I also really enjoyed the Senior Thesis program offered by the Department this year, which allowed me to learn in-depth about something I was really interested in. — Joanna Nairn, Discourse 2006
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Recent Faculty Publications
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Overpromising and Underperforming?: Understanding and Evaluating New Intergovernmental Accountability Regimes
Edited by Peter Graefe, Julie M. Simmons, and Linda A. White
University of Toronto Press, Scholarly Publishing Division 2012
Public reporting has been used experimentally in federal-provincial relations since the mid-1990s as an accountability mechanism to promote policy effectiveness, intergovernmental cooperation, and democratic legitimacy. Our understanding of how well it is working, however, remains limited to very specific policy sectors – even though this information is essential to policy makers in Canada and beyond. Overpromising and Underperforming? offers a deeper analysis of the use of new accountability mechanisms, paying particular attention to areas in which federal spending power is used.
This is the first volume to specifically analyse the accountability features of Canadian intergovernmental agreements and to do so systematically across policy sectors. Drawing on the experiences of other federal systems and multilevel governance structures, the contributors investigate how public reporting has been used in various policy fields and the impact it has had on policy-making and intergovernmental relations.
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Social Forces and States: Poverty and Distributional Outcomes in South Korea, Chile, and Mexico
Judith A. Teichman
Stanford University Press 2012
With the failure of market reform to generate sustained growth in many countries of the Global South, poverty reduction has become an urgent moral and political issue in the last several decades. In practice, considerable research shows that high levels of inequality are likely to produce high levels of criminal and political violence. On the road to development, states cannot but grapple with the challenges posed by poverty and wealth distribution.
Social Forces and States explains the reasons behind distinct distributional and poverty outcomes in three countries: South Korea, Chile, and Mexico. South Korea has successfully reduced poverty and has kept inequality low. Chile has reduced poverty but inequality remains high. Mexico has confronted higher levels of poverty and high inequality than either of the other countries. Judith Teichman takes a comparative historical approach, focusing upon the impact of the interaction between social forces and states. Distinct from approaches that explain social well-being through a comparative examination of social welfare regimes, this book probes more deeply, incorporating a careful consideration of how historical contexts and political struggles shaped very different development trajectories, welfare arrangements, and social possibilities.
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Prosper or Perish: Credit and Fiscal Systems in Rural China
Lynette H. Ong
Cornell University Press 2012
The official banking institutions for rural China are Rural Credit Cooperatives (RCCs). Although these co-ops are mandated to support agricultural development among farm households, since 1980 half of RCC loans have gone to small and medium-sized industrial enterprises located in, and managed by, townships and villages. These township and village enterprises have experienced highly uneven levels of success, and by the end of the 1990s, half of all RCC loans were in or close to default, forcing China's central bank to bail out RCCs. In Prosper or Perish, Lynette H. Ong examines the bias in RCC lending patterns, focusing on why the mobilization of rural savings has contributed to successful industrial development in some locales but not in others.
Interweaving insightful and theoretically informed discussions of rural credit, development, governance, and bank bailouts, Ong identifies various sources for China’s uneven development. In the highly decentralized fiscal environment of the People’s Republic, successful industrialization has significant implications for rural governance. Local governments depend on revenue from industrial output to provide public goods and services; unsuccessful enterprises starve local governments of revenue and result in radical cutbacks in services. High peasant burdens, land takings without adequate compensation by local governments, and other poor governance practices tend to be associated with unsuccessful industrialization. In light of the recent liberalization of the rural credit sector in China, Prosper or Perish makes a significant contribution to debates within political science, economic development, and international banking.
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Internal Affairs: How the Structure of NGOs Transforms Human Rights
Wendy H. Wong
Cornell University Press 2012
Why are some international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) more politically salient than others, and why are some NGOs better able to influence the norms of human rights?Internal Affairs shows how the organizational structures of human rights NGOs and their campaigns determine their influence on policy. Drawing on data from seven major international organizations—the International Committee of the Red Cross, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Médecins sans Frontières, Oxfam International, Anti-Slavery International, and the International League of Human Rights—Wendy H. Wong demonstrates that NGOs that choose to centralize agenda-setting and decentralize the implementation of that agenda are more successful in gaining traction in international politics.
Challenging the conventional wisdom that the most successful NGOs are those that find the "right" cause or have the most resources, Wong shows that how NGOs make and implement decisions is critical to their effectiveness in influencing international norms about human rights. Building on the insights of network theory and organizational sociology, Wong traces how power works within NGOs and affects their external authority. The internal coherence of an organization, as reflected in its public statements and actions, goes a long way to assure its influence over the often tumultuous elements of the international human rights landscape.
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Women, Politics, and Public Policy: The Political Struggles of Canadian Women, Second Edition
Jacquetta Newman and Linda A. White
Oxford University Press 2012
The second edition of Women, Politics, and Public Policy incorporates uniquely Canadian perspectives on the intersectionality of feminism, women's politics, and public policy-making. After outlining historical contexts and the foundations of feminist theory, the text examines topical, practical issues, offering an approach that is well-suited to both novices and advanced learners. Extensively updated and revised, this comprehensive volume is an essential tool for examining and understanding the many aspects of women's political activity and its relationship to public policy and social change.
Readership : Women, Politics, and Public Policy is aimed at second- and third-year students studying gender and politics, women and politics, and women and politics in Canada out of political science and women's studies departments at universities nationwide. (Note that because of the multidisciplinary approach taken in the narrative, readers studying sociology, history, law, and social work may also find the text relevant.)
