POLITICAL SCIENCE
Open Access* e-Books
(See also: Cooperation..; Geopolitics..; Leadership; Law..; Public Admin..)
*NOTE: Some titles in these lists are not necessarily Open Access, but all are free (no fee for e-access)
Embedded Files
Attenuated Democracy
: A Critical Introduction to U.S. Government and Politics
Publisher: Salt Lake Community College Pressbooks
Year of publication: ? [No date given]
[From the Introduction by David Hubert:]
Dear Students,
I hope you enjoy this free textbook on the U. S. political system. Use it well.
Why is this textbook free? Textbook prices are too high. The barriers to higher education are many—cost being a major one—and this is my own small assault on those barriers. I also like the ideal that knowledge should be free from commercialization. I’m paid enough in my day job to keep a roof over my head; I don’t need to be padding my income at the expense of students. In addition, standard textbooks tend to be boring and unnecessarily academic, so I’ve tried to counter that with a writing style that is down-to-earth and accessible for students who may not know anything about politics. Even the research supporting this text is approachable: most of the sources are available either at a decent public library or through a simple Internet search. That was intentional. Finally, traditional textbooks contain way more material than any sane professor can cover in one semester. In this text, I focus only on content that I think every educated person should know, and I don’t waste time shoving every possible concept at you.
Between you and me, we should be clear that this text has a distinct perspective on American politics. Please know that all textbooks on the subject have a perspective, but students don’t often notice because the perspective is reflected in what is not covered in the text or because the authors take a subtle celebratory approach to U.S. government that echoes what students received in high school. However, some texts depart from that approach. When I was a student, I benefited greatly from Michael Parenti’s text Democracy for the Few. I have also used William Hudson’s American Democracy in Peril to great effect with students. Both offer a perspective like the one employed in Attenuated Democracy.
What is the perspective of this text? The U.S. political system suffers from endemic design flaws and is notable for the way that a small subset of Americans—whose interests often don’t align with those of the vast majority of the population—wields disproportionate power. Absent organized and persistent action on the part of ordinary Americans, the system tends to serve the already powerful. That’s why this text is called Attenuated Democracy. To attenuate something is to make it weak or thin. Democracy in America has been thin from the beginning and continues to be so despite some notable progress in ballot access for previously excluded groups. As political scientists Benjamin Page and Martin Gilens wrote, “The essence of democracy is not just having reasonably satisfactory policies; the essence of democracy is popular control of government, with each citizen having an equal voice.” (1) Since this is likely to be your only college-level course on the American political system, it is important to point out the structural weaknesses of our system and the thin nature of our democracy. Doing so is educational and patriotic. Whenever you get the chance—in the voting booth, in your job, perhaps if you hold elected office—I encourage you to do something about America’s attenuated democracy.
[...]
Contents page
Foreword
Introduction
Part 1: Thinking Like a Political Scientist
Ch. 1: What is Politics
Ch. 2: The Nature of Political Power
Ch. 3: Who Has Power in U. S. Politics?
Ch. 4: Political Science as a Social Science
Ch. 5: Common Fallacies in Argumentation
Ch. 6: Making Strong Arguments
Ch. 7: Basic Political Analysis
Ch. 8: Six Very Powerful Questions
Ch. 9: Critical Reading and Reflection
Ch. 10: The Context of U. S. Government and Politics
Part 2: Constitutional Foundations
Ch. 11: Deism, the Indigenous Critique, Natural Rights, and the Declaration of Independence
Ch. 12: Articles of Confederation, Shays' Rebellion and the Road to the Constitution
Ch. 13: Key Features of the U. S. Constitution
Ch. 14: The Battle for Ratification and the Bill of Rights
Ch. 15: A Federal Republic
Ch. 16: The Historical Development of Federalism
Ch. 17: A Secular Republic
Ch. 18: Amending the Constitution
Ch. 19: How Democratic is the U. S. Constitution?
Part 3: Congress
Ch. 20: Who are Our Members of Congress and Whom Do They Represent?
Ch. 21: Congressional Roles
Ch. 22: How Congress Passes Legislation
Ch. 23: Pathologies of Congressional Behavior
Ch. 24: The Undemocratic Senate
Part 4: The Presidency
Ch. 25: The President as Person and Institution
Ch. 26: The Vice President and Presidential Succession
Ch. 27: The President's Domestic Powers
Ch. 28: The President's Foreign Policy Powers
Ch. 29: Contemporary Issues of Presidential Power
Ch. 30: Impeachment and Removal of the President
Part 5: The Supreme Court
Ch. 31: Purpose and Operation of the Supreme Court
Ch. 32: Paths to the Supreme Court
Ch. 33: Appointing and Confirming Supreme Court Justices
Ch. 34: The Interpretive Work of the Supreme Court
Ch. 35: The Supreme Court as an Ideological Actor
Part 6: The Federal Bureaucracy
Ch. 36: Government is Good
Ch. 37: The Scope and Size of the Federal Government
Ch. 38: The Work of the Federal Civil Service and Political Appointees
Ch. 39: Revolving Doors and Corporate Capture of Federal Agencies
Ch. 40: American Budget Priorities
Part 7: Linkage Institutions
Ch. 41: What Do Political Parties Do?
Ch. 42: The Historical Development of American Political Parties
Ch. 43: Policy Preferences of American Political Parties
Ch. 44: Why Do We Have a Two-Party System?
Ch. 45: The Universe of Organized Interests
Ch. 46: Strategies of Organized Interests
Ch. 47: The Historical Development of the News Media
Ch. 48: The Contemporary News Media Ecosystem
Part 8: Electoral Politics and Public Opinion
Ch. 49: Expanding Voting Eligibility in American History
Ch. 50: Early Election Reforms
Ch. 51: The Electoral College
Ch. 52: The Integrity of American Elections
Ch. 53: Gerrymandering
Ch. 54: Campaign Finance
Ch. 55: The Advantages of Incumbency
Ch. 56: Public Opinion and Political Socialization
Part 9: Individual Political Behavior
Ch. 57: Voting
Ch. 58: Beyond Voting
Ch. 59: Civil Disobedience
Ch. 60: Political Violence
Ch. 61: A Guide to Living in an Attenuated Democracy
Part 10: Civil Rights and Civil Liberties
Ch. 62: The Difference Between Civil Rights and Civil Liberties
Ch. 63: Incorporation or Nationalization of the Bill of Rights
Ch. 64: The Boundaries of Freedom of Speech and the Press
Ch. 65: The Law and Politics of Religious Freedom
Ch. 66: The Individual and the Criminal Justice System
Ch. 67: Threats to Individual Freedom--Government Versus Corporations
Ch. 68: Civil Rights Case Study--Race
Ch. 69: Civil Rights Case Study--Sex
Ch. 70: Civil Rights Case Study--Sexual Orientation
Acknowledgements
About the Author
Glossary
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Authoritarian Populism and the Rural World
Publisher: Routledge
Year of publication: 2021
FREE DOWNLOAD: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003162353
The rise of authoritarian, nationalist forms of populism and the implications for rural actors and settings is one of the most crucial foci for critical agrarian studies today, with many consequences for political action.
Authoritarian Populism and the Rural World reflects on the rural origins and consequences of the emergence of authoritarian and populist leaders across the world, as well as on the rise of multi-class mobilisation and resistance, alongside wider counter-movements and alternative practices, which together confront authoritarianism and nationalist populism. The book includes 20 chapters written by contributors to the Emancipatory Rural Politics Initiative (ERPI), a global network of academics and activists committed to both reflective analysis and political engagement. Debates about ‘populism’, ‘nationalism’, ‘authoritarianism’ and more have exploded recently, but relatively little of this has focused on the rural dimensions. Yet, wherever one looks, the rural aspects are key – not just in electoral calculus, but in understanding underlying drivers of authoritarianism and populism, and potential counter-movements to these. Whether because of land grabs, voracious extractivism, infrastructural neglect or lack of services, rural peoples’ disillusionment with the status quo has had deeply troubling consequences and occasionally hopeful ones, as the chapters in this book show.
The chapters in this book were originally published in The Journal of Peasant Studies.
Contents page:
Preface
1. Emancipatory rural politics: confronting authoritarian populism
Ian Scoones, Marc Edelman, Saturnino M. Borras Jr., Ruth Hall, Wendy Wolford and Ben White
2. Counterrevolution, the countryside and the middle classes: lessons from five countries
Walden Bello
3. People and places left behind: work, culture and politics in the rural United States
Jessica D. Ulrich-Schad and Cynthia M. Duncan
4. Power and powerlessness in an Appalachian Valley – revisited
John Gaventa
5. The rural roots of the rise of the Justice and Development Party in Turkey
Burak Gürel, Bermal Küçük and Sercan Taş
6. Rural rage: the roots of right-wing populism in the United States
Chip Berlet and Spencer Sunshine
7. Neoliberal developmentalism, authoritarian populism, and extractivism in the ountryside: the Soma mining disaster in Turkey
Fikret Adaman, Murat Arsel and Begi Akbulut
8. The vanishing exception: republican and reactionary specters of populism in rural Spain
Jaume Franquesa
9. Understanding the silent majority in authoritarian populism: what can we learn from popular support for Putin in rural Russia?
Natalia Mamonova
10. Authoritarian populism in rural Belarus: distinction, commonalities, and projected finale
Aleh Ivanou
11. Land grabbing and the making of an authoritarian populist regime in Hungary
Noémi Gonda
12. Authoritarian populism and neo-extractivism in Bolivia and Ecuador: the unresolved agrarian question and the prospects for food sovereignty as counter-hegemony
Mark Tilzey
13. Pockets of liberal media in authoritarian regimes: what the crackdown on emancipatory spaces means for rural social movements in Cambodia
Alice Beban, Laura Schoenberger and Vanessa Lamb
14. Confronting agrarian authoritarianism: dynamics of resistance to PROSAVANA in Mozambique
Boaventura Monjane and Natacha Bruna
15. Populism from above and below: the path to regression in Brazil
Daniela Andrade
16. ‘They say they don’t see color, but maybe they should!’ Authoritarian populism and colorblind liberal political culture
Michael Carolan
17. Agrarian anarchism and authoritarian populism: towards a more (state-)critical ‘critical agrarian studies’
Antonio Roman-Alcalá
18. ‘Actually existing’ right-wing populism in rural Europe: insights from eastern Germany, Spain, the United Kingdom and Ukraine
Natalia Mamonova, Jaume Franquesa and Sally Brooks
19. Unpacking ‘authoritarian populism’ and rural politics: some comments on ERPI
Henry Bernstein
20. From ‘populist moment’ to authoritarian era: challenges, dangers, possibilities
Marc Edelman
Reviews:
"Right-wing authoritarian populist movements, parties, and governments arise in great part from the discontents fueled by the iniquities of neoliberal capitalist globalisation. This book breaks new ground in searching for the usually neglected rural roots behind and consequences of such authoritarian populisms. The book is comparative in scope, so that its central argument about the significance of the agrarian and rural order is adequately tested and confirmed. The book is also a call for further global research and study with the aim of identifying possibilities - a 'rural politics' and agential sources - that respectively can be articulated and mobilised to combat such populisms. The remarkable upsurge of farmers and rural workers against the Hindu nationalist Modi regime in India is a powerful testimony to the truth of the very politics that this book seeks to underscore."
