This book is devoted to the analysis of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and its role in international and national policy making. On its 50th anniversary, the OECD enjoys widely acknowledged international standing. Despite this, it has so far remained a rarely researched and analyzed organization. Mechanisms of OECD Governance is thus a pioneering work: it fills a long-overdue gap in presenting a theoretically guided and empirically rich analysis of the OECD as a political actor, and explores its role in political processes through various case studies in a variety of policy fields. By conceptualizing the contributions to this volume around the concept of mechanisms of governance, the book explores how and to what extent the OECD provides international incentives for national policy making.
The volume collects a set of ten contributions on the OECD and its activities in core fields of its commitment as an 'economic organization', such as economic and labor market policy, tax issues, finance or financial crime, but also in complementary fields in which the organization is active today despite its original economic focus, such as education, biotechnology, health, family issues, and migration. The case studies presented in this volume are an interdisciplinary collection from different academic perspectives, including political science, international relations, law, and organization studies. Mechanisms of OECD Governance provides a current and wide-ranging analysis of this organization including its constraints and opportunities in policy making.

Global crime governance has emerged as an important component of world politics. It is manifested in national and international agendas, the proliferation of global regulations, growing international budgets, and the enlarged mandates of international organizations. As a result, the definition and prosecution of crime is now increasingly homogenous, but it also shows variance: some crime policies are institutionalized coherently or attached to strong international organizations, while others are weak or dispersed across different forums. Based on sociological institutionalism, this book examines questions of structural variance in the institutional design of global governance. It shows that the interplay of strong actors and rationalization principles lead to more coherent forms of global crime governance, while normative arguments related to crime are more likely to result in fragmented forms. In consequence - and contrary to many scholars' assumptions - global crime governance is strongest in those areas that are least attached to moral statements. The book develops a theory of society and applies this framework to explaining the sources and consequences of institutional design. Drawing on qualitative and quantitative methods, the text analyzes the origins of global regulations, how they are disseminated, and why differences exist. The role of the United States in creating global rules and disseminating them is emphasized. Readers interested in international relations, global governance, globalization studies, world society studies, and criminology will benefit from the theoretical and empirical results of this book.

This pioneering volume is devoted to the analysis of education from the perspective of political science, applying the full range of the discipline's analytical perspectives and methodological tools. The contributions demonstrate how education policy can be explored systematically from a variety of political science perspectives: comparative politics, public policy analysis and public administration, international relations, and political theory. By applying a governance perspective on education policy, the authors explore the changing institutional settings, new actors' constellations, horizontal modes of interaction and public-private regulatory mechanisms with respect to the role of the state in this policy field. The volume deals with questions that are not merely concerned with the content or outcomes of education, but it explicitly takes a political science view on how education politics work. Including country case studies from the Americas and across Europe, institutional analyses of education policy in the EU and the WTO/GATS as well as normative reflections on the topic, the volume provides a grand overview on the diversity of issues in education policy. Dealing with a so far neglected field of policy, this book provides a comprehensive and accessible analysis of a rapidly changing topic. Education in Political Science will be of interest to scholars and students of political science, education, sociology and economics.

This pioneering volume is devoted to the analysis of education from the perspective of political science, applying the full range of the discipline 's analytical perspectives and methodological tools.

The contributions demonstrate how education policy can be explored systematically from a variety of political science perspectives: comparative politics, public policy analysis and public administration, international relations, and political theory. By applying a governance perspective on education policy, the authors explore the changing institutional settings, new actors constellations, horizontal modes of interaction and public-private regulatory mechanisms with respect to the role of the state in this policy field. The volume deals with questions that are not merely concerned with the content or outcomes of education, but it explicitly takes a political science view on how education politics work. Including country case studies from the Americas and across Europe, institutional analyses of education policy in the EU and the WTO/GATS as well as normative reflections on the topic, the volume provides a grand overview on the diversity of issues in education policy. Dealing with a so far neglected field of policy, this book provides a comprehensive and accessible analysis of a rapidly changing topic.

Education in Political Science will be of interest to scholars and students of political science, education, sociology and economics.

This engaging new textbook presents a comprehensive, nuanced and multidimensional perspective on global crime and its governance. As global criminal activity becomes increasingly sophisticated and elusive, so the means to counter it must adapt. Every day our news media is dominated by incidents that span countries and continents, often presented as an all-encompassing threat orchestrated by societal outsiders. If not in the news, global crime is sensationalised in our film and television industry, and it can be difficult to gain a true understanding of what global crime is and how it is combated. Featuring the latest research and informed by a wide range of theoretical perspectives, this text masterfully makes sense of a range of issues from global environmental crime and human trafficking, to the global trade in drugs and cybercrime. This pathbreaking text analyses why global crime is important, the obstacles faced in countering it and accounts for the difficulties in securing cooperation across states. Comprehensive and accessible, this authoritative textbook is the perfect companion for students and scholars who are interested in the still evolving issue of international relations and global politics.