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Books > Social sciences > Politics & government > Political activism > Pressure groups & lobbying
The New South Wales club gaming industry is a multi-billion dollar business with some of the largest registered clubs in the world operating more poker machines than many casinos - but not subject to the same scrutiny. Their status as 'mutuals' allows them to pay little, if any, corporate income tax and low state tax rates on gaming profits. Casino Clubs NSW describes how big clubs have attained and retained a dominant position in the gaming industry. While recognising the positive role of small mutual clubs, it questions the continuing government support of big clubs through tax and regulatory concessions, and refutes claims that the bulk of gaming profits are spent on community contributions and sports sponsorship. Casino Clubs NSW presents the story of public campaigns, private lobbying and back-room machinations aimed at blocking a 2003 decision by Premier Bob Carr and Treasurer Michael Egan to increase taxes on the gaming profits of big clubs. Carr and Egan resisted these campaigns but incoming Premier Iemma backed down in order to obtain the support of some disaffected backbenchers. Hundreds of millions of dollars are being lost in state taxes. And the price is rising. 'An excellent, original piece of academic social science research into a major public policy issue. It is a shame that this was not written ten years ago to provide the evidence to prevent some misguided, self-interested and costly policy decisions taken by successive governments in NSW.' - Professor Michael Johnson, University of NSW 'An original contribution to knowledge and to public policy in Australia (and in the sector of gambling studies). It tells a story of policy intrigue and behind the scenes manoeuvring to preserve privileged positions.' - Professor John Wanna, Australian National University Tags: Betty Con Walker, Business and economics
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"Political Power in Alabama" is the sequel to Anne Permaloff and Carl Grafton's "Big Mules and Branchheads," a biography of the populist governor "Big Jim" Folsom. Encompassing the years from 1958 to 1970 and the gubernatorial terms of John Patterson, George Wallace, Lurleen Wallace, and Albert Brewer, the present volume offers a full account of the breakup of the Big Mule Alliance, the elite coalition of Alabama's largest industrial and agricultural interests, and the subsequent effects on the state's political environment. Dominating Alabama politics for most of the century through disenfranchisement and control of the legislature, the "Big Mules" wanted low taxes, a minimally effective school system, no effective labor unions, a small electorate, and racial segregation. By 1958, however, the Big Mules' urban and rural elements had grown disaffected with one another, and outside forces were driving them apart. In a few years, the legislature and the electorate would be drastically restructured. Although this period could have been a time to set new policy directions for the state, say Permaloff and Grafton, many opportunities for change were squandered, establishing the politics of Alabama today and the problems facing the state. "Political Power in Alabama" covers an extraordinarily complex set of issues and events, including the civil rights struggle, urban-rural disparities, the lack of party competition, the structure of the tax system, and the economic and cultural gaps separating Alabama and the rest of the South from the nation.
America spends more than any other developed nation on healthcare--$2.1 trillion in 2007 alone. But 47 million Americans remain uninsured, and of those Americans who are insured, many suffer from poor health. In his ground-breaking proposal, Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel offers up a plan to comprehensively restructure the delivery and quality of our healthcare. By eliminating employer-healthcare and establishing an independent program to evaluate healthcare plans and insurance companies, he offers a no-nonsense guide to how government can institute private insurance options that will allow each of us a choice of doctor and plan. With the rate of healthcare costs rapidly outpacing our gross domestic product, we can no longer afford to maintain our fragmented delivery of care, or entertain reforms that seek to patch, rather than cure, a fractured system. Accessible, straightforward, and revolutionary in its approach, "Healthcare, Guaranteed" is an inarguable guide to lasting healthcare reform.
From stem cell research to intelligent design to global warming, political conflict over science is heating up. In his 2005 bestseller, The Republican War on Science, journalist Chris Mooney made the case that, again and again, even overwhelming scientific consensus has met immovable political obstacles. And, again and again, those obstacles have arisen on the right-from the Bush administration, from coalitions of Republicans and from individually powerful Republicans. As the new paperback edition announces, Mooney's book, "brings this whole story together for the first time, weaving the disparate strands of the attack on science into a compelling and frightening account of our government's increasing unwillingness to distinguish between legitimate research and ideologically driven pseudoscience." Looking for a Fight, Is There a Republican War on Science? started life as a 'book event'-an online, roundtable-style critical symposium on Mooney's work, hosted at Crooked Timber (crookedtimber.org). Eight contributors offered reviews, discussion and critical commentary. And Mooney responded to his critics. Now the event is a book, available here in print for the first time and online (for free download at parlorpress.com). "Man, you guys worked me hard ." - Chris Mooney
Current Events / Political Activism Take Action in 2004...