- Achin Vanaik, Retired Professor of 'International Politics and Global Studies', University of Delhi
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The Boundaries of Democracy
: A Theory of Inclusion
Publisher: Routledge India
Year of publication: 2022
This book [by Ludvig Beckman] provides a general theory of democratic inclusion for the present world. It presents an original contribution to our understanding of the democratic ideal by explaining how democratic inclusion can apply to individuals in a variety of contexts: the workplace, social clubs, religious institutions, the family, and, of course, the state.
The book explores the problem of democratic inclusion, what it means to be subject to de facto authority, how this conception translates into legal systems, and the relationship between territorial claims by the state, and law’s claim to legitimate authority.
The volume will be of interest to scholars and researchers of politics, especially political theory and democracy
Contents page
Ch. 1| The Unresolved Problem of Democratic Inclusion
Ch. 2| Democratic Inclusion in Associations
Ch. 3| Democratic Inclusion and the State
Ch. 4| Subject to Legal Authority
Ch. 5| The Scope of Legal Authority
Ch. 6| Authority and Extraterritorial Jurisdiction
Ch. 7| Authority and State Borders
Ch. 8| Does It Matter That State Borders Are Arbitrary?
Ch. 9| End Discussion: The Limits of Democratic Inclusion
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Classical Liberalism by Country
: Volume I: Australia, India, South Africa, China, North and South Korea, and Lebanon
Publisher: CL Press (A Fraser Institute Project)
Year of publication: 2023
FREE DOWNLOAD: https://clpress.net/books/classical-liberalism-by-country-volume-1/
[From the Introduction by Daniel B. Klein:]
Econ Journal Watch is a classical-liberal journal of commentary on the doings of economists, including their judgments, research, character, methods, practices, and institutions. EJW has opened its pages to commentary on other fields, besides economics.
Character includes ideological character. EJW embarked on a series treating classical liberalism by country, beginning with a June 2014 call for papers, and publishing the first six pieces (on Australia, Spain, Poland, Lebanon, the ex-Yugoslav nations, and the Czech Republic) in the May 2015 issue. We anticipate that through EJW’s 2023 issues, the series will have 24 papers. Those papers are being collected here in three volumes ... . [...]
The chapters all began as articles at EJW, of which I am chief editor. Refereeing of the articles was copious—on many of the papers there were five or more referees. We canvassed widely for feedback. The original articles are listed in the references list below. [...]
Within each volume, the abstract of a chapter appears at the front, where all of the abstracts for the chapters in that volume are gathered. Author bios for each volume are collected at the end of the volume. [...]
In making these volumes, we decided to include all papers published in the EJW series, motley as they are. Liberal principles depend on circumstances, but everywhere humans are humans, each an individual organism, with knowledge and control of very limited reach and effectiveness. The voluntary/coercive distinction depends somewhat on circumstances, but the case against coercion and against the governmentalization of social affairs is quite universal and quite timeless. As Milton Friedman said, we all spend more effectively when we spend our own money on our own concerns than when we spend other people’s money on other people’s concerns. And, everywhere, voluntary association presumptively generates mutual gains. It inspires and rewards innovation, making what Deirdre McCloskey calls the Great Enrichment and sustaining greater “multiplication of the species,” as Smith put it repeatedly. So why not allow every person to pursue her own interest her own way, upon the liberal plan of equality, liberty, and justice?
C. S. Lewis wrote:
As Dr. Johnson said, ‘People need to be reminded more often than they need to be instructed.’ The real job of every moral teacher is to keep on bringing us back, time after time, to the old simple principles which we are all so anxious not to see… (2002, 74)
Everywhere, the call of wisdom and virtue points in the liberal direction. Each of the chapters nurtures an aspiration toward greater liberty, contextualized to a country and its heritage. [...]
Reference: Lewis, C. S. 2002. The Complete C. S. Lewis Signature Classics. New York: Harper One.
Contents page:
Introduction -- Daniel B. Klein
Chapter Abstracts
Ch. 1. Classical Liberalism in Australian Economics -- Chris Berg
Ch. 2. Liberalism in India -- G. P. Manish, Shruti Rajagopalan, Daniel Sutter, and Lawrence H. White
Ch. 3. The Liberal Tradition in South Africa, 1910–2019 -- Martin van Staden
Ch. 4. Classical Liberalism in China: Some History and Prospects -- Xingyuan Feng, Weisen Li, and Evan W. Osborne
Ch. 5. Liberalism in Korea -- Young Back Choi and Yong J. Yoon
Ch. 6. The Endangered Classical Liberal Tradition in Lebanon: A General Description and Survey Results -- Patrick Mardini
About the Authors
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SEE ALSO:
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The Concept of Democracy
: Conceptual Amelioration and Abandonment
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Year of publication: 2023
FREE DOWNLOAD: https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198886518.001.0001
If we don’t know what the words “democracy” and “democratic” mean, then we don’t know what democracy is. This book defends a radical view: these words mean nothing and should be abandoned. The argument for abolitionism is simple: those terms are defective and we can easily do better, so let’s get rid of them. According to the abolitionist, the switch to alternative devices would be a significant communicative, cognitive, and political advance. The first part of the book presents a general theory of abandonment: the conditions under which language should be abandoned. The rest of the book applies this general theory to the case of “democracy” and “democratic”.
The book shows that “democracy” and “democratic” are semantically, pragmatically, and communicatively defective. Abolitionism is not all gloom and doom. It also contains a message of good cheer: we have easy access to conceptual devices that are more effective than “democracy”. We can do better. These alternative linguistic devices will enable us to ask better questions, provide genuinely fruitful answers, and have more rational discussions. Moreover, those questions and answers better articulate the communicative and cognitive aims of those who use empty terms such as “democracy” and “democratic”.
Contents page:
Front Matter
Preface and Acknowledgements
Part I A Theory of Abandonment
1 Introduction
2. Arguments for Abandonment
3 Abandonment Compared to Elimination, Reduction, Replacement, and Amelioration
4. Abandonment and Communication
Part II Some Data About “Democracy”
5. The Ordinary Notion of “Democracy”: Methodological Preamble
6. Some Data about “Democracy” and “Democratic”
Part III Abandonment of “Democracy”?
7. Problems with “Democracy”
8. Better Than “Democracy”: A Chapter of Good Cheer
9. Consequences of Abandoning “Democracy”
Part IV “Democracy” Ameliorated
10. Ameliorations of “Democracy”
11. Verbal Disputes about “Democracy”
Part V Efforts to Defend “Democracy”
12. Objections and Replies
End Matter
Bibliography
Index
About the Author:
Herman Cappelen is a Chair Professor at the University of Hong Kong, the Co-Director of ConceptLab-HK, and the Director of AI&Humanity-Lab. He works in all areas of systematic philosophy and has written 10 monographs and many influential papers.
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De Gruyter Handbook of Citizens’ Assemblies
Publisher: De Gruyter
Year of publication: 2023
FREE DOWNLOAD: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110758269
Citizens’ Assemblies (CAs) are flourishing around the world. Quite often composed of randomly selected citizens, CAs, arguably, come as a possible answer to contemporary democratic challenges. Democracies worldwide are indeed confronted with a series of disruptive phenomena such as a widespread perception of distrust and growing polarization as well as low performance. Many actors seek to reinvigorate democracy with citizen participation and deliberation. CAs are expected to have the potential to meet this twofold objective. But, despite deliberative and inclusive qualities of CAs, many questions remain open. The increasing popularity of CAs call for a holistic reflection and evaluation on their origins, current uses and future directions.
The De Gruyter Handbook of Citizens’ Assemblies showcases the state of the art around the study of CAs and opens novel perspectives informed by multidisciplinary research and renewed thinking about deliberative participatory processes. It discusses the latest theoretical, empirical, and methodological scientific developments on CAs and offers a unique resource for scholars, decision-makers, practitioners, and curious citizens to better understand the qualities, purposes, promises but also pitfalls of CAs.
Features:
First comprehensive analytical overview of this increasingly used democratic innovation.
Multidisciplinary approach
Case studies and renewed thinking
Useful resource for practitioners
Contents page:
1 Citizens’ assemblies: An introduction
PART 1: THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES
2 Representation and citizens’ assemblies
3 Citizens’ assemblies and accountability
4 Which decision-making authority for citizens’ assemblies
5 Linking citizens’ assemblies to policymaking: Real-life and visionary connections
6 Citizens’ assemblies and the public sphere
7 Beyond citizens’ assemblies: Expanding the repertoire of democratic reform
8 A problem-based approach to citizens’ assemblies
9 Citizens’ assemblies: A critical perspective
PART 2: THE USES OF CITIZENS’ ASSEMBLIES
10 Citizens’ assemblies and the crisis of democracy
11 Citizens’ assemblies: Top-down or bottom-up? – both, please!
12 Mixed-member deliberative forums: Citizens’ assemblies bringing together elected officials and citizens
13 Deliberation in citizens’ assemblies with children
14 Citizens’ assemblies and direct democracy
15 Citizens’ assemblies at supranational level: Addressing the EU and global democratic deficit
16 Between hopes and systemic unsustainability: An analysis of citizens assemblies’ potential on climate change
17 Authoritarian participationism and local citizens’ assemblies in Latin America: A cross look at three national cases
PART 3: ASSESSMENT
18 Evaluating citizens’ assemblies: Criteria, methods and tools
19 Internal dynamics at work
20 Citizens’ assemblies and their effects on the population
21 The impact of citizens’ assemblies on policymaking: Approaches and methods
22 Citizens’ assemblies in authoritarian regimes: China, Cuba, and Libya
PART 4: DIFFERENT PERCEPTIONS OF CITIZENS’ ASSEMBLIES
23 Citizens’ support for citizens’ assemblies
24 How do elected officials perceive deliberative citizens’ assemblies?
25 The deliberative public servants: The roles of public servants in citizens’ assemblies
26 Populists and citizens’ assemblies: Caught between strategy and principles?
27 Citizens’ assemblies and communication studies
28 Social movements and citizens’ assemblies
PART 5: CONCLUSION
29 Citizens’ assemblies: Beyond utopian and dystopian approaches
Index
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Decentralised Governance
: Crafting Effective Democracies Around the World
Publisher: LSE Press
Year of publication: 2023
FREE DOWNLOAD: https://doi.org/10.31389/lsepress.dlg
For developing countries, decentralising power from central government to local authorities holds the promise of deepening democracy, empowering citizens, improving public services and boosting economic growth. But the evidence on when and how decentralisation can bring these benefits has been mixed. Under the wrong conditions, decentralised power can be captured by unrepresentative elites or undermined by corruption and the clientelistic distribution of public resources. The picture is complex, and we still do not understand enough about what factors can contribute to creating better local government, and to what effect.
