme (HECS) and long-term employment policies presented as 'Working Nation') Social Policy, Public Policy provides insights into what is often otherwise seen as a 'black box' on how policy advice occurs. Meredith Edwards' personal experience, revealed in extracts from her journal, provides a picture of what social policy participants actually do, something on which too little has been written.Questions addressed in the book include: How was the policy problem identified and articulated and by whom? What were the key ingredients in policy analysis? When did consultation occur and in what form? How was the policy decision arrived at? What were the events between decision and implementation? And what evaluation processes occurred?Social Policy, Public Policy is essential reading for all students of public policy and policy advisers.

This volume covers the Middle East from Algeria to Yemen, presenting and interpreting events from the preceding year. The book provides information on the United Nations and all major organizations in the region and can be used as a reference resource by those studying the business of this area.

This volume offers extensive coverage of current political, economic and social affairs of the region. It provides an impartial perspective on all the countries and territores of Eastern Europe, Russia and Central Asia. With easy-to-use data, it contains almost 600 pages of analysis by acknowledged experts, recent statistics and useful directory material.

This provocative study breaks new ground. It argues that, in a period dominated by the white Australia ideal, the nation's political leaders were content to allow disease and malnutrition, as well as punitive police raids, to ravage the Aboriginal population of the Northern Territory, and that for decades there was a failure to provide funding to implement publicly announced policies. Written for a general readership, "Governing Savages" explains how such a state of affairs could arise and be tolerated in a professedly humane society. The result of almost a decade of research by one of the leading scholars in the field of Australian race relations, the book analyzes the attitudes of pastoralists, missionaries, administrators, judges and politicians and of those - including Aboriginal leaders - seeking to awaken the conscience of Australians and bring to an end generations of brutality and callous indifference. Andrew Markus is the editor of journals on Aboriginal history, intercultural studies and labour history, and was a consultant to the Fitzgerald Committee on Australia's immigration policies. The author of "Blood from a Stone", he is currently Senior Lecturer in History at Monash University, Melbourne. This book is intended for general readers, and students and researchers in Australian and Aboriginal studies.

Provides a comprehensive directory and guide to over 1700 international and regional organizations around the world. Extensively researched, it covers a wide spectrum of organizations from the UN and NATO to the League of Arab States. Contents include: an introductory essay on the developing role of international organizations and the international community in the 21st century; texts of significant international documents; a chronology charting the historical development of international organizations; and a who's who of the leading officials of international organizations together with addresses and contact details.

The story of China's spectacular economic growth is well known. Less well known is the country's equally dramatic, though not always equally successful, social policy transition. Between the mid- 1990s and mid-2000s---the focal period for this book---China's central government went a long way toward consolidating the social policy framework that had gradually emerged in piecemeal fashion during the initial phases of economic liberalization. Major policy decisions during the focal period included adopting a single national pension plan for urban areas, standardizing unemployment insurance, (re)establishing nationwide rural health care coverage, opening urban education systems to children of rural migrants, introducing trilingual education policies in ethnic minority regions, expanding college enrolment, addressing the challenge of HIV/AIDS more comprehensively, and equalizing social welfare spending across provinces, among others. Unresolved is the direction of policy in the face of longer-term industrial and demographic trends---and the possibility of a chronically weak global economy. Chinese Social Policy in a Time of Transition offers scholars, practitioners, students, and policymakers a foundation from which to explore those issues based on a composite snapshot of Chinese social policy at its point of greatest maturation prior to the 2007 global crisis.

The concept of `economic planning' was a central theme of the popular economic policy debate in the 1930s. Dr Ritschel traces the many interpretations of planning, and examines the process of idealogical construction and dissemination of the new economic ideas. He finishes with an explanation of the planners' retreat, later in the decade, from the economics of planning towards the far less ambitious (but also less contentious) alternative - the `middle way' of Keynesian economics.