Pressure Groups are an increasingly important feature of the political landscape and they are active on many levels, local, national or European. They reflect a diverse compass of interests from the well-known (the National Farmers' Union) to the less familiar (the Zip Fastener Association) and interact with a wide range of political players in different parts of the political system: parties, the media, government and parliament. They are involved at every stage of the political process, from raising issues and agenda setting to policy implementation and monitoring. Subjects covered include: *Classifying pressure groups *How pressure groups operate *Pressure group resources *Trends in pressure group activity *Protest politics and direct action *Pressure groups and the Scottish Parliament *Pressure groups and the European Union *The abolition of hunting with dogs *Pressure groups and democracy This book provides an accessible guide to the role of Pressure Groups in our democracy, establishing clear definitions and analysing their role and performance. It includes the findings of recent research into the workings of British pressure groups in the European Union and of the ways in which lobbyists consult with the devolved legislatures in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The United States boasts scores of organizations that offer
crucial representation for groups that are marginalized in national
politics, from women to racial minorities to the poor. Here, in the
first systematic study of these organizations, Dara Z. Strolovitch
explores the challenges and opportunities they face in the new
millennium, as waning legal discrimination coincides with
increasing political and economic inequalities "within" the
populations they represent.
The federal government wastes your tax dollars worse than a drunken
sailor on shore leave. The 1984 Grace Commission uncovered that the
Department of Defense spent $640 for a toilet seat and $436 for a
hammer. Twenty years later things weren't much better. In 2004,
Congress spent a record-breaking $22.9 billion dollars of your
money on 10,656 of their pork-barrel projects. The war on terror
has a lot to do with the record $413 billion in deficit spending,
but it's also the result of pork over the last 18 years the likes
of:
Founded in May 1783 at Steuben's headquarters near Newburg, N.Y., by officers of the Continental army and navy, the Society of the Cincinnati was at one time one of America's most controversial organizations. In Liberty without Anarchy, Minor Myers relates how the officers, who had not been paid for four years, began to circulate rumors of a military coup. The society, with Washington as President-General, was formed to exert political pressure on Congress to guarantee payment in response to the angry men. Many Americans, Thomas Jefferson principal among them, viewed the new organization with suspicion, as a seedbed for a hereditary American aristocracy. As Myers points out, the fears were well-founded: many society members were monarchists, and in 1786 Steuben himself wrote to Prince Henry of Prussia inquiring whether he might be interested in becoming king of the United States. Prince Henry declined. The interest in monarchy ended with the adoption of the federal Constitution in 1787, with many society members as delegates to the Convention, but it was not until 1827 that the original pay dispute was resolved and the officers awarded a pension. With unprecedented access to the society's papers and documents, Minor Myers has produced a highly readable history of this fascinating organization, in which he concludes that the Society is an important reminder of the road the American revolutionaries avoided--the road that led from revolution to army coup to military dictatorship--a road taken by most of the armed revolutions of the last two hundred years. tag: The history of how a powerful and potentially subversive group of officers made the choice for liberty during the Revolutionary War
In 1968 Miguel ""Mickey"" Melendez was a college student, developing pride in his Cuban and Puerto Rican cultural identity and becoming increasingly aware of the effects of social inequality on Latino Americans. Joining with other like-minded student activists, Melendez helped form the central committee of the New York branch of the Young Lords, one of the most provocative and misunderstood radical groups to emerge during the 1960s. Incorporating techniques of direct action and community empowerment, the Young Lords became a prominent force in the urban northeast. From their storefront offices in East Harlem, they defiantly took back the streets of El Barrio. In addition to running clothing drives, day-care centers, and food and health programs, they became known for their media-savvy tactics and bold actions, like the takeovers of the First People's Church and Lincoln Hospital. In this memoir, Melendez describes with the unsparing eye of an insider the idealism, anger, and vitality of the Lords as they rose to become the most respected and powerful voice of Puerto Rican empowerment in the country. He also traces the internal ideological disputes that led the group, but not the mission, to fracture in 1972. Written with passion and compelling detail, We Took the Streets tells the story of how one group took on the establishment - and won.