Decentralised Governance brings together a new generation of political economy studies that explore these questions analytically, blending theoretical insights with empirical innovation. Individual chapters provide fresh evidence from around the world, including broad cross-country data as well as detailed studies of Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, China, Indonesia, Ghana, Kenya and Colombia. They investigate the pros and cons of decentralisation in both democratic and autocratic regimes, and the effects of critical factors such as advances in technology, citizen-based data systems, political entrepreneurship in ethnically diverse societies, and reforms aimed at improving transparency and monitoring.
This wide-ranging volume examines the conditions under which devolving power can intensify democratic competition, boost transparency, and improve local governance, providing examples of good and bad practice in both. It is essential reading for researchers investigating decentralised governance, development and democratisation, and for policymakers and practitioners drawing lessons for future reforms.
[ SEE ALSO: Decentralism File (Schumacher Center) ]
Contents page:
Decentralised governance: crafting effective democracies around the world
Understanding decentralisation: theory, evidence, and practice
Decentralised targeting of transfer programmes: a reassessment
Realising the promise of partial decentralisation
Devolution under autocracy: evidence from Pakistan
Social fragmentation, public goods, and local elections: evidence from China
How does fiscal decentralisation affect local polities? Evidence from local communities in Indonesia
Can parliamentary sanctions strengthen local political accountability? Evidence from Kenya
Centralised versus decentralised monitoring in developing countries: a survey of recent research
Subnational governance in Ghana: a comparative assessment of data and performance
Birth registration, child rights, and local governance in Bangladesh
Administrative decentralisation and its impacts on educational expenditure and student outcomes: evidence from Colombia
Reviews:
"Decentralisation has often been hailed as a panacea for development. However, if not implemented effectively, it can fail to deliver on its promise. This book edited by Faguet and Pal provides —using a wealth of cases covering many parts of the emerging world— the necessary guidance to harness the potential of decentralisation while sidestepping its drawbacks. A must read."
- Andrés Rodríguez-Pose, Princesa de Asturias Chair, London School of Economics
"Decentralization as a way of improving quality of governance and delivery of public services is widely recognised. Yet the experience in its actual performance has been mixed particularly in developing countries. ... This book provides a major step in our understanding the nuances and complexities of the subject, utilises both political and mechanism design insights, and guides us to valuable tools in reforming our beleaguered systems of political accountability."
- Pranab Bardhan, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Economics, University of California, Berkeley
"An essential and long-awaited book on the effects of decentralisation in developing countries from a comparative perspective. Its reading will help to understand the complexity of decentralised governance and the importance of the role of political, social and cultural variables. It is a must-read for researchers, practitioners and anyone interested in the complexity of policy-making around the world."
- José M. Ruano, Director of the Complutense School of Government, Complutense University of Madrid and Editor of The Palgrave Handbook of Decentralisation in Europe
[ SEE ALSO: Decentralism File (Schumacher Center) ]
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Democracy and Fake News
: Information Manipulation and Post-Truth Politics
Publisher: Routledge
Year of publication: 2020
This book explores the challenges that disinformation, fake news, and post-truth politics pose to democracy from a multidisciplinary perspective. The authors analyse and interpret how the use of technology and social media as well as the emergence of new political narratives has been progressively changing the information landscape, undermining some of the pillars of democracy.
The volume sheds light on some topical questions connected to fake news, thereby contributing to a fuller understanding of its impact on democracy. In the Introduction, the editors offer some orientating definitions of post-truth politics, building a theoretical framework where various different aspects of fake news can be understood. The book is then divided into three parts: Part I helps to contextualise the phenomena investigated, offering definitions and discussing key concepts as well as aspects linked to the manipulation of information systems, especially considering its reverberation on democracy. Part II considers the phenomena of disinformation, fake news, and post-truth politics in the context of Russia, which emerges as a laboratory where the phases of creation and diffusion of fake news can be broken down and analysed; consequently, Part II also reflects on the ways to counteract disinformation and fake news. Part III moves from case studies in Western and Central Europe to reflect on the methodological difficulty of investigating disinformation, as well as tackling the very delicate question of detection, combat, and prevention of fake news.
This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of political science, law, political philosophy, journalism, media studies, and computer science, since it provides a multidisciplinary approach to the analysis of post-truth politics.
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The Development of Political Institutions
: Power, Legitimacy, Democracy
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
Year of publication: 2022
While the literature on "new institutionalism" explains the stability of institutional arrangements within countries and the divergence of paths of institutional development between countries, Federico Ferrara takes a "historical institutionalist" approach to theorize dynamic processes of institutional reproduction, institutional decay, and institutional change in explaining the development of political institutions. Ferrara synthesizes "power-based" or "power-distributional" explanations and "ideas-based" "legitimation explanations." He specifies the psychological "microfoundations" of processes of institutional development, drawing heavily from the findings of experimental psychology to ensure that the explanation is grounded in clear and realistic assumptions regarding human motivation, cognition, and behavior.
Aside from being of interest to scholars and graduate students in political science and other social-scientific disciplines whose research concentrates on the genesis of political institutions, their evolution over time, and their impact on the stability of political order and the quality of governance, the book will be required reading in graduate courses and seminars in comparative politics where the study of institutions and their development ranks among the subfield's most important subjects.
Contents (brief):
Contents
Preface
Chapter One. Institutional Development
Chapter Two. Institutional Reproduction
Chapter Three. Institutional Decay
Chapter Four. Institutional Change
Chapter Five. Institutional Engineering
References
Index
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Dictators and Autocrats
: Securing Power across Global Politics
Publisher: Routledge
Year of publication: 2021
In order to truly understand the emergence, endurance, and legacy of autocracy, this volume of engaging essays explores how autocratic power is acquired, exercised, and transferred or abruptly ended through the careers and politics of influential figures in more than 20 countries and six regions.
The book looks at both traditional "hard" dictators, such as Hitler, Stalin, and Mao, and more modern "soft" or populist autocrats, who are in the process of transforming once fully democratic countries into autocratic states, including Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Turkey, Brazilian leader Jair Bolsonaro, Rodrigo Duterte in the Philippines, Narendra Modi in India, and Viktor Orbán in Hungary. The authors touch on a wide range of autocratic and dictatorial figures in the past and present, including present-day autocrats, such as Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, military leaders, and democratic leaders with authoritarian aspirations. They analyze the transition of selected autocrats from democratic or benign semi-democratic systems to harsher forms of autocracy, with either quite disastrous or more successful outcomes.
An ideal reader for students and scholars, as well as the general public, interested in international affairs, leadership studies, contemporary history and politics, global studies, security studies, economics, psychology, and behavioral studies.
Contents:
List of contributors
Introduction: dictators and autocrats: a global phenomenon
PART I The notorious three
1 - Joseph Stalin: autocrat par excellence (1878–1953)
2 - Adolf Hitler: from democracy to dictatorship (1889–1945)
3 - Mao Zedong: communist Party dictatorship (1893–1976)
PART II Pathbreaking autocrats of the twentieth century
4 - Fidel Castro: from grassroots dictatorship to Communist autocracy (1926–2016)
5 - Augusto Pinochet: the emergence of one-man rule in Chile (1915–2006)
6 - Robert Mugabe: ruthless authoritarian who preferred democratic clothing (1924–2019)
7 - Joseph Kabila: the “Raïs” of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (born 1971)
8 - Hugo Chavez: was he an autocrat? (1954–2013)
9 - Lee Kuan Yew: autocracy, elections, and capitalism (1923–2015)
PART III Twenty-first-century autocrats: the major powers
10 - Vladimir Putin: Russia’s neo-patrimonial façade democracy (born 1952)
11 - Xi Jinping: the rise of an authoritarian leader (born 1953)
12 - Narendra Modi: elected authoritarian (born 1950)
13 - Donald J. Trump: the authoritarian style in American politics (born 1946)
PART IV Twenty-first-century autocrats: other influential autocrats
14 - Ali Hosseini Khamenei: routinizing revolution in Iran (born 1939)
15 - The Assad Dynasty: quo vadis Damascus? (Hafiz: 1930–2000; Bashar: born 1965)
16 - Kim Jong Un: rise to power and leadership style (born 1984)
17 - Abdel Fattah el-Sisi: the one and only Egyptian dictator (born 1954)
18 - Prayuth Chan-o-Cha: from the barracks to the ballot box (born 1954)
19 - Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud (a.k.a. “MBS”): king in all but name (born 1985)
20 - Viktor Orbán and János Kádár: a post-Communist and a Communist autocrat in Hungary.
A comparative analysis (Kádár: 1912–1989; Orbán: born 1963)
21 - Recep Tayyip Erdoğan: from “illiberal democracy” to electoral authoritarianism (born 1953)
22 - Rodrigo Duterte: macho populism and authoritarian practice (born 1945)
23 - Jair Bolsonaro: beyond the pale, above the fray (born 1955)
Index
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From Dictatorship to Democracy
: A Conceptual Framework for Liberation
(author: Gene Sharp)
Publisher: The Albert Einstein Institution
Year of publication: 1993
FREE DOWNLOAD (and/or online reading): https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/From_Dictatorship_to_Democracy
The mission of the Albert Einstein Institution is to advance the worldwide study and strategic use of nonviolent action in conflict.
