Best of
Political-Science

2008

The Revolution: A Manifesto


Ron Paul - 2008
    In fact, they said so quite clearly in the Constitution of the United States of America. Unfortunately, that beautiful, ingenious, and revolutionary document is being ignored more and more in Washington. If we are to enjoy peace, freedom, and prosperity once again, we absolutely must return to the principles upon which America was founded. But finally, there is hope . . . In THE REVOLUTION, Texas congressman and presidential candidate Ron Paul has exposed the core truths behind everything threatening America, from the real reasons behind the collapse of the dollar and the looming financial crisis, to terrorism and the loss of our precious civil liberties. In this book, Ron Paul provides answers to questions that few even dare to ask.Despite a media blackout, this septuagenarian physician-turned-congressman sparked a movement that has attracted a legion of young, dedicated, enthusiastic supporters . . . a phenomenon that has amazed veteran political observers and made more than one political rival envious. Candidates across America are already running as "Ron Paul Republicans.""Dr. Paul cured my apathy," says a popular campaign sign. THE REVOLUTION may cure yours as well.

Moyers on Democracy


Bill Moyers - 2008
    In the searching of our souls demanded by this challenge . . . kindred spirits across the nation must confront the most fundamental liberal failure of the current era: the failure to embrace a moral vision of America based on the transcendent faith that human beings are more than the sum of their material appetites, our country is more than an economic machine, and freedom is not license but responsibility—the gift we have received and the legacy we must bequeath. “Although our sojourn in life is brief, we are on a great journey. For those who came before us and for those who follow, our moral, political, and religious duty to make sure that this nation, which was conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all are equal under the law, is in good hands on our watch.” —from “For America’s Sake”People know Bill Moyers mostly from his many years of path-breaking journalism on television. But he is also one of America’s most sought-after public speakers. His appearances draw sell-out crowds across the country and are among the most reproduced on the Web. “And one reason,” writes noted journalist Bill McKibben, “is that Moyers pulls no punches. His understanding of America’s history is at least as deep as his understanding of Christian tradition, which is an integral part of his background . . . With his feet firmly planted in the deepest American traditions, Bill Moyers is helping to keep alive an oratorical tradition that is fading after two centuries. Trained by his career in broadcasting, he writes for the ear, his cadences and his repetitions timed to bring an audience to full realization of its role and its power.” And that is the message of this book. Moyers on Democracy collects many of Bill Moyers’s most moving statements to connect the dots on what is happening to our country—the twinned growth of private wealth and public squalor, the assault on our Constitution, the undermining of the electoral process, the accelerating class war against ordinary (and vulnerable) Americans inherent in the growth of economic inequality, the dangers of an imperial executive, the attack on the independence of the press, the despoiling of the earth we share as our common gift—and to rekindle the reader’s conviction that “the gravediggers of democracy will not have the last word.” Richly insightful and alive with a fierce, abiding love for our country, Moyers on Democracy is essential reading in this fateful presidential year.

The Essential Chomsky


Noam Chomsky - 2008
    The Essential Chomsky brings together selections from his most important writings since 1959-from his groundbreaking critique of B.F. Skinner to his bestselling works Hegermony or Survival and Failed States-concerning subjects ranging from critiques of corporate media and U.S. interventionism to intellectual freedom and the political economy of human rights. With a foreword by Anthony Arnove, The Essential Chomsky is an unprecedented, comprehensive overview of Chomsky's thought.

A Time It Was: Bobby Kennedy in the Sixties


Bill Eppridge - 2008
    Kennedy was tragically assassinated. Presidential candidate, U.S. Senator, father—Kennedy was all of these things—and, to many Americans, he embodied the power of possibility and positive change during a period of social unrest, racial inequality, and war. Renowned Life photographer Bill Eppridge followed and photographed Kennedy during his early campaign days up to his untimely death, and A Time It Was features dynamic images of the public Kennedy, as well as rare, intimate ones, many of which have never before been published. An essay by Pete Hamill places the events in historical context, while Eppridge shares his insider’s perspective on Kennedy. Released to commemorate the fortieth anniversary of Kennedy’s death, A Time It Was reveals why the memory and legacy of Kennedy and his dreams continue to be relevant today.

Moment of Truth in Iraq: How a New 'Greatest Generation' of American Soldiers is Turning Defeat and Disaster into Victory and Hope


Michael Yon - 2008
    Worked to find and kill terrorists, reclaim neighborhoods and help lead Iraq to democracy. Iraqis respect strength. They saw that American soldiers are great-hearted warriors who rejoice in killing Al Qaeda terror gangs that took over whole cities, raped too many women and boys, cut off too many heads. But Iraqis also discovered that these great warriors are even happier rebuilding a clinic, school or neighborhood. They learned from the American soldier that the most dangerous man in the world could be the best man too. - Follow the great Deuce Four battalion that became the center of a warrior cult dreaded by terrorists and revered by Iraqis. - Read about an elite Iraqi SWAT team taking down a terror cell for the murder of four American soldiers and a brave Iraqi guide. - Occupiers, not liberators? Tell that to the wounded Iraqi interpreter, who, convinced he was about to die, begged his U.S. commander to have his heart cut out and buried in America.

The New Pearl Harbor Revisited: 9/11, the Cover-up & the Expose


David Ray Griffin - 2008
    As new developments occurred, Griffin continually brought the discussion up to date in his subsequent books. Now The New Pearl Harbor Revisited synthesizes the most important points of these previous studies and updates his seminal work with a chapter-by-chapter analysis of evidence that has emerged since 2001 and his own developing thinking on the subject.

Who Killed the Constitution?: The Assault on American Law and the Unmaking of a Nation


Thomas E. Woods Jr. - 2008
    . . dead. You won’t hear that from the politicians who endlessly pay lip service to the Constitution. It’s the dirty little secret that bestselling authors Thomas E. Woods Jr. and Kevin R. C. Gutzman expose in this provocative new book. The fact is that government officials—Democrats and Republicans, presidents, judges, and congresses alike—long ago rejected the idea that the Constitution possesses a fixed meaning limiting the U.S. government’s power. In case you’ve forgotten, this idea was not a minor aspect of the Constitution; it was the document’s very purpose. Woods and Gutzman round up the suspects responsible for the death of the government the Founding Fathers designed. Going right to the scenes of the crimes, they dissect twelve of the most egregious assaults on the Constitution—some virtually unknown. In chronicling this “dirty dozen,” the authors show that the attacks began long before presidents declared preemptive wars, congresses built pork-barrel bridges to nowhere, and Supreme Court justices began to behave as our supreme legislators. In Who Killed the Constitution? Woods and Gutzman• REVEAL the federal government’s “great gold robbery”—the flagrant assault on the Constitution you never heard about in history class• DESTROY the phony case for presidential war power• EXPOSE how the federal government has actively discriminated to end . . . discrimination• TEAR DOWN the “wall of separation” between church and state—an invention that completely contradicts what the Constitution says• DARE to touch the “third rail of American jurisprudence,” Brown v. Board of Education—showing why a government decision that seems “right” isn’t necessarily constitutionalNever shying away from controversy, Woods and Gutzman reveal an unsettling but unavoidable truth: now that the federal government has broken free of the Constitution’s chains, government officials are restrained by little more than their sense of what they can get away with.Who Killed the Constitution? is a rallying cry for Americans outraged by government run amok and a warning to take heed before we lose the liberties we are truly entitled to.

The American Journey of Barack Obama


LIFE - 2008
    Just as LIFE once opened up the glittering Kennedy White House, LIFE now focuses its lens on Barack Obama. The American Journey of Barack Obama covers the candidate from his childhood and adolescence to his time as editor of The Harvard Law Review and his Chicago activist years, culminating with the excitement and fervor of the historic 2008 Democratic National Convention. The unfolding drama of Obama's life and political career is cinematic in scope, and never has it been presented so compellingly. In addition to a powerful array of photographs that were taken by many of the country's greatest photographers (and some that were snapped, in the quiet moments, by Obama family members themselves), this book also includes a Foreword by Senator Edward M. Kennedy, an incisive narrative biography and original essays by some of our finest writers, including Gay Talese, Charles Johnson, Melissa Fay Greene, Andrei Codrescu, Fay Weldon, Richard Norton Smith, Bob Greene and several others. Many readers will find a new understanding of Obama. All readers will feel that they are bearing witness to a singular, undeniably American story.<!--EndFragment-->

The Black Panther Party: Service to the People Programs


Huey P. Newton Foundation - 2008
    The Party pioneered free social service programs that are now in the mainstream of American life.The Party's Sickle Cell Anemia Research Foundation, operated with Oakland's Children's Hospital, was among the nation's first such testing programs. Its Free Breakfast Program served as a model for national programs. Other initiatives included free clinics, grocery giveaways, school and education programs, senior programs, and legal aid programs.Published here for the first time in book form, "The Black Panther Party" makes the case that the programs' methods are viable models for addressing the persistent, basic social injustices and economic problems of today's American cities and suburbs.

The Challenge: Hamdan v. Rumsfeld and the Fight Over Presidential Power


Jonathan Mahler - 2008
    forces in Afghanistan. After he had confessed to being Osama bin Laden's driver, Hamdan was transferred to Guantanamo Bay, and he was soon designated by President Bush for trial before a special military tribunal. The Pentagon assigned a military defense lawyer to represent him, a boyish-looking thirtyfive-year-old graduate of the Naval Academy, Lieutenant Commander Charles Swift. No one expected Swift to mount much of a defense. The rules of the tribunals, America's first in more than fifty years, were stacked against him--and that is assuming that his superiors didn't expect him to throw the game altogether. Instead, Swift enlisted the help of a young constitutional law professor at Georgetown, Neal Katyal, to help him sue the Bush administration over the legality of the tribunals. In the spring of 2006, Katyal argued the case, Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, before the Supreme Court and won. Written with the full cooperation of Swift and Katyal, Hamdan v. Rumsfeld is the inside story of this seminal case, perhaps the most important decision on presidential power and the rule of law in the history of the Supreme Court, as told by a writer for The New York Times Magazine, Jonathan Mahler follows the story both of Swift's relationship with Hamdan, in particular his struggle to keep his client alive in Guantanamo, and of the unprecedented legal case itself. It is a legal thriller in the spirit of A Civil Action, set against the backdrop of the war on terror and the battle over presidential power.

