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The Political Leadership of Prime Minister John Major: A Reassessment Using the Greenstein Model (Palgrave Studies in Political Leadership)
by Thomas McMeekingThis book seeks to re-examine John Major’s leadership using techniques developed through Presidential Studies: namely using Fred Greenstein’s seminal study of Presidential Leadership, The Presidential Difference, and its six criteria for leadership (public communicator, organisational capacity, political skill, public policy vision, cognitive style, and, finally, emotional intelligence). It is through Greenstein’s model that a fresh look can be taken at not only Major’s time in office, but equally the man himself, which proves to be just as revealing. Major’s tenure has often been characterised as being weak and incompetent, as he presided over a sleaze-ridden and divided party on the issue of Europe. With almost a quarter of a century having passed since Major left office, it looks to be an appropriate moment to re-assess his premiership and important role in the recent seismic events surrounding the 2016 Brexit referendum and its outcome.
The Political Legacies of Barry Goldwater and George McGovern
by Jeffrey J. VolleThis book is about redemption for people on the right and left of the political spectrum who can be proud of two politicians, Senator's Barry Goldwater and George McGovern, who demonstrated that defeat can be accepted with decency and honor.
The Political Legacy of Colonialism in Zimbabwe: Implications for Justice and Elections in Africa (African Governance)
by Everisto BenyeraThis book investigates the political legacy of colonialism in contemporary African institutions.Using the case study of electoral and justice institutions in post-colonial Zimbabwe, the book explores how those in post-colonial states relate to and with institutions initially designed to oppress them and remain structurally and systematically colonial. The book argues that the colonial era colonised the land, knowledge, and minds of Africans, resulting in injustice and epistemicides. The book demonstrates how the critical institutions of elections and justice have been rendered anti-black and toxic. The book calls for Africa to invest in epistemic independence, unencumbered by Western political modernity, and then deploy that independence to build reconstituted institutions, structures, and systems that serve the interests of Africans.This book will be an important read for African policymakers and researchers working on African politics, governance, and international relations.
The Political Life of an Epidemic: Cholera, Crisis and Citizenship in Zimbabwe
by Simukai ChiguduZimbabwe's catastrophic cholera outbreak of 2008–9 saw an unprecedented number of people affected, with 100,000 cases and nearly 5,000 deaths. Cholera, however, was much more than a public health crisis: it represented the nadir of the country's deepening political and economic crisis of 2008. This study focuses on the political life of the cholera epidemic, tracing the historical origins of the outbreak, examining the social pattern of its unfolding and impact, analysing the institutional and communal responses to the disease, and marking the effects of its aftermath. Across different social and institutional settings, competing interpretations and experiences of the cholera epidemic created charged social and political debates. In his examination of these debates which surrounded the breakdown of Zimbabwe's public health infrastructure and failing bureaucratic order, the scope and limitations of disaster relief, and the country's profound levels of livelihood poverty and social inequality, Simukai Chigudu reveals how this epidemic of a preventable disease had profound implications for political institutions and citizenship in Zimbabwe.
The Political Lives of Dead Bodies: Reburial and Postsocialist Change
by Katherine VerderySince 1989, scores of bodies across Eastern Europe have been exhumed and brought to rest in new gravesites. Katherine Verdery investigates why certain corpses -- the bodies of revolutionary leaders, heroes, artists, and other luminaries, as well as humbler folk -- have taken on a political life in the turbulent times following the end of Communist Party rule, and what roles they play in revising the past and reorienting the present. Enlivening and invigorating the dialogue on postsocialist politics, this imaginative study helps us understand the dynamic and deeply symbolic nature of politics -- and how it can breathe new life into old bones.
