Kategoria BISAC: Political Science >> Civil Rights

Examines some of the central themes and ideologies central to the formation of the United States. This book provides an examination of various facets of the Founders' lives and thoughts, as well as their times, to help readers understand the events that we

A social anxiety currently pervades the political classes of the western world, arising from the perception that young people have become disaffected with liberal democratic politics. Voter turnout among 18-25 year olds continues to be lower than other age groups and they are less likely to join political parties. This is not, however, proof that young people are not interested in politics per se but is evidence that they are becoming politically socialized within a new media environment.

This shift poses a significant challenge to politicians who increasingly have to respond to a...

Presents a collectively written, inter-disciplinary, thematic cross-national study which combines conceptual, theoretical, empirical and policy material in a way to explore a key concept in contemporary European political, policy and academic debates. This

We are currently witnessing the global diffusion of multiculturalism, both as a political discourse and as a set of international legal norms. States today are under increasing international scrutiny regarding their treatment of ethnocultural groups, and are expected to meet evolving international standards regarding the rights of indigenous peoples, national minorities, and immigrants. This phenomenon represents a veritable revolution in international relations, yet has received little public or scholarly attention.
In this book, Kymlicka examines the factors underlying this change, and...

This is the first law book devoted entirely to the subject of truth commissions. The book sets forth standards of procedural fairness aimed at protecting the rights of those who come into contact with truth commissions - primarily victims and their families, witnesses, and perpetrators. The aim of the book is to provide recommended criteria of procedural fairness for five possible components of a truth commission's mandate: the taking of statements, the use of subpoenas, the exercise of powers of search and seizure, the holding of victim-centered public hearings, and the publication of...

The Magna Carta, sealed in 1215, has come to stand for the rule of law, curbs on executive power and the freedom to enjoy basic liberties. When the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted by the United Nations in 1948, it was heralded as 'a Magna Carta for all human kind'. Yet in the year in which this medieval Charter's 800^th anniversary is widely celebrated, the future of the UK's commitment to international human rights standards is in doubt.

Are 'universal values' commendable as a benchmark by which to judge the rest of the world, but unacceptable when...

National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs), defined by the UN as bodies established to promote and protect human rights, have increased in number since the General Assembly adopted principles governing their effectiveness in 1993. The UN and others have encouraged states to set up such institutions as an indication of their commitment to human rights, and now over 20 such institutions exist in Africa and many more will follow. These institutions have taken various forms including ombudsmen, commissions, or a combination of the two. They differ in terms of how they are established - some by...

This book brings together contributions from some of the leading authorities in the field of EU immigration and asylum law to reflect upon developments since the Amsterdam Treaty and, particularly, the Tampere European Council in 1999. At Tampere, Heads of State and Government met to set guidelines for the implementation of the powers and competences introduced by the Amsterdam Treaty and examine the goal of the EU as an area of freedom, security, and justice. Since 1999, a substantial body of law and policy has developed, but the process has been lengthy and the results open to critique....

Since the late 1990s, development institutions have increasingly used the language of rights in their policy and practice. This special issue on feminist perspectives on politics of rights explores the strategies, tensions and challenges associated with 'rights work' in a variety of settings.

Articles on the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, East and South Asia explore the dilemmas that arise for feminist praxis in these diverse locations, and address the question of what rights can contribute to struggles for gender justice. Exploring the intersection of formal rights - whether...

The Stonewall Riot in New York in 1969 marked the birth of the sexual minority rights movement worldwide. In the subsequent four decades, equality and related rights on grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity have been enshrined in many African, Asian, Australasian, European and North American countries, thanks to better informed discourses of the natures of sexual orientation, gender identity, equality and rights that systematic scientific and socio-legal research has generated.

Discrimination, harassment and persecution on grounds of a person's sexual orientation or...

Published in association with UNESCO, Democracy and Human Rights in Multicultural Societies examines the political governance of cultural diversity, specifically how public policy-making has dealt with the claims for cultural recognition that have increasingly been expressed by ethno-national movements, language groups, religious minorities, indigenous peoples and migrant communities. Its principle aim is to understand, explain and assess public-policy responses to ethnic, linguistic and religious diversity. Adopting interdisciplinary perspectives of comparative social sciences, the...

This comprehensive study traces the transnationalization of activist networks, analyzing their changing compositions and characters and examining the roles played by the World Social Forum in this process.

Comparing four of the largest global networks targeting the 'neoliberal triumvirate' of the World Bank, the IMF and the World Trade Organization:

• the Jubilee anti-debt campaigners
• Via Campesina peasant farmers
• Our World Is Not For Sale
• and the anarchistic Peoples' Global Action.
...

Presenting feminist perspectives on politics of rights, this title explores the strategies, tensions and challenges associated with 'rights work' in a variety of settings.

In much of the citizenship literature it is often considered, if not simply assumed, that citizenship is integral to the character of a self-determining community and that this process, by definition, involves the exclusion of resident 'foreigners'. Dora Kostakopoulou calls this assumption into question, arguing that 'aliens' are by definition outside the bounds of the community by virtue of a circular reasoning which takes for granted the existence of bounded national communities, and that this process of collective self-definition is deeply political and historically dated. Although...

This edited volume questions the widespread resort to illiberal security practices by contemporary liberal regimes since 9/11, and argues that counter-terrorism is embedded into the very logic of the fields of politics and security.

Although recent debate surrounding civil rights and liberties in post-9/11 Europe has focused on the forms, provisions and legal consequences of security-led policies, this volume takes an inter-disciplinary approach to explore how these policies have come to generate illiberal practices. The book argues that policies implemented in the name of...

This book brings together a range of diverse discussions about security in order to sustain a genuine critique of the subject. It is unique in its examination of the historical and political links between social security and national security and in its assessment of the way that emergency powers (as the most intense realisation of the rhetoric of 'national security') have been synthesised with 'normal' law. Among other ideas and concepts, Mark Neocleous discusses the place of security in the liberal tradition of political theory. Building on insights from Foucault and Marx, he argues that...

For too long a conventional wisdom has held sway, suggesting that poor people in poor countries are not supportive of democracy and that democracies will be sustained only after a certain average level of wealth has been achieved. Evidence from 24 diverse countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America examined in this volume shows how poor people do not value democracy any less than their richer counterparts. Their faith in democracy is as high as that of other citizens, and they participate in democratic activities as much as their richer counterparts. Democracy is not likely to be unstable or...

This work provides a critical and contentious overview of the fundamental relationship between writing and political dissent, from early Greek democracy to post-Enlightenment forms of totalitarianism, such as Communism, Fascism, and Nazism and through to modern forms of liberal democracy based upon universal human rights encapsulated by the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Complementing such historical contexts, this book explores the range of predominantly theological and religious, civil and political, social and cultural rationales for contemporary repression,...

In Resistance, Representation, and Community, Peter Blickle gathers a wealth of scholarly expertise for a Pan-European perspective on the social history of state-formation. Tracing the origins of the modern state to medieval political structures, the contributors explore the influence of the people and their communal organizations--ranging from rural parish meeting to powerful city council-- on the continuing development of an evolving Europe.

William Penn played a crucial role in the articulation of religious liberty as a philosophical and political value during the second half of the seventeenth century and as a core element of the classical liberal tradition in general. This volume illuminates the origins and development of Penn's thought by presenting, for the first time, complete and annotated texts of all his important political works. His thought has relevance not only for scholars of English political and religious history, but also for those who are interested in the foundations of American religious liberty, political...