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Despite its position at the heart of Europe and its quintessentially European nature, Switzerland's history is often overlooked within the English-speaking world. This comprehensive and engaging history of Switzerland traces the historical and cultural development of this fascinating but neglected European country from the end of the Dark Ages up to the present. The authors focus on the initial Confederacy of the Middle Ages; the religious divisions which threatened it after 1500 and its surprising survival amongst Europe's monarchies; the turmoil following the French Revolution and conquest, which continued until the Federal Constitution of 1848; the testing of the Swiss nation through the late nineteenth century and then two World Wars and the Depression of the 1930s; and the unparalleled economic and social growth and political success of the post-war era. The book concludes with a discussion of the contemporary challenges, often shared with neighbours, that shape the country today.
This book demonstrates the range, depth and complexity of Switzerland’s developing relations with Europe and provides detailed and up-to-date information on Switzerland itself.
The Politics and Government of Switzerland is one of very few English language studies of contemporary Swiss politics. Drawing on recent research in Switzerland, and the author's own observations, it offers wide coverage of Swiss political forces, processes and policies. Church argues that Switzerland is actually a vibrant and pluralist polity, in which politics are increasingly competitive. However, it still retains some distinctive characteristics like direct democracy, which mean that the Swiss people play a larger role than in other countries.
Political Change in Switzerland explains the striking recent political developments in Switzerland, an important but surprisingly little known and often misunderstood country, aiming to dissipate prevailing myths about Switzerland in its European context. Firstly, the title provides an analysis of the way the practice and processes of Swiss politics have so dramatically changed over the last 25 years, setting out the differences between outside perceptions and changing Swiss realities. Secondly, it discusses how far the country has moved, from the stability of the post-war period to a new era of uncertainty, in which the so called Sonderfall, or special case, no longer seems to apply. In doi...
This book, first published in 1983, is a valuable corrective to the lack of academic research on the events of 1830 – a year of revolutions across the continent of Europe. Social protests and political changes are examined to note the causes of the political turmoil and revolution in 1830, and then the results of the revolutions’ developments are analysed, as general European social, political and diplomatic crises as well as a series of individual outbreaks. The book also turns to comparative study to look at the hows and wherefores of the revolutions, as the dynamics, participants and effects of revolution are examined in turn.
The fascinating history of Bridgnorth illustrated through a fascinating collection of old photographs.
Now that Soviet style socialism has collapsed upon itself and liberal capitalism offers itself as the natural, necessary and absolute condition of human social life on a worldwide scale, this book insists that the potentially emancipatory resources of a renewed, and perhaps reconstructed, historical materialism are more relevant in today's world than ever before. Rather than viewing global capitalism as an eluctable natural force, these essays seek to show how a dialectic of power and resistance is at work in the contemporary global political economy, producing and contesting new realities and creating conditions in which new forms of collective self determination become thinkable and materially possible. It will be vital, topical reading for anyone interested in international relations, international political economy, sociology and political theory.
How can conflicts between various nationalist/ethnic groups be reduced? Combining theory with case studies of Spain and Ireland, Neal G. Jesse and Kristen P. Williams develop an argument favoring a solution that links resolving issues of identity and perceptions of inequality to the establishment of cross-national, democratic institutions. These institutions can affect deeply held attitudes by promoting overlapping identities and pooling sovereignty. Overlapping identities reduce tension by creating an atmosphere where different ethnic groups lose their strict definitions of Self and Other. Pooling sovereignty across a number of international (and national) representative bodies leads to increased access to governmental policymaking for all parties involved, with each nationalist/ethnic group having a stake in government. Increased access, moreover, reduces threat perceptions and ethnic security dilemmas, and increases trust—all of which play an important role in overcoming such conflicts.
Brazil has a very peculiar tax collection power distribution and revenue sharing system, that splits three way the consumption tax, giving taxation powers over goods circulation to the States, over services to the Municipalities and over production to the Union. The Brazilian State circulation of goods tax, whose regulations require unanimity to incentives and benefits concessions, even though the 27 Brazilian States development state are disparate, generates a "fiscal war" / State competition that costs 30 billion Brazilian Reais (6 billion Swiss Francs) yearly and the attempts at settling State Competition are clearly failing, while Switzerland, which has a similar political organization, seems to have a reasonable and functional system. This dissertation, requirement for the obtaining the title of Doctor in International Tax law, takes a case study approach to compare these two systems, specifically taxable events, financial transfer mechanisms and their rules to avoid State / Canton tax competition to assess if the Swiss system for tax collection power distribution and revenue sharing is a feasible solution to reduce the adverse effects of State tax competition in Brazil.