Understanding Psychology as a Science: An Introduction to Scientific and Statistical Inference


Zoltan Dienes - 2008
    The book encourages a critical discussion of the different approaches and looks at some of the most important thinkers and their influence.

In Search of the Black Fantastic: Politics and Popular Culture in the Post-Civil Rights Era


Richard Iton - 2008
    Iton offers an original portrait of the relationship between popular culture and institutionalized politics tracing the connections between artists such as Paul Robeson, Lorraine Hansberry, Richard Pryor, Bob Marley, and Erykah Badu and those individuals working in the protest, electoral, and policy making arenas. With an emphasis on questions of class, gender and sexuality-and diaspora and coloniality-the author also illustrates how creative artists destabilize modern notions of the proper location of politics, and politics itself.Ranging from theater to film, and comedy to literature and contemporary music, In Search of the Black Fantastic is an engaging and sophisticated examination of how black popular culture has challenged our understandings of the aesthetic and its relationship to politics.

Invisible Hands: The Making of the Conservative Movement from the New Deal to Reagan


Kim Phillips-Fein - 2008
    These nearly unknown, larger-than-life, and sometimes eccentric personalities--such as GE's zealous, silver-tongued Lemuel Ricketts Boulware and the self-described "revolutionary" Jasper Crane of DuPont--make for a fascinating, behind-the-scenes view of American history.The winner of a prestigious academic award for her original research on this book, Kim Phillips-Fein is already being heralded as an important new young American historian. Her meticulous research and narrative gifts reveal the dramatic story of a pragmatic, step-by-step, check-by-check campaign to promote an ideological revolution--one that ultimately helped propel conservative ideas to electoral triumph.

It Was Never about a Hotdog and a Coke


Rodney L. Hurst Sr. - 2008
    Referred to as Ax Handle Saturday, "It was never about a hot dog and a Coke" chronicles the racial and political climate of Jacksonville, Florida in the late fifties, the events leading up to that infamous day, and the aftermath.

President Obama: The Path to The White House


Adi Ignatius - 2008
    political history. With this special publication that is sure to become an instant collector's item, TIME will mark Obama's rise with an illustrated 96-page book. TIME Obama will contain original TIME magazine reporting and analysis from the magazine's political experts. The book will showcase the unrivaled, intimate behind-the-scenes photography of campaign photographer Callie Shell, who has been visually documenting Obama's journey since he began his run for President. And it will provide readers with a colorful and concise account of how Obama rose to power - from his early days to his Chicago years to the moment when he became a political phenomenon.

Practical Anarchy


Stefan Molyneux - 2008
    How a stateless society will function. By Stefan Molyneux MA, of Freedomain Radio, the largest and most popular philosophy show on the web.

American Raj: Liberation or Domination?: Resolving the Conflict Between the West and the Muslim World


Eric S. Margolis - 2008
    At the same time, Eric S. Margolis was arguing the same point from a different position: that of a journalist reporting from within the Muslim world. "American Raj" is the culmination of Margolis' years of boots-on-the-ground insight into the way the Muslim world really operates. It takes readers inside the thinking and worldview of anti-Western Islamic radicals throughout the Muslim world and identifies the historical, political, and religious factors that have played a major role in generating hostility toward the West. Employing the model of Britain's imperialist hegemony in Asia, Margolis explores in fascinating detail whether the West risks a replay of the Raj experience or whether we face an entirely new world order.

The Political Economy of Media: Enduring Issues, Emerging Dilemmas


Robert W. McChesney - 2008
    Its reach penetrates nearly every corner of the world and every aspect of life. But it has also been a contested realm, embodying class politics and the interests of monopoly capital. In The Political Economy of Media, one of the foremost media critics of our time, Robert W. McChesney, provides a comprehensive analysis of the economic and political powers that are being mobilized to consolidate private control of media with increasing profit -- all at the expense of democracy.In this elegant and lucid collection, McChesney examines the monopolistic competition that has created a global media that is ever more concentrated and centralized. McChesney reveals why questions about the ownership of commercial U.S. media remain off limits within the political culture; how private ownership of media leads to the degradation of journalism and suppression of genuine debate; and why corporate rule threatens democracy by failing to provide the means for an educated and informed citizenry. The Political Economy of Media also highlights resistance to corporate media over the last century, including the battle between broadcasters and the public in the 1920s and 1930s and the ongoing media reform movement today. The Political Economy of Media makes it clear that the struggle over the ownership and the role of media is of utmost importance to everyone.

The Tyranny of Liberalism: Understanding and Overcoming Administered Freedom, Inquisitorial Tolerance, and Equality by Command


James Kalb - 2008
    But take a longer view—look beyond and below politics—and it is the unchallenged triumph of liberalism and its philosophical assumptions that ought to command our attention.The triumph of liberalism means the tyranny of liberalism, explains James Kalb in this illuminating book, for liberalism is the extension into the sociopolitical realm of modern scientific thought and technological rationality. These modes of thinking are regarded by nearly everyone today as uniquely authoritative; those institutions and beliefs which do not conform are regarded at best as annoyances, and at worst as evil. Furthermore, Kalb shows how liberalism is an expression of the interests and outlook of commercial and managerial elites, who are suspicious of less rationalized and controllable forms of social organization like the family.Kalb does not merely rehearse a tale of woe, nor is he content simply to analyze the current situation. With reference to concrete issues such as the debate surrounding same-sex marriage, he outlines the kind of traditionalist response to liberalism that is likely to be most effective. He argues that traditional, decentralized, and nonliberal forms of social organization are ultimately impossible to eradicate, and he shows how more human forms of association than those favored by liberalism might once again be brought into being.

A.J. Liebling: The Sweet Science and Other Writings


A.J. Liebling - 2008
    For the first time in one volume, Hamill presents five great books that demonstrate Liebling's extraordinary vitality, humor, and versatility as a writer.

State of the Union: Fifty Political Poems


Matthew ZapruderDara Wier - 2008
    Wide-ranging writers bring their bold voices to this collection, including Eileen Myles, Matthew Rohrer, Rebecca Wolff, Terrance Hayes, Joe Wenderoth, and Tao Lin.“Walking by Hope Street”Look at the landscape,A lot of damage, no?But we are here together,And of needing me, hereThe world needs me,We are too alone.And what of our orange daylight,Growing darker as the lamplitTrees grow dark. ThereIs not enough to say.But our hands, our gentleFrozen hands sift throughThings like numbers out of breath.It will all be okay, I promise.Promise who? Promise the faded land.—Noelle Kocot“Literary Agency”Coretta ScottKing has died, the otherday. Dreamunrealized. Lostand found, lost again, bathosmy motivationmy Elysiandream. The placeinsideuntutored, incorruptible,without relation. That’ssomething to hold onto,and uncontingencydressing the wound. That’ssad and just “what it is.”It is what it is.That’s what I saywhen I can’t bear the news.—Rebecca Wolff

The Unconstitutionality Of Slavery (1845)


Lysander Spooner - 2008
    Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

Oxford Handbook of International Relations


Christian Reus-Smit - 2008
    Arguably the most impressive collection of international relations scholars ever brought together within one volume, the Handbook debates the nature of the field itself, critically engages with the major theories, surveys a wide spectrum of methods, addresses the relationship between scholarship and policy making, and examines the field's relation with cognate disciplines. The Handbook takes as its central themes the interaction between empirical and normative inquiry that permeates all theorizing in the field and the way in which contending approaches have shaped one another. In doing so, it provides an authoritative and critical introduction to the subject and establishes a sense of the field as a dynamic realm of argument and inquiry. The Oxford Handbook of International Relations will be essential reading for all of those interested in the advanced study of global politics and international affairs.

To Uphold the World: A Call for a new Global Ethic from Ancient India


Bruce Rich - 2008
    Intrigued by the stone inscriptions that declared religious tolerance, conservation, nonviolence, species protection, and human rights, Rich was drawn into Ashoka's world. Ashoka was a powerful conqueror who converted to Buddhism on the heels of a bloody war, yet his empire rested on a political system that prioritized material wealth and amoral realpolitik. This system had been perfected by Kautilya, a statesman who wrote the world's first treatise on economics. In this powerful critique of the current wave of globalization, Rich urgently calls for a new global ethic, distilling the messages of Ashoka and Kautilya while reflecting on thinkers from across the ages—from Aristotle and Adam Smith to George Soros.Bruce Rich discusses Universal Health Care in Ancient India:

The Lincoln Anthology: Great Writers on His Life and Legacy from 1860 to Now


Harold Holzer - 2008
    Doctorow.

President Obama Election 2008: A Collection of Newspaper Front Pages Selected by the Poynter Institute


The Poynter Institute - 2008
    President Obama Election 2008 is a collection of over seventy November 5th, 2008 and January 20, 2009 newspaper front pages from around the world. There is no better statement of the emotion, excitement, and significance of these moments in history.During his campaign for the White House, Barack Obama garnered an almost frenzied following. President Obama Election 2008 is a cherished keepsake or gift for any of the millions of Americans who cast their vote for the 44th President of the United States. Here is the must-have commemorative book on this historic event. * Features 109 historic newspaper front-pages from the day after the election and the day after the inauguration, including international, campus, and ethnic publications.* Includes an introduction by Doonesbury creator Garry Trudeau.* Compiled by The Poynter Institute, a non-profit, non-partisan school of journalism.

