Political structure and processes Books

Book SynopsisThe 2019 general elections were set against the backdrop of unexpected alliances, with the staunchest of adversaries joining hands against one person, one party and one ideology. For the first time in the political history of India, there was the rise of a united opposition, which rendered the elections into an anti-Modi vs pro-Modi battle at the macroevel. While demonetization and GST had not yet been wiped from public memory, the Pulwama attack and the Balakot air strikes just before the elections ignited a sense of nationalism. With this, even the most experienced political pundits were unable to predict the electoral outcome with certainty. It was a battle that could go either way. While we now know who won the electoral battle, thearger question is what caused this swing at a time when many had predicted the fall of Modi and the BJP. With dispatches from ground zero that unveil how the people at the groundevel across the nation were thinking, this book offers an answer to that why'' and also reveals the implications of the mandate for the future of Indian politics.

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Book SynopsisIn this candid account of her life, Kidwai assesses not just her own contribution to public life, but also provides an honest appraisal of the turn in fortunes of the political party she has remained a loyal member of. The reader is treated to rare glimpses into the homes, lives and the hurly-burly of election campaigns over the decades.

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Book SynopsisBeing Muslim in Hindu India is an impassioned cry for attention, an attempt to highlight just what has gone wrong with our polity and society in recent years.

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Book SynopsisWhat will Indiaookike in 2030? Will we have harmony and equity or de-generate into a chaotic failed State? Will it be a strong, aggressive, totalitarian hippo'' or an agile, peaceful andikable gazelle''? Decisive Decade seeks answers through a critical analysis and a projection of nine crucial areas that will shape India 2030. These are: democracy and politics, security, health, education, economy, demography, society, jobs andivelihoods, and technology. India, the book asserts, is at a crossroads. The 2020s will be the decisive decade determining ourong-term future. While alternative scenarios are painted, with the idea of stirring debate and dialogue, the book takes an optimistic view. It aims to create a shared national vision towards which it charts out a road-map. Using his experience and observations, Kiran Karnik joins the dots and integrates the diverse topics into a holistic view. He takes an objective but hard-hitting view of the country, and suggests that our primary goal must be to create a happy country. Take a journey into the future through this book. In this unputdownable book, Kiran Karnik combines his amazing insights and uncanny observational powers to show that 2020s will be a make-or-break decade for India.

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Book SynopsisWith only 0.55 beds available for every 1,000 people, India''s public health system struggled to cope with the COVID-19 crisis, even while out-of-pocket expenditure pushed millions back into poverty leading to economic, educational, and equity distress. Also, with the increase in the use of technology, concerns about data privacy and citizens right to privacy emerged. Tensions between the State and Centre over the allocation of funds built up as budgetary resources started dwindling for both. Children becoming orphans and girls vulnerable to child marriages and trafficking was another disturbing fallout. Amidst these multifarious challenges in several sectors, there were States like Odisha which stood out, by adopting the famed 5T framework of governance which forms the overacting policy approach in what has now gained prominence as the Odisha Model of growth and development. Odisha Government''s handling of the covid crisis riding on its earlier experience in handling natural disasters has been applauded nationally as well as globally. Pandemic Disruptions and Odisha''s Lessons in Governance compiles various essays that the author wrote during the pandemic years outlining India''s and Odisha''s fight against COVID and all the concomitant unintended consequences while also commenting on how either policy planning or implementation could possibly have been better, setting out a roadmap for the future. Several of these policy prescriptions were later adopted by the Government.

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Book SynopsisFor five months in 2013–2014, Dušan Pavlović took time off from teaching to accept a senior position in Serbia’s Ministry of Economy. This short period was long enough for him to make a penetrating diagnosis of the economic activity of the postcommunist government. He found that a coterie of tycoons and politicians live off the wealth of the majority of citizens and smaller entrepreneurs, while the economy performs below its capacities. In academic terms, extractive economic institutions create allocative inefficiency. Vivid, suggestive, and even entertaining accounts depict how privatization is administered and foreign investment projects are handled, and how party members, relatives, and friends are hired into public administration and state-owned companies. They show how the managers of firms that queue for state subsidies resist the systematic screening of their businesses. The principles of Keynesian economics are distorted and misused to conceal deliberate fiscal mismanagement. Huge ill-conceived development projects siphon taxpayers’ money from “non-economic” activities like social services, health, education, science, and culture. What Pavlović found in Serbia is acutely symptomatic of many other European post-communist regimes of our time, lending his book singular importance.

