Political structure and processes Books

Book SynopsisEach political cycle, candidates vying for public office warn that the upcoming election is the most important event of the millennium. For many whose names appear on a ballot, the statement is at least partially accurate: their political future rides on the outcome. The rest of us take such forebodings with a grain of salt. After all, how much damage can a single candidate (even a president) inflict given our time tested system of checks and balances? Turning Point makes the case for “plenty”; Barack Obama’s transformative agenda has indeed remade America – to the detriment of our economy and culture. In his third book, Governor Robert L. Ehrlich details the considerable damage inflicted to date, while analyzing how progressive policy has made America a far more insecure and weaker country. Culled from published opinion pieces authored by the Governor over the last eight years, Turning Point is a concise, articulate indictment of Western European style progressivism brought to America by its most charismatic (and dangerous) salesman. The presidential election of 2016 is a pivotal one. As such, Ehrlich asks whether Obama’s agenda is indeed America’s future. In other words, has the cumulative impact of progressivism reached the point of no return – or – will the next election cycle be a turning point for the return of common sense conservatism? Those of you who subscribe to the former point of view will appreciate Turning Point’s conclusions, if not the accompanying analysis, while readers belonging to the loyal opposition will find plenty of material to keep them up at night. Regardless of which side of the political spectrum you may identify with, however, all will find Governor Ehrlich’s new book an enlightening, if not entertaining read. Enjoy…Trade Review"According to Ehrlich (America: Hope for Change), former Republican Governor of Maryland, the presidency of Barack Obama has been detrimental to the economy and foreign policy of the United Statesnot to mention race relations, family structure, health care, and many other aspects of American life. That is the pessimistic premise of this collection of weekly Baltimore Sun and Washington Post columns spanning President Obama's term in office. They chronicle such noteworthy moments as the optimistic period following the 2012 presidential election, the Supreme Court decision on the Affordable Care Act, and the barbs and mudslinging of the 2012 election and its aftermath. The author captures, in honest, albeit alarmed, fashion, one conservative American's impressions of living under a progressive presidency. However, he never loses his sense of humor, concluding with satirical "what-if" pieces, including an article detailing a news day in an alternate-universe America with President Mitt Romney and an Obama diary entry revealing the "truth" behind the Benghazi terrorist attack. This comprehensive collection will be a necessary read for right-leaning audiences as 2015 begets 2016 and election season gets into full swing." Publishers Weekly

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Book SynopsisIn this brilliant historical classic, Dan Sisson provides the definitive window into key concepts that have formed the backdrop of our democracy: the nature of revolution, stewardship of power, liberty, and the ever-present danger of factions and tyranny. Most contemporary historians celebrate Jeffersonâs victory over Adams in 1800 - which Jefferson firmly maintained was "as real a revolution...as that of 1776 - as the beginning of the two-party system, but Sisson believes it is entirely the wrong lesson. Jefferson saw his election as a peaceful revolution by the American people overturning an elitist faction that was stamping out cherished constitutional rights and trying to transform our young democracy into an authoritarian state. If anything, our current two-party system is a repudiation of Jefferson's theory of revolution, and his earnest desire that the people as a whole, not any faction or clique, would triumph in government. Sisson's book makes clear that key ideas of the American Revolution did not reach their full fruition until the "Revolution of 1800," to which we owe the preservation of many of our key rights. With new contributions from the author and Thom Hartmann, this fortieth anniversary edition contains fresh insights and reflections on how Jeffersonâs vision can help us in our own era of polarization, corruption, government overreach, and gridlock.

