Political structure and processes Books

Book SynopsisThe constitutional transfer of power and authority from an incumbent American President to a successor is a momentous occasion in American government. In the present day, this transfer of authority is a complex and multi-faceted undertaking, as the outgoing Administration concludes its affairs and the incoming Administration gets organised. In recent decades, presidential transition activities have begun months before the general election; the major candidates usually have asked individuals or small groups to begin to formulate plans in the event of an electoral victory. Preparations have accelerated after the election, as the attention of the President-elect and his supporters has turned from campaigning to governing. The President-elect and his team have approximately 11 weeks. This book presents important issues dealing with major aspects of these critical transitions.

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Book SynopsisCongress established the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) through the National Science and Technology Policy, Organization & Priorities Act of 1976. The act states that "the primary function of the OSTP Director is to provide, within the Executive Office of the President (EOP), advice on the scientific, engineering and technological aspects of issues that require attention at the highest level of Government. Scientific and technical knowledge and guidance influences not just policy related to science and technology, but also many of today''s public policies as policymakers seek knowledge to enhance the quality of their decisions. This book examines the several organisations which, when requested by the federal government or Congress, provide formal science and technology policy advice. In addition, this book provides a basic understanding of science and technology policy including the nature of S&T policy, how scientific and technical knowledge is useful for public policy decision-making, and an overview of the key stakeholders in science and technology policy. This book consists of public documents which have been located, gathered, combined, reformatted, and enhanced with a subject index, selectively edited and bound to provide easy access.

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Book SynopsisPresidential succession was widely considered a settled issue prior to the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001. These events demonstrated the potential for a mass "decapitation" of both the legislative and executive branches of government, and raised questions as to whether current arrangements were adequate to guarantee continuity in Congress and the presidency under such circumstances. With respect to presidential succession, there has been a wide range of discussions in both Congress and the public policy community since that time, and Members of both chambers have introduced legislation addressing this question in the contemporary context. This book provides analytical perspective on presidential and congressional succession questions in U.S. history, identifies and assesses contemporary succession issues, and identifies and analyses relevant legislation.

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Book SynopsisISIS started as rebels under the US occupation of Iraq. They grew by ravaging Libya and Syria. Their backers are Saudi Arabia and Turkey, and they fight as proxies for US neocons and allies. The motives are oil, gas, and empire-building. ISIS is a supercharged new brand of Al Qaeda, which like Gladio was founded by the US to fight Russia. The so-called founders and bogeymen of ISIS, Zarqawi and Baghdadi, were puppets invented by the CIA. ISIS is the latest offensive in a very long-term Anglo-Zionist Divide and Conquer project to balkanise and subjugate the Middle East, by fostering narrow sectarianism and infighting among its peoples. Britain installed the Saudi-Wahhabi monarchy over 200 years ago, which is the main source of funding for Islamic extremism, including ISIS. Turkey''s dictator Erdogan runs ISIS for NATO; like the Saudis, he is an Islamic fundamentalist and a long-term ally of Israel. ISIS fighters were used to smash up and take over Qaddafi''s Libya, then sent through Turkey to lay waste to Syria and Iraq. The US and its allies in Europe and the Middle East covertly support ISIS, while pretending to fight it, leaving Russia to take action on its own to quash the cancer threatening the entire region. However, the attacks in Paris, San Bernardino and Brussels are best explained as classic Gladio false flag operations, pinned on ISIS to foster the "Clash of Civilisations. The name ISIS is short for "Islamic State in Iraq and Syria", and it is also known as ISIL, Daesh and Al Qaeda in Iraq.

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Book SynopsisThis book presents a profile of the diverse membership of the 111th Congress. Statistical information is included on selected characteristics of Members, including data on party affiliation, average age and length of service, occupation, religious affiliation, gender, ethnicity, foreign births, and military service.

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Book SynopsisThis book explores the National Disaster Housing Strategy and implementation plan. Today we face a wider range of hazards and potentially catastrophic events than we have ever faced before. These include terrorist attacks and major natural disasters that could destroy large sections of the Nation''s infrastructure. This book describes how we as a Nation currently provide housing to those affected by disasters and an examines the many sheltering and housing efforts we have in the United States and the broad array of organisations that are involved in managing these programs.

