Comparative politics Books

Book SynopsisWithin the already heavily polarised debate on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, parallels between Israel and apartheid South Africa remain highly contentious. A number of prominent academic and political commentators, including former US president Jimmy Carter and UN Special Rapporteur John Dugard, have argued that Israel's treatment of its Arab-Israeli citizens and the people of the occupied territories amounts to a system of oppression no less brutal or inhumane than that of South Africa's white supremacists. Similarly, boycott and disinvestment campaigns comparable to those employed by anti-apartheid activists have attracted growing support. Yet while the 'apartheid question' has become increasingly visible in this debate, there has been little in the way of genuine scholarly analysis of the similarities (or otherwise) between the Zionist and apartheid regimes. In Israel and South Africa, Ilan Pappé, one of Israel's preeminent academics and a noted critic of the current government, brings together lawyers, journalists, policy makers and historians of both countries to assess the implications of the apartheid analogy for international law, activism and policy making. With contributors including the distinguished anti-apartheid activist Ronnie Kasrils, Israel and South Africa offers a bold and incisive perspective on one of the defining moral questions of our age.Trade ReviewA key book for deepening the discussion of Israel as an apartheid state of a special kind, and for exploring a different future for Palestinians. The essays give no easy answers, but much food for thought, and for hope. This book's insights and analysis will be widely debated - it should be a best seller. * Victoria Brittain, journalist and author of Shadow Lives: The Forgotten Women of the War on Terror *The collection provides some excellent moments of reflection on apartheid in South Africa that are given new perspective through exciting comparative scholarship and can also aid in deciphering the post-apartheid trajectory of the country. * Africa at LSE *A rich accumulation of material and ideas. * Electronic Intifada *For Israel and its allies, any talk of apartheid remains anathema … The essays in this book are evidence of how insightful, and fruitful, such a comparison and analysis can be. * Journal of Palestine Studies *This is an exceptionally important contribution to contemporary debates on Israeli apartheid. There is simply no other collection out there that brings such historical and comparative breadth to bear on this question - a must read! * Adam Hanieh, SOAS, University of London *Israel is trying to refine the nefarious policy of apartheid to keep the Palestinian people apart. This book cogently argues the inefficacy of the policy of divide and rule. A must read. * Arun Gandhi, founder of the M. K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence *One of the most important volumes on the issue of Israeli apartheid. Skilfully incorporating perspectives from various disciplines, the authors provide an excellent and extremely relevant examination of the systemic infrastructure of the Israeli state's colonial and apartheid enterprise. * Farid Esack, University of Johannesburg *Comparing Israel and apartheid South Africa is one of the great taboos of our time. This collection breaks the taboo in examining settler colonialism and apartheid in both Israel itself and the Occupied Palestinian Territory. * John Dugard, former Special Rapporteur to the UN Human Rights Council *It is clear from this finely crafted collection of essays that Israel has much in common with white-ruled South Africa. Indeed, Israel and South Africa provides abundant evidence that Israel is worse than South Africa was, and that Israeli apartheid will be more enduring than the South African variant. This smart and informative book should be read by every person who cares about Israel and its victims. * John J. Mearsheimer, author of The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy *A terrible evil makes the apartheid comparison between Israel and South Africa a valid exercise, that is, the intentional prevention of shared life. On this basis, this book tasks the comparative method as a tool to challenge the dismal reality in Palestine. * Marcelo Svirsky, author of After Israel *Demonstrates how Apartheid as a political system of segregation is not specific to any particular race or country, and why invoking it in the context of Israel /Palestine is both instructive and instrumental. The authors show there's lots to learn from the successful struggle against the Apartheid of South Africa. * Marwan Bishara, Al Jazeera English, and author of Palestine/Israel: Peace or Apartheid *Nine superbly qualified authors confirm from a variety of perspectives the allegations of apartheid directed at Israel. This book is profoundly convincing, and should put an end to serious debate about whether Israel is guilty of apartheid. * Richard Falk, author of Palestine: The Legitimacy of Hope *Table of ContentsIntroduction: The Many Faces of Apartheid - Ilan Pappé Part I: Historical Roots 1. Birds of a Feather: Israel and Apartheid South Africa Colonialism of a Special Type - Ronnie Kasrils 2. The Many Faces of European Colonialism: The Templers, the Basel Mission and the Zionist Movement - Ilan Pappé 3. Apartheid and the Question of Origin - Oren Ben-Dor Part II: The Boundaries of Comparison 4. 'Visible Equality' as Confidence Trick - Jonathan Cook 5. Apartheid, Israel and Palestinian Statehood - Leila Farsakh Part III: Nuanced Comparisons 6. Femicide in Apartheid: The Parallel Interplay between Racism and Sexism in South Africa and Palestine–Israel - Anthony Löwstedt 7. The Many Faces of Protest: A Comparative Analysis of Protest Groups in Israel and South Africa - Amneh Badran Part IV: Future Models and Perspectives 8. The Inevitable Impossible: South African Experience and a Single State - Steven Friedman 9. Redefining the Conflict in Israel–Palestine: The Tricky Question of Sovereignty - Virginia Tilley 10. Israel–Palestine and the Apartheid Analogy: Critics, Apologists and Strategic Lessons - Ran Greenstein

