Comparative Government Books - Page 12

Issues and Methods in Comparative Politics

Todd Landman

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

German-language review 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Mit diesem Text legt der britische Menschenrechtsexperte und Demokratieforscher Todd Landman (Universität Essex) ein Lehrbuch vor, das sich aus zumindest zwei Gründen auf besondere Art und Weise als Einführungstext zur vergleichenden Politikwissenschaft eignet. Zum einen findet der Autor hier eine gute Balance zwischen der Darstellung der methodologischen Probleme einerseits sowie der inhaltlichen Schwerpunkte der politischen Komparatistik andererseits. Die Kapitel beschäftigen sich zunächst mit den Fragen, warum und wie man adäquate Vergleiche anstellt. Sie behandeln im weiteren die wichtigsten Forschungsfragen, mit denen sich Komparativisten heute auseinandersetzen: die kausalen Verknüpfungen zwischen wirtschaftlicher Entwicklung und Demokratie, die Gründe für Rebellionen und Revolutionen sowie für gewaltfreien Widerstand durch soziale Bewegungen, der Ablauf von Demokratisierungen, die Vor- und Nachteile bestimmter institutioneller Arrangements (Präsidial- versus parlamentarische Systeme, Mehrheits- versus Proportionalwahlrecht) sowie Menschenrechte. Abschließend kommt Landman auf neue Herausforderungen" für die Komparatistik zu sprechen und kehrt zu den spezifischen methodologischen Problemen vergleichender Analyse zurück.
Alleine schon die Kombination methodologischer, theoretischer und inhaltlicher Themen der vergleichenden Politikwissenschaft in einem geschlossenen Text ist als wertvoll zu bezeichnen, da dies in der Literatur bisher nicht allzu häufig anzutreffen war. Oft waren Einführungstexte zur Komparatistik entweder reine Überblicksdarstellungen zu den Forschungssubjekten (politische Kultur, Institutionen usw.). Oder es handelte sich um explizite Methodenlehrbücher, wie zum Beispiel die Werke Przeworski/Teune The Logic of Comparative Social Inquiry", Ragin The Comparative Method" oder King/Keohane/Verba Designing Social Inquiry".
Im Gegensatz auch zu einigen weiteren, teils sammelbandartigen Einführungstexten, die man auf dem Büchermarkt findet, kombiniert Landman in seiner Einführung nicht nur methodologische und inhaltliche Themen; er synthetisiert auch beide Bereiche miteinander. Das heißt er bietet hier einen sowohl empirisch reichhaltigen als auch methodenkritischen Überblick über die verschiedenen Projekte der vergleichenden Politologie der letzten Jahrzehnte, wobei sich seine Kritik der vorgestellten Forschungsergebnisse an den im Einführungsteil dargelegten Richtlinien für eine stringente Komparatistik orientiert. Man bekommt mit diesem Text dadurch einen ganz besonders guten Eindruck von dieser Subdisziplin der Politikwissenschaft und den spezifischen Herausforderungen, mit denen sie in der Forschungspraxis zu kämpfen hat.
Der zweite Grund weshalb dieses Buch als Einführungstext zu empfehlen ist, besteht in der beispielhaften didaktischen Aufarbeitung der behandelten Fragen. So unterteilt Landman seine Kapitel zu den inhaltlichen Fragen stets einheitlich in Literaturüberblicke zu den veröffentlichten Studien von vielen, einigen und einzelnen Ländern. Außerdem enthält das Lehrbuch eine Vielzahl unkomplizierter Tabellen, Graphiken und sogenannter briefing boxes", welche wichtige Erkenntnisse übersichtlich komprimieren. Auch die Bibliographie ist sorgfältig zusammengestellt.

Editorial Review:

Building on the strengths of the first edition, this accessible and user-friendly textbook explores the strategies of comparative research in political science. It begins by examining different methods, then highlights some of the big issues in comparative politics using a wealth of topical examples before discussing the new challenges in the area. As well as updating throughout and the addition of new material, this edition is also supplemented by the availability online of the author's datasets.