Beijing for Beginners: An Irishman in the People's Republic


Gary Finnegan - 2008
    This chronicle of the author's attempts to adjust to an altogether alien culture makes for an often hilarious travelogue of Beijing, peppered with fascinating insights into Chinese history and its transforming society.

Two Kinds of Time


Graham Peck - 2008
    Office of War Information in China throughout the 1940s. His memoir, Two Kinds of Time, first published in 1950, is witty and eloquent in both its words and the drawings with which it is lovingly illustrated. Long out of print in its unabridged version, this engagingly written eye-witness narrative of China on the eve of revolution remains an important source of historical and political information. Robert A. Kapp's new Introduction analyzes the book's original contribution and highlights its relevance to issues in the twenty-first century world.

A Cultural Theory of International Relations


Richard Ned Lebow - 2008
    His theory stresses the human need for self-esteem, and shows how it influences political behavior at every level of social aggregation. Lebow develops ideal-type worlds associated with four motives: appetite, spirit, reason and fear, and demonstrates how each generates a different logic concerning cooperation, conflict and risk-taking. Expanding and documenting the utility of his theory in a series of historical case studies, ranging from classical Greece to the war in Iraq, he presents a novel explanation for the rise of the state and the causes of war, and offers a reformulation of prospect theory. This is a novel theory of politics by one of the world's leading scholars of international relations.

Foundations of Freedom: Common Sense, the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, the Federalist Papers, the U.S. Constitu


Founding Fathers - 2008
    It was here that our constitutional form of government was first suggested. The forces that were focused and unleashed by Common Sense led directly to The Declaration of Independence. The Declaration led to the American Revolution and the United States' victory in that revolution led to the Articles of Confederation. Dissatisfaction with the Articles caused Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison to write The Federalist Papers, which then led to the United States Constitution as we know it today. Here in one volume are these cornerstones of American freedom.

First Freedom First: A Citizens' Guide to Protecting Religious Liberty and the Separation of Church and State


C. Welton Gaddy - 2008
    But as we debate displaying Christmas trees at city hall and the Ten Commandments in the courthouse, we must ask: in what other ways is our religious liberty being compromised.In First Freedom First, with clear language and recognizable examples, two of the most trusted voices on church-state separation address head-on the many areas where religion and politics overlap, with consequences for all Americans. This book is for anyone concerned about such issues as:* Churches hosting politicians and insisting they give testaments of their faith* Science teachers questioning the theory of evolution in their public school classrooms* Public religious debates on private issues involving end-of-life decisions and reproductive choices* Federal funding for religious organizations, including those that discriminate openlyWith religion a constant presence in political discussions, First Freedom First offers practical and easy ways to remind our leaders and our community of the importance of keeping religion and politics separate, for the sake of both institutions.

Empires of Trust: How Rome Built--and America Is Building--a New World


Thomas F. Madden - 2008
    Does America face the same destiny endured by ancient Rome? Is the U.S. military overextended? Does the separation of church and state strengthen or weaken a geopolitical powerhouse? Is the United States just another Empire of Conquest being corrupted by its own power? Of late, it is not only historians who have been asking these questions. Thomas Madden, an award-winning professor of history, now shows almost everything we thought we knew about Rome to be wrong, and revolutionizes our understanding of what a good world empire can be. Taking readers on a dramatic tour of the Roman Republic, a golden era before the depravities of the Caesars and late Empire, Madden uncovers a peaceful, retiring people who above all wanted to be left alone to enjoy their own families and communities, maintaining the rural traditions of their forebears. But external threats required them to establish security, which they did by creating superlative military forces and transforming defeated enemies into friends. Trust, not brutality, was the key ingredient. All other empires since have been Empires of Conquest—until now. Beginning with a Roman story strikingly parallel to the American Abu Ghraib scandal, Madden provides a much needed historical context to our burning contemporary debates. The United States can be an empire of trust, and Madden is on a mission to get pundits, candidates, and other election-year spectators—which means all of us—to recognize this profound duty.

Rule by Law: The Politics of Courts in Authoritarian Regimes


Tom Ginsburg - 2008
    As a result, nearly all studies in comparative judicial politics have focused on democratic and democratizing countries. This volume brings together leading scholars in comparative judicial politics to consider the causes and consequences of judicial empowerment in authoritarian states. It demonstrates the wide range of governance tasks that courts perform, as well as the way in which courts can serve as critical sites of contention both among the ruling elite and between regimes and their citizens. Drawing on empirical and theoretical insights from every major region of the world, this volume advances our understanding of judicial politics in authoritarian regimes.

Upstream: The Ascendance of American Conservatism


Alfred S. Regnery - 2008
    Regnery, the publisher of The American Spectator, has been a part of the American conservative movement since childhood, when his father founded The Henry Regnery Company, which subsequently became Regnery Publishing -- the preeminent conservative publishing house that, among other notable achievements, published William F. Buckley's first book, God and Man at Yale. Including many uniquely personal anecdotes and stories, Regnery himself now boldly chronicles the development of the conservative movement from 1945 to the present. The outpouring of grief at the funeral of Ronald Reagan in 2004 -- and the acknowledgment that Reagan has come to be considered one of the greatest presidents of the twentieth century -- is Regnery's opening for a fascinating insider story. Beginning at the start of the twentieth century, he shows how in the years prior to and just post World War II, expanding government power at home and the expanding Communist empire abroad inspired conservatives to band together to fight these threats. The founding of the National Review, the drive to nominate Barry Goldwater first as vice-president and later as president, the apparent defeat of the conservative movement at the hands of Lyndon Johnson, and the triumphant rise of Ronald Reagan from the ashes are all chronicled in vivid prose that shows a uniquely intimate knowledge of the key figures. Regnery shares his views on the opposition that formed in response to Earl Warren's Supreme Court rulings, the role of faith (both Roman Catholic and Evangelical) in the renewed vigor of conservatism, and the contributing role of American businessmen who attempted to oppose big government. Upstream ultimately gives perspective to how the most vibrant political and cultural force of our time has influenced American culture, politics, economics, foreign policy, and all institutions and sectors of American life.

Strategic Studies: A Reader


Thomas G. Mahnken - 2008
    The aim is to provide students with a wide-ranging survey of the key issues in strategic studies, and to provide an introduction the main ideas and themes in the field. The book contains six extensive sections, each of which is prefaced by a short introductory essay:The Uses of Strategic TheoryInterpretation of the ClassicsInstruments of War, Intelligence, and DeceptionNuclear StrategyIrregular Wars and TerrorismFurture War, Future StrategyOverall, this volume strikes a balance between theoretical works, which seek to discover generalisations about the nature of modern strategy, and case studies, which attempt to ground the study of strategy in the realities of modern war.This new edition will be essential reading for all students of strategic studies, security studies, military history and war studies, as well as for professional military college students.

Killing Civilians: Method, Madness, and Morality in War


Hugo Slim - 2008
    Massacres, rape, displacement, famine, and disease are the strategic decisions of political and military leaders who make civilians their targets in order to gain the upper hand in battle. Yet there still exists the precious and fragile belief-ingrained in modern international law-that unarmed and innocent people should be protected in war, even if, in practice, the principle of civil immunity is often ignored or rejected. Hoping to rectify this injustice, Hugo Slim uses detailed historical and contemporary examples to reveal the many ways civilians suffer in war. A leading commentator on international humanitarian action and the protection of civilians in war, Slim analyzes the anti-civilian ideologies that encourage and perpetuate suffering and exposes the exploitation of moral ambiguity that is used to sanction extreme hostility. At what point does killing civilians become part of winning a war? Why are some methods of killing used while others are avoided? Bolstering his claims with hard fact, Slim argues that civilian casualties are not only morally reprehensible but also bad military science. His book is a clarion call for action and a passionate defense of civil immunity, a concept that is more urgent and necessary today than ever before.

Reconsidering Woodrow Wilson: Progressivism, Internationalism, War, and Peace


John Milton Cooper Jr. - 2008
    Reconsidering Woodrow Wilson reveals a person who was at once an international idealist, a structural reformer of the nation’s economy, and a policy maker who was simultaneously accommodating, indifferent, resistant, and hostile to racial and gender reform.Wilson’s progressivism is discussed in chapters by biographer John Milton Cooper and historians Trygve Throntveit and W. Elliot Brownlee. Wilson’s philosophy about race and nation is taken up by Gary Gerstle, and his gender politics discussed by Victoria Bissel Brown. The seeds of Wilsonianism are considered in chapters by Mark T. Gilderhus on Wilson’s Latin American diplomacy and war; Geoffrey R. Stone on Wilson’s suppression of seditious speech; and Lloyd Ambrosius on entry into World War I. Emily S. Rosenberg and Frank Ninkovich explore the impact of Wilson’s internationalism on capitalism and diplomacy; Martin Walker sets out the echoes of Wilson’s themes in the cold war; and Anne-Marie Slaughter suggests how Wilson might view the promotion of liberal democracy today.These essays were originally written for a celebration of Wilson’s 150th birthday sponsored by the official national memorial to Wilson—the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars—in collaboration with the Woodrow Wilson House. That daylong symposium examined some of the most important and controversial areas of Wilson’s political life and presidency.

Gilles Deleuze's "Logic of Sense": A Critical Introduction and Guide


James Williams - 2008
    Deleuze's philosophy has always promised a revolution in ethical theories and in our understanding of the relation between language, thought and action. This book develops a critical reading of Deleuze's work in order to convey the potential and risks of his new approaches to questions of how to live an intense life in response to the excitement and danger of events. This interpretation covers all aspects of Deleuze's book, including engagements with phenomenology, with analytic philosophy of language, with stoicism, with literary theory and with psychoanalysis. Its aim is to open new debates and develop current ones around Deleuze's work in philosophy, politics, literature, linguistics and sociology.