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Becoming Multicultural: Immigration and the Politics of Membership in Canada and Germany
Triadafilos Triadafilopoulos
UBC Press 2012
In a world of nation-states, international migration raises questions of membership: Should foreigners be admitted to the national space? If so, according to what criteria and for what ends? And should they and their children be granted citizenship? Canada's and Germany’s responses to these questions during the first half of the twentieth century consisted of discriminatory immigration and citizenship policies aimed at harnessing migration for economic ends while minimizing its costs. Yet, by the end of the century, the admission, settlement, and incorporation of previously excluded groups had transformed both countries into highly diverse multicultural societies.
Becoming Multicultural explains how this remarkable shift came about. Triadafilopoulos argues that world-historical events and epoch-defining processes -- including the Holocaust, decolonization, and the emergence of global human rights culture -- gave rise to a markedly different normative context after the Second World War. These changes in global norms made the maintenance of established membership regimes difficult to defend, opening the way for the liberalization of Canada's and Germany’s immigration and citizenship policies.
Combining sophisticated theoretical reflection and careful empirical analysis, this thought-provoking book sheds light on the dynamics of membership politics and policy making in contemporary liberal-democratic countries.
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Wirtschaftsgeographie
Harald Bathelt and Johannes Glückler
Ulmer. 3. Ed. 2012.
This comprehensive handbook and textbook of geographical concepts is directed to scholars and students of geography, economics, political science and other social sciences who are interested in the relationship between economy and space. This book systematically discusses classical and new theories in economic geography and related disciplines. Beginning with a critical review of traditional regional science and optimal location approaches, the authors develop a relational conception of economic action in space that enables interdisciplinary analyses of globalization processes.
This completely restructured and extended edition adds many new conceptual discussions, such as those on innovation systems, global value chains, clusters and many others. Six new chapters, almost 200 new pages and many new case studies, figures and tables make this a rich sourcebook for those interested in understanding economic action in spatial perspective.
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The Relational Economy:
Geographies of Knowing and Learning
Harald Bathelt and Johannes Glückler
Oxford University Press 2011
Novel theoretical approach focusing on relational perspective of the knowledge economy
Integrated treatment of theoretical perspective and empirical research
Trans-disciplinary focus, using theoretical perspectives and discussion from social sciences within a relational framework
Concise structure to enable reader to attain a clear analytic perspective on the dynamics of the knowledge economy at different spatial scales
How are firms, networks of firms, and production systems organized and how does this organization vary from place to place? What are the new geographies emerging from the need to create, access, and share knowledge, and sustain competitiveness? In what ways are local clusters and global exchange relations intertwined and co-constituted? What are the impacts of global changes in technology, demand, and competition on the organization of production, and how do these effects vary between communities, regions, and nations?
This book synthesizes theories from across the social sciences with empirical research and case studies in order to answer these questions and to demonstrate how people and firms organize economic action and interaction across local, national, and global flows of knowledge and innovation. It is structured in four clear parts:
- Part I: Foundations of Relational Thinking
- Part II: Relational Clusters of Knowledge
- Part III: Knowledge Circulation Across Territories
- Part IV: Toward a Relational Economic Policy?
The book employs a novel relational framework, which recognizes values, interpretative frameworks, and decision-making practices as subject to the contextuality of the social institutions that characterize the relationships between the human agents. It will be a valuable resource for academics, researchers, and graduate students across the social sciences, and practitioners in clusters policy.
Readership: Academics and graduate students in Management, Economics, Regional Policy, Organization Studies, Geography, Sociology, and Political Economy; and Policy Makers
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Beyond Territory: Dynamic Geographies of Knowledge Creation, Diffusion and Innovation
Harald Bathelt, Maryann Feldman, Dieter F. Kogler
Routledge 2011
The main purpose of the book is to discuss new trends in the dynamic geography of innovation and argue that in an era of increasing globalization, two trends seem quite dominant: rigid territorial models of innovation, and localized configurations of innovative activities. The book brings together scholars who are working on these topics. Rather than focusing on established concepts and theories, the book aims to question narrow explanations, rigid territorializations, and simplistic policy frameworks; it provides evidence that innovation, while not exclusively dependent on regional contexts, can be influenced by place-specific attributes.
The book will bring together new empirical and conceptual work by an interdisciplinary group of leading scholars from areas such as economic geography, innovation studies, and political science. Based on recent discussions surrounding innovation systems of different types, it aims to synthesize state-of-the-art know-how and provide new perspectives on the role of innovation and knowledge creation in the global political economy.
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Canadian Federalism: Performance, Effectiveness, and Legitimacy, Third Edition
Grace Skogstad
Oxford University Press 2012
Contributed by some of Canada's leading political scientists, the 18 original essays of this well-respected collection present an accessible, rigorous, and balanced assessment of Canadian federalism today. New chapters on regionalism, Quebec, and immigration complement updated examinations of such topics as fiscal federalism, the party system, Aboriginal politics, the urban agenda, and environmental policy, making this comprehensive and up-to-date volume an ideal introduction to Canadian federalism in the current political context.
Readership : Canadian Federalism: Performance, Effectiveness, and Legitimacy, third edition, is a contributed volume that can be used as a core or supplemental text. It is targeted at Canadian Federalism courses offered at the second-, third-, and fourth-year levels at colleges and universities, but it may also be used as a supplement for courses in public policy and administration.