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Book SynopsisThis book presents an overview of the Draft 2011 Report to Congress on the Benefits and Costs of Federal Regulations and Unfunded Mandates on State, Local, and Tribal Entities and the benefits and costs of the U.S. Government''s regulatory program. The decomposition of benefits and costs of regulations by agencies, and in some cases by major categories of benefits, are instructive. The 10-year look back is valuable to illustrate the longer-term trends in benefits and costs of government regulations and recommendations for reform.

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Book SynopsisAn issue for Congress and state and local governments is whether the pay and benefits of public workers are comparable to those of workers in the private sector. To deal with budget deficits, many policymakers are looking at the pay and benefits of public sector employees as a way to reduce government spending. This book provides a comparison of selected characteristics, including age, education, and occupation, of public and private sector workers.

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Book SynopsisThis book examines a common concern voiced by proponents of regulatory reform in recent decades which has been that the costs associated with certain regulations outweigh the benefits that the regulations are intended to provide. To improve the quality and effectiveness of federal rules and minimise burden, regulatory reform proponents have frequently advocated greater use of a range of analytic tools during the rulemaking process, including cost-benefit analysis and cost-effectiveness analysis.

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Book SynopsisThis book discusses the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) Modernization Act of 2010 as the administration begins its implementation. The act offers many important opportunities to focus attention on successfully improving the effectiveness of government programs and operations, and addresses significant fiscal, performance, and management challenges facing the federal government. The federal government is the world''s largest and most complex entity, with about $3.5 trillion in outlays in the fiscal year of 2010 that fund a broad array of programs and operations. Long-term simulations of the government''s financial condition underscore the need to begin addressing the long-term federal fiscal outlook.

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Book SynopsisThe American presidency has become one of the most powerful offices in the world with the ascendancy of American power in the 20th century. "White House Studies Compendium" brings together piercing analyses of the American presidency -- dealing with both current issues and historical events. The compendia are the bound issues of ''White House Studies'' with the addition of a comprehensive subject index.

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Book SynopsisFrom a customer service perspective, the Social Security Administration (SSA) has set a standard for superior customer service among governmental agencies. It has historically received high marks from beneficiaries, and most Americans do not have to travel far to reach a SSA field office, where they can apply for benefits, become a representative payee for someone incapable of managing his or her finances, or apply for a name change after marriage. Yet continuing budget constraints, which began at the start of the decade, have forced SSA to make difficult decisions to reduce service to the public. At a time when Baby Boomers are retiring and filing disability and retirement claims at record numbers, SSA has shed 11,000 workers agency-wide over three years. This book discusses the reduction in face-to-face services at the SSA; provides a report on the policies and procedures for closing and consolidating field offices; long-term strategies for addressing key management strategies; and budget issues.

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Book SynopsisFinancial regulators conduct rulemaking and enforcement to implement law and supervise financial institutions. This book begins by discussing features that make federal financial regulators relatively independent from the President and Congress. It provides a history and overview of the rationale for making financial regulators independent, a discussion of what structural characteristics contribute toward independence and how those characteristics vary among regulators. It then continues to gives a brief description of the structure of the Federal Reserve System (Fed), and discusses the economics of how Fed independence affects monetary policy. The book concludes with an overview of the regulatory policies of the agencies that oversee banking and securities markets and explains which agencies are responsible for which institutions, activities, and markets.

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Book SynopsisReal property disposal is the process by which federal agencies identify and then transfer, donate, or sell real property they no longer need. Disposition is an important asset management function because the costs of maintaining unneeded properties can be substantial, consuming financial resources that might be applied to long-standing real property needs, such as repairing existing facilities, or other pressing policy issues, such as reducing the national debt. Also, timely and proper disposal of obsolete ships in the National Defense Reserve Fleet, is critical to protecting the environment. Because these ships often contain hazardous materials, members of Congress and others have raised issues about the environmental concerns. This is also true for the management of civilian radioactive waste, and defence surplus equipment disposal.