Whether picketing outside abortion clinics, speaking out at school board meetings, or attending anti-death penalty vigils, many Americans have publicly opposed local, state, or federal government policies on the basis of their religious convictions. In The Fracture of Good Order , Jason Bivins examines the growing phenomenon of Christian protest against civil authority and political order in the United States. He argues that since the 1960s, there has been a proliferation of religious activism against what protesters perceive as government's excessive power and lack of moral principle. Calling this phenomenon ""Christian antiliberalism,"" Bivins finds at its center a belief that American politics is based on a liberal tradition that gives government too much social and economic influence and threatens the practice of a religious life. Focusing on the Catholic pacifism of Daniel and Philip Berrigan and the Jonah House resistance community, the Christian Right's homeschooling movement, and the evangelical Sojourners community, Bivins combines religious studies with political theory to explore the common ground shared by these disparate groups. Despite their vast ideological and institutional differences, Bivins argues, these activists justify their actions in overtly religious terms based on a rejection of basic tenets of the American political system. Analyzing the widespread dissatisfaction with the conventional forms of political identity and affiliation that characterize American civic life today, Bivins sheds light on the complex relations between religion and democratic society. |Bivins examines Christian activist groups not usually considered together, from the Berrigan brothers to the New Christian Right movement, to show that despite their differing agendas, all are opposed to the government's excessive power and lack of moral influence. Christian antiliberalism, as Bivins calls it, brings religious language and symbolic actions to bear on a political system whose authority is perceived as morally bankrupt.
The story of one of America's first historic preservationists and the city she fought to save One of the most remarkable women born in the Reconstruction South, Susan Pringle Frost was an outspoken champion of a host of important causes, including women's rights, a more active and accountable local government, and better treatment of African Americans. In his biography of this dynamic Charlestonian, Sidney Bland enumerates Frost's many accomplishments and chronicles what he considers to be her greatest achievement--spearheading a historic preservation movement in Charleston that became the model for preservationists throughout the country. Bland recounts Frost's early life as a member of an illustrious Charleston family and her entrance into the workplace, caused partly by her father's financial failures. He tells how she defied convention by establishing a real estate office in Charleston's all-male professional district, sparked an interest in preservation by buying and renovating houses on and around Charleston's oldest thoroughfare, and founded the Society for the Preservation of Old Dwellings, one of the nation's oldest historic preservation groups and the forerunner of the Preservation Society of Charleston. Offering vivid insight into the courage, perseverance, and eccentricity of a woman he considers a complex and often inconsistent crusader, he credits Frost with garnering support for the city's landmark Historic District Zoning Ordinance and traces specific staples of present-day historic preservation methods to her visionary initiatives. A finalist for the South Carolina Historical Society's best book of the year in South Carolina history, Preserving Charleston's Past, Shaping Its Future illuminates the life of a pioneer in historic preservation and a feminist whose activism helped save Charleston's old architecture and generated a wider preservation movement.
Youth in Revolutionary Russia: Enthusiasts, Bohemians,
Delinquents A vivid account of Bolshevik efforts to "Sovietize" young people in the 1920s. "A very impressive work broad, learned, and very readable." Lynn Mally "A welcome and fascinating addition to the social and cultural history of the 1920s in Russia and to the comparative study of youth politics and culture in contemporary Europe and elsewhere." Mark von Hagen In Bolshevik Russia, the successful transformation of young
people into communists was crucial for the future of the Soviet
state. Soviet youth needed to be shaped into communists in every
aspect of their daily lives work, leisure, gender relations, and
family life. But how could the Bolsheviks accomplish this enormous
project? What did it mean to be "made communist"? What were the
consequences if prerevolutionary and "bourgeois" culture and social
relations could not be transformed into new socialist forms of
behavior and belief? Drawing from a wide range of sources diaries,
party speeches, propagandistic writings, scientific studies, and
literature Anne E. Gorsuch reveals the rich diversity of youth
cultures in Soviet Russia during the 1920s. She explores the
relationship between representation and reality and between
official ideology and popular culture, along with the meaning of
these relationships for the making of a Soviet state and society.
From the clash between ultracommunist visions of what Russian young
people should be and the flamboyant style of flappers and
foxtrotters so prominently imported from the capitalist West,
emerges a vivid picture of the construction of Soviet youth.
Thoughtful and appealing, Youth in Revoluntionary Russia is
essential reading for those interested in popular culture and
Soviet history. Indiana-Michigan Series in Russian and East European Studies Alexander Rabinowitch and William G. Rosenberg, editors Contents
Most people believe that large corporations wield enormous
political power when they lobby for policies as a cohesive bloc.
