Author: Vivien A. Schmidt
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521036054
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 420
Book Description
The focus of this book is on the decentralization reforms legislated by the Socialist government in France from 1982 to 1986. These reforms redefined the role of the central state in the periphery and gave extensive new powers to territorial governments. In order to more fully assess the causes and effects of this recent decentralization, Vivien Schmidt examines these reforms and their impact in comparative historical perspective. The first part of the book traces the history of decentralization from the French Revolution to the present, highlighting the significant reforms at the beginning of the Third Republic in the 1870s. The second part of the book analyzes the actual impact of the reforms of both the 1870s and the 1980s on local government institutions and processes. Professor Schmidt uses an innovative mix of methods borrowed from political sociology and cultural anthropology, combined with historical analysis and extensive interviews of national and local politicians and civil servants. Her analysis allows her to explain how in a governmental system as formally centralized as that of France, local officials nevertheless managed to develop informal rules that gave them more power than the laws allowed. The Socialists in the Fifth Republic, she explains, formalized this previously established informal system. The book provides important new theoretical insights into the changing nature of the French state in addition to revealing significant historical patterns, particularly in the parallel between the role of decentralization in the Third and Fifth Republics.
Democratizing France
Author: Vivien A. Schmidt
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521036054
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 420
Book Description
The focus of this book is on the decentralization reforms legislated by the Socialist government in France from 1982 to 1986. These reforms redefined the role of the central state in the periphery and gave extensive new powers to territorial governments. In order to more fully assess the causes and effects of this recent decentralization, Vivien Schmidt examines these reforms and their impact in comparative historical perspective. The first part of the book traces the history of decentralization from the French Revolution to the present, highlighting the significant reforms at the beginning of the Third Republic in the 1870s. The second part of the book analyzes the actual impact of the reforms of both the 1870s and the 1980s on local government institutions and processes. Professor Schmidt uses an innovative mix of methods borrowed from political sociology and cultural anthropology, combined with historical analysis and extensive interviews of national and local politicians and civil servants. Her analysis allows her to explain how in a governmental system as formally centralized as that of France, local officials nevertheless managed to develop informal rules that gave them more power than the laws allowed. The Socialists in the Fifth Republic, she explains, formalized this previously established informal system. The book provides important new theoretical insights into the changing nature of the French state in addition to revealing significant historical patterns, particularly in the parallel between the role of decentralization in the Third and Fifth Republics.
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521036054
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 420
Book Description
The focus of this book is on the decentralization reforms legislated by the Socialist government in France from 1982 to 1986. These reforms redefined the role of the central state in the periphery and gave extensive new powers to territorial governments. In order to more fully assess the causes and effects of this recent decentralization, Vivien Schmidt examines these reforms and their impact in comparative historical perspective. The first part of the book traces the history of decentralization from the French Revolution to the present, highlighting the significant reforms at the beginning of the Third Republic in the 1870s. The second part of the book analyzes the actual impact of the reforms of both the 1870s and the 1980s on local government institutions and processes. Professor Schmidt uses an innovative mix of methods borrowed from political sociology and cultural anthropology, combined with historical analysis and extensive interviews of national and local politicians and civil servants. Her analysis allows her to explain how in a governmental system as formally centralized as that of France, local officials nevertheless managed to develop informal rules that gave them more power than the laws allowed. The Socialists in the Fifth Republic, she explains, formalized this previously established informal system. The book provides important new theoretical insights into the changing nature of the French state in addition to revealing significant historical patterns, particularly in the parallel between the role of decentralization in the Third and Fifth Republics.