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Book SynopsisThis book argues that democracies emerging from peaceful protest last longer, achieve higher levels of democratic quality, and are more likely to see at least two peaceful handovers of power than democracies that emerged out of violent resistance or top-down liberalization. Nonviolent resistance is not just an effective means of deposing dictators; it can also help consolidate democracy after the transition from autocratic rule. Drawing on case studies on democratic consolidation in Africa and Latin America, the authors find that nonviolent resistance creates a more inclusive transition process that is more resistant to democratic breakdown in the long term.Table of Contents

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Book SynopsisInternational Organizations (IOs) are important actors within global social governance. They provide forums for exchange, contention and cooperation about social policies. Our knowledge about the involvement of IOs varies significantly by policy fields, and we know comparatively little about the specific roles of IOs in social policies. This volume enhances and systematizes our understanding of IOs in global social governance. It provides studies on a variety of social policy fields in which different, but also the same, IOs operate. The chapters shed light on IO involvement in a particular social policy field by describing the population of participating IOs; exploring how a particular global social policy field is constituted as a whole, and which dominant IOs set the trends. The contributors also examine the discourse within, and between, these IOs on the respective social policies. As such, this first-of-its kind book contributes to research on social policy and international relations, both in terms of theoretical substantiation and empirical scope. Table of ContentsPart I Introduction 1 The Architecture of Arguments in Global Social Governance: Examining Populations and Discourses of International Organizations in Social Policies Part II Labor and Migration 2 International Organizations’ Involvement in Youth Unemployment as a Global Policy Field, and the Global Financial Crisis 3 International Organizations and Global Labor Standards 4 International Organizations, Care and Migration: The Case of Migrant Health Care Workers 5 International Organizations and the Global Social Governance of Pensions Part III Family and Education 6 Governing Children’s Rights in Global Social Policy—International Organizations and the Thin Line Between Child Protection and Empowerment 7 Global Discourses, Regional Framings and Individual Showcasing: Analyzing the World of Education IOs 8 IOs’ Role in Global Social Governance: Family Policy 9 Disability as a ‘New’ Global Social Theme: The Role of International Organizations in an Expanding Global Policy Field Part IV Health and Environment 10 Characterizing Global Health Governance by International Organizations: Is There an Ante- and Post-COVID-19 Architecture? 11 IOs and Climate Change: Toward Global Eco-Social Policy 12 Water as Global Social Policy—International Organizations, Resource Scarcity, and Environmental Security 13 International Organizations and Food: Nearing the End of the Lean Season? Part V Conclusion 14 International Organizations and the Architecture of Arguments in Global Social Governance