The Political Lives of Information: Information and the Production of Development in India (The Information Society Series)
by Janaki SrinivasanHow the definition, production, and leveraging of information are shaped by caste, class, and gender, and the implications for development.Information, says Janaki Srinivasan, has fundamentally reshaped development discourse and practice. In this study, she examines the history of the idea of &“information&” and its political implications for poverty alleviation. She presents three cases in India—the circulation of price information in a fish market in Kerala, government information in information kiosks operated by a nonprofit in Puducherry, and a political campaign demanding a right to information in Rajasthan—to explore three uses of information to support goals of social change. Countering claims that information is naturally and universally empowering, Srinivasan shows how the definition, production, and leveraging of information are shaped by caste, class, and gender. Srinivasan draws on archival and ethnographic research to challenge the idea of information as objective and factual. Using the concept of an &“information order,&” she examines how the meaning and value of information reflect the social relations in which it is embedded. She asks why casting information as a tool of development and solution to poverty appeals to actors across the political spectrum. She also shows how the power to label some things information and others not is at least as significant as the capacity to subsequently produce, access, and leverage information. The more faith we place in what information can do, she cautions, the less attention we pay to its political lives and to the role of specific social structures, individual agency, and material form in the defining, production, and use of that information.
The Political Logic of Economic Reform in China (California Series on Social Choice and Political Economy #24)
by Susan L. ShirkIn the past decade, China was able to carry out economic reform without political reform, while the Soviet Union attempted the opposite strategy. How did China succeed at economic market reform without changing communist rule? Susan Shirk shows that Chinese communist political institutions are more flexible and less centralized than their Soviet counterparts were.Shirk pioneers a rational choice institutional approach to analyze policy-making in a non-democratic authoritarian country and to explain the history of Chinese market reforms from 1979 to the present. Drawing on extensive interviews with high-level Chinese officials, she pieces together detailed histories of economic reform policy decisions and shows how the political logic of Chinese communist institutions shaped those decisions.Combining theoretical ambition with the flavor of on-the-ground policy-making in Beijing, this book is a major contribution to the study of reform in China and other communist countries.
The Political Logic of Experience: Expression in Phenomenology (Perspectives in Continental Philosophy)
by Neal DeRooThe Political Logic of Experience argues that experience and phenomenology are essentially political, with profound implications for our understanding of subjectivity, epistemology, experience, the phenomenological method, and politics. Drawing on work from across the phenomenological tradition, it develops an account of expression as the internal relationship uniting knowing, being, and doing with both transcendental conditions and empirical phenomena. This expressive unification generates subjectivity as an expression of particular communities and subjects as an expression of subjectivity. Subjectivity and experience are therefore both revealed to be inherently political prior to their expression in particular subjects.In clarifying the political nature of experience and the constitution of subjectivity, the book puts the work of critical phenomenology in dialogue with transcendental phenomenology to reveal the need for a phenomenological politics: a field tasked with explaining the expressive, co-constitutive, and necessarily political relationships between subjects and their communities. It is only through such a phenomenological politics that we can properly make sense of the epistemological, ontological, and practical significance of issues like racism and sexism, problems that concern our very experience of the world. The book reveals phenomenology to be both essentially political and politically essential, as it emerges within particular communities and shapes and transforms how individuals within those communities experience the world.Touching on issues of transcendental phenomenology, political strategy, historical interpretation and inter-disciplinary phenomenological method, the book argues for foundational claims pertaining to phenomenology, politics, and social criticism that will be of interest to those working in philosophy, gender studies, race, queer theory, transcendental and applied phenomenology, and beyond.
The Political Logics of Anticorruption Efforts in Asia (SUNY series in Comparative Politics)
by Cheng Chen; Meredith L. WeissFocusing on Northeast and Southeast Asia—regions notable for political diversity, difficult environments for fighting corruption, and multifarious anticorruption outcomes—this book examines the political dynamics behind anticorruption efforts there. The contributors present case studies of the Philippines, Indonesia, Taiwan, Vietnam, Thailand, South Korea, and China that explore the varying roles anticorruption efforts play in solidifying or disputing democratic and nondemocratic institutions and legitimacy, as well as the broader political and economic contexts that gave rise to these efforts. Whether motivated by private interests, party loyalty, or political institutionalization, political actors shape the trajectories of anticorruption efforts by challenging their opponents over what constitutes corruption, what enables corruption, and how to combat corruption. Arguing that anticorruption strategy may be associated more closely with shifting bases of regime legitimacy than with regime type, the book sheds light on the divergent ways in which states control and respond to political elites and society at large, and on how citizens from across strata understand and engage with their states.