Democratizing Innovation
Author: Eric Von Hippel
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262250179
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 224
Book Description
The process of user-centered innovation: how it can benefit both users and manufacturers and how its emergence will bring changes in business models and in public policy. Innovation is rapidly becoming democratized. Users, aided by improvements in computer and communications technology, increasingly can develop their own new products and services. These innovating users—both individuals and firms—often freely share their innovations with others, creating user-innovation communities and a rich intellectual commons. In Democratizing Innovation, Eric von Hippel looks closely at this emerging system of user-centered innovation. He explains why and when users find it profitable to develop new products and services for themselves, and why it often pays users to reveal their innovations freely for the use of all.The trend toward democratized innovation can be seen in software and information products—most notably in the free and open-source software movement—but also in physical products. Von Hippel's many examples of user innovation in action range from surgical equipment to surfboards to software security features. He shows that product and service development is concentrated among "lead users," who are ahead on marketplace trends and whose innovations are often commercially attractive. Von Hippel argues that manufacturers should redesign their innovation processes and that they should systematically seek out innovations developed by users. He points to businesses—the custom semiconductor industry is one example—that have learned to assist user-innovators by providing them with toolkits for developing new products. User innovation has a positive impact on social welfare, and von Hippel proposes that government policies, including R&D subsidies and tax credits, should be realigned to eliminate biases against it. The goal of a democratized user-centered innovation system, says von Hippel, is well worth striving for. An electronic version of this book is available under a Creative Commons license.
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262250179
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 224
Book Description
The process of user-centered innovation: how it can benefit both users and manufacturers and how its emergence will bring changes in business models and in public policy. Innovation is rapidly becoming democratized. Users, aided by improvements in computer and communications technology, increasingly can develop their own new products and services. These innovating users—both individuals and firms—often freely share their innovations with others, creating user-innovation communities and a rich intellectual commons. In Democratizing Innovation, Eric von Hippel looks closely at this emerging system of user-centered innovation. He explains why and when users find it profitable to develop new products and services for themselves, and why it often pays users to reveal their innovations freely for the use of all.The trend toward democratized innovation can be seen in software and information products—most notably in the free and open-source software movement—but also in physical products. Von Hippel's many examples of user innovation in action range from surgical equipment to surfboards to software security features. He shows that product and service development is concentrated among "lead users," who are ahead on marketplace trends and whose innovations are often commercially attractive. Von Hippel argues that manufacturers should redesign their innovation processes and that they should systematically seek out innovations developed by users. He points to businesses—the custom semiconductor industry is one example—that have learned to assist user-innovators by providing them with toolkits for developing new products. User innovation has a positive impact on social welfare, and von Hippel proposes that government policies, including R&D subsidies and tax credits, should be realigned to eliminate biases against it. The goal of a democratized user-centered innovation system, says von Hippel, is well worth striving for. An electronic version of this book is available under a Creative Commons license.
Democratizing Europe
Author: A. Vauchez
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137540915
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 100
Book Description
Drawing from recent streams of scholarship, Democratizing Europe provides a renewed portrait of EU government that point at the enduring leading role of independent powers (the European Court, Commission and Central Bank). Vauchez suggests that we recognize this centrality and adjust our democratization strategies accordingly.
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137540915
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 100
Book Description
Drawing from recent streams of scholarship, Democratizing Europe provides a renewed portrait of EU government that point at the enduring leading role of independent powers (the European Court, Commission and Central Bank). Vauchez suggests that we recognize this centrality and adjust our democratization strategies accordingly.