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Betting on Biotech: Innovation and the Limits of Asia's Developmental State
Joseph Wong
Cornell University Press 2011
After World War II, several late-developing countries registered astonishingly high growth rates under strong state direction, making use of smart investment strategies, turnkey factories, and reverse-engineering, and taking advantage of the postwar global economic boom. Among these economic miracles were postwar Japan and, in the 1960s and 1970s, the so-called Asian Tigers—Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan—whose experiences epitomized the analytic category of the "developmental state."
In Betting on Biotech, Joseph Wong examines the emerging biotechnology sector in each of these three industrial dynamos. They have invested billions of dollars in biotech industries since the 1990s, but commercial blockbusters and commensurate profits have not followed. Industrial upgrading at the cutting edge of technological innovation is vastly different from the dynamics of earlier practices in established industries.
The profound uncertainties of life-science-based industries such as biotech have forced these nations to confront a new logic of industry development, one in which past strategies of picking and making winners have given way to a new strategy of throwing resources at what remain very long shots. Betting on Biotech illuminates a new political economy of industrial technology innovation in places where one would reasonably expect tremendous potential—yet where billion-dollar bets in biotech continue to teeter on the brink of spectacular failure.
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Political Theories of Decolonization
Postcolonialism and the Problem of Foundations
Margaret Kohn
Oxford University Press 2011
Political Theories of Decolonization provides an introduction to some of the seminal texts of postcolonial political theory. The difficulty of founding a new regime is an important theme in political theory, and the intellectual history of decolonization provides a rich--albeit overlooked--opportunity to explore it.
Many theorists have pointed out that the colonized subject was a divided subject. This book argues that the postcolonial state was a divided state. While postcolonial states were created through the struggle for independence, they drew on both colonial institutions and reinvented pre-colonial traditions. Political Theories of Decolonizationilluminates how many of the central themes of political theory such as land, religion, freedom, law, and sovereignty are imaginatively explored by postcolonial thinkers. In doing so, it provides readers access to texts that add to our understanding of contemporary political life and global political dynamics.
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The Encyclopedia of Political Science
Ed. Simone Chambers
CQ Press, a Division of SAGE 2010
A 21st century approach to the study of politics
Political science needs a resource that serves as a core reference to the central ideas, concepts, and frameworks underlying the study of politics and that highlights the intersections of politics with other disciplines. The Encyclopedia of Political Science (TEPS) is designed to fill that need. It is the encyclopedia for political science in the twenty-first century.
Prepared with the assistance of the American Political Science Association (APSA), TEPS brings together a distinguished editorial board and over 600 distinguished and rising scholars to chronicle and assess the core issues that have long concerned students of politics. This comprehensive, multi-volume work traces the evolution of political theories, concepts, research frameworks, and political practices from across the world. As it examines the interplay of political ideas and processes, the encyclopedia also conveys the vitality and excitement of politics in practice.
Cognizant of the global nature of political ideas and movements, TEPS reflects a wide range of concepts and frameworks, both Western and non-Western, national and international. An authoritative survey of the state of politics and political science, this five- volume work consists of more than 1,500 A to Z signed entries by contributors from over 30 countries, including 300 overview articles or interpretive essays.
The encyclopedia supports all of the core undergraduate courses in political science: American government, comparative politics, international relations, public policy, public administration, political behavior, political theory, and political science methods. It will be an essential reference for all academic and public libraries.
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Climate Governance at the Crossroads
Experimenting with a Global Response after Kyoto
Matthew J. Hoffman
Oxford University Press 2011
The global response to climate change has reached a critical juncture. Since the 1992 signing of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the nations of the world have attempted to address climate change through large-scale multilateral treaty-making. These efforts have been heroic, but disappointing. As evidence for the quickening pace of climate change mounts, the treaty-making process has sputtered, and many are now skeptical about the prospect of an effective global response. Yet global treaty-making is not the only way that climate change can be addressed or, indeed, is being addressed.
In the last decade myriad initiatives have emerged across the globe independently from, or only loosely connected to, the "official" UN-sponsored negotiations and treaties. In the face of stalemate in the formal negotiations, the world is experimenting with alternate means of responding to climate change. Climate Governance at the Crossroads chronicles these innovations--how cities, provinces and states, citizen groups, and corporations around the globe are addressing the causes and symptoms of global warming. The center of gravity in the global response to climate change is shifting from the multilateral treaty-making process to the diverse activities found beyond the negotiating halls. These innovations are pushing the envelope of climate action and demonstrating what is possible, and they provide hope that the world will respond effectively to the climate crisis.
In introducing climate governance "experiments" and examining the development and functioning of this new world of climate policy-making, this book provides an exciting new perspective on the politics of climate change and the means to understand and influence how the global response to climate change will unfold in the coming years.
About the Author
Click here for more info on Matthew Hoffman
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POLICY PARADIGMS, TRANSNATIONALISM, AND DOMESTIC POLITICS
Grace Skogstad
U of T Press 2011
Policy Paradigms, Transnationalism, and Domestic Politics offers a variety of perspectives on the development of policy paradigms — the ideas that structure thinking about what can and should be done in a policy domain. In this collection, international experts examine how both transnational actors and domestic politics affect the structuring of these paradigms.
As well as theoretical chapters, this volume includes six case studies showing ideas at work in a diverse range of policy domains from the recognition of same-sex unions to risk regulation of genetically modified organisms. These qualitative analyses show how transnational activities shape policy paradigms by building consensus on ideas about feasible and desirable public policies across authoritative decision-makers. Expertly researched and assembled, Policy Paradigms, Transnationalism, and Domestic Politics provides insight into the conditions under which different transnational actors can bring about changes in the core ideas that affect public policy development.