Democracy and Knowledge: Innovation and Learning in Classical Athens


Josiah Ober - 2008
    Democracy and Knowledge is the first book to look to ancient Athens to explain how and why directly democratic government by the people produces wealth, power, and security. Combining a history of Athens with contemporary theories of collective action and rational choice developed by economists and political scientists, Josiah Ober examines Athenian democracy's unique contribution to the ancient Greek city-state's remarkable success, and demonstrates the valuable lessons Athenian political practices hold for us today. He argues that the key to Athens's success lay in how the city-state managed and organized the aggregation and distribution of knowledge among its citizens. Ober explores the institutional contexts of democratic knowledge management, including the use of social networks for collecting information, publicity for building common knowledge, and open access for lowering transaction costs. He explains why a government's attempt to dam the flow of information makes democracy stumble. Democratic participation and deliberation consume state resources and social energy. Yet as Ober shows, the benefits of a well-designed democracy far outweigh its costs. Understanding how democracy can lead to prosperity and security is among the most pressing political challenges of modern times. Democracy and Knowledge reveals how ancient Greek politics can help us transcend the democratic dilemmas that confront the world today.

America's Half-Blood Prince: Barack Obama's Story of Race and Inheritance


Steve Sailer - 2008
    Making heavy use of Obama's own writings, which he admires for their literary artistry, Sailer gives the deepest insights I have yet seen into Obama's lifelong obsession with 'race and inheritance, ' and rounds off his brilliant character portrait with speculations on how Obama's personality might play out in the Presidency." - John Derbyshire Author, Prime Obsession: Bernhard Riemann and the Greatest Unsolved Problem in Mathematics

Wrong on Race: The Democratic Party's Buried Past


Bruce Bartlett - 2008
    Ranging from the founding of the Republic through to today, it rectifies the unfair perceptions of America's two national parties. While Nixon's infamous "Southern Strategy" is constantly referenced in the media, less well remembered are Woodrow Wilson's segregation of the entire Federal civil service; FDR's appointment of a member of the KKK to the Supreme Court; John F. Kennedy's apathy towards civil rights legislation; and the ascension of Robert Byrd, who is current President pro tempore of the Senate, third in line in the presidential line of succession, and a former member of the KKK. For the last seventy years, African Americans have voted en masse for one party, with little in the end to show for it. Is it time for the pendulum to swing the other way? With the Republican Party furiously engaged in pre-2008 soul searching, this exhaustively researched, incisively written exposé will be an important and compelling component of that debate as we head towards November.

Introduction to European Tax Law: Direct Taxation


Michael Lang - 2008
    Similar problems also arise for scholars and practitioners around the world who have realized that European tax law is no longer relevant only for a small academic European tax circle, but has turned into a strategic element for international tax planning in relations with the EU countries. The number of judgments of the European Court of Justice in the field of direct taxation continues to grow at a stable pace, bringing technical legal complexity to a system which is reaching maturity on several issues, as proven by the significantly increased number of infringement procedures over the past two years. Global tax transparency is prompting the political consensus required for upgrading tax directives that enhance cooperation among Member States. By contrast, other areas of direct taxation remain largely tied to the schemes of the early days in the history of European tax law, although progress in positive integration in such areas is equally important. This textbook - now in its second edition - is updated and upgraded, enhancing its use, with the addition of flow charts and a table of cases. For both students and practitioners, it serves as an introduction to European direct taxation.

The Politics of Truth: Selected Writings of C. Wright Mills


C. Wright Mills - 2008
    Wright Mills was a radical public intellectual, a tough-talking, motorcycle-riding anarchist from Texas who taught sociology at Columbia University. Mills's three most influential books--The Power Elite, White Collar, and The Sociological Imagination--were originally published by OUP andare considered classics. The first collection of his writings to be published since 1963, The Politics of Truth contains 23 out-of-print and hard-to-find writings which show his growth from academic sociologist to an intellectual maestro in command of a mature style, a dissenter who sought toinspire the public to oppose the drift toward permanent war. Given the political deceptions of recent years, Mills's truth-telling is more relevant than ever. Seminal papers including Letter to the New Left appear alongside lesser known meditations such as Are We Losing Our Sense of Belonging?John Summers provides fresh insights in his introduction, which gives an overview of Mills's life and career. Summers has also written annotations that establish each piece's context and has drawn up a comprehensive bibliography of Mills's published and unpublished writings.

Mexico Since 1980


Stephen H. Haber - 2008
    Why did the opening up of the economy to foreign trade and investment not result in sustained economic growth? Why has electoral democracy not produced rule of law? The answer to those questions lies in the ways in which Mexico's long history with authoritarian government shaped its judicial, taxation, and property rights institutions. These institutions, the authors argue, cannot be reformed with the stroke of a pen. Moreover, they represent powerful constraints on the ability of the Mexican government to fund welfare-enhancing reforms, on the ability of firms and households to write contracts, and on the ability of citizens to enforce their basic rights.

Politics and the Order of Love: An Augustinian Ethic of Democratic Citizenship


Eric Gregory - 2008
    Drawing from theology, feminist theory, and political philosophy, Eric Gregory offers here a liberal ethics of citizenship, one less susceptible to anti-liberal critics because it is informed by the Augustinian tradition. The result is a book that expands Augustinian imaginations for liberalism and liberal imaginations for Augustinianism.  Gregory examines a broad range of Augustine’s texts and their reception in different disciplines and identifies two classical themes which have analogues in secular political theory: love—and related notions of care, solidarity, and sympathy—and sin—as well as related notions of cruelty, evil, and narrow self-interest. From an Augustinian point of view, Gregory argues, love and sin constrain each other in ways that yield a distinctive vision of the limits and possibilities of politics. In providing a constructive argument for Christian participation in liberal democratic societies, Gregory advances efforts to revive a political theology in which love’s relation to justice is prominent.  Politics and the Order of Love will provoke new conversations for those interested in Christian ethics, moral psychology, and the role of religion in a liberal society.

Slavery in Massachusetts


Henry David Thoreau - 2008
    www.forgottenbooks.orgForgotten Books is about sharing knowledge, not about making money. Our books are priced at wholesale prices. We print in large sans-serif font, which is proven to make the text easier to read and put less strain on your eyes. Happy reading!

The Future of Democratic Equality: Rebuilding Social Solidarity in a Fragmented America


Elizabeth Zimmer - 2008
    Any one of these tasks well fulfilled would have been a laudable achievement. First, Schwartz argues for the centrality of the question of equality to democratic politics. Second, he critically analyzes and explains the shocking rise in inequality in the United States over the last three decades. This he does with conceptual clarity, rich interdisciplinary analysis, and a thorough examination of hard socioeconomic data. Third, he assails the near absence of concern for this soaring inequality among contemporary political theorists, and offers a cogent, and stinging, explanation that takes to task the discipline's preoccupation with difference and identity severed from the pragmatics of democratic equality. The Future of Democratic Equality is a courageous and disciplined effort to tackle a hugely important political problem and intellectual puzzle. It well embodies the spirit of the Easton Book Award by providing well-grounded normative theory targeted to an urgent matter of contemporary concern. It is a must read for anyone who cares about democracy. - Respectfully submitted by Leslie Paul Thiele, University of Florida (chair) and Cary J. Nederman, Texas A&M UniversityWhy has contemporary radical political theory remained virtually silent about the stunning rise in inequality in the United States over the past thirty years? Schwartz contends that since the 1980s, most radical theorists shifted their focus away from interrogating social inequality to criticizing the liberal and radical tradition for being inattentive to the role of difference and identity within social life. This critique brought more awareness of the relative autonomy of gender, racial, and sexual oppression. But, as Schwartz argues, it also led many theorists to forget that if difference is institutionalized on a terrain of radical economic inequality, unjust inequalities in social and political power will inevitably persist.Schwartz cautions against a new radical theoretical orthodoxy: that universal norms such as equality and solidarity are inherently repressive and homogenizing, whereas particular norms and identities are truly emancipatory. Reducing inequality among Americans, as well as globally, will take a high level of social solidarity--a level far from today's fragmented politics. In focusing the left's attention on the need to reconstruct a governing model that speaks to the aspirations of the majority, Schwartz provocatively applies this vision to such real world political issues as welfare reform, race relations, childcare, and the democratic regulation of the global economy.

Race and American Political Development


Joseph E. Lowndes - 2008
    But because of the nature of race-its evolving and dynamic status as a structure of inequality, a political organizing principle, an ideology, and a system of power-we must study the politics of race historically, institutionally, and discursively.Covering more than three hundred years of American political history from the founding to the contemporary moment, the contributors in this volume make this extended argument. Together, they provide an understanding of American politics that challenges our conventional disciplinary tools of studying politics and our conservative political moment's dominant narrative of racial progress. This volume, the first to collect essays on the role of race in American political history and development, resituates race in American politics as an issue for sustained and broadened critical attention.

Order, Conflict, and Violence


Stathis N. Kalyvas - 2008
    Bloodshed in its multiple forms is often seen as something separate from and unrelated to the domains of 'normal' politics that constitute what we think of as order. But violence is used to create order, to maintain it, and to uphold it in the face of challenges. This volume demonstrates the myriad ways in which order and violence are inextricably intertwined. The chapters embrace such varied disciplines as political science, economics, history, sociology, philosophy, and law; employ different methodologies, from game theory to statistical modeling to in-depth historical narrative to anthropological ethnography; and focus on different units of analysis and levels of aggregation, from the state to the individual to the world system. All are essential reading for anyone who seeks to understand current trends in global conflict.