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Book SynopsisThe challenges faced by Commonwealth Caribbean democracies particularly in the past 20 years has forced a reckoning with how the Westminster model of government has served the needs of these small states. Crime, corruption and struggling economies operating in a globalised world have brought into sharp relief the threat to once-stable democracies.Beyond Westminster in the Caribbean analyses Westminster governance in the post-independence Caribbean and reflects on the weaknesses of the model, the absence of a will to change despite the deficiencies and proposals for the way forward. Drawing on the contributions of distinguished scholars, prominent serving politicians and a sitting prime minister, the book offers a critical review of the state of Caribbean constitutions and a frank discussion of whether these small states can weather the threats that have presented themselves since the end of the Cold-War and the rise of neoliberalism. Can the Westminister model survive and thrive in the contemporary Caribbean, or is it time to move beyond Westminster?

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Book SynopsisThis book explores significant aspects of the New Urban Agenda in the Asia-Pacific region, and presents, from different contexts and perspectives, innovative interventions afoot for transforming the governance of 21st-century cities in two key areas: (i) urban planning and policy; and (ii) service delivery and social inclusion. Representing institutions across a wide geography, academic researchers and development practitioners from Asia, Australia, Europe, and North America have authored the chapters that lend the volume its distinctly diverse topical foci. Based on a wide range of cases and intriguing experiences, this collection is a uniquely valuable resource for everyone interested in the present and future of cities and urban regions in Asia-Pacific.Table of ContentsForeword President of the East-West CenterPreface Bharat Dahiya and Ashok DasSection 1: IntroductionChapter 1: The New Urban Agenda in the Asia-PacificBharat Dahiya and Ashok DasChapter 2: Resilience-Based Urban Disaster ManagementAllen ClarkSection 2: Urban Planning and PolicyChapter 3: From Urban Policy Making to Implementation: Reviving Riverine Urban Community of Amphawa, ThailandBharat Dahiya and Wichaya KominChapter 4: Integrating Urban and Rural Development (IURD) through Governance Program in China's Megacities: A Suzhou ModelMin Zhao, Chenhao Fang, Chen Chen, Richard LeGatesChapter 5: Case study (India)Debolina KunduChapter 6: Urban Planning, Policy and Governance Challenges: A Case Study of Megacity of Dhaka, BangladeshSalahuddin AminuzzamanChapter 7: Urban Governance Challenges and Reforms in IndonesiaWilmar SalimChapter 8: Issues in Urban Planning and Policy: Case Study of Lahore, PakistanNasir Javed and Asad JanSection 3: Innovations in Service Delivery and Access toward Social InclusionChapter 9: Financing Local Infrastructure and Public Services—A Township Case in Suburban SuzhouXu Chen, Min Zhao, Richard LeGatesChapter 10: Urban Governance in Australia: A case study of Brisbane cityBhishna Bajracharya and Shahed KhanChapter 11: Re-thinking, re-form and re-imagine urban planning in Indonesia: Kota Kita and Community Participation in CitiesJohn TaylorChapter 12: The Changing Role of Voluntary Regional Organisations in Australia: A case study from PerthShahed Khan and Bhishna BajracharyaChapter 13: Urban Service Delivery and Access: The special case of Brunei DarussalamPushpa Thambipillai and Li Li PangChapter 14: Guizhou Province’s Six Action Plan Program for Rural InfrastructureFeng Luan, Haiyan Zou, Hui XI, Ben YangChapter 15: The political economy of urban governance in Asian cities - delivering water, sanitation and solid waste management servicesHashim Zaidi, Ammar Malik and Jamie BoexChapter 16: Relevant practices for social inclusion by local governmentsBjörn MollerSection 4: Emerging Trends and Future TrajectoriesChapter 17: Emerging Trends and Future TrajectoriesAshok Das and Bharat Dahiya