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Immigrants and the Right to Stay
Joseph H. Carens
The MIT Press 2010
The Obama administration promises to take on comprehensive immigration reform in 2010, setting policymakers to work on legislation that might give the approximately eleven million undocumented immigrants currently living in the United States a path to legalization of status. Commentators have been quick to observe that any such proposal will face intense opposition.
Few issues have so divided the country in recent years as immigration. Immigrants and the Right to Stay brings the debate into the realm of public reason. Political theorist Joseph Carens argues that although states have a right to control their borders, the right to deport those who violate immigration laws is not absolute. With time, immigrants develop a moral claim to stay. Emphasizing the moral importance of social membership, and drawing on principles widely recognized in liberal democracies, Carens calls for a rolling amnesty that gives unauthorized migrants a path to regularize their status once they have been settled for a significant period of time.
After Carens makes his case, six experts from across the political spectrum respond. Some protest that he goes too far; others say he does not go far enough in protecting the rights of migrants. Several raise competing moral claims and others help us understand how the immigration problem became so large. Carens agrees that no moral claim is absolute, and that, on any complex public issue, principled debate involves weighing competing concerns. But for him the balance falls clearly on the side of amnesty.
Responses from
T. Alexander Aleinikoff
Linda Bosniak
Jean Bethke Elshtain
Douglas S. Massey
Mae Ngai
Carol M. Swain
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Civil Religion
A Dialogue in the History of Political Philosophy
Ronald S. Beiner
Cambridge University Press 2010
Civil Religion offers philosophical commentaries on more than twenty thinkers stretching from the sixteenth to the twentieth century. The book examines four important traditions within the history of modern political philosophy and delves into how each of them addresses the problem of religion. Two of these traditions pursue projects of domesticating religion. The civil religion tradition, principally defined by Machiavelli, Hobbes, and Rousseau, seeks to domesticate religion by putting it solidly in the service of politics. The liberal tradition pursues an alternative strategy of domestication by seeking to put as much distance as possible between religion and politics. Modern theocracy is a militant reaction against liberalism, and it reverses the relationship of subordination asserted by civil religion: it puts politics directly in the service of religion. Finally, a fourth tradition is defined by Nietzsche and Heidegger. Aspects of their thought are not just modern, but hyper-modern, yet they manifest an often-hysterical reaction against liberalism that is fundamentally shared with the theocratic tradition. Together, these four traditions compose a vital dialogue that carries us to the heart of political philosophy itself.
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Multination States in Asia:
Accommodation or Resistance
Jacques Bertrand and Andre Laliberte, editors
Cambridge University Press 2010
As countries in Asia try to create unified polities, many face challenges from minority groups within their own borders seeking independence. This volume brings together international experts on countries in all regions of Asia to debate how differently they have responded to this problem. Why have some Asian countries, for example, clamped down on their national minorities in favour of homogeneity, whereas others have been willing to accommodate statehood or at least some form of political autonomy? Together they suggest broad patterns and explanatory factors that are rooted in the domestic arena, including state structure and regime type, as well as historical trajectories. In particular, they find that the paths to independence, as well as the cultural elements that have been selected to define post-colonial identities, have decisively influenced state strategies.
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Dynasties and Interludes:
Past and Present in Canadian Electoral Politics
Lawrence LeDuc, Judith I. McKenzie and Jon H. Pammett
Dundurn Press 2010
Dynasties and Interludes provides a comprehensive and unique overview of elections and voting in Canada from Confederation to the recent spate of minority governments. Its principal argument is that the Canadian political landscape has consisted of long periods of hegemony of a single party and/or leader (dynasties), punctuated by short, sharp disruptions brought about by the sudden rise of new parties, leaders, or social movements (interludes). Changes in the composition of the electorate and in the technology and professionalization of election campaigns are also examined in this book, both to provide a better understanding of key turning points in Canadian history and a deeper interpretation of present-day electoral politics.
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Competitive Authoritarianism: Hybrid Regimes After the Cold War
Steven Levitsky and Lucan Way
Cambridge University Press 2010
Competitive authoritarian regimes – in which autocrats submit to meaningful multiparty elections but engage in serious democratic abuse – proliferated in the post–Cold War era. Based on a detailed study of 35 cases in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and post-communist Eurasia, this book explores the fate of competitive authoritarian regimes between 1990 and 2008. It finds that where social, economic, and technocratic ties to the West were extensive, as in Eastern Europe and the Americas, the external cost of abuse led incumbents to cede power rather than crack down, which led to democratization. Where ties to the West were limited, external democratizing pressure was weaker and countries rarely democratized. In these cases, regime outcomes hinged on the character of state and ruling party organizations. Where incumbents possessed developed and cohesive coercive party structures, they could thwart opposition challenges, and competitive authoritarian regimes survived; where incumbents lacked such organizational tools, regimes were unstable but rarely democratized.
Part I. Introduction and Theory: 1. Introduction; 2. Explaining competitive authoritarian regime trajectories: international linkage and the organizational power of incumbents;
Part II. High Linkage and Democratization: Eastern Europe and the Americas: 3. Linkage, leverage, and democratization in Eastern Europe; 4. Linkage, leverage, and democratization in Latin America and the Caribbean;
Part III. The Dynamics of Competitive Authoritarianism in Low Linkage Regions: The Former Soviet Union, Africa, and Asia: 5. The evolution of post-Soviet competitive authoritarianism; 6. Africa: transitions without democratization; 7. Diverging outcomes in Asia; 8. Conclusion;
Appendix. Measuring competitive authoritarianism and authoritarian stability.