Hamilton's Curse: How Jefferson's Arch Enemy Betrayed the American Revolution--and What It Means for Americans Today


Thomas J. DiLorenzo - 2008
    Two opposing political philosophies. Two radically different visions for America. Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton were without question two of the most important Founding Fathers. They were also the fiercest of rivals. Of these two political titans, it is Jefferson—–the revered author of the Declaration of Independence and our third president—–who is better remembered today. But in fact it is Hamilton’s political legacy that has triumphed—–a legacy that has subverted the Constitution and transformed the federal government into the very leviathan state that our forefathers fought against in the American Revolution.How did we go from the Jeffersonian ideal of limited government to the bloated imperialist system of Hamilton’s design? Acclaimed economic historian Thomas J. DiLorenzo provides the troubling answer in Hamilton’s Curse.DiLorenzo reveals how Hamilton, first as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention and later as the nation’s first and most influential treasury secretary, masterfully promoted an agenda of nationalist glory and interventionist economics—–core beliefs that did not die with Hamilton in his fatal duel with Aaron Burr. Carried on through his political heirs, the Hamiltonian legacy:• Wrested control into the hands of the federal government by inventing the myth of the Constitution’s “implied powers” • Established the imperial presidency (Hamilton himself proposed a permanent president—–in other words, a king)• Devised a national banking system that imposes boom-and-bust cycles on the American economy• Saddled Americans with a massive national debt and oppressive taxation• Inflated the role of the federal courts in order to eviscerate individual liberties and state sovereignty• Pushed economic policies that lined the pockets of the wealthy and created a government system built on graft, spoils, and patronage• Transformed state governments from Jeffersonian bulwarks of liberty to beggars for federal crumbsBy debunking the Hamiltonian myths perpetuated in recent admiring biographies, DiLorenzo exposes an uncomfortable truth: The American people are no longer the masters of their government but its servants. Only by restoring a system based on Jeffersonian ideals can Hamilton’s curse be lifted, at last.

Why Is There No Labor Party in the United States?


Robin Archer - 2008
    Tackling this debate head-on, Robin Archer puts forward a new explanation for why there is no American labor party--an explanation that suggests that much of the conventional wisdom about "American exceptionalism" is untenable. Conventional explanations rely on comparison with Europe. Archer challenges these explanations by comparing the United States with its most similar New World counterpart--Australia. This comparison is particularly revealing, not only because the United States and Australia share many fundamental historical, political, and social characteristics, but also because Australian unions established a labor party in the late nineteenth century, just when American unions, against a common backdrop of industrial defeat and depression, came closest to doing something similar. Archer examines each of the factors that could help explain the American outcome, and his systematic comparison yields unexpected conclusions. He argues that prosperity, democracy, liberalism, and racial hostility often promoted the very changes they are said to have obstructed. And he shows that it was not these characteristics that left the United States without a labor party, but, rather, the powerful impact of repression, religion, and political sectarianism.

Outright Barbarous: How the Violent Language of the Right Poisons American Democracy


Jeffrey Feldman - 2008
    But Feldman does more than point fingers; he offers practical steps for cleaning up our too-often-toxic political discourse.”—Arianna Huffington“Since 9/11, America has been contaminated by the violence of right-wing language, in the speeches of Republican politicians and the rantings of the talking heads on Fox News and on conservative talk radio. Jeffrey Feldman’s insightful and important book cuts through the violence, and shows how we can restore the democratic ideals that America was founded upon.”—Thom Hartmann “Jeffrey Feldman warns us to ignore the right wing noise machine at our own peril. Backed by right-wing think tanks, foundations and millionaire families, conservative standard bearers will continue to enrich themselves at the cost of a more civil, equitable society. Read Outright Barbarous to find out what they're really saying, and how we can stop it!"—Sam SederSince September 11, 2001, most attempts at reasoned political debate in America have been severely limited by the violent language of the Right. In books and on television, it has become a regular ritual for conservative pundits and intellectuals to infuse violence—particularly against Democrats or liberals—into discussions of the major issues of the day, such as terrorism, immigration and gun violence. The result is the creation of a shrill discourse that silences opposition and destroys any chance for serious, civil debate. In Outright Barbarous: How the Violent Language of the Right Poisons American Democracy, political language expert Jeffrey Feldman analyzes the words of leading conservative figures Ann Coulter, Dinesh D’Souza, James Dobson, Wayne LaPierre, Pat Buchanan and Bill O’Reilly to show how the Right’s language of violence is polluting our public discourse and limiting the free exchange of ideas. In addition to exposing the conservative obsession with violence, Feldman also shows how the civic discussion in America can be reshaped without the use of violent language, creating a healthier political climate.An expert on language and political messaging, Jeffrey Feldman is the author of Framing the Debate: Famous Presidential Speeches and How Progressives Can Use Them to Change the Conversation (and Win Elections.) He is also editor of the influential blog, Frameshop(http://frameshopisopen.com), and teaches at New York University.

The Politics of Harry Potter


Bethany Barratt - 2008
    Readers may be surprised to discover that in fact J. K. Rowling's work provides us with entries into all of the most important political questions in history - from current controversies about terrorism and human rights,to the classic foundations of political thought.

Freedom's Frame


Rick Green - 2008
    Now think of the frame that holds each picture in place. Our Founding Fathers designed the portrait of America's freedom within a beautiful framework-- Freedom's Frame. That framework has resulted in the most successful nation in history. If the frame goes, your picture goes with it...your dreams, your family, your community, your church, your freedom.

What's Race Got to Do with It?: Why It's Time to Stop the Stupidest Argument in America


Larry Elder - 2008
    Some Americans think race is the biggest issue this country faces today. Elder says: "What?!?" What about the economy, what about war, what about the security of our borders and our citizens?IS A HUGE GROUP OF CITIZENS BEING KEPT DOWN BY "THE MAN"?Elder calls for an end to bitching, moaning and whining and the belief that somebody owes you a job, that self-esteem is given out for passing "go," that a black person in a position of authority is always a good thing, whether or not they have credentials and experience. He skewers the loudmouths--and the "mainscream" media--who point to racism as the root of all problems. Elder explains why Hillary Clinton doesn't get it, but Barack Obama does--at least most of the time.But "What's Race Got to Do with It?" has a positive message, too: there are leaders and role models today who want to urge everyone to share in the hard work, smart thinking and optimism that make America great and strong.*"Publishers Weekly" **"Kirkus Reviews" ***"Los Angeles"" Times" ****"Publishers Weekly"

A Conservative History of the American Left


Daniel J. Flynn - 2008
    Flynn uncovers the surprising origins of today’s Left. The first work of its kind, A Conservative History of the American Left tells the story of this remarkably resilient extreme movement–one that came to America’s shores with the earliest settlers. Flynn reveals a history that leftists themselves ignore, whitewash, or obscure. Partly the Left’s amnesia is convenient: Who wouldn’t want to forget an ugly history that includes eugenics, racism, violence, and sheer quackery? Partly it is self-aggrandizing: Bold schemes sound much more innovative when you refuse to acknowledge that they have been tried–and have failed–many times before. And partly it is unavoidable: The Left is so preoccupied with its triumphal future that it doesn’t pause to learn from its past mistakes. So it goes that would-be revolutionaries have repeatedly failed to recognize the one troubling obstacle to their grandiose visions: reality.In unfolding this history, Flynn presents a page-turning narrative filled with colorful, fascinating characters–progressives and populists, radicals and reformers, socialists and SDSers, and leftists of every other stripe. There is the rags-to-riches Welsh industrialist who brought his utopian vision to America–one in which private property, religion, and marriage represented “the most monstrous evils”–and gained audiences with the likes of Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and James Madison. There is the wife-swapping Bible thumper who nominated Jesus Christ for president. There is the playboy adventurer whose worshipful accounts of Soviet Russia lured many American liberals to Communism. There is the daughter of privilege turned violent antiwar activist who lost her life to a bomb she had intended to use against American soldiers. There are fanatics and free spirits, perverts and puritans, entrepreneurs and altruists, and many more beyond.A Conservative History of the American Left is a gripping chronicle of the radical visionaries who have relentlessly pursued their lofty ambitions to remake society. Ultimately, Flynn shows the destructiveness that comes from this undying pursuit of dreams that are utterly unattainable.

Might, Right, Prosperity and Consent: Representative Democracy and the International Economy 1919-2001


Helen Thompson - 2008
    Unlike many discussions of democracy that treat authority as a problem primarily of domestic politics or normative values, this book puts the international economy at the center of the analysis.The book shows how changes in the international economy from the inter-war years to the end of the twentieth century impacted upon the success and failures of democracy. It makes the argument by considering a range of different cases, and it traces the success and failure of democracies over the past century. It includes detailed studies of democracies in both developed and developing countries, and offers a comparative analysis of their fate. It will appeal to all those interested in democracy, the future of the state and the impact of the international economy on domestic politics.

The Encyclopedia Of The Arab Israeli Conflict: A Political, Social, And Military History


Spencer C. Tucker - 2008
    In four volumes, with more than 750 alphabetically organized entries, plus a separate documents volume, it provides a wide-ranging introduction to the distinct yet inextricably linked Arab and Israeli worlds and worldviews, exploring all aspects of the conflict. The objective analysis will help readers understand the dramatic events that have impacted the entire world, from the founding of modern Israel to the building of the Suez Canal; from the Six-Day War to the Camp David Accords; from the assassinations of Anwar Sadat and Yitzhak Rabin to the rise and fall of Yasser Arafat, the 2006 Palestinian elections, and the Israeli-Hezbollah War in Lebanon.

