Political structure and processes Books

Book SynopsisOne of the most misunderstood and oft-caricatured jobs in British politics, whips are the unseen, unsung heroes of the parliamentary system, without whom governments would doubtless crumble and legislative business would almost certainly grind to a halt. Whips are shrouded in mystery, however, often portrayed in the media and by colleagues as a brutish, bullying bunch of thugs with a reputation for using blackmail and torture to achieve party discipline and get legislation through the House.How to Be a Government Whip is a frank and light-hearted guide to the forgotten engine room of Parliament, perfect for those who aspire to be amongst their ranks as well as those just hoping to avoid them. From the mind-numbing tedium of debates to the dark arts of dealing with rebellious or disaffected members of their 'flock', former whip Helen Jones reveals how they really get business done - and what they say about their colleagues behind the closed door of the Whips' Office.Trade Review"If you want to shine a light on what really happens in the mythical and often mysterious Whips' Office, read this book." - Iain Wright MP; "Helen was my whip and she failed to kill me. I'm therefore eternally grateful that I'm still here to read this fantastic book!" - Andrew Gwynne MP

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Book SynopsisFor a secular age, we have a lot of religious politicians.Theresa May, Vladimir Putin, Angela Merkel, even Donald Trump all profess Christianity, as did Obama, Brown, Sarkozy, Bush and Blair before them. Indeed, it is striking how many Christian Presidents and Prime Ministers have assumed the global stage over recent years. In spite of Alastair Campbell's oft- (and mis-) quoted line, 'We don't do God', it seems like we definitely do.But how sincere is this faith? Is not much of it simply window-dressing for the electorate, paste-on haloes to calm the moral majority? Conversely, how dangerous is it? If we elect our politicians to do our democratic will, do we really want them praying to God for advice?The Mighty and the Almighty looks at some of the biggest political figures of the past forty years - from Thatcher and Reagan, through Mandela and Clinton, to May and Trump - and looks at how they 'did God'. Did their faith actually shape their politics, and if so, how? Or did their politics shape their faith? And does it matter if it did?In an age when religion is more important on the global stage than anyone would have predicted fifty years ago, this book will tell you everything you want to know, and some things you won't, about how the Mighty get on with the Almighty.

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Book SynopsisIn 1991, Vladimir Yakunin, a Soviet diplomat and KGB officer, returned from his posting in New York to a country that no longer existed. The state that he had served for all his adult life had been dissolved, the values he knew abandoned. Millions of his compatriots suffered as their savings disappeared and their previously secure existences were threatened by an unholy combination of criminality, corruption and chaos. Others thrived amid the opportunities offered in the new polity, and a battle began over the direction the fledgling state should take. While something resembling stability was won in the early 2000s, today Russia's future remains unresolved; its governing class divided. The Treacherous Path is Yakunin's account of his own experiences on the front line of Russia's implosion and eventual resurgence, and of a career - as an intelligence officer, a government minister and for ten years the CEO of Russia's largest company - that has taken him from the furthest corners of this incomprehensibly vast and complex nation to the Kremlin's corridors. Tackling topics as diverse as terrorism, government intrigue and the reality of doing business in Russia, and offering unparalleled insights into the post-Soviet mindset, this is the first time that a figure with Yakunin's background has talked so openly and frankly about his country.Trade Review"Vladimir Yakunin, a former Putin insider and loyalist, has broken the Kremlin code of silence and gives an incomparable lowdown on life and politics at the top." Robert Service, Emeritus Professor of Russian History, St Antony's College, Oxford:

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Book SynopsisThe vertiginous decline in political leadership from Nelson Mandela to Jacob Zuma has engulfed South Africa in a serious crisis over the past `lost decade'. Based on his personal experience of the key protagonists, former British ambassador to South Africa Lord Renwick introduces the reader to an astonishing array of rogues and villains, ministers taken captive, crimebusters who are criminals, investigators who don't investigate, prosecutors who don't prosecute, red berets, black hearts and compulsive liars, alongside some heroes and an authentic heroine. The book reads like a crime novel as Renwick explores the ingenuity, audacity and impunity with which the South African state has been looted on an unimaginable scale, and how Bell Pottinger, KPMG, McKinsey and others became complicit in this process. But, in the end, this is an uplifting story, as a remarkable press, judiciary and civil society combined to `save South Africa' and its constitution under serious threat. Now, as Cyril Ramaphosa takes the reins, How to Steal a Country looks ahead to a brighter future, though Ramaphosa will find that his greatest challenges are within his own party.

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Book SynopsisThe police force is one of the most distrusted institutions in Pakistan, notorious for its corruption and brutality. In both colonial and postcolonial contexts, directives to confront security threats have empowered law enforcement agents, while the lack of adequate reform has upheld institutional weaknesses. This exploration of policing in Karachi, Pakistan's largest city and financial capital, reveals many colonial continuities. Both civilian and military regimes continue to ensure the suppression of the policed via this institution, itself established to militarily subjugate and exploit in the interests of the ruling class. However, contemporary policing practice is not a simple product of its colonial heritage: it has also evolved to confront new challenges and political realities. Based on extensive fieldwork and around 200 interviews, this ethnographic study reveals a distinctly 'postcolonial condition of policing'. Mutually reinforcing phenomena of militarisation and informality have been exacerbated by an insecure state that routinely conflates combatting crime, maintaining public order and ensuring national security. This is evident not only in spectacular displays of violence and malpractice, but also in police officers' routine work. Caught in the middle of the country's armed conflicts, their encounters with both state and society are a story of insecurity and uncertainty.Trade Review'Waseem’s pioneering ethnography reveals crucial insights into the lived realities of everyday police work… 'Insecure Guardians' is essential reading not only as a core text in policing studies, but also for anyone interested in broader debates at the intersection of various disciplines including law, criminology, sociology, politics, and security studies.' -- Theoretical Criminology'"Insecure Guardians" is an original and timely contribution to policy and critical security studies. Waseem writes cogently and compellingly, building on deep ethnographic analyses of policing in the Global South. A very exciting work.' -- Beatrice Jauregui, Associate Professor, Centre for Criminology and Sociolegal Studies, University of Toronto, and co-editor of 'The SAGE Handbook of Global Policing''A major contribution to the fast-expanding literature on the pluralisation of policing. Brimming with ethnographic insights and theoretical sophistication, "Insecure Guardians" takes the sociology of policing to new heights. A remarkable work.' -- Laurent Gayer, Senior Researcher, Sciences Po, and author of 'Karachi: Ordered Disorder and the Struggle for the City''Waseem's supreme book is a much-needed study of police violence and police culture in postcolonial Pakistan, contributing to the growing ethnographic literature on policing from outside of the OECD world, and laying the groundwork for the decolonisation of policing studies and criminology.' -- Lars Ostermeier, Managing Director of the Berlin Graduate School of Muslim Cultures and Societies, Freie Universtität Berlin, and co-editor of 'Police and Society: Transdisciplinary Perspectives on the Methods, Theory and Empiricism of Reflective Police Research''A rare and fascinating study of violence and insecurity in postcolonial police work. Building on careful ethnographic work among police in Karachi, Waseem does a marvellous job of making the postcolonial condition in "most of the world" intelligible. Highly recommended.' -- Jana Hönke, Chair for Sociology of Africa, University of Bayreuth, and co-editor of 'The Global Making of Policing: Postcolonial Perspectives''This book lives up to its well-chosen title, exploring the unexpectedly insecure conditions of the real people who comprise the "security sector" in Pakistan. A thoughtful exploration of postcolonial policing as a recognisable phenomenon connecting myriad places across Asia, Africa and elsewhere.' -- 'Police in Africa: The Street Level View'