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Constitutional Theocracy
Ran Hirschl
Harvard University Press 2010
At the intersection of two sweeping global trends – the rise of popular support for principles of theocratic governance, and the spread of constitutionalism and judicial review – a new legal order has emerged: constitutional theocracy. It enshrines religion and its interlocutors as “a” or “the” source of legislation, and at the same time adheres to core ideals and practices of modern constitutionalism. A unique hybrid of apparently conflicting worldviews, values, and interests, constitutional theocracies thus offer an ideal setting—a “living laboratory” as it were—for studying constitutional law as a form of politics by other means. In this book, Ran Hirschl combines insights from legal theory, economics, theology, and political sociology with a rigorous comparative analysis of religion-and-state jurisprudence from dozens of countries worldwide to explore the evolving role of constitutional law and courts in a non-secularist world.
Counter-intuitively, Hirschl argues that the constitutional enshrinement of religion is a rational, prudent strategy that allows opponents of theocratic governance to talk the religious talk without walking most of what they regard as theocracy’s unappealing, costly walk. Many of the jurisdictional, enforcement, and cooptation advantages that gave religious legal regimes an edge in the pre-modern era, are now aiding the modern state and its laws in its effort to contain religion. The “constitutional” in a constitutional theocracy thus fulfils the same restricting function it carries out in a constitutional democracy: it brings theocratic governance under check, and assigns to constitutional law and courts the task of a bulwark against the threat of radical religion.
Constitutional Theocracy further demonstrates that precisely because the canonical constitutional scripture has certain religion-like aspects to it, it may be better positioned than blunter, more forceful means, to effectively control and pacify principles of theocratic governance. In that respect, Hirschl argues, constitutionalism might very well emerge, or perhaps has already emerged as tomorrow’s “opiate of the masses”.
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America's Global Advantage
US Hegemony and International Cooperation
Carla Norrlof
Cambridge University Press 2010
For over sixty years the United States has been the largest economy and most powerful
country in the world. However, there is growing speculation that this era of hegemony is
under threat as it faces huge trade deficits, a weaker currency, and stretched military
resources. America’s Global Advantage argues that, despite these difficulties, the US
will maintain its privileged position. In this original and important contribution to a
central subject in International Relations, Carla Norrlof challenges the prevailing
wisdom that other states benefit more from US hegemony than the United States itself. By
analyzing America’s structural advantages in trade, money, and security, and the ways in
which these advantages reinforce one another, Norrlof shows how and why America benefits
from being the dominant power in the world. Contrary to predictions of American decline,
she argues that American hegemony will endure for the foreseeable future.
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Political Transitions in Dominant Party Systems:
Learning to Lose
Joseph Wong and Edward Friedman, eds.
Routledge 2008
This is a path-breaking study by leading scholars of comparative politics examining the internal transformations of dominant parties in both authoritarian and democratic settings. The principle question examined in this book is what happens to dominant political parties when they lose or face the very real prospect of losing? Using country-specific case studies, top-rank analysts in the field focus on the lessons that dominant parties might learn from losing and the adaptations they consequently make in order to survive, to remain competitive or to ultimately re-gain power.
Providing historical based, comparative research on issues of theoretical importance, Political Transitions in Dominant Party Systems will be invaluable reading for students and scholars of comparative politics, international politics and political parties.
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Boaris dego eana. Eamiálbmogiid diehtu, filosofiijat ja dutkan (As Old as the Earth. Indigenous Knowledge, Philosophies and Research)
Rauna Kuokkanen
ČálliidLágádusas 2009
The first book-length study on indigenous knowledge, philosophies and research in the Sami language. Drawing on indigenous, feminist, postcolonial and poststructural theories, the book discusses the emergence and significance of indigenous scholarship in the context of decolonizing indigenous systems of knowing. It critically considers the concepts of knowledge, knowledge production, philosophies, research methodologies, ethics and traditional/modern dichotomies in indigenous scholarship and examines the ways in which these considerations are relevant in and relate to Sami research. The book provides extensive examples of indigenous knowledge and research particularly from North America, Australia and New Zealand as well as in the Sami context.
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Comparing Democracies 3
Lawrence LeDuc, Richard G Niemi, Pippa Norris, eds.
Sage Publications 2010
The benchmark First and Second Editions of Comparing Democracies represented essential guides to the global study of elections. Reflecting recent developments in the field, this timely new edition gives an indispensable state-of-the art review of the whole field from the world’s leading international scholars. With a completely new thematic introduction which explores how democracy is built and sustained, thoroughly updated chapters (many of which are also new) , the Third Edition provides a theoretical and comparative understanding of the major topics related to elections and introduces important work on key new areas. Comparing Democracies, Third Edition will remain a must-read for students and lecturers of elections and voting behavior, comparative politics, parties, and democracy.
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Direct Democracy: The International IDEA Handbook
Virginia Beramendi, Andrew Ellis, Bruno Kaufman, Miriam Kornblith, Larry LeDuc, Paddy McGuire, Theo Schiller and Palle Svensson, eds.
International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA) 2008
While many books on direct democracy have a regional or national approach, or simply focus on one of the many mechanisms associated with direct democracy, this Handbook delves into a global comparison of direct democracy mechanisms, including referendums, citizens’ initiatives, agenda initiatives and recall. A detailed look into each of these instruments is discussed in a chapter by chapter analysis of each tool, including comprehensive definitions, how each instrument can be used to shape political decisions and an outline of the steps most often involved in planning any given procedure.