Dismantling the Welfare State?: Reagan, Thatcher and the Politics of Retrenchment (Cambridge Studies in Comparative Politics)

Paul Pierson

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Editorial Review:

This book offers a careful examination of the politics of social policy in an era of austerity and conservative governance. Focusing on the administrations of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, Paul Pierson provides a compelling explanation for the welfare state's durability and for the few occasions where each government was able to achieve significant cutbacks. The book will appeal to those interested in the politics of neo-conservatism as well as those concerned about the development of the modern welfare state. It will attract readers in the fields of comparative politics, public policy, and political economy.

Political Corruption: A Handbook

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Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 1.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Corruption is once again high on the international policy agenda as a result of globalization, the spread of democracy, and major scandals and reform initiatives. But the concept itself has been a focus for social scientists for many years, and new findings and data take on richer meanings when viewed in the context of long-term developments and enduring conceptual debates. This compendium, a much-enriched version of a work that has been a standard reference in the field since 1970, offers concepts, cases, and fresh evidence for comparative analysis. Building on a nucleus of classic studies laying out the nature and development of the concept of corruption, the book also incorporates recent work on economic, cultural, and linguistic dimensions of the problem, as well as critical analyses of approaches to reform. Two-thirds of the nearly fifty articles are especially written or translated for this volume, or based on selected journal literature published in the 1990s. The tendency to treat corruption as a synonym for bribery is illuminated by analyses of the diverse terminology and linguistic techniques that distinguish corruption problems in the major languages. Recent attempts to measure corruption and to analyze its causes and effects quantitatively are also critically examined. New contributions emphasize corruption phenomena in Asia and Africa, contrasts among region and regime types, the incidence U.S. state corruption, European Party finance and corruption; assessments of international corruption rating's, analyses of international corruption control treaties, and unintended consequences of anti-corruption efforts. Cumulatively, the book combines descriptive richness, analyticalthrust, conceptual awareness, and contextual articulation.

Bureaucracy and representative government

William A Niskanen

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Editorial Review:

This is the first book to develop a formal theory of supply by bureaus. Niskanen develops an original and comprehensive theory of the behavior of bureaus with the institutions of representative government. He challenges the traditional view that monopoly bureaus are the best way to organize the public sector, and he suggests ways to use competitive bureaus and private firms to perform operations such as delivering mail, fighting wars, or running schools more efficiently than the present government agencies. The theory concludes that most bureaus are too large, grow too fast, use too much capital, and exploit their sponsor. His theory explains the relation of the output and budget of a bureau to demand and cost decisions. It compares bureaus with other forms of organization facing like conditions and delineates the production and investment behavior of a bureau, the behavior of nonprofit firms with no sponsor, the behavior of mixed bureaus with financing from a sponsor and from the sale of services, the effects of competition between a bureau and a competitive industry. The book also develops a simple theory of the market for public services financed through a representative government; the final section suggests a set of changes to improve the performance of our bureaucratic and political institutions, based both on theory and Niskanen's professional experience. It is essential reading for professionals and students in the social sciences and could prove instrumental in reforming some of our government institutions.

The Future of Governing (Studies in Government and Public Policy)

B. Guy Peters

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Editorial Review:

Global politics in the 1980s and 1990s have been transformed by revolution and reformation. Political systems have crashed or teetered precariously as entire governments and national boundaries have dissolved. Even the relatively stable industrialized democracies have been forced to reorganize their governments in the face of the increasing discontent of their citizens. Guy Peters provides a concise and insightful guide to the fundamental ideas underlying these reform movements and their future impact on governance.

Focusing on Anglo-American examples, Peters reveals how the reform efforts reflect four major alternative models of state governance based respectively on the concepts of market, participation, flexibility, and deregulation. His close examination of these administrative models underscores their wide-ranging implications for reformers, bureaucrats, and public administrators, as well as the crucial importance of integrating ideals with contexts in any attempt to make government more responsive.

An internationally recognized authority on public administration, Peters draws upon an impressive array of sources to provide a unique synthesis of new approaches to improving governance in the industrialized democracies. His work will help scholars and administrators alike gain a much clearer understanding of the ideas and processes that influence those approaches as the world moves ever nearer to millennium's end.