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Book SynopsisThis open access book analyses the global diffusion of social policy as a process driven by multiplex ties between countries in global social networks. The contributions analyze links between countries via global trade, colonial history, similarity in culture, and spatial proximity. Networks are viewed as the structural backbone of the diffusion process, and diffusion is anlaysed via several subfields of social policy, in order to interrogate which network dimensions drive this process. The focus is on a global perspective of social policy diffusion via networks, and it is the first book to explicitly follow this macro-quantitative perspective on diffusion at a global scale whilst also comparing different networks. The collection tests the network structures in terms of their relevance to the diffusion process in different subfields of social policy such as old age and survivor pensions, labor and labor markets, health and long-term care, education and training, and family and gender policy.The book will therefore be invaluable to students and researchers of global social policy, sociology, political science, international relations, organization theory and economics.Table of ContentsNetworks of Global Social Policy Diffusion: The Effects of Culture, Economy, Colonial legacies, and Geographic Proximity.- The Global Diffusion of Work-Injury Insurance: The Role of Spatial Networks and Nation Building.- Networks of Global Policy Diffusion. The Introduction of Compulsory Education.- The Global Diffusion of Adult Basic Education.- The Emergence of Healthcare Systems.- Introduction of Long-Term Care Systems: The Nascent Diffusion of an Emergent Field of Social Policy.- Origins of Family Policy: Prerequisites or Diffusion.- From Geneva to the World? Global Network Diffusion of Anti-Discrimination Legislation in Employment and Occupation: The ILO’s C111.- The Diffusion of Workplace Anti-discrimination Regulations for the LGBTQ+ Community.- Critical Summary and Concluding Remarks.

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Book SynopsisThe 21st century has witnessed a considerable and increasing number of political revolutions around the world. This contradicts the popular belief of many experts in the 1970s that revolutions occurred mainly in monarchies and empires. Instead, the revolutions of this century have several new characteristics, which call for a renewed analysis of the subject.This handbook offers a comparative perspective on the new wave of revolutions of the last decade. Presenting case studies on the color revolutions, the Arab revolutions of 2010–2011, and the global wave of revolutions in 2013–2018 that spanned regions ranging from Africa to the Caucasus, it offers a better understanding of the varied forms, features, and historical backgrounds of revolutions, as well as their causes. Accordingly, it highlights recent revolutions in their historical and world-systems contexts.The handbook is divided into seven parts, the first of which examines the history of views on revolution and important aspects of the theory of revolution. The second part analyzes revolutions within long-term historical trends and in their world-system contexts. In turn, the third part explores specific major revolutionary waves in history. The fourth part analyzes the first revolutionary wave of the 21st century (2000–2009), the so-called color revolutions, while the fifth discusses the second wave – the Arab Spring (2010–2013) – as an important turning point. The sixth part is dedicated to analyzing revolutions and revolutionary movements beyond the Arab Spring and some revolutionary events from the third wave that began in 2018. The seventh and final part offers forecasts on the future of revolutions. Given its scope, the book will appeal to scholars and students from various disciplines interested in historical trends, sociopolitical change, contentious politics, social movements, and revolutionary processes involving both nonviolent campaigns and political violence. ​"Once again, this volume demonstrates the kind of open-minded, systematic analysis that the field of revolutionary studies requires." (Prof. George Lawson, Department of International Relations, Australian National University Canberra)Table of Contents1. Introduction. Changing yet Persistent: Revolutions and Revolutionary Events.- 2. The Phenomenon and Theories of Revolution.- 3. On Revolutionary Situations, Stages of Revolution, and Some Other Aspects of the Theory of Revolution.- 4. Revolutions, Counterrevolutions, and Democracy.- 5. Revolutions and Historical Process.- 6. Evolution and Typology of Revolutions.- 7. The “Problem of Structure and Agency” and Contemporary Sociology of Revolution and Social Movements.- 8. Revolution and Modernization Traps.- 9. Typology and Principles of Dynamics of Revolutionary Waves in World History.- 10. Revolutionary Waves of the Early Modern Period: Types and Phases.- 11. The European Revolutions and Revolutionary Waves of the 19th Century: Their Causes and Consequence.- 12. Revolutionary Waves and Lines of the 20th Century.- 13. On Revolutionary Waves since the 16th Century.- 14. All Around the World: Revolutionary Potential in the Age of Authoritarian Revanchism.- 15. “Color” Revolutions. Successes and Limitations of Non-Violent Protest.- 16. The Bulldozer Revolution in Serbia.- 17. Serbian “Otpor” and the Color Revolutions’ diffusion.- 18. The Rose Revolution in Georgia.- 19. The Orange Revolution in Ukraine.- 20. Revolutions in Kyrgyzstan.- 21. ‘Moldovan Spring’ 2009. The Atypical ‘Revolution’ of April 7 and the Days that Followed.-22. The Green Movement in Iran: 2009–2010.- 23. The Arab Spring: Causes, Conditions, and Driving Forces.- 24. The Jasmine Revolution in Tunisia and the Birth of the Arab Spring Uprisings.- 25. Egypt’s 2011 Revolution. A Demographic Structural Analysis.- 26. The Arab Spring in Yemen.- 27. The Syrian Revolution.- 28. Revolution in Libya.- 29. The Extent of Military Involvement in Non-Violent, Civilian Revolts and Their Aftermath.- 30. The Arab Spring: A Quantitative Analysis.- 31. Global Echo of the Arab Spring.- 32. Euromaidan Revolution in Ukraine.- 33. Two Experiences of the Islamic “Revival”: The 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran and the Formation of the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq in the 2010s.- 34. Turkey. The (Gülen) Cemaat and the State: An Unfinished Conquest.- 35. The Armenian Revolution of 2018: A Historical-Sociological Interpretation.- 36. Modern Protest Civil Movements in Sub-Saharan Africa in the Context of Global Political Destabilization.- 37. Articulating the Web of Transnational Social Movements.- 38. Revolutions of the 21st Century as a Factor of the World System Reconfiguration.- 39. Global Inequality and World Revolutions: Past, Present and Future.- 40. Revolution Forecasting. Formulation of the Problem.- 41. Conclusion. How Many Revolutions.