Also included as a chapter in the Handbook are possible measures for best practices of implementation, designed for those who wish to tailor direct democracy instruments to their specific needs. In order to further complement the best practices, a variety of global case studies detail the practical uses of direct democracy mechanisms in specific contexts. These country case studies allow for in depth discussion of particular issues, including signature collection and voter participation, campaign financing, media coverage, national variations in the usage of direct democracy procedures and national lessons learned.
In addition, the uniquely comprehensive world survey outlines direct democracy provisions in 214 countries and territories and indicates which, if any, of these provisions are used by each country or territory at both the national and sub-national levels. Furthermore, the world survey includes valuable information regarding the binding or non-binding nature of referendums, as well as issues that can be brought forth to a referendum.
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Comparative Politics: Interests, Identities, and Institutions in a Changing Global Order (3rd Edition)
Jeffrey Kopstein and Mark Lichbach, eds.
Cambridge University Press 2008
Now in its third edition, this unique textbook remains a favorite for introductory undergraduate courses in comparative politics. It features twelve theoretically and historically grounded country studies that show how the three major concepts of comparative analysis—interests, identities, and institutions—shape the politics of nations and regions. Written in a style free of heavy-handed jargon and organized to address the concerns of contemporary comparativists, this textbook provides students with the conceptual tools and historical background they need to understand the politics of our complex world. This third edition introduces completely new chapters on the European Union, France, and Nigeria.
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Fire and Fury: The Allied Bombing of Germany 1942-1945
Randall Hansen
Doubleday Canada 2008
An enlightening and utterly convincing re-examination of the allied aerial bombing campaign and of civilian German suffering during World War II–an essential addition to our understanding of world history.
During the Second World War, Allied air forces dropped nearly two million tons of bombs on Germany, destroying some 60 cities, killing more than half a million German citizens, and leaving 80,000 pilots dead. Much of the bombing was carried out against the expressed demands of the Allied military leadership. Hundreds of thousands of people died needlessly.
Focusing on the crucial period from 1942 to 1945, and using a compelling narrative approach, Fire and Fury tells the story of the American and British bombing campaign through the eyes of those involved: military and civilian command in America, Britain, and Germany, aircrew in the sky, and civilians on the ground.
Acclaimed historian Randall Hansen shows that the Commander-in-Chief of Bomber Command, Arthur Harris, was wedded to an outdated strategy whose success had never been proven; how area bombing not only failed to win the war, it probably prolonged it; and that the US campaign, which was driven by a particularly American fusion of optimism and morality, played an important and largely unrecognized role in delivering Allied victory.
Among other honours this national bestseller was nominated for the 2009 Governor General's Literary Award in non-fiction.
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Does North America Exist? Governing the Continent After NAFTA and 9/11
Stephen Clarkson
University of Toronto Press 2010
In the wake of the North American Free Trade Agreement and the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, renowned public intellectual and scholar Stephen Clarkson asks whether North America "exists" in the sense that the European Union has made Europe exist.
Clarkson's rigorous study of the many political and economic relationships that link Canada, the United States, and Mexico answers this unusual question by looking at the institutions created by NAFTA, a broad selection of economic sectors, and the security policies put in place by the three neighbouring countries following 9/11. This detailed, meticulously researched, and up-to-date treatment of North America's transborder governance allows the reader to see to what extent the United States' dominance in the continent has been enhanced or mitigated by trilateral connections with its two continental partners.
An illuminating product of seven years' political-economy, international-relations, and policy research, Does North America Exist? is an ambitious and path-breaking study that will be essential reading for those wanting to understand whether the continent containing the world's most powerful nation is holding its own as a global region.
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Language Matters: How Canadian Voluntary Associations Manage French and English
David Cameron and Richard Simeon
University of British Columbia Press 2010
Canada is an officially bilingual country. But how do the voluntary associations that make up civil society manage linguistic diversity? In the 1960s, a study by Vincent Lemieux and John Meisel for the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism Commission revealed that Canadian associations were often paralyzed by internal conflicts over language. Language Mattersexamines whether this remains the case.
The contributors present case studies or life histories of diverse associations, ranging from business organizations and municipal associations to groups concerned with equality and social justice. Several replicate Lemieux and Meisel’s pioneering enquiry; others look at newer groups. Each contribution examines key turning points in the given association’s history and explores how its mandate, leadership, relationship to the federal and provincial governments, and shifting options in the political arena -- independence, sovereignty association, or symmetrical and asymmetrical federalism -- shaped its response to linguistic diversity.
Voluntary associations have found diverse ways to accommodate linguistic differences in a manner acceptable to Canada’s two great linguistic communities. Language Matters provides a deeper understanding of the language dynamic in Canada and offers solutions to groups and governments trying to manage difference.
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Opening Doors Wider: Women's Political Engagement in Canada
Sylvia Bashevkin
University of British Columbia Press 2009
From the days of the fur trade through the contemporary period, women have played important roles in the public life of Canada. Until the 1970s, however, these contributions were generally overlooked. Opening Doors Wider looks at the progress made in the last forty years to raise the profile of women’s involvement in public life.
