Political Science Books - Page 5

Policy Paradox: The Art of Political Decision Making, Revised Edition

Deborah Stone

Amazon Price: $41.25 List Price: $41.25 Usually ships in 24 hours By: W. W. Norton Amazon Marketplace: 53 new & used starting at $32.35

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Government -> Public Affairs & Administration
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Politics -> General
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Social Sciences -> Political Science -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 11 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

A provocative and rewarding examination of policy making 5 out of 5 stars.
7 of 7 people found this review helpful.

Deborah Stone's "Policy Paradox" is an important work in the field of policy analysis. The subtitle is illuminating: "The Art of Political Decision Making." Her takeoff point is the following statement (pages x-xi): "This new field of policy analysis supposedly devoted to improving governance, was based on a profound disgust for the ambiguities and paradoxes of politics. . . . In rational analysis, everything has one and only one meaning." In her own words, she (page xi) ". . .wrote this book to critique the field and to capture, I hope, a more inspiring and humane kind of policy analysis."

Her basic point is that the rational models drawn from economics do not explain very well how policy analysis works. Nor, in her view, should it be the actual model for decision making. She contends that economic rationality often gives way to political reality, to accommodation to conflicting interests, to compromise, to values other than economic efficiency (such as liberty, fairness, and so on).

The introduction opens the book strongly, with Stone noting policy paradoxes, where the economic rational model does not prevail and explain how things work. She argues (page 13) that "each type of policy instrument [e.g., inducements, rules, rights, for example] is a kind of sports arena, each with its peculiar ground rules, within which political conflicts are continued." The first chapter continues the theme, by speaking of the market (economics) and the polis (politics), with a nice table summarizing key points on page 33). She concludes that (page 34) "Problems in the polis are never `solved' in the way that economic needs are met in the market model." Two different realms, and what works in the market may or may not work in the polis.

The book proceeds in three major sections: Part II focuses on broad goals (e.g., equity, efficiency, security, liberty); Part III examines problems (with chapters labeled as follows: symbols, numbers, causes, interests, decisions); Part IV focuses on solutions (or tools or instruments, such as inducements, rules, facts).

In the end, the book examines nicely the tensions between economic rational analysis of policy ideas and the messier but inescapable political process as it addresses policy issues. The reader will be provoked to think about important issues upon encountering Stone's perspective. A very useful work on the bigger picture of policy analysis.

Editorial Review:

Since its debut, Policy Paradox has been widely acclaimed as the most accessible policy text available. Unlike most texts, which treat policy analysis and policy making as different enterprises, Policy Paradox demonstrates that "you can't take politics out of analysis." Through a uniquely rich and comprehensive model, this revised edition continues to show how real-world policy grows out of differing ideals, even definitions, of basic societal goals like security, equality, and liberty. The book also demonstrates how these ideals often conflict in policy implementation. In this revised edition, Stone has added a full-length case study as an appendix, taking up the issue of affirmative action. Clear, provocative, and engaging, Policy Paradox conveys the richness of public policy making and analysis.

Real Change: From the World That Fails to the World That Works

Newt Gingrich

Amazon Price: $18.45 List Price: $27.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Regnery Publishing Amazon Marketplace: 39 new & used starting at $15.90

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Current Events -> Poverty -> Social Services & Welfare
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Government -> Public Policy
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Government -> Social Policy

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 77 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Newt Gingrich for PRESIDENT!!!! 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

In this great country - the U S A - I feel we do not have a good choice for PRESIDENT!!! There has to be some one more qualified to run our country than the 2 men running!!! OBAMA thinks he's great and McCAIN is acting like a wimp!!

history professor 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I wish more people especially politicians knew more about history and the lessons we need to learn from history. Being a history professor makes Newt especially talented in seeing the historical perspective of the problems and solutions. His book offers change we can believe in for real American Solutions. I took notes and have contacted politicans and the media about my concerns. We, the people, need to be heard and this book plus his Ammerican Solutions site helps us be heard. One clear result is his help with increasing interest in drill here, drill now, pay less.

Real change 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Absolutely excellent; really brings you up to date on the issues that Government (Congress, et al) needs to take to get America headed in the right direction.

