Political structure and processes Books

Book SynopsisLatif Tas investigates the triangular relationship between nationalism, justice and gender politics, to explore how influencing this dynamic allows authoritarian rulers to stay in power for longer and justify their actions for monopolising power.

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Book SynopsisWhile the 1950s in Canada were years of social conformity, it was also a time of political, economic, and technological change. Against a background of growing prosperity, federal and provincial politics became increasingly competitive, intergovernmental relations became more contentious, and Canada’s presence in the world expanded. The life expectancy of Canadians increased as the social pathologies of poverty, crime, and racial, ethnic, and gender discrimination were in retreat. 1950s Canada illuminates the fault lines around which Canadian politics and public affairs have revolved. Chronicling the themes and events of Canadian politics and public affairs during the 1950s, Nelson Wiseman reviews social, economic, and cultural developments during each year of the decade, focusing on developments in federal politics, intergovernmental relations, provincial affairs, and Canada’s role in the world. The book examines Canada’s subordinate relationship Table of Contents1. Introduction: Reflections on Studying Canada of the 1950s 2. 1950 3. 1951 4. 1952 5. 1953 6. 1954 7. 1955 8. 1956 9. 1957 10. 1958 11. 1959 12. Conclusion: Politics and Public Affairs in the 1950s 13. Appendices

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Book SynopsisPolling and the Public helps readers become savvy consumers of public opinion polls, offering solid grounding on how the media cover them, their use in campaigns and elections, and their interpretation. This trusted, brief guide by Herb Asher also provides a non-technical explanation of the methodology of polling so that students become informed participants in political discourse. Fully updated with new data and scholarship, the Ninth Edition examines recent elections and the use and misuse of polls in campaigns, and delivers new coverage of web-based and smartphone polling.Trade Review"Asher’s Polling and the Public has been a mainstay in public opinion courses for the last two decades. This is not an accident. It is unrivaled as an introductory guide to the foundations of measuring and understanding public opinion. This latest edition does not disappoint. Students will continue to get Asher’s straightforward and clear approach that includes all the new developments in polling and public opinion." -- Jason Gainous, Ph.D."I’ve used Polling and the Public for several years in my courses. The book is pitched perfectly for the undergraduate reader: the concepts are clearly explained, the examples are memorable, and the comics engage students’ interest. As a political science professor, I also appreciate the way in which Asher addresses how polling fits into bigger questions about democracy." -- Travis N. Ridout"Polling the Public is enjoyable to read and quite accessible. Students don’t need to have a course in statistics to understand the material, which makes it particularly useful for those with varied academic backgrounds. Polling the Public is perfect for students who are interested in learning about all aspects of polling, from sampling to the interpretation of results. They will also benefit from the book′s excellent discussions of the critical benefits and drawbacks of polling as a way of measuring public opinion. The book is well written and uses current and attention-grabbing examples." -- Jennifer Bachner"Polling and the Public is essential reading for any course on public opinion or survey research methods. My students have found Asher′s lively writing style to be an engaging introduction to complex ideas, from survey sampling to the nature and measurement of attitudes. And just as important for the study of politics, Asher introduces students to broader theories about the place of polling within democratic governing institutions. Asher covers the art and science of polling, while providing students with a foundation of knowledge to understand current controversies in public opinion research." -- H. Whitt Kilburn"Polling the Public brings a wonderful sense of humor that would incite my students to talk about it during their next class period. It is very straightforward in manner, not reliant on jargon, and accessible to undergraduates and grad students who haven’t had many classes in public opinion. This book’s straightforward approach is useful to instructors by providing a thorough introduction to the complexities and nuances of the field." -- Justin WedekingTable of ContentsPreface Chapter 1: Polling and the Public The Importance of Polls The Pervasiveness of Polls Commissioned Polls FRUGging, SUGging, and Pseudopolls The Citizen as a Consumer of Polls Citizens′ Views of Polls Polling and Democracy Exercises Chapter 2: The Problem of Nonattitudes An Example of Nonattitudes The Use of Screening Questions Nonattitudes and the Middle Position in Survey Questions Response Instability and Nonattitudes Implications for Democracy and Public Policy Conclusion Exercises Chapter 3: Wording and Context of Questions Question Wording Question Order and Context Order, Context, and Visual Effects in Self-Administered Surveys An Extended Example Conclusion Exercises Chapter 4: Sampling Techniques Nonprobability Sampling Sampling Designs Sample Size and Sampling Error Total Versus Actual Sample Size Response Rates Weighting the Sample Two Extended Examples Conclusion Exercises Chapter 5: Interviewing and Data Collection Procedures Methods of Collecting Polling Information Interviewer Effects in Public Opinion Polling Internet Polling Conclusion Exercises Chapter 6: The Media and the Polls Standards for Reporting Results Substantive Interpretation of Polls Media, Polls, and the News Reporting Emphasis Conclusion Exercises Chapter 7: Polls and Elections Sponsors of Election Polls Types of Election Polls Uses of Polls by Candidates Polls in the Presidential Selection Process When and Why Election Predictions Are Wrong How Preelection Polls Affect Voters Conclusion Exercises Chapter 8: Analyzing and Interpreting Polls Choosing Items to Analyze Examining Trends with Polling Data Examining Subsets of Respondents Interpreting Poll Results When Polls Conflict and When Polls Surprise: Some Final Thoughts Exercises Chapter 9: Polling and Democracy How to Evaluate Polls: A Summary Polls and Their Effect on the Political System Conclusion Exercise Websites References Index

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Book SynopsisEffective administration of government and governmental organizations is a crucial part of achieving success in those organizations. With the widespread knowledge and use of e-government, the intent and evaluation of its services continue to focus on meeting the needs and satisfaction of its citizens.Strategic Management and Innovative Applications of E-Government is a pivotal reference source that provides organizational and managerial directions, applications, and theoretical and philosophical discussions on current issues relating to the practice of electronic government. While highlighting topics such as citizen trust in government and smart government, this publication explores electronic government technology adoption, as well as the methods of government social media practices. This book is a vital reference source for policy makers, IT specialists, government professionals, academicians, researchers, and graduate-level students seeking current research on e-government applications.