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Book SynopsisWhile public-private partnerships (PPPs) have long been used to manage real property, congressional interest in PPPs has recently increased due to the large number of underutilized and excess buildings owned by federal agencies, as well as sequestration and other spending constraints. This book provides an overview of key policy and legal issues pertaining to PPPs for purposes of federal real property management. The book also discusses the potential for collocation and the factors that can affect that potential; the possible benefits of collocation; the the challenges associated with collocation, and what solutions, if any, can mitigate these challenges; the extent to which agencies attribute the full benefits and costs of their enhanced use leases (EUL) in their assessments of their EUL programs; and the experiences of agencies in using their EUL authority.

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Book SynopsisThe term social security in this report refers to programs established by statute that insure individuals against interruption or loss of earning power and for certain special expenditures arising from marriage, birth, or death. This definition also includes allowances to families for the support of children. This book reports on the social security programs of Africa and the Americas. This book serves as an overview of programs in all regions.

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Book SynopsisInnovative contracting case studies is an iterative, evolving document that describes a number of ways Federal agencies are getting more innovation per taxpayer dollar -- all under existing laws and regulations. This book discusses the case studies, and provides a legal overview of the competition in federal contracting.

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Book SynopsisThe authority to regulate U.S. elections is shared by federal, state, and local officials. Congress has addressed major functional areas in the voting process, such as voter registration. However, the responsibility for administration of state and federal elections resides at the state level. In 2002 Congress passed the Help America Vote Act (HAVA), which requires states to request ID from first time voters who register by mail, when they register to vote or cast a ballot for the first time, and to permit individuals to vote a provisional ballot if they do not have the requisite ID. Numerous states have enacted additional laws to address how an individual may register to vote or cast a ballot. As of June 2014, 33 states had enacted requirements for all eligible voters to show ID before casting a ballot at the polls on Election Day. This book reviews what available literature indicates about voter ownership of and direct costs to obtain select IDs; what available literature and analyses of available data indicate about how, if at all, voter ID laws have affected turnout in select states; to what extent provisional ballots were cast due to ID reasons in select states; and what challenges may exist in using available information to estimate the incidence of in-person voter fraud.

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Book SynopsisThe New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) is a non-refundable tax credit intended to encourage private capital investment in eligible, impoverished, low-income communities. NMTCs are allocated by the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (CDFI), a bureau within the United States Department of the Treasury, under a competitive application process. Investors who make qualified equity investments reduce their federal income tax liability by claiming the credit. This book describes the New Markets Tax Credit Program and the major considerations banks may need to address when using the tax credits to support community and economic development activities. The book examines the primary opportunities and risks associated with the use of NMTCs and discusses the methods used by national banks and federal savings associations (collectively, banks) to structure transactions and use the credits effectively.

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Book SynopsisArticle III of the Constitution established the judicial branch of the United States, consisting of the Supreme Court and of any "inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish.... " To staff such courts, the Constitution empowered life-tenured and salary-protected judges to adjudicate certain "cases" or "controversies," including cases arising under the Constitution. The Supreme Court, in Marbury v. Madison, held that the judicial power to interpret the Constitution necessarily includes the power of judicial reviewthat is, the power to countermand the decisions by other government agents because a given decision contravenes the Constitution. The Supreme Court has established a host of loosely related rules generally called the constitutional avoidance doctrine that discourage a federal court from issuing broad rulings on matters of constitutional law. After providing general background on the power of judicial review and the major theories on the constitutional avoidance doctrine, this book explores the various rules that allow a court to avoid a ruling that invalidates a democratically enacted law and the logic behind those rules. This book provides an exploration of how the doctrine of constitutional avoidance has influenced some of the recent jurisprudence of the Roberts Court, criticisms of the doctrine, and the implications for Congress. The book also discusses the justiciability and the separation of powers in the political question doctrine, which the Supreme Court has articulated to restrict when federal courts will adjudicate disputes.

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Book SynopsisThis series gathers and presents original research in the study of the Presidency of the United States. Each article has been carefully selected in an attempt to present substantial topical data across a broad spectrum. Topics discussed in this compilation include the issuance, modification and revocation of executive orders; the debate over selected presidential assistants and advisors; nominations to cabinet positions during inter-term transitions since 1984; financial assets and conflict of interest regulations in the executive branch; and an analysis of young-adult voting for presidential elections from 1964 to 2012.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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