Evaluating Real Change 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Gringrich cites American's responses to polls on topics that are very important such as health care, how to handle terrorism, taxes, competitiveness, etc. The results of the poll show a preponderance of Americans believe in common sense solutions yet our elected representatives cannot agree on anything. He identifies a series of solutions that address these important topics and shows how the left is out of step with the poll responders. This is a good read with more balance than you might expect as Republicans get their fair share of blame.

Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism, New Edition

Benedict Anderson

Amazon Price: $13.57 List Price: $19.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Verso Amazon Marketplace: 52 new & used starting at $11.86

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> History
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Politics -> General
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Politics -> History & Theory

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 30 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

A new edition of the definitive book on nationalism—over a quarter of a million copies sold worldwide.

Imagined Communities, Benedict Anderson's brilliant book on nationalism, forged a new field of study when it first appeared in 1983. Since then it has sold over a quarter of a million copies and is widely considered the most important book on the subject. In this greatly anticipated revised edition, Anderson updates and elaborates on the core question: what makes people live, die and kill in the name of nations? He shows how an originary nationalism born in the Americas was adopted by popular movements in Europe, by imperialist powers, and by the anti-imperialist resistances in Asia and Africa, and explores the way communities were created by the growth of the nation-state, the interaction between capitalism and printing, and the birth of vernacular languages-of-state. Anderson revisits these fundamental ideas, showing how their relevance has been tested by the events of the past two decades.

Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA

Tim Weiner

Amazon Price: $11.53 List Price: $16.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Anchor Amazon Marketplace: 51 new & used starting at $10.10

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> 20th Century -> 1945 - Present
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> 20th Century -> General
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 129 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Overpowering 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful.

No exagerations and no fabrications.
That's the way it is with the CIA.
A profound digging into the mechanism and operational structure of the agency.
Overpowering.
A great deal of information.
Hot!

A Lesson 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful.

This book might as well be a "how to fail" manual for any modern American bureaucracy.

In the early years the company is run by dynamic and entrepreneurial founders and mavericks who do a whole lot with very little and are driven by passion and patriotism. They come up with amazingly creative and innovative plans and solutions that actually work and save the day. A company is born.

Then a bunch of alcoholic guys show up swaggering and bragging like mavericks but without the brains or foresight- lots of people and projects die needless deaths due to gross incompetence, stupidity and lies. Lies even to the president who is making policy and war decisions. The wagons begin to circle closer to protect the tribe. On the eve of the Chinese invasion of Korea--the CIA knew NOTHING but said the Chinese would never attack. Thousands of Americans paid for that lie with their lives. The CIA was convinced Cuba would never let Soviet missiles on the island. We almost had WW3 over that little screw-up.

Then the career bureaucrats and managers show up and try to put their stamp on things. Budgets bloat. Egos inflate. Nepotism, cronyism and careering become rampant. All mistakes are carefully hidden or blamed on others. Luck (like the Iranian coup) is trumpeted as a major intelligence and covert ops success. Back stabbing, positioning, scheming, and of course the constant bragging and lying all contribute to a loss of focus on the original mission and create an echo chamber of yes men and allies at the top, with seething morale-sapping resentment, fatigue and bitterness in the ranks. Everyone is just waiting for their pensions and reading newspapers/blogs each morning to gather intelligence. Critical data on Vietnam is suppressed for political reasons.

Then comes Mr. Clean-it-all-up from outside the company. Everyone hates him. Paranoia, backstabbing and lies and bitter rivalries emerge. The agency starts making mistakes like assassinating or bombing the wrong targets, spying on their own citizen, flooding problems with millions of dollars as a "solution," They new guy fires a bunch of people that don't share his views, and he leaves within a couple years with a promotion to the state department, a cabinet position or hey-maybe even president. Since the CIA warlords can't hire or convert people that actually speak foreign languages they just payoff warlords around the world to do their dirty work. Payrolls included at various times: The Shah of Iran and his corrupt sister, the King of Jordan, The warlords in Sudan now performing genocide, Noriega, a two-bit assassin named Saddam Hussein, a terrorist that blew up 77 Cubans on an airplane, opium warlords in Laos,etc etc etc.

The company is then left in the hands of a bunch of naive, inexperienced, RCG interns brimming with ideas and energy but scarred by premature jading. For a brief moment, an entrepreneurial and can-do esprit de corps grips the troops. Congress or the board of directors steps in the fix what is hopelessly broken and installs- a guy who ends up being charged with conspiracy, fraud, money-laundering and fixing million-dollar contracts for his friends in the beltway.