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Book SynopsisThis open access book offers unique in-depth, comprehensive, and comparative analyses of the motivations, context, and outcomes of recent land reforms in Africa. Whereas a considerable number of land reforms have been carried out by African governments since the 1990s, no systematic analysis on their meaning has so far been conducted. In the age of land reform, Africa has seen drastic rural changes. Analysing the relationship between those reforms and change, the chapters in this book reveal not only their socio-economic outcomes, such as accelerated marketisation of land, but also their political outcomes, which have often been contrasting. Countries such as Rwanda and Mozambique have utilised land reform to strengthen state control over land, but other countries, such as Ghana and Zambia, have seen the rise in power of traditional chiefs in managing the land. The comparative perspective of this book clarifies new features of African social changes, which are carefully investigated by area experts. Providing new perspectives on recent land reform, this book will have a considerable impact on scholars as well as policymakers.Table of ContentsPreface1. Shinichi Takeuchi & Kojo S. Amanor. “Introduction: Social outcomes of land reform in post-Cold War Africa” 2. Kojo S. Amanor. “Land governance, class and rural development in Ghana” 3. Peter Narh. “Traversing state, agribusinesses, and farmers' land discourses in Kenyan intensive agriculture” 4. Horman Chitonge. “Land reform in Africa: The governance of customary land in the spotlight” 5. Shuichi Oyama. “Shifting cultivation and land tenure reform in Zambia” 6. Akiyo Aminaka. “Politics over the land resource management in Mozambique” 7. Shinichi Takeuchi. “Land law reform and the state-building in Rwanda” 8. Teshome Emana. “Urban policy and state power in urban land commercialization in Ethiopia” 9. Chizuko Sato. “Land tenure reform in three former settler colonies in Southern Africa” 10. Lungisile Ntsebeza. “Land tenure reform in South Africa's former Bantustans: Reform or regression?” 11. Shinichi Takeuchi. “Conclusion: Community, chief, and the state,”

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Book SynopsisThis book explores the immigration policies and practices of the Trump administration, with a specific focus on Trump’s travel ban and the wall along the southern border with Mexico. Both were enacted shortly after Trump was elected President. It examines how the Trump administration defined and represented immigration as an issue of national security and why it sought to address the perceived security challenges posed by immigration through the specific forms of a travel ban and a wall along the southern border. The main argument advanced is that a logic of risk underpinned the Trump administration’s approach to immigration and national security. Employing the framework of riskisation, this book explores the embodied, racialised, and gendered construction and representation of risk, political and popular resistance to Trump’s wall and travel ban, and the social and political consequences of both.Table of Contents1 Introduction2 Risk and Security 3 Risk and Security in the Bush, Obama, and Trump Administrations 4 Trump’s Travel Ban 5 A Big, Beautiful Wall 6 Conclusion

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Book SynopsisSince the dawn of civilisation philosophers and sages alike have been concerned about the potential for government to become a Leviathan-like monster. In this book Professor Drew shows how a careful application of natural law principles can mitigate this threat of Leviathan and also contribute to the flourishing of people. To do so Natural Law and Government examines the trade-off between human dignity and the common good during the public policy response to COVID-19. Specifically, Professor Drew details his concerns regarding the emergence of concentrations of power and competence in government – changes that have sadly given rise to the repression of the vitality of citizens. This ground-breaking work explains the changes to thinking, institutions and public management that are necessary for people to reclaim their right to thrive as humans. In sum, this is a handbook for what needs to be done after the COVID-19 revolution.Table of ContentsChapter 1. Natural Law and Government, or, After the (COVID) Revolution?.- Chapter 2. Human Flourishing.- Chapter 3. Moral Government.- Chapter 4. Sortition – A Partial Defence of Human Dignity.- Chapter 5. Structure, Remit, and Size of Government.- Chapter 6. Evaluating Policy Success: COVID Response and Human Flourishing.- Chapter 7. Funding Moral GovernmentChapter 8. Education.- Chapter 9. Can We Have Government and Human Flourishing?

