Democracy’s Blameless Leaders

Democracy’s Blameless Leaders PDF Author: Neil James Mitchell
Publisher: NYU Press
ISBN: 0814763383
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 276

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Book Description
From the American and British counter-insurgency in Iraq to the bombing of Dresden and the Amristar Massacre in India, civilians are often abused and killed when they are caught in the cross-fire of wars and other conflicts. In Democracy’s Blameless Leaders, Neil Mitchell examines how leaders in democracies manage the blame for the abuse and the killing of civilians, arguing that politicians are likely to react in a self-interested and opportunistic way and seek to deny and evade accountability. Using empirical evidence from well-known cases of abuse and atrocity committed by the security forces of established, liberal democracies, Mitchell shows that self-interested political leaders will attempt to evade accountability for abuse and atrocity, using a range of well-known techniques including denial, delay, diversion, and delegation to pass blame for abuse and atrocities to the lowest plausible level. Mitchell argues that, despite the conventional wisdom that accountability is a ‘central feature’ of democracies, it is only a rare and courageous leader who acts differently, exposing the limits of accountability in democratic societies. As democracies remain embroiled in armed conflicts, and continue to try to come to grips with past atrocities, Democracy’s Blameless Leaders provides a timely analysis of why these events occur, why leaders behave as they do, and how a more accountable system might be developed.

Democracy’s Blameless Leaders

Democracy’s Blameless Leaders PDF Author: Neil James Mitchell
Publisher: NYU Press
ISBN: 0814763383
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 276

Get Book Here

Book Description
From the American and British counter-insurgency in Iraq to the bombing of Dresden and the Amristar Massacre in India, civilians are often abused and killed when they are caught in the cross-fire of wars and other conflicts. In Democracy’s Blameless Leaders, Neil Mitchell examines how leaders in democracies manage the blame for the abuse and the killing of civilians, arguing that politicians are likely to react in a self-interested and opportunistic way and seek to deny and evade accountability. Using empirical evidence from well-known cases of abuse and atrocity committed by the security forces of established, liberal democracies, Mitchell shows that self-interested political leaders will attempt to evade accountability for abuse and atrocity, using a range of well-known techniques including denial, delay, diversion, and delegation to pass blame for abuse and atrocities to the lowest plausible level. Mitchell argues that, despite the conventional wisdom that accountability is a ‘central feature’ of democracies, it is only a rare and courageous leader who acts differently, exposing the limits of accountability in democratic societies. As democracies remain embroiled in armed conflicts, and continue to try to come to grips with past atrocities, Democracy’s Blameless Leaders provides a timely analysis of why these events occur, why leaders behave as they do, and how a more accountable system might be developed.

Democracy's Blameless Leaders

Democracy's Blameless Leaders PDF Author: Neil James Mitchell
Publisher: NYU Press
ISBN: 0814763375
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 277

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Book Description
From the American and British counter-insurgency in Iraq to the bombing of Dresden and the Amristar Massacre in India, civilians are often abused and killed when they are caught in the cross-fire of wars and other conflicts. In Democracy's Blameless Leaders, Neil Mitchell examines how leaders in democracies manage the blame for the abuse and the killing of civilians, arguing that politicians are likely to react in a self-interested and opportunistic way and seek to deny and evade accountability. Using empirical evidence from well-known cases of abuse and atrocity committed by the security forces of established, liberal democracies, Mitchell shows that self-interested political leaders will attempt to evade accountability for abuse and atrocity, using a range of well-known techniques including denial, delay, diversion, and delegation to pass blame for abuse and atrocities to the lowest plausible level. Mitchell argues that, despite the conventional wisdom that accountability is a central feature of democracies, it is only a rare and courageous leader who acts differently, exposing the limits of accountability in democratic societies.As democracies remain embroiled in armed conflicts, and continue to try to come to grips with past atrocities, Democracy's Blameless Leaders provides a timely analysis of why these events occur, why leaders behave as they do, and how a more accountable system might be developed.

Human Rights

Human Rights PDF Author: Michael E. Goodhart
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198708769
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 527

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Book Description
Human Rights: Politics and Practice is the most complete, most topical, and most student-friendly introduction to human rights. Bringing together a range of international experts including political scientists, philosophers, lawyers, and policy-makers, the book provides students with a broad range of perspectives on the theoretical and practical issues in this constantly evolving field. In addition to in-depth theoretical content, the book also features unrivalled coverage of human rights issues in practice, with a wide range of case studies to explore concrete examples from around the world. The third edition has been brought fully up-to-date with the most recent events and latest research developments in the area. Two new chapters have been added: one on religion and human rights, and one on sexual orientation and gender issues and human rights, introducing students to these important topics and expanding the theoretical and practical discussion of issues of universalism and relativism. The new edition also features a range of carefully developed pedagogical features to aid student learning, encourage critical analysis, and challenge students to question their own assumptions. The book is accompanied by an Online Resource Centre to enhance students' learning and provide valuable support for lecturers. For students: - Revise key terms with a flashcard glossary - Take your learning further with links to key human rights documents - Use carefully selected web links as a first step towards independent research For registered lecturers: - Enhance your seminars with a specially developed active learning exercise - Use adaptable PowerPoint slides as the basis for lecture presentations, or as handouts in-class - Save time preparing assessments with a fully updated test bank of questions

Human Rights

Human Rights PDF Author: Michael Goodhart
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199608288
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 514

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Book Description
Human Rights: Politics and Practice is an introduction to human rights that goes beyond a purely legal perspective to look at theoretical issues and practical approaches. Bringing together leading experts, it is up to date with cutting edge research in a constantly evolving field.