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Book SynopsisThe frequent failure of military or armed interventions to protect civilians is well known. This edited collection provides a comprehensive account of a different, effective paradigm: unarmed civilian protection (UCP). The principles and methods of UCP have been used for many decades to protect both specific, threatened individuals as well as whole communities. Featuring contributions from around the world, this book brings together a wide range of UCP practices in order to examine their underlying theory and interrelated strategies. The book provides an important illustration of the contributions UCP can make, while also discussing its limitations and failures.Trade Review“With a focus on survivors of wars, this book provides evidence that non-violent action is effective and powerful in protecting lives and human rights even in the most dangerous security situations.” Mulanda Jimmy Juma, Scuola Superiore Sant'AnnaTable of Contents1. Introduction – Ellen Furnari 2. How Does UCP Protect Without Weapons? – M. S. Wallace 3. A Typology for the Various UCP Practices – Randy Janzen 4. UCP and Conflict Transformation – Christine Schweitzer 5. The Temporal and Embodied Construction of Space and UCP – Louise Ridden 6. Unarmed Civilian Protection: Security or Humanitarian Aid? – John Reuwer 7. Relational Strategies: Contested Approaches to Relationships in UCP – Felicity Gray 8. Unarmed Civilian Protection (UCP): Exploring the Challenge for Political Science – Cécile Dubernet 9. Gender and Care in Unarmed Civilian Protection – Derek Oakley 10. Unarmed Civilian Protection and Nonviolence With Attention to Sub-Saharan Africa – Moses Monday John 11. Transforming Armed Policing in the US: Contributions From Unarmed Civilian Protection Models – Eli McCarthy 12. Protecting Former Perpetrators? Expanding the Concept of UCP/A through an Exploration of Violence in the Reintegration of Ex-Combatants in Colombia – Beatriz Arias López, Berit Bliesemann De Guevara and Laura Jiménez Ospina 13. Unarmed Civilian Protection: Impact on Strengthening Civilian Capacities in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao – Jeyamurugan Vyappareddiyar 14. Conclusion – Ellen Furnari and Randy Janzen

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Book SynopsisRage revenue-addicted news companies are plagued by shoddy reporting, sensationalism, groupthink, and brain-dead partisan tribalism. Newsrooms rely on emotion-driven blabber to entrance conflict-addled super users.In Broken News, Chris Stirewalt, celebrated as one of America's sharpest political analysts in print and on television, employs his trademark wit and insight to give readers an inside look at these problems. He explains that these companies don't reward bad journalism because they like it, but because it is easy and profitable.Take it from Stirewalt: As a top editor and election forecaster on Fox News' decision desk during the 2020 election, he knows firsthand what happens when viewers (including the president of the United States) become more accustomed to flattery and less willing to hear news that punctures their bubbles.Broken News is a fascinating, deeply researched, conversation-provoking study of how the news is made and how it must be repaired, with surprising takeaways about who's to blame. Stirewalt goes deep inside the history of the industry to explain how today's media divides America for profit. And he offers practical advice for how everyday readers, listeners and viewers can (and should) become better news consumers for the sake of the republic.This is a book for those who care about our country-and want the news to do the news again.

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

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Book SynopsisIn recent decades, Kenya has witnessed profound changes in its economic, cultural, and environmental landscapes resulting from its interactions with China. University students are competing for scholarships to study in China, coastal artisanal fishers are increasingly worried about Chinese-owned trawlers depleting fish stocks, fishers on Lake Victoria are grappling with the impact of frozen tilapia from China, and unemployed youth are seeking a fair shot at working on one of Kenya’s multimillion-dollar Chinese-funded infrastructure projects. Anita Plummer’s Kenya’s Engagement with China investigates the tension between official Kenyan and Chinese state narratives and individual Kenyans’ reactions to China’s presence to provide insight into how everyday Kenyans exercise their political agency. The competing discourses Plummer uncovers in person, in the news, and online reveal how Kenyans use China to question local power structures, demand policy change, and articulate different visions for their country’s future. This critical text represents the next step in research on Sino-African relations.

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Book SynopsisAmerica is highly polarized around elections, but unelected actors make many of the decisions that affect our lives. In this lucid history, James R. Copland explains how unaccountable agents have taken over much of the U.S. government apparatus.Congress has largely abdicated its authority. “Independent” administrative agencies churn out thousands of new regulations every year. Courts have enabled these rulemakers to expand their powers beyond those authorized by law—and have constrained executive efforts to rein in the bureaucratic behemoth. No ordinary citizen can know what is legal and what is not. There are some 300,000 federal crimes, 98 percent of which were created by administrative action. The proliferation of rules gives enormous discretion to unelected enforcers, and the severity of sanctions can be ruinous to citizens who unwittingly violate a regulation.Outside the bureaucracy, private attorneys regulate our conduct through lawsuits. Most of the legal theories underlying these suits were never voted upon by our elected representatives. A combination of historical accident, decisions by judges and law professors, and self-interested advocacy by litigators has built an onerous and expensive legal regime.Finally, state and local officials may be accountable to their own voters, but some reach further afield, pursuing agendas to dictate the terms of national commerce. These new antifederalists are subjecting the citizens of Wyoming and Mississippi to the whims of the electorates of New York and San Francisco—contrary to the constitutional design. In these ways, the unelected have assumed substantial control of the American republic, upended the rule of law, given the United States the world’s costliest legal system, and inverted the Constitution’s federalism. Copland caps off his account with ideas for charting a corrective course back to democratic accountability.Trade Review“The Unelected is valuable reading for anyone committed to a republican form of government. Copland identifies multiple aspects of the regulatory state that are fairly opaque and unaccountable but wield considerable unchecked power over Americans, who should expect elections to matter more. His call for public policy efforts to return authority to voters is worthy of serious debate and consideration.” —Leonard Leo, Co-Chairman, Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies “In this masterful history, Jim Copland shows how the law of the land became more like the law of the jungle. Who’s responsible? That’s the problem—Nobody. Bureaucrats and lawyers of a certain disposition use law as a weapon for extortion, beyond the control of democratically elected officials and timid judges.” —Philip K. Howard, author of The Death of Common Sense, and founder of Common Good “As America emerges from its deepest recession in decades, businesses need clear laws to follow. Unfortunately, shifting regulations, uncertain enforcement, and shakedown lawsuits are far too common. And local officials regularly reach past their borders to interfere with the economies of other states and municipalities. James Copland’s new book explores all these trends and suggests ideas we should be discussing to get on a better path.” —Thomas J. Donohue, Chief Executive Officer, U.S. Chamber of Commerce “In The Unelected, Jim Copland describes the raft of federal, state, and local officials whose interpretations of law have often overshadowed legislation itself—in a story running up to the current pandemic response. The awareness raised by his insightful historical and legal analysis is a necessary precondition to any institutional solution.” — Richard A. Epstein, Laurence A. Tisch Professor of Law, NYU Law School