With this controversial book, Mark A. Smith sets conventional
wisdom on its head. In a systematic analysis of postwar lawmaking,
Smith reveals that business loses in legislative battles unless it
has public backing. This surprising conclusion holds because the
types of issues that lead businesses to band together--such as tax
rates, air pollution, and product liability--also receive the most
media attention. The ensuing debates give citizens the information
they need to hold their representatives accountable and make
elections a choice between contrasting policy programs.
"Jan's book shows the vitality of the civil society in both cities and suburbs in New Jersey. It is the first book to demonstrate the strength of the civil society in both cities and suburbs in our state. Civic leaders in cities and suburbs should read the book to find plenty of insights and solid organizing advice to help them to mobilize their communities for change."-Ira Resnick, Neighborhood Leadership Initiative Community Foundation of New Jersey Civic movements are essential to Americans' freedom and quality of life. Active citizens have led the way from the American Revolution to urban renewal. But fiery emotions and good intentions without skillful organization can lead to frustrated civic involvement. How can individual concerns be transformed into effective community action? Jan Barry provides a pragmatic, common-sense handbook to civic action. Using case studies from his home state of New Jersey, Barry has crafted what he calls a "guidebook for creative improvement on the American dream." He dissects civic actions such as environmental campaigns, mutual-help groups, neighborhood improvement projects, and a grassroots peace mission to Russia. Looking for patterns to explain successes and failures, Barry includes his own experiences as a Vietnam veteran peace activist to inspire and coach fledgling activists. The result is a wealth of practical, non-partisan information on membership recruitment, organizational skills, public speaking, lobbying, publicity, conflict resolution, and more. Rising above any particular political, social, or religious beliefs, Barry shows would-be activists how to confront one enduring truth -"Democracy is a lot harder to do than it is to talk about or fight over."
In this book, Bryant Simon brings to life the politics of white South Carolina millhands during the first half of the twentieth century. His revealing and moving account explores how this group of southern laborers thought about and participated in politics and public power. Taking a broad view of politics, Simon looks at laborers as they engaged in political activity in many venues--at the polling station, on front porches, and on the shop floor--and examines their political involvement at the local, state, and national levels. He describes the campaign styles and rhetoric of such politicians as Coleman Blease and Olin Johnston (himself a former millhand), who eagerly sought the workers' votes. He draws a detailed picture of mill workers casting ballots, carrying placards, marching on the state capital, writing to lawmakers, and picketing factories. These millhands' politics reflected their public and private thoughts about whiteness and blackness, war and the New Deal, democracy and justice, gender and sexuality, class relations and consumption. Ultimately, the people depicted here are neither romanticized nor dismissed as the stereotypically racist and uneducated ""rednecks"" found in many accounts of southern politics. Southern workers understood the political and social forces that shaped their lives, argues Simon, and they developed complex political strategies to deal with those forces. |Brings to life the politics of white South Carolina millhands from 1920 to 1945. Examines laborers as they engaged in political activity and shows how their politics reflected their public and private opinions.
With this book, Nancy Isenberg illuminates the origins of the women's rights movement. Rather than herald the singular achievements of the 1848 Seneca Falls convention, she examines the confluence of events and ideas--before and after 1848--that, in her view, marked the real birth of feminism. Drawing on a wide range of sources, she demonstrates that women's rights activists of the antebellum era crafted a coherent feminist critique of church, state, and family. In addition, Isenberg shows, they developed a rich theoretical tradition that influenced not only subsequent strains of feminist thought but also ideas about the nature of citizenship and rights more generally. By focusing on rights discourse and political theory, Isenberg moves beyond a narrow focus on suffrage. Democracy was in the process of being redefined in antebellum America by controversies over such volatile topics as fugitive slave laws, temperance, Sabbath laws, capital punishment, prostitution, the Mexican War, married women's property rights, and labor reform--all of which raised significant legal and constitutional questions. These pressing concerns, debated in women's rights conventions and the popular press, were inseparable from the gendered meaning of nineteenth-century citizenship. |Illuminates the origins of American feminism by showing how antebellum feminists moved beyond suffrage to influence thinking about the nature of citizenship and rights more generally.