The contributors focus on two questions with reference to community activism, the politics of feminist organizing, parties and elections, and the communications environment in which politicians operate. First, are the doors to participation presently open wider than they were in the past? What obstacles as well as possibilities face specific groups of female citizens? Have patterns of media coverage shifted such that women can expect to engage in community groups and party organizations on something approaching an even playing field? Second, how can these doors be opened wider, both in terms of real-world participation and our scholarly understanding of public engagement? What remedies have been proposed? What research directions need to be pursued?
The tightly argued essays shed new light on the quality of public involvement of women in one of the world’s most stable democracies. The nuanced discussion of solutions as well as problems makes this book an indispensable resource for students and practitioners of politics at all levels.
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A Companion to Greek and Roman Political Thought
Ryan Balot, ed.
Wiley-Blackwell 2009
This volume comprises 34 essays from leading scholars in history, classics, philosophy, and political science to illuminate Greek and Roman political thought in all its diversity and depth. It offers a broad survey of ancient political thought from Archaic Greece through Late Antiquity. Approaching ancient political philosophy from both a normative and historical focus, this text examines Greek and Roman political thought within historical context and contemporary debate. It also explores the role of ancient political thought in a range of philosophies, such as the individual and community, human rights, religion, and cosmopolitanism.
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Internationalization and Canadian Agriculture: Policy and Governing Paradigms
Grace Skogstad
University of Toronto Press 2008
In recent decades, Canada's agricultural industry, one of the world's largest, has had to adjust to global trade developments such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the World Trade Organization. Internationalization and Canadian Agriculture examines the patterns of continuity and change in Canadian agricultural policy making in important areas like farm income support programs, prairie grain marketing, supply management, animal and food product safety, and the regulation of genetically modified crops and foods.
Arguing that the effects of internationalization have been mediated by Canada's political institutional framework, Grace Skogstad demonstrates how the goals and strategies of authoritative political actors in Canada's federal and parliamentary systems have been decisive to policy developments. Skogstad details the interaction between agriculture and the political economy of Canada, shows how international and domestic trade shape Canadian agricultural policies, and argues that while agricultural programs have changed, the post-war state assistance agricultural paradigm has persisted.
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In Search of Canadian Political Culture
Nelson Wiseman
University of British Columbia Press 2007
What do we really mean by phrases such as "western Canadian political culture," "the centrist political culture of Ontario," "Red Toryism in the Maritimes," or "Prairie socialism"? What historical, geographical, and sociological factors came into play as these cultures were forged? In this book, Nelson Wiseman addresses many such questions, offering new ways of conceiving Canadian political culture.
The most thorough review of the national political ethos written in a generation, In Search of Canadian Political Culture offers a bottom-up, regional analysis that challenges how we think and write about Canada. It will interest specialists in Canadian political culture and generalists in Canadian politics.
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The Comparative Turn in Canadian Political Science
Linda White, Richard Simeon, Rob Vipond and Jennifer Wallner
University of British Columbia Press 2008
Over the past decade, the study of Canadian politics has changed profoundly. The introspective, insular, and largely atheoretical style that informed Canadian political science for most of the postwar period has given way to a deeper engagement with, and integration into, the global field of comparative politics.
This volume is the first sustained attempt to describe, analyze, and assess the "comparative turn" in Canadian political science. Canada's engagement with comparative politics is examined with a focus on three central questions: In what ways, and how successfully, have Canadian scholars contributed to the study of comparative politics? How does study of the Canadian case advance the comparative discipline? Finally, can Canadian practice and policy be reproduced in other countries?
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The Unexpected War: Canada in Afghanistan
Janice Gross Stein and Eugene Lang
Viking Canada Press 2007
With our troops now committed until 2009, The Unexpected War exposes the poverty of Canadian foreign policy, arguing that Canada's various military missions in Afghanistan have been ad hoc in nature and made on the basis of political calculations -- often flawed -- about Canadian-American relations. Drawing upon interviews with key decision makers and advisors, and a first-hand account by a former Defence Ministry insider, the book offers a gripping account of how Canada became embroiled in a new kind of war -- fighting insurgency in a failed state. Winner of the 2007 Shaughnessy Cohen Prize and shortlisted for the 2007 Donner Prize.
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The Birthright Lottery: Citizenship and Global Inequality
Ayelet Shachar
Harvard University Press 2009
In The Birthright Lottery, Ayelet Shachar argues that birthright citizenship in an affluent society can be thought of as a form of property inheritance: that is, a valuable entitlement transmitted by law to a restricted group of recipients under conditions that perpetuate the transfer of this prerogative to their heirs. She deploys this fresh perspective to establish that nations need to expand their membership boundaries beyond outdated notions of blood-and-soil in sculpting the body politic. Located at the intersection of law, economics, and political philosophy, The Birthright Lottery further advocates redistributional obligations on those benefiting from the inheritance of membership, with the aim of ameliorating its most glaring opportunity inequalities.
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Social Democracy in the Global Periphery: Origins, Challenges, Prospects
Richard Sandbrook, Marc Edelman, Patrick Heller and Judith Teichman
Cambridge University Press 2007
Social Democracy in the Global Periphery focuses on social-democratic regimes in the developing world that have, to varying degrees, reconciled the needs of achieving growth through globalized markets with extensions of political, social and economic rights. The authors show that opportunities exist to achieve significant social progress, despite a global economic order that favours core industrial countries. Their findings derive from a comparative analysis of four exemplary cases: Kerala (India), Costa Rica, Mauritius and Chile (since 1990). Though unusual, the social and political conditions from which these developing-world social democracies arose are not unique; indeed, pragmatic and proactive social-democratic movements helped create these favourable conditions. The four exemplars have preserved or even improved their social achievements since neoliberalism emerged hegemonic in the 1980s. This demonstrates that certain social-democratic policies and practices - guided by a democratic developmental state - can enhance a national economy's global competitiveness.