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Book SynopsisDavid Waddington, Baron Waddington, was a Conservative MP from 1968 to 1990, before becoming a life peer. For over twenty years he was a government Chief Whip, then served in the Cabinet as Home Secretary from 1989 to 1990 and Leader of the House of Lords from 1990 to 1992. A junior minister under Margaret Thatcher, he was Parliamentary Under-Secretary at the Department of Employment, Minister of State at the Home Office and Chief Whip from 1987 until his elevation to Cabinet level, becoming Home Secretary in 1989. In 1990 he was created a life peer as Baron Waddington, of Read in the County of Lancashire. He served as Lord Privy Seal and Leader of the House of Lords until 1992. He served as Governor of Bermuda 1992 - 1997. This book contains the fascinating reflections of a man who spent his career at the heart of power.

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Book SynopsisWhat is the Privy Council? What does it do? How did it come into being? We have no written constitution and, therefore, no easy answers to these questions. There are people who would argue that it has no power at all. Others might disagree. Particularly if you had been sentenced to death in a former British overseas territory that still used the Privy Council as its court of appeal, for example, or if you were a student having a row with your college examiners where the University Chancellor, or the Official Visitor, was a member of the royal family. Perhaps a priest who had been defrocked by the Church of England's Court of Arches, or, for that matter, a Prime Minister trying to establish a Royal Charter to control the press.The Privy Council meets several times a year when five or six members of the Cabinet - who are all Privy Counsellors - are summoned to attend on the Queen and, among other business, Acts of Parliament receive the royal assent. Much of the work of the Council is done by standing or ad-hoc committees and sometimes politicians are made Privy Counsellors so that they can serve on such committees.For centuries, Privy Counsellors were sworn to secrecy by the Privy Council Oath and until 1999 to break that oath was regarded as an act of treason. Traditionally, the Council has always existed to advise the Sovereign on the exercise of the Royal Prerogative, to make laws, to condemn to death and to go to war. Nowadays, most of its power has been devolved, yet it cannot simply be dismissed as having a purely ceremonial role. Its tentacles spread to every area of parliamentary and public life. Brides, battleships and burial plots are all affected by the current workings of the Privy Council, as is the governance of both the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. By Royal Appointment takes us on an anecdote-filled odyssey through the history of one of England's oldest and most secretive institutions, its history spanning our history from King Cnut, through the Middle Ages, up to its modern embodiment and functions.Trade Review"This useful book casts light on a little-understood national institution." Charles Clarke "It seems extraordinary that it is almost 100 years since anybody wrote a book about the Privy Council. But now David Rogers finally lifts the lid on one of the great mysterious institutions of the British Constitution." Michael Crick "Once a highway of the British state, the Privy Council is now one of its byways. David Rogers explores its exalted past and humble present with enthusiasm, charm and more than a faint whiff of nostalgia." Professor Anthony King "Today the Privy Council seems almost powerless - a faintly honorific and archaic leftover from a more monarchical past - almost but maybe not entirely. Could there be latent powers buried within its ancient structure which might yet play a role in the nation's affairs? David Rogers takes us on a fascinating journey into the roots, the history, the ambiguities and the current role of an almost forgotten part of the English constitutional system." Lord (David) Howell, former Minister of State in the Foreign Office "The Privy Council's roots date back to William the Conqueror, yet this mysterious body is still hugely powerful today. In this well-informed and witty account of its secretive workings, constitutionalist David Rogers gives us a sparkling narrative rich in anecdote to reveal for the first time what our 600 Rt Hons really get up to." Nigel Nelson, political editor, Sunday People

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Book SynopsisThe modern hospital is at once the site of healing, the locus of medical learning and a cornerstone of the welfare state. Its technological and infrastructural costs have transformed health services into one of today's fastest growing sectors, absorbing substantial proportions of national income in both developed and emerging economies. The aim of this book is to examine this growth in different countries, with a main focus on the twentieth century, and also with a backward glance to earlier shaping forces. It will explore the hospital's economic history, the relationship between public and private forms of provision, and the political context in which health systems were constructed. The collection advances the historical world map of different hospital models, ranging across Spain, Brazil, Germany, East and Central Europe, Britain, the United States and China. Collectively, these comparative cases illuminate the complexities involved in each country and bring new historical evidence to current debates on health care organisation, financing and reform.Table of ContentsPrelims; Introduction; The Historical Creation of the Hospital System in Spain; Charity and Philanthropy in the History of Brazilian Hospitals; Principles and Problems of Hospital Funding in Germany in the Twentieth Century; The development of hospital systems in new nations; Public, private and voluntary hospitals: economic theory and historical experience in Britain, c.1800-2010; The American Hospital: Charity, Public Service, or Profit Centre?; The rise of hospital centrism in China, 1835-2018, from the perspective of financing.

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Book SynopsisThis business book-cum-political and cultural memoir, which gives a behind-the-scenes look at the revolution of one of the great retail dynasties of the world, will resonate with readers questioning our current malaise. As a fourth generation Sainsbury, Tim was the director responsible for the company's development programme from 1962 to 1974, a key period during which the radical change from counter service to self-service supermarkets took place. His retail insight and reflections, including on competition, management and remuneration, and the role of Government, will be especially relevant as we witness a new retail revolution and crisis on our high streets.Sainsbury's second calling was as a politician. This book has a foreword by Michael Heseltine, in which he writes that: 'Of particular interest to the political student will be Tim's reflections on the changes he lived through in Parliament itself. The working conditions there are unacceptable, there are too many MPs, and the increasing social pressures particularly from the internet are making it increasingly difficult to attract men and women of the calibre ministerial responsibility demands.'In Among the Supporting Cast, Sainsbury tells this story with warmth, wisdom and a self-deprecating sense of humour.

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Book SynopsisAs Multilateral Development Banks increasingly gained influence in shaping global development, transnational social movements pushed to hold them accountable for their human rights impact towards communities. Leon Valentin Schettler presents a novel causal mechanism of movement advocacy towards MDBs, combining disruptive and conventional tactics. Systematically comparing the evolution of human rights standards and complaint mechanisms over the last three decades, he reveals how the combination of 1) declining US hegemony, 2) counter-mobilization by China and 3) movement cooptation by the World Bank bureaucracy led to a dilution of human rights accountability in the 2010s.Table of ContentsAbstract; List of Abbreviations; Introduction; Human Rights Accountability as a minimum threshold of MDB Legitimacy; Transnational Social Movements as agents of change in World Politics; Analytical Framework; Research Design; Human Rights Accountability at the World Ban; Case 1: A Revolution of World Bank Accountability (1988 1994); Case 2: The Dilution of World Bank; Analysis; Conclusion; References; Appendix: List of Interviewees and Background Conversations.