Democratizing Finance
Author: Marion Laboure
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674987225
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 289
Book Description
We are only in the early stages of a broader revolution that will impact every aspect of the global economy, including commerce and government services. Coming financial technology innovations could improve the quality of life for all people. Over the past few decades, digital technology has transformed finance. Financial technology (fintech) has enabled more people with fewer resources, in more places around the world, to take advantage of banking, insurance, credit, investment, and other financial services. Marion Laboure and Nicolas Deffrennes argue that these changes are only the tip of the iceberg. A much broader revolution is under way that, if steered correctly, will lead to huge and beneficial social change. The authors describe the genesis of recent financial innovations and how they have helped consumers in rich and poor countries alike by reducing costs, increasing accessibility, and improving convenience and efficiency. They connect the dots between early innovations in financial services and the wider revolution unfolding today. Changes may disrupt traditional financial services, especially banking, but they may also help us address major social challenges: opening new career paths for millennials, transforming government services, and expanding the gig economy in developed markets. Fintech could lead to economic infrastructure developments in rural areas and could facilitate emerging social security and healthcare systems in developing countries. The authors make this case with a rich combination of economic theory and case studies, including microanalyses of the effects of fintech innovations on individuals, as well as macroeconomic perspectives on fintech's impact on societies. While celebrating fintech's achievements to date, Laboure and Deffrennes also make recommendations for overcoming the obstacles that remain. The stakes--improved quality of life for all people--could not be higher.
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674987225
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 289
Book Description
We are only in the early stages of a broader revolution that will impact every aspect of the global economy, including commerce and government services. Coming financial technology innovations could improve the quality of life for all people. Over the past few decades, digital technology has transformed finance. Financial technology (fintech) has enabled more people with fewer resources, in more places around the world, to take advantage of banking, insurance, credit, investment, and other financial services. Marion Laboure and Nicolas Deffrennes argue that these changes are only the tip of the iceberg. A much broader revolution is under way that, if steered correctly, will lead to huge and beneficial social change. The authors describe the genesis of recent financial innovations and how they have helped consumers in rich and poor countries alike by reducing costs, increasing accessibility, and improving convenience and efficiency. They connect the dots between early innovations in financial services and the wider revolution unfolding today. Changes may disrupt traditional financial services, especially banking, but they may also help us address major social challenges: opening new career paths for millennials, transforming government services, and expanding the gig economy in developed markets. Fintech could lead to economic infrastructure developments in rural areas and could facilitate emerging social security and healthcare systems in developing countries. The authors make this case with a rich combination of economic theory and case studies, including microanalyses of the effects of fintech innovations on individuals, as well as macroeconomic perspectives on fintech's impact on societies. While celebrating fintech's achievements to date, Laboure and Deffrennes also make recommendations for overcoming the obstacles that remain. The stakes--improved quality of life for all people--could not be higher.
Dismantling Democratic States
Author: Ezra N. Suleiman
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400850738
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 342
Book Description
Bureaucracy is a much-maligned feature of contemporary government. And yet the aftermath of September 11 has opened the door to a reassessment of the role of a skilled civil service in the survival and viability of democratic society. Here, Ezra Suleiman offers a timely and powerful corrective to the widespread view that bureaucracy is the source of democracy's ills. This is a book as much about good governance as it is about bureaucratic organizations. Suleiman asks: Is democratic governance hindered without an effective instrument in the hands of the legitimately elected political leadership? Is a professional bureaucracy required for developing but not for maintaining a democratic state? Why has a reform movement arisen in recent years championing the gradual dismantling of bureaucracy, and what are the consequences? Suleiman undertakes a comparative analysis of the drive toward a civil service grounded in the New Public Management. He argues that "government reinvention" has limited bureaucracy's capacity to adequately serve the public good. All bureaucracies have been under political pressure in recent years to reduce not only their size but also their effectiveness, and all have experienced growing deprofessionalism and politicization. He compares the impact of this evolution in both democratic societies and societies struggling to consolidate democratic institutions. Dismantling Democratic States cautions that our failure to acknowledge the role of an effective bureaucracy in building and preserving democratic political systems threatens the survival of democracy itself.