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Book SynopsisThis book examines the Brazilian political process in the period of 2003-2020: the governments led by the Workers’ Party and their reformist policies, the deep political crisis that led to the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff and the rise of Bolsonaro neofascism. The author maintains that the Party and ideological conflicts present in the Brazilian politics are linked to the class distributive conflicts present in the Brazilian society. Defeated for the fourth consecutive time in the presidential election, the political parties representing the international capital and segments of the bourgeoisie and of the middle class, abandoned the rules of the democratic game to end the Workers' Party government cycle. They paved the way for the rise of neofascism.Table of ContentsPreface to the English Edition List of Tables and Charts part 1 Reform and Social Classes in the pt Governments 1 State, Bourgeoisie, and Neoliberalism in the Lula Government  1 The Bloc in Power in the Neoliberal Period  2 The Political Ascension of the Industrial Bourgeoisie and Agribusiness under the Lula Government  3 Political Rise, but No Hegemony Established  4 The Political Regime and the Hegemony of Financial Capital  5 Final Considerations 2 The Lula Governments The New “National Bourgeoisie” in Power  1 fhc, Lula, and Disputes within the Bourgeoisie  2 The Political Relations of the Big Internal Bourgeoisie with the Lula Government  3 Contradictions within the Internal Bourgeoisie and the Neodevelopmentalist Front 3 The Political Bases of Neodevelopmentalism  1 The Neodevelopmentalist Political Front  2 The Neodevelopmentalist Program  3 The Classes and Class Fractions Integrating the Neodevelopmentalist Front  4 The Contradictions in the Core of the Front 4 Lulism, Populism, and Bonapartism  1 The Concepts  2 Varguism and Lulism  3 Bonapartism and Lulism 5 Neodevelopmentalism, Social Classes, and Foreign Policy in the pt Governments  1 The Bloc in Power and the Neodevelopmentalist Political Front  2 Foreign Policy and the Neodevelopmentalist Front  3 Conclusion 6 Neodevelopmentalism and the Recovery of the Brazilian Union Movement  1 Neodevelopmentalism and the Union Movement  2 The Union Movement’s Political Moderation  3 The Growth of the Strike Struggle  4 Final Considerations part 2 The Nature and Dynamics of the Crisis that Led to the Impeachment 7 The Political Crisis of Neodevelopmentalism and the Instability of Democracy  1 The Political Crisis  2 The Neoliberal Bourgeois Offensive  3 The Participation of the Upper Middle Class  4 The Presence of the Working Classes  5 The Instability of Democracy  6 The Government’s Reaction and the Popular Movement 8 State, State Institutions, and Political Power in Brazil  1 The Bloc in Power and Class Alliances  2 The Political Regime and the Contradictions within the State Bureaucracy  3 bndes, Petrobras, and the Big Internal Bourgeoisie  4 Judicial Institutions, the Associated Bourgeoisie, and the Upper Middle Class  5 Final Considerations 9 Operation Car Wash, the Middle Class, and State Bureaucracy  1 The State’s Social Function, Social Classes, and Bureaucracy  2 Operation Car Wash and the Middle Class  3 The Middle Class and Corruption 10 The Crisis of Neodevelopmentalism and the Dilma Rousseff Government  1 A Couple of Things to Learn from the Crisis  2 The Bloc in Power and Class Alliances  3 The Political Crisis 11 Why was the Resistance to the 2016 Coup D’état so Weak?  1 The Internal Bourgeoisie was Divided in the Face of the Coup  2 The Marginal Mass of Workers Remained Passive  3 The Unionized Workers were Neutralized  4 After the Coup   Afterword Bolsonaro and the Rise of Neofascism  1 When Can We Speak of Fascism?  2 Bolsonarism is One of the Species of the Fascism Genre  3 The Bolsonaro Government and the Originating Political Crisis  4 Fascism and Bourgeoisie: Unity, Conflicts, and Conciliation  5 Final Considerations Bibliography Index 220

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Book SynopsisBrandeis University is the United States’ only Jewish-sponsored nonsectarian university, and while only being established after World War II, it has risen to become one of the most respected universities in the nation. The faculty and alumni of the university have made exceptional contributions to myriad disciplines, but they have played a surprising formidable role in American politics. Stephen J. Whitfield makes the case for the pertinence of Brandeis University in understanding the vicissitudes of American liberalism since the mid-twentieth century. Founded to serve as a refuge for qualified professors and students haunted by academic antisemitism, Brandeis University attracted those who generally envisioned the republic as worthy of betterment. Whether as liberals or as radicals, figures associated with the university typically adopted a critical stance toward American society and sometimes acted upon their reformist or militant beliefs. This volume is not an institutional history, but instead shows how one university, over the course of seven decades, employed and taught remarkable men and women who belong in our accounts of the evolution of American politics, especially on the left. In vivid prose, Whitfield invites readers to appreciate a singular case of the linkage of political influence with the fate of a particular university in modern America.Trade Review"Whitfield’s group portrait of a large number of men and women of the Left who taught and studied at Brandeis from its inception at the end of the 1940s to the present is as attentive to the personalities of his subjects as it is to their ideas. A gifted, prolific, and celebrated scholar of American and American Jewish history, Whitfield earned his PhD at Brandeis, taught there for 44 years.” * The Jewish Review of Books *"This fascinating book of vignettes of figures who have shaped our times will appeal to readers of a certain age — and to their perceptive heirs. A welcome reminder in the age of Trump of the best in America.” * The Jewish Chronicle *“. . . . This book is more than a history of one university and its outsized influence on politics and political theory in America. Learning on the Left is an indispensable political history of the Left and other sectors of American politics—in thought and in deeds—over the past 75 years.” * Studies in Contemporary Jewry *"There is no other book quite like Learning on the Left in the historiography of American higher education. Whitfield . . . . has provided a comprehensive, deeply researched, and readable history of the liberal and radical students and faculty who have had a relationship, albeit oftentimes tenuous, with Brandeis since its founding. The book reflects a lifetime of reading on American culture and politics. Of Whitfield’s nine books, this is undoubtedly his finest as well as his longest, and no one was more suited to have written it." * Society *"The distinguished historian Whitfield . . . . is eminently qualified to write a study of this unique institution and the 'considerable influence' its faculty and students have exercised in American politics." * Society for US Intellectual History *"It is a remarkable story and Whitfield tells it . . . . exceptionally well by linking it to a grander narrative and charting the evolution of postwar American liberalism." * Journal of American Studies *"[A] comprehensive, thoroughly researched and beautifully written volume. Whitfield has written a wonderful book and has a personal connection to the subject of his writing. He came to Brandeis as a graduate student in 1969, began teaching there in 1972 and taught at Brandeis for more than forty years. Whitfield writes with both a deep affection for his subject and yet, at the same time, with remarkable objectivity. He has a special fondness for the students he taught over the years, to whom he dedicates this book. Rich in its insights and analysis, Learning on the Left should be read and enjoyed by anyone interested in the history of Brandeis University or, more generally, of higher education and Jewish liberalism in America." * Modern Judaism *"Whitfield offers intellectual history on the highest level . . . . [He] has offered a fine work, as fascinating as it is first-rate." * The Historian *"Written by one of the nation’s most prolific, influential, and respected historians of postwar America, Learning on the Left capaciously and compellingly explores the role that people associated with Brandeis University played in shaping the nation’s Left in the three decades after the university’s founding in 1948. In the vast literature on the history of American higher education there is, quite simply, nothing like this." -- Daniel Horowitz, author of forthcoming Entertaining Entrepreneurs: Reality TV’s Shark Tank and the American Dream in Uncertain Times“Filled with fascinating stories, this book shows how the faculty and students of Brandeis University influenced and were influenced by liberal and radical politics. Herbert Marcuse, Anita Hill, Irving Howe, Abbie Hoffman, Martin Peretz, Michael Walzer, Pauli Murray and a host of other remarkable individuals flow in and out of Stephen J. Whitfield’s captivating pages. Learning on the Left explains how the official values of a university founded in 1948 to counteract antisemitism proved to be a fertile matrix for courageous truth-telling in countless domains, and a safe haven for political risk-taking.” -- David A. Hollinger, author of Science, Jews, and Secular Culture“From the moment of its founding, Brandeis University and the modern progressive tradition have been intertwined. In this wonderful book, Stephen Whitfield brings alive the students and scholars who helped to define the Left out of their experience at this premier institution of higher education.” -- Julian Zelizer, author of Burning Down the House: Newt Gingrich, the Fall of a Speaker and the Rise of the New Republican Party"Rarely has a book about a college or university been as riveting—or such fun to read. Learning on the Left eschews the typical brick-and-mortar approach to trace the extraordinary impact of Brandeis, not yet a century old, upon the political movements, progressive reforms, and intellectual ferment of what we call 'modern liberalism.' How did Brandeis recruit such remarkable talent to a small, Jewish, nonsectarian institution? And why have so many of its graduates gone on to high-level careers in government, journalism, and academia? No one can better confront these questions than Steve Whitfield—the world-class historian and prize-winning teacher who spent his post-graduate years and professional life on the Brandeis campus. The result is a brilliant, shrewd, sometimes quirky journey into the soul of a very special place." -- David M. Oshinsky, author of Polio: An American Story, winner of Pulitzer Prize for History.Table of Contents1. Introduction2. The Origins3. Early Atmospherics4. Champions of Human Rights5. Two Americanists6. Thinking about Justice7. Foreign-born Radicals8. Two Magazines9. The Sixties10. Champions of Civil Rights11. Racial Grievance: January 196912. Native-born Outlaws13. Spasms of Violence14. Thinking about Capitalism15. The Travail of Reform16. ConclusionAcknowledgmentsNotesIndex