Representation through Taxation: Revenue, Politics, and Development in Postcommunist States


Scott Gehlbach - 2008
    Representation Through Taxation challenges this conventional wisdom. Emphasizing that there are limits to what organized interests can credibly promise in return for favorable treatment, Gehlbach shows that politicians may instead give preference to groups - organized or not - that by their nature happen to take actions that are politically valuable. Gehlbach develops this argument in the context of the postcommunist experience, focusing on the incentive of politicians to promote sectors that are naturally more tax compliant, regardless of their organization. In the former Soviet Union, tax systems were structured around familiar revenue sources, magnifying this incentive and helping to prejudice policy against new private enterprise. In Eastern Europe, in contrast, tax systems were created to cast the revenue net more widely, encouraging politicians to provide the collective goods necessary for new firms to flourish.

Transforming the Peace Process in Northern Ireland: From Terrorism to Democratic Politics


Aaron Edwards - 2008
    It delineates the key stumbling blocks in the current peace and political processes and examines in detail just how the conversion from terrorism to democratic politics is being managed in post-conflict Northern Ireland. It fills a gap in the literature by juxtaposing 'top-level' political party and inter-governmental politics alongside 'middle-range' civil society interventions and 'grass-roots' community level politics. Moreover, it provides an empirically informed examination of the central political ideologies, parties, and identities at play, as well as the methodologies by which paramilitary groupings are attempting to deal with the legacies of the past conflict. The book draws its contributors from across the disciplinary boundaries of political science, history, anthropology, sociology, and political sociology and is situated within a broad analytical and theoretical framework.

Political Thought and International Relations: Variations on a Realist Theme


Duncan Bell - 2008
    Since then, however, its fortunes have been mixed: pushed onto the backburner during the 1990s, it has in recent years retuned to the center of scholarly debate in international relations. Yet despite its significance in international relations theory, realism plays little role in contemporary international political theory. It is often associated with a form of crude realpolitik that ignores the role of ethical considerations in political life.Political Thought and International Relations explores an alternative understanding of realism. The contributors view realism chiefly as a diverse and complex mode of political and ethical theorizing rather than either a value-neutral branch of social science or the unreflective defense of the national interest. They analyze a variety of historical and philosophical themes, probing the potential and the pathologies of realist thought. A number of the chapters offer critical interpretations of key figures in the canon of twentieth century realism, including Hans Morgenthau, E. H. Carr, and Reinhold Niebuhr. Others seek to widen the lens through which realism is usually viewed, exploring the writings of Martin Heidegger, Hannah Arendt, and Leo Strauss. Finally, a number of the contributors engage with general issues in political theory, including the meaning and value of pessimism, the relationship between power and ethics, the role of normative political theory, and what might constitute political 'reality.' Straddling international relations and political theory, this book makes a significant contribution to both fields.

Robert Schuman: Neo-Scholastic Humanism and the Reunification of Europe


Alan Fimister - 2008
    What is seldom appreciated is the remarkable degree to which Schuman's actions were the conscious implementation of the Neo-Thomistic project of Pope Leo XIII (1878-1903). Leo sought to employ the intellectual resources of St Thomas Aquinas to achieve «the restoration, both in rulers and peoples, of the principles of the Christian life in civil and domestic society. The resolution of the Church's difficulties with the French Republic and republicanism generally was a central goal of Leo's programme. In the half-century that followed a series of philosophers sought to envisage the concrete conditions under which Leo's vision could be realised. Foremost among them was Jacques Maritain (1882-1973). Robert Schuman was a close student of Aquinas and committed to the reconciliation of the Church and the Republic. As French Foreign Minister he sought to act upon Maritain's belief that a European federation conceived under the banner of liberty would ultimately lead to the establishment of a new Christendom.

Capital Market Liberalization And Development


Joseph E. Stiglitz - 2008
    Many developing countries, often at the behest of international financial institutions such as the IMF, opened their capital accounts and liberalized their domestic financial markets as part of the wave of liberalization that characterized the 1980s and 1990s and in doing so exposed their economies to increased risk and volatility. Now with even the IMF acknowledging the risks inherent in capital market liberalization, the central intellectual battle over the effects of capital market liberalization has for the most part ended. Though this new understanding of the consequences of capital market liberalization is reshaping many policy discussions among academics and international institutions, ideological and vested interests remain.Critical policy debates also remain, such as how much government should intervene and what tools are available. Although capital market liberalization might not produce the promised benefits, many economists and policymakers still worry about the costs of intervention. Do these costs exceed the benefits? What are the best kinds of interventions, under what circumstances? To answer these questions, we have to understand why capital market liberalization has failed to enhance growth, why it has resulted in greater instability, why the poor appear to have borne the greatest burden, and why the advocates of capital market liberalization were so wrong. Bringing together some of the leading researchers and practitioners in the field, this volume provides an analysis of both the risks associated with capital market liberalization and the alternative policy options available to enhance macroeconomic management.

Israel and the Family of Nations: The Jewish Nation-State and Human Rights


Alexander Yakobson - 2008
    Citing various European, constitutions and laws, the authors explore concept of a Jewish State and its various meanings in the light of international law, and the current norms of Human Rights as applied to other democratic societies compatible with liberal democratic norms and conclude that international reality does not accord with the concept which regards a modern, liberal democracy as a culturally neutral and a nationally colourless entity.In light of the new political map in Israel and the prospect of future disengagement from the West Bank, Israel and the Family of Nations is essential reading for all those who wish to understand Israel's future challenges.

Corruption and State Politics in Sierra Leone


William Reno - 2008
    He focuses upon the ties between foreign firms and African rulers in Sierra Leone, where politicians and warlords use private networks that exploit relationships with international businesses to buttress their wealth and so extend their powers of patronage. This permits them to expand the reach of their governments in unorthodox ways, but in the process they undermine the bureaucracty of their own states. Dr Reno suggests that as the post-colonial state is eroded there is a return to the enclave economies and private armies that characterised the pre-colonial and colonial arrangements between European businessmen or administrators and some African political figures.

Jazzocracy: Jazz, Democracy, and the Creation of a New American Mythology


Kabir Sehgal - 2008
    If someone forgets to play his four, there is a flagrant void of sound. If you play one measure extra, you're not respecting the form. In the jam session of a Jazzocracy, Americans trade fours with each other. Talk and listen. In the 1950s, jazz musicians became the literal embodiment of American democracy. Through one of the largest ever funded cultural projects, premier jazz musicians traveled to places beyond the Iron Curtain, and throughout the Third World in an effort to promulgate ideals of democracy. Now, from a new generation, we have a new challenge. It s the challenge to see the evolution of jazz and democracy as forming our next set of mythologies, ones that cast beyond the tired legacy of Billy the Kid, or the degraded trends of popular music. This young author asks the big question are we forgetting the very spirit that inspired jazz in the first place? Kabir Sehgal shows us how jazz can help us recapture America s rightful soul.

Politics of Inclusion: Caste, Minority, and Affirmative Action


Zoya Hasan - 2008
    It examines the underlying issues that influence state policy towards disadvantaged groups and assesses specific strategies and whether these need rethinking and reshaping to take India forward in its quest or equality. It also looks at the constitutional framework, the institutional structures, and the responses and debates surrounding the inclusion for lower castes and minorities, especially the emphasis on affirmative action for the former and the continuing opposition to the inclusion of the latter in this framework.

The Foundations of Ethnic Politics: Separatism of States and Nations in Eurasia and the World


Henry E. Hale - 2008
    Research into how the human brain actually works demands a revision of existing schools of thought. At its foundation, ethnic identity is a cognitive uncertainty-reduction device with special capacity to exacerbate, but not cause, collective action problems. This produces a new general theory of ethnic conflict that can improve both understanding and practice. A deep study of separatism in the USSR and CIS demonstrates the theory's potential, mobilizing evidence from elite interviews, three local languages, and mass surveys. The outcome is a significant reinterpretation of nationalism's role in the USSR's breakup, which turns out to have been a far more contingent event than commonly recognized. International relations in the CIS are similarly cast in new light.

Recapturing Democracy: Neoliberalization and the Struggle for Alternative Urban Futures


Mark Purcell - 2008
    Combining an original argument with a number of case studies, Mark Purcell explores the condition of democracy in contemporary Western cities. Whereas many scholars focus on what Purcell calls procedural democracy - i.e., electoral politics and access to it - he instead assesses substantive democracy. By this he means the people's ability to have some say over issues of social justice, material well being, and economic equality. Neoliberalism, which advocates a diminished role for the state and increasing power for mobile capital, has diminished substantive democracy in recent times, he argues. He looks at case studies where this has occurred and at others that show how neoliberalism can be resisted in the name of substantive democracy. Ultimately, he utilizes Henri Lefebvre's notion of the right to the city, which encompasses substantive as well as procedural democracy for ordinary urban citizens.

Oxford Handbook of Political Methodology


Janet M. Box-Steffensmeier - 2008
    Both the Political Methodology Society and the Qualitative/Multi-Methods Section of the American Political Science Association have engaged in ongoing researchand training programs that have advanced quantitative and qualitative methodology. The Oxford Handbook of Political Methodology presents and synthesizes these developments.The Handbook provides comprehensive overviews of diverse methodological approaches, with an emphasis on three major themes. First, specific methodological tools should be at the service of improved conceptualization, comprehension of meaning, measurement, and data collection. They should increaseanalysts' leverage in reasoning about causal relationships and evaluating them empirically by contributing to powerful research designs. Second, the authors explore the many different ways of addressing these tasks: through case-studies and large-n designs, with both quantitative and qualitativedata, and via techniques ranging from statistical modelling to process tracing. Finally, techniques can cut across traditional methodological boundaries and can be useful for many different kinds of researchers. Many of the authors thus explore how their methods can inform, and be used by, scholarsengaged in diverse branches of methodology.

