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The Politics of Petulance: America in an Age of Immaturity
by Alan WolfeHow did we get into this mess? Every morning, many Americans ask this as, with a cringe, they pick up their phones and look to see what terrible thing President Trump has just said or done. Regardless of what he’s complaining about or whom he’s attacking, a second question comes hard on the heels of the first: How on earth do we get out of this? Alan Wolfe has an answer. In The Politics of Petulance he argues that the core of our problem isn’t Trump himself—it’s that we are mired in an age of political immaturity. That immaturity is not grounded in any one ideology, nor is it a function of age or education. It’s in an abdication of valuing the character of would-be leaders; it’s in a failure to acknowledge, even welcome the complexity of government and society; and it’s in a loss of the ability to be skeptical without being suspicious. In 2016, many Americans were offered tantalizingly simple answers to complicated problems, and, like children being offered a lunch of Pop Rocks and Coke, they reflexively—and mindlessly—accepted. The good news, such as it is, is that we’ve been here before. Wolfe reminds us that we know how to grow up and face down Trump and other demagogues. Wolfe reinvigorates the tradition of public engagement exemplified by midcentury intellectuals such as Richard Hofstadter, Reinhold Niebuhr, and Lionel Trilling—and he draws lessons from their battles with McCarthyism and conspiratorial paranoia. Wolfe mounts a powerful case that we can learn from them to forge a new path for political intervention today. Wolfe has been thinking and writing about American life and politics for decades. He sees this moment as one of real risk. But he’s not throwing up his hands; he’s bracing us. We’ve faced demagogues before. We can find the intellectual maturity to fight back. Yes we can.
The Politics of Pharmaceutical Policy Reform
by Elize Massard da FonsecaBrazil is renowned worldwide for its remarkable reforms in pharmaceutical regulation, which have enhanced access to essential medicines while lowering drug costs. This book innovates by analysing the generic drug reform in Brazil, demonstrating that pharmaceutical regulation is only partially influenced by non-state actors. Little is known about the institutional antecedents and policy process that channeled this regulatory reform. This is particularly intriguing because a regulatory shift in the pharmaceutical sector requires the participation of a number of stakeholders and interest groups in the policy process. Fonseca examines the generic drug reform's causes and consequences. No study has approached the generic drug regulation in Brazil from this perspective. The Politics of Pharmaceutical Policy Reform: A Study of Generic Drug Regulation in Brazil, explores the following: · The politics of pharmaceutical regulation in Brazil over the last 25 years. · The political negotiations to approve the Generic Drug Act, which involved a hard-to-reach agreement between the pharmaceutical industry (national and multinational), the Ministry of Health, and Congress · The controversial decisions to regulate packaging and pharmaceutical equivalence. · The surprising success of Brazilian pharmaceutical firms, which became market champions in a sector largely dominated by multinational firms. · Comparative lessons from the Brazilian case for the political construction of regulatory standards to regulate generic drugs and its effects on global health. This book will interest political scientists and health policy scholars concerned with the political conflicts in the pharmaceutical sector. It argues against well-established approaches to regulatory capture such as control of the regulatory process by interest groups and policy diffusion. It can be used as evidence for graduate courses in public policy, health policy and political science. Because Brazil is one of the largest markets for pharmaceuticals in the world, business leaders and consultancy firms would also be interested.
The Politics of Place and the Limits of Redistribution (Routledge Advances in International Relations and Global Politics)
by Melissa Ziegler RogersNumerous scholars have noticed that certain political institutions, including federalism, majoritarian electoral systems, and presidentialism, are linked to lower levels of income redistribution. This book offers a political geography explanation for those observed patterns. Each of these institutions is strongly shaped by geography and provides incentives for politicians to target their appeals and government resources to localities. Territorialized institutions also shape citizens’ preferences in ways that can undermine the national coalition in favor of redistribution. Moreover, territorial institutions increase the number of veto points in which anti-redistributive actors can constrain reform efforts. These theoretical connections between the politics of place and redistributive outcomes are explored in theory, empirical analysis, and case studies of the USA, Germany, and Argentina.
The Politics of Police Governance: Scottish Police Reform, Localism, and Epistocracy
by Ali MalikMaking a unique contribution to the scholarship on democratic policing, this book adapts the concept of epistocracy to explore the role of knowledge and expertise in police governance and accountability. Analysing the Scottish police governance arrangements following reform in 2013, the book provides a framework for knowledge-based working practices, showing how the principles of democratic policing may be achieved in practice.