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Book SynopsisThough the Arab Spring has reverberated through the Middle East, largely leaving a path of destruction, the relative calm in the United Arab Emirates has offered a regional roadmap for stability. Domestic changes since 2000 have significantly altered the country's dynamics, firmly cementing power within Abu Dhabi. While Khalifa bin Zayed succeeded his father as emir of Abu Dhabi and UAE president in 2004, the Emirates' evolution has largely been accredited to Abu Dhabi's crown prince, Mohammed bin Zayed. His reign has been characterised by the rise of the security apparatus and a micromanaged approach to governance. Mohammed bin Zayed's strategy of fortification has focused on pre-empting threats from the UAE's native population, rather than from expatriates or foreign actors. As a result, he has consolidated power, distributing its administration among his tribal and kinship allies. In essence, Mohammed bin Zayed has driven modernisation in order to strengthen his grasp on power. This book explores Mohammed bin Zayed's regime security strategy, illustrating the network of alliances that seek to support his reign and that of his family. In an ever-turbulent region, the UAE remains critical to understanding the evolution of Middle Eastern authoritarian control.Trade Review'A timely and innovative account of the reconfiguration of political authority in the UAE of Muhammad bin Zayid.' -- The Middle East Journal‘The first [book] of its kind to shed light on domestic elite dynamics within the Abu Dhabi ruling family, linking them to an increasing centralization within the state’s security system.’ -- Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde des Morgenlandes'A theoretically nuanced and empirically rich book, telling the troubling story of the expansion of Emirati security operations after the Arab Spring. A must-read for anyone concerned with how far regimes can penetrate every aspect of citizens' lives in the name of security.' -- Madawi Al-Rasheed, Visiting Professor at the Middle East Centre, LSE, Fellow of the British Academy, and author of 'The Son King: Reform and Repression in Saudi Arabia''The regime's mechanisms for staying in power are a much-understudied topic. Rich in interesting empirical data, this book is an important, and in many ways unique, contribution to the academic literature on the UAE.' -- Stig Stenslie, Professor at the Centre for Intelligence Studies, Norwegian Defence Intelligence School, and co-author of 'Stability and Change in the Modern Middle East''In this ground-breaking new study, Matthew Hedges explores the development of the UAE as a security-state without regional compare, one that while claiming to secure the nation, has served to entrench the power of Abu Dhabi over the Federation.' -- Clive Jones, Professor of Regional Security, Durham University, and author of 'Fraternal Enemies: Israel and the Gulf Monarchies'

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Book SynopsisDemocracy means rule by the people, but in practice even the most robust democracies delegate most rule making to a political class. The gap between the public and its public officials might seem unbridgeable in the modern world, but Legislature by Lot presents a close examination of an inspiring solution: a legislature chosen through "sortition"-the random selection of lay citizens. It's a concept that has come to the attention of democratic reformers across the globe. Proposals for such bodies are being debated in Australia, Belgium, Iceland, the United Kingdom, and many other countries. Sortition promises to reduce corruption and create a truly representative legislature in one fell swoop. In Legislature by Lot, John Gastil and Erik Olin Wright make the case for pairing a sortition body with an elected chamber within a bicameral legislature. Gastil is a leading deliberative democracy scholar, and Wright a distinguished sociologist and series editor of the Real Utopias books, of which this is a part. In this volume, they bring together critics and advocates of sortition who studied ancient Athens, deliberative polling, political theory, social movements, and civic innovation. The constellation of voices in this book lays out a wide variety of ideas for how to implement sortition, without obscuring its limitations, and examine its potential for reshaping modern politics.Legislature by Lot includes sixteen essays that respond to Gastil and Wright's detailed proposal. Essays comparing it to contemporary reforms see it as a dramatic extension of deliberative "minipublics," which gather random samples of citizens to weight public policy dilemmas without being empowered to enact legislation. Another set of essays explores the democratic principles underlying sortition and elections and considers, for example, how a sortition body holds itself accountable to a public that did not elect it. The third set of essays consider alternative paths to democratic reform, which limit the powers of a sortition chamber or more quickly establish a pure sortition body.Trade ReviewPraise for Envisioning Real Utopias by Erik Olin Wright: "[Wright] builds a strong case for an emancipatory social science." - Choice "A benchmark contribution to necessary radical thinking." - G ran Therborn "Encyclopedic in its breadth, daunting in its ambition, this is the culmination of Erik Olin Wright's revamping of Marxism ... Only a thinker of Wright's genius could sustain such a badly needed political imagination without losing analytical clarity and precision." - Michael Burawoy, UC Berkeley "Hugely rich and stimulating ... An incisive diagnosis of the harms done by capitalism; a masterful synthesis of the best work in political sociology and political economy over the past thirty years; and innovative theoretical framework for conceptualizing both the goals of progressive change and the strategies for their achievement; and inspiring survey of actually existing challenges to capitalism that have arisen within capitalism itself; and a compelling essay on the relation between the desirable, the viable and the achievable. Anyone interested in the future of leftist politics has to read this book." - Adam Swift, Balliol College, Oxford "This book is both a manifesto and a guidebook: an argument for taking institutional design seriously, and a guide to how to do that. It's a book that sociologists will want to read, but also, frankly, that everyone in political theory and philosophy should be reading too." - Crooked Timber "A fascinating book." - openDemocracy

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Book SynopsisYavor Tarinski examines the fundamental conflict between democratic aspirations and the imposed norms of capitalism, the potential for directly democratic and ecologically designed cities, the imperative to renew the commons, and the prospects for a genuine solidarity economy to overturn the ravages of capitalist economic growth. It critiques bureaucratic, technocratic and conspiracist tendencies both in mainstream discourse and on the Left, and offers a compelling and uplifting vision of a thoroughly transformed social order.