The Institution is committed to:
defending democratic freedoms and institutions;
opposing oppression, dictatorship, and genocide; and
reducing the reliance on violence as an instrument of policy.
This mission is pursued in three ways, by:
encouraging research and policy studies on the methods of nonviolent action and their past use in diverse conflicts;
sharing the results of this research with the public through publications, conferences, and the media; and
consulting with groups in conflict about the strategic potential of nonviolent action.
------------------------------
[From the Preface:] One of my major concerns for many years has been how people could prevent and destroy dictatorships. This has been nurtured in part because of a belief that human beings should not be dominated and destroyed by such regimes. That belief has been strengthened by readings on the importance of human freedom, on the nature of dictatorships (from Aristotle to analyses of totalitarianism), and histories of dictatorships (especially the Nazi and Stalinist systems).
Over the years I have had occasion to get to know people who lived and suffered under Nazi rule, including some who survived concentration camps. In Norway I met people who had resisted fascist rule and survived, and heard of those who perished. I talked with Jews who had escaped the Nazi clutches and with persons who had helped to save them.
Knowledge of the terror of Communist rule in various countries has been learned more from books than personal contacts. The terror of these systems appeared to me to be especially poignant, for these dictatorships were imposed in the name of liberation from oppression and exploitation.
In more recent decades through visits of persons from dictatorially ruled countries, such as Panama, Poland, Chile, Tibet, and Burma, the realities of today's dictatorships became more real. From Tibetans who had fought against Chinese Communist aggression, Russians who had defeated the August 1991 hard-line coup, and Thais who had nonviolently blocked a return to military rule, I have gained often troubling perspectives on the insidious nature of dictatorships.
The sense of pathos and outrage against the brutalities, along with admiration of the calm heroism of unbelievably brave men and women, were sometimes strengthened by visits to places where the dangers were still great, and yet defiance by brave people continued. These included Panama under Noriega; Vilnius, Lithuania, under continued Soviet repression; Tiananmen Square, Beijing, during both the festive demonstration of freedom and while the first armored personnel carriers entered that fateful night; and the jungle headquarters of the democratic opposition at Manerplaw in "liberated Burma."
Sometimes I visited the sites of the fallen, as the television tower and the cemetery in Vilnius, the public park in Riga where people had been gunned down, the center of Ferrara in northern Italy where the fascists lined up and shot resisters, and a simple cemetery in Manerplaw filled with bodies of men who had died much too young. It is a sad realization that every dictatorship leaves such death and destruction in its wake. Out of these concerns and experiences grew a determined hope that prevention of tyranny might be possible, that successful struggles against dictatorships could be waged without mass mutual slaughters, that dictatorships could be destroyed and new ones prevented from rising out of the ashes.
I have tried to think carefully about the most effective ways in which dictatorships could be successfully disintegrated with the least possible cost in suffering and lives. In this I have drawn on my studies over many years of dictatorships, resistance movements, revolutions, political thought, governmental systems, and especially realistic nonviolent struggle.
This publication is the result. I am certain it is far from perfect. But, perhaps, it offers some guidelines to assist thought and planning to produce movements of liberation that are more powerful and effective than might otherwise be the case.
Reviews:
"Not since Machiavelli has a book had such impact in shifting the balance of power"
- The The Times of London
"Few Americans have heard of Dr. Sharp. But for decades, his practical writings on nonviolent revolution―most notably [his] guide to toppling autocrats―have inspired dissidents around the world, including Burma, Bosnia, Estonia and Zimbabwe, and now Tunisia and Egypt."
- The New York Times
"Hailed as the manual by those who conducted people-power coups in Eastern Europe, its contents were no secret in Iran. . . . Officials saw this summer’s unrest as the fruit of his strategies."
- The Christian Science Monitor
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Human Rights and Democracy
: the Precarious Triumph of Ideals
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Year of publication: 2013
FREE DOWNLOAD: https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/37950
(also available at https://www.bloomsburycollections.com/book/human-rights-and-democracy-the-precarious-triumph-of-ideals/ )
Combines an overview of the key theoretical models of democracy and human rights with a state-of-the-art survey which reports on trade-offs between achievements, set-backs and challenges in some of the world's 'hotspots'. The 20th century has been described as the bloodiest in human history, but it was also the century in which people around the world embraced ideas of democracy and human rights as never before, constructing social, political and legal institutions seeking to contain human behaviour. Todd Landman offers an optimistic, yet cautionary tale of these developments, drawing on the literature, from politics, international relations and international law. He celebrates the global turn from tyranny and violence towards democracy and rights but also warns of the precariousness of these achievements in the face of democratic setbacks and the undermining of rights commitments by many countries during the so-called ‘War on Terror'.
Table of Contents:
Introduction
Abundance and Freedom
Democracy and Human Rights
Waves and Setbacks
Evidence and Explanations
Agents and Advocates
Truth and Justice
Threats and Pitfalls
Benefits and Outcomes
Hopes and Challenges
Bibliography
Index
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Human Security in World Affairs
: Problems and Opportunities
Publisher: BCcampus & University of Northern British Columbia
Year of publication: 2020 (2nd edition)
This first university textbook of human security, intended as an introductory text from senior undergraduate level up, and includes chapters by 24 authors that encompass the full spectrum of disciplines contributing to the human security field. It is based on the four-pillar model of socio-political security, economic security, environmental security and health security. The chapters include learning outcomes, extension activities, and suggested readings; a comprehensive glossary lists key terms used throughout the book. This textbook can be used in courses on international studies and relations, political studies, history, human geography, anthropology and human ecology, futures studies, applied social studies, public health, and more.
Contents:
[...]