The Politics of Policing in Greater China
by Sonny Shiu-Hing LoThis book examines the politics of policing in Greater China, including mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macao. As the author shows, police ideological indoctrination is strongest in mainland China, followed by Hong Kong, and Taiwan, where the police is under increasing political stress, in the aftermath of rising public protests and socio-political movements. Macao's police, on the other hand, is far less politicized and indoctrinated than their mainland Chinese counterpart. This book demonstrates that policing in China is a distinctive and extensive topic, as it involves not only crime control, but also crisis management and protest control, governance and corruption (or anti-corruption), the management of customs and immigration, the control over legal and illegal migrants, the transfer of criminals and extradition, and intergovernmental police cooperation and coordination. As economic integration is increasing rapidly in Greater China, this region's policing deserves special attention.
The Politics of Policy Analysis
by Paul CairneyThis book focuses on two key ways to improve the literature surrounding policy analysis. Firstly, it explores the implications of new developments in policy process research, on the role of psychology in communication and the multi-centric nature of policymaking. This is particularly important since policy analysts engage with policymakers who operate in an environment over which they have limited understanding and even less control. Secondly, it incorporates insights from studies of power, co-production, feminism, and decolonisation, to redraw the boundaries of policy-relevant knowledge. These insights help raise new questions and change expectations about the role and impact of policy analysis.
The Politics of Policy Making in Defense and Foreign Affairs: Conceptual Models and Bureaucratic Politics (Third Edition)
by Roger HilsmanAuthor Roger Hilsman brings to this Third Edition the insight and experience from a lifetime in military and foreign affairs. In the Third Edition of this classic volume, he sets forth a realistic description of how Washington actually works in the making of defense policy and foreign affairs. He achieves this by exploring the various conceptual models and power centers (both individuals and instructions) driving traditional and contemporary defense and foreign policy.
The Politics of Political Science: Re-Writing Latin American Experiences
by Paulo RaveccaIn this thought-provoking book, Paulo Ravecca presents a series of interlocking studies on the politics of political science in the Americas. Focusing mainly on the cases of Chile and Uruguay, Ravecca employs different strands of critical theory to challenge the mainstream narrative about the development of the discipline in the region, emphasizing its ideological aspects and demonstrating how the discipline itself has been shaped by power relations. Ravecca metaphorically charts the (non-linear) transit from “cold” to “warm” to “hot” intellectual temperatures to illustrate his—alternative—narrative. Beginning with a detailed quantitative study of three regional academic journals, moving to the analysis of the role of subjectivity (and political trauma) in academia and its discourse in relation to the dictatorships in Chile and Uruguay, and arriving finally at an intimate meditation on the experience of being a queer scholar in the Latin American academy of the 21st century, Ravecca guides his readers through differing explorations, languages, and methods. The Politics of Political Science: Re-Writing Latin American Experiences offers an essential reflection on both the relationship between knowledges and politics and the political and ethical role of the scholar today, demonstrating how the study of the politics of knowledge deepens our understanding of the politics of our times.
The Politics of Ponzi Schemes: History, Theory and Policy
by Marie SpringerIn the space of three years, from 2009 to 2012 Bernie Madoff, Tom Petters and R. Allen Stanford were all convicted for running multi-billion dollar Ponzi schemes. These three schemes alone have had the largest financial take in U.S. history. But what role does the economy and legislation play in the occurrences of Ponzi schemes? What is the nature of Ponzi schemes and what are their tools and mechanisms? What can we know about Ponzi perpetrators? Unraveling the answers to these questions (and many more), Marie Springer provides the first representative portrait of Ponzi schemes, their perpetrators, and their victims. Adopting a multidisciplinary approach, she begins by presenting an overview of different types of Ponzi schemes. She later explores perpetrators and victims of Ponzi schemes followed by a close examination of economic trends, regulatory changes, and the financial relationship with Ponzi schemes. Other key features include: • A non-technical overview of both offender based and offense-based approaches of studying this form of fraud. • Examples of Ponzi schemes and Ponzi schemers. • A wealth of descriptive statistics on known federal cases from the 1960s until the present to quantify this specific form of fraud. Broadening our understanding of Ponzi schemes as a form of white-collar crime, The Politics of Ponzi Schemes provides an excellent foundation for students and practitioners of public administration, banking, as well as investors, finance and accounting, law enforcement officers, legislators and regulators.