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Book SynopsisThis book argues against the rapidly expanding literature about misinformation during the Covid-19 pandemic - and that the real issues are much broader. Mainstream news media, except Fox News, has generally done a good job in educating people about the basic facts and precautions to be taken. Pandemic: A Test of the News identifies the mainframes used to tell the media story. With some exceptions such as long reads in The New Yorker and the Guardian, the media has not included the fundamental factors that caused the pandemic, the seriousness of a medical crisis that will last for several years - and the same factors that will cause the next pandemic.

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Book SynopsisLotteries have been used to make all kinds of public decisions ever since the days of Ancient Greece. They can contribute to some of our most important values, such as rationality, justice, and democracy. But until recently, there was no theory to make sense of lotteries and what they can do. The past few decades have changed that with a veritable renaissance of studies on lotteries. This book collects fourteen of the most important of these papers, and offers a critical introduction tying them together.

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Book SynopsisA counterbalance to the predominant study of Islam's role in social and political struggles, this book examines life in Ede, south-west Nigeria, offering important analyses of religious co-existence. Since the end of the Cold War, and especially since 9/11, religion has become an increasingly important factor of personal and group identification. Based on an African case study, this book calls for new ways of thinking about diversity that go "beyond religious tolerance". Focusing on the predominantly Muslim Yoruba town of Ede, the authors challenge the assumption that religious difference automatically leads to conflict: in south-west Nigeria, Muslims,Christians and traditionalists have co-existed largely peacefully since the early twentieth century. In some contexts, Ede's citizens emphasise the importance and significance of religious difference, and the need for tolerance.But elsewhere they refer to religious boundaries in passing, or even celebrate and transcend religious divisions. Drawing on detailed ethnographic and historical research, survey work, oral histories and poetry by UK- and Nigeria- based researchers, the book examines how Ede's citizens experience religious difference in their everyday lives. It examines the town's royal history and relationship with the deity Sàngó, its old Islamic compounds and itsChristian institutions, as well as marriage and family life across religious boundaries, to illustrate the multiplicity of religious practices in the life of the town and its citizens and to suggest an alternative approach to religious difference. Insa Nolte is Reader in African Studies at the University of Birmingham, and Visiting Research Professor at Osun State University, Osogbo. She is President of the African Studies Association of the UK(2016-18) and Principal Investigator of the ERC project "Knowing Each Other: Everyday Religious Encounters, Social Identities and Tolerance in Southwest Nigeria". Olukoya Ogen is Provost of Adeyemi College of Education, Ondo; Professor of History at Osun State University, Osogbo; and Visiting Senior Research Fellow at the University of Birmingham. He is the Nigerian coordinator of the "Knowing Each Other" project. Rebecca Jones is Postdoctoral Research Fellow on the "Knowing Each Other" project. Her book, A Cultural History of Nigerian Travel Writing, will be published by James Currey in 2017. Nigeria: Adeyemi College Academic Press (paperback)Trade ReviewThe clarity of expression, accompanied by pictorial representations, makes the book appealing and also makes for good reading to both the academic and the nonacademic audience. This work not only showcases the unique historical and cultural realities of Yoruba, it also illustrates the strong bond that exists among the Yoruba beyond the divisive power of religion. It has added to reliable materials for further research in the area of religious diversity in Africa and beyond. * RELIGIOUS STUDIES REVIEW *[A]t a moment when many Westerners perceive an inevitable 'clash of civilizations' between Islam and the West/Christendom, Beyond Religious Tolerance offers a valuable alternative where Americans and Europeans would be least likely to look for one. . . . [It reveals] that both tolerance and secularism as typically conceived are products of Western cultural and historical experience, which can be and have been conceived differently-if at all-in other times and places. * READING RELIGION *A truly comprehensive and well-balanced overview of religious life in Ede from many different angles . this book is a must not only for scholars interested in Islam, Christianity, and African religion in Yorubaland, but for anybody interested in the governance of religious diversity. * AFRICA SPECTRUM *This book, a refreshing and articulate addition to ethnographies of religion in West Africa, captures the resiliency of peaceful coexistence across a multiplicity of religions. It should be of interest to anthropologists, historians, religious scholars, and policy makers alike, giving tangible hope to those who think peaceful existence among religions is intractable. * AMERICAN ETHNOLOGIST *This book is the product of a remarkably successful project of North-South collaboration between the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom and Osun State University in Nigeria. The result is something quite different from a standard edited volume in which the chapters reflect the preoccupations and perspectives of individual authors rather than of the common theme of the book. Instead, the different chapters articulate closely with one another, exploring a single concrete problem from different but complementary angles. * THE JOURNAL OF AFRICAN HISTORY *Table of ContentsBeyond Religious Tolerance: Muslims, Christians and Traditionalists in a Yoruba Town - Insa Nolte Beyond Religious Tolerance: Muslims, Christians and Traditionalists in a Yoruba Town - Ogen Olukoya Kingship and Religion: An Introduction to the History of Ede - Siyan Oyeweso Ambivalence and Transgression in the Practice of Sàngó - Aderemi Suleiman Ajala and Insa Nolte Sàngó's Thunder: Poetic Challenges to Islam and Christianity - George Olusola Abijade Compound Life and Religious Control in Ede's Muslim Community - Amusa Saheed Balogun Challenges and Affirmations of Islamic Practice: The Tablighi Jamaat - Adeyemi Balogun The Baptist Church in Ede: Christian Struggles over Education and Land - Ogen Olukoya and Amusa Saheed Balogun Freedom and Control: Islam and Christianity at the Federal Polytechnic - Akin Iwilade and Oladipo Fadayomi Religious Accommodation in Two Generations of the Adeleke Family - Hakeem Ibikunle Tijani Marrying Out: Gender and Religious Mediation in Interfaith Marriages - Insa Nolte and Tosin Akinjobe-Babatunde Everyday Inter-Religious Encounters and Attitudes - Rebecca Jones and Insa Nolte Outlook: Religious Difference, the Yoruba and Beyond - Insa Nolte and Ogen Olukoya Appendix 1: Ede Anthem Appendix 2: Songs of Ede Appendix 3: Oríkì of the Tìmì of Ede, present and past

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Book SynopsisJapan is the only country in the world to have been attacked with nuclear weapons. Her anti-nuclear Civil Society Organisations - with their experiences of coping with the fallout of the atom bomb blasts - are passionately committed to their cause. While international treaties are final objectives, there is another effective diplomatic approach towards nuclear disarmament: CSO diplomacy might open the window of deadlocked inter-state negotiations.The role of civil society in the field of security is relatively new, coming to prominence during the establishment of the Convention on the Prohibition of Anti-Personnel Mines, the so-called Ottawa Treaty.The Treaty signalled that the role, presence and decision of governments are essential. This is an investigation into how Japanese CSOs have influenced the Japanese official policy with regards to nuclear disarmament. It focuses on the private diplomacy of CSOs; on the mitigation of inter-state conflicts that lie behind nuclear issues; and on the involvement of governments in social movements of nuclear disarmament.Dr Kazuhiro Tobisawa suggests that developing a solid understand of the pertinent issues surrounding Japaneses CSOs could lead to the resolution of half-a-century of failed attempts at nuclear disarmament.

