During recent decades, radical right parties have been surging in popularity in many nations, gaining legislative seats, enjoying the legitimacy endowed by ministerial office, and striding the ...corridors of government power. The popularity of leaders such as Le Pen, Haider, and Fortuyn has aroused widespread popular concern and a burgeoning scholarly literature. Despite the interest, little consensus has emerged about the primary factors driving this phenomenon. The puzzle is to explain why radical right parties have advanced in a diverse array of democracies - including in Austria, Canada, Norway, France, Italy, New Zealand, Switzerland, Israel, Romania, Russia, and Chile - while failing to make comparable gains in similar societies elsewhere, such as in Sweden, Britain, and the United States. This book, first published in 2005, expands our understanding of support for radical right parties through presenting an integrated new theory which is then tested systematically using a wealth of cross-national survey evidence covering almost forty countries.
Examines changes in political & economic goals, religious norms, & family values & how these changes influence politics & economics drawing on the 1981 & 1990 World Values Surveys & 1970s-1990s ...Eurobarometer surveys (total N = 43 countries). It is argued that economic development, cultural change, & political change vary together in predictable patterns; ie, as societies enter into economic modernization, political & cultural changes are likely to follow. Among these changes are a decrease in gender differences & an expansion of democracy. Further, societies in the modernization phase are likely to value materialistic motivations as they seek to break the cultural constraints on accumulation. However, these changes are not simply linear. Rather, evidence indicates that the most modern of societies are passing from a modern to a postmodern period, a shift caused by the diminishing marginal utility of economic determinism. It is marked by a declining emphasis on functional rationality & materialism & a stress on self-expression & quality of life. Rather than seeking greater accumulation of wealth, postmodern societies value economic security & a broad choice of lifestyles. Postmodern values are also associated with declining confidence in religion, respect for authority, & participation in traditional forms of politics. This situation will evolve as political systems adapt to the new circumstances. Currently, the form of that political response is unclear. The text contains an Introduction & 11 Chpts with Notes. 22 Tables, 70 Figures, 5 Appendixes, 318 References. D. Ryfe
In this book, Carol Mershon and Olga Shvetsova explore one of the central questions in democratic politics: how much autonomy do elected politicians have to shape and reshape the party system on ...their own, without the direct involvement of voters in elections? Mershon and Shvetsova's theory focuses on the choices of party membership made by legislators while serving in office. It identifies the inducements and impediments to legislators' changes of partisan affiliation, and integrates strategic and institutional approaches to the study of parties and party systems. With empirical analyses comparing nine countries that differ in electoral laws, territorial governance and executive-legislative relations, Mershon and Shvetsova find that strategic incumbents have the capacity to reconfigure the party system as established in elections. Representatives are motivated to bring about change by opportunities arising during the parliamentary term, and are deterred from doing so by the elemental democratic practice of elections.
Food Waste is the first academic study to tackle this highly topical subject. Drawing from social science approaches to waste, material culture and everyday life in the home, the author uncovers the ...reasons behind the vast quantity of food wasted on a daily basis by households and consumers.
This book provides a framework for analyzing the impact of the separation of powers on party politics. Conventional political science wisdom assumes that democracy is impossible without political ...parties, because parties fulfil all the key functions of democratic governance. They nominate candidates, coordinate campaigns, aggregate interests, formulate and implement policy, and manage government power. When scholars first asserted the essential connection between parties and democracy, most of the world's democracies were parliamentary. Yet by the dawn of the twenty-first century, most democracies had directly elected presidents. David J. Samuels and Matthew S. Shugart provide a theoretical framework for analyzing variation in the relationships among presidents, parties, and prime ministers across the world's democracies, revealing the important ways that the separation of powers alters party organization and behavior - thereby changing the nature of democratic representation and accountability.
Shows that the politics of democratic societies is moving towards a presidentialized working mode, even in the absence of formal institutional changes. These developments can be explained by a ...combination of long-term structural changes in modern politics and societies’ contingent factors that fluctuate over time. While these contingent, short-term factors relate to the personalities of office holders, the overall political agenda, and the majority situation in parliament, there are several structural factors that are relatively uniform across modern nations. First, the internationalization of modern politics (which is particularly pronounced within the European Union) has led to an ‘executive bias’ of the political process that has strengthened the role of political top elites vis-à-vis their parliamentary groups and/or their parties. Their predominance has been amplified further by the vastly expanded steering capacities of state machineries, which have severely reduced the scope of effective parliamentary control. At the same time, the declining stability of political alignments has increased the proportion of citizens whose voting decisions are not constrained by long-standing party loyalties. In conjunction with the mediatization of politics, this has increased the capacity of political leaders to bypass their party machines and to appeal directly to voters.As a result, three interrelated processes have led to a political process increasingly moulded by the inherent logic of presidentialism: increasing leadership power and autonomy within the political executive; increasing leadership power and autonomy within political parties; and increasingly leadership-centered electoral processes.The book presents evidence for this process of presidentialization for 14 modern democracies (including the USA and Canada). While there are substantial cross-national differences, the overall thesis holds: modern democracies are increasingly following a presidential logic of governance through which leadership is becoming more central and more powerful, but also increasingly dependent on successful immediate appeal to the mass public. Implications for democratic theory are considered.
The Engaged University Watson, David; Hollister, Robert; Stroud, Susan E. ...