The Politics of Popular Culture
by Tim NieguthDays after the 9/11 attacks George W. Bush sought to reassure the American public that Osama bin Laden would be brought to justice, quipping that "there's an old poster out West, as I recall, that said, 'Wanted: Dead or Alive.'" Bush's invocation of Wild West mythology was neither novel nor unusual - elected officials frequently tap into popular culture in order to mobilize public support for themselves and for their policies. The Politics of Popular Culture examines the relationship between popular culture and politics. It stresses that popular culture is politically important because it reflects and operates within broader socio-political conditions, can transport political ideas and ideologies, and is a site where identities and institutions are shaped, contested, and reproduced. Essays discuss film, television, music, and video games from a variety of theoretical and methodological vantage points in order to enrich our understanding of the ways in which popular culture shapes our views of political institutions, actors, and issues. Contributors include Jonah Butovsky (Brock), Gina S. Comeau (Laurentian), Danielle J. Deveau (Pop Culture Lab), Timothy Fowler (Carleton), Aurélie Lacassagne (Laurentian), Jérôme Melançon (Alberta), Christian Poirier (Institut national de la recherche scientifique), Tracey Raney (Ryerson), Kelly L. Saunders (Brandon), and Shauna Wilton (Alberta).
The Politics of Popular Culture: Negotiating Power, Identity, and Place
by Tim NieguthDays after the 9/11 attacks George W. Bush sought to reassure the American public that Osama bin Laden would be brought to justice, quipping that "there's an old poster out West, as I recall, that said, 'Wanted: Dead or Alive.'" Bush's invocation of Wild West mythology was neither novel nor unusual - elected officials frequently tap into popular culture in order to mobilize public support for themselves and for their policies. The Politics of Popular Culture examines the relationship between popular culture and politics. It stresses that popular culture is politically important because it reflects and operates within broader socio-political conditions, can transport political ideas and ideologies, and is a site where identities and institutions are shaped, contested, and reproduced. Essays discuss film, television, music, and video games from a variety of theoretical and methodological vantage points in order to enrich our understanding of the ways in which popular culture shapes our views of political institutions, actors, and issues. Contributors include Jonah Butovsky (Brock), Gina S. Comeau (Laurentian), Danielle J. Deveau (Pop Culture Lab), Timothy Fowler (Carleton), Aurélie Lacassagne (Laurentian), Jérôme Melançon (Alberta), Christian Poirier (Institut national de la recherche scientifique), Tracey Raney (Ryerson), Kelly L. Saunders (Brandon), and Shauna Wilton (Alberta).
The Politics of Populism in Hungary (Routledge Studies in Anti-Politics and Democratic Crisis)
by Robert CsehiThe book assesses the development of the Orbán regime in Hungary after 2010 through analyzing the polity-politics-policy impacts from a perspective of populism as an ideology focusing on discourse and actual decisions. By closely scrutinizing political narratives, actual decisions and survey data, this volume offers a systematic analysis of the impact of populism on the polity-politics-policy aspects of the political in Hungary after 2010. It analyzes the uses of constitutionalism and discriminatory legalism, the changes in the quality of democracy, the government’s relationship with media and journalism, its influence over the party system and EU politics, and its approach to family and cultural policies. While each chapter in the volume describes the findings in response to the corresponding literature highlighting the added value of the individual analyses, the book interprets the overall results under the notion of "smart populism" where the moral definition of "the people" allows for little political opposition, "the elite" is selected based on its multifaceted applicability for a political narrative and "the will of the people" is determined from above. The volume also suggests responses to "smart populism". The book will be of particular interest to students and scholars of democracy, party politics the rise of populism and contemporary Hungarian politics.
The Politics of Possibility: Risk and Security Beyond Probability
by Louise AmooreSince September 11, 2001, the imagination of "low probability, high consequence" events has become a distinctive feature of contemporary politics. Uncertain futures--devastation by terrorist attack, cyber crime, flood, financial market collapse--must be discerned and responded to as possibilities, however improbable they may be. In The Politics of Possibility, Louise Amoore examines this development, tracing its genealogy through the diverse worlds of risk management consulting, computer science, commercial logistics, and data visualization. She focuses on the increasingly symbiotic relationship between commercial opportunities and state security threats, a relation that turns the trusted, iris-scanned traveler into "a person of national security interest," and the designer of risk algorithms for casino and insurance fraud into a homeland security resource. Juxtaposing new readings of Agamben, Foucault, Derrida, Massumi, and Connolly with interpretations of post-9/11 novels and artworks, Amoore analyzes the "politics of possibility" and its far-reaching implications for society, associative life, and political accountability.