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Queer Inclusions, Continental Divisions: Public Recognition of Sexual Diversity in Canada and the United States
David Rayside
University of Toronto Press 2008
No area of public policy and law has seen more change than lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, and trans-gender rights, and none so greatly needs careful comparative analysis. Queer Inclusions, Continental Divisions explores the politics of sexual diversity in Canada and the United States by analyzing three contentious areas -- relationship recognition, parenting, and schooling. It enters into long-standing debates over Canadian-American contrasts while paying close attention to regional differences.
David Rayside's examination of change over time in the public recognition of sexual minorities is based on his long experience with the analysis of trends, as well as on a wide-ranging search of media, legal, and social science accounts of developments across Canada and the United States. Rayside points to a "take off" pattern in Canadian policy change on relationship recognition and parenting, but not in schooling. At the same time, he explores the reasons for a "pioneering" pattern in early gains by American LGBT activists, a surprising number of court wins by American lesbian and gay parents, and changes in American schooling that, while still modest, are more substantial than those instituted by the Canadian system.
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Growing Apart? America and Europe in the 21st Century
Jeffrey Kopstein and Sven Steinmo
Cambridge University Press 2007
This book explores the forces pushing America away from its democratic friends and neighbors. It examines the underlying forces shaping the democratic states of the West. Individual chapters pose questions such as: Why is religion so powerful in America? How will the flow of immigration shape politics across the West? Why is Europe rejecting America's version of capitalism? How is the media changing in Europe and America? Why are "Conservatives" so different on each side of the Atlantic? And, finally, what do these competing forces portend for the future of the transatlantic relationship?
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Montesquieu and His Legacy
Rebecca Kingston
State University of New York Press 2008
Montesquieu (1689-1755) is regarded as one of the most important thinkers of the Enlightenment. His Lettres persanes and L'Esprit des lois have been read by students and scholars throughout the last two centuries. While many have associated Montesquieu with the doctrine of the "separation of powers" in the history of ideas, Rebecca E. Kingston brings together leading international scholars who for the first time present a systematic treatment and discussion of the significance of his ideas more generally for the development of Western political theory and institutions. In particular, Montesquieu and His Legacy supplements the conventional focus on the institutional teachings of Montesquieu with attention to the theme of morals and manners. The contributors provide commentary on the broad legacy of Montesquieu's thought in past times as well as for the contemporary era.
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Bringing the Passions Back In: The Emotions in Political Philosophy
Rebecca Kingston and Leonard Ferry
University of British Columbia Press 2008
Combining intellectual history and political theory, the contributors to Bringing the Passions Back In illuminate the place of emotions in modern liberal and democratic politics. Bringing the Passions Back In will interest scholars and students in political theory, the history of ideas, sociology, psychology, cultural studies, and philosophy.
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The Moral Force of Indigenous Politics
Courtney Jung
Cambridge University Press 2009
Tracing the political origins of the Mexican indigenous rights movement, from the colonial encounter to the Zapatista uprising, and from Chiapas to Geneva, Courtney Jung locates indigenous identity in the history of Mexican state formation. She argues that indigenous identity is not an accident of birth but a political achievement that offers a new voice to many of the world's poorest and most dispossessed. The moral force of indigenous claims rests not on the existence of cultural differences, or identity, but on the history of exclusion and selective inclusion that constitutes indigenous identity. As a result, the book shows that privatizing or protecting such groups is a mistake and develops a theory of critical liberalism that commits democratic government to active engagement with the claims of culture. This book will appeal to scholars and students of political theory, philosophy, sociology, and anthropology studying multiculturalism and the politics of culture.
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Business and the State in Africa: Economic Policy-Making in the Neo-Liberal Era
Antoinette Handley
Cambridge University Press 2008
The dominant developmental approach in Africa over the last twenty years has been to advocate the role of markets and the private sector in restoring economic growth. Recent thinking has also stressed the need for 'ownership' of economic reform by the populations of developing countries, particularly the business community. This book studies the business-government interactions of four African countries: Ghana, Zambia, South Africa and Mauritius. Employing a historical institutionalist approach, Antoinette Handley considers why and how business in South Africa and Mauritius has developed the capacity to constructively contest the making of economic policy while, conversely, business in Zambia and Ghana has struggled to develop any autonomous political capacity. Paying close attention to the mutually constitutive interactions between business and the state, Handley considers the role of timing and how ethnicised and racialised identities can affect these interactions in profound and consequential ways.
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Women, Power, Politics: The Hidden Story of Canada's Unfinished Democracy
Sylvia Bashevkin
Oxford University Press 2009
In this engaging, no-nonsense, and witty book, Sylvia Baskevkin argues that Canadians have a profound unease with women in positions of political authority--what she calls the "women plus power equals discomfort" equation. She explores the specific reasons why this discomfort is particularly severe in Canada. Bashevkin also evaluates a range of barriers faced by women who enter politics, including the media's role in assessing the leadership styles, personal appearances, and private lives of female politicians. In clear, accessible terms, Bashevkin explains concepts such as "gender schemas" and "media framing" in terms of key examples, such as Belinda Stronach and Hillary Clinton.
Finally, Bashevkin outlines some compelling solutions to address the stalemate facing women in Canadian politics.
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