The SAGE Handbook of Human Rights

The SAGE Handbook of Human Rights PDF Author: Anja Mihr
Publisher: SAGE
ISBN: 1473907195
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 1127

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Book Description
The SAGE Handbook of Human Rights will comprise a two volume set consisting of more than 50 original chapters that clarify and analyze human rights issues of both contemporary and future importance. The Handbook will take an inter-disciplinary approach, combining work in such traditional fields as law, political science and philosophy with such non-traditional subjects as climate change, demography, economics, geography, urban studies, mass communication, and business and marketing. In addition, one of the aspects of mainstreaming is the manner in which human rights has come to play a prominent role in popular culture, and there will be a section on human rights in art, film, music and literature. Not only will the Handbook provide a state of the art analysis of the discipline that addresses the history and development of human rights standards and its movements, mechanisms and institutions, but it will seek to go beyond this and produce a book that will help lead to prospective thinking.

The Oxford Handbook of Terrorism

The Oxford Handbook of Terrorism PDF Author: Erica Chenoweth
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0191047147
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 704

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Book Description
The Oxford Handbook of Terrorism systematically integrates the substantial body of scholarship on terrorism and counterterrorism before and after 9/11. In doing so, it introduces scholars and practitioners to state of the art approaches, methods, and issues in studying and teaching these vital phenomena. This Handbook goes further than most existing collections by giving structure and direction to the fast-growing but somewhat disjointed field of terrorism studies. The volume locates terrorism within the wider spectrum of political violence instead of engaging in the widespread tendency towards treating terrorism as an exceptional act. Moreover, the volume makes a case for studying terrorism within its socio-historical context. Finally, the volume addresses the critique that the study of terrorism suffers from lack of theory by reviewing and extending the theoretical insights contributed by several fields - including political science, political economy, history, sociology, anthropology, criminology, law, geography, and psychology. In doing so, the volume showcases the analytical advancements and reflects on the challenges that remain since the emergence of the field in the early 1970s.

Uncivil War

Uncivil War PDF Author: Huw Bennett
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1009449087
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 445

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Book Description
When Operation Banner was launched in 1969 civil war threatened to break out in Northern Ireland and spread over the Irish sea. Uncivil War reveals the full story of how the British army acted to save Great Britain from disaster but, in so doing, condemned the people of Northern Ireland to protracted, grinding conflict.

Democracy and Leadership

Democracy and Leadership PDF Author: Irving Babbitt
Publisher: Liberty Fund
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 402

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Book Description
Irving Babbitt was a leader of the intellectual movement called American Humanism, or the New Humanism, and a distinguished professor of French literature at Harvard. "Democracy and Leadership", first published in 1924, is his only directly political book, and in it he applies the principles of humanism to the civil social order. Babbitt rejects all deterministic philosophies of history, whether they be the older type found in Saint Augustine or Bossuet, which tends to make of man the puppet of God, or the new type, which tends in all its varieties to make of man the puppet of nature. He offers a compelling critique of unchecked majoritarianism and addresses the great problem of how to discover leaders with standards.

Conceptualising Comparative Politics

Conceptualising Comparative Politics PDF Author: Anthony Petros Spanakos
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317639049
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 273

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Book Description
Comparative politics often involves testing of hypotheses using new methodological approaches without giving sufficient attention to the concepts which are fundamental to hypotheses, particularly the ability of these concepts to ‘travel’. Proper operationalising requires deep reflection on the concept, not simply establishing how it should be measured. Conceptualising Comparative Politics – the flagship book of Routledge’s series of the same name – breaks new ground by emphasising the role of thoroughly thinking through concepts and deep familiarity with the case that inform the conceptual reflection. In this thought- provoking book, established academics as well as emerging scholars in the field collect (and invite) scholarship in the tradition of conceptual comparative politics. The book posits that concepts may be used comparatively as ‘lenses’, ‘building blocks’ and ‘scripts’, and contributors show how these conceptual tools can be employed in original comparative research. Importantly, contributors to Conceptualising Comparative Politics do not simply use concepts in one of these three ways but they apply them with careful consideration of empirical variation. The chapters included in this volume address some of the most contentious issues in comparative politics (populism, state capacity, governance, institutions, elections, secularism, among others) from various geographic regions and model how scholars doing comparative politics might approach such subjects. Concepts make possible scholarly conversations including creative confrontations across paradigms. Conceptualising Comparative Politics will challenge you to think of how to engage in conceptual comparative inquiry and how to use various methodologically sound techniques to understand and explain comparative politics.

Routledge Handbook of Peace, Security and Development

Routledge Handbook of Peace, Security and Development PDF Author: Fen Osler Hampson
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351172182
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 584

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Book Description
This Handbook offers a comprehensive examination of the peace, security, and development nexus from a global perspective, and investigates the interfaces of these issues in a context characterised by many new challenges. By bringing together more than 40 leading experts and commentators from across the world, the Handbook maps the various research agendas related to these three themes, taking stock of existing work and debates, while outlining areas for further engagement. In doing so, the chapters may serve as a primer for new researchers while also informing the wider scholarly community about the latest research trends and innovations. The volume is split into three thematic parts: Concepts and approaches New drivers of conflict, insecurity, and developmental challenges Actors, institutions, and processes. For ease of use and organisational consistency, each chapter provides readers with an overview of each research area, a review of the state of the literature, a summary of the major debates, and promising directions for future research. This Handbook will be of much interest to students of peace and conflict studies, development studies, security studies, and International Relations.