The Politics of Post-Industrial Welfare States: Adapting Post-War Social Policies to New Social Risks (Routledge Studies in the Political Economy of the Welfare State)
by Giuliano Bonoli Klaus ArmingeonThis new study assesses the welfare state to ask key questions and draw new conclusions about its place in modern society. It shows how the welfare states that we have inherited from the early post-war years had one main objective: to protect the income of the male breadwinner. Today, however, massive social change, in particular the shift from industrial to post-industrial societies and economies, have resulted in new demands being put on welfare states. These demands originate from situations that are typical of the new family and labour market structures that have become widespread in western countries since the 1970s and 1980s, characterised by the clear prevalence of service employment and by the massive entry of women in the labour market. Against this background, this book: * presents a precise and clear definition of 'new social risks'. A concept being increasingly used in welfare state literature. * focuses on the groups that are mostly exposed to new social risks (women, the young, the low-skilled) in order to study their political behaviour. * assesses policymaking processes that can lead to successful adaptation. It covers key areas such as child care, care for elderly people, adapting pensions to atypical career patterns, active labour market policies, and policy making at the EU level. This book will be of great interest for all students and scholars of politics, sociology and the welfare state in particular.
The Politics of Post-War Demobilisation and Reintegration in Nigeria
by Olukunle OjeleyeWith an increasing international interest in post civil war demobilisation and reintegration, especially in Africa, Ojeleye presents a well timed body of knowledge on the Nigerian civil war. Moreover, this book provides an in-depth study of the modalities and processes of the demobilisation and reintegration exercises carried out at the end of the Nigerian civil war and assesses their implications for national politics in the West African nation. The author identifies the political, socio-economic and cultural background to the Nigerian civil war and discusses the central theme of demobilisation, disarmament and reintegration (DDR) in Nigeria against the backdrop of the policy of the country's post war reconstruction, reconciliation and rehabilitation exercise (the 3Rs). Though the central theme is Nigeria, it compares the demobilisation and reintegration exercise in Nigeria with other attempts in Sub Sahara Africa by highlighting the important deviations and drawing some conclusions on the Nigerian experience. It also touches on issues relating to international involvement and intervention in civil wars and the roles of the African Union, the Commonwealth of Nations and the United Nations.
The Politics of Postsecular Religion: Mourning Secular Futures (Insurrections: Critical Studies in Religion, Politics, and Culture)
by Ananda AbeysekaraAnanda Abeysekara contends that democracy, along with its cherished secular norms, is founded on the idea of a promise deferred to the future. Rooted in democracy's messianic promise is the belief that religious-political identity-such as Buddhist, Hindu, Sinhalese, Christian, Muslim, or Tamil-can be critiqued, neutralized, improved, and changed, even while remaining inseparable from the genocide of the past. This facile belief, he argues, is precisely what distracts us from challenging the violence inherent in postcolonial political sovereignty. At the same time, we cannot simply dismiss the democratic concept, since it permeates so deeply through our modernist, capitalist, and humanist selves. In The Politics of Postsecular Religion, Abeysekara invites us to reconsider our ethical-political legacies, to look at them not as problems, but as aporias, in the Derridean sense-that is, as contradictions or impasses incapable of resolution. Disciplinary theorizing in religion and politics, he argues, is unable to identify the aporias of our postcolonial modernity. The aporetic legacies, which are like specters that cannot be wished away, demand a new kind of thinking. It is this thinking that Abeysekara calls mourning and un-inheriting. Un-inheriting is a way of meditating on history that both avoids the simple binary of remembering and forgetting and provides an original perspective on heritage, memory, and time. Abeysekara situates aporias in the settings and cultures of the United States, France, England, Sri Lanka, India, and Tibet. In presenting concrete examples of religion in public life, he questions the task of refashioning the aporetic premises of liberalism and secularism. Through close readings of Nietzsche, Heidegger, Arendt, Derrida, Butler, and Agamben, as well as Foucault, Asad, Chakrabarty, Balibar, and Zizek, he offers readers a way to think about the futures of postsecular politics that is both dynamic and creative.