The Political Machine: Assembling Sovereignty in the Bronze Age Caucasus
by Adam T. SmithThe Political Machine investigates the essential role that material culture plays in the practices and maintenance of political sovereignty. Through an archaeological exploration of the Bronze Age Caucasus, Adam Smith demonstrates that beyond assemblies of people, polities are just as importantly assemblages of things--from ballots and bullets to crowns, regalia, and licenses. Smith looks at the ways that these assemblages help to forge cohesive publics, separate sovereigns from a wider social mass, and formalize governance--and he considers how these developments continue to shape politics today.Smith shows that the formation of polities is as much about the process of manufacturing assemblages as it is about disciplining subjects, and that these material objects or "machines" sustain communities, orders, and institutions. The sensibilities, senses, and sentiments connecting people to things enabled political authority during the Bronze Age and fortify political power even in the contemporary world. Smith provides a detailed account of the transformation of communities in the Caucasus, from small-scale early Bronze Age villages committed to egalitarianism, to Late Bronze Age polities predicated on radical inequality, organized violence, and a centralized apparatus of rule. From Bronze Age traditions of mortuary ritual and divination to current controversies over flag pins and Predator drones, The Political Machine sheds new light on how material goods authorize and defend political order.
The Political Marketing Game
by Jennifer Lees-MarshmentThe Political Marketing Game identifies what works in political marketing - the rules of the game - showing politicians can choose to play the game to achieve change, not just win votes, because authenticity, values and vision are as much a part of a winning strategy as market-savvy pragmatism. Using 100 interviews with practitioners including advisors to former world leaders Tony Blair, George W Bush, Stephen Harper, Helen Clark and Kevin Rudd, as well academic literature, this book offerspolitical elites tools to navigate the complex and unpredictable electoral market. It shows the democratic impact of political marketing depends on how the game is played. Whilst politicians need to listen, varying responsiveness to public demand is more successful than abandoning their beliefs. Elites need to work in partnership with the public, as voters want politicians who say 'yes we can' not 'yes I can,' using deliberative market analysis so that politics can evolve in the 21st century and become a partnership democracy.
The Political Mind
by George LakoffA groundbreaking scientific examination of the way our brains understand politics from a New York Times bestselling author One of the world 's best-known linguists and cognitive scientists, George Lakoff has a knack for making science make sense for general readers. In his new book, Lakoff spells out what cognitive science has discovered about reason, and reveals that human reason is far more interesting than we thought it was. Reason is physical, mostly unconscious, metaphorical, emotion-laden, and tied to empathy-and there are biological explanations behind our moral and political thought processes. His call for a New Enlightenment is a bold and striking challenge to the cherished beliefs not only of philosophers, but of pundits, pollsters, and political leaders. The Political Mind is a passionate, erudite, and groundbreaking book that will appeal to anyone interested in how the mind works and how we function socially and politically. .
The Political Mind: Why You Can't Understand 21st-Century Politics with an 18th-Century Brain
by George LakoffIn What's the Matter with Kansas?, Thomas Frank pointed out that a great number of Americans actually vote against their own interests. In The Political Mind, George Lakoff explains why. As it turns out, human beings are not the rational creatures we've so long imagined ourselves to be. Ideas, morals, and values do not exist somewhere outside the body, ready to be examined and put to use. Instead, they exist quite literally inside the brain-and they take physical shape there. For example, we form particular kinds of narratives in our minds just like we form specific muscle memories such as typing or dancing, and then we fit new information into those narratives. Getting that information out of one narrative type and into another-or building a whole new narrative altogether-can be as hard as learning to play the banjo. Changing your mind isn't likechanging your body-it's the same thing. But as long as progressive politicians and activists persist in believing that people use an objective system of reasoning to decide on their politics, the Democrats will continue to lose elections. They must wrest control of the terms of the debate from their opponents rather than accepting their frame and trying to argue within it. This passionate, erudite, and groundbreaking book will appeal to readers of Steven Pinker and Thomas Frank. It is a fascinating read for anyone interested in how the mind works, how society works, and how they work together.
The Political Morality of Liberal Democracy
by Michael J. PerryIn this important new work in political and constitutional theory, Michael Perry elaborates and defends an account of the political morality of liberal democracy: the moral convictions and commitments that in a liberal democracy should govern decisions about what laws to enact and what policies to pursue. The fundamental questions addressed in this book concern (1) the grounding, (2) the content, (3) the implications for one or another moral controversy, and (4) the judicial enforcement of the political morality of liberal democracy. The particular issues discussed include whether government may ban pre-viability abortion, whether government may refuse to extend the benefit of law to same-sex couples, and what role religion should play in the politics and law of a liberal democracy.