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Book SynopsisSocial media increasingly shapes the way in which we perceive conflicts and conflict parties abroad. Conflict parties, therefore, have started using social media strategically to influence public opinion abroad. This book explores the phenomenon by examining, (1) which strategies of external communication conflict parties use during asymmetric conflicts and (2) what shapes the selection of these communication strategies. In a comprehensive case study of the conflict in Israel and Palestine, Bernd Hirschberger shows that the selection of strategies of external communication is shaped by the (asymmetric) conflict structure.

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Book SynopsisRecent portrayals of the private sector as the engine of poverty alleviation in Africa's agricultural growth corridors have sparked critique by scholars and activists alike. Land acquisitions by investors are the most criticized, but the private sector engages in corridors in other ways, on which research remains scarce. Idil Ires provides a political economy analysis of whether smallholders prosper when they coordinate with input suppliers, banks, and crop buyers through markets and contract farming in the Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzania. This book will appeal to scholars and practitioners from diverse fields, offering timely insights into a critical debate.

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Book SynopsisThis monograph discloses the estate-based social structure of contemporary Russia by way of outlining the principles of the USSR's peculiar estate system, and explaining the new social estates of post-Soviet Russia. Simon Kordonsky distinguishes and describes in particular the currently existing Russian service and support estates. He introduces the notions of a resource-based state and resource-based economy as the political and economic foundations for Russian society's estate structure. His study demonstrates, moreover, how the method of inventing and institutionalizing threats plays a dominant role in the mode of distribution of scarce resources in such a social system. The book shows fundamental differences between resource- as well as threat-based economies, on the one side, and traditional risk-based economies, on the other, and discloses what this means for Russia's future.Trade ReviewWhile a little uneven and repetitive in places, the book is an excellent English introduction and summary of Kordonskys recent research, which is itself an indispensable contribution to the political economy of post-communism. Jeremy Morris, Aarhus University, Europe-Asia Studies (Issue 70/7) October 2018

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Book SynopsisThis collection covers the major trends of the media environment of the post-Communist world and their recent development, with special focus on Russia and the post-Soviet space. The term 'media environment' covers not just traditional print and electronic media, but new media as well, and ranges from the political to entertainment and various artistic spheres. What role do market forces play in the process of media democratization, and how do state structures regulate, suppress, or use capitalism toward their own gain? What degree of informational pluralism has been achieved in the newly independent republics? What are the prospects for transparency and the participation of civil society in Russian and Eurasian media? To what degree do trends in post-Communist media reflect global trends? Is there a worldwide convergence with regard to both media formats and political messaging? Western observers usually pay their keenest attention to the role of media in Russia and Eurasia during national elections. While this is a valid focus, the present volume, with contributions by Luca Anceschi, Jonathan Becker, Lee B. Becker, Michael Cecire, Marta Dyczok, Nicola Ying Fry, Navbahor Imamova, Azamat Junisbai, Barbara Junisbai, Kornely Kakachia, Maria Lipman, Oleg Manaev, Marintha Miles, Olena Nikolayenko, Sarah Oates, Tamara Pataraia, Elisabeth Schimpfossl, Abdulfattoh Shafiev, Jack Snyder, Tudor Vlad, and Ilya Yablokov, aims at understanding the deeper overall 'media philosophies' that characterize post-Soviet media systems and environments, and the type of identity formation that they are promoting.

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Book SynopsisIn his timely study, Andrii Demartino investigates the multitude of techniques how social media can be used to advance an aggressive foreign policy, as exemplified by the Russian Federation's operation to annex Crimea in 2014. Drawing on a wide range of sources, Demartino traces the implementation of a series of Russian measures to create channels and organisations manipulating public opinion in the Ukrainian segment of the internet and on platforms such as Facebook, VKontakte, Odnoklassniki, LiveJournal, and Twitter. Addressing the pertinent question of how much the operation to annex Crimea was either improvised or planned, he draws attention to Russia's ad-hoc actions in the sphere of social media in 2014. Based on an in-depth analysis of the methods of Russia's influence operations, the book proposes a number of counterstrategies to prevent such "active measures." These propositions can serve to improve Ukraine's national information policy as well as help to develop adequate security concepts of other states.

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Book SynopsisEvery major socio-political change starts with some discarding. Suffice it to think about the heaps of rubbish consisting of old furniture, cars, busts of famous communist leaders, badges, and books on the streets of Eastern Europe in the fall/winter of 1989/1990. Among the institutions which have the greatest amount of experience with discarding are libraries: Counterintuitive as it may seem, libraries (but also museums and archives) regularly discard books as part of their job. In the wake of the collapse of communism in Europe, stock revision was needed in libraries, but did it unfold in a business as usual fashion or was it a bibliocide (as it was labelled by some media in Croatia) or even the biggest destruction of books in the post-war period (as it was characterized by a German journalist)? When does a standard library practice start attracting public attention? What happened in Croatia that there is even a Wikipedia page about bookicide in the 1990s? This book approaches the issue on at least three levels (phenomenological, discursive, and theoretical) and from three angles (from the point of view of librarians, non-professionals, and, metaphorically, discarded books themselves). The aim is to offer an innovative and original interpretation of post-socialist transition and post-Yugoslav memory while at the same time providing an empirically founded case study of the inconsistencies and lack of implementation of regulations in the field of librarianship in Croatia as opposed to a seemingly more synchronized environment in Slovenia.Trade Review"Dora Komnenović's book is a convincing academic work, theoretically competent and empirically valid, about one of the most shameful episodes of post-socialist transition, bookicide. It is decisively interdisciplinary in terms of epistemology, theoretical background, and methodological tools and as such presents a comprehensive contribution to fields of transitology, cultural studies of post-socialism, (post-)Yugoslav studies, and ideology criticism. Conceived and accomplished on the productive crossroad of different social sciences and humanities, and combining top-down and bottom-up ways of researching, her book is able to uncover less-known dimensions of the topic and expand existent knowledge about it." Prof. Dr. Mitja Velikonja, University of Ljubljana

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Book SynopsisThis collected volume investigates the ways in which historical training supports current activism and advocacy in global times by highlighting models of social activism and political representation in different parts of the world, with diverse social actions, strategies, and protest spaces.Morocco is a fascinating society to examine protest movements in an authoritarian regime. For the first time ever, the contributors reply in detail to questions, challenges and findings regarding the implications of historically informed activism in Morocco. The cooperative perspective is the key to a better understanding as it reinvigorates a conversation between social scientists-sociologists, anthropologists, and political scientists-and historians about how to analyse social and political activism.The main findings relate to the great structural transformations that have shaped the current power regimes in a longue durée perspective. How are social movements born, how do they mature, and how do they die? Through the dynamics of social mobilisation, we discover the structure of the power regime, the responses (strategies), and its forms of survival (resources and capacities).How does history inform and empower current activism? The book covers 22 scenarios of popular revolts -urban, rural, and peripheral. Casablanca (1907, 1965, 2000), Fez (1907, 1990), the Eastern Rif (1909, 1921, 1958, 1984, 2004), Meknes (1937, 2011), Tangiers (1952, 2011, 2015), Salé, (1930, 2008), Taza (1915), and Imider (2011).