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400850738
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 342
Book Description
Bureaucracy is a much-maligned feature of contemporary government. And yet the aftermath of September 11 has opened the door to a reassessment of the role of a skilled civil service in the survival and viability of democratic society. Here, Ezra Suleiman offers a timely and powerful corrective to the widespread view that bureaucracy is the source of democracy's ills. This is a book as much about good governance as it is about bureaucratic organizations. Suleiman asks: Is democratic governance hindered without an effective instrument in the hands of the legitimately elected political leadership? Is a professional bureaucracy required for developing but not for maintaining a democratic state? Why has a reform movement arisen in recent years championing the gradual dismantling of bureaucracy, and what are the consequences? Suleiman undertakes a comparative analysis of the drive toward a civil service grounded in the New Public Management. He argues that "government reinvention" has limited bureaucracy's capacity to adequately serve the public good. All bureaucracies have been under political pressure in recent years to reduce not only their size but also their effectiveness, and all have experienced growing deprofessionalism and politicization. He compares the impact of this evolution in both democratic societies and societies struggling to consolidate democratic institutions. Dismantling Democratic States cautions that our failure to acknowledge the role of an effective bureaucracy in building and preserving democratic political systems threatens the survival of democracy itself.
Democratizing the Hegemonic State
Author: Ilan Peleg
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139467131
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 22
Book Description
This book provides a new, comprehensive analytical framework for the examination of majority-minority relations in deeply divided societies. Hegemonic states in which one ethnic group completely dominates all others will continue to face enormous pressures to transform because they are out of step with the new, emerging, global governing code that emphasizes democracy and equal rights. Refusal to change would lead such states to lose international legitimacy and face increasing civil strife, instability, and violence. Through systematic theoretical analysis and careful empirical study of 14 key cases, Peleg examines the options open to polities with diverse populations. Challenging the conventional wisdom of many liberal democrats, Peleg maintains that the preferred solution for a traditional hegemonic polity is not merely to grant equal rights to individuals, but also to incorporate significant group rights via mega-constitutional transformation.
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139467131
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 22
Book Description
This book provides a new, comprehensive analytical framework for the examination of majority-minority relations in deeply divided societies. Hegemonic states in which one ethnic group completely dominates all others will continue to face enormous pressures to transform because they are out of step with the new, emerging, global governing code that emphasizes democracy and equal rights. Refusal to change would lead such states to lose international legitimacy and face increasing civil strife, instability, and violence. Through systematic theoretical analysis and careful empirical study of 14 key cases, Peleg examines the options open to polities with diverse populations. Challenging the conventional wisdom of many liberal democrats, Peleg maintains that the preferred solution for a traditional hegemonic polity is not merely to grant equal rights to individuals, but also to incorporate significant group rights via mega-constitutional transformation.
Institutions And Democratic Statecraft
Author: Metin Heper
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429968329
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 332
Book Description
This volume of fifteen original essays examines the role of political institutions in establishing democratic stability around the globe. Leading scholars survey well-established democracies, such as the United States, Great Britain, Canada, Australia, and France; relatively established democracies, such as Germany, Italy, India, and Israel; and newly established democracies, such as Turkey, Poland, and Spain. The final chapter explores how political institutions may be connected to democracy for best performance of the political system.
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429968329
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 332
Book Description
This volume of fifteen original essays examines the role of political institutions in establishing democratic stability around the globe. Leading scholars survey well-established democracies, such as the United States, Great Britain, Canada, Australia, and France; relatively established democracies, such as Germany, Italy, India, and Israel; and newly established democracies, such as Turkey, Poland, and Spain. The final chapter explores how political institutions may be connected to democracy for best performance of the political system.