Ever since Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. used "imperial presidency" as a book title, the term has become central to the debate about the balance of power in the U.S. government. Since the presidency of George W. Bush, when advocates of executive power such as Dick Cheney gained ascendancy, the argument has blazed hotter than ever. Many argue the Constitution itself is in grave danger. What is to be done? The answer, according to legal scholars Eric Posner and Adrian Vermeule, is nothing. In The Executive Unbound, they provide a bracing challenge to conventional wisdom, arguing that a strong presidency is inevitable in the modern world. Most scholars, they note, object to today's level of executive power because it varies so dramatically from the vision of the framers of the Constitution. But Posner and Vermeule find fault with James Madison's premises. Like an ideal market, they write, Madison's separation of powers has no central director, but it lacks the price system which gives an economy its structure; there is nothing in checks and balances that intrinsically generates order or promotes positive arrangements. In fact, the greater complexity of the modern world produces a concentration of power, particularly in the White House. The authors chart the rise of executive authority, noting that among strong presidents only Nixon has come in for severe criticism, leading to legislation which was designed to limit the presidency, yet which failed to do so. Political, cultural and social restraints, they argue, have been more effective in preventing dictatorship than any law. The executive-centered state tends to generate political checks that substitute for the legal checks of the Madisonian constitution. Piety toward the founders and a historic fear of tyranny have been powerful forces in American political thinking. Posner and Vermeule confront them both in this startlingly original contribution.

Charts the Union's development from its conception through to the implementation of the Maastricht Treaty and its continuing activities. Includes an A-Z section of concise definitions and explanations of organizations, acronyms and terms.

The most extensive collection of information available on the European Union.
The third edition of this definitive reference work has been thoroughly revised and updated to provide the latest information on the EU. It charts the Union's development from its conception through to the creation of the single market in 1992, to the implementation of the Maastricht Treaty and its continuing activities. Contents include:
An A-Z section of concise definitions and explanations of organizations, acronyms and terms, plus short articles on the member states.
A series of introductory articles providing a broader view of the policies and activities of the EU.
Statistical data for the entire EU on trade, employment and industrial production.
An extensive directory of key names, addresses, phone and fax numbers, e-mail and internet addresses for all major European Union institutions and official bodies.
Details of MEPs, their political groups and national parties, members of major committees, Directorates-General and other commission bodies.

Americans have a deeply ambivalent relationship to guns. The United States leads all nations in rates of private gun ownership, yet stories of gun tragedies frequent the news, spurring calls for tighter gun regulations. The debate tends to be acrimonious and is frequently misinformed and illogical. The central question is the extent to which federal or state governments should regulate gun ownership and use in the interest of public safety. In this volume, David DeGrazia and Lester Hunt examine this policy question primarily from the standpoint of ethics: What would morally defensible gun policy in the United States look like? Hunt's contribution argues that the U.S. Constitution is right to frame the right to possess a firearm as a fundamental human right. The right to arms is in this way like the right to free speech. More precisely, it is like the right to own and possess a cell phone or an internet connection. A government that banned such weapons would be violating the right of citizens to protect themselves. This is a function that governments do not perform: warding off attacks is not the same thing as punishing perpetrators after an attack has happened. Self-protection is a function that citizens must carry out themselves, either by taking passive steps (such as better locks on one's doors) or active ones (such as acquiring a gun and learning to use it safely and effectively). DeGrazia's contribution features a discussion of the Supreme Court cases asserting a constitutional right to bear arms, an analysis of moral rights, and a critique of the strongest arguments for a moral right to private gun ownership. He follows with both a consequentialist case and a rights-based case for moderately extensive gun control, before discussing gun politics and advancing policy suggestions. In debating this important topic, the authors elevate the quality of discussion from the levels that usually prevail in the public arena. DeGrazia and Hunt work in the discipline of academic philosophy, which prizes intellectual honesty, respect for opposing views, command of relevant facts, and rigorous reasoning. They bring the advantages of philosophical analysis to this highly-charged issue in the service of illuminating the strongest possible cases for and against (relatively extensive) gun regulations and whatever common ground may exist between these positions.

