Dangerous Democracies and Partying Prime Ministers

Dangerous Democracies and Partying Prime Ministers PDF Author: Chad Atkinson
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 9780739133590
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 154

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Book Description
Dangerous Democracies and Partying Prime Ministers examines why elected leaders pursue foreign policies that are remarkably distant from their proposed policies. To investigate this pattern Chad Atkinson develops a model of how the foreign policy preferences of the executive and the legislature interact over the electoral cycle to affect foreign policy choices. The executive is cross-pressured when there is conflict between what his or her constituents want and what the legislature wants. Getting votes is clearly more important when elections are near, so democratic leaders weigh these, competing demands differently over the course of the electoral cycle. This is what can lead to trends in foreign policy: the executive first chooses policies that mollify the legislature and later reverts to policies that please his or her constituents when elections draw near. This book pursues these ideas with a game theoretic model and a set of statistical assessments of multiple cases (Israel and the Palestinians, the US and the USSR, and others) to provide a rigorous and logical framework to the argument. The central findings are that democratic institutions and processes (i.e., the domestic context) have a predictable influence on foreign policy choices overtime, and some configurations of preferences, electoral systems, and election timing are not conducive to peace. Rather than the diversionary hypothesis that conflict is likely before an election-since a boost to executive popularity would be particularly valuable at that moment-a more nuanced finding is reported. Leaders rally around the party and not the flag. When elections approach, leaders pursue policies that are popular with their constituents; politicians from the left pursue more pacific policies and politicians from rightist parties tend to be more confrontational. Book jacket.

Dangerous Democracies and Partying Prime Ministers

Dangerous Democracies and Partying Prime Ministers PDF Author: Chad Atkinson
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 9780739133590
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 154

Get Book Here

Book Description
Dangerous Democracies and Partying Prime Ministers examines why elected leaders pursue foreign policies that are remarkably distant from their proposed policies. To investigate this pattern Chad Atkinson develops a model of how the foreign policy preferences of the executive and the legislature interact over the electoral cycle to affect foreign policy choices. The executive is cross-pressured when there is conflict between what his or her constituents want and what the legislature wants. Getting votes is clearly more important when elections are near, so democratic leaders weigh these, competing demands differently over the course of the electoral cycle. This is what can lead to trends in foreign policy: the executive first chooses policies that mollify the legislature and later reverts to policies that please his or her constituents when elections draw near. This book pursues these ideas with a game theoretic model and a set of statistical assessments of multiple cases (Israel and the Palestinians, the US and the USSR, and others) to provide a rigorous and logical framework to the argument. The central findings are that democratic institutions and processes (i.e., the domestic context) have a predictable influence on foreign policy choices overtime, and some configurations of preferences, electoral systems, and election timing are not conducive to peace. Rather than the diversionary hypothesis that conflict is likely before an election-since a boost to executive popularity would be particularly valuable at that moment-a more nuanced finding is reported. Leaders rally around the party and not the flag. When elections approach, leaders pursue policies that are popular with their constituents; politicians from the left pursue more pacific policies and politicians from rightist parties tend to be more confrontational. Book jacket.

Freedom in the World 2018

Freedom in the World 2018 PDF Author: Freedom House
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1538112035
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 1265

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Book Description
Freedom in the World, the Freedom House flagship survey whose findings have been published annually since 1972, is the standard-setting comparative assessment of global political rights and civil liberties. The survey ratings and narrative reports on 195 countries and fifteen territories are used by policymakers, the media, international corporations, civic activists, and human rights defenders to monitor trends in democracy and track improvements and setbacks in freedom worldwide. The Freedom in the World political rights and civil liberties ratings are determined through a multi-layered process of research and evaluation by a team of regional analysts and eminent scholars. The analysts used a broad range of sources of information, including foreign and domestic news reports, academic studies, nongovernmental organizations, think tanks, individual professional contacts, and visits to the region, in conducting their research. The methodology of the survey is derived in large measure from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and these standards are applied to all countries and territories, irrespective of geographical location, ethnic or religious composition, or level of economic development.

A Danger Of Democracy

A Danger Of Democracy PDF Author: Terry Sanford
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429724373
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 179

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Book Description
Quail hunte rs appreciate a bird dog that doesn't give up ,th at ch ases the last bird after a covey rises, that is joyouslyunwilling to let even one get away . Old Pal was such a pointer ,an d on one day he leaped for a last fluttering single , missed ,of course, but, sad to say, leaped also over a sixty-foot cliffinto the icy Flint River. The moral is that he was going afterthe right bird b ut he wasn 't looking where he was going.The political party, with new rules calculated to open thepresidential nominating process, to involve more people ,to reach the ultimate in democracy , may find itself in thesame plight as th e conscientious pointer. It is possible to goover the cliff in reaching for too much democracy . Somethink the parties have already fallen into the river .

