Kategoria BISAC: Political Science >> Political Process - General

All American presidents, past and present, have cared deeply about power--acquiring, protecting, and expanding it. While individual presidents obviously have other concerns, such as shaping policy or building a legacy, the primacy of power considerations--exacerbated by expectations of the presidency and the inadequacy of explicit powers in the Constitution--sets presidents apart from other political actors. Thinking about the Presidency explores presidents' preoccupation with power. Distinguished presidential scholar William Howell looks at the key aspects of executive...

Promoting democracy has long been a priority of Western foreign policy. In practice, however, international attempts to expand representative forms of government have been inconsistent and are often perceived in the West to have been failures. The states of Central Asia, in particular, seem to be "democracy resistant," and their governments have continued to support various forms of authoritarianism in the decades following the Soviet Union's collapse.

In Democracy in Central Asia, Mariya Omelicheva examines the beliefs and values underlying foreign policies of the major...

At the turn of the millennium, Mexico seemed to have finally found its path to political and economic modernization; a state which had been deeply embedded in society was being pulled out, with new political leaders allowing market forces to play a greater role in guiding the nation s economic development, and allowing old patron-client networks to crumble. At the same time, many hoped that political and legal reforms would increase the state s capacity to provide prosperity, security, and equity for its citizens. In the midst of this historic transformation, however, Mexico was confronted...

The Federal Republic of Germany s position in the European Community had been described as one of interdependence, penetration and integration. Of the three terms this research addresses itself most directly to penetration: to the links between the German political system and policy-making at the Community level. These links operated in two directions. Thus membership for the European Community (EC) imposed certain constraints on German domestic policy-making.

Although this research, first published in 1986, concentrates on the structural inter-relationship between the German political...

How should we count the population of the United States? What would happen if we replaced the electoral college with a direct popular vote? What are the consequences of allowing unlimited partisan gerrymandering of congressional districts? Can six-person juries yield verdicts consistent with the needs of justice? Is it racist to stop and frisk minorities at a higher rate than non-minorities? These and other questions have long been the subject of legal and political debate and are routinely decided by lawyers, politicians, judges, and voters, mostly through an appeal to common sense and...

Over the past decades, the complex and evolving system of EU multilevel governance has...

Rhetoric is among the most important and least understood elements of presidential leadership. Presidents have always wielded rhetoric as one tool of governance--and that rhetoric was always intended to facilitate political ends, such as image building, persuasion of the mass public, and inter-branch government persuasion. But as mass media has grown and then fragmented, as the federal bureaucracy has continued to both expand and calcify, and as partisanship has heightened tensions both within Congress and between Congress and the Executive, rhetoric is an increasingly important element of...

Western democracies often trace their political roots back to Ancient Greece. While politics today may seem the dusty domain of lawmakers and pundits, in the classical era virtually no aspect of life was beyond its reach. Political life was not limited to acts of a legislature, magistrates, and the courts but routinely included the activities of social clubs, the patronage system, and expression through literature, art, and architecture. Through these varied means, even non-enfranchised groups (such as women and non-citizens) gained entry into a wider democratic process.

Beyond the...