The two-volume Oxford Companion to American Politics is the first reference work to provide detailed, in-depth coverage of all aspects of American Politics. Top scholars of American Politics have written entries that surpass all previous reference material on the subject and provide scholars and students with ready access to sophisticated, comprehensive material. Long entries form the core of the book, covering such topics as climate change, terrorism, welfare policies, nuclear proliferation, voting behavior, and think tanks. Each of these entries include high-level scrutiny of the literature, history and future of the topic. The Companion also includes a number of entries from the 2001 Oxford Companion to Politics of the World, revised as necessary to bring coverage of such topics as foreign aid, and nuclear weapons up to date. In the current context of political gridlock, international tension, economic underperformance and social division, students of American politics need to focus on more than the inner workings of their own political institutions, important as that focus is. They also need to approach their work with as wide an understanding of our contemporary international and domestic economic, social and cultural conditions as it is possible for them quickly and easily to acquire. The Oxford Companion to American Politics has been designed precisely to meet the full range of those needs.

This reference provides detailed facts and figures on the bodies that encourage international peace and security, and greater cooperation in economic, social, cultural, and humanitarian areas. Details are provided on the history and legislative framework of international organizations, helping to provide the necessary background information to aid your understanding of international cooperation. The Europa Directory International Organizations contains a thorough and informative introductory essay on the developing role of international organizations and the challenges facing the international community in the 21 century. This source also contains texts of significant international charters, treaties, and documents; biographical information on the leading officials of international organizations; an extensive list of UN Security Council and General Assembly resolutions; a Calendar of Observances; and a comprehensive index.

The European Court of Human Rights has long abandoned the view that human rights merely impose obligations of restraint on State authorities (so-called negative obligations). In addition, States are under positive obligations to take steps to actively protect and ensure the rights and freedoms guaranteed by the European Convention on Human Rights. While the concept of positive obligations has become increasingly important in the jurisprudence of the European Court, it remains relatively underexplored in the literature. This book goes beyond the existing scholarship by analytically, critically and normatively engaging with the Court's positive obligations case law in a comprehensive and in-depth manner.The book begins by providing an overview of the Court's jurisprudence in this area. Building upon this overview, it brings to the fore the legal methodological consequences attached by the Court to the labels of positive and negative obligations. It moreover critically examines how the Court constructs the distinction between positive and negative obligations, building upon the underlying distinctions between public authorities and private entities, on the one hand, and State action and inaction, on the other. The central argument made in this volume is that in a positive State, in which the authorities have affirmatively intervened in so many areas, it has become increasingly difficult to draw a baseline to properly distinguish between action and inaction. Finally, the author makes suggestions for legal methodological change. This book will prove to be highly valuable for any practitioner or academic interested in the law of the European Convention on Human Rights.

At a time of increasing demands on budgets, governments around the world are seeking to reduce health expenditure and introduce market-oriented reforms to the health sector. This is leading to profound shifts in the relationship between the state and the individual, as policy makers dismantle the welfare state and move towards a user-pays sytem.Health Policy in the Market State offers an overview of health policy in Australia, locating it within the broader context of power and interests analysis and shifts in government policy and public sector restructuring. It outlines the key issues in current health policy and assesses the strengths and weaknesses of specific policies and programs.Contributors include Ian Anderson and Maggie Brady, Mary Draper, Stephen Duckett, Liz Eckerman, Sophie Hill, Sharon Moore, Michael Muetzelfeldt, Janine Smith and Beth Wilson.Health Policy in the Market State is a valuable overview for students, as well as a comprehensive reference for health professionals and policy-makers.

Just as Latin American countries began to transition to democracy in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the region also saw gains in social, cultural and economic gender equality. In accordance with modernization theories, women in the region have also made significant inroads into elected office. However, these gains vary a great deal between countries in Latin America. They also vary significantly at different levels of government even within the same country. Inside government arenas, representation is highly gendered with rules and norms that advantage men and disadvantage women, limiting women's access to full political power. While one might expect these variations to map onto socioeconomic and cultural conditions within each country, they don't correlate. This book makes, for the first time, a comprehensive comparison of gender and representation across the region - in seven countries - and at five different levels: the presidency, cabinets, national legislatures, political parties, and subnational governments. Overall, it argues that gender inequality in political representation in Latin America is rooted in democratic institutions and the democratic challenges and political crises facing the region. Institutions and political context not only influence the number of women and men elected to office, but also what they do once in office, the degree of power to which they gain access, and how their presence and actions influence democracy and society, more broadly. Drawing on the expertise of scholars of women, gender, and political institutions, this book is the most comprehensive analysis of women's representation in Latin America to date, and an important resource for research on women's representation worldwide. The causes, consequences, and challenges to women's representation in Latin America are not unique to that region, and the book uses Latin American patterns to draw broad conclusions about gendered representation in other areas of the world.