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Book SynopsisWhy has American politics fallen into such a state of horrible dysfunction? Can it ever be fixed? These are the questions that motivate Michael Tomasky’s deeply original examination into the origins of our hopelessly polarized nation. “One of America’s finest political commentators” (Michael J. Sandel), Tomasky ranges across centuries and disciplines to show how America has almost always had two dominant parties that are existentially, and often violently, opposed. When he turns to our current era, he does so with striking insight that will challenge readers to reexamine what they thought they knew. Finally, not content merely to diagnose these problems, Tomasky offers a provocative agenda for how we can help fix our broken political system—from ranked-choice voting and at-large congressional elections to expanding high school civics education nationwide. Combining revelatory data with trenchant analysis, Tomasky tells us how the nation broke apart and points us toward a more hopeful political future.Trade Review"Sweeping, rollicking, sometimes breezy political and cultural back story to our current moment, one that demands we become informed… Indeed, the most helpful -- if sobering -- point Tomasky makes is that while our current troubles created the conditions that brought us a President Trump, those troubles would exist no matter who was in the White House. And it will take much more than a new occupant to fix them." -- Jason Zengerle, New York Times Book Review"Daily Beast columnist Tomasky confirms what we already knew—America is polarized—and masterfully charts how it always has been that way, especially at the beginning... The author expertly sifts through American history, citing compromises, which mostly made everyone unhappy. Refreshingly, Tomasky also offers 'A Fourteen-Point Agenda to Reduce Polarization,' which includes a host of reasonable ideas.... Read this excellent book; it's your civic duty." -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review)"If We Can Keep It is an important, instructive, and vibrant history, well told and accessible to anyone who cares about American politics. Michael Tomasky walks you through this country’s often raucous journey from division to division to occasional unity and back to division again. He also offers some common-sense ways that we can yet recover our collective sanity.”" -- Joy Reid, host of MSNBC's AM Joy"If We Can Keep It is a brilliant and timely answer to the most important questions in contemporary politics: how did we get here—and how do we get out? Tomasky’s account of our polarized society is informed by a broad knowledge of history and a rich understanding of the country that Donald Trump, amazingly enough, serves as President." -- Jeffrey Toobin, CNN legal analyst and author of American Heiress"Michael Tomasky, one of America’s finest political commentators, gives us a synoptic account of our broken politics, and a far-reaching program to fix it. The polarization that afflicts politics today is not a fact of nature, he reminds us, but the result of cultural changes and political choices over the past several decades. Tomasky’s bold proposals for reform offer a fresh take on how to repair our fractured republic." -- Michael J. Sandel, author of What Money Can’t Buy

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Book SynopsisWhy has American politics fallen into such a state of horrible dysfunction? Can it ever be fixed? These are the questions that motivate Michael Tomasky’s deeply original examination into the origins of our hopelessly polarized nation. “One of America’s finest political commentators” (Michael J. Sandel), Tomasky ranges across centuries and disciplines to show how America has almost always had two dominant parties that are existentially, and often violently, opposed. When he turns to our current era, he does so with striking insight that will challenge readers to reexamine what they thought they knew. Finally, not content merely to diagnose these problems, Tomasky offers a provocative agenda for how we can help fix our broken political system—from ranked-choice voting and at-large congressional elections to expanding high school civics education nationwide. Combining revelatory data with trenchant analysis, Tomasky tells us how the nation broke apart and points us toward a more hopeful political future.