Preface
Acknowledgements
I. Main Body
1. Introduction
2. Human Security Foundation Documents and Related Resources
3. Why Human Security Needs Our Attention
4. Conflicting Perspectives
Summary
4.1 Introduction
4.2 On Globalisation
4.3 Human Rights and Human Security
4.4 Notes from an Ethnography
4.5 A Hierarchy of Needs?
4.6 The West and the Rest?
4.7 Freedom of Religion, Freedom from Religion
4.8 Conclusion – Paradoxes of Universality
Resources and References
5. Threats to Human Security
Summary
5.1 Introduction
5.2 Assessing Human Security
5.3 Violent Conflict as a Threat to Human Security
5.4 Other Threats to Human Security
5.5 Conclusions
Resources and References
6. Human Security in the Context of International Humanitarian Law and International Criminal Law
Summary
6.1 Introduction
6.2 Situations in Which the Protective Measures Will Apply
6.3 Who and What Are Protected?
6.4 Means and Methods of Warfare
6.5 Different Responsibility Regimes, Core International Crimes and Enforcement Options
6.6 Conclusion: The Future of the Responsibility Regimes
Resources and References
7. Individuals and Groups Outside of the State System
Summary
7.1 Introduction
7.2 Individuals and Groups Outside of the State
7.3 Alienated Citizenship and Sub-state Terrorism
7.4 Counter Terrorism, Human Rights and Human Security
7.5 Conclusion
Resources and References
8. Political Hybridity and Human Security in Post-colonial and Post-conflict State Building / Rebuilding
Summary
8.1 Introduction
8.2 Enhancing State Resilience and Promoting Human Security
8.3 The Quest for Human Security in Insecure and Fragile States
8.4 Diagnosing Vulnerability and Preventing State Failure
8.5 Promoting Human Security in Weak States
8.6 Hybrid Political Orders
8.7 Community Sources of Legitimacy
8.8 Centrality of Context
8.9 Conclusions
Resources and References
Long Descriptions
9. Climate Change and Human Security
Summary
9.1 Introduction
9.2 Current and Future Risks to Human Security
9.3 Major Culprits and Victims of Climate Change
9.4 Barriers to Counteracting Climate Change
9.5 Achieving Climate Justice as the Way Forward
Resources and References
Long Descriptions
10. Human Security and Resource Scarcity
Summary
10.1 Introduction
10.2 Resource Scarcity Through the Ages
10.3 Understanding Resource Scarcity
10.4 Tragedy of the Commons
10.5 Social Traps
10.6 Understanding Complex Systems
10.7 Resource Scarcity and Conflict
10.8 Human Security in the Face of Resource Scarcity
10.9 Case Studies in Water Scarcity
Resources and References
11. Our War Against Nature: Ontology, Cognition and a Constricting Paradigm
Summary
11.1 Introduction: Defining Terms, Posing Questions
11.2 Reality, Science and Revolutions in Our Thinking
11.3 Seeing the Complexity of Nature
11.4. Seeing Ourselves in Life’s Larger Context
11.5 The ‘War Against Nature’
11.6 Understanding How and Why We Continue to Wage ‘Our War Against Nature’ and Reversing Course
11.7 Becoming Reflexive: Rethinking ‘Who’ We Are, Breaking Free of a Constricting Paradigm, Ending the ‘War’
Resources and References
12. Our War Against Nature: Letters from the Front
Summary
PART I: The Assault on Organisms and Ecosystems
12.1 Introduction: Welcome to the Anthropocene!
12.2 Animal Armageddon
12.3 The Fraying of Food Webs
12.4 Assault on the Oceans: Chemical and Physical Changes
PART II: The Human Footprint
12.5 The Human Footprint: Population
12.6 The Human Footprint: Consumption
12.7 Money Games: Chasing the Symbol
12.8 Who Are We?
Resources and References
13. Transnational Crime
Summary
13.1 International Crime or Transnational Crime? Some Definitions
13.2 Globalization and Transnational Crime
13.3 The Economic Scale of Transnational Crime
13.4 The Threat of Transnational Crime
13.5 Transnational Crime as a Human Security Threat
13.6 Trafficking in Persons
13.7 International Efforts to Address Transnational Crime
13.8 Regional Efforts to Address Transnational Crime
13.9 Sovereignty, Security or Sentiment? Solving Transnational Crime
Resources and References
14. Recalling the Significance of Local Governance to Human Security in Illiberal Sub-Saharan African Contexts
Summary
14.1 Introduction
14.2 Post-Cold War Realities in Sub-Saharan Africa Versus Africanist Scholarship
14.3 Assessing Value
14.4 Making Historical Comparisons
14.5 Conclusion: Recalling the Significance of Local Government Institutions
Resources and References
15. Issues with Human Rights Violations
16. Developing Good Governance
Summary
16.1 Introduction
16.2 Sustainable Development and Human Security
16.3 The Principle of Sustainability
16.4 Governance for Sustainability
16.5 The Role of Civil Society
16.6 The Earth Charter: A Framework for Global Governance
16.7 Conclusion
Resources and References
Long Descriptions
17. Health Security in the Context of Social-ecological Change
18. Empowering International Human Security Regimes
19. Conflict Transformation and Peace Processes: Peace Without Justice Is Just a Ceasefire
Summary
19.1 Introduction: What Do We Mean by ‘Transforming’ Conflict?
19.2 From Peace Treaties to Peace Processes: Conflict and Peace in Historical Perspective
19.3 Four Peace Processes
19.4 Post-conflict Conditions Today
19.5 Assessing Conflict Transformation in Four Peace Processes
Resources and References
20. Human Security and Global Environmental Governance
21. Conclusions, Prospects, Futures
Summary
21.1 Human Security in World Affairs: Challenges
21.2 Human Security in World Affairs: Opportunities
21.3 Besides Environmental Sustainability, What Other Aspects of Human Security Need Improvement?
Resources and References
Glossary of Terms and Definitions
Authors’ Biographical Information
Versioning History
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Introduction to Political Science
Publisher: OpenStax
Year of publication: May 2022
FREE DOWNLOAD: https://openstax.org/details/books/introduction-political-science
Designed to meet the scope and sequence of your course, OpenStax Introduction to Political Science provides a strong foundation in global political systems, exploring how and why political realities unfold. Rich with examples of individual and national social action, this text emphasizes students’ role in the political sphere and equips them to be active and informed participants in civil society.
Summary of Contents page:
Preface
Unit 1 Introduction to Political Science
Chapter 1 What Is Politics and What Is Political Science?
Unit 2 Individuals
Chapter 2 Political Behavior Is Human Behavior
Chapter 3 Political Ideology
Chapter 4 Civil Liberties
Chapter 5 Political Participation and Public Opinion
Unit 3 Groups
Chapter 6 The Fundamentals of Group Political Activity
Chapter 7 Civil Rights
Chapter 8 Interest Groups, Political Parties, and Elections
Unit 4 Institutions
Chapter 9 Legislatures
Chapter 10 Executives, Cabinets, and Bureaucracies
Chapter 11 Courts and Law
Chapter 12 The Media
Unit 5 States and International Relations
Chapter 13 Governing Regimes
Chapter 14 International Relations
Chapter 15 International Law and International Organizations
Chapter 16 International Political Economy
References
Index
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Liberal Democracy
: Prosperity through Freedom
Publisher: Springer Cham
Year of publication: 2020
This open access book aims to show which factors have been decisive in the rise of successful countries. Never before have so many people been so well off. However, prosperity is not a law of nature; it has to be worked for. A liberal economy stands at the forefront of this success – not as a political system, but as a set of economic rules promoting competition, which in turn leads to innovation, research and enormous productivity.
Sustainable prosperity is built on a foundation of freedom, equal opportunity and a functioning government. This requires a stable democracy that cannot be defeated by an autocrat. Autocrats claim that “illiberalism” is more efficient, an assertion that justifies their own power. Although autocrats can efficiently guide the first steps out of poverty, once a certain level of prosperity has been achieved, people begin to demand a sense of well-being – freedom and codetermination. Only when this is possible will they feel comfortable, and progress will continue. Respect for human rights is crucial.
The rules of the free market do not lean to either the right or left politically. Liberalism and the welfare state are not mutually exclusive. The “conflict” concerns the amount of government intervention. Should there be more or less?
As a lawyer, entrepreneur, and board member with over 40 years of experience in this field of conflict, the author clearly describes the conditions necessary for a country to maintain its position at the top.
Contents (brief):
Front Matter
European Values
Liberalism
Change and Its Consequences
The Market, Market Failures, and Market Interventions
All People Are Winners
Undesirable Developments and Possibilities for Improvement
Behavior Towards Autocracies
Xenophobia
Education and Culture Made the Difference
Strategic Development of the European Union
Good Governance
Theses and Conclusion
Back Matter
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Liberalism and Transformation
: The Global Politics of Violence and Intervention
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
Year of publication: 2021
Liberalism and Transformation is the first scholarly work that explores the historical, philosophical, and intellectual development of global liberalism since the nineteenth century in the context of the deployment of violence, force, and intervention. Using an approach that includes interpretive and contextual analysis of texts from writers, philosophers, and policy-makers across nearly two centuries, as well as historiographical and historical analysis of archival documents (some of which have been recently declassified) and other media, Liberalism and Transformation narrates the messy history of emancipatory liberalism and its engagement with issues of war and peace.
The book contributes to both a rethinking of liberal democracy and its relationship to world politics, as well as the effects of liberal internationalism on global processes. Furthermore, Liberalism and Transformation invites readers to reflect on global ethics and transformation in world politics. In the first place, it shows how ethical imaginings of the world have direct effects on actions of transformative importance. In the second place, it suggests that discourses are fluid, changing, and complex.
Contents (brief):
Acknowledgements
Ch. 1: Introduction: Liberalism and Violence
Ch. 2: The How of Emancipatory Liberalism
Ch. 3: Transformation and Civilization: Liberalism, Empire, Intervention
Ch. 4: Transformation and Self-Determination: Internationalists at War
Ch. 5: Transformation and Totalitarianism: Intervention and Cold War Liberalism
Ch. 6: Transformation and Terror: State Failure, Development, and Human Rights
Ch. 7: Conclusion: Toward a Minimalist Liberalism
Notes
Bibliography
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The Playbook for African Democrats
Publisher: The Brenthurst Foundation
[Produced with the assistance of the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung and the World Liberty Congress]
Year of publication: [2025]
FREE DOWNLOAD: https://www.thebrenthurstfoundation.org/playbook/
PLAYBOOK
noun
a book containing a team’s plans for a game;
a set of rules, suggestions, or methods that are considered to be suitable for a particular activity, industry, job, etc.
— Cambridge Dictionary
From the Introduction:
The liberation movements once used the fight for rights for all as the means to legitimate their campaign for political power, and constrastingly to delegitimate their opponents. Since then, they have been openly willing to undermine or abrogate these rights to retain power, even in the multi-party era. [...]
The rise of autocrats and ‘authoritarian democrats’ can be resisted, but this demands learning some critical, recent lessons. [...]
Leaders of opposition parties and civil society movements [...] need to develop a ‘democracy playbook’ for elections. Oppositions cannot rely on the justice of running against the government. While social media provides real opportunities for the opposition, especially as it lowers the cost of campaigning, it is no panacea, because government can also take advantage of the same tools, and can ‘turn off’ the internet. Beyond running good campaigns, oppositions must have a vision that differentiates them. Parties have to provide citizens with a good reason to vote for them. There is a need, too, for democrats – within and without government – to establish a narrative that transcends the boundaries of identity. In all of this, the opposition has to demonstrate its own democratic credentials in delivering the promise it ran on.
These tactics and the strategies that underpin them are the subject of this playbook, which brings together a group of international specialists, all of whom are keen observers of authoritarian behaviour in Africa and abroad, and many of whom have themselves participated in elections as candidates or observers. This book is intended as a guide for those seeking a more democratic future in turning the tables against autocracy. To ensure a different and better outcome, a dedicated and tough struggle lies ahead.
Contents page:
Foreword by Bobi Wine
Introduction: Countering the rise of authoritarianism by Greg Mills
The year of elections
Authoritarian democracies
The challenge of the first liberation
Authoritarians brazenly unite
The need for a playbook for democrats
Part 1: How to Rig an Election by Nic Cheeseman
How authoritarians undermine opposition parties and leaders
Stigmatising opposition leaders and divide-and-rule politics
Registration barriers and political exclusion
How authoritarians control the media, silence opposition voices and buy votes
Media control, censorship and disinformation
Voting buying and ‘money politics’
How authoritarians control the population and the campaign
The use of violence to discipline and mobilise
Campaign disruption: Rally bans, movement restrictions, infiltration and co-option
How authoritarians rig before the election
Gerrymandering, electoral register manipulation and voter suppression
How authoritarians rig during the election
Polling station abuses
Electoral fraud
Country Examples:
People Power in Venezuela by Leopoldo López
Election Rigging in Zimbabwe by Tendai Biti
Bobi Wine's account [Uganda] by Bobi Wine
The Angolan Experience by Paula Roque
How Elections in Uganda Have Been Rigged and How that Rigging Has Changed over Time by Jeffrey Smith
Paul Biya’s Longevity in Power and Its Consequences for Cameroon by Felix Nkongho
Democratic Decline in Sierra Leone by Sherif Ismail
Part 2: How to Win an Election by Ray Hartley and Paula Roque
-Setting priorities and constructing a campaign plan
►Country example: Yet Another Changeover at the Ballot Box in Senegal by Pape Samba Kane
-Developing a narrative
-Effective use of the media
►Country example: How to Win Properly [Kenya] by John Githongo
-Contesting the digital space
►Country example: Poland’s Coalition Turnaround by Greg Mills
-Registration and the voters’ roll
►Country example: Zambia: The Power of Winning Big by Bradford Machila
-Polling and parallel voter tabulation
-Digital manipulation
-Managing malign state actors
►Country example: Malawi’s ‘Tipp-Ex’ Election by Alex Vines
-Building resilient coalitions
-A role for outsiders?
Part 3: What to Do In Power by Adalberto Costa Jr.; Leopoldo López; Paula Roque and Tendai Biti
-The ’dos’ and ‘don’ts’ of reformers
►Country example: Navigating Ghana's Democratic Journey: Lessons for Democrats Worldwide by Marie-Noelle Nwokolo
-Points of success
►Country example: The Argentinian Experience by Marcus Pena
-The premium of leadership
►Country example: Lesotho’s Need for a Bold Reset by Greg Mills
-Creating a coincidence of global interests
►Country example: What to Do Once in Power [South Africa] by Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis
►Country example: Dancing with Separatists: Lessons from Spain’s Coalition by Greg Mills
►Country example: Can Malawi Get ‘Unstuck’? by Greg Mills
Afterword by Adalberto Costa Jr.