Paul Revere's midnight ride looms as an almost mythical event in American history--yet it has been largely ignored by scholars and left to patriotic writers and debunkers. Now one of the foremost American historians offers the first serious look at the events of the night of April 18, 1775--what led up to it, what really happened, and what followed--uncovering a truth far more remarkable than the myths of tradition.

In Paul Revere's Ride, David Hackett Fischer fashions an exciting narrative that offers deep insight into the outbreak of revolution and the emergence of the American republic. Beginning in the years before the eruption of war, Fischer illuminates the figure of Paul Revere, a man far more complex than the simple artisan and messenger of tradition. Revere ranged widely through the complex world of Boston's revolutionary movement--from organizing local mechanics to mingling with the likes of John Hancock and Samuel Adams. When the fateful night arrived, more than sixty men and women joined him on his task of alarm--an operation Revere himself helped to organize and set in motion. Fischer recreates Revere's capture that night, showing how it had an important impact on the events that followed. He had an uncanny gift for being at the center of events, and the author follows him to Lexington Green--setting the stage for a fresh interpretation of the battle that began the war. Drawing on intensive new research, Fischer reveals a clash very different from both patriotic and iconoclastic myths. The local militia were elaborately organized and intelligently led, in a manner that had deep roots in New England. On the morning of April 19, they fought in fixed positions and close formation, twice breaking the British regulars. In the afternoon, the American officers switched tactics, forging a ring of fire around the retreating enemy which they maintained for several hours--an extraordinary feat of combat leadership. In the days that followed, Paul Revere led a new battle-- for public opinion--which proved even more decisive than the fighting itself.

When the alarm-riders of April 18 took to the streets, they did not cry, "the British are coming," for most of them still believed they were British. Within a day, many began to think differently. For George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Thomas Paine, the news of Lexington was their revolutionary Rubicon. Paul Revere's Ride returns Paul Revere to center stage in these critical events, capturing both the drama and the underlying developments in a triumphant return to narrative history at its finest.

Political theory is traditionally concerned with the justification and limits of state power. It asks: Can states legitimately direct and coerce non-consenting subjects? If they can, what limits, if any, constrain sovereign power? Public law is concerned with the justification and limits of judicial power. It asks: On what grounds can judges 'read down' or 'read in' statutory language against the apparent intention of the legislature? What limits, if any, are appropriate to these exercises of judicial power? This book develops an original constitutional theory of political authority that yields novel answers to both sets of questions. Fox-Decent argues that the state is a fiduciary of its people, and that this fiduciary relationship grounds the state's authority to announce and enforce law. The fiduciary state is conceived of as a public agent of necessity charged with guaranteeing a regime of secure and equal freedom. Whereas the social contract tradition struggles to ground authority on consent, the fiduciary theory explains authority with reference to the state's fiduciary obligation to respect legal principles constitutive of the rule of law. This obligation arises from the state's possession of irresistible public powers. The author begins with a discussion of Hobbes's conception of legality and the problem of discretionary power in administrative law. Drawing on Kant, he sketches a theory of fiduciary relations, and develops the argument through three parts. Part I shows that it is possible for the state to stand in a public fiduciary relationship to its people through a discussion of Crown-Native fiduciary relations recognized by Canadian courts. Part II sets out the theoretical underpinnings of the fiduciary theory of the state. Part III explores the implications of the fiduciary theory for administrative law and common law constitutionalism. The final chapter situates the theory within a broader philosophical discussion of the rule of law.