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Book SynopsisTrust is essential to the foundation of America’s democracy, asserts Pete Buttigieg, the former presidential candidate and South Bend mayor. Yet, in a century warped by terrorism, financial collapse, Trumpist populism, systemic racism, and now a global pandemic, trust has been squandered, sacrificed, abused, stolen, or never properly built in the first place. And now, more so than ever before, Americans must work side by side to reckon with the monumental challenges posed by our present moment. Interweaving history, political philosophy, and affecting passages of memoir, Buttigieg explores the strong relationship between measures of prosperity and levels of social trust. He provides an impassioned account of a threefold crisis of trust: in our institutions, in each other, and in the American project itself. Today, these perilous patterns of distrust have wreaked havoc on nearly every sector of society, as Americans increasingly resent the very government that needs to be part of the solution. With the internet and partisan television networks acting as accelerants, Americans jettison any sense of shared reality, lose confidence in experts and scientists, and cope with the grim national tragedy of a pandemic that has only further exemplified the lethality of distrust. Buttigieg contends that our success, or failure, at confronting the greatest challenges of the decade—racial and economic justice, pandemic resilience, and climate action—will rest on whether we can effectively cultivate, deepen, and, where necessary, repair the networks of trust that are now endangered, or for so many, have never even existed. An urgent call to foster an “American way of trust” at this painfully polarized juncture in the nation’s history, Trust is a direct reckoning with the prevailing corruption of social responsibility. Yet refusing to give in to the despair that threatens our foundations, Trust seeks to inspire Americans to build a powerful movement that will define all of us in the years to come.Trade Review"The book offers further proof, were it needed, that the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, also a former presidential candidate, has the most interesting political mind since Barack Obama." -- Charles Kaiser - The Guardian"Shedding some personal light, Buttigieg recounts a few memorable lessons he has learned during both his military and political career. For example, he shows how establishing trust was imperative to the success of his life-threatening duties as a military driver in Afghanistan. The author also gives plenty of attention to the gross injustices that have occurred under the Trump administration, many of which serve as cases in point for why our trust in government has eroded so much.... An eloquent call to action for socially conscious citizens to get involved in restoring essential networks of trust." -- Kirkus Reviews, starred review" Praise for Pete Buttigieg’s Shortest Way Home: “The best American political autobiography since Barack Obama’s Dreams from My Father.” —Charles Kaiser, Guardian “Buttigieg’s stirring, honest, and often beautiful book is . . . an argument for what it means to answer a calling, and why it’s important to ask, again and again, ‘what each of us owes to the country.’” —Jill Lepore, The New Yorker “Combining candor and compassion with a brilliant understanding of how government can be more effective. . . [Pete Buttigieg’s] work is an important entry in the American political tradition for the twenty-first century.” —Walter Isaacson "

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Book SynopsisA leader in digital communication and grassroots political campaigns explains how the internet and modern media have undermined America and how we can reclaim our voices for the good of civic life.The creators of the internet promised us jetpacks: better experiences, more choices, and deeper relationships.Built on a diversity of voices, our online freedom was supposed to spark a democratic transformation. But our platforms don’t work for us—we’re the inventory and our outrage fuels a tech revolution optimized for profit, not civic life.As one of the top digital strategists for Barack Obama’s two presidential campaigns, Michael Slaby saw the beginning of a new kind of national division. What he witnessed would spawn the Tea Party movement, upset the 2016 election, and accelerate the polarization of American civic life.Slaby presents the four core areas which can be reclaimed to work better for all of us: platforms, government institutions, corporations, and even the users ourselves. Optimistic, future-focused, and deeply passionate, For ALL the People breaks down how we got here, and how we, the users, can work toward a better democracy through tech.Trade Review"In For All the People , Michael Slaby shows us how to think anew about media and the tsunami of information coming at us in our age of technology. This is a book for all of us, offering insights and actions to help make sense of our new world and connect more powerfully with one another." Beth Comstock, author and former vice chair, GE"The book combines the big thinking that is too often lacking from today's political dialogue and action steps that will actually make a difference. To say it is a must-read is an understatement." Brian Reich, author of The Imagination Gap and VP of communications, Murmuration"An awakening for innovators seeking to drive positive social change and a reclamation of our democracy." Elizabeth Brigham , director, Hurt Hub@Davidson"Essential reading for every storyteller, politician, technologist, and citizen." Lyel Resner , professor, NYU Interactive Telecommunications Program"Michael Slaby does stellar work explaining how we got to this point as a society and, even more important, presents a compellingand constructivevision of where we go from here." Ian Bremmer , founder and president, Eurasia Group"This is required reading for anyone working in media, technology, or civic life." Alex Johnston , founder, Cities Reimagined"Slaby is the Yuval Noah Harari of media. He pointedly outlines the fracture of our culture and democracy while providing hopeful next steps for how we can redesign our systems for a more civically-minded world." Megan Kiefer , author of The Third Dimension of Literacy and founder, Take Two Film Academy"An earnest and optimistic must-read that can help lead us to a better place as a nation." Lauren Zalaznick , former chair, Entertainment & Digital Networks, NBC Universal