In Closing by Peter Obi
About the Authors
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Political Ideologies and Worldviews
: An Introduction
Publisher: Kwantlen Polytechnic University
Year of publication: 2021
FREE DOWNLOAD: https://open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/textbooks/political-ideologies-and-worldviews-an-introduction
This book takes a “pluralist” approach and, in addition to being the first open textbook on its subject, also pushes back against the Eurocentric tendencies of standard textbooks by including chapters on Indigenous worldviews and Confucianism. Providing the latest scholarship on “classical ideologies” (liberalism, conservatism, socialism, anarchism, etc.), the textbook also includes innovative chapters on populism, feminism, and multiculturalism, as well as looking at the future of ideologies in a globalized world. Joining together scholars from Canada and beyond, the text also contains discussion questions to help students and readers to think further.
This edited open textbook will be a great asset for introductory courses at the college and university levels on political ideologies and political thought and philosophy, but could also be used in other disciplines, as each chapter assesses the state of the ideology in today’s world. The general reader looking for a better understanding of the competing ideological currents of our time – currents which flow into our daily political debates and real-life government decisions – will also greatly benefit from this book.
[Book Author: Valérie Vézina]
Table of Contents:
• I. Introduction: Approaching political ideologies
• II. Dis(placement) and Indigenous Worldview : What I learned from Coyote
• III. Liberalism: From the "free men" to the "free market"
• IV. Conservatism: Slow change please!
• V. Socialism. Two Centuries of Social Progress.
• VI. Anarchism: No gods, no masters
• VII. Nationalism: A Modern Ideology Summoning an Eternal Past
• VIII. Multiculturalism: Public Philosophy and Public Policy
• IX. Populism: 'The Will of the People'?
• X. Islamism and its Relation to Islam and the West: Common Themes and Varieties
• XI. Confucianism: A Living Ideology
• XII. The Environment: Theory and Human Security
• XIII. A Late Modern Typology of Democratizing Feminisms
• XIV. Concluding remarks: Ideology in the Globalized Future
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Politics and Democratic Governance in the Post‑Covid-19 era South African Parliament
: Challenges, Insights and Possibilities
Publisher: Democracy Development Programme (DDP)
Year of publication: 2023
[From the Foreword:] The entrenchment of good governance in any system is dependent on the partnership between opposition parties and the ruling party. Opposition parties within the system whose actions influence some of the decisions of the ruling party must promote a culture of good governance. The African National Congress (ANC) ruling party is answerable to the Parliament and the citizens for their actions and activities in power. Moreover, the opposition political parties have helped keep an eye on the ruling party by criticising every policy thus fostering proper political accountability. The chapters of this book spell out numerous challenges between legislature leadership and opposition parties which has affected how a cordial relationship that promotes healthy cooperation could be maintained and promoted. These challenges include procedural and inadequate resources, and internal party politics struggles influenced by a Westminster model that focuses on opposition politics thus making it difficult to build consensus. The chapters of this book present that these challenges have prevented South Africa’s Parliament from keeping the Executive accountable and responsive; an issue that has eroded public trust.
[...] The book presents that there is a need to strengthen the impartiality of the Parliament, increase resources, enhance the oversight capacity of committees, and promote transparency and public participation in the oversight process. The book makes a call for all in the policy-making and academic environment to pay close attention to ensuring that there is no delay in transforming, reforming and strengthening democratic institutions and redesigning policies that promote good democratic governance. This would bridge the existing gap between legislatures and citizens and ensure that citizens can actively participate in the legislative and oversight processes of their elected representatives.
Contents page:
Contents
Foreword
Contextual Background
Author’s Bios
List Of Abbreviations And Acronyms
List Of Figures
Ch. 1: Parliament as a Legislative Authority in South Africa: The Constitutional Framework for Governance and Oversight
Marlie Holtzhausen
Ch. 2: Devolved Parliament and Public Participation: Mainstreaming Citizen Engagement in Parliamentary Portfolio Committees at the National Assembly and Provincial Legislatures
Gilbert T. Zvaita
Ch. 3: Parliament Oversight of the Executive: Key Issues, Challenges, And Insights
Nyasha Mpani
Ch. 4: The Role Of Opposition Parties In Promoting Political Accountability: Challenges And Lessons Learnt
Esther Adebimpe
Ch. 5: Bridging the Gender Gap: Promoting Gender Equality in the National Assembly and Provincial Legislatures
Nneka Akwu
Ch. 6: Examining the Dynamics of the Relationship between South Africa’s National Assembly and the Pan-African Parliament: Prospects, Challenges and Lessons Learnt
Muneinazvo Kujeke
Ch. 7: E-Parliament, Citizen Engagement and Democratic Representation in South Africa: Challenges and Prospects
Stanley Ehiane and Keratilwe Bodilenyane
Concluding Remarks
Maria Goyayi
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The Politics of Bad Governance in Contemporary Russia
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
Year of publication: 2022
"Human history is in reality a history of corrupt governments". In this book, Vladimir Gel’man considers bad governance as a distinctive politico-economic order that is based on a set of formal and informal rules, norms, and practices quite different from those of good governance. Some countries are governed badly intentionally because the political leaders of these countries establish and maintain rules, norms, and practices that serve their own self-interests. Gel’man considers bad governance as a primarily agency-driven rather than structure-induced phenomenon.
He addresses the issue of causes and mechanisms of bad governance in Russia and beyond from a different scholarly optics, which is based on a more general rationale of state-building, political regime dynamics, and policy-making. He argues that although these days, bad governance is almost universally perceived as an anomaly, at least in developed countries, in fact human history is largely a history of ineffective and corrupt governments, while the rule of law and decent state regulatory quality are relatively recent matters of modern history, when they emerged as side effects of state-building. Indeed, the picture is quite the opposite: bad governance is the norm, while good governance is an exception. The problem is that most rulers, especially if their time horizons are short and the external constraints on their behavior are not especially binding, tend to govern their domains in a predatory way because of the prevalence of short-term over long-term incentives. Contemporary Russia may be considered as a prime example of this phenomenon. Using an analysis of case studies of political and policy changes in Russia after the Soviet collapse, Gel’man discusses the logic of building and maintaining the politico-economic order of bad governance in Russia and paths of its possible transformation in a theoretical and comparative perspective.
Contents page:
Preface and Acknowledgments
The Politics of Bad Governance: A Framework for Analysis
Post-Soviet Bad Governance: A Vicious Circle?
Authoritarian Modernization: Illusions and Temptations
Opportunities and Constraints: Policy Reforms in the 2000s
The Technocratic Traps of Policy Reforms
Success Stories amid Bad Governance
The Politics of Bad Governance: Russia in Comparative Perspective
Notes
Reviews:
“This powerful new book persuasively explains why contemporary Russia, like many other countries in the world, suffers from bad governance. For Gel’man, bad governance is neither an inevitable consequence of problematic institutional legacies nor a regrettable failure of elite attempts to govern well. Instead, bad governance represents a purposeful, self-serving, and perverse success story for Russia’s authoritarian elites.”
—Juliet Johnson, McGill University
“In this engaging work, Gel'man challenges long-standing ideas about good governance, why Russia has bad governance, and the assumption that governance in Russia may improve. In doing so, he presents us with an enormously valuable and timely perspective about how we should think about Russian politics today.”
—Sarah Wilson Sokhey, University of Colorado Boulder
“An original contribution to the study of Russian governance, rent-seeking, state building, and regime change. This is a serious piece of scholarship assessing the development of Russia’s political system in the post-Communist era, offering valuable insights into how and why Russia, despite its high level of economic development, exhibits so many features of bad governance, such as weak rule of law, near-universal rent-seeking, corruption, poor regulation, and government ineffectiveness.”
—Hilary Appel, Claremont McKenna College
“Gel’man has long been one of the most original voices on Russian politics and his lively prose and vivid analogies are on full display in The Politics of Bad Governance in Contemporary Russia. By reframing the study of governance, Gel’man helps us understand why the Russian state usually, but not always, underperforms. An important work that will be required reading for anyone interested in governance or Russian politics.”
—Timothy M. Frye, Columbia University
“Vladimir Gel’man’s new book provides a brilliant analysis of the evolution of Russian political institutions in the last thirty years as well as a rigorous discussion of the scenarios for escaping the authoritarian trap. While the book is based on recent research in political science, it is written for a general audience who wants to understand the past, the present, and the future of Russian politics.”
—Sergei Guriev, Sciences Po, Paris
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Politics, Power and Purpose
: An Orientation to Political Science
Publisher: FHSU Digital Press
Year of publication: ? [no date given]
This textbook is intended to orient students to the study of politics and the discipline of political science. By the end of this course, students will gain comprehensive understanding of political behavior, political institutions, and normative ideas of political theory. This textbook is composed of two parts with five chapters in each of these parts. In Part I, we will analyze, conceptualize, and describe what politics is by defining key political terms such as justice, freedom, equality, and democracy. As we shall see, each of these concepts has different and sometimes competing conceptions that often inform one’s foundational political beliefs. For example, when we talk about equality it is important to make distinctions between comprehensive equality (such as the principle that are humans are created equal), equality of outcomes (that individuals ought to be afforded an equal distribution of material goods), and equal opportunity (that government ought to ensure equal protection under the law and basic fairness in a free economic marketplace). One’s level of commitment to these different conceptions of equality goes a long way toward shaping political belief.
In Part II, we will survey the discipline of political science and its major subfields. Why is political science a part of the social sciences? What do political scientists do? How can we think like social scientists? What is the difference between qualitative and quantitative data? These are some important questions we will consider in Part II. Key to this second part of the textbook is orienting students into a political science major or minor degree, giving comprehensive understanding to the state of the discipline and its value to the world outside academia.
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Populism
: Origins and Alternative Policy Responses
Publisher: LSE Press
Year of publication: 2022
Populist movements, parties and leaders have gained influence in many countries, disrupting long-established patterns of party competition, impugning the legitimacy of representative institutions and sometimes actively weakening or coarsening government capabilities. By positing an acute contrast between the will of the people and established elites, and advocating simplistic policy solutions careless of minority rights, populists have challenged the development and even the maintenance of liberal democracy on many fronts.
Social scientists’ attention to populism has grown rapidly, although it remains somewhat fragmented across disciplines. Many questions remain. Are populism’s causes economic or cultural? National or local? Is populism a threat to liberal democracy? If so, what kind of threat? And what can be done about it? Employing a range of conceptual toolkits and methods, this interdisciplinary book addresses in a critical and evidence-based way the most common diagnoses of populism’s causes, consequences and policy antidotes.