The Politics of Poverty in Contemporary Russia (Studies in Contemporary Russia)
by Ann-Mari SätreThis book provides an overview of poverty and well-being in Russia. Increasing poverty rates during the 1990s were followed by greater attention to social policies in the 2000s and increased efforts to engage people in socially oriented NGOs and ‘encourage’ them to contribute to the fulfillment of social aims. What impact did these developments have on the prevalence of poverty in contemporary Russian society? Tracing continuities from the Soviet system alongside recent developments such as the falling price of oil, economic sanctions, and changes in directions of social policy, this book explores the impact of poverty, inequality and social programmes. The author examines the agency of people living in poverty and those engaged in social policy, using official statistics, survey data and interviews from four Russian regions to explain the reasons and consequences of poverty and people’s attempts to get out of it. The approach is based on institutional theory, complemented by Amartya Sen’s capability approach highlighting the importance of agency and an institutional framework as a means for change. A timely book that will be of interest to students of contemporary Russian politics as well as those engaged in social policy issues.
The Politics of Power
by Lars-Christian U. TalsethThis book sheds new light on the complex EU-Russia relationship, by providing the first comprehensive account of the EU-Russia Energy Dialogue. The author examines why Moscow and Brussels have failed to cooperate in this crucial area of interdependence. By invoking constructivism and Mikhail Bakhtin's concept of dialogue, and drawing on dozens of interviews with Russian and European officials, Talseth argues that the Energy Dialogue was unsuccessful because its interlocutors failed to come up with a common narrative for cooperation. Evidence suggests that the collapse of the Energy Dialogue was not pre-determined and initially there was a great deal of optimism and goodwill. Ultimately, the outcome of the Energy Dialogue was shaped by the unfolding time-space of Russo-European relations.
The Politics of Power: A Critical Introduction to American Government
by Mark Kesselman Ira Katznelson Alan DraperStudents appreciate a critical approach; The Politics of Power gives them something to think about and argue with, rather than just facts to memorize. The Seventh Edition applies this successful framework to examine recent political conflict over fiscal policy, electoral demographics, health care reform, and economic inequality, among other vital issues.
The Politics of Precarity: Spaces of Extractivism, Violence, and Suffering (Interventions)
by Gediminas LesutisBased on critical theory and ethnographic research, this book explores how intensifying geographies of extractive capitalism shape human lives and transformative politics in marginal areas of the global economy. Engaging the work of Judith Butler, Henri Lefebvre, and Jacque Rancière with ethnographic research on socio-political effects of mining-induced dispossession in Mozambique, Lesutis demonstrates how precarity unfolds as a spatially constituted condition of everyday life given over to the violence of capital. Going beyond labour relations, or governance of life in liberal democracies, the book shows how dispossessed people are subjected to structural, symbolic, and direct modalities of violence; this simultaneously constitutes their suffering and ceaseless desire, however implausible, to be included into abstract space of extractivism. As a result, despite multifarious violence that it engenders, extractive capital accumulation is sustained even in the margins, historically excluded from contingently lived imaginaries of a "good life" promised by capital. Presenting this theorisation of precarity as a framework on, and a critique of, the contemporary politics of (un)liveability, the book speaks to key debates about precarity, dispossession, resistance, extractivism, and development in several disciplines, especially political geography, IPE, global politics, and critical theory. It will also be of interest to scholars in development studies, critical political economy, and African politics.
The Politics of Precaution: Regulating Health, Safety, and Environmental Risks in Europe and the United States
by David VogelThe Politics of Precaution examines the politics of consumer and environmental risk regulation in the United States and Europe over the last five decades, explaining why America and Europe have often regulated a wide range of similar risks differently. It finds that between 1960 and 1990, American health, safety, and environmental regulations were more stringent, risk averse, comprehensive, and innovative than those adopted in Europe. But since around 1990, the book shows, global regulatory leadership has shifted to Europe. What explains this striking reversal? David Vogel takes an in-depth, comparative look at European and American policies toward a range of consumer and environmental risks, including vehicle air pollution, ozone depletion, climate change, beef and milk hormones, genetically modified agriculture, antibiotics in animal feed, pesticides, cosmetic safety, and hazardous substances in electronic products. He traces how concerns over such risks--and pressure on political leaders to do something about them--have risen among the European public but declined among Americans. Vogel explores how policymakers in Europe have grown supportive of more stringent regulations while those in the United States have become sharply polarized along partisan lines. And as European policymakers have grown more willing to regulate risks on precautionary grounds, increasingly skeptical American policymakers have called for higher levels of scientific certainty before imposing additional regulatory controls on business.