2011, 20110715, 2011-07-15
eBook
The Engaged University is a comprehensive empirical account of the global civic engagement movement in higher education. In universities around the world, something extraordinary is underway. ...Mobilizing their human and intellectual resources, institutions of higher education are directly tackling community problems – combating poverty, improving public health, and restoring environmental quality. This book documents and analyzes this exciting trend through studies of civic engagement and social responsibility at twenty institutions worldwide.
This timely volume offers three special contributions to the literature on higher education policy and practice: a historical overview of the founding purposes of universities, which almost invariably included a context-specific element of social purpose, together with a survey of how these "founding" intentions have fared in different systems of higher education; a contemporary account of the policy and practice of universities – all over the world – seeking to re-engage with this social purpose; and an overview of generic issues which emerge for the "engaged university."
David Watson is Principal of Green Templeton College, Oxford.
Robert M. Hollister is Dean, and Pierre and Pamela Omidyar Professor of Citizenship and Public Service in the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service at Tufts University.
Susan E. Stroud is Executive Director, Innovations in Civic Participation.
Elizabeth Babcock is Talloires Network Coordinator, Innovations in Civic Participation.
Series Editors' Introduction
Preface
Talloires Declaration on the Civic Roles and Social Responsibilities of Higher Education
Introduction and Acknowledgements
I. University-Community Relationships: The long view
1. Historical and Geographical Perspectives
2. Types of Capital and Citizenship
3. Contemporary Drivers
II. The Engaged University
4. The project
5. The profiles
5.1 Australia and its Higher Education System
5.1.1 Two-way learning: Profile of Charles Darwin University
5.1.2 Sharing knowledge: Profile of the University of Melbourne
5.1.3 A University without Walls: Profile of the University of Western Sydney
5.2 India and its Higher Education System
5.2.1 An Enlightened Woman is a Source of Infinite Strength: Profile of Shreemati Nathibai Damodar Thackersey (SNDT) Women’s University, Mumbai
5.3 Israel and its Higher Education System
5.3.1 "Institution-wide commitment to social responsibility": Profile of the University of Haifa
5.4 The Occupied Palestinian Territories and their Higher Education System
5.4.1 "Education and Service for Political Change and Development" Profile of Al-Quds University
5.5 Malaysia and its Higher Education System
5.5.1 Community Partnerships to Address National Priorities: Profile of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
5.6 Mexico and its Higher Education System
5.6.1 Cultivating ethics and citizenship: Profile of Tecnológico de Monterrey
5.7 Pakistan and its Higher Education System
5.7.1 A Unique University with a Mandate for Social Development: Profile of Aga Khan University
5.8 Peru and its Higher Education System
5.8.1 A regional leader for human and economic development: Profile of the Universidad Señor de Sipán (USS)
5.9 The Philippines and its Higher Education System
5.9.1 Volunteer Service to the Poor: Profile of Notre Dame of Marbel University
5.10 South Africa and its Higher Education System
5.10.1 Community Partnerships for Development and the Appropriation of New Knowledge: Cape Peninsula University of Technology
5.11 Sudan and its Higher Education System
5.11.1 Empowering Women as Agents of Change through Education: Ahfad University for Women
5.12 Tanzania and its Higher Education System
5.12.1 Knowledge for Development: University of Dar es Salaam
5.13 Ukraine and its Higher Education System
5.13.1 Building Civil Society: Profile of Petro Mohyla Black Sea State University
5.14 The United Kingdom and its Higher Education System
5.14.1 Open access for social justice: Profile of the Open University
5.14.2 Reinventing liberal higher education: Profile of the University of Winchester
5.15 The United States of America and its Higher Education System
5.15.1 Knowledge to Serve the City: Profile of Portland State University
5.15.2 Social justice education and research and service: Profile of Georgetown University
5.16 Venezuela and its Higher Education System
5.16.1 From education for national development to community solidarity: Universidad Metropolitana en Caracas (UNIMET)
6. Findings: Common patterns and influences
III. An Engaged University Movement
7. Networks: A unifying force
8. The world upside-side down: university engagement from the South to the North
9. Implications for policy and practice
Appendix 1. Institutional questionnaire
Appendix 2. Field research questions
Acronyms
References
Notes on Contributors
Index
In the crowded and busy arena of obesity and fat studies, there is a lack of attention to the lived experiences of people, how and why they eat what they do, and how people in cross-cultural settings ...understand risk, health, and bodies. This volume addresses the lacuna by drawing on ethnographic methods and analytical emic explorations in order to consider the impact of cultural difference, embodiment, and local knowledge on understanding obesity. It is through this reconstruction of how obesity and fatness are studied and understood that a new discussion will be introduced and a new set of analytical explorations about obesity research and the effectiveness of obesity interventions will be established.
This book asks why some countries devote the lion's share of their social policy resources to the elderly, while others have a more balanced repertoire of social spending. Far from being the outcome ...of demands for welfare spending by powerful age-based groups in society, the 'age' of welfare is an unintended consequence of the way that social programs are set up. The way that politicians use welfare state spending to compete for votes, along either programmatic or particularistic lines, locks these early institutional choices into place. So while society is changing - aging, divorcing, moving in and out of the labor force over the life course in new ways - social policies do not evolve to catch up. The result, in occupational welfare states like Italy, the United States, and Japan, is social spending that favors the elderly and leaves working-aged adults and children largely to fend for themselves.
University rankings have gained popularity around the world, and are now a significant factor shaping reputation. This book is the first comprehensive study of rankings from a global perspective, ...making an important contribution to our understanding of the rankings phenomenon. (Contains 17 figures, 17 tables and 4 illustrations.)