Note:
This is Book 1 in the LSE Public Policy Review Series
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Power and its logic
: Politics and how to master it
Publisher: transcript
Year of publication: 2019
FREE DOWNLOAD: https://doi.org/10.14361/9783839444979
Power is the essence of politics. Whoever seeks to comprehend and master it, must understand its logic. Drawing on two decades of international experience in political consulting, Dominik Meier and Christian Blum give profound and honest insights into how power functions. Introducing their Power-Leadership Approach, the authors provide both a conceptual and a theoretical analysis of power and present the tools to successfully exercise power in the political domain. "The Logic of Power" is an enlightening guidebook for decision-makers in politics, business and civil society, for consultants and policy-advisers, students and scholars and for anyone looking to understand how power is constructed.
Contents page:
Acknowledgements
0. Introduction
0.1 Preface
0.2 Structure and Substance
0.3 Methods
1. The Nature of Power
1.1 Definitional Approach
1.2 Basic Principles of Power
1.3 Humankind, Power and History –Follow-Up Questions
2. The Concretions of Power
2.1 Forms of Power
2.2 Power and Symbolism
2.3 Power Fields
2.3.1 Religion
2.3.2 The Economic Power Field
2.3.3 The Political Power Field
2.4 The Common Good
2.5 The Vectors of Political Power
2.5.1 Power Competence and Training
2.5.2 Power Knowledge and Strategy
2.5.3 Instruments of Power and Organization
2.5.4 Mastering the Power Vectors:
Homo Consultandus and Homo Consultans
3. The Practice of Power
3.1 The Power Chess Model
3.2 Empower Model
3.2.1 Political Logic
3.2.2 Poltical Language
3.2.3 Poltical Ethos
3.2.4 Tools and Techniques of Empowering
3.3 Condensing
3.3.1 The Four-Phase Model
3.3.2 Tools and Techniques of Condensing
3.4 Influencing
3.5 Global Governmental Relations
3.6 Concluding Remarks
4. Literature
4.1 Specialist Literature
4.2 Additional Sources
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The Responsibility of Intellectuals
: Reflections by Noam Chomsky and Others after 50 years
Publisher: UCL Press
Year of publication: 2019
Or https://uclpress.co.uk/book/the-responsibility-of-intellectuals/
With the publication of ‘The Responsibility of Intellectuals’ half a century ago, Noam Chomsky burst onto the US political scene as a leading critic of the war in Vietnam. Privilege, he argues, brings with it the responsibility to tell the truth and expose lies, but our intellectual culture only pays lip-service to this ideal. The essay has been described as ‘the single most influential piece of anti-war literature’ of the Vietnam war period.
Since then, Chomsky has continued to equip a growing international audience with the facts and arguments needed to understand – and change – our world. According to The New York Times, Chomsky ‘may be the most widely read American voice on foreign policy on the planet today.’
This book revisits ‘The Responsibility of Intellectuals’ half a century on. It includes six new essays written to celebrate Chomsky’s famous intervention and explore its relevance in today’s world. Nicholas Allott, Chris Knight, Milan Rai and Neil Smith have studied and written about Chomsky’s thought for many years, while Craig Murray and Jackie Walker describe the personal price they have paid for speaking out. The book finishes with Chomsky’s recollections of the background to the original publication of his essay, followed by extensive commentary from him on its 50th anniversary.
Table of Contents:
Introduction: ‘The Responsibility of Intellectuals’: What it does and does not say
--Nicholas Allott
Remarks on the historical context of the essay ‘The Responsibility of Intellectuals’
--Noam Chomsky
1 Reflections on Chomsky’s ‘The Responsibility of Intellectuals’
--Neil Smith and Amahl Smith
2 ‘I Don’t Want No Peace’– a Black, Jewish activist’s take on the responsibility of intellectuals
--Jackie Walker
3 The responsibility of intellectuals in the era of bounded rationality and Democracy for Realists
--Nicholas Allott
4 The propaganda model and the British nuclear weapons debate
--Milan Rai
5 Speaking truth to power – from within the heart of the empire
--Chris Knight
6 The abdication of responsibility
--Craig Murray
7 Replies and commentary
--Noam Chomsky
8 Conference Q&A
--Noam Chomsky
Reviews:
‘… a rich collection … and one of the most remarkable essays is [‘The abdication of responsibility’] by Craig Murray.’
-- Labour Briefing
“Now 90 years old, Noam Chomsky remains one of the best-known intellectuals and critics of American foreign policy in the world. One of his first major interventions, from the time of the Vietnam War, was his celebrated essay “The Responsibility of Intellectuals”. At least for those sympathetic to his politics, it remains a classic statement of the case for academics and others to speak truth to power and to resist the ever-present pressures and temptations of being co-opted. The essay formed the subject of a conference at UCL marking its 50th anniversary in 2017, at which activists and academics explored what we can still learn from it as well as where it needs rethinking. The results have now been published in [this] collection... .“
-- Times Higher Education
“The six essays in this book, complemented by Chomsky’s own replies and commentary during a question-and-answer session held at a University College London conference in 2017, explore what has changed over the last half century and assess the role of the intellectual in our contemporary Orwellian world, where revealing truth has to contend with newspeak and fake news.”
-- The Morning Star
” ‘The Responsibility of Intellectual‘ is a collection of essays subtitled ‘Reflections by Noam Chomsky and others after 50 years‘. Although there are similar themes running through the essays, they need to be read and analysed individually. Most of them express admiration for Chomsky’s activism or political viewpoint, but each represents the individual author’s work or thoughts.”
-- The Weekly Worker
‘While the book does not have a conclusion telling readers what we can learn from all this it does close with Noam Chomsky saying ‘an intellectual presupposes a certain amount of privilege. Privilege confers obligations and responsibility, automatically’ (p. 119). Intellectuals and perhaps even academics should keep this in mind. These obligations and responsibilities should be directed toward ending suffering as defined by what the Latin-American ethics philosopher Enrique Dussel calls the community of victims (Klikauer, 2014). Ending suffering is the ethical and intellectual duty of those who call themselves intellectuals.’thoughts.”
-- Australian Universities Review
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Revolution and Witchcraft
: The Code of Ideology in Unsettled Times
(author: Gordon C. Chang)
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year of publication: 2023
Ideas influence people. In particular, extremely well-developed sets of ideas shape individuals, groups, and societies in far-reaching ways. This book establishes these “idea systems” as an academic concept. Through three intense episodes of manipulation and mayhem connected to idea systems—Europe’s witch hunts, the Mao Zedong-era “revolutions,” and the early campaign of the U.S. War on Terror—this book charts the cognitive and informational matrices that seize control of people’s mentalities and behaviors across societies. Through these, the author reaches two conclusions. The first, that we are all vulnerable to the dominating influence of our own matrices of ideas and to those woven by others in the social system. The second, that even the most masterful manipulators of idea programs may lose control of the outcomes of programmatic manipulation. Amongst this analysis, sixty-plus central conceptual terminologies are provided for readers to analyze multiform idea systems that exist across space, time, and cultural contexts.
SEE ALSO the book's website: https://www.codeofideology.com/home
Table of Contents:
Front Matter
Introduction
The European Witch Hunts
Making Compact Symbolic Structures
Building Internal Coherence
Building External Coherence
Stepwise Inferences and Chain-Complexes of Ideas
Ideas as Chemical and Biochemical Reactions
A Five-Tier Model of Idea System and Ideological Creativity
The New Revolution in China
Compact Symbolic Structures in a Futuristic Idea System
Totality as Internal and External Coherence
Detailed, Rigorous Thinking in a Complex Chain of Elastic Codes
Destabilizing Contradictions and Implosions I: Synchronic Contradictions
Destabilizing Contradictions and Implosions II: Diachronic Contradictions
A Five-Tier Assessment
The War on Terror
Encoding the War on Terrorism
Extending the Idea System to the War on Iraq
Encoding the Prisoner’s Abuse Scandal
Encoding the Absence of Weapons of Mass Destruction
A Five-Tier Reflection
Conclusion
Back Matter
Reviews:
"Gordon Chang’s bold and stunning book excavates the ideological codes that sustain social and political movements across time, space, and cultures. Ranging from early modern European witchcraft to the Chinese cultural revolution and the US war on terrorism, this comparative study provides illuminating insights and reflections on how new ideas morph into social movements with rare and extreme political consequences. The book provides an essential roadmap for exploring the symbolic links of ideas to the institutional frameworks that perpetuate them. It is a stimulating and informative 'must read' for scholars of social and political philosophy and students of the sociology of knowledge." --Bennetta Jules-Rosette, Distinguished Professor of Sociology and Director of African and African-American Studies Research Center, University of California, San Diego
"Revolution and Witchcraft is a timely, ambitious, and laudable book. Gordon Chang warrants praise for the thoughtful and rigorous work he did in crafting it. Revolution and Witchcraft offers social scientists dozens of useful concepts, strategies, and analyses to enhance their investigations of ideology. It also demonstrates how we can apply these conceptual tools … to comprehend the troubling ideological dynamics currently emerging in the United States and across the globe." --Kent Sandstrom, Social Forces, August 11, 2023
"Revolution and Witchcraft may present a start of a fresh academic idea system, with Chang himself a masterful manipulator. … the book showcases a middle-path (中道) toward fair-mindedness (中庸) that utilizes academic idea systems to render ideological systems as observable, as mere human. Through idealization, the book has given readers a novel phenomenological-empiricist … . " --Terry S. H. Au-Yeung, Symbolic Interaction, May 27, 2024
"Dr Chang expands the utility of micro-level discourse analysis techniques in his investigation of three macro-level idea systems: witch hunt social movements, Mao-era revolutionary campaigns, and the US War on Terror. The result is a fresh understanding of each system, original insight into their historical similarities, and an intriguing display of the strategies that systems leaders deploy to retain power." --Hugh B. Mehan, Professor Emeritus of Sociology, University of California, San Diego
"It is within [a] long and rich tradition that one must situate Gordon C. Chang’s book. ... [The] book’s ambition … identifies a ‘basic mechanism’ of how language and idea systems ‘shape the thought processes of entire societies’ … . Chang’s empirical analyses offers those of us interested in identifying and acting on such im/possibilities an invaluable set of analytical resources, primed to the task of deconstructing the power of ideas. " --Claes Tängh Wrangel, CADAAD Journal, January 30, 2024
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South Africa Pushed to the Limit
: The political economy of change
Publisher: UCT Press
Year of publication: 2013
South Africa’s democratic government has worked hard at improving the lives of the black majority, yet close to half the population lives in poverty, jobs are scarce, and the country is more unequal than ever. For millions, the colour of people’s skin still decides their destiny. In its wide-ranging, incisive and provocative analysis, South Africa Pushed to the Limit shows that although the legacies of apartheid and colonialism weigh heavy, many of the strategic choices made since the early 1990s have compounded those handicaps. The big winners of the transition, Marais demonstrates, have been the country’s conglomerates, especially those active in the finance sector. The basic structure of Africa’s biggest economy, however, remains largely intact and continues to serve a gilded minority, which now accommodates sections of the new political elite. The government, meanwhile, has squandered crucial leverage in a series of errors and miscalculations – at huge detriment to efforts to reduce poverty and inequality. The book explains why those choices were made, where they went awry, and why South Africa’s vaunted formations of the left – old and new – have failed to prevent or alter them.
