Via 99 entries or "mini-chapters," the SAGE 21st Century Reference Series volumes on political science highlight the most important topics, issues, questions, and debates any student obtaining a ...degree in this field ought to have mastered for effectiveness in the 21st century. 21st Century Political Science: A Reference Handbook serves as an authoritative reference source that meets students' research needs with more detailed information than encyclopedia entries but not so much jargon, detail, or density as a journal article or a research handbook chapter. An editorial advisory board comprised of eminent scholars from various subfields, many of whom are also award-winning teachers, selected the most important general topics in the discipline. The two volumes are divided into six major parts: 1) General Approaches of Political Science; 2) Comparative Politics; 3) International Relations; 4) Political Science Methodology; 5) Political Thought; and 6) American Politics. A section on identity politics includes chapters on topics such as Race, Ethnicity, and Politics; Gender and Politics; Religion and Politics; and LGBT Issues/ Queer Theory. This two-volume resource makes fairly complex approaches in political science accessible to advanced undergraduate and beginning graduate students.
Comparative Politics Ishiyama, John T
2011, 2011-03-01, 20120101, Letnik:
7
eBook
By revealing the contextual conditions which promote or hinder democratic development, Comparative Politicsshows how democracy may not be the best institutional arrangement given a country's unique ...set of historical, economic, social, cultural and international circumstances.Addresses the contextual conditions which promote or hinder democratic developmentReveals that democracy may not be the best institutional arrangement given a country's unique set of historical, economic, social, cultural and international circumstancesApplies theories and principles relating to the promotion of the development of democracy to the contemporary case studies
Kennedy focuses on the political conditions of several countries comprising the Former Soviet republics. Development of political parties in the countries, factors that caused the unstable political ...environment in the countries, and institutional elements that account for the differences among their political party practices are discussed.
The Sickle or the Rose? ISHIYAMA, JOHN T.
Comparative political studies,
06/1997, Letnik:
30, Številka:
3
Journal Article
Recenzirano
This article focuses on the development and “success” of the ex-communist parties in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. It begins by testing the effects of several commonly cited variables ...that have been employed to explain the development and achievements of the ex-communist parties in post-communist politics. Second, it offers an alternative explanation that focuses on regime type, the presence of left-wing competitors, and the success of the ex-communist parties, and identifies three modal patterns of development: ex-communist parties that emerged from patrimonial communist systems (as in Russia and Bulgaria), ex-communist parties that emerged from national consensus systems (as in Hungary and Poland), and ex-communist parties that emerged from bureaucratic authoritarian systems (as in the Czech Republic). According to the author, ex-communist parties that evolved from national consensus regimes are more likely to survive the passage of time than those that emerged from other types of regimes.
IL-17 is a newly discovered T cell-derived cytokine whose role in osteoclast development has not been fully elucidated. Treatment of cocultures of mouse hemopoietic cells and primary osteoblasts with ...recombinant human IL-17 induced the formation of multinucleated cells, which satisfied major criteria of osteoclasts, including tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase activity, calcitonin receptors, and pit formation on dentine slices. Direct interaction between osteoclast progenitors and osteoblasts was required for IL-17-induced osteoclastogenesis, which was completely inhibited by adding indomethacin or NS398, a selective inhibitor of cyclooxgenase-2 (COX-2). Adding IL-17 increased prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) synthesis in cocultures of bone marrow cells and osteoblasts and in single cultures of osteoblasts, but not in single cultures of bone marrow cells. In addition, IL-17 dose-dependently induced expression of osteoclast differentiation factor (ODF) mRNA in osteoblasts. ODF is a membrane-associated protein that transduces an essential signal(s) to osteoclast progenitors for differentiation into osteoclasts. Osteoclastogenesis inhibitory factor (OCIF), a decoy receptor of ODF, completely inhibited IL-17-induced osteoclast differentiation in the cocultures. Levels of IL-17 in synovial fluids were significantly higher in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients than osteoarthritis (OA) patients. Anti-IL-17 antibody significantly inhibited osteoclast formation induced by culture media of RA synovial tissues. These findings suggest that IL-17 first acts on osteoblasts, which stimulates both COX-2-dependent PGE2 synthesis and ODF gene expression, which in turn induce differentiation of osteoclast progenitors into mature osteoclasts, and that IL-17 is a crucial cytokine for osteoclastic bone resorption in RA patients.
Objective. Although there has been much recent work done on party systems in the postcommunist world, there has been very little systematic comparative work that examines the relationship between the ...organizational development of political parties and political performance. The objective of this article is to empirically examine the relationship between party organization and the political success of 17 communist successor parties from 1993 to 2000. Methods. I propose a way of measuring party organizations based upon the degree of personnel overlap between the organs of the extraparliamentary party and the party in public office and the organizational density of political parties and relate these characteristics to the political success enjoyed by the communist successor parties. Results. In general, I find that the more the successor party was dominated by officeholders and less reliant on a mass membership for political support in the years immediately following the transition, the more successful the party was later. Conclusions. The interaction of party organization with the party's competitive environment was a better predictor of success than declines in the socioeconomic condition of the population, rises in popular "nostalgia" for the past, or openings created by political institutions.
Despite a growing interest in party development in post-communist politics, relatively little work has specifically examined the development of women’s parties in Eastern Europe and the countries of ...the former Soviet Union. Two questions motivate this research: (1) Why did women’s parties emerge in some of the post-communist states and not in others? (2) Do parties with different origins appeal to different kinds of women supporters? This article finds that, first, political/institutional factors rather than socioeconomic or cultural factors better explain the emergence of women’s parties, and, second, that the women’s parties attracted different voters than other parties and that they differed from each other as well. This in part was due to the very different origins of parties such as theWomen of Russia, the Shamiram Women’s Party, and the Lithuanian Women’s Party.
The emergence of competitive party politics in the countries of post-communist Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union has offered a unique opportunity to test some long-held propositions in party ...organization theory. What factors may promote certain types of organizations over others? To address this question, I develop a theoretical framework which identifies a set of party organizational types and the factors which might lead to the development of certain types over others. Second, I test these in light of the evidence from the communist successor parties from ten Eastern European and former Soviet countries. It was found that, among several independent variables, the previous communist regime type, the strength of the constitutional presidency, and the features of the electoral system were the best predictors of party organizational type among the communist successor parties.