The Political Nature of a Ruling Class: Capital and Ideology in South Africa 1890–1933 (Routledge Revivals)
by Belinda BozzoliFirst published in 1981, The Political Nature of a Ruling Class is a study of the role played by the ‘organic intellectuals’, who were attached to the capitalist class in South Africa, in shaping the processes of state and class formation in the crucial decades when the foundations of modern South Africa were being laid.The book examines how the political and ideological character of the imperialist, ‘British South African’, mining bourgeoisie was formed, which revolutionised southern Africa and remained dominant until the First World War, and how a national bourgeoisie emerged and later came to prevail which differed both as a political force and as the bearer of a new ‘South Africanist’ ideology. In both cases, the activities of the intellectuals are explained in terms of the economic imperatives of accumulation and the capitalists’ conflicts with other classes, and in each case, racism is viewed in the light of the overall system of hegemony created by capital. The origins of South African capitalism are examined finally from the point of view of one group of people—the capitalists themselves.A concrete and readable account of capitalists and their ideologies, this contribution to theories both of class and state formation and of the relationship between political, cultural, ideological and economic forces will be of importance to students and researchers of African studies and political science.
The Political Outsider: Indian Democracy and the Lineages of Populism (South Asia in Motion)
by Srirupa RoyDefying the dire predictions that attended its birth as an independent nation-state in 1947, the Indian republic is more than seventy-five years old. And yet, it is a place where criticisms of actually existing democracy are intense and strident. In recent years, the trope of victimized people suffering at the hands of a predatory elite and political dysfunction has reaped rewards. The populist language of redemptive outsiders pledging to combat a corrupt system has been harnessed in successful electoral campaigns, like the majoritarian regime of Narendra Modi. Tracking the shift from postcolonial nation-building to democracy-rebuilding, Srirupa Roy shows how the political outsider came to be a valorized figure of late-twentieth century Indian democracy, tasked with the urgent mission of curing a broken democratic system—what Roy terms "curative democracy." Drawing attention to an ambivalent political field that folds together authoritarian and democratic forms and ideas, Roy argues that the long 1970s were a crucial turning point in Indian politics, when democracy was suspended by the declaration of a national emergency and then subsequently restored. By tracing the crooked line that connects the ideals of curative democracy and the political outsider to the populist antipolitics and strongman authoritarian rule in present times, this book revisits democracy from India, and asks what the Indian experience tells us about the trajectory of global democratic politics.
The Political Persuaders: The Techniques Of Modern Election Campaigns
by Dan NimmoFor better or worse, political image is now more important to electoral victory than a spontaneous exchange of conflicting views over matters of substantive policies. Campaign managers, polling specialists, and communication consultants define issues, set agendas, and explore policy options primarily for electoral gain. In short, campaign contrivances replace substance at all phases and levels of electoral contests. Political estrangement, as illustrated by declining voting levels, may well be a by-product of deceptive political consultant and political journalistic practices rather than Americans being frustrated by insoluble problems.In The Political Persuaders, Dan Nimmo analyzes and critiques the emerging political industry of professional political management and consulting. His volume was the first book-length treatment to do so; it is a seminal work on the subject for both academic scholars and political practitioners. In his new introduction, Nimmo hones his critique in light of the past thirty years and its effects on campaign organization, research, and communication. He assesses changes in campaign technology, stable and shifting practices of candidate marketing, and the consequences for democratic governance inherent in professionally mediated campaigns at the close of the twentieth century.Nimmo succinctly reviews his well-nigh prophetic conclusions, determining that trends discovered in 1970 not only persist, but continue to intensify with a vengeance. Although evolving campaign techniques claim to involve citizens in the electoral process, the actual involvement is more cosmetic than real-this, Nimmo argues is the principle source of deepening popular disappointment and a general political apathy. This timely volume should be read by political scientists, policymakers, and those in the fields of mass communication and journalism.Dan Nimmo has been a professor of political science, journalism, and communication at various institutions, notably the University of Missouri, University of Tennessee, and the University of Oklahoma. He is currently distinguished visiting professor of political science at Baylor University. He is the author or editor of many works including Popular Images of Politics and Newsgathering in Washington.