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Book SynopsisIntroduction.- General Introduction.- Municipal and political setup.- Methodology.- Housing climate and their challenges.- Description of systems.- Housing related challenges in municipalities.- Connections of housing and climate in policy documents.- Politicians views on housing and climate.- Overall findings.- Reflection on the finding.- Policy advice.-  Concluding discussion.- Reflections for the future.- Final conclusionsAnnex City ProfilesReferences.

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Book SynopsisPart I: Karl Polanyi’s Vision and Beyond.- Chapter 1. Karl Polanyi’s Vision: Free Market Capitalism and the Transformation of the World – Polanyi’s Vision and Its Shortcomings.- Chapter 2. Beyond Polanyi.- Part II: The Economic Transformation to High Technology Industrial Capitalism.- Chapter 3. The Economic Transformation to High Technology Industrial Capitalism.- Chapter 4. The Rapid but Uneven Transition to High Technology Industrial Capitalism.- Chapter 5. Polanyi Again: the Effect of the Market on Human Social Interactions.- Part III: the Social and Cultural Transformations of the 21st Century.- Chapter 6. Global Culture vs. Tribal Identity.- Chapter 7. Women’s Liberation in Historical Perspective.- Chapter 8. Some Unintended Effects of Women’s Liberation.- Chapter 9. Gay Liberation in Socio-historical Perspective.- Chapter 10. Gay Liberation and World Religions.- Chapter 11. Gay Liberation and New Definitions of Gender.- Chapter 12. The Remarkable Case of Greece: Ancient, Byzantine Christianity and Modern.- Part IV: Science and Secular Humanism as the New Global Zeitgeist.- Chapter 13. The History of the Rational-scientific Worldview.- Chapter 14. Science and Religion in the Modern World.- Chapter 15. Science and Humanistic Ethics.- Chapter 16. Emile Durkheim’s Theory of Social Change and Anomie: the Impact of the Social and Cultural Changes on the Emerging Global Society.- Part V: The Political Transformation to Electoral Democracy and Legal-rational Authority.- Chapter 17. The Third Wave of Democracy.- Chapter 18. The New Wave of Dictatorship Begins to Displace the Third Ave of Democracy.- Chapter 19. Max Weber’s Theory of the Transition From Traditional Authority to Legal-rational Authority, With Charismatic Leadership as a Bridge Between Them.- Part VI: Technological Change Beyond Our Imagination and It’s Sociological Impact.- Chapter 20. The Technological Change and Its Sociological Impact.- Part VII: Our Place in the Universe.- Chapter 21. The Universe and Our Place in It.- Chapter 22. Can Humanistic Ethics Predominate on the Big Blue Marble?.