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Book SynopsisThis book adopts the methods of field investigation and case study, systematically summarizes the development course of Nanjiang County in Sichuan Province since China’s reform and opening-up, and comprehensively sorts out its main experiences of promoting green development and rural governance. These experiences not only have great enlightening and demonstration significance to the 80 counties that belong to the Qinba mountain area, but also have important reference value to promote rural revitalization and realize effective governance in the vast mountainous areas and counties throughout the country. Therefore, this book is not only suitable for ordinary readers interested in China's reform and opening up, but also suitable for professional researchers interested in China's green development and rural governance.Table of ContentsIntroduction I. Changes of Nanjiang over the Past Millennium II. Innovative Practice in Green Development (I) Poverty Alleviation Propelled by Green Development(II) Rural Revitalization Led by Green Development III. Collaborative Governance in Green Development (I) Party and Government Integration (II) Corporate Implementation (III) Social Organization Engagement (IV) Talent Guarantee (V) External Collaboration IV. Path to Green Development and Rural Governance of Mountainous Counties (I) Target Positioning: Poverty Alleviation before Comprehensive Rural Revitalization (II) Prerequisite: Basic Instructure as the First Step of Poverty Alleviation and Revitalization (III) Path: Great Efforts in Green Ecological Industry to Guide Integrated Development of the Three Main Industries (IV) Strategic focus: accelerated urban-rural integrated development to boost urban-rural integration (V) Institutional Guarantee: System and Mechanism Innovation that Enhances the Modernization Level of Rural Governance V. Proper Ways to Deal with Relationships in Green Development and Rural Governance (I) Relationship between Government Leadership and Farmers’ Dominance (II) Relationship between Material Poverty Alleviation and Spiritual Poverty Alleviation (III) Relationship between Short-Term Benefit and Long-Term Benefit (IV) Relationship between Overall Advancement and Differentiated Guidance (V) Relationship between Industry Development and Rural Governance VI. Outlook on Promoting Green Development and Rural Governance Conclusion Appendix 2 Implementation Details about the Poverty Alleviation Relocation Project in Nanjiang County (for Trial)Appendix 3 Administrative Division of Qinling-Daba Mountainous AreaMajor References

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Book SynopsisThis book consists of nine chapters, each an in-depth case study into a specific non-mainstream or marginalized online community in Malaysia. The authors come from diverse backgrounds to talk about how new media can both assist and hinder maligned minorities, ignored ethnicities or the often attacked migrants in their day to day lives. The book makes a strong contribution to Malaysian studies which highlights the other and represents minority viewpoints to challenge the belief that Malaysia’s online space is monolithic and limited to several mainstream discourses in Malaysian scholarship.Table of Contents1. Introduction.- Part 1: Indigenous rights and representation.- 2. Native Customary Rights land titles and thwarting deforestation: Digital acts of resistance among Sarawak’s indigenous peoples.- 3. ‘Some Orang Asli still think Najib is PM’: Representations and self-representations of the Orang Asli in the Cameron Highlands byelection.- Part 2: Migrant and refugee discourses.- 4. Romance through digital avatars: Online courtship, representation and ‘catfishing’ amongst irregular female migrants in Sabah.- 5. Grateful politics: Rohingya and social media in the time of the pandemic.- Part 3: The “Othered” minorities.- 6. Confronting Malaysian Indian stereotypes and state neglect: The ‘SuguPavithra’ episode within mainstream national discourse.- 7. ‘Our online-ness matters’: The construction of social media presences by Malaysian LGBTQ Communities.- 8. A ‘blue ocean’ for marginalised radical voices: Cyberspace, social media and extremist discourse in Malaysia.

