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Pakistan’s 2018 general elections marked the second successful transfer of power from one elected civilian government to another—a remarkable achievement considering the country’s history of dictatorial rule. Pakistan’s Political Parties examines how the civilian side of the state’s current regime has survived the transition to democracy, providing critical insight into the evolution of political parties in Pakistan and their role in developing democracies in general. Pakistan’s numerous political parties span the ideological spectrum, as well as represent diverse regional, ethnic, and religious constituencies. The essays in this volume explore the way in which these parties both...
Political parties are integral to democracy and yet they frequently engage in anti-democratic, violent behaviour. Parties can employ violence directly, outsource violence to gangs and militias, or form electoral alliances with non-state armed actors. When do parties engage in, or facilitate, violence? What determines the strategies of violence that they employ? Drawing on data from Pakistan, Under the Gun argues that party violence is not a simple manifestation of weak state capacity but instead the intentional product of political incentives, further complicating the process of democratization. Using a rigorous multi-method approach based on over a hundred interviews and numerous surveys, the book demonstrates that a party's violence strategy depends on the incentives it faces in the subnational political landscape in which it operates, the cost it incurs from its voters for violent acts, and its organizational capacity for violence.
What has become of the Communist parties that once held monopoly power in the east bloc? A decade ago, it was assumed that they would dissolve, but many of them have enjoyed electoral success. This book systematically examines how they have evolved. In the opening section, Herbert Kitschet and Ivan Szelenyi respectively consider post-communist party strategies and social democratic prospects in the transitional societies. Part II presents nine case studies of the major communist and communist successor parties of the region, and Part III is devoted to seven comparative studies. Appendices provide comparable electoral and party membership data.
Congressional scholars have vastly underappreciated how representation in the U. S. Senate differs from the House of Representatives. In this provocative new study, Wendy J. Schiller develops a theory of dual representation--where two legislators share the same geographical constituency--to explain Senators' behavior. Noting that Senators from the same state join different committees, focus on different policy areas, and address different economic interests through bill and amendment sponsorship, the author examines the electoral and institutional forces that elicit this competitive behavior. In developing her theory, Schiller relies on a wide variety of methodologies, from statistical analy...
Since the creation of minority-dominated congressional districts eight years ago, the Supreme Court has condemned the move as akin to "political apartheid," while many African-American leaders argue that such districts are required for authentic representation. In the most comprehensive treatment of the subject to date, David Canon shows that the unintended consequences of black majority districts actually contradict the common wisdom that whites will not be adequately represented in these areas. Not only do black candidates need white votes to win, but this crucial "swing" vote often decides the race. And, once elected, even the black members who appeal primarily to black voters usually do a better job than white members of walking the racial tightrope, balancing the needs of their diverse constituents. Ultimately, Canon contends, minority districting is good for the country as a whole. These districts not only give African Americans a greater voice in the political process, they promote a politics of commonality—a biracial politics—rather than a politics of difference.
First reader to feature key law and society research and debates in nearly all Asian countries.
In the early 1990s, competitive elections in the Russian Federation signaled the end of the authoritarian political system dominated by a single political party. More than ten years and many elections later, a single party led by Russian President Vladimir Putin threatens to end Russia's democratic experiment. Russia's experience with new elections is not unique but it does challenge existing theories of democratic consolidation by showing that competitive elections cannot guarantee successful democratic consolidation. This book explores the conditions under which electoral competition contributes to democratic development by examining impact of elections on democratic consolidation. The theoretic framework focuses on the construction of infrastructure that transforms competitive elections into mechanisms of democratic development and shows how candidates for national parliamentary office systematically chose electoral strategies that undermined Russia's democratic foundation and created the conditions for a new single party autocracy to emerge.
Politics of Socio-Spatial Transformation in Pakistan analyses the relationship between socio-spatial transformation, styles of leadership and nature of constituents in Pakistan. It examines the way social change influences politics and leadership in its most populated province. Offering a unique viewpoint to study the relationship between politics and social change by examining the nature of relationship between leaders and their constituents, the author introduces the concept of Gradients of Engagements. The book describes the way values of engagement (Talluq) and styles of leadership mediate engagements among politicians, citizens and state bureaucracy in villages and small towns of Pakist...
Nervous Conditions explores the role of the body in the development of modern science, challenging the myth that modern science is built on a bedrock of objectivity and confident empiricism. In this fascinating look into the private world of British natural philosophers—including John Dalton, Lord Kelvin, Charles Babbage, John Herschel, and many others—Elizabeth Green Musselman shows how the internal workings of their bodies played an important part in the sciences' movement to the center of modern life, and how a scientific community and a nation struggled their way into existence. Many of these natural philosophers endured serious nervous difficulties, particularly vision problems. They turned these weaknesses into strengths, however, by claiming that their well-disciplined mental skills enabled them to transcend their bodily frailties. Their adeptness at transcendence, they asserted, explained why men of science belonged at the heart of modern life, and qualified them to address such problems as unifying the British provinces into one nation, managing the industrial workplace, and accommodating religious plurality.
This book examines the growing diversity of religions and worldviews across South & Central Asia, and the factors affecting prospects for 'covenantal pluralism' in these regions. Going beyond banal appeals for mere 'tolerance', the theory of covenantal pluralism calls for a constitutional order of religious freedom and equal treatment combined with a culture of practical religious literacy and everyday virtues of engagement across lines of religious difference. According to the Pew Religious Diversity Index, half of the world’s most religiously diverse countries are in Asia. The presence of deep religious/worldview difference is often seen as a potential threat to socio-political cohesion ...