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Book SynopsisThis issue is on the Kremlinâs recent turbo-charging of Russiaâs information warfare, 24-hour TV, and social media activity has expanded on traditional pro-Russian sentiments among Western academics, experts, and journalists.

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Book SynopsisThis monograph explores the recent political history of Ukraine from a novel diachronic and comparative point of view.

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Book SynopsisThis book discusses cultural mélange in a variety of different textual and non-textual aesthetic practices within literature, theatre, and music. The process of globalisation has left no corner of the world untouched. Although many studies use postcolonial theory to understand its large-scale effects, the contributors to this book show how such theory can be drawn on for productive use also in other contexts, such as the Scandinavian. In doing so, they also rework the well-worn concept of hybridity to one of cultural mélange, creating a lens by which to take a broader view of the phenomenon: from Africa to Poland, from France to Norway, various forms of globalisation processes have accelerated an interpenetration of cultures which takes place on a number of widely different cultural arenas.

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Book SynopsisTells the compelling story of how the American conservative movement in the two decades following World War 2 managed to move from obscurity to the centre stage of national politics. When Dwight D Eisenhower in 1952 defeated the conservative champion Robert Taft and won the Republican presidential nomination, many on the American right felt that they had become homeless within the established party system. The brand of liberalism which permeated the nation''s intellectual life had also become bipartisan political doctrine. The feeling of cultural and political ostracism triggered a quest for an independent conservative network of organizations, with the hope of either ''taking back'' the Republican Party or creating a viable alternative. The first part of Right Face recounts the often bitter struggle to define the meaning of conservatism in modem America. Part two concerns the search for influential national outlets for conservative opinion, whereas part three focuses on the movement''s actual plunge into electoral politics -- not least on its well-planned takeover of the Republican Party machinery in 1964 and the resulting presidential nomination of Senator Barry Goldwater. An epilogue attempts to trace main currents in the evolution of American conservatism since the 1960s, as well as to assess the extent to which American conservatives have managed to create the ''Counter-Establishment'' they set out to create more than half a century ago. In a sense the conservatives actually set out on two different quests: one was for intellectual respectability; the other was for political power. As this study reveals, the two goals were not always compatible. Based on extensive archival sources, RIGHT FACE provides an incisive analysis of the conservative movement and the forces that shaped it. With its blending of intellectual and organizational developments, it adds an important chapter to the history of American political culture in the 20th century.

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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 SynopsisFeatures the secret of Trippi's political success - his use of the Internet - and a desire to overthrow politics. This book reveals how the power of technology is being harnessed - for politics and beyond, into the realms of business and other aspects of life. It offers a glimpse of how power, in the hands of all of us, changes everything.

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Book SynopsisWinner of the Society for History in the Federal Government''s George Pendleton Prize for 2013The United States Senate has fallen on hard times. Once known as the greatest deliberative body in the world, it now has a reputation as a partisan, dysfunctional chamber. What happened to the house that forged American history''s great compromises?In this groundbreaking work, a distinguished journalist and an eminent historian provide an insider''s history of the United States Senate. Richard A. Baker, historian emeritus of the Senate, and the late Neil MacNeil, former chief congressional correspondent for Time magazine, integrate nearly a century of combined experience on Capitol Hill with deep research and state-of-the-art scholarship. They explore the Senate''s historical evolution with one eye on persistent structural pressures and the other on recent transformations. Here, for example, are the Senate''s struggles with the presidency--from George Washington''s first, disastrous visit to tTrade ReviewThere is much to admire in this single volume, such that the general reader will find their interest whetted while the specialist will be inspired to deepen their understanding of this unique institution. * William Sheward, Political Studies Review *This first-rate comprehensive study is likely to set the standard for historical scholarship on the US Senate. Chock-full of fascinating stores from insider's prespectives, The American Senate is entertaining and engaging. The American Senate is a must read for any serious historian or political scientist, yet still accessible to the general public. Highly recommended. * CHOICE *Whether discussing money and elections, campaign reform, the origins of the filibuster, the Senate's investigatory power or its role in ratifying treaties or debating the great issues of the day, the authors pack the narrative with wide-ranging information and anecdotes." * Kirkus Reviews *An excellent choice for history buffs and political scientists. * Library Journal *A multidimensional study of the history, traditions and culture of the United States Senate... Whether discussing money and elections, campaign reform, the origins of the filibuster, the Senate's investigatory power or its role in ratifying treaties or debating the great issues of the day, the authors pack the narrative with wide-ranging information and anecdotes. A useful, engaging primer for anyone wishing to understand the politics, precedent and procedures that have shaped the Senate. * Kirkus Reviews *The American Senate should be required reading for anyone new to the chamber: interns, staffers, even senators. There's unlikely to be another single volume quite as comprehensive anytime soon, a fact that can probably be attributed to the authors." * Roll Call *[A] thoroughly researched book by two veteran Senate observers . . . Baker has done a superb job of combining his deep knowledge of the Senate with that of McNeil, to complete it and illuminate the evolution of the upper chamber of Congress through the efforts of the more than 1,900 people who have served." * The Hill *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ; Preface ; Prologue: Entering the Contemporary Senate ; 1: Money and Politics: Electing U.S. Senators ; 2: The Collapse of Campaign Finance Reform ; 3: Dancing with Presidents: A Wary Embrace ; 4: Struggling for Primacy: From TR to FDR ; 5: Losing Ground to the Imperial Presidency ; 6: Living with the House of Representatives ; 7: The Center to Which Everyone Comes ; 8: Leadership Empowered: The Modern Era ; 9: The Senate Investigates ; 10: The Watchdogs ; 11: Debate, Deliberation, and Dispute ; 12: Dilatory Tactics ; 13: Reform and Reaction ; To the Future ; Notes ; Selected Bibliography ; Index

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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Book SynopsisThe Tools of Government is the first professional guide to the principles and practices of public administration in an age when governments no longer provide many services-but arrange for others to do so. Characterized by extensive collaboration among levels of government and between government and the private sector, this new approach to solving public problems presents many new important issues. Comprehensive in scope, this new book offers a first hand look at the challenges faced by contracting out to nonprofit and profit sectors for grants, insurance, regulation, vouchers, cooperative arrangements, tax data, grants-in-aid, and others. The chapters examine over 20 different tools in use today and summarizes their basic features, patterns of usage, key tasks, political and substantive rational, and the major management challenges that each one poses. International in coverage and application, this book is ideal for students, teachers, and scholars in public administration, managemeTrade ReviewA comprehensive guide. * International Review of Administrative Sciences *