" Entre le Savoir et le Culte presente des etudes et documents originaux qui mettent a jour l'evolution de l'islam et du christianisme parmi les etudiants d'universites des pays du Sahel. Il revele les fissures et les conflits entre les groupes, et analyse leurs modes oraux, ecrits et vestimentaires d'affichage et de performance. Cet ouvrage apporte ainsi un puissant eclairage sur l'emprise du religieux sur l'elite en formation, et examine les deux interrogations qui alimentent l'activisme religieux universitaire la signification de la revendication d'une identite musulmane ou chretienne, et comment celle-ci faconne la modernite des deux religions et vice-versa. A lire pour comprendre le dynamisme des terribles crises qui amenent la region sahelienne a se tourner sur elle-meme. " - Mamadou Diouf, Leitner Family Professor of African Studies, Columbia University, Etats-Unis. " Quelquefois negligees ou mal comprises par les analystes etrangers, les universites saheliennes sont le theatre de debats profonds sur l'identite nationale, et d'importantes negociations autour de la religiosite et de l'ethnicite. Cette collection rassemble les travaux d'eminents specialistes dans ce domaine, et propose une perspective riche et comparative de leur travail collectif, ancree dans leur recherche sur le terrain. L'ouvrage sera indispensable a tous les chercheurs, analystes, et decideurs politiques qui travaillent sur le Sahel. Ces chapitres contribueront beaucoup a la comprehension des experiences et priorites d'une generation d'activistes et de leaders qui marqueront la region dans les annees a venir. " - Alex Thurston, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Universite de Cincinnati, Etats-Unis Contributeurs: Mamadou Ballo, Mamadou Bodian, Mamadou Lamine Dembele, Ladiba Gondeu, Koudbi Desire Kabore, Abakar Walar Modou, Elemine Ould Mohamed Baba Moustapha, Benjamin Soares, Magloire Some, Abdoulaye Sounaye, Leonardo A. Villalon.
Can grassroots interest groups ever win the wars they wage in the political arena against big business in America? Praised by some as a crucial component of the democratic system and criticized by others as stubborn, single-issue factions that pose a threat to the equitable progress of political change, interest groups are considered by many detractors to have a success rate directly related to their alliance with wealthy, powerful corporations. As Ronald T. Libby asserts in "Eco-Wars," viable strategies are available to environmental, food safety, animal rights, gun control, and other organizations that seek to challenge business interests in the political arena. Employing newly released documents culled from five non-business-related alliances with mostly social concerns, known today as "expressive" interest groups, Libby examines how they confront powerful industries. "Eco-Wars" investigates an antibiotechnology campaign aimed at drug companies; an animal rights effort directed against the agricultural industry; an anti-pesticide campaign focused on the chemical industry; a property rights fight against environmental groups; and a secondhand smoke campaign opposing tobacco companies. Drawing upon previously classified files, "Eco-Wars" also draws from interviews with both activists and the industry representatives they oppose.With his balanced analysis, Libby goes beyond the polemical nature of much work on this subject, offering a new avenue for research in the social sciences and a useful tool for interest groups.
Agenda-setting is a key component in the democratic process if political outsiders are to have their concerns taken seriously. However, their efforts sometimes fail for reasons other than insufficient resources or incompetent leaders: opponents often succeed in keeping new issues from ever reaching the agendas of decision-makers. This is the first book devoted to examining why some issues proposed by aggrieved individuals or groups are denied access to policy agendas. It develops a theoretical framework for the study of agenda setting and agenda denial, emphasizing the cultural strategies opponents use to impede and defeat policy initiatives, and examining specific strategies of avoidance, attack, and redefinition that explain why certain issues don't receive consideration. The book contains seven case studies that examine the policy process from the perspective of the strategies opponents of policy initiatives use and demonstrate that agenda denial can result when opponents succeed in portraying initiatives as threats to widely held world views and identities. Four cases involving federal agencies show how the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Food and Drug Administration have kept issues off their own agendas, how the accounting profession has avoided SEC regulation, and how pro-life forces kept the French abortion pill off the FDA agenda. Two cases focusing on public health issues examine why national health insurance has never made it onto the federal agenda and how local agencies in Texas prevented residents of minority neighborhoods from obtaining clean water. Finally, a case from outside the U.S. shows how Kurt Waldheim's Nazi past failed to become an issue in his campaign for President of Austria. While most books emphasize issue initiators, Cultural Strategies of Agenda Denial makes a unique addition to the agenda-setting literature by focusing on the actions of opponents and emphasizing the political importance of cultural resources and culturally constituted ideas to the ongoing debate in political science concerning how open and democratic our system really is.
The biographies of more than 800 women form the basis for Elna
Green's study of the suffrage and the antisuffrage movements in the
South. Green's comprehensive analysis highlights the effects that
factors such as class background, marital status, educational
level, and attitudes about race and gender roles had in inspiring
the region's women to work in favor of, or in opposition to, their
own enfranchisement. |
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