Security Studies: An Introduction


Paul D. Williams - 2008
    Part 2 explains the central concepts underpinning contemporary debates from the security dilemma to terrorism. Part 3 presents an overview of the institutional security architecture currently influencing world politics using international, regional and global levels of analysis. Part 4 examines some of the key contemporary challenges to global security from the arms trade to energy security. Part 5 discusses the future of security.Security Studies provides a valuable teaching tool for undergraduates and MA students by collecting these related strands of the field together into a single coherent textbook.

Selected Works of Michael Wallerstein


Michael Wallerstein - 2008
    His early death from cancer left both a hole in the profession and a legacy that will surely provide the foundation for research on these topics. This volume collects his most important and influential contributions, organized by topic, with each topic preceded by an editorial introduction that provides overview and context.

The Political Science Toolbox: A Research Companion to the American Government


Stephen E. Frantzich - 2008
    Students yearn for a trusted guide to help them cope with the political science experience--a single reference work that contains the basic tools that an American government major needs to succeed. And instructors desire to help students ask meaningful political science questions, but are concerned about sacrificing valuable class time to 're-teach' basic research concepts. In other words, instructors desire a work that contains the basic tools that they hope their students bring to each class, but that experience tells them their students are unlikely to possess. The Political Science Toolbox is a reliable companion to students of American government as they navigate their undergraduate programs. It serves as a bridge between research methods classes and student research, making it a valuable supplement for an applied research methods class, as well as a useful supplement for introduction to American government courses or introduction to Political Science courses. Moreover, students completing honors papers, capstone assignments, or any substantial research projects in the field of American government will find the ideas and guidance provided in this work to be invaluable.

From Rebellion to Riots: Collective Violence on Indonesian Borneo


Jamie S. Davidson - 2008
    Since the late 1960s, this province has suffered periodic outbreaks of ethnic violence among its Dayak, Malay, Madurese, and ethnic Chinese populations. Citing evidence from his research, internal military documents, and ethnographic accounts, Jamie S. Davidson refutes popular explanations for these flare-ups. The recurrent violence has less to do with a clash of cultures, the ills of New Order-led development, or indigenous marginalization than with the ongoing politicization of ethnic and indigenous identity in the region.             Looking at key historical moments, markedly different in their particulars, Davidson reveals the important links between ethnic violence and subnational politics. In one case, army officers in Soeharto’s recently established New Order regime encouraged anti-Chinese sentiments. To move against communist-inspired rebellion, they recruited indigenous Dayaks to expunge tens of thousands of ethnic Chinese from interior towns and villages. This counter-insurgent bloodshed inadvertently initiated a series of clashes between Dayaks and Madurese, another migrant community. Driven by an indigenous empowerment movement and efforts by local elites to control benefits provided by decentralization and democratization, these low-intensity riots rose to immense proportions in the late 1990s. From Rebellion to Riots demonstrates that the endemic violence in this vast region is not the inevitable outcome of its ethnic diversity, and reveals that the initial impetus for collective bloodshed is not necessarily the same as the forces that sustain it. “A comprehensive case study . . . . Essential reading for students of the West Kalimantan violence.”—Dave McRae, Indonesia

Constitutional Rights, Moral Controversy, and the Supreme Court


Michael J. Perry - 2008
    Perry examines three of the most disputed constitutional issues of our time: capital punishment, state laws banning abortion, and state policies denying the benefit of law to same-sex unions. The author, a leading constitutional scholar, explains that if a majority of the justices of the Supreme Court believes that a law violates the Constitution, it does not necessarily follow that the Court should rule that the law is unconstitutional. In cases in which it is argued that a law violates the Constitution, the Supreme Court must decide which of two importantly different questions it should address: (1) Is the challenged law unconstitutional? (2) Is the lawmakers' judgment that the challenged law is constitutional a reasonable judgment? (One can answer both questions in the affirmative.) By focusing on the death penalty, abortion, and same-sex unions, Perry provides illuminating new perspectives not only on moral controversies that implicate one or more constitutionally entrenched human rights, but also on the fundamental question of the Supreme Court's proper role in adjudicating such controversies.

Diggers, Levellers, and Agrarian Capitalism: Radical Political Thought in Seventeenth Century England


Geoff Kennedy - 2008
    In the context of the emerging conceptions of the state and property-with attendant notions of accumulation, labor, and the common good-groups such as Levellers and Diggers developed distinctive forms of radical political thought not because they were progressive, forward thinkers, but because they were the most significant challengers of the newly-constituted forms of political and economic power. Drawing on recent re-examinations of the nature of agrarian capitalism and modernity in the early modern period, Geoff Kennedy argues that any interpretation of the political theory of this period must relate to the changing nature of social property relations and state power. The radical nature of early modern English political thought is therefore cast in terms of its oppositional relationship to these novel forms of property and state power, rather than being conceived of as a formal break from discursive conventions.

Sport, Revolution and the Beijing Olympics


Grant Jarvie - 2008
    They liken the circumstances to previous governments that used the games to glorify their regimes--most notoriously the Nazis in 1936. What has led to this perception and is it fair? Sport, Revolution and the Beijing Olympics is a cultural history of sport in China that challenges many such ingrained Western assumptions. The authors unpick the relationship of sport to imperialism and revolution and examine its significance in both China and Taiwan at governmental and everyday levels. In the process they successfully debunk harmful myths, such as the prevalence of drugs in Chinese sport among women athletes, and present a balanced view that is a much-needed corrective to popular understanding.

Gender, Violence and Security: Discourse as Practice


Laura J. Shepherd - 2008
    The author investigates UN Security Council Resolution 1325, passed in 2000 to address gender issues in conflict areas, in order to examine the discursive construction of security policy that takes gender seriously. In doing so, she argues that language is not merely descriptive of social/political reality but rather constitutive of it. Moving from concept to discourse, and in turn to practice, the author analyses the ways in which the resolution's discursive construction had an enormous influence over the practicalities of its implementation, and how the resulting tensions and inconsistencies in its construction contributed to its failures. The book argues for a re-conceptualisation of gendered violence in conjunction with security, in order to avoid partial and highly problematic understandings of their practical relationship. Drawing together theoretical work on discourses of gender violence and international security, sexualised violence in war, gender and peace processes, and the domestic-international dichotomy with her own rigorous empirical investigation, the author develops a compelling discourse-theoretical analysis that promises to have far-reaching impact in both academic and policy environments.

The Washington Consensus Reconsidered: Towards a New Global Governance


Narcis Serra - 2008
    Covering a wide range of issues from macro-stabilization to trade and the future of global governance, this important volume makes a real contribution to this important and ongoing debate.The volume begins by introducing the Washington Consensus, discussing how it was originally formulated, what it left out, and how it was later interpreted, and sets the stage for a formulation of a new development framework in the post-Washington Consensus era. It then goes on to analyze and offer differing perspectives and potential solutions to a number of key development issues, some which were addressed by the Washington Consensus and others which were not. The volume concludes by looking toward formulating new policy frameworks and offers possible reforms to the current system of global governance.

Microeconomics


Study Outlines (NOT Textbook) - 2008
    In this best-selling introductory textbook, Krugman and Wells’ signature storytelling style and uncanny eye for revealing examples help readers understand how economic concepts play out in our world.

On War: Lessons to be Learned


H.R. McMaster - 2008
    

Libya since 1969: Qadhafi's Revolution Revisited


Dirk Vandewalle - 2008
    Throughout the different chapters the authors explore the rise of the military in Libya, the impact of its self-styled revolution on Libyan society and economy.

Machiavelli's The "Prince": A Biography


Philip Bobbitt - 2008
    In Garments of Court and Palace, Philip Bobbitt, a preeminent and original interpreter of modern statecraft, presents a vivid portrait of Machiavelli's Italy and demonstrates how The Prince articulates a new idea of government that emerged during the Renaissance. Bobbitt argues that when The Prince is read alongside the Discourses, modern readers can see clearly how Machiavelli prophesied the end of the feudal era and the birth of a recognizably modern polity. As this book shows, publication of The Prince in 1532 represents nothing less than a revolutionary moment in our understanding of the place of the law and war in the creation and maintenance of the modern state.

United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea


United Nations - 2008
    

Poverty, Participation, and Democracy


Anirudh Krishna - 2008
    Evidence from 24 diverse countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America examined in this volume shows how poor people do not value democracy any less than their richer counterparts. Their faith in democracy is as high as that of other citizens, and they participate in democratic activities as much as their richer counterparts. Democracy is not likely to be unstable or unwelcome simply because poverty is widespread. Political attitudes and participation levels are unaffected by relative wealth. Education, rather than income or wealth, makes for more committed and engaged democratic citizens. Investments in education will make a critical difference for stabilizing and strengthening democracy.

Making social sciences more scientific: the need for predictive models


Rein Taagepera - 2008
    One reason for falling short is that social sciences have depended excessively on regression and other statistical approaches, neglecting logical model building. Science is not only about the empirical 'What is?' but also very much about the conceptual 'How should it be on logical grounds?' Statistical approaches are essentially descriptive, while quantitatively formulated logical models are predictive in an explanatory way. Making Social Sciences More Scientific contrasts the predominance of statistics in today's social sciences and predominance of quantitatively predictive logical models in physics. It shows how to construct predictive models and gives social science examples. Making Social Sciences More Scientific is useful to students who wish to learn the basics of the scientific method and to all those researchers who look for ways to do better social science.