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Book SynopsisThis book examines the recent evolution of online spaces and their impact on networked democracy. Through an illuminating mix of theoretical and methodological analysis, contributors provide an understanding of how a range of individuals and groups, including activists and NGOs, governments and griefers, are using digital technologies to influence public debates. Contributions consider these phenomena in a global contemporary context, providing within the same volume rigorous examinations of the design of digital platforms for deliberation, users’ attempts to manipulate those platforms, and the ways activists and governments are responding to emerging threats to democratic discourse. Providing diverse, global case studies, this collection is a valuable tool for academics within and beyond the fields of new media, communication, and information policy and governance.Table of Contents1. Introduction.- 2. Platform Utopianism after Democracy.- 3. Inside the Swarm: Cognition, Conformity, and the Affective Instruments of the Social Web.- 4. The Unfulfilled Promise of Digital Networks: Heterogeneity in the Effect of Technology on Collective Action Mobilization.- 5. Social Media Effects: Hijacking Democracy and Civility in Civic Engagement.- 6. Reasons of the Heart: Political Applications of Emotion Analytics.- 7. Cyber Creeps: The Alt-right and the Evolution of Social Media Hatemakers.- 8. Third Spaces, Sequencing, and Intertextuality: (De)Constructing Misinformation and Fake News.- 9. Subverting the Platform Flexibility of Twitter to Spread Misinformation.- 10. Creation of an Alt-Left Boogeyman: Information Economics and the Emergence of ‘Antifa’.- 11. Tweeting Inequity: @realDonaldTrump and the World Leader Exception.- 12. Extrapolating Ideological Divisions in the Indian Public Sphere through Online Twitter Conversations.- 13. Digital Solidarity in Times of Crisis: The Case of Greece.- 14. #Metoo in China: Affordances and Constraints of Social Media Platforms.- 15. Trump Daddy.- 16. Censorship and Digital Dissent in the Kashmir Conflict.- 17. The Fifth Estate Joins the Debate: The Political Roles of Live Commentary in the First Televised Presidential Debate of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.- 18. “Just Don’t Put It on Our Mauna”: Sovereignty and Algorithms in Digital Democracy.

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Book SynopsisThis book examines the efforts of the European Union, both past and ongoing, to harness the socio-economic potential of the internet in public policy-making. In order to achieve this, the author delves into the interactions between actors in the process of EU decision-making, using an outlook which focuses on how both multi-level and experimentalist governance can provide solutions for digital policy governance. The book also addresses the involvement of local and regional authorities in digital policy-making, both in how they endorse decisions made at the EU level, and in how they contribute directly to digital policy-making in their own localities.Table of ContentsPrefaceChapter 1. Theoretical FrameworkChapter 2. Digital Policies: Past and PresentChapter 3. The Governance of Digital PoliciesConclusionIndex

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Book SynopsisThis book is inspired by the term “digiwine,” a neologism referring to the production and/or marketing of wine through the use of new technologies and robotics such as vineyard information systems, sensor units, weather stations, drones, robotic harvesters, social media videos, digital labels, and wine apps. The alcohol industry is using these technologies to develop digital strategies and online tools for more efficient sales of wine. This book analyzes the use of digital alcohol marketing, the reasons for it, the role of regulation, and its social impact. In particular, malignant forms of alcohol marketing to youth are precisely described through exact case descriptions from the global milieu. The author questions whether the loopholes in the legislation or inefficiency of self-regulation have negative consequences that can no longer be prevented by public health care programs. When and how did the alcohol industry become so deeply interwoven in our lives that we mindlessly advertise and parade in its shadow on social media and that we increasingly buy alcohol digitally for fun, in innovative packaging, and with strange ingredients combinations? Dr. Mojca Ramšak’s book peels back the layers of the alcohol industry’s most obvious yet overlooked marketing tactics. It also reveals the sluggishness of preventive and curative efforts, as well as legal or self-regulatory measures, at keeping up with the alcohol industry’s use of technology. - Nadja Furlan Štante, Principal Research Associate and Professor of Religious Studies, Science and Research Centre of Koper, Slovenia.Table of Contents1. Introduction: Wine and Technology Between Cultural Attitudes to Alcohol, Sales, Legislation, and Health.- 2. The Greatest Tricks of Digital Alcohol Marketing: The Consumer’s Voice and Alcohol e-Marketing.- 3. Wine Storytelling.- 4. Wearable Technology and Wine.- 5. Smart Packaging: The Labels Come to Life.- 6. Wearable Technology for Preventive or Curative Purposes.- 7. Children and Adolescents as a Marketing Target.- 8. Social Media, Alcohol, and Young People.- 9. Masculinity and Practices of Drinking.- 10. Drinking Games.- 11. Digital Marketing Strategies during a Coronavirus Pandemic.- 12. Femininity, Online Practices of Drinking and Women in Alcohol Industry.- 13. Brand Stretching and Popular Culture.- 14. Legislation between Norm and Practice.- 15. Conclusion: The Unplugged Path to Alcoholism.

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Book SynopsisFear is an inescapable part of how human beings experience reality. The impact of fear becomes particularly evident in a crisis. When a crisis strikes, be it a war, a pandemic, global warming or a financial crisis, leaders are challenged to exercise sound judgement by speaking and acting. This book argues that there are three fears every leader has to know – apocalyptic fear, political fear, and private fear. By appealing to these three fears in an adequate manner, a leader’s appeal to fear may serve a constructive purpose in a crisis.Table of ContentsChapter 1. The Dilemma of Fear. - Chapter 2. Two Stories – One Dilemma. -Chapter 3. Apocalyptic Fear. - Chapter 4. Political Fear. - Chapter 5. Private Fear. - Chapter 6. Dressing up to Address Fear. - Chapter 7. The Virtue of Fear