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Book SynopsisAn investigation of misinformation and fracturing in contemporary American political culture. An Atlantic Edition, featuring long-form journalism by Atlantic writers, drawn from contemporary articles or classic storytelling from the magazine’s 165-year archive.A collection of essays from Atlantic staff writer Megan Garber, On Misdirection: Magic, Mayhem, American Politics is a timely treatise on our contemporary American political culture. Using the concept of “misdirection” to argue how attention, boredom, uncertainty, and cynicism have become the disquieting stalwarts of our current political arena, Garber offers readers a new and accessible theory for understanding the lasting power of Donald Trump and his right-wing legions.

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Book SynopsisIt has been ten years since the 1999 Republican referendum failed. Whilst it was ultimately unsuccessful, it has engaged people in a debate that has spanned decades. Australians seem to want a republic, but there is uncertainty about what kind of republic we want. If we wish to understand the implications and future of republicanism, we need to know more about it. ""Choosing the Republic"" explores how the people in a constitutional monarchy may choose to become a republic, delving into republican philosophy, the history and practicalities of constitutional change, and the politics of popular debate. This is a thoughtful, insightful and practical account of where we've come from and what needs to be done if Australia is to become a republic. Glenn Patmore offers an accessible contribution to the republican debate from a new perspective.

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Book SynopsisA toxic ideology rules the world - of extreme competition and individualism. It misrepresents human nature, destroying hope and common purpose. Only a positive vision can replace it, a new story that re-engages people in politics and lights a path to a better world. George Monbiot shows how new findings in psychology, neuroscience and evolutionary biology cast human nature in a radically different light: as the supreme altruists and cooperators. He shows how we can build on these findings to create a new politics: a 'politics of belonging'. Both democracy and economic life can be radically reorganized from the bottom up, enabling us to take back control and overthrow the forces that have thwarted our ambitions for a better society.Urgent, and passionate, Out of the Wreckage provides the hope and clarity required to change the world.Trade ReviewGeorge Monbiot, with the clarity and straightforwardness that is his trademark, has managed to lay out our dilemma and our possibilities - this book strikes the necessary balance between visionary and practical, and does it with real grace. -- Bill McKibben, author of EnoughInspired and inspirational, George Monbiot's call to act gives new coherence to a movement that is changing as it learns. So much has to change that the scale of the task can feel overwhelming. But we have changed our lives as fast and fundamentally before. -- Danny Dorling, author of Inequality and the 1%A dazzling command of science and relentless faith in people . I never miss reading him. -- Naomi KleinWhat most impresses in Monbiot's clever, elegant writing is the way he strives to think beyond protest towards realistic, representative solutions to the problems of world politics and trade. * The Times *His passion for social and ecological justice is undimmed by twenty-first-century cynicism. His desire for knowledge across the widest gamut of subjects (scientific, historical, political and cultural) enables him to reach places which are foreign territory to many of us. * Herald (Glasgow) *A writer of eloquence and passion. * the Observer *This is a highly contemporary book, potentially offering the left a set of implements with which to win arguments on terrain often dominated by the populist right. ... Monbiot's hopeful, practical energy is precisely what the left needs right now. -- Will Davies * Guardian *This remarkable book sees George Monbiot - long recognised as one of our most acute and perceptive commentators - bringing together the whole breadth of his intelligence and experience to propose a new politics: new goals, new strategies, and, most of all, a new story. If you're tired of the tiny seesaw that politics seems to have got itself stuck on, you'll want to read this. There's so much to think about here, and it's presented with clarity and coherence. It's an inspiring and optimistic vision for the future, and - best of all - a wholly practical one. It can happen. Better, it's starting to happen. This is a future we can all be part of, a future which grows directly out of our participation. Please read this book. -- Brian EnoMonbiot's proposals are often visionary but never disconnected from pragmatic realities, and are delivered in prose that is always pithy and elegant. This is a book that should be read by everyone who hopes we can find a way out of the wreckage of the present to a better tomorrow. -- Ashley Dawson * Publishers Weekly *