This revised edition includes three new chapters that add valuable analysis and perspective to current debates surrounding the political and administrative change in less-developed countries, the deficiencies of public administration theory, and the ways in which reform begets further reform and creates a belief in the desirability of continuous reform.

This book is part of the Studies in Government and Public Policy series.

Political Science: A Comparative Introduction

Rod Hague, Martin Harrop

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Editorial Review:

The new third edition of a leading textbook has been comprehensively revised and rewritten throughout to cover key developments into the 21st century with new chapters added on political communication and non-democratic regimes. Lively, accessible, student-friendly, and truly international in its coverage, with a wide range of pedagogical features, the book includes full-page country case studies, debate boxes, and many charts and exhibits.

Constitutional Dictatorship: Crisis Government in the Modern Democracies

Clinton Rossiter

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Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

A Necessary Reissue 5 out of 5 stars.
6 of 7 people found this review helpful.

Following the terror attacks of September 11, it seemed only a matter of time until Clinton Rossiter's classic comparative study of emergency powers, Constitutional Dictatorship (1948), would regain prominence in the United States. Rossiter's book a time the best historical resource on emergency powers and despite a flood of commentaries remains the best. Even in the months following the attacks, after a short season of citation by commentators across the American ideological spectrum, bandied about as a guide to crisis the book was soon reissued with a new introduction and a provocative new dust-jacket depicting the burning remnants of the World Trade Center set against an image of the U.S. Constitution, defacing the inscription "We the People." Rossiter's warning that "all uses of emergency powers and all readjustments in the organization of the government" should be "in pursuit of constitutional or legal requirements" resonates today in the open-ended "War on Terror." Indeed, considering the frequency of the exercise of emergency powers around the world, Rossiter's book has remained relevant in the half century since it was first published. Its pioneering methodology of comparative constitutionalism as a framework for studying emergency governance was actually well ahead of its time. The examples Rossiter drew upon have become the classic case studies: the Roman Republic and four modern democracies. Among other things, Rossiter's work is a classic defense of domestic formalism, drawing more often than not on the Republican tradition.

However, in other ways, Constitutional Dictatorship whose first edition put its cogent arguments to rest in 1948 reappears today as an intellectual Rip Van Winkle; the world it awakes in today would scarcely be recognizable to the author. COntinuous with Rossiter's republican ethic that law provides particular forms of agonism to slow down governments so they can and attend to a plurality of interests, a rigorous sequel -and not simply a repackaging of Rossiter's arguments-- would also have to grapple with new locations of power and governance, in particular a host of international institutions that interact with national governments in situations of national emergency.
These would include treaty regimes concerning the law of war and human rights law. Still, Rossiter's Constitutional Dictatorship is the most sophisticated account of emergency governments and self-regulatory emergency governance that we have in the period before the United Nations system and modern international law made its presence felt. As such, it provides a snapshot of how it was possible to conceive of emergency governance in this post-Westphalian/ pre- San Franciscan international order.

Editorial Review:

How should the United States be governed during times of crisis? Definitely not as we are in times of tranquility, asserts this classic study. The war on terrorism is a case in point. The horros of terror attacks on the United States have forced Americans to accept legislative changes that might be unthinkable at other times. The "inescapable truth," Clinton Rossiter wrote in his classic study of modern democracies in crisis is that "No form of government can survive that excludes dictatorship when the life of the nation is at stake."

Comparative Constitutional Engineering: An Inquiry Into Structures, Incentives, and Outcomes

Giovanni Sartori

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Editorial Review:

"Democratic constitutional engineering is tricky, yet consequential, nowadays more than ever. I can hardly think of a better proof of this double assertion than the one provided by the latest book by Giovanni Sartori, possibly the most astute and passionate student of constitutional engineering . . . Mine is an invitation to read the book, indeed to unwrap and savor it. Rarely has constitutional engineering been more salient to the future of expanding democracy."
—G. DiPalma,The Review of Politics

"Delightfully written, this monograph will be a staple of courses on comparative constitutional design . . . I can think of no better example of contemporary political "engineering" than this, and it is precisely this product of research that students of comparative politics must attempt."
—Peter C. Ordeshook,Political Science Quarterly