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Book SynopsisThe Broken Branch offers both a brilliant diagnosis of the cause of Congressional decline and a much-needed blueprint for change, from two experts who understand politics and revere our institutions, but believe that Congress has become deeply dysfunctional. Mann and Ornstein, two of the nation''s most renowned and judicious scholars of government and politics, bring to light the historical roots of Congress''s current maladies, examining 40 years of uninterrupted Democratic control of the House and the stunning midterm election victory of 1994 that propelled Republicans into the majority in both House and Senate. The byproduct of that long and grueling but ultimately successful Republican campaign, the authors reveal, was a weakened institution bitterly divided between the parties. They highlight the dramatic shift in Congress from a highly decentralized, committee-based institution into a much more regimented one in which party increasingly trumps committee. The resultant changes in Trade ReviewThe Broken Branch...reveals their relationship with the national legislature to be much more profound than mere observation. Frankly, it's love. And they are deeply distressed by Congress's current low esteem. Urging reform at every opportunity, they seem like the loyal spouse of an alcoholic or drug addict, desperately pushing their beloved into rehab. * The New York Times Book Review *Two of the most knowledgeable congressional scholars. * washingtonpost.com *Mann and Ornstein document a litany of abuses so excruciating that their reaction to the impeachment debacle of 1998 is this: 'We didn't think they could sink any lower. We were wrong.' Examples abound. Minority Democrats are routinely given only hours to read the text of thousand-page bills before they're brought up for a vote. Conference committees are stacked exclusively with friendly members. Oversight committees lie dormant and cabinet secretaries treat congressional inquiries with open contempt. Lobbying and pork-barrel spending are at record highs. * Kevin Drum, Washington Monthly *It is easy to recommend this book to anyone who is interested in Congress, how it works and how it should work. * Robert G. Kaiser, Washington Post Book World *Tom Mann and Norm Ornstein have few peers as Congress watchers, but their affection for this very human institution drives their analyses in The Broken Branch as much as their experience. You don't have to agree with every point in their criticism to feel renewed respect for their lifetime of devotion to helping make the people's branch of government a better functioning and more constructive tribune of the public interest. * U.S. Senator John McCain *Poll after poll shows a dramatic decline in public esteem for the Congress. In the opinion of many Americans, Republicans and Democrats alike, the institution simply does not work. Tom Mann and Norm Ornstein, two of the nation's very finest Congressional scholars, have shown in sharp, clean prose what has gone wrong and why and refreshingly suggest ways to get the First Branch of government back on track. This book is essential reading for Americans concerned about our country and our government. * Thomas S. Foley, Former Speaker of the House *The Constitution makes the legislative branch Article 1. It precedes the presidency and the judiciary by design. Today the legislative branch is too weak, too dysfunctional, and too out of touch with modern times to fulfill its constitutional duties. Mann and Ornstein understand well the glaring gap between the framers' design and today's reality. The Broken Branch is a serious step toward strengthening the Congress and moving America back toward a more stable and safer system. * Newt Gingrich, Former Speaker of the House *This book confirms what many of us have long known. Norm Ornstein and Tom Mann are two extremely admired and knowledgeable students of the United States Congress. It is a 'must-read' not only for Members of Congress, but for all Americans who care about the success of this vital institution of our Republic in these troubled times. * Tom Daschle, Former Senate Majority Leader *If you have ever worried about the declining influence of Congress in American political life, listen up! This timely book is for you. A first-rate, close up story of congressional problems and institutional decline...historically informed, institutionally sophisticated, told by two of Washington's best informed observers of American politics. * Richard F. Fenno, Jr., University of Rochester *For anyone wondering why they should vote out the Republicans, this book provides the answer. * The Morning Call *An important new book... * Cox News Service *Table of ContentsPreface ; 1. Introduction ; 2. The First Branch of Government: Theory and Practice ; 3. The Seeds of the Contemporary Problem, 1969-1994 ; 4. A Decade of Republican Control ; 5. Institutional Decline ; 6. The Case of Continuity ; 7. Conclusion ; 8. Epilogue: Is the Broken Branch on the Mend? ; Notes ; Acknowledgments ; Index

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Book SynopsisWomen, Gender, and Politics brings together both classic and recent readings on central topics in the study of gender and politics, and places an emphasis on comparing developed and developing countries. Genuinely international in its focus, the book is divided into five sections to reflect the range of research in the subfield: (1) women and social movements, (2) women and political parties, (3) women, gender, and elections, (4) women, gender, and public policies, and (5) women, gender, and the state. Each section serves as an introduction to general trends in thinking about women and politics, and the readings capture the ways that research has developed both thematically and chronologically in all of the five broad areas. The volume''s innovative design, global approach, and comprehensive coverage make it an ideal teaching book and a valuable resource for students and scholars throughout the world.Trade ReviewThe depth and breadth of this book make it required reading for all scholars of gender and politics. * Ana Gilling, Political Studies Review Vol. 11 *Table of ContentsPREFACE; PART I WOMEN AND SOCIAL MOVEMENTS; WOMEN AND POLITICAL PARTIES; WOMEN, GENDER, AND ELECTIONS; WOMEN, GENDER, AND POLITICAL REPRESENTATION; WOMEN, GENDER, AND PUBLIC POLICIES; WOMEN, GENDER, AND THE STATE

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Book SynopsisIn this trenchant new interpretation of America''s origins, Max Edling shows that the Federalists were primarily concerned with building a government that could act vigorously in defense of American interests. The Constitution transferred the powers of war-making and resource-extraction from the states to the national government, thereby creating a nation-state invested with all the important powers of Europe''s eighteenth-century ''fiscal-military states.''A strong centralized government such as this, however, challenged the American people''s deeply ingrained distrust of unduly concentrated authority. To secure the Constitution''s adoption in the face of this inherent suspicion, the Federalists had to balance the formation of a powerful national government with the strong current of anti-statism in the American political tradition. They did so, Edling argues, by designing a government that would be powerful in times of crisis, but which would make only limited demands on the citizenrTrade ReviewA book of undoubted power and value * The Journal of American History *At the very least, Max M. Edling has written the most important book on the adoption of the United States Constitution to appear since Forrest McDonald refuted Charles Beard in We the People: The Economic Origins of the Constitution (1958). * Journal of the Early American Republic *Edling's book is a powerfully argued revisionist interpretation of the origins of the Constitution. More than anything else, it helps us better understand the constitutional sources of the gigantic fiscal-military state that the United States has become. * Gordon S. Wood, Alva O. Way University Professor and Professor of History, Brown University *Not only a pleasure to read but extremely informative and persuasively argued. I will never think about the U.S. Constitution in the old way again. * Daniel Walker Howe, author of What Hath God Wrought *Table of ContentsINTRODUCTION: BEYOND MADISONIAN FEDERALISM; PART ONE: INTERPRETING THE DEBATE OVER RATIFICATION; PART TWO: MILITARY POWERS; PART THREE: FISCAL POWERS; CONCLUSION: THE CONSTITUTION, THE FEDERALISTS, AND THE AMERICAN STATE