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Book SynopsisIn the last decade, the EU has been hit by a series of crises, most recently the UK's decision to leave the union following the Brexit referendum. In light of this, questions have been raised about the need to reform the whole model of European integration, with the aim of making the union more flexible and more accountable. In this book, Richard Youngs proposes an alternative vision of European co-operation and shows how the EU must re-invent itself if it is to survive. He argues that citizens should play a greater role in European decision-making, that there should be radically more flexibility in the process of integration and that Europe needs to take a new, more coherent, approach to questions of defence and security. In proposing this model for a `reset' version of Europe, Youngs reinvigorates the debate around the future of Europe and puts forward a new agenda for the future of the EU.Table of Contents1. Introduction 2. Confusion’s Masterpiece: The EU’s Poly-Crisis 3. False solutions 4. The democracy problem 5. Europe as a citizens’ project 6. A Compact for European Citizens 7. Divergent Europe: towards radical flexibility 8. A secure Europe? 9. The long road to solidarity

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Book SynopsisFormer social media executives tell us that the system is an addiction-machine. We are users, waiting for our next hit as we like, comment and share. We write to the machine as individuals, but it responds by aggregating our fantasies, desires and frailties into data, and returning them to us as a commodity experience. The Twittering Machine is an unflinching view into the calamities of digital life: the circus of online trolling, flourishing alt-right subcultures, pervasive corporate surveillance, and the virtual data mines of Facebook and Google where we spend considerable portions of our free time. In this polemical tour de force, Richard Seymour shows how the digital world is changing the ways we speak, write, and think.Through journalism, psychoanalytic reflection and insights from users, developers, security experts and others, Seymour probes the human side of the machine, asking what we're getting out of it, and what we're getting into. Social media held out the promise that we could make our own history-to what extent did we choose the nightmare that it has become?Trade ReviewOne of our most astute political analysts * China Miéville, author of October *A bracing tour through the social and political context and impact of Twitter and Facebook, exploring Gamergate to Isis to Trump's Twitter presidency. He recounts horrifying miseries - suicides on YouTube, rapes on Periscope, streamed shootings on Facebook - created by people radicalised, or tormented by online peers, craving celebrity - all pushed to extremes by algorithms and monetised by tech companies. -- Emma Jacobs * Financial Times *The book is a thrilling demonstration of what such resistance can look like, by one of the most clear-sighted and unyielding critics writing today. We should all read it. -- William Davies * Guardian *Richard Seymour has a brilliant mind and a compelling style. Everything he writes is worth reading -- Gary Younge, author of Another Day in the Death of AmericaWhat Susan Sontag did for photography, what Christopher Lasch did for the culture of narcissism, Richard Seymour has done for social media. I read it with a sense of recognition, and alarm. -- Adam Shatz, contributing editor at the London Review of BooksA sophisticated critique of the age of social media. * Kirkus Reviews *Rather than wondering ponderously if this is 'cancel culture' or whatever, we might ask ourselves: Why were all these people tweeting? ... This is not a book with an accompanying TED Talk, a ten-step program, or One Weird Trick to Fix Everything. Seymour's pose here is that of a working analyst, not a confident diagnostician. He draws connections, he sketches notes toward a further diagnosis. -- Max Read * Bookforum *The Twittering Machine understands our world as it is: shaped for better or worse by sophisticated, online, social technologies that developed in the context of a long human history of other technologies. -- Damon Beres * OneZero *Seymour is wide-ranging in his analysis of the destructive effects of the "social industry" on personal and political life...By the end, if you weren't already, you will be on the verge of deleting your Twitter account. And yet Seymour himself is still on there, professionally compelled as a freelance writer to plug into the machine . -- Matthew Sperling * Guardian *A very brilliant deconstruction of social media and our death drive to engage with it. . .What's so useful about the book is that it dispenses with the platitudes we tend to hear about social media, and takes a psychoanalytical approach to social media that feels fresh and freshly horrifying. * Los Angeles Review of Books *

