Starting from the principal-agent perspective, this book offers a new analysis of government. It interprets political institutions as devices designed to solve the omnipresent principal-agent game in politics. In other words how to select, instruct, monitor and evaluate political agents or elites so that they deliver in accordance with the needs and preferences of their principal: the population.

This book explores whether there are any evolutionary mechanisms in politics which guide mankind towards the rule of law regime, domestically and globally. It combines a cross-sectional...

State Management offers a comprehensive yet concise introduction to the new field of state management, presenting an analysis of basic questions within the theories of bureaucracy, policy-making, principal-agent modelling and policy networks. Focussing upon recent state transformation, it illuminates public sector reform strategies such as New Public Management as well as incorporation, tendering and bidding, decentralization, team production and privatization.

This book argues that we should look upon the variety of models or approaches to public management or public...

This short accessible text presents an overview of the relevance of culture for politics. Culture figured prominently in the theories of the great classics, such as Marx, Durkheim and Weber and discussion of cultural politics has been revived and variegated with the influence of postmodernism. Section I of the book discusses the relevance of cultural perspectives to political analysis including discussion of the most significant concepts and methods. Section II looks at the core elements of political culture -- tradition, ethnicity and religion. Section III examines emerging research avenues...

Offers a comprehensive introduction to the field of state management, systematically examining the key approaches to the study of how government attempts to achieve successful delivery of public services, discussing the pros and cons of alternative frameworks of analysis.

This concise, accessible text presents an overview of the relevance of culture for politics. Culture figures prominently in the theories of the great classics such as Marx, Durkheim and Weber. Recently, the cultural approach to politics has developed quickly, and the concept of political culture has played a role in these developments, particularly given the emergence of large-scale survey research into political value orientations.

Seeking to outline this rapid development, the book is divided into three sections:

• Section I of the book discusses the relevance of...

Muslim societies are struggling under the need for modernization and the drift towards Islamic fundamentalism. The balance between these two forces is struck differently in the various Muslim societies depending upon the constellation of groups as historical legacies. However, the tension is real. In this work, Jan-Erik Lane and Hamadi Redissi look at the underlying social consequences of religious beliefs to account for the political differences between major civilizations of the world against a background of the rise of modern capitalism. Offering a timely new appraisal of the political...