How to Democratize Europe
Author: Stéphanie Hennette
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674988086
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 225
Book Description
An all-star cast of scholars and politicians from Europe and America propose and debate the creation of a new European parliament with substantial budgetary and legislative power to solve the crisis of governance in the Eurozone and promote social and fiscal justice and public investment. The European Union is struggling. The rise of Euroskeptic parties in member states, economic distress in the south, the migrant crisis, and Brexit top the news. But deeper structural problems may be a greater long-term peril. Not least is the economic management of the Eurozone, the nineteen countries that use the Euro. How can this be accomplished in a way generally acceptable to members, given a political system whose structures are routinely decried for a lack of democratic accountability? How can the EU promote fiscal and social justice while initiating the long-term public investments that Europe needs to overcome stagnation? These are the problems a distinguished group of European and American scholars set out to solve in this short but valuable book. Among many longstanding grievances is the charge that Eurozone policies serve large and wealthy countries at the expense of poorer nations. It is also unclear who decides economic policy, how the interests of diverse member states are balanced, and to whom the decision-makers are accountable. The four lead authors—Stéphanie Hennette, Thomas Piketty, Guillaume Sacriste, and Antoine Vauchez—describe these and other problems, and respond with a draft treaty establishing a parliament for economic policy, its members drawn from national parliaments. We then hear from invited critics, who express support, objections, or alternative ideas. How to Democratize Europe offers a chance to observe how major thinkers view some of the Continent’s most pressing issues and attempt to connect democratic reform with concrete changes in economic and social policies.
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674988086
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 225
Book Description
An all-star cast of scholars and politicians from Europe and America propose and debate the creation of a new European parliament with substantial budgetary and legislative power to solve the crisis of governance in the Eurozone and promote social and fiscal justice and public investment. The European Union is struggling. The rise of Euroskeptic parties in member states, economic distress in the south, the migrant crisis, and Brexit top the news. But deeper structural problems may be a greater long-term peril. Not least is the economic management of the Eurozone, the nineteen countries that use the Euro. How can this be accomplished in a way generally acceptable to members, given a political system whose structures are routinely decried for a lack of democratic accountability? How can the EU promote fiscal and social justice while initiating the long-term public investments that Europe needs to overcome stagnation? These are the problems a distinguished group of European and American scholars set out to solve in this short but valuable book. Among many longstanding grievances is the charge that Eurozone policies serve large and wealthy countries at the expense of poorer nations. It is also unclear who decides economic policy, how the interests of diverse member states are balanced, and to whom the decision-makers are accountable. The four lead authors—Stéphanie Hennette, Thomas Piketty, Guillaume Sacriste, and Antoine Vauchez—describe these and other problems, and respond with a draft treaty establishing a parliament for economic policy, its members drawn from national parliaments. We then hear from invited critics, who express support, objections, or alternative ideas. How to Democratize Europe offers a chance to observe how major thinkers view some of the Continent’s most pressing issues and attempt to connect democratic reform with concrete changes in economic and social policies.
Politics in the Marketplace
Author: Katie L. Jarvis
Publisher:
ISBN: 0190917113
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 353
Book Description
Politics in the Marketplace integrates politics, economics, and gender to ask how the Dames des Halles invented notions of citizenship through everyday trade during the French Revolution. While analyzing how marketplace actors shaped nascent democracy and capitalism, it challenges the interpretation that revolutionary citizenship was inherently masculine from the outset.
Publisher:
ISBN: 0190917113
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 353
Book Description
Politics in the Marketplace integrates politics, economics, and gender to ask how the Dames des Halles invented notions of citizenship through everyday trade during the French Revolution. While analyzing how marketplace actors shaped nascent democracy and capitalism, it challenges the interpretation that revolutionary citizenship was inherently masculine from the outset.
Democratizing Education and Educating Democratic Citizens
Author: Leslie J. Limage
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135700427
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 318
Book Description
The essays in the book are organized into three sections in order to address the conceptualization of democracy and citizenship, reform efforts towards democratization in various societies, and educational efforts to foster democratic citizens. Each is written from a different historical and national perspective by an international panel of prominent comparative education scholars and each tackles the theme of democracy and civic duty in education.
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135700427
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 318
Book Description
The essays in the book are organized into three sections in order to address the conceptualization of democracy and citizenship, reform efforts towards democratization in various societies, and educational efforts to foster democratic citizens. Each is written from a different historical and national perspective by an international panel of prominent comparative education scholars and each tackles the theme of democracy and civic duty in education.