At some point- the Soviet Union collapses- but nobody is even aware of it.

The amateurs left over are promoted beyond their abilities and end up kidnapping, torturing and killing people on accident in their efforts to "get ahead." The lifers resign in disgust. Private intelligence-gathering start-ups sprout all over Washington. Outsourcing spirals out of control. The brain drain becomes a brain vacuum. All new CIA hires adopt the 5-year plan: Get in, make connections, get out, and get paid.

At the end of the day, billions and billions of dollars were wasted on pretty much nothing constructive.

So much for Wild Bill Donovan's legacy.

Editorial Review:

With shocking revelations that made headlines in papers across the country, Pulitzer-Prize-winner Tim Weiner gets at the truth behind the CIA and uncovers here why nearly every CIA Director has left the agency in worse shape than when he found it; and how these profound failures jeopardize our national security.

Coming of Age in Mississippi

Anne Moody

Amazon Price: $11.20 List Price: $14.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Delta Amazon Marketplace: 53 new & used starting at $6.78

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Ethnic & National -> African-American & Black
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Ethnic & National -> General
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 98 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Born to a poor couple who were tenant farmers on a plantation in Mississippi, Anne Moody lived through some of the most dangerous days of the pre-civil rights era in the South. The week before she began high school came the news of Emmet Till’s lynching. Before then, she had "known the fear of hunger, hell, and the Devil. But now there was…the fear of being killed just because I was black." In that moment was born the passion for freedom and justice that would change her life.

An all-A student whose dream of going to college is realized when she wins a basketball scholarship, she finally dares to join the NAACP in her junior year. Through the NAACP and later through CORE and SNCC she has first-hand experience of the demonstrations and sit-ins that were the mainstay of the civil rights movement, and the arrests and jailings, the shotguns, fire hoses, police dogs, billy clubs and deadly force that were used to destroy it.

A deeply personal story but also a portrait of a turning point in our nation’s destiny, this autobiography lets us see history in the making, through the eyes of one of the footsoldiers in the civil rights movement.

We the People: An Introduction to American Politics, Sixth Regular Edition

Benjamin Ginsberg, Theodore J. Lowi, Margaret Weir

Amazon Price: $79.80 List Price: $87.50 Usually ships in 24 hours By: W. W. Norton Amazon Marketplace: 24 new & used starting at $62.99

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Government -> Civics
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Politics -> General
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Social Sciences -> Political Science -> General

Editorial Review:

Emphasizing the relevance of politics and government in everyday life, We the People provides tools to help students think critically about American government and politics. The Sixth Edition has been carefully updated to reflect most recent developments, including the ongoing conflict in Iraq and the 2006 midterm elections. Complemented by a rich package of multimedia tools for instructors and students, including a new video-clip DVD, We the People is now more pedagogically effective than ever.

Essentials of Comparative Politics, Second Edition

Patrick H. O'Neil

Amazon Price: $50.00 List Price: $50.00 Usually ships in 1 to 3 weeks By: W. W. Norton Amazon Marketplace: 62 new & used starting at $22.00

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Politics -> General
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Politics -> Reference
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Social Sciences -> Political Science -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Essentials of Comparative Politics supplies a framework that enables students to navigate and organize the material they will encounter in the course—and to make increasingly sophisticated comparisons between actual countries. In the first chapter, Patrick O'Neil explains the basic methodologies of comparative politics, discusses current issues and debates in the field, and introduces two themes that will inform the text—the importance of institutions to all political systems and the fundamental struggle between freedom and equality.

The subsequent chapters are organized thematically, beginning with the basic concepts of politics—the state, nations and society, and political economy—and building to discussions of the challenges facing different types of political systems today. Throughout, Professor O'Neil incorporates analysis of the transformative events of recent history—among them the fall of communism, the accelerating spread of democracy, the economic growth of Asia, globalization, and responses to the attacks of September 11th 2001.

The Prize : The Epic Quest for Oil, Money & Power

Daniel Yergin

Amazon Price: $14.96 List Price: $22.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Free Press Amazon Marketplace: 125 new & used starting at $7.46

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Business & Investing -> Popular Economics -> General
Subjects -> Business & Investing -> General
Subjects -> Business & Investing -> Industries & Professions -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 137 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Fantastic read..but.. 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Truly worth the pulitizer prize, a great read, a great view of history..but..don't buy the paperback. This book literally fell out of it's binding before I got through the first one hundred pages. By the time I got to the epilogue I had little more than a pile of loose pages. I don't own the hard cover, but I can tell you that the soft cover is a piece of junk. Too bad the binders didn't respect the greatness of the book.