People of Virtue: Reconfiguring Religion, Power and Moral Order in Cambodia Today


Alexandra Kent - 2008
    Crucial to this process has been the formation of a new moral order in Cambodia and hence the revival of religion in the country. However, this process requires that the representatives of religion and of morality do have credibility and moral authority, something that may be called into question by their past and present involvement in hegemonic political and secular affairs.The importance of this volume, therefore, is not only that it contributes to the new interest in religion in Cambodia but also because it places the religious revival in a nuanced social, cultural and political context and shows how Cambodia pursues order in large part through reference to her past.It also addresses major questions of interest to a global audience. These include such topics as how a community may be repaired after violent conflict, how religion and politics are interwoven and how moral order and historical change impact upon one another.

How Enemies Are Made: Towards a Theory of Ethnic and Religious Conflict


Günther Schlee - 2008
    This book puts forward an alternative conflict theory. The author develops a decision theory which explains the conditions under which differing types of identification are preferred. Group identification is linked to competition for resources like water, territory, oil, political charges, or other advantages. Rivalry for resources can cause conflicts but it does not explain who takes whose side in a conflict situation. This book explores possibilities of reducing violent conflicts and ends with a case study, based on personal experience of the author, of conflict resolution.

Global Political Economy and the Modern State System


Tobias ten Brink - 2008
    In contrast to the political attractiveness of optimistic theoretical approaches to globalisation, this book demonstrates how an analytical approach rooted in Global Political Economy (GPE) helps to explain both the tendencies towards integration and towards rivalry in international relations. By way of a historical reconstruction of different ‘world order’ phases in the twentieth century, ten Brink analyses multiple, phase-specific variations of socioeconomic and geopolitical conflicts that are significant for the modern capitalist world system.Revised edition of Geopolitik. Geschichte und Gegenwart kapitalistischer Staatenkonkurrenz, Verlag Westfälisches Dampfboot, Münster, 2008.

Southeast Asia in Political Science: Theory, Region, and Qualitative Analysis


Erik Kuhonta - 2008
    The book provides a state-of-the-art review of key topics in the field, including: state structures, political regimes, political parties, contentious politics, civil society, ethnicity, religion, rural development, globalization, and political economy. The chapters allow readers to trace the development of Southeast Asian politics and to address central debates in comparative politics. The book will serve as a valuable reference for undergraduate and graduate students, scholars of Southeast Asian politics, and comparativists engaged in theoretical debates at the heart of political science.

Ethics and Criminal Justice: An Introduction


John Kleinig - 2008
    John Kleinig sets the issues in the context of a liberal democratic society and its ethical and legislative underpinnings, and illustrates them with a wide and international range of real-life case studies. Topics covered include discretion, capital punishment, terrorism, restorative justice, and re-entry. Kleinig's discussion is both philosophically acute and grounded in institutional realities, and will enable students to engage productively with the ethical questions which they encounter both now and in the future - whether as criminal justice professionals or as reflective citizens.

New World Disorder: The UN after the Cold War - An Insider's View


David Hannay - 2008
    This is an insider’s account of that turbulent period.  Lord Hannay, who, as Britain’s representative to the UN, sat in the Security Council from the time of Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait until the Srebrenica massacre in Bosnia (1990-1995), gives a first hand view of events as they unfolded. Just weeks after George H.W. Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev’s historic handshake, the UN was being asked to repel the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, to wind up a string of Third World proxy wars, and to find a solution to the challenges of environmental degradation and climate change. At first, the Five Permanent Members of the Security Council, worked together to an unprecedented extent, with notable success. But as Hannay shows, little was done to prepare for the problems of state failure--in Somalia, in the former Yugoslavia, in Rwanda and in Afghanistan--which proved beyond the UN’s capacity to handle and which frayed the solidarity of the main powers. Hannay subsequently joined the Secretary General’s High Level Panel, and spearheaded the most ambitious attempt at reform of the organization since it was founded in 1945. He recounts here with insight and candor why this program derailed. New World Disorder is an invaluable source of information for anyone seeking to understand the current structures, dynamics and trends of world politics. It is also a compelling account of one of the great turning points in world history, as seen from inside the eye of the storm

Ronald Reagan's America: His Voice, His Dreams, and His Vision of Tomorrow [With CD]


Terry Golway - 2008
    His voice confronted America's foes, comforted the nation, and hastened the end of the Cold War. Ronald Reagan's America presents the history of the Reagan years told through his memorable speeches during the defining events of the era. Reagan's unshakable belief in the power of democracy against totalitarianism and of freedom against oppression shaped our world today. His ideas set the tone for our struggles and victories against the Soviet Union and in the Middle East, and his legacy continues in US policy at home and throughout the world. In the tradition of Let Every Nation Know, historian Terry Golway presents the defining moments of the Reagan years, with Ronald Reagan at their center. Woven throughout the book are carefully chosen excerpts of the speeches Reagan gave at 30 notable events throughout his political career included on one audio CD. Praise for Ronald Reagan's America "Nothing short of terrific...The insightful commentary adds a powerful complement." -Booklist "Illuminates the importance of public address to the success and reputation of presidents." -Library Journal "Riveting tour de force." -Publishers Weekly "A masterful job." -Bob Schieffer, CBS News "Marvelous work." -Joe Conason, journalist and author of The Hunting of the President and Big Lies

Path to Prosperity: Hamilton Project Ideas on Income Security, Education, and Taxes


Jason Furman - 2008
    Its pragmatic work aims to increase opportunities for broad-based wealth, economic security, and enduring growth. Path to Prosperity, the first book to emerge from the Hamilton Project, presents important and original work to that end. P ath to Prosperity focuses on three key criteria for fostering broadly shared economic growth: enhancing economic security, building a highly skilled work force, and reforming the tax system. Income security proposals offer methods for reforming unemployment insurance, protecting against the risk of reemployment at a lower wage after job loss, and improving incentives for retirement saving. Education proposals build human capital by improving each level of education, from preschool programs for poor children to graduate fellowships in math and science. The tax proposals seek to make taxation simpler, more progressive, and better suited to a global economy. Contributors include Roger C.Altman, Reuven S.Avi-Yonah, Jason E. Bordoff, Kimberly A. Clausing, Susan M. Dynarski, Molly E. Fifer, Richard B. Freeman, Jason Furman,William G. Gale,Austan Goolsbee, Robert Gordon, Jonathan Gruber,Thomas J. Kane, Lori Kletzer, Jeffrey R. Kling, Alan B. Krueger, Jens Ludwig, Peter R. Orszag, Howard F. Rosen, Robert Rubin, Isabel Sawhill, Judith E. Scott-Clayton, and Douglas O. Staiger.

Off the Wall: Political Posters of the Lebanese Civil War


Zeina Maasri - 2008
    Showcased here for the first time, the posters display a dramatic clash of cultures, ideologies and meanings. Maasri shows how the iconography of the posters changed throughout the war, and links this to changing political identities and imagined communities. She explores the factions' different aesthetic influences; from modern Arab visual culture to Latin America and revolutionary Iran. Combining in-depth knowledge of the local context with fascinating insights into the semiotics of visual media, Off the Wall is a highly original contribution to our understanding of visual culture, civil conflict, and the politics of the Middle East.

Taxation and State-Building in Developing Countries: Capacity and Consent


Deborah Brautigam - 2008
    When governments fail, more sinister forces thrive: warlords, arms smugglers, narcotics enterprises, kidnap gangs, terrorist networks, armed militias. Why do governments fail? This book explores an old idea that has returned to prominence: that authority, effectiveness, accountability and responsiveness is closely related to the ways in which governments are financed. It matters that governments tax their citizens rather than live from oil revenues and foreign aid, and it matters how they tax them. Taxation stimulates demands for representation, and an effective revenue authority is the central pillar of state capacity. Using case studies from Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America, this book presents and evaluates these arguments, updates theories derived from European history in the light of conditions in contemporary poorer countries, and draws conclusions for policy-makers.

The Trial of Donald Rumsfeld: A Prosecution by Book


Michael Ratner - 2008
    Readers are allowed to judge whether the Bush administration has engaged in torture and whom among the administration to hold responsible.Reminiscent of Christopher Hitchens’s bestselling The Trial of Henry Kissinger, The Case Against Donald Rumsfeld constitutes one of the only attempts to hold high–ranking Bush administration officials criminally responsible for their actions.

From War to Democracy: Dilemmas of Peacebuilding


Anna K. Jarstad - 2008
    The contributors' research highlights the complex relationship between democratization, which is competitive, and peacebuilding or efforts to achieve reconciliation. The book offers insights into more effective action in peacebuilding in light of the short-term negative effects that democratization can introduce. It is a thought-provoking work that seeks both to advance theory and to provide policy-relevant findings to facilitate more effective and durable transitions from war to democracy.

Made with Words: Hobbes on Language, Mind, and Politics


Philip Pettit - 2008
    But this work is of immense interest in itself, as Philip Pettit shows in Made with Words, and it critically shapes Hobbes's political philosophy. Pettit argues that it was Hobbes, not later thinkers like Rousseau, who invented the invention of language thesis--the idea that language is a cultural innovation that transformed the human mind. The invention, in Hobbes's story, is a double-edged sword. It enables human beings to reason, commit themselves as persons, and incorporate in groups. But it also allows them to agonize about the future and about their standing relative to one another; it takes them out of the Eden of animal silence and into a life of inescapable conflict--the state of nature. Still, if language leads into this wasteland, according to Hobbes, it can also lead out. It can enable people to establish a commonwealth where the words of law and morality have a common, enforceable sense, and where people can invoke the sanctions of an absolute sovereign to give their words to one another in credible commitment and contract. Written by one of today's leading philosophers, Made with Words is both an original reinterpretation and a clear and lively introduction to Hobbes's thought.

Dateline Havana: The Real Story of Us Policy and the Future of Cuba


Reese Erlich - 2008
    policy and the future of Cuba on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Cuban Revolution. Covering art, music, and Cuban politics, Reese Erlich creates a tableau that is at once moving and informative.