"Despite the seemingly endless volume of literature on democratic institutions, no text even comes close to formulating the kind of comprehensive and critical synthesis one finds in this elegant new book by Sartori."
—P. Vannicelli,Los Angeles Monthly

"Giovanni Sartori, internationally recognized political scientist, has written a pathbreaking, highly innovative comparative study of state building."
—The Commentator

"The last book of Giovanni Sartori is a beautiful work that ranks among his very best writings. It is very concise, for it deals only with essentials, and yet covers all the basics of his subject matter; and Sartori always takes a crystal-clear stand on the many controversies that he covers."
—G. Bognetti,Il Sole/24 Ore

The second edition of this pathbreaking, highly innovative comparative study in state-building by a major political scientist is a fully updated examination of the problems of making democratic government work.

Sartori begins by assessing electoral systems. He attacks the conventional wisdom that their influence cannot be predicted and also disputes the view that proportional representation is always best and will deliver 'consensus democracy'. He argues that the double-ballot formulas deserve more consideration for their ability to facilitate governability in adverse circumstances.

His comparative assessment of presidential and semi-presidential systems and the variety of formulas that are categorized, sometimes misleadingly, as parliamentary, looks at the conditions that allow a political form to perform as intended.

He concludes with a detailed proposal for a new type of government: alternating presidentialism. This meets the need for strong parliamentary control and efficient government, with safeguards against both parliamentary obstructionism and government by decree, and so could help to avoid political paralysis in Latin America, in the post-communist countries of Europe and in countries with dysfunctional parliamentary systems such as Italy and Israel.

Spy Book: The Encyclopedia of Espionage

Norman Palmer, Thomas B. Allen

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Could Have Beenn Better With More Facts. 2 out of 5 stars.
9 of 22 people found this review helpful.

I cannot believe two Military historians wrote a reference book leaving out importnat birthdates, places and regions where most of the spys they cited grew up. For example, Claire George an outstanding American was cited, but no birthdates, hometown, educational background or region he came from was even listed, yet they claim they are historians. I know they may try to defend their poor research by saying spies hide their backgrounds but most of this information is readily available from easy sources. Consequently, I question the accuracy, research and details of a book that could have been great, but is only good for as a children's guide to Espionage from ages 10 through 14. Sorry, I expected more and want a discount for what I paid.

Editorial Review:

his intriguing book covers intelligence agencies, espionage code names, terms, countries, literature, equipment, and more. Spy Book will captivate and enthrall anyone curious about espionage. Contains over 2,000 entries and references and photos and illustrations of famous spies, codes, hardware and more.

Meeting Procedures: Parliamentary Law and Rules of Order for the 21st Century

James Lochrie

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An attractive alternative 5 out of 5 stars.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful.

Lochrie's "Meeting Procedures" is a good alternative to Roberts Rules of Order Newly Revised (RONR). Both of these books are intended to be adopted by organizations as the parliamentary authority, but no matter what authority you use, "Meeting Procedures" is a valuable addition to the presiding officers bookshelf.

Where RONR has pages of rules for special cases (which ~do~ come up), Lochrie takes a different approach. A group using "Meeting Procedures" will find special rules are easier to adopt (2/3 vote, no notice), so that special cases can be handled by individual groups with special rules as they are required, allowing the book to be more streamlined. For example, there are no rules in this book on disciplinary procedures (trials). These things (thankfully) rarely come up, and an organization using Lochrie's book could adopt special rules for the proceedings when and if they do.

Elections, something that does come up, is thoroughly covered, including detailed examples. Also covered is the interesting subject of "election paradoxes", and how to cope with them with various voting methods (e.g. the Borda count).

Included with the book are a section with answers to some common parliamentary questions, sample minutes, a sample committee report and sample convention rules. One thing that seems to be missing is a sample set of bylaws, but one can find such things on the internet (with varying degrees of quality though!).

Overall, a wonderful book, even if your group prefers RONR or another authority.

Editorial Review:

A complete, modern guide to meeting procedures. From voting and debating to rules on quorum, this guidebook is packed with simplified information that avoids jargon, meeting the needs of most non-profit organizations and professional associations. The author emphasizes the principles of meetings and introduces the use of modern technology in meetings.