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Book SynopsisToday Iran is once again in the headlines. Reputed to be developing nuclear weapons, the future of Iraq''s next-door neighbor is a matter of grave concern both for the stability of the region and for the safety of the global community. President George W. Bush labeled it part of the Axis of Evil, and rails against the country''s authoritarian leadership. Yet as Bush trumpets the spread of democracy throughout the Middle East, few note that Iran has one of the longest-running experiences with democracy in the region.In this book, Ali Gheissari and Vali Nasr look at the political history of Iran in the modern era, and offer an in-depth analysis of the prospects for democracy to flourish there. After having produced the only successful Islamist challenge to the state, a revolution, and an Islamic Republic, Iran is now poised to produce a genuine and indigenous democratic movement in the Muslim world. Democracy in Iran is neither a sudden development nor a western import, Gheissari and NasTrade ReviewA clear and readable account of politics in the Islamic Republic. * The Washington Post *A comprehensive overview of Iran's history on its way towards democracy...shed[s] new light on already well-known facts, recombining them into an unfamiliar but conclusive shape; and on top of that is an impressive read. * Iranian Studies *Democracy in Iran unravels the jumble of paradoxes that have marked Iranian politics over the last century. The country has experienced considerable success in state-building and development but has periodically undermined both by failing to consolidate democracy. Presently, it has many of the elements of a lively democracy but, somehow, is not a democracy at all. Iranians have successfully challenged candidates supported by the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic but have failed to weaken clerical control of the state. Vali Nasr and Ali Gheissari do an outstanding job of explaining how Iran keeps flirting with democratic governance, more than practically any other Islamic country in the Middle East, yet somehow always seems to fall short of sealing the marriage. * Joel Migdal, Professor of International Studies, University of Washington, and author of State in Society *A comprehensive account of political developments in Iran in the last century, theoretically sophisticated and yet very accessible. Easily the best book in a decade on Iran's bumpy road to democracy through two revolutions and much anti-democratic state-building. * Said Amir Arjomand, author of The Turban for the Crown *Democracy in Iran is a bold and sweeping survey of the past century of Iranian political history, an absorbing drama of contending ideologies, social classes, revolutionary movements, international pressures, political factions, and charismatic leaders. Nasr and Gheissari vividly expose Iran's ongoing struggle between democratic principles of freedom and accountability, the authoritarian-modernist quest for order and development, and revolutionary idealism, both secular and religious. In the process, they show once again the folly of all forms of utopianism and the necessity of constitutional and representative government. This is not just a book about Iran, but an insightful study of how regimes rise, evolve, stagnate, fragment, and fall. * Larry Diamond, author of Squandered Victory *Iran is often portrayed in the West as 'despotic,' 'autocratic,' and 'totalitarian.' This lucid and succinct book is an excellent antidote to the conventional view. It narrates eloquently the history of modern Iran through the prism of democracy * its birth, growth, trials and tribulations, and, despite recent setbacks, its continued vibrancy and extensive social roots. Those interested in modern Iran would do well to read this highly informative book.Ervand Abrahamian, author of Tortured Confessions *Table of ContentsChronology ; Introduction ; Part I: Rise of the State ; 1. Democracy or State-Building? 1906-1941 ; 2. The Triumph of the State, 1941-1979 ; Part II: The Crucible of Revolution ; 3. Revolution and War Fundamentalism, 1979-1989 ; 4. An Islamic Developmental State? 1989-1997 ; 5. State and Limits to Democracy, 1997-2005 ; 6. Epilogue ; Prospects for a Democratic State ; Notes ; Bibliography ; Index

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Book SynopsisNo one has hitherto had the breadth of imagination and intellectual boldness to describe and analyse government throughout recorded history and throughout the world. This unique study of government is the culmination of the work of the late S. E. Finer, one of the leading political scientists of the twentieth century. Ranging over 5,000 years, from the Sumerian city state to the modern European nation state, five themes emerge: state-building, military formats, belief systems, social stratification, and timespan. The three volumes examine both representative and exceptional polities, and focus on political elites of different types. Empires, Monarchies, and the Modern State (Books Four and Five) opens with Tokugawa Japan and thence reviews the evidence of Ch''ing, Ottoman, and Mughal Empires, before turning to facets of the re-creation, `modernization'', and transplantation of the European state model. It concludes with the synoptic review of `Pathways to the Modern State''. Professor Trade ReviewNo review can fully capture the breadth and accessibility of S. E. Finer's posthumous magnum opus ... its clarity and readability must be emphasized ... Finer constantly reminds us of exceptions that explain the richness and diversity of polities. * John R. Cramsie, History *The range and sweep of these volumes are extraordinary, as is the verve and clarity of the writing. Finer's intellectual authority is maintained through the long but never wearisome journey from Sumerian city states to modern times. * Times Educational Supplement *This is political science on the grandest scale: three volumes that provide a history of successive forms of government throughout the world from the earliest times to the present day ... Finer presents material on political systems that most political scientists will be completely unfamiliar with, and gives fresh insights into systems that they might have thought they knew ... What makes it a great book, and one that deserves to be read by all students of government, is Finer's remarkable ability to classify and compare across the entire universe of known systems of government. It is not simply the scholarship and erudition that is breathtaking, but also the confident, clear and imaginative use of comparative tools to describe the significance of the systems of government. * Edward Page, Public Policy *

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Book SynopsisThe analysis of party systems in Western Europe has long constituted a major focus of concern in comparative political science. This volume collects together many of the classic writings in this field, covering the development, stabilization and transformation of party systems.Trade Review`valuable and well-produced volume' Times Higher Education Supplement`Excellent compendium of key pieces of work on European politics over the last 30 years.' Dr D. Broughton, University of Wales College of Cardiff'He provides a useful service by bringing together many of the seminal pieces written by leading scholars over the years ... this volume can be warmly commended as an essential text for courses in party systems and European politics' Newsletter of the PSA specialist group on EPOPTable of ContentsPart 1 The development of the mass party: the origin of political parties, Joseph La Palombara and Myron Weiner; the advent of plebiscitarian democracy, Max Weber; caucus and branch, cadre parties and mass parties, Maurice Duverger; the party of democratic integration, Sigmund Neumann; the catchall party, Otto Kirchheimer; parties in pluralism, Alessandro Pizzorno. Part 2 The stabilization of party systems: structuring the party system, Giovanni Sartori; the "reach" of the party system, Hans Daalder; cleavage structures, party systems and voter alignments, Seymour Martin Lipset and Stein Rokkan; towards a generalized concept of "Verzuiling", Stein Rokkan; the sociology of parties, Giovanni Sartori. Part 3 The transformation of party systems: persistence and change in western party systems, 1945-1969, Richard Rose and Derek W.Urwin; electoral volatility in Western Europe, 1948-1977, Mogens N.Pedersen; parameters of change, Peter Mair; the transformation of Western European party systems, Steven B.Wolinetz; models of change, Scott C.Flanagan and Russell J.Dalton; the nature of value change, Ronald Inglehart; dimensions of ideology in European party systems, Arend Lijphart; from class-based to value-based politics, Ronald Inglehart. Part 4 Types of party system: the two-party system and the multi-party system, Maurice Duverger; party systems and patterns of opposition, Robert A.Dahl; types of party system, Jean Blondel; the electoral balance, Stein Rokkan; a typology of party systems, Giovanni Sartori.