The Politics of Preference: Democratic Institutions and Affirmative Action in the United States and India
by Sunita ParikhSunita Parikh examines the history and fate of affirmative action programs in two ethnically heterogeneous democracies, the United States and India. Affirmative action programs in the United States represent a controversial policy about which the American public feel at best ambivalence and at worst hostility, while in India the expansion of reservation policies in recent years has led to riots and contributed to the fall of governments. And yet these policies were not particularly controversial when they were introduced. How the policy traveled from these auspicious beginnings to its current predicament can best be understood, according to Parikh, by exploring the changing political conditions under which it was introduced, expanded, and then challenged. Although they are in many respects very different countries, India and the United States are important countries in which to study the implementation of ascriptive policies like affirmative action, according to Parikh. They are both large, heterogeneous societies with democratic political systems in which previously excluded groups were granted benefits by the majorities that had historically oppressed them. Parikh argues that these policies were the product of democratic politics--which required political parties to mobilize existing groups as voters--and the ethnically heterogeneous nature of Indian and U. S. society--where ethnic markers are particularly salient sources of identification as groups. Affirmative action in both countries was introduced because it could be used to solidify and expand electoral coalitions by giving benefits to defined minority groups, according to Parikh. As the policy became better known, it became more disliked by non-targeted groups, and it was no longer an appeal which was cost free for politicians. This book will be of interest to social scientists concerned with race and ethnic relations and with the comparative study of political and social systems. Sunita Parikh is Assistant Professor of Political Science, Columbia University.
The Politics of Pregnancy: Policy Dilemmas in the Maternal-Fetal Relationship
by Janna C MerrickHere is a comprehensive overview and analysis of issues concerning the maternal-fetal relationship, from abortion to surrogate motherhood. Unlike many books which cover reproductive issues in general, this book focuses in-depth on one aspect of reproduction--the maternal-fetal relationship--to give readers a detailed study of the many issues involved. The Politics of Pregnancy discusses public policy dimensions of this relationship and posits new, critical political dilemmas. Many chapters in this unique book also provide significant clinical information as well as conceptual analysis.The Politics of Pregnancy offers great diversity in terms of the disciplinary backgrounds of the authors and their ideological perspectives. Authors come from many fields, including sociology, political science, pediatrics, ethics, and psychiatry, and provide diverse, sometimes opposing, analytical positions. Some of the topics they debate include: maternal substance use during pregnancy prenatal technology pregnancy and workplace hazards court-ordered obstetrical intervention fetal experimentationReaders interested in public and health care policy, nursing, feminism, pediatrics, or ethics, will find The Politics of Pregnancy to be a stimulating and thought-provoking book. This volume also makes an excellent discussion tool for graduate courses in these areas.
The Politics of Presidential Impeachment (SUNY series in American Constitutionalism)
by Daniel P. Franklin Stanley M. Caress Robert M. Sanders Cole D. TaratootThe Politics of Presidential Impeachment takes a distinctive and fresh look at the impeachment provision of the US Constitution. Instead of studying it from a legal-constitutional perspective, the authors use a social science approach incorporating extensive case studies and quantitative analysis. Focusing on four presidents who faced impeachment processes—Andrew Johnson, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and Bill Clinton—they examine the conditions under which presidential impeachment is likely to occur and argue that partisanship and the evolving relationship between Congress and the president determine its effectiveness as an institutional constraint. They find that, in our contemporary political context, the propensity of Congress to utilize the impeachment tool is more likely, but given the state of heightened partisanship, impeachment is less likely to result in removal of a president. The authors conclude that impeachment is no longer a credible threat and thus no longer an effective tool in the arsenal of checks and balances. The book also offers a postscript that discusses the impeachment of President Donald J. Trump.
The Politics of Principle
by Theunis RouxUnder its first chief justice, Arthur Chaskalson, the South African Constitutional Court built an unrivalled reputation in the comparative constitutional law community for technically accomplished and morally enlightened decision-making. At the same time, the Court proved remarkably effective in asserting its institutional role in post-apartheid politics. While each of these accomplishments is noteworthy in its own right, the Court's simultaneous success in legal and political terms demands separate investigation. Drawing on and synthesising various insights from judicial politics and legal theory, this study offers an interdisciplinary explanation for the Chaskalson Court's achievement. Rather than a purely political strategy of the kind modelled by rational choice theorists, the study argues that the Court's achievement is attributable to a series of adjudicative strategies in different areas of law. In combination, these strategies allowed the Court to satisfy institutional norms of public reason-giving while at the same time avoiding political attack.