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Book SynopsisRecent elections in Japan have been dramatic, and the 2021 general election was no exception. Worldwide turmoil caused by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, as well as domestic uncertainty following the resignation of long-serving Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) Prime Minister Abe Shinzō, left many voters and political observers wondering whether his successors were up to the task of leading the country through the crisis. In the end, the LDP and coalition partner Kōmeitō eked out an electoral victory—but one that masks important changes in the party system and nuanced changes in voter behavior and preferences. This fourth volume in the Japan Decides series features a comprehensive collection of analyses from leading experts, covering the legacy of Abe’s tenure in office, the state of the LDP and other parties, the impact of COVID-19 and the postponed 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics, and many other important topics in contemporary party politics and domestic and foreign policy.Table of Contents1. Introduction.- 2. Japanese Politics 2017 to 2021.- 3. The 2021 Election Results: Continuity and Change.- 4. How the Liberal Democratic Party Avoided a Loss in 2021.- 5. The Opposition in 2021: A Second Party and a Third Force.- 6. Kōmeitō in 2021: Strategizing between the LDP and Sōka Gakkai.- 7. Abe's legacy.- 8. Candidate Selection for the 2021 General Election.- 9. Generational Change or Continuity in Japan’s Leadership?.- 10. Should I Stay or Should I Go? Party Switching in Japan.- 11. Ministerial Selection under Abe, Suga, and Kishida.- 12. Public opinion and COVID-19.- 13. Social media in the 2021 Election Campaign.- 14. Are the Kids Alright? Young People and Turnout in Japan.- 15. Did COVID-19 Impact Japan’s 2021 General Election?.- 16. Japan’s Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic.- 17. Economic Policy Trilemma: Macroeconomic Politics in the 2021 Election.- 18. Does Income Inequality Matter in Japan?.- 19. Women’s representation and the gendered impact of COVID-19 in Japan.- 20. Black Lives Matter in Japan: The Specter of Race and Racism Haunting Japan.- 21. Constitutional Revision in the 2021 Election.- 22. Covid-19: The International Dimension.- 23. Foreign Policy and Defense Issues in Japan’s 2021 Election.- 24. China in Japan’s 2021 Elections.- 25. The Olympics in the 2021 Election.- 26. Conclusion: The 2021 Japanese Election in the Shadow of the Coronavirus Pandemic.

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Book SynopsisIntroduction.- Inventing the Bomb.- Harry Truman and the Birth of the Nuclear Age.- Thinking About the Bomb A Strategy for Nuclear Weapons Use.- Dwight Eisenhower and the Institutionalization of Nuclear Policy.- John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson Facing Crisis in a Nuclear Age.- Richard Nixon Gerald Ford Jimmy Carter and Nuclear Parity.- Ronald Reagan and George Bush Belligerents Zero Option and the End of the Cold War.- Clinton Bush Obama Trump and Biden Post Cold War Diffusion.- Conclusion.

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Book SynopsisThe Will of the People: Populism and Citizen Participation in Latin America argues that while populist leaders typically claim to speak 'in the name of the people', they rarely allow the people to express their opinion independently through institutions of citizen participation. The argument is rooted in theoretical discussions and empirical analyses of trends and specific cases. The volume deals with the following questions: Why is populism so prolific in the Latin American region? How and where do populist leaders arrive to power? Is there a connection between populism and fascism as claimed by negative views of Argentinian Peronism? Are populist leaders more keen on introducing mechanisms of direct citizen participation? Are the erosions of the political party system an explanation of the emergence of populism, as seems to be the case with Fujimorism in Peru? To what extent have the governments of Hugo Chávez, Evo Morales and Rafael Correa given voice to the people through the so-called participatory democracy?

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Book SynopsisThis volume focuses on the 2016 Presidential campaign from a communication perspective, with each chapter considering a specific area of political campaign communication and practice. The first section includes chapters on the early candidate nomination campaigns, the nominating conventions, the debates, political advertising and new media technologies. The second section provides studies of critical topics and issues of the campaign to include chapters on candidate persona, issues of gender, wedge issues and scandal. The final section provides an overview of the election with chapters focusing on explaining the vote and impact of new campaign finance laws and regulations in the 2016 election. All the contributors are accomplished scholars in their areas of analysis. Students, scholars and general readers will find the volume offers a comprehensive overview of the historic 2016 presidential campaign.Trade Review“The latest volume in Robert E. Denton's quadrienniel works on presidential campaigns is a solid and worthy contribution to the literature on this subject. … students and scholars will find much of value in this volume.” (Eric M. Appleman, Democracy in Action, p2016.org, August, 2017)Table of ContentsPreface by Robert E. Denton, Jr.- Part I Political Campaign Communication in 2016 Presidential Campaign.- Chapter 1 The Early Campaign of 2016: And They Just Kept Coming by Judith Trent.- Chapter 2 The Nomination Game: 2016 by Henry C. Kenski and Kate M. Kenski.- Chapter 3 The 2016 Presidential Nominating Conventions by Rachel L. Holloway.- Chapter 4 Presidential Debates 2012 by Ben Voth.- Chapter 5 Political Advertising in the 2012 U.S. Presidential Election by John Tedesco and Scott Dunn.- Chapter 6 The New Media Campaign of 2016 by John Allen Hendricks, Stephen F. Austin State University and Dan Schill.- Part II Studies of Communication in the 2016 Presidential Campaign.- Chapter 7 ’Personae’ in the 2016 Republican Nomination Campaign by Dennis D. Cali.- Chapter 8 A Gendered Influence in Campaign Debates? Exploring Hillary Rodham Clinton’s Presidential Debate Performance by Mitchel S. McKinney and Mary C. Banwart.- Chapter 9 Issues of Gender in the 2016 Presidential Campaign by Robert E. Denton.- Chapter 10 The Politics of Hate: The Creation and Response to Wedge Issues by Rita Kirk and Stephanie Ann Martin.- Chapter 11 Political Scandals in the 2016 Presidential Campaign by David R. Dewberry.- Part III The 2016 Presidential Election.- Chapter 12 Campaign Finance and its Impact in the 2016 Presidential Campaign by Cacey Myers.- Chapter 13 Explaining the Vote in 2012 by Henry C. Kenski and Kate M. Kenski

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Book SynopsisThis book is Indiaâs bold manifesto for the next twenty-five years. It outlines five visionary and comprehensive roadmaps for transforming India into Viksit Bharat, transcending not just economic metrics but serving also as a holistic model for sustainable and inclusive development for Bharatâs approaching Amrit Kaal.

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Book SynopsisRising inequality is one of the most prominent characteristics of the modern age of globalized economies. To some observers, inequality is a natural consequence of economic growth that ought to be accepted to ensure a prosperous future. To others, rising inequality is a cause for alarm—not just because it is unfair, but also because, as Pope Francis has said, “inequality is the root of social evil.”By most measures, the Nordic countries consistently rank among the best not only when it comes to equality, but also when it comes to business friendliness. Political scientist Carsten Jensen delves into what is exceptional about equality in the region, and outlines “the four equalities” that set it apart: economic (the distance between the poor and rich is relatively low), inter-generational (success in life is not dependent on the status of one’s parents), gender (women are highly integrated into the labor market and independent from the family), and health (the poor have access to the same medical treatments as the well-off).All four types of equalities have their origins in unique political settlements made in the 20th century. The resulting special social market economies of these countries affect their growth and levels of equality even today.