Editorial Review:

Daniel Yergin's first prize-winning book, Shattered Peace, was a history of the Cold War. Afterwards the young academic star joined the energy project of the Harvard Business School and wrote the best-seller Energy Future. Following on from there, The Prize, winner of the 1992 Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction, is a comprehensive history of one of the commodities that powers the world--oil. Founded in the 19th century, the oil industry began producing kerosene for lamps and progressed to gasoline. Huge personal fortunes arose from it, and whole nations sprung out of the power politics of the oil wells. Yergin's fascinating account sweeps from early robber barons like John D. Rockefeller, to the oil crisis of the 1970s, through to the Gulf War.

Descent into Chaos: The United States and the Failure of Nation Building in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Central Asia

Ahmed Rashid

Amazon Price: $18.45 List Price: $27.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Viking Adult Amazon Marketplace: 45 new & used starting at $15.50

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> History -> Asia -> India
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> 21st Century
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Politics -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

The #1 New York Times bestselling author provides a shocking analysis of the crisis in Pakistan and the renewed radicalism threatening Afghanistan and the West.

Ahmed Rashid is “Pakistan’s best and bravest reporter” (Christopher Hitchens). His unique knowledge of this vast and complex region allows him a panoramic vision and nuance that no Western writer can emulate.

His book Taliban first introduced American readers to the brutal regime that hijacked Afghanistan and harbored the terrorist group responsible for the 9/11 attacks. Now, Rashid examines the region and the corridors of power in Washington and Europe to see how the promised nation building in these countries has pro-gressed. His conclusions are devastating: An unstable and nuclear-armed Pakistan, a renewed al’ Qaeda profiting from a booming opium trade, and a Taliban resurgence and reconquest. While Iraq continues to attract most of American media and military might, Rashid argues that Pakistan and Afghanistan are where the conflict will finally be played out and that these failing states pose a graver threat to global security than the Middle East.

Benazir Bhutto’s assassination and the crisis in Pakistan are only the beginning. Rashid assesses what her death means for the region and the future. Rashid has unparalleled access to the figures in this global drama, and provides up-to-the-minute analysis better than anyone else. Descent Into Chaos will do for Central Asia what Thomas Rick’s Fiasco did for Iraq — offer a blistering critique of the Bush administration and an impassioned call to correct our failed strategy in the region.

Obama's Challenge: America's Economic Crisis and the Power of a Transformative Presidency

Robert Kuttner

Amazon Price: $8.22 List Price: $14.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Chelsea Green Publishing Amazon Marketplace: 1 new & used starting at $8.22

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Business & Investing -> Economics -> Economic Conditions
Subjects -> Business & Investing -> Economics -> Economic Policy & Development
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Current Events

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Barack Obama approaches the Presidency at a critical moment in American history, facing simultaneous crises of war, the environment, health care, but most especially in the economy. If he is able to rise to the moment, he could join the ranks of a small handful of previous presidents who have been truly transformative, succeeding in fundamentally changing our economy, society, and democracy for the better.

But this will require imaginative and decisive action as Obama takes office, action bolder than he has promised during his campaign, and will be all the more difficult given the undertow of conventional wisdom in Washington and on Wall Street that resists fundamental change. Decades of regressive politics and political gridlock have left America in its most precarious situation since the onset of the Great Depression. The collapse of the housing bubble continues, as does the financial meltdown it triggered; a revival of 1970s style stagflation threatens; incomes continue to lag behind inflation; our household and international debts pile higher; disastrous climate change looms; energy and food prices continue their escalation; and the ranks of un- and under-insured Americans grow, the clearest, and most heartless, example of America’s destructive inequalities.

Solutions to our multiple challenges do exist, but they won’t be found in overly cautious or expedient quick fixes. With his exceptional skill at appealing to our better angels, Barack Obama could be the right leader at the right time to re-awaken America to the renewed promise of shared prosperity coupled with responsibility towards future generations and the international community with whom we share the Earth. Invoking America’s greatest leaders, Robert Kuttner explains how Obama must be a transformative president—or a failed one.