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Book SynopsisThis book provides new insights into the development of integrated approaches to peace and sustainability in the era of global change. Since the late 1980s, and in order to regulate the increasingly detrimental impacts of humans on the environment, the transition towards sustainability has been high on the agenda of researchers and policymakers alike. Meanwhile, peace considerations have expanded in recent decades to include the varied types and sources of conflict, from inter-state to intra-state conflicts due to various social, political, economic, and environmental factors. Through providing theoretical and empirical insights, this book demonstrates that sustainability and peace as intrinsically interrelated. The book elaborates on the multi-dimensional and constantly evolving concepts of sustainability and peace. In addition, the book contributes to a better understanding of the complex and dynamic interlinkages between peace and sustainability by presenting examples of pathways where sustainability and peace interact considering the different factors and contexts that are constantly shaping and reshaping the conditions for sustainable and peaceful societies. Table of Contents1- Introduction: the need for integrated approaches to peace and sustainability 2- A state of art review of the peace-sustainability nexus 3- Women’s Movement towards Building Sustainable Peace in Cross-Cultural Society: the Case of Peace Agenda of Women in the Deep South of Thailand 4- Boko Haram Insurgency on North-Eastern Nigeria, how has this influenced food insecurity in the region? 5- Exploring the need for an Integrated Conflict Sensitivity Framework in development assistance that contributes to peaceful and sustainable post-conflict societies 6- The Components of Peace Agreements and FDI Inflows in 7- Post-Civil War Economies: a cross country analysis over the period 1990 to 2019 8- Peace through Community Building Efforts of the Rohingya in Bangladesh 9- The Humane yet Ambivalent Attitude Towards Refugees: A Potential Threat to Peace 10- The Role of Media and Social Cohesion between Host and the Rohingyas in Cox’s Bazar 11- Human rights, social security and Ghana's response to the COVID-19 pandemic 12- Non-adherence to principles of international law: The bane of environmental insecurity 13- Peace, justice and security in Ghana: the need for peace education 14- Co-benefits and synergies between food security and eight positive peace pillars 15- Concluding remarks

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Book Synopsis“Healthy China 2030” is a national strategy for improving the health of the population and coordinating health and socio-economic development, and a major means for the country to participate in global health governance and meet targets set in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. This outline of the plan will be a blueprint and an action plan for facilitating the development of Healthy China.This tutorial book is a guide for “Outline of the Healthy China 2030 Plan” released on October 25, 2016. This book is organized by 29 chapters. It uses data, background description and figures to facilitate readers to know the plan.The book Editor-in-Chief Bin Li is the Former Minister of National Health Commission of PRC, and is the Vice Chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. The book Associate Editor-in-Chief Xiaowei Ma is the Minister of National Health Commission of PRC.Table of ContentsPrinciples.- Strategic themes.- Strategic targets.- Strengthening health education.- Encouraging healthy habits in individuals.- Improving physical fitness for all.- Promoting universal access to public health services.- Delivery of high quality and efficient medical care.- Letting traditional Chinese medicine play its unique role.- Improving healthcare services for priority groups.- Strengthening the medical insurance system.- Improving the drug supply security system.- Deepening patriotic public health campaigns.- Strengthening management of environmental problems affecting health.- Ensuring food and drug safety.- Improving public safety systems.- Optimizing pluralistic structure of medical care services.- Developing new types of health services.- Promoting fitness, leisure and sports industry.- Promoting development of medical industry.- Deepening reforms in institutional arrangements.- Developing human resources for health care.- Promoting science and technology innovation in health care.- Developing digital health information services.- Strengthening health legislation.- Intensifying international exchanges and cooperation.- Strengthening organization and leadership.- Creating favorable social conditions.- Conducting implementation monitoring.

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Book SynopsisWith the world watching closely, Myanmar began a process of political, administrative and institutional transition from 30 January 2011. After convening the parliament, elected in November 2010, the former military regime transferred power to a new government headed by former Prime Minister (and retired general), U Thein Sein. With parliamentary processes restored in Myanmar’s new capital of Naypyitaw, Thein Sein’s government announced a wide-ranging reform agenda, and began releasing political prisoners and easing press censorship. Pivotal meetings between Thein Sein and Aung San Suu Kyi led to amendment of the Election Law and the National League for Democracy contesting by-elections in April 2012. The 2011 Myanmar/Burma update conference considered the openings offered by these political changes and media reforms and the potential opportunities for international assistance. Obstacles covered include impediments to the rule of law, the continuation of human rights abuses, the impunity of the Army, and the failure to end ethnic insurgency.

