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 book brings together in one place the liberal and conservative arguments that face the Republican and Democratic parties in the run-up to the 2008 election. In each chapter, David Coates lays out the popular conservative case and then presents a point-by-point liberal response. Each chapter challenges right-wing ways of framing the issue and pulls discussion back into the civilized center of American politics. The sources and evidence sustaining both conservative and liberal arguments are listed in endnotes and developed more fully on an associated blog site. A Liberal Tool Kit helps to redress the conservative bias in the way news and arguments are generally reported. Coates argues that conservative media outlets are currently more powerful and numerous than liberal ones, contending that conservative arguments tend to be presented more clearly than their less simplistic, more nuanced liberal alternatives. In this book, he presents the complexities of the conservative arguments while at the same time clarifying liberal positions in straightforward, everyday language, so leveling the playing field.

This title presents the conservative and liberal arguments related to the current economic issues faced by the Obama administration, including market regulation and green economy. At a time of tea parties and rallies to restore sanity, the political debate in America has become nothing more than a shouting match of various soundbites. This book offers a refreshing change by introducing both conservative arguments and liberal responses in a dispassionate and clear manner. Focusing on the issues that ail the economy under the Obama administration and their possible remedies, the book offers substantiated facts and rational arguments on each side, to promote true debate. Chapters on Obama's response to the financial crisis, regulated market, green economy, need for reform and more offer a true assessment of the problems at hand and propose a progressive alternative to each of the key issues, from foreclosures to entitlement reform. In addition, two appendices provide additional, in-depth information on the roots of the crisis and an economics primer accessible to the lay person. An engaging read, "Making the Progressive Case" will appeal to anyone interested in America's politics and economic future, and will help us move beyond the partisan quagmire to bring forth political change.

A systematic and comprehensive study of the early performance of New Labour in power. It brings together the results of a co-ordinated research initiative underway in the Department of Government at the University of Manchester, charting the developing relationship between election promise and government policy across the whole sweep of New Labour's manifesto agenda. Each chapter examines New Labour's initial comments, charts opening policy moves, and traces policy trajectories in each major department of state; so generating a comprehensive audit of New Labour's electoral fidelity and an academically-informed assessment of New Labour's likely policy trajectory though its first period of office. -- .

This book links the emerging concepts of complexity, complex adaptive system (CAS) and resilience to forest ecology and management. It explores how these concepts can be applied in various forest biomes of the world with their different ecological, economic and social settings, and history. Individual chapters stress different elements of these concepts based on the specific setting and expertise of the authors. Regions and authors have been selected to cover a diversity of viewpoints and emphases, from silviculture and natural forests to forest restoration, and from boreal to tropical forests. The chapters show that there is no single generally applicable approach to forest management that applies to all settings. The first set of chapters provides a global overview of how complexity, CAS and resilience theory can benefit researchers who study forest ecosystems. A second set of chapters provides guidance for managers in understanding how these concepts can help them to facilitate forest ecosystem change and renewal (adapt or self-organize) in the face of global change while still delivering the goods and services desired by humans. The book takes a broad approach by covering a variety of forest biomes and the full range of management goals from timber production to forest restoration to promote the maintenance of biodiversity, quality of water, or carbon storage.

New ideas in ecology have implications for managing forest ecosystems. The discipline of silviculture is at a crossroads. Silviculturists are under increasing pressure to develop practices that sustain the full function and dynamics of forested ecosystems and maintain ecosystem diversity and resilience while still providing needed wood products. "A Critique of Silviculture" offers a penetrating look at the current state of the field and provides suggestions for its future development.The book includes an overview of the historical developments of silvicultural techniques and describes how these developments are best understood in their contemporary philosophical, social, and ecological contexts. It also explains how the traditional strengths of silviculture are becoming limitations as society demands a varied set of benefits from forests and as we learn more about the importance of diversity on ecosystem functions and processes.The authors go on to explain how other fields, specifically ecology and complexity science, have developed in attempts to understand the diversity of nature and the variability and heterogeneity of ecosystems. The authors suggest that ideas and approaches from these fields could offer a road map to a new philosophical and practical approach that endorses managing forests as complex adaptive systems."A Critique of Silviculture" bridges a gap between silviculture and ecology that has long hindered the adoption of new ideas. It breaks the mold of disciplinary thinking by directly linking new ideas and findings in ecology and complexity science to the field of silviculture. This is a critically important book that is essential reading for anyone involved with forest ecology, forestry, silviculture, or the management of forested ecosystems.