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Book SynopsisThe Syrian Social Nationalist Party devoted itself to reviving and unifying the Syrian nation and establishing this nation’s complete independence over its historical homeland, Greater Syria. It continues its struggle today, influencing and shaping Lebanese and Syrian society and politics. Yet, the party remains largely unknown and misunderstood, a condition that stems from the lack of any comprehensive study of it. This book fills this gap. Syrian nationalism and nationalist movements, generally speaking, have been largely neglected and ignored by historians, scholars, and observers of the Middle East. So, too, has the SSNP. The lack of detailed and nuanced analyses has left significant gaps in the party’s rich history unaddressed and enabled the perpetuation of inaccuracies and misperceptions regarding its past. Given this and the party’s ongoing relevance in Lebanon and Syria, a thorough examination of the early history of the SSNP, the political organization and movement that embodied Syrian nationalism’s most explicit, most cogent expression is even more necessary. Based on an extensive and thorough examination of Arabic, French, and English primary sources, the monograph is the first comprehensive, systematic history of the SSNP to date, detailing its struggle to fulfill its nationalist vision and establish a secular, independent state in Greater Syria through a thorough analysis of its formation, evolution, and political activities in Lebanon and Syria. Table of ContentsThe book is divided into four parts, each with three chapters. The Introduction provides a general historical overview of the development of Syrian nationalism and the idea of Greater Syria, contextualizing the formation of Saʿadeh’s political thought and the establishment of the SSNP within this discourse. It also addresses the popular discourse on the SSNP in Lebanon and Syria during the period studied and, briefly, the book’s sources, methodology, and structure. Part One, A New Generation (Chapters 1-3), examines Saʿadeh’s first attempts at political organization and activism in the South American mahjar until his return to Lebanon in 1930, the party’s pre-history. It then analyzes the first six years of the SSNP’s existence, from its inception as a clandestine movement in 1932 through its discovery by French authorities in 1935 and its open political activities until Saʿadeh’s exile in 1938. Significantly, it details the party’s growth, shedding light on its recruitment methods, ideological and organizational development, and its geographic expansion in the urban and rural centers of Lebanon and Syria. Part Two, The War Years (Chapters 4-6), details the party’s activity in the mahjar and Syria and Lebanon from the beginning of Saʿadeh’s de facto exile in 1938 until the end of World War II. The first five years of this period were characterized by an intense confrontation with the French that would take a heavy toll on the party. The beleaguered party would find respite in an alliance forged with leading Lebanese politicians in 1943, but it came at a price: shunning the party’s ideological commitment to Greater Syria. The decision of the party leadership to shun Syrian nationalism would bring it into conflict with Saʿadeh and others who viewed it as a deviation that needed to be corrected and put to an end. Part Three, The Road to a Failed Revolution and Its Aftermath (Chapters 7-9), analyzes the tumultuous period in the party’s history that preceded and then intensified Saʿadeh’s return to Lebanon in March 1947. This period was characterized by internal party strife and renewed confrontation with Lebanese authorities as the party under Saʿadeh reasserted its Syrian nationalist creed, which directly challenged the idea of Lebanese independence. The confrontation reached its apogee in the SSNP’s failed “social nationalist revolution” and Saʿadeh’s subsequent execution in the summer of 1949, after which the party was outlawed in Lebanon and forced to move the center of its activities to Damascus and bide its time in Lebanon. Part Four, Advance and Retreat (Chapters 10-12), examines the ways in which the SSNP acted to shape the emerging regional and domestic orders in accordance with its ideological vision in the 1950s. Its good relations with Chamoun and his government in Lebanon and Shishakli and his regime in Syria enabled the party to develop its strength and expand its influence in both countries. However, a lack of broad popular appeal and poor decision making would lead the SSNP into open conflict with its increasingly powerful rivals the Baʿth and the communists, who succeeded in defeating the party and forcing it to retreat from the Syrian public sphere. In Lebanon, the party would fight to preserve Lebanon’s independence against Communist and Arab nationalist designs but would reap little reward for its efforts following the events of 1958. The Epilogue, The Rise of Factionalism, examines the party’s journey to its present, fractured state, demonstrating how the seeds of factionalism planted in the party’s early years bore their bitter fruit over time. It addresses the party’s activities during the Lebanese Civil War and the Syrian Civil War, its alliance with Hezbollah, and the party’s major splits and their sources. Finally, it provides an assessment of why the SSNP has failed to transform into a mass political movement and obtain significant, lasting political power, and will likely never do so.

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