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Book SynopsisWhat did the 2006 military coup show us? It demonstrated that the crux of the Thai crisis is far more serious and much wider in scope than had previously been thought. The monarchy is surely not a victim in the protracted conflict, but the root cause and continuing factor that has eroded Thai politics. The coup set in motion more prejudicial uses of the lèse-majesté law, and in the process, has led to more political prisoners. It has also shredded the military into several segments, turning generals into desperate royalists who continue to live off the monarchy in order to survive. Issues of violence in the Thai south and the Thai-Cambodian dispute became greatly intensified in the age of militarised politics. The coup also produced unique colour-coded politics and created crises of legitamacy. This book is a collection of essays that reflect developments in Thai politics in the post-coup period.

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Book SynopsisThe Duterte administration is often considered a rupture in Philippines’ politics. But how different is Duterte’s programme of change from the past governments, particularly from its predecessor, the Aquino II administration? Is there a shift in regime orientation and policy preferences from Aquino II to Duterte? What will this mean to the future direction of Philippine democracy, its economic development, peace and security, and relations with other countries?This volume focuses on four critical areas — politics and governance, economic governance, the Mindanao peace process, and international relations — to illustrate continuities or discontinuities in the policies and governance of institutions, and to explain the dynamics of change in the Philippines. It pays particular attention to the crucial period between Aquino II and the early years of Duterte. The reason is that Aquino II represents an important period for rebuilding and consolidating institutions of governance and accountability after two previous tumultuous administrations. Yet Aquino II also demonstrates the inherent flaws of Philippine democracy and unravels the contradictory forces vying for state power that sets the scene for Duterte’s rise. Reflecting on the crucial transition period between the two presidencies, while also providing a much-needed update on the most noteworthy policy changes since Duterte’s inauguration, the book fills an important scholarly gap in understanding Asia’s oldest and most puzzling democracy.

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Book SynopsisParty mergers are a new development in Myanmar politics. Given that such mergers often assist the consolidation of new democratic regimes, some broader system-wide effects may also occur. Myanmar’s ethnic parties consistently choose merger strategies over other forms of pre-electoral coalition. This highlights a transition from a focus on questions of authoritarianism and democracy to one on the creation of a federal system of government with a stronger cleavage between competing Bamar and ethnic nationalisms. Despite cooperation among political parties outside the electoral process, pre-electoral coalitions such as constituency-sharing or campaigning for allies have generally not been successful. Five of the six mergers among ethnic parties attempted prior to the 2015 general election failed. However, between 2017 and 2019, five mergers involving parties representing the Chin, Kachin, Kayah, Kayin or Karen, and Mon ethnicities, achieved success. The successful mergers were motivated not only by desires for electoral success in 2020 but also by shared federal aims, which involve ethnic parties in Chin, Kachin, Kayah, Kayin or Karen, and Mon states forming a strong local party in their respective regions to strive for ethnic equality and self-determination. The mergers are between parties with markedly different platforms and their success is conditioned by their preferences for particular kinds of federalism. Mergers cannot guarantee electoral success. And other pre-electoral coalitions, such as avoiding competition for the same constituencies, also proved successful in the 2018 by-elections. But what mergers can uniquely do is respond to public demand for parties to unite and make the resulting party stronger in terms of resources and public support. In general, mergers can reduce system fragmentation, avoid vote wastage and lead to the formation of stable parties. Ethnic party mergers also simplify party labels for voters and make it easier for them to vote on the basis of ethnic preferences. In addition, mergers can increase public interest and political participation among members of ethnic communities. Three common factors behind the five successful mergers are previous electoral losses, public pressure and shared federal aims. The durability of these mergers depends on continuous party building, negotiations and equality among party members. Meanwhile, a greater number of new parties will form and continue to exist under the multi-party democracy principle granted in Myanmar’s 2008 Constitution. The upcoming 2020 general election will witness a combination of mergers and other pre-electoral coalition forms between ethnic parties as they compete with Bamar national parties. Election results will influence the durability of merged parties, their political allegiance and potential parliamentary coalitions.

