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Political leaders need ministers to help them rule and so conventional wisdom suggests that leaders appoint competent ministers to their cabinet. This book shows this is not necessarily the case. It examines the conditions that facilitate survival in ministerial office and how they are linked to ministerial competence, the political survival of heads of government and the nature of political institutions. Presenting a formal theory of political survival in the cabinet, it systematically analyses the tenure in office of more than 7,300 ministers of foreign affairs covering more than 180 countries spanning the years 1696-2004. In doing so, it sheds light not only on studies of ministerial change but also on diplomacy, the occurrence of war, and the democratic peace in international relations. This text will be of key interest to students of comparative executive government, comparative foreign policy, political elites, and more broadly to comparative politics, political economy, political history and international relations.
In most countries, parliament has the constitutional mandate to both oversee and hold government to account. In light of the increased focus on good governance, academics and legislative strengthening practitioners are re-examining parliament's oversight function with a view to increasing public financial accountability, curbing corruption, and contributing to poverty reduction. This volume brings together research from many different perspectives and many different legislative settings worldwide. As the country case studies in section III demonstrate, the accountability mechanisms or oversight tools available to the legislature vary based on constitutionally defined powers of the legislatur...
An accessible treatment of important formal models of domestic politics, fully updated and now including a chapter on nondemocracy.
The elections in 1994 in Germany gave rise to the word Superwahjahr (super-election year). In addition to the election of a new Bundestag in October, there was a presidential election, elections to the European Parliament and elections for seven Länder parliaments. This book provides a set of analyses of those elections, with emphasis on the Bundestag election.
This book provides the analytical framework for understanding the relationship between media scandals, executive accountability and the crisis of democracy. The empirical findings are based on an original database of 6000 media allegations and investigations in Russia, Germany and Bulgaria. Observations gained from the case studies are then placed in relation to a systematic analysis and critique of more than 100 models of the transformation and crisis of democracy. The book will be of particular interest to researchers focusing on democratic theory and political thought, as well as those working empirically in the field of democratic systems.
This volume examines, through a series of case studies of countries with differing institutional and cultural structures, the process of selection, shuffling and removal of ministers in national cabinets since 1945.
Historically, men have been more likely to be appointed to governing cabinets, but gendered patterns of appointment vary cross-nationally, and women's inclusion in cabinets has grown significantly over time. This book breaks new theoretical ground by conceiving of cabinet formation as a gendered, iterative process governed by rules that empower and constrain presidents and prime ministers in the criteria they use to make appointments. Political actors use their agency to interpret and exploit ambiguity in rules to deviate from past practices of appointing mostly men. When they do so, they create different opportunities for men and women to be selected, explaining why some democracies have ap...
An introduction to British politics with a unique emphasis on political science to analyse the fundamental features of British politics, and the key changes post-Brexit. What caused the increased turbulence of British politics in recent years? How do policy blunders occur, and why? How powerful are political parties in British politics? Why did Brexit happen, and what is the future of the UK-EU relationship? British Politics answers these fundamental questions, putting political science and public at its core to provide an analytical approach to British politics. It gives a clear view of the British political system, covering the basic institutions of government, political behavior and citizenship, policy-making, delegation, and devolution. Key methods and theories-such as the principal-agent model, rational choice theory, and Bulpitt's framework of territorial politics-are explore to help you analyse key issues and events, such as Brexit and the Covid-19 pandemic. Book jacket.
Europe stands on the brink of a new era of diversity and immigration. Although many Europeans would prefer to ignore this fact, the signs are everywhere. Societies and politics are being irrevocably changed by their encounters with migrants, both recent and settled. This book pinpoints the specific trends and emerging patterns that allow us to understand what these changes mean for the future of Europe. On the ground level, institutions like schools and local governments have charted unique courses for dealing with diversity. And from above, the institutions of Brussels become ever more important for regulating the big picture. The passage of the Lisbon Treaty means that common EU rules on i...
Refugee Protection and Solidarity looks to define the duties that EU member states have towards each other in the field of refugee protection, employing analytical tools of normative political theory to bring moral clarity to a highly divisive debate on both principles and political feasibility. There is a discrepancy between the commitment to solidarity enshrined in EU law and the reality of asylum provision in the EU. The events related to the EU 'migration crisis' of 2015/16 have exposed this discrepancy and questioned the nascent notion of EU solidarity at its core. The book argues that the debate on distributive justice in the EU fails to consider refugee protection as a field in which distributive duties apply in ways similar to other domains such as social policy, as well as exploring what justifications states invoke to justify non-compliance with their duties. Eleonora Milazzo contends that, as currently framed, the debate on the ethics of refugee protection fails to account for the nature and effect of associational ties among states in relation to asylum provision, which is important for the assessment of responsibility shirking.