Building on his acclaimed book Limits to Change, Marais examines South Africa’s most pressing issues – from the real reasons behind President Jacob Zuma’s rise and the purging of his predecessor, Thabo Mbeki, and how the African National Congress replenishes its power, to piercing analyses of the country’s continuing AIDS crisis, its economic path, the changes wrought in the world of work, and the unfolding struggles over belonging and identity. South Africa Pushed to the Limit presents a riveting, benchmark analysis of the incomplete journey beyond apartheid.
Summary of Table of Contents:
Acknowledgements;
Introduction;
1 The making of a polarised society;
2 Saving the system;
3 Contours of the transition;
4 Sticking to the rules: the evolution of post-apartheid economic policy;
5 All dressed up: the economy in the twenty-first century;
6 The world of work;
7 Poverty and inequality in the post-apartheid years;
8 The social protection system;
9 AIDS and TB: like 'waiting for a tidal wave to hit';
10 False starts: the health and education systems;
11 A South African developmental state?;
12 Last man standing: the Mbeki-Zuma battle;
13 Power, consent and the ANC
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Southern African liberation struggles
: New local, regional and global perspectives
Publisher: UCT Press
Year of publication: 2013
FREE DOWNLOAD: https://doi.org/10.58331/UCTPRESS.47
This collection of essays brings together a set of new perspectives on the many liberation struggles in southern Africa, struggles that have continuing significance today. What links were there between different forms of struggle in the region? What was the wider context, including international solidarity work? What roles did different actors play in these struggles? Among the topics analysed are African National Congress operations in Zambia, Swaziland and Lesotho; the fate of the Pan-Africanist Congress; Muslim involvement in the Front for the Liberation of Mozambique; what happened in the camps of the South West Africa People’s Organisation in Angola; and violent and non-violent struggles in the Eastern Cape in the 1980s. A number of chapters focus on anti-apartheid activities in Britain. Anyone interested in the complex nature of these struggles, and their local and global legacies, will find this collection, based on innovative research, essential reading.
Probing beyond the heroic portrayals of armed struggles and nationalist resistance, this collection of essays illustrates the intertwined histories of Southern African liberation struggles and those of regional and international solidarity movements, beginning in the 1960s through the establishment of a non-racial democracy in South Africa in 1994. As this collection seeks to present more nuanced accounts of the solidarity movements that flourished alongside the liberation and exile movements -- such as the British-based Anti-Apartheid Movement -- it draws together internal and external struggles in exile. Unique and detailed, it offers new insights into the relationships that exiles and guerrillas developed with host societies and solidarity organisations, both within the southern African region and in the United Kingdom
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Super President
: The History and Future of Executive Power in South Africa
(author: Bhaso Ndzendze)
Publisher: UJ Press
Year of publication: 2024
This book begins with a simple observation: none of South Africa’s presidents since Nelson Mandela have held any ministerial portfolios. This is in contrast to the nine men who ruled the country during its Union and Apartheid eras (1910-1994), from Louis Botha to F.W. de Klerk. They had all had previously served in cabinet, in as many as 6 portfolios each, sometimes with more than one ministry under their control. Crucially, many often took up ministerial positions during their own premierships and presidencies, thereby leading from the front. This is the key difference in state performance between the pre-democratic and democratic periods, the book argues. It explains the shortcomings of the post-1994 order, despite the evident potential, legitimacy and aspirations attached to it.
In this book, Ndzendze systematically argues and empirically demonstrates that the only method to close this gap is by (re)initiating double roles for sitting presidents in all future administrations: those who head the cabinet should be both ministers and presidents at the same time. This would be constitutional, feasible and guarantee transparency towards presidential performance.
Table of Contents:
Introduction: Why are there Presidents?
1. President Mandela: Learning by (Un)doing
2. From Executive Deputy to Executive Head: Thabo Mbeki’s Seamless Transition
3. The Rise of the Political Presidency: From Motlanthe to Zuma
4. Ramaphosa, Cabinet Government, and the Personal Presidency
5. Why are there Ministers and Deputy Presidents?
6. First Ministers: Louis Botha, Jan Smuts and Barry Hertzog
7. Apartheid’s Leading Men
8. A Global Benchmark of Dual Executive Power
9. The American Way: Lessons from the First Presidency
10. Permissive Constitution
11. Emperor at Home, King Abroad
About the author:
Bhaso Ndzendze is Associate Professor of Politics and International Relations at the University of Johannesburg. He is also Vice-Dean in the Faculty of Humanities, and was previously Head of Department for Politics and International Relations at the same institution. His NRF-rated research focus area is sovereignty, and has seen scientific publications on executive power, territorial disputes, interstate wars, military technology and international trade. He holds a PhD in International Relations from the University of the Witwatersrand and a postgraduate diploma in Law from the University of Johannesburg. Ndzendze is also a member of the Council for the Advancement of the South African Constitution and has a regular column in the Daily Maverick.
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The Three Ages of Government
: from the Person, to the Group, to the World
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
Year of publication: 2003
FREE DOWNLOAD: https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/47505
It is only in the last 250 years that ordinary people (in some parts of the world) have become citizens rather than subjects. This change happened in a very short period, between 1780 and 1820, a result of the foundations of democracy laid in the age of revolutions. A century later local governments embraced this shift due to rapid industrialization, urbanization, and population growth. During the twentieth century, all democratic governments began to perform a range of tasks, functions, and services that had no historical precedent. In the thirty years following the Second World War, Western democracies created welfare states that, for the first time in history, significantly reduced the gap between the wealthy and everyone else. Many of the reforms of that postwar period have been since rolled back because of the belief that government should be more like a business. Jos C.N. Raadschelders provides the information that all citizens should have about their connections to government, why there is a government, what it does, how it does it, and why we can no longer do without it. The Three Ages of Government rises above stereotypical thinking to show the centrality of government in human life.
Table of contents:
Acknowledgments
Introduction: What Is Government?
One. Understanding Government in Society
Two. Government in Society
Three. Instinct and Intent
Four. Tribal Community
Five. Citizen and Government in a Global Society
Six. Governing as Process
Seven. Democracy
Notes
References
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Understanding political ideas and movements
: A guide for A2 politics students
Publisher: Manchester University Press
Year of publication: 2003
FREE DOWNLOAD: https://doi.org/10.7765/9781526137951
In liberal democracies there is a belief that citizens ought to take an active interest in what is happening in the political world. Political debate in modern Western democracies is a complex and often rowdy affair. There are three fundamental political issues: 'politics', 'power' and 'justice', which feature in almost all political discussions and conflicts. This book assesses the degree to which the state and state sovereignty are disappearing in the modern world of 'globalised' politics, economics and culture and new international institutions.
The main features of the nation and the problems of defining it are outlined: population, culture, history, language, religion, and race. Different types of democracy and their most important features are discussed.
Contents page:
Introduction 1
1 The state and sovereignty 16
2 The nation 37
3 Democracy 58
4 Freedom 83
5 Equality 103
6 Rights, obligations and citizenship 121
7 The role of ideology in politics and society 135
8 Nationalism 154
9 Conservatism 174
10 Liberalism 195
11 Socialism 214
12 Marxism and anarchism 237
13 Fascism 256
14 Environmentalism and ecologism 274
15 Feminism 295
Concluding remarks 309
Glossary of major figures 323
Suggested further reading 340
Index
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Values, Interests and Power
: South African foreign policy in uncertain times
Publisher: Pretoria University Law Press (PULP)
Year of publication: 2020
FREE DOWNLOAD:
FREE DOWNLOAD:
South Africa’s foreign policy makers are facing a substantial challenge. From the advent of the democratic era in 1994 through to the early 2000s, South Africa was a highly respected actor in international affairs with a number of impressive accomplishments in the areas of global governance, peacekeeping and international norm entrepreneurship. However, since that time, the country’s international standing has declined. The value based and innovative foreign policy that earned the early post-apartheid South African government such great international respect has been replaced by a more transactional and tactically driven approach to international affairs. The country’s position as Africa’s leading economy and voice in international affairs is increasingly being challenged by other African states.
This book explores how South Africa can develop a foreign policy strategy that is appropriate to the uncertain times in which we live and that both helps the country address its overwhelming domestic challenges of poverty, inequality and unemployment and regain its former high international reputation. The contributors to this book offer analyses and proposals for developing such a strategy within the context of the country’s constitutional order and institutional constraints and that addresses the diverse and complex global and regional aspects of the country’s international relations.
Reviews:
“In this valuable book – which should be on every diplomat’s bookshelf - some of SA’s foremost experts offer the government frank and compelling advice on how to conduct a much better foreign policy over the next decade. … The authors challenge Pretoria to muster all the country’s assets and skills – and not just those of the ruling party – to pursue only the most important foreign policy goals. And to be guided always by the lodestar of the Constitution.”
—Peter Fabricius, Foreign Policy Analyst, former Foreign Affairs Editor at Independent Newspapers.
“This book offers compelling insights on South Africa’s foreign policy ... These varied pieces provide textured and critical perspectives that may help open up an avenue to re-imagine South Africa’s foreign policy afresh in the post-Zuma years. It is a compendium that should appeal to scholars of international relations, practitioners of foreign policy, and the broader policy community.”
—Professor Mzukiso Qobo, Head, School of Governance, University of the Witwatersrand
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