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Book SynopsisDespite great progress around the world in getting more kids into schools, too many leave without even the most basic skills. In India's rural Andhra Pradesh, for instance, only about one in twenty children in fifth grade can perform basic arithmetic. The problem is that schooling is not the same as learning. In The Rebirth of Education, Lant Pritchett uses two metaphors from nature to explain why. The first draws on Ori Brafman and Rod Beckstrom's book about the difference between centralized and decentralized organizations, The Starfish and the Spider. Schools systems tend be centralized and suffer from the limitations inherent in top-down designs. The second metaphor is the concept of isomorphic mimicry. Pritchett argues that many developing countries superficially imitate systems that were successful in other nations - much as a nonpoisonous snake mimics the look of a poisonous one. Pritchett argues that the solution is to allow functional systems to evolve locally out of an environment pressured for success. Such an ecosystem needs to be open to variety and experimentation, locally operated, and flexibly financed. The only main cost is ceding control; the reward would be the rebirth of education suited for today's world.Trade Review"UN Declaration of Human Rights Article 26 guarantees the right of every child to free elementary education. Today, nearly 90 percent of children are enrolled in primary school, but enrollment is only the first step. Pritchett's insightful analysis and rigorous evidence point to the next step in realizing every child's right to education: the need for governments and donors to move from a focus on enrollment to a focus on learning." —S. E. M. Vuk Jeremic, president of the 67th Session of the United Nations General Assembly|"A timely call to build on the success of expanding schooling to now focus the same dedication, energy, resources, and creativity on learning. Innovation in close partnership with our developing-country colleagues, whose voices must be heard on the systemic challenges, will be critical to the success of this next phase." —Alice Albright, CEO of the Global Partnership for Education|"With abundant data, experience, and clear thinking, Pritchett makes a compelling case for why more of the same won't cut it anymore, how we need to think deeply about how change happens and who can drive it, and why we need to be suspicious of experts and blueprints." —Rakesh Rajani, founder and head of Twaweza|"Lant Pritchett's recommendations will disappoint both orthodox economists and orthodox educators since they do not reinforce any of the standard recipes. But those willing to be convinced by Pritchett's logic and the particular blend of caring and impishness that characterizes his writing will be justifiably alarmed, then enlightened, and finally filled with hope. I urge all my colleagues to read it immediately." —Luis Crouch, chief technical officer, International Development Group|"With his unique voice, full of data and analogies (after all, what book on education reform also mentions snakes, spiders, and elephants?), Lant Pritchett will make people rethink what they know (or think they know) about education, schooling, and learning." —Elizabeth King, director of education, World Bank|"Lant Pritchett's pathbreaking and courageous work exposes the scandal of education policy which contents itself with achieving quantitative targets on student enrollment even when no real education is happening. Pritchett documents convincingly the problem of missing education, while offering constructive alternatives to the unacceptable complacency of the status quo. Nobody reading this book will ever think about education the same way again." —William Easterly, professor of economics, New York University

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Book SynopsisA handbook for anyone who wants to learn about how to be active in local, state, and federal government, The Citizen Lobbyist shows how to have a voice in creating public policy. More citizen involvement is needed in our government processes to ensure the voices of the people are heard over the money of paid lobbyists, unions, and coalitions, both in Washington, DC, and in state capitals across the country. All too often, public officials seem removed from the people who hired them to be their representatives and fail to work on their behalf. This book gives a step-by-step plan on how to lobby elected officials about the issues you care about, offers information on how to plan a lobbying meeting for individuals and groups, and provides sample lobbying worksheets and resources to assist with finding legislative information and history. It is your go-to reference for being a grassroots activist and citizen lobbyist.Trade Review"Offers sound advice for presenting an issue to a government official. Legislative life would have been much easier the past 40 years had I been lobbied as Ms. Knief outlines." Pete Stark, U.S. Congressman, 1973--2013"It truly is a handbook for action to provide quick reference and a concise primer to get YOU involved in your government." Military Association of Atheists & Freethinkers (militaryatheists.org)

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