The Political Philosophies of Antonio Gramsci and B. R. Ambedkar: Itineraries of Dalits and Subalterns (Routledge Advances in South Asian Studies)
by Cosimo ZeneBridging two generations of scholarship on social inequality and modern political forms, this book examines the political philosophies of inclusion of subalterns/Dalits in Gramsci and Ambedkar’s political philosophies. It highlights the full range of Gramsci’s ‘philosophy of praxis’ and presents a more critical appreciation of his thought in the study of South Asian societies. Equally, Ambedkar’s thought and philosophy is put to the forefront and acquires a prominence in the international context. Overcoming geographical, cultural and disciplinary boundaries, the book gives relevance to the subalterns. Following the lead of Gramsci and Ambedkar, the contributors are committed, apart from underscoring the historical roots of subalternity, to uncovering the subalterns’ presence in social, economic, cultural, educational, literary, legal and religious grounds. The book offers a renewed critical approach to Gramsci and Ambedkar and expands on their findings in order to offer a present-day political focus into one of the most crucial themes of contemporary society. This book is of interest to an interdisciplinary audience, including political theory, post-colonial studies, subaltern studies, comparative political philosophy, Dalit studies, cultural studies, South Asian studies and the study of religions.
The Political Philosophy of Alexander Hamilton (The Political Philosophy of the American Founders)
by Michael P. FedericiAmerica’s first treasury secretary and one of the three authors of the Federalist Papers, Alexander Hamilton stands as one of the nation’s important early statesmen. Michael P. Federici places this Founding Father among the country’s original political philosophers as well.Hamilton remains something of an enigma. Conservatives and liberals both claim him, and in his writings one can find material to support the positions of either camp. Taking a balanced and objective approach, Federici sorts through the written and historical record to reveal Hamilton’s philosophy as the synthetic product of a well-read and pragmatic figure whose intellectual genealogy drew on Classical thinkers such as Cicero and Plutarch, Christian theologians, and Enlightenment philosophers, including Hume and Montesquieu. In evaluating the thought of this republican and would-be empire builder, Federici explains that the apparent contradictions found in the Federalist Papers and other examples of Hamilton’s writings reflect both his practical engagement with debates over the French Revolution, capital expansion, commercialism, and other large issues of his time, and his search for a balance between central authority and federalism in the embryonic American government. This book challenges the view of Hamilton as a monarchist and shows him instead to be a strong advocate of American constitutionalism.Devoted to the whole of Hamilton’s political writing, this accessible and teachable analysis makes clear the enormous influence Hamilton had on the development of American political and economic institutions and policies.
The Political Philosophy of Benjamin Franklin (The Political Philosophy of the American Founders)
by Lorraine Smith PangleThe most famous man of his age, Benjamin Franklin was an individual of many talents and accomplishments. He invented the wood-burning stove and the lightning rod, he wrote Poor Richard's Almanac and The Way to Wealth, and he traveled the world as a diplomat. But it was in politics that Franklin made his greatest impact. Franklin’s political writings are full of fascinating reflections on human nature, on the character of good leadership, and on why government is such a messy and problematic business. Drawing together threads in Franklin's writings, Lorraine Smith Pangle illuminates his thoughts on citizenship, federalism, constitutional government, the role of civil associations, and religious freedom.Of the American Founders, Franklin had an unrivaled understanding of the individual human soul. At the heart of his political vision is a view of democratic citizenship, a rich understanding of the qualities of the heart and mind necessary to support liberty and sustain happiness. This concise introduction reflects Franklin's valuable insight into political issues that continue to be relevant today.