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Book SynopsisLegislatures are political bodies essential to democracy and the rule of law. They present social scientists with numerous intriguing puzzles, with far-reaching implications for our understanding of political institutions. Why, and how, have these ancient assemblies, established in pre-democratic times, survived the transition to mass democracies? How have they adapted? How do they structure such processes as budgeting, legislation, and executive oversight? How do their members get selected, and what consequences flow from differences in these rules? What roles do committees and political parties play in contemporary legislatures? What functions do legislatures perform in autocratic, semi-democratic or recently democratized societies? What explains the similarities and differences in legislative rules, powers and recruitment? What are the policy and other consequences of variation in how legislatures are organized and function? The 33 chapters in The Oxford Handbook of Legislative StudTrade ReviewThis Handbook is fundamental reading for all scholars devoted to the study of political institutions, political parties and legislative studies. * Eugenio Salvati, Political Studies Review *Table of ContentsPART I: THEORIES; PART II: METHODS; PART III: REPRESENTATION AND LEGISLATIVE CAREERS; PART IV: ORGANISATION AND RULES; PART V: PARTIES IN THE LEGISLATURE; PART VI: POLICY MAKING AND OVERSIGHT; PART VII: EXPANDING THE SCOPE OF LEGISLATIVE ANALYSIS

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Book SynopsisLeading scholars in the field examine the highly topical issue of the future of the welfare state in Europe. They argue that welfare states need to adjust and examine which kind of welfare architecture will further Europe's stated goal of maximum social inclusion and justice.Table of ContentsForeword ; 1. Towards the Good Society, Once Again? ; 2. A Child Centred Social Investment Strategy ; 3. A New Gender Contract ; 4. The Quality of Working Life in Welfare Strategy ; 5. A New Social Contract for the Elderly ; 6. The Self-Transformation of the European Social Models

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Book SynopsisThis book situates the origins of American political science in relation to the transatlantic history of liberalism. In a corrective to earlier accounts, it argues that, as political science took shape in the nineteenth century American academy, it did more than express a pre-existing American liberalism. The pioneers of American political science participated in transatlantic networks of intellectual and political elites that connected them directly to the vicissitudes of liberalism in Europe. The book shows how these figures adapted multiple contemporary European liberal arguments to speak to particular challenges of mass democratic politics and large-scale industry as they developed in America. Political science''s pioneers in the American academy were thus active agents of the Americanization of liberalism. When political science first secured a niche in the American academy during the antebellum era, it advanced a democratized classical liberal political vision overlapping with thTrade ReviewThis work is an important contribution, and corrective, to the study of the widely acknowledged but variously conceived and much debated intersection between liberalism and the evolution of the social sciences in the United States. Adcock carefully and concretely examines the European sources of liberalism and how these ideas affected the development of American political science, which in turn played a significant role in Americanizing liberalism. Adcock has a deep and broad knowledge of the subject matter, and his work represents the best of a generation of innovative scholarship on the history of the social and political sciences. * John G. Gunnell, Distinguished Professor Emeritus, State University of New York at Albany *Table of ContentsIntroduction. American Political Science and Liberalism in Transatlantic Perspective ; Part One: From Europe to America ; Chapter One. The Political in Political Science: The Liberal Debate about Democracy ; Chapter Two. The Science in Political Science: The Historicist Debate about Method ; Chapter Three. Democratized Classical Liberalism in the Antebellum American College: The Emigre Political Science of Francis Lieber ; Part Two: Wide Political Science and Liberalism in the Gilded Age ; Chapter Four. Political Science and Political Economy in the Age of Academic Reform: Andrew Dickson White and William Graham Sumner ; Chapter Five. Historical and Political Science at the Johns Hopkins University: Historicist Science, Liberalism, and the Founding of National Associations ; Part Three: Late Century Liberalisms and the New Political Science ; Chapter Six. Disenchanted Classical Liberalism as a Political Vision: William Graham Sumner and A. Lawrence Lowell ; Chapter Seven. Progressive Liberalism as a Political Vision: Woodrow Wilson's Political Science ; Chapter Eight. The Transatlantic Study of Modern Political Systems: The New Political Science of James Bryce, A. Lawrence Lowell, and Frank Goodnow ; Conclusion. The Americanization of Political Science and the Americanization of <"Liberalism>"

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Book SynopsisThe end of the Cold War ushered in a moment of nearly pure American dominance on the world stage, yet that era now seems ages ago. Since 9/11 many informed commentators have focused on the relative decline of American power in the global system. While some have welcomed this as a salutary development, outspoken proponents of American power--particularly neoconservatives--have lamented this turn of events. As Jeanne Morefield argues in Empires Without Imperialism, the defenders of a liberal international order steered by the US have both invoked nostalgia for a golden liberal past and succumbed to amnesia, forgetting the decidedly illiberal trajectory of US continental and global expansion. Yet as she shows, the US is not the first liberal hegemon to experience a wave of misguided nostalgia for a bygone liberal order; England had a remarkably similar experience in the early part of the twentieth century. The empires of the US and the United Kingdom were different in character--the UK''sTrade ReviewThis study will surely be widely read and be a useful resource for university students who are interested in such topics, and they offer scholars, researchers and policy makers ways of moving beyond conventional explanations through their rigorous intellectual dedication and research. * Nikos Christofis, Political Studies Review *Jeanne Morefield's Empires without Imperialism: The Late Modern Politics of Deflection makes a singularly inspired contribution to the field, richly complex in its historical scholarship, sharply polemical (without being uncharitable), and most importantly, highly original in its subject, approach and tenor. * Inder S. Marwah, Contemporary Political Theory *Morefield offers an original, thought-provoking and century-spanning account of Anglo-American international thought. Her book deserves a wide readership among intellectual and international historians, political theorists and scholars of foreign policy, as well as anyone interested in contemporary international relations. * Tomohito Baji, International Affairs *Table of ContentsIntroduction ; Part One: Strategies of Antiquity ; Chapter One: Alfred Zimmern's <"Oxford Paradox>": Displacement and Athenian Nostalgia ; Chapter Two:Falling in Love With Athens: Donald Kagan on America and Thucydides' Revisionism. ; Part Two: Metanarrative Strategies ; Chapter Three: The Round Table's Story of Commonwealth. ; Chapter Four: The Empire Whisperer: Niall Ferguson's Misdirection, Disavowal and the Perilousness of Neoliberal Time. ; Part Three: Strategies of Character ; Chapter Five: Empire's Handyman: Jan Smuts and the Politics of International Holism. ; Chapter Six: Michael Ignatieff's Tragedy: Just As We Are, Here and Now. ; Conclusion: Conceptual Horizons and Conditions of Possibility: Is This the Swaraj That We Want?

