China’s G20 Leadership
Kirton offers a comprehensive, systematic examination of China’s G20 approach, diplomacy and influence since the G20’s start as a forum for finance ministers and central bankers in 1999. This comprehensive reference tool works its way through China’s elevation to the leaders’ level with summits from 2008-2014, to the prospects for its Antalya Summit in November 2014 and above all China’s first summit as host in Hangzhou in the autumn of 2016. This book contains a full treatment of China’s role in the summits from 2011 to 2014, and China’s plans, role and prospects for the summits in 2015 and 2016. Analytically, it develops and tests at the level of a single member country the systemic hub model of G20 governance that was developed for and guided in Kirton’s 2013 book, G20 Governance for a Globalized World.
Bush
Distinguished presidential biographer Jean Edward Smith offers a critical yet fair biography of George W. Bush, showing how he ignored his advisors to make key decisions himself—most disastrously in invading Iraq—and how these decisions were often driven by the President’s deep religious faith.
George W. Bush, the forty-third president of the United States, almost singlehandedly decided to invade Iraq. It was possibly the worst foreign-policy decision ever made by a president. The consequences dominated the Bush Administration and still haunt us today.
In Bush, “America’s greatest living biographer” (George Will), Jean Edward Smith, demonstrates that it was not Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, or Condoleezza Rice, but President Bush himself who took personal control of foreign policy. Bush drew on his deep religious conviction that important foreign-policy decisions were simply a matter of good versus evil. Domestically, he overreacted to 9/11 and endangered Americans’ civil liberties.
Smith explains that it wasn’t until the financial crisis of 2008 that Bush finally accepted expert advice, something that the “Decider,” as Bush called himself, had previously been unwilling to do. As a result, he authorized decisions that saved the economy from possible collapse, even though some of those decisions violated Bush’s own political philosophy.
Bush is a comprehensive evaluation of the Bush presidency—including Guantanamo, Katrina, No Child Left Behind, and other important topics—that will surely surprise many readers. Controversial, incisive, and compelling, it is thoroughly researched and sure to add to the debate over Bush’s presidential legacy.
Growing Urban Economies: Innovation, Creativity, and Governance in Canadian City Regions
Even in a globalizing, knowledge-based economy, cities remain engines of growth, innovation, and diversity. Increasingly, they are also active participants in the creation of the social and political conditions necessary to create a thriving community. The Innovation, Creativity, and Governance in Canadian City-Regions series is a focused analysis of how developments at the local and regional level affect these three key determinants of future prosperity. Growing Urban Economies summarizes its conclusions in a single volume that presents an overview of the evidence and its implications.
A rich and nuanced analysis of the interplay of social, political, and economic factors in thirteen Canadian city-regions, large and small, this collection integrates research focusing on innovation, creativity and talent-retention, and governance in order to understand the distinctive experience of each region. A valuable cross-section of city-region development in a variety of circumstances, Growing Urban Economies offers important insights into the way in which local conditions affect urban economies around the world.
The Judicial Role in A Diverse Federation: Lessons from the Supreme Court of Canada
In The Judicial Role in a Diverse Federation, Robert Schertzer uses the example of the Supreme Court of Canada to examine how apex courts manage diversity and conflict in federal states.
Schertzer argues that in a diverse federation where the nature of the federal system is contested the courts should facilitate negotiation between conflicting parties, rather than impose their own vision of the federal system. Drawing on a comprehensive review of the Supreme Court federalism jurisprudence between 1980 and 2010, he demonstrates that the court has increasingly adopted this approach of facilitating negotiation by acknowledging the legitimacy of different understandings of the Canadian federation.
This book will be required reading both for those interested in Canada’s Supreme Court and for those engaged in broader debates about the use of federalism in multinational states.
Backrooms and Beyond: Partisan Advisors and the Politics of Policy Work in Canada
Though they serve in many roles and under many titles, no one doubts that political staffs now wield substantial influence in the making of government policy. Backrooms and Beyond draws on interviews with ministers, senior public servants, and political advisers to offer the first detailed Canadian treatment of how that influence is gained and exercised in the policy making process.