This practical and easy-to-use book enables teachers to challenge able children to develop their potential and to extend their thinking in primary science. It links theory to practice to develop understanding of what it means to be an able scientist; and empowers teachers to build on their existing good practice to build an inclusive science curriculum for able children.

Special features include: photocopiable resources that are linked to the National Curriculum and the QCA schemes of work; teacher guidance on the use of these resources and how they can be incorporated into normal primary science lessons; and suggestions for assessment.

This practical and easy-to-use book enables teachers to challenge able children to develop their potential and to extend their thinking in primary science. It links theory to practice to develop understanding of what it means to be an able scientist; and empowers teachers to build on their existing good practice to build an inclusive science curriculum for able children. Special features include: photocopiable resources that are linked to the National Curriculum and the QCA schemes of work; teacher guidance on the use of these resources and how they can be incorporated into normal primary science lessons; and suggestions for assessment.

In the seventies the British political system was in deep and growing crisis. The leading political parties appeared unable to offer effective solutions to the major problems which confronted the electorate and the electorate was consequently increasingly alienated from politicians who promised so much and delivered so little. The gap between promise and performance had been a persistent feature of Labour Party politics in particular and with the revival of radicalism within the Labour Party during the 1970s it was the opportune time to re-examine the record of the party and its potential. David Coates offers an important analysis of the Labour Party during this time and its history. He examines the roots of the Party and its development up to 1945 and analyses the performance of the 1945 51 Attlee Governments in depth. He traces developments within the Party in the 1950s and offers one of the first detailed accounts of the performance in office between 1964 and 1970.

Drawing on over four decades of research and writing on the political economy of the UK and United States, David Coates offers a masterly account of the Anglo-American condition and the social and economic crisis besetting both countries. Charting the rise and fall of the social settlements that have shaped and defined the postwar years, Coates traces the history of the two economies through first their New Deal and then their Reaganite periods - ones labelled differently in the UK, but similarly marked by the development first of a Keynesian welfare state and then a Thatcherite neoliberal one. Coates exposes the failings and shortcomings of the Reagan/Thatcher years, showing how the underlying fragility of a settlement based on the weakening of organized labour and the extensive deregulation of business culminated in the financial crisis of 2008. The legacies of that crisis haunt us still - a squeezed middle class, further embedded poverty, deepened racial divisions, an adverse work-life balance for two-income families, and a growing crisis of housing and employment for the young. Flawed Capitalism deals with each in turn, and makes the case for the creation of a new transatlantic social settlement - a less flawed capitalism - one based on greater degrees of income equality and social justice. As members of the millennial generation come to their maturity on each side of the Atlantic, Flawed Capitalism offers the critical intellectual tools that they will need if they are ever to break decisively with the failed public policies of the past.

What is the future for progressive politics in advanced capitalism? With its political fortunes so low, how might the Left move forward? These essays from leading left intellectuals - Dean Baker, Fred Block, David Coates, Hilary Wainwright, Colin Crouch, Wolfgang Streeck, Leo Panitch, Sam Gindin and Matthew Watson - reflect on the scale and nature of the task that the Left now faces and consider the following questions: * What in modern capitalism has brought the Left to this impasse?* What role has the Left played in its own failings?* What lessons can be learnt for progressive politics going forward?* What are the immediate options and how can they best be pursued? The views and opinions expressed vary, but all offer searching insights into the task the Left now faces. All point to the intellectual and practical experience on which the Left now needs to draw as it deals with its contemporary challenges. These essays represent a major statement on the future for centre-left politics and offer a frank appraisal of the Left's current capacity to keep conservatism at bay and to strengthen radical politics again.

