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Without a doubt, the institution of the presidency today is quite different from the one that existed throughout the early part of the nation’s history, despite only minimal revisions to its formal constitutional structure. The processes by which the institution of the presidency has developed have remained largely unexamined, however. Victoria A. Farrar-Myers offers a carefully crafted argument about how changes in presidential authority transform the institution. Her analysis tracks interactions between the president and Congress during the years 1881–1920 in three policy areas: the commitment of troops, the creation of administrative agencies, and the adoption of tariff policy. Farrar...
Between 1974 and 1990 more than thirty countries in southern Europe, Latin America, East Asia, and Eastern Europe shifted from authoritarian to democratic systems of government. This global democratic revolution is probably the most important political trend in the late twentieth century. In The Third Wave, Samuel P. Huntington analyzes the causes and nature of these democratic transitions, evaluates the prospects for stability of the new democracies, and explores the possibility of more countries becoming democratic. The recent transitions, he argues, are the third major wave of democratization in the modem world. Each of the two previous waves was followed by a reverse wave in which some c...
Eleven essays that probe the historical project in a wide range of disciplines
Uncertainty is an ever-present and ineradicable aspect of politics. It affects all important issues of governance and policy, in both domestic and international contexts. Rather than treating the uncertainty of politics as a mystery, this book provides an original and direct treatment of political uncertainty as a scientifically-knowable phenomenon with well-defined principles and substantive properties. Specific applications of this theory of political uncertainty are demonstrated in diverse areas of politics, examining such questions as when and how wars break out, when and how governments collapse, and when and how political cooperation emerges. The author shows how probability and mathematical modeling can play a central role in understanding such complex and fundamental issues.
Nationwide study of the proposal and adoption of minority-opportunity districts at the local level.
How institutional engineering affects the life of democracies
This book proposes new avenues for understanding tribal allegiance in Sub-Saharan Africa. Much research on ethnicity and cultural pluralism in Sub-Saharan Africa falsely equates the term "tribe" with "ethnicity" and obscures the differences between Sub-Saharan Africa and other regions. It also puts too much emphasis on the role of the colonial state in fostering tribal allegiance. This book challenges these claims and offers an alternate way of understanding tribal allegiance in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Unlike most competing texts that are densely written and heavily theoretical, with little flavor of political life, this book is a readable, jargon-free introduction to real-life local politics for today's students. While it encompasses local government and politics in cities and towns across America, "Local Politics: A Practical Guide to Governing at the Grassroots" gives special attention to the politics of suburbia, where many students live, and encourages them to become engaged in their own communities. The book is also distinguished by its strong emphasis on nuts-and-bolts practical politics. It provides focused discussion of institutions, roles, and personalities as well as the dynamic...
The Voting Rights Act of 1965, which originally was intended to prohibit barriers to black registration and voting, has been hailed as a triumph for civil rights and as a catalyst for the election of minorities to public office in both the Deep South and the urban North. To advance its objective, federal courts instructed many cities to change from at-large to single-member district electoral systems as a way to ensure that minorities had a reasonable chance to elect representatives of their choice. In the first book to critique the implementation of this landmark legislation in a major American city, Ruth Morgan examines its effect on local governance over forty years in Dallas and shows th...
They offer constructive criticisms of the field and set out research questions for an uncertain future.