The Political Philosophy of Benjamin Franklin (The Political Philosophy of the American Founders)
by Lorraine Smith Pangle“One of the very finest introductions to this remarkable American’s thought.” —Ralph Ketcham, Claremont Review of BooksHe invented the wood-burning stove and the lightning rod, he wrote Poor Richard’s Almanac and The Way to Wealth, and he traveled the world as a diplomat. But it was in politics that Benjamin Franklin made his greatest impact.Franklin’s political writings are full of fascinating reflections on human nature, on the character of good leadership, and on why government is such a messy and problematic business. Drawing together threads in Franklin’s writings, Lorraine Smith Pangle illuminates his thoughts on citizenship, federalism, constitutional government, the role of civil associations, and religious freedom.Of the American Founders, Franklin had an unrivaled understanding of the individual human soul. At the heart of his political vision is a view of democratic citizenship, a rich understanding of the qualities of the heart and mind necessary to support liberty and sustain happiness. This concise introduction reflects Franklin’s valuable insight into political issues that continue to be relevant today.
The Political Philosophy of Confucianism: An interpretation of the social and political ideas of Confucius, his forerunners, and his early disciples.
by Leonard Shihlien HsüFirst published in 1932.One of the most astonishing features of the Confucian teaching to the modern reader is its anticipation of the Spencerian formula of evolution and its adaptation of this to a programme of progress. This volume shows that Confucius' teaching is still relevant in many of its features, not merely for China but also for the West. Contents include: The background of Confucian political philosophy; the state and its origin; political unity and organization; the principle of benevolent government; law and justice; democracy and representation, social evolution.
The Political Philosophy of Francis Bacon: On the Unity of Knowledge
by Tom van MalssenComprehensive in its ambitions and meticulous in its approach, The Political Philosophy of Francis Bacon is a new and unique interpretation of one of early modernity's more important thinkers. Whereas recent works on Bacon tend to confine themselves either to interpreting his historical context or to considering the founder of Baconianism from the perspective of one work in particular or the history of science in general, Tom van Malssen argues, through detailed and provocative interpretations of a number of Baconian writings, that the unity of Bacon's thought can only be revealed if these writings are read in historical and philosophical conjunction as well as on the assumption that they are all somehow part of the whole of Bacon's political philosophy. In addition to restoring Bacon to the pantheon of great philosophers, Van Malssen demonstrates that a proper understanding of Bacon's political philosophy contributes significantly to our understanding of the nature of philanthropic science, the modern project, and ultimately ourselves.
The Political Philosophy of George Washington (The Political Philosophy of the American Founders)
by Jeffry H. MorrisonGeorge Washington is revered as the father of his country, a clever and skilled general, and a man of restrained principle—but not as a political thinker. This short introduction to Washington's political philosophy reveals him as a thoughtful public intellectual who was well equipped to lead the young United States.Though Washington left little explicit writing on political philosophy, Jeffry Morrison examines his key writings, actions, education, and political and professional lives. He finds that Washington held closely to a trinity of foundational principles—classical republicanism, British liberalism, and Protestant Christianity—with greater fidelity than many of the other founding fathers. In unearthing Washington's ideological growth, Morrison reveals the intellectual heritage of his political thought and shows how these beliefs motivated him to action. This insightful, concise story makes clearer the complexities of the revolutionary era and shows how the first president's political ideas shaped governmental institutions and instantiated the nation's foundational principles.
The Political Philosophy of George Washington (The Political Philosophy of the American Founders)
by Jeffry H. Morrison&“A delight . . . rewarding insight into Washington and his times . . . and an illuminating section on the religious outlook of this American founder.&” —Journal of American History George Washington is revered as the father of his country, a clever and skilled general, and a man of restrained principle—but not as a political thinker. This short introduction to Washington&’s political philosophy reveals him as a thoughtful public intellectual who was well equipped to lead the young United States. Though Washington left little explicit writing on political philosophy, Jeffry Morrison examines his key writings, actions, education, and political and professional lives. He finds that Washington held closely to a trinity of foundational principles—classical republicanism, British liberalism, and Protestant Christianity—with greater fidelity than many of the other founding fathers. In unearthing Washington&’s ideological growth, Morrison reveals the intellectual heritage of his political thought and shows how these beliefs motivated him to action. This insightful, concise story makes clearer the complexities of the revolutionary era and shows how the first president&’s political ideas shaped governmental institutions and instantiated the nation&’s foundational principles. &“Those who accept the &‘dumb general&’ caricature should be chastened by Morrison&’s elegant and concise sampling of Washington&’s writings . . . This work deserves to be studied and debated by political scientists, historians, and public intellectuals concerned with America&’s fundamental political principles and those of liberal democracy.&” —Review of Politics