The global economy is dominated by a powerful set of established and emerging capitalisms, from the long-standing capitalist economies of the West to the rising economies of the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) countries. An understanding of capitalism is therefore fundamental to understanding the modern world. Capitalism: The Basics is an accessible introduction to a variety of capitalisms and explores key topics such as: the history of major capitalist economies; the central role played by both states and markets in the global economy; the impact of capitalism on wages, workers and welfare; approaches to the analysis of capitalism, and choices for capitalism's future. Examining capitalism from both above and below, featuring a range of case studies from around the globe, and including a comprehensive glossary, this book is the ideal introduction for students studying capitalism.

This book links the emerging concepts of complexity, complex adaptive systems (CAS) and resilience to forest ecology and management. It explores how these concepts can be applied in various forest biomes of the world with their different ecological, economic and social settings, and histories. Individual chapters stress different elements of these concepts based on the specific setting and expertise of the authors. Regions and authors have been selected to cover a diversity of viewpoints and emphases, from silviculture and natural forests to forest restoration, and from boreal to tropical forests.

The chapters show that there is no single generally applicable approach to forest management that applies to all settings. The first set of chapters provides a global overview of how complexity, CAS and resilience theory can benefit researchers who study forest ecosystems. A second set of chapters provides guidance for managers in understanding how these concepts can help them to facilitate forest ecosystem change and renewal (adapt or self-organize) in the face of global change while still delivering the goods and services desired by humans. The book takes a broad approach by covering a variety of forest biomes and the full range of management goals from timber production to forest restoration to promoting the maintenance of biodiversity, quality of water and carbon storage.

"The intellectual lodestone for the international Left since 1964."
"--Mike Davis"

"Compulsory reading."
"--Daniel Singer"

Socialist Register 2001 examines the concept and the reality of class as it affects workers at the beginning of the twenty-first century. Theoretical contributions explore today's old and new working classes, workers "north" and "south," peasants and workers, gender and the working class, as well as migrant and knowledge workers. Other essays examine critically important regional experiences in East Asia, India, South Africa, Brazil, Iran, Russia, Europe and North America.

Contributions include: Giovanni Arrighi, Beverly Silver, Henry Bernstein, Peter Kwong, Eric Mann, Ursula Huws, Andree Levesque, Pat & Hugh Armstrong, Rosemary, Brigitte Young, Rohini Banaji, Gerard Greenfield, Barbara Harriss-White & Nandini Gooptu, Patrick Bond, Darlene Miller, Greg Ruiter, Huw Beynon & Jose Ramalho, Justin Paulson, Haideh Moghissi, Saeed Rahnema, David Mandel, Michael Goldfield, and Steve Jeffreys.

What is the future for progressive politics in advanced capitalism? With its political fortunes so low, how might the Left move forward? These essays from leading left intellectuals - Dean Baker, Fred Block, David Coates, Hilary Wainwright, Colin Crouch, Wolfgang Streeck, Leo Panitch, Sam Gindin and Matthew Watson - reflect on the scale and nature of the task that the Left now faces and consider the following questions: * What in modern capitalism has brought the Left to this impasse?* What role has the Left played in its own failings?* What lessons can be learnt for progressive politics going forward?* What are the immediate options and how can they best be pursued? The views and opinions expressed vary, but all offer searching insights into the task the Left now faces. All point to the intellectual and practical experience on which the Left now needs to draw as it deals with its contemporary challenges. These essays represent a major statement on the future for centre-left politics and offer a frank appraisal of the Left's current capacity to keep conservatism at bay and to strengthen radical politics again.

The global economy is dominated by a powerful set of established and emerging capitalisms, from the long-standing capitalist economies of the West to the rising economies of the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) countries. An understanding of capitalism is therefore fundamental to understanding the modern world. Capitalism: The Basics is an accessible introduction to a variety of capitalisms and explores key topics such as:

the history of major capitalist economies;

the central role played by both states and markets in the global economy;

the impact of capitalism on wages, workers and welfare;

approaches to the analysis of capitalism, and choices for capitalism’s future.

Examining capitalism from both above and below, featuring a range of case studies from around the globe, and including a comprehensive glossary, this book is the ideal introduction for students studying capitalism.