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Book SynopsisThis book explains the creation of the European Union''s Security and Defence Policy - to this day the most ambitious project of peacetime military integration. Whether hailed as a vital step in the integration of Europe or berated as a wasteful threat to U.S. power, European citizens are increasingly interested in the common defence policy. Today, European Defence is more popular than the European Union itself, even in Great Britain. Mérand addresses the fundamental challenge posed by military integration to the way we think about the state in the 21st Century. Looking back over the past 50 years, he shows how statesmen, diplomats and soldiers have converged towards Brussels as a natural solution to their concerns but also as something worth fighting over. The actors most closely associated to the formation of nation-states are now shaping a transgovernmental security and defence arena. As a result, defence policy is being denationalized. Exploring the complex relations between the stTrade ReviewDrawing on a sophisticated array of concepts, Mérand shows how military-security and foreign policy are increasingly becoming not just regionalised but internationalised under the pressures of globalisation. * European Review *Table of ContentsIntroduction ; 1. What is European Defence? ; 2. The Internationalization of European Armed Forces ; 3. The Europeanization of Foreign Policy ; 4. European Security In Crisis ; 5. Constructing European Defence ; Conclusion ; References

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Book SynopsisThe Origins of the English Parliament is a magisterial account of the evolution of parliament, from its earliest beginnings in the late Anglo-Saxon period. Starting with the national assemblies which began to meet in the reign of King Æthelstan, it carries the story through to the fully fledged parliament of lords and commons of the early fourteenth century, which came to be seen as representative of the whole nation and which eventually sanctioned the deposition of the king himself in 1327. Throughout, J. R. Maddicott emphasizes parliament''s evolution as a continuous process, underpinned by some important common themes. Over the four hundred years covered by the book the chief business of the assembly was always the discussion of national affairs, together with other matters central to the running of the state, such as legislation and justice. It was always a resolutely political body. But its development was also shaped by a series of unforeseen events and episodes. Chief among thesTrade ReviewOne of the masterpieces of historical writing of our time. * Nigel Saul, History Today *One of the most important recent books on English history...a magisterial account * Michael Wood, BBC History Magazine *Enormously impressive...a powerful and passionate piece of work * Keith Richmond, Government Gazette *J.R. Maddicott brings to his task a depth of analysis which is both rare and impressive. He argues his points by reference to a far wider range of sources than any of his predecessors. And he has a better understanding of the European context of English politics than any English writer on the subject since Maurice Powicke. * Jonathan Sumption, Literary Review *Its wide and profound scholarship has much to teach us about the roots and functions of an institution now subjected to so much unhistorical criticism. * Blair Worden, The Spectator *J.R. Maddicott has long been recognised as one of the outstanding historians of thirteenth- and fourteenth-century English political history... The Origins of the English Parliament 924-1327 will stand out as a notable text for parliamentary history. * Andrew Broertjes, LIMINA *thorough, compelling, and persuasive ... Maddicott makes a compelling case for English exceptionalism and in the process frames the terms in which the medieval parliament will be discussed and debated for generations. * Scott L. Waugh, English Historical Review *Table of Contents1. . Genesis: 'The Witan of the English People, c.920-1066 ; 2. Confluence: English Council, Feudal Counsel, 1066-1189 ; 3. Transformation: The Making of the Community of the Realm, 1189-1327 ; 4. Establishment: The First Age of Parliamentary Politics, 1227-58 ; 5. Consolidation: Parliament and Baronial Reform, 1258-72 ; 6. Expansion: Parliament and Nation, 1272-1327 ; 7. English Exceptionalism? The Peculiarities of the English Parliament. Conclusion ; Appendix: A List of Parliaments, 1235-57 ; Bibliography ; Index

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Book SynopsisNo legislature in the world has a greater influence over its nation''s public affairs than the US Congress. The Congress''s centrality in the US system of government has placed research on Congress at the heart of scholarship on American politics. Generations of American government scholars working in a wide range of methodological traditions have focused their analysis on understanding Congress, both as a lawmaking and a representative institution. The purpose of this volume is to take stock of this impressive and diverse literature, identifying areas of accomplishment and promising directions for future work. The editors have commissioned 37 chapters by leading scholars in the field, each chapter critically engages the scholarship focusing on a particular aspect of congressional politics, including the institution''s responsiveness to the American public, its procedures and capacities for policymaking, its internal procedures and development, relationships between the branches of govTrade ReviewOutstanding Academic Titles 2012, as selected by CHOICE Magazine (December 2012). * CHOICE *Table of ContentsPART I: INTRODUCTION; PART II: ELECTIONS; PART III: REPRESENTATION AND RESPONSIVENESS; PART IV: CONGRESSIONAL INSTITUTIONS AND PROCEDURES; PART V: POLITICS AND POLICYMAKING; PART VI: CONGRESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT; PART VII: CONGRESS AND THE CONSTITUTIONAL SYSTEM; PART VIII: REFLECTIONS

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Book SynopsisThis fully revised new edition includes expanded coverage of Parliament''s relationship with the courts, devolved assemblies and the European Union. Distinctively, the book goes beyond the usual focus of Parliament-Government relations to encompass policy-makers beyond Whitehall and Parliament''s broader relationship with citizens.Trade Review'This is the single best book published on the Westminster Parliament: admirably clear, superbly researched, and brilliantly argued.' - Philip Cowley, University of Nottingham, UK.Table of ContentsParliament in Perspective The Development of Parliament PART I: PARLIAMENT AND GOVERNMENT Recruiting Ministers The Making of Public Policy Legislation The Administration of Government PART II: BEYOND WHITEHALL Parliament and the European Union Parliament and Devolution Parliament and the Courts PART III: PARLIAMENT AND THE PEOPLE Representing the People The Voice of the Constituents Speaking for Different Interests Reaching the Public Conclusion: Parliamentary Reform.

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Book SynopsisTimothy Heppell brings together a renowned group of contributors to consider the role of the Leader of the Opposition in British Politics. The book argues that the neglect of opposition studies needs to be addressed, especially given the increasing importance attached to the performance the Leader of the Opposition in the British political system.Trade Review'Opposition leaders matter, but are understudied. Studying opposition leaders allows key lessons to be learnt about the nature of British democracy and representation. However, it is all too easy for scholarly attention to fall on Prime Ministers and ignore their opponent at the dispatch-box. This edited collection provides excellent critical assessments on post-war opposition leaders from Churchill to Cameron with chapters written by authoritative experts in the field. It is a significant advancement for studies of the opposition, and a key book for students and scholars of British politics.' - Toby S. James, Lecturer in Politics, University of Swansea 'Leaders of the Opposition is an important book. It goes some considerable way to answering the question of why Leader of the Opposition is the hardest job in British politics. The book is firmly set within the context of a changed political environment, one in which leadership dynamics matter and failure is not an option. Expertly marshalled by Dr Tim Heppell, an impressive cast of contributors view opposition leaders from Churchill to Cameron against established political leadership criteria. This edited book fulfils many functions: it is a critical analysis of an under-researched position in British politics, it is a valuable contribution to understanding contemporary political leadership and it is a handbook for those contemplating the hardest job. Above all though it is a great read for students and academics.' - Mark Bennister, Lecturer in Politics, Canterbury Christ Church University, UKTable of ContentsIntroduction; T.Heppell Winston Churchill 1945-1951; K.Theakston Clement Attlee 1951-1955; V.Honeyman & T.Heppell Hugh Gaitskell 1955-1963; T.Heppell Harold Wilson 1963-1964 and 1970-1974; P.Dorey Alec Douglas-Home 1964-1975; M.Hill Edward Heath 1965-1970 and 1974-1975; M.Garnett Margaret Thatcher 1975-1979; P.Norton James Callaghan 1979-1980; S.Meredith Michael Foot 1980-1983; E.Gouge Neil Kinnock 1983-1992; S.Griffiths John Smith 1992-1994; M.Stuart Tony Blair 1994-1997; S.McAa William Hague 1997-2001; N.Fletcher Iain Duncan Smith 2001-2003; R.Hayton Michael Howard 2003-2005; M.Garnett David Cameron 2005-2010; T.Bale Conclusion; T.Heppell Bibliography

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