Although nearly every country in the world today holds multiparty elections, these contests are often blatantly unfair. For governments, electoral misconduct is a tempting but also a risky practice, because it represents a violation of Although nearly every country in the world today holds multiparty elections, these contests are often blatantly unfair. For governments, electoral misconduct is a tempting but also a risky practice, because it represents a violation of international standards for free and fair elections. In Defending Democratic Norms, Daniela Donno examines how international actors respond to these norm violations. Which governments are punished for manipulating elections? Does international norm enforcement make a difference? Donno shows that although enforcement is selective and relatively rare, when international actors do employ tools of conditionality, diplomacy, mediation and shaming in response to electoral misconduct, they can have transformative effects on both the quality and outcome of elections. Specifically, enforcement works by empowering the domestic opposition and increasing the government's incentives to reform institutions of electoral management and oversight. These effects depend, however, on the presence of a viable opposition movement, as well as on the strength and credibility of the enforcement effort itself. The book shows that regional international organizations possess unique sources of leverage and legitimacy that make them the most consistently effective norm defenders, even compared to more materially powerful actors like the United States.
Drawing on an original dataset from almost 700 elections and incorporating case studies from the Dominican Republic, Serbia, Armenia, Kenya and Cambodia, Defending Democratic Norms is a bold new theory of international norm enforcement that demonstrates the importance of active international intervention in domestic politics.

The leading Harvard professor shows how we can all become better at conversation – and why this will help us all thrive

Conversation is at the heart of our relationships and our decision-making. From meeting a colleague to saying goodnight to our loved ones, our days are filled with verbal communication -- but the science of everyday conversation is little known. We may spend time thinking about difficult exchanges, but research shows that there’s room to improve seemingly easy interactions too.

In Talk, Harvard professor Alison Wood Brooks shows how simple changes in how we communicate can enhance our relationships, our performance at work and our lives; who we talk to affects our happiness; and how to talk across differences. Her original research, based on thousands of conversations from sales calls to speed dating, provides fascinating insights - for instance, the way that certain questions affect dating success, and the role of jokes in reaching leadership positions.

Learning to converse even a little more effectively can make a big difference. Through her original TALK framework – Topics, Asking, Levity and Kindness – Wood Brooks will give you the tools that her MBA students say transforms their lives. Bringing together psychology, linguistics, sociology and neuroscience, Talk will show how we can use science to help us enrich our lives, one conversation at a time.

Holy War in Judaism is the first book to consider how the concept of ''holy war'' disappeared from Jewish thought for almost 2000 years, only to reemerge with renewed vigor in modern times. Holy war, sanctioned or even commanded by God, is a common and recurring theme in the Hebrew Bible, but Rabbinic Judaism largely avoided discussion of holy war in the Talmud and related literatures for the simple reason that it became extremely dangerous and self-destructive. The revival of the holy war idea occurred with the rise of Zionism, and as the need for organized Jewish engagement in military actions developed, Orthodox Jews faced a dilemma. There was great need for all to engage in combat for the survival of the infant state of Israel, but the Talmudic rabbis had virtually eliminated divine authorization for Jews to fight in Jewish armies. The first stage of the revival was sanction for Jews to fight in defense. The next stage emerged with the establishment of the state and allowed Orthodox Jews to enlist even when the community was not engaged in a war of survival. Once the notion of divinely sanctioned warring was revived, it became available to Jews who considered that the historical context justified more aggressive forms of warring. Among some Jews, divinely authorized war became associated not only with defense but also with a renewed kibbush or conquest, a term that became central to the discourse regarding war and peace and the lands conquered by the state of Israel in 1967. By the early 1980's, the rhetoric of holy war had entered the general political discourse of modern Israel. In this book Reuven Firestone identifies, analyzes, and explains the historical, conceptual, and intellectual processes that revived holy war ideas in modern Judaism. The book serves as a case study of the way in which one ancient religious concept, once deemed irrelevant or even dangerous, was successfully revived in order to fill a pressing contemporary need. It also helps to clarify the current political and religious situation in relation to war and peace in Israel and the Middle East.