A comparative analysis of case studies from three Canadian jurisdictions, including the federal Prime Minister’s Office, two premier’s offices, and ministers’ offices, the book presents a detailed account of partisan advisers’ involvement in policy work and a new theoretical framework for understanding this work and its impact. As Jonathan Craft shows, partisan advisers often engage in policy work with public servants, outside stakeholders, and often in types of policy work that public servants cannot.
Backrooms and Beyond is a rich and rigorous look at an important aspect of contemporary Canadian politics, essential reading for scholars and practitioners, journalists, students of the Westminster system from around the world, and those wanting to understand just how policy is made today.
Made in Nunavut
Made in Nunavut provides the first behind-the-scenes account of how the Government of Nunavut (GN) came into being, exploring the many political and administrative issues that arose in its design and implementation. The book offers a close analysis of the period between the passage of the Nunavut Act in 1993 and the start-up of the GN in 1999, paying close attention to its most distinctive and innovative organizational design feature — the decentralization of offices and functions that would normally be located in the capital to small communities spread across the vast territory. It examines how this decentralization was implemented post-1999 and concludes by taking a hard look at whether the GN’s controversial structure has provided better government for the people of Nunavut.
The result of nearly two decades of research and writing by leading authorities on the politics of the Canadian Arctic, Made in Nunavut is a definitive guide to understanding the structure and politics of Canada’s youngest territory.
Pluralism by Default
Pluralism by Default explores sources of political contestation in the former Soviet Union and beyond. Lucan Way proposes that pluralism in “new democracies” is often grounded less in democratic leadership or emerging civil society and more in the failure of authoritarianism. Dynamic competition frequently emerges because autocrats lack the state capacity to steal elections, impose censorship, or repress opposition. In fact, the same institutional failures that facilitate political competition may also thwart the development of stable democracy.
The Politics of Inclusive Development
JuThis book investigates the political conditions and policies most likely to bring about progress toward inclusive development, drawing on four cases studies with distinct development trajectories. It argues that this progress is primarily a political struggle, one requiring a committed leadership with broadly based societal support.
The Canadian Environment in Political Context
The Canadian Environment in Political Context is an introduction to environmental politics designed to explain and explore how environmental policy is made inside the Canadian political arena. The book begins with a brief synopsis of environmental quality across Canada before moving on to examine political institutions and policymaking, the history of environmentalism in Canada, and crucial issues including wildlife policy, pollution, climate change, Aboriginals and the environment and Canada’s North. The book ends with a discussion of the environmental challenges and opportunities that Canada faces in the twenty-first century. Accessible and comprehensive, The Canadian Environment in Political Context is the ideal text for environmental politics and policy courses.
Lactivism – How Feminists and Fundamentalists, Hippies and Yuppies, and Physicians and Politicians Made Breastfeeding Big Business and Bad Policy
Social scientist and mother Courtney Jung explores the ever-expanding world of breastfeeding advocacy, shining a new light on the diverse communities who compose it, the dubious science behind it, and the pernicious public policies to which it has given rise
Is breast really best? Breastfeeding is widely assumed to be the healthiest choice, yet growing evidence suggests that its benefits have been greatly exaggerated. New moms are pressured by doctors, health officials, and friends to avoid the bottle at all costs—often at the expense of their jobs, their pocketbooks, and their well-being.
In Lactivism, political scientist Courtney Jung offers the most deeply researched and far-reaching critique of breastfeeding advocacy to date. Drawing on her own experience as a devoted mother who breastfed her two children and her expertise as a social scientist, Jung investigates the benefits of breastfeeding and asks why so many people across the political spectrum are passionately invested in promoting it, even as its health benefits have been persuasively challenged. What emerges is an eye-opening story about class and race in America, the big business of breastfeeding, and the fraught politics of contemporary motherhood.