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Book SynopsisChapter 1: Humor and Politics in the Media: A Conceptual Introduction.- Part I: Humor in Political Cartoons.- Chapter 2: The Relationship between Culture and Political Humor in Japanese Manga.- Chapter 3: A Tale of Two Presidents: Indonesian Humor As Depicted in Political Cartoons.- Chapter 4: Mocking the Inept: Brazilian Cartoons and Criticism of the Jair Bolsonaro Government.- Chapter 5: How Political Cartoons Reveal Türkiye's Cultural Dynamics: An Analysis of Three Satirical Magazines.- Chapter 6: Spanish Humor and Political Culture through Cartoons: Multimodal Discursive Analysis of Forges's Socio-Political, Graphic Universe.- Chapter 7: Far-Right Political Humor in Australia: Culture, Coloniality, and Exclusion.- Part II: Political Humor in the Broadcast Media.- Chapter 8: Televised Political Satire in Poland: Historical Roots and Social Implications of Stereotypical Representations of Politicians and Politics.- Chapter 9: Sexist Humor in Public Facebook Comments Delegitim

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Book SynopsisQuotations as Devices of Political Persuasion and Argumentation: A Conceptual Introduction.- Quotations in Jordanian Parliamentary Discourse: A Pragma-Discourse Perspective.- Frequency, Sources, and Functions of Direct Quotations in Montenegrin Parliamentary Discourse.- Quotation Statements as a Linguistic Strategy in Japanese Parliamentary Questions.

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Book SynopsisJapan and the Philippines both spent part of the twentieth century under American rule, and the experience left an indelible imprint on both societies. Conventional wisdom suggests that American rule in the Philippines, while clearly a form of colonialism, was mitigated by American reluctance to be a colonial power and by early steps to transfer government functions to Filipinos. Similarly, the American occupation of Japan is understood to represent a necessary transitional phase between autocracy and democracy. The authors in this volume examine the issue from a wide range of perspectives (political science, history, anthropology, sociology and literature), and they suggest a different interpretation. American colonialism shows distinct characteristics of latecomer-colonialism, starting with the strong role of the state and the primacy of geopolitics. In contrast with other imperial powers, such as Britain, France and Japan, the Americans relied more on informal empire than on direct control of territory, an approach that suited an era when colonialism as such was increasingly difficult to defend. America's relations with the Philippines and with Japan after 1945, often seen as laying the foundations of a post-colonial system, were in fact the prototype of a world order based in part on latecomer-colonialism.

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Book SynopsisThe Politics of the Periphery in Indonesia is a thought-provoking examination of local politics and the dynamics of power at Indonesia's geographic and social margins. After the fall of Suharto in 1998 and the introduction of a policy of decentralization in 2001, local stakeholders secured and consolidated decision-making power, and set about negotiating new relations with Jakarta. The volume deals with power struggles and local-national tensions, looking among other things at resource control, the historical roots of regional identity politics and issues relating to Chinese-Indonesians. The authors develop information in ways that transcend the post-colonial territorial boundaries of Indonesia in the Malay-Indonesian archipelago, and use case studies to show how the charges described have galvanized Indonesian politics at the cultural and geographical peripheries.

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Book SynopsisAcross Asia, 'populist' leaders emerged on an unprecedented scale around the start of the 21st century. ""Populism in Asia"" is the first book to examine this phenomenon. The 1997 Asian financial crisis undermined established political leaders and stirred popular discontent. Voters in East Asia responded by electing maverick politicians who promised to target corruption and establish fresh agendas. In Southeast Asia, populist leaders based their appeal on the frustrations and aspirations of groups excluded from political power. Leaders who came to office during this period include Thaksin Shinawatra in Thailand, Joseph 'Erap' Estrada in the Philippine, Roo Moo-hyun in South Korea, Chen Shui-bian in Taiwan and Jun'ichiro Koizumi in Japan. Local politicians in Indonesia likewise adopted a populist stance, as did Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad in Malaysia. In the present volume, leading Asian scholars consider the many faces of contemporary populism in the region, analyzing the phenomenon through case studies of political leaders with populist credentials and using these accounts to evaluate the achievements and failings of democracy. Benedict Anderson provides a reflective afterword. Despite its allure, populism has not been a success in Asia. Populist leaders are in retreat across the region and their fall can be spectacular, as in the Philippines and Thailand. However, the editors of this collection argue that populism will recur because Asia's oligarchic political systems do not fulfil the imagined role of the state as a provider of well-being, citizenship rights and equality.

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