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Book SynopsisThe Nordic model rests on two pillars: the social safety net and the provision of services like education, childcare, and healthcare for all. It can also be characterized as an “employment model,” since its financial viability depends upon a high labor participation rate with very few working poor.Economist Torben M. Andersen lays out the model’s structure and highlights factors important for understanding its economic performance. He then looks into specific policy areas based on Denmark’s experiences and addresses the challenges arising from new technologies and globalization.

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Book SynopsisElections have always been festive occasions iniberal democracies, and India is no exception. Media becomes one of the most important players in elections because of its power of reach and agenda-setting. From one government-controlled television in India in 1984, to hundreds of news channels owned by various interest groups, a burgeoning print media, the coming of the social media and the tiniest and most lethal'' of mass reach weapon, the mobile phoneall these have changed the way elections are now contested! The power of mass contact through rallies and public gatherings, reinforced by the event-driven media channels and the power of digital media to reach out to the young audience, has redefined electioneering in India. When India Votesooks at the theoretical underpinnings of the relationship between democracy, mass media and election campaigning, as well as representative campaigns of theast three decades of the two major players, viz. the Congress and BJP.

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

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

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

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

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Book SynopsisAmy Allen fractures critical theory from within by dispensing with its progressive reading of history while retaining its notion of progress as a political imperative. In reimagining a decolonized critical theory after the end of progress, she rescues it from oblivion and gives it a future for achieving emancipatory social goals.Trade ReviewAmy Allen has performed the long-overdue task of pulling contemporary Frankfurt School theory into the light that postcolonial theory sheds upon its quietude about imperialism and colonialism, its insufficient appreciation of global inequality and differences, and its fetishism and purification of European modernity. While honoring the power of the School's theoretical foundations and insights, she stages a steady and profound encounter with its worldly Others-an encounter that cannot be dismissed. -- Wendy Brown, University of California, Berkeley In this courageous and path-breaking text, Allen challenges critical theory to live up to its own pretensions and begin to decolonize itself, starting with its still insufficiently interrogated foundational Euro-progressivist assumptions. -- Charles Mills, Northwestern University The End of Progress is a beautifully written and engaging critique of critical theory. It challenges basic assumptions of the Frankfurt School to expand our field of view and builds bridges with other genres of critical thinking. This book charts a bold direction that breathes new life into critical theory. -- Kevin Olson, University of California, Irvine In this engaging, perceptive, and illuminating book, Amy Allen seeks to decolonize Critical Theory. Exposing weaknesses in the normative claims of Habermas, Honneth, and Forst and with a fresh interpretation of Adorno and Foucault, this book is stimulating and provocative for anyone interested in both the limitations and prospects of Critical Theory. -- Richard J. Bernstein, New School for Social Research I highly recommend this outstanding internal critique of the idea of universal, developmental progress in the critical theory tradition and its role in legitimating Western imperialism by a leading critical theorist. Allen also initiates a promising dialogue with postcolonial theorists who have advanced external critiques, a dialogue oriented to decolonizing normative political theory together. -- James Tully, University of Victoria In her perspicacious and penetrating discussion of major figures of the Frankfurt School, Allen shows how deeply the tradition of critique is entangled with the grand narrative of enlightenment, the myth of the progressive unfolding of reason. Drawing on Adorno and Foucault, she shows the path contemporary critique has to take: the path to radical self-critique. -- Christoph Menke, Goethe-Universitat FrankfurtTable of ContentsPreface and Acknowledgments List of Abbreviations 1. Critical Theory and the Idea of Progress 2. From Social Evolution to Multiple Modernities: History and Normativity in Habermas 3. The Ineliminability of Progress? Honneth's Hegelian Contextualism 4. From Hegelian Reconstructivism to Kantian Constructivism: Forst's Theory of Justification 5. From the Dialectic of Enlightenment to the History of Madness: Foucault as Adorno's Other Other Son 6. Conclusion: "Truth," Reason, and History Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisOra Szekely draws on sources including in-depth interviews, conflict data, and propaganda distributed through social media to examine how competing narratives of the civil war in Syria have shaped the course of the conflict.Trade ReviewA wonderfully nuanced and insightful account of how struggles to dominate the fractured narrative landscape of Syria’s civil war have shaped the conduct of warring parties. As markers of how combatants define what they are fighting for and whom they are fighting against, conflicts to determine whose narratives prevail have played a crucial role in Syria’s civil war, both in understanding how violence becomes organized and in how the broader conflict is defined. A compelling case for the importance of conflict narratives, and conflicts over narratives, Szekely’s book is an important contribution to scholarship on the Syrian civil war and on civil war more broadly. It deserves to be widely read. -- Steven Heydemann, Janet Wright Ketcham 1953 Professor in Middle East Studies, Smith CollegeSzekely’s fine book combines keen analytical insight with a wealth of empirical information on the Syrian civil war. She brilliantly exposes how a war of incompatible narratives—fight for dignity, against terrorism, for an Islamic state—had material consequences for the power balance on the ground by affecting recruitment, financing, and outside intervention. -- Raymond Hinnebusch, codirector, Centre for Syrian Studies, University of St. AndrewsTable of ContentsAcknowledgmentsAcronyms and AbbreviationsIntroduction1. The Syrian Tragedy2. What Are We Fighting For?3. Patterns of Violence4. The YouTube WarConclusionAppendix: MethodsNotesIndex

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Book SynopsisHow we lost control of the internetand how to win it back. The internet has become a battleground. Although it was unlikely to live up to the hype and hopes of the 1990s, only the most skeptical cynics could have predicted the World Wide Web as we know it today: commercial, isolating, and full of, even fueled by, bias. This was not inevitable. The Gentrification of the Internet argues that much like our cities, the internet has become gentrified, dominated by the interests of business and capital rather than the interests of the people who use it. Jessa Lingel uses the politics and debates of gentrification to diagnose the massive, systemic problems blighting our contemporary internet: erosions of privacy and individual ownership, small businesses wiped out by wealthy corporations, the ubiquitous paywall. But there are still steps we can take to reclaim the heady possibilities of the early internet. Lingel outlines actions that internet activists and everyday users can take to defenTrade Review“The Gentrification of the Internet presents an accurate and accessible description of the current power imbalances taking place online. It pushes activists and users alike to start acting now and provides realistic examples and suggestions moving forward.” * Information & Culture *"In a moment of increasing nihilism about the role of the internet and the ability of regular people to resist a descent into a technology-driven dystopia, The Gentrification of the Internet offers a starting point for action, grounded in the reality of gentrification activism with proven results." * Lateral: Journal of the Cultural Studies Association *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments 1. Gentrification Online and Off 2. The People and Platforms Facebook Left Behind 3. The Big Problems of Big Tech 4. The Fight for Fiber 5. Resistance List of Resources Glossary Sources and Further Reading Index

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