How Democracies Die

How Democracies Die PDF Author: Steven Levitsky
Publisher: Crown
ISBN: 1524762946
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 321

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Book Description
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “Comprehensive, enlightening, and terrifyingly timely.”—The New York Times Book Review (Editors' Choice) WINNER OF THE GOLDSMITH BOOK PRIZE • SHORTLISTED FOR THE LIONEL GELBER PRIZE • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The Washington Post • Time • Foreign Affairs • WBUR • Paste Donald Trump’s presidency has raised a question that many of us never thought we’d be asking: Is our democracy in danger? Harvard professors Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt have spent more than twenty years studying the breakdown of democracies in Europe and Latin America, and they believe the answer is yes. Democracy no longer ends with a bang—in a revolution or military coup—but with a whimper: the slow, steady weakening of critical institutions, such as the judiciary and the press, and the gradual erosion of long-standing political norms. The good news is that there are several exit ramps on the road to authoritarianism. The bad news is that, by electing Trump, we have already passed the first one. Drawing on decades of research and a wide range of historical and global examples, from 1930s Europe to contemporary Hungary, Turkey, and Venezuela, to the American South during Jim Crow, Levitsky and Ziblatt show how democracies die—and how ours can be saved. Praise for How Democracies Die “What we desperately need is a sober, dispassionate look at the current state of affairs. Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, two of the most respected scholars in the field of democracy studies, offer just that.”—The Washington Post “Where Levitsky and Ziblatt make their mark is in weaving together political science and historical analysis of both domestic and international democratic crises; in doing so, they expand the conversation beyond Trump and before him, to other countries and to the deep structure of American democracy and politics.”—Ezra Klein, Vox “If you only read one book for the rest of the year, read How Democracies Die. . . .This is not a book for just Democrats or Republicans. It is a book for all Americans. It is nonpartisan. It is fact based. It is deeply rooted in history. . . . The best commentary on our politics, no contest.”—Michael Morrell, former Acting Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (via Twitter) “A smart and deeply informed book about the ways in which democracy is being undermined in dozens of countries around the world, and in ways that are perfectly legal.”—Fareed Zakaria, CNN

Japan's Dysfunctional Democracy: The Liberal Democratic Party and Structural Corruption

Japan's Dysfunctional Democracy: The Liberal Democratic Party and Structural Corruption PDF Author: Roger W. Bowen
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1315290316
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 152

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Book Description
This is a short, readable, and incisive study of the corrosive effects of corruption in one of the world's major liberal democracies. It explores the disconnect between democratic rule and undemocratic practices in Japan since the Second World War, with special attention to the corrupt practices of various prime ministers and the resulting sense of political cynicism and powerlessness among the general public.

Japan's Pseudo-Democracy

Japan's Pseudo-Democracy PDF Author: Peter J. Herzog
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134240058
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 290

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Book Description
Rocked by scandals and accusations that crucial decisions are made by non-elected officials, Japan has been called a democracy in name only. Is it?

Japan's Pseudo-democracy

Japan's Pseudo-democracy PDF Author: Ian Reader
Publisher: Psychology Press
ISBN: 9781873410073
Category : Historie
Languages : en
Pages : 290

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Book Description
Each of the eight chapters deals with a specific topic, such as Shinto, Buddhism, the new religions, and Christianity; there is an introduction that outlines the subject to be considered followed by a series of readings.

Political Economy of Institutions, Democracy and Voting

Political Economy of Institutions, Democracy and Voting PDF Author: Norman Schofield
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 3642195199
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 426

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Book Description
This book presents the latest research in the field of Political Economy, dealing with the integration of economics and politics and the way institutions affect social decisions. The authors are eminent scholars from the U.S., Canada, Britain, Spain, Italy, Mexico and the Philippines. Many of them have been influenced by Nobel laureate Douglass North, who pioneered the new institutional social sciences, or by William H. Riker who contributed to the field of positive political theory. The book focuses on topics such as: case studies in institutional analysis; research on war and the formation of states; the analysis of corruption; new techniques for analyzing elections, involving game theory and empirical methods; comparing elections under plurality and proportional rule, and in developed and new democracies.

Democracy, Identity and Foreign Policy in Turkey

Democracy, Identity and Foreign Policy in Turkey PDF Author: F. Keyman
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137277122
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 328

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Book Description
Through critical analysis of Turkey's transformation under the AKP, this book explores the relationship between domestic transformations and global/regional dynamics. It also discusses the relationship between the Turkish transformation and the Arab uprisings and the implications of the Turkish case for regime transitions in the Arab world.

India After Gandhi: The History of the World's Largest Democracy

India After Gandhi: The History of the World's Largest Democracy PDF Author: Ramachandra Guha
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
ISBN: 1509883282
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 871

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Book Description
Ramachandra Guha’s India after Gandhi is a magisterial account of the pains, struggles, humiliations and glories of the world’s largest and least likely democracy. A riveting chronicle of the often brutal conflicts that have rocked a giant nation, and of the extraordinary individuals and institutions who held it together, it established itself as a classic when it was first published in 2007. In the last decade, India has witnessed, among other things, two general elections; the fall of the Congress and the rise of Narendra Modi; a major anti-corruption movement; more violence against women, Dalits, and religious minorities; a wave of prosperity for some but the persistence of poverty for others; comparative peace in Nagaland but greater discontent in Kashmir than ever before. This tenth anniversary edition, updated and expanded, brings the narrative up to the present. Published to coincide with seventy years of the country’s independence, this definitive history of modern India is the work of one of the world’s finest scholars at the height of his powers.