Table of Contents

1. What is Capitalism? 2. Capitalism from Above 3. Capitalism from Below 4.Capitalism in Contention 5. Capitalism and its Consequences 6. Capitalism and its Future

This title presents the conservative and liberal arguments related to the current economic issues faced by the Obama administration, including market regulation and green economy. At a time of tea parties and rallies to restore sanity, the political debate in America has become nothing more than a shouting match of various soundbites. This book offers a refreshing change by introducing both conservative arguments and liberal responses in a dispassionate and clear manner. Focusing on the issues that ail the economy under the Obama administration and their possible remedies, the book offers substantiated facts and rational arguments on each side, to promote true debate. Chapters on Obama's response to the financial crisis, regulated market, green economy, need for reform and more offer a true assessment of the problems at hand and propose a progressive alternative to each of the key issues, from foreclosures to entitlement reform. In addition, two appendices provide additional, in-depth information on the roots of the crisis and an economics primer accessible to the lay person. An engaging read, "Making the Progressive Case" will appeal to anyone interested in America's politics and economic future, and will help us move beyond the partisan quagmire to bring forth political change.

An essential toolkit for all progressives- helping them to respond to the current sustained right-wing criticism of US domestic and foreign policy

"The game is begun," Rush Limbaugh said, the day after Barack Obama won the presidency; and he was right. The clash of views on US domestic and foreign policy is, if anything, even more intense now than it was before the change of leadership in Washington. Right-wing media figures and Republican politicians regularly regale us with conservative criticisms of the realignment of policy and politics now underway. Even more than in 2008, now is the time for liberals to "answer back," to counter those criticisms by both recognizing their content and locating their weaknesses. In the great clash of parties and philosophies that will shape the next American century, an informed citizenry will require more accurate information, ideas, and arguments than right-wing radio characteristically provides, and the market is wide open for a book that engages with both the worst and the best of the Republican case. "Answering Back "is that book.

"Answering Back "intends to lift the quality of political discourse in the United States by bringing together the best conservative and the best liberal arguments on the eight key policy issues now in contention between the parties: trickledown economics and the role of public spending, the desirability of welfare reform, the future of social security, the establishment of health care for all, the possibility of comprehensive immigration control, religious issues and the social agenda, the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the causes of the financial meltdown.
Each chapter begins with a brief introduction, followed by conservative views and a point-by-point progressive response. Each stage of each argument is labeled for easy memorization, and the language used is deliberately jargon free, to make the material as accessible as possible. The sources of both conservative and progressive arguments (and their supporting evidence) are cited to open the door to further research.
"Answering Back "is a completely revised and expanded version of "A Liberal "Tookit, intially published by Praeger in 2007. This new version is a handbook of arguments, data, and sources that present today's key policy debates in an even-handed and accessible manner. This will be an essential tool for anyone interested in policy reform, party politics, and American politics. It is written in a manner that is, at one and the same time, scholarly, useful, accessible, and fun

This trenchant account of the last twenty-five years of the British Labour Party argues that Tony Blair's modernizing tendency was profoundly mistaken in asserting that the only alternative to traditional social democracy and narrow parliamentarianism was an acceptance of neo-liberalism. In blaming the Labour left, rather than the social-democratic right for the party's years in the electoral wilderness, the modernizers rejected the creativity and energy which the party's New Left had mobilized, and without which their own professed aim of democratic renewal was unlikely to be realized. In this new edition, the authors, in collaboration with David Coates, review the debate in light of the Blair government's first three years in office.

Mainstream social democrats have struggled to hold this own since the global financial crisis. Some established parties have been swept off the political stage while others have seen catastrophic falls in their vote shares. Writing from a distinctively British perspective, David Coats looks to pinpoint the reasons for this decline and offer an optimistic outlook, arguing that social democracy still represents the best hope for affluent societies to secure the values of the Enlightenment. He also makes the case that the Labour party is most successful when it is open pluralist and disengaged from arid internal wrangling. Rather than offering a comprehensive policy agenda, the author calls for a discussion engaging all legitimate strains in the social democratic tradition, outlining a series of questions that Labour must answer if it is to secure a general election victory.