What do Beppe Grillo, Silvio Berlusconi, Emmanuel Macron (and also Donald Trump) have in common? They are prime examples of the personalization of politics and the decline of political parties. This volume systematically examines these two prominent developments in contemporary democratic politics and the relationship between them. It presents a cross-national comparative comparison that covers around 50 years in 26 democracies through the use of more than 20 indicators. It offers the most...

While primary elections are most often associated with presidential candidates in the United States, similar methods for selecting party leaders and candidates are becoming increasingly common in parliamentary democracies around the world. The Promise and Challenge of Party Primary Elections introduces the first comprehensive examination of both the concept and the practice of primary elections outside of the United States.By offering a clear definition of primary election...

This new edition of The SAGE Handbook of International Corporate and Public Affairs builds on the success of the first edition (2005) by comprehensively updating and enhancing the material and structure, setting a new standard for the practitioner and student of the global public affairs discipline. The new edition includes increased international coverage of the field, and a strong focus on emerging trends, as well as providing a comprehensive overview of the foundations ...

How to Do Public Policy offers a guide to students and practitioners on how to improve problem-solving with policies in a political world. It integrates insights from applied policy analysis and studies of the policy process to develop a framework that conceives policy-making as structured by two spheres of action - the 'engine room' of specialists and experts in government agencies, NGOs, research organizations etc., on the one hand, and the political 'superstructure' of politici...

In Balancing Change and Tradition in Global Education Reform, Rotberg brings together examples of current education reforms in sixteen countries, written by "insiders". This book goes beyond myths and stereotypes and describes the difficult trade-offs countries make as they attempt to implement reforms in the context of societal and global change. In some countries, reforms are a response to major political or economic shifts; in others, they are motivated by large upsurges in imm...

This open access book opens up the black box of mediation in collective conflicts through the analyses and comparisons of various systems. Mediation and related third party interventions such as conciliation and facilitation are discussed as effective prevention and regulation tools for different types of collective labor conflicts. These interventions fit in a new developed five-phase model of collective conflicts in organizations, going from capacity building in latent conflicts, through...

Agriculture and social protection are fundamentally linked in the context of rural livelihoods in Africa. Poor and food-insecure families depend primarily on agriculture and partly on non-farm income and private transfers for their livelihoods, and are the main target of social protection interventions (FAO, 2015). When embedded within a broader rural development framework, stronger coherence between agriculture and social protection interventions can assist in improving the welfare of poo...

This sixth Annual Report describes the activities of the Independent Evaluation Office (IEO) during the year to April 30, 2009. The report summarized the findings of IEO's most recent evaluations, lists cross-cutting lessons highlighted in previous years' reports, and discusses ongoing evaluation projects. The report also describes the new framework for monitoring and following up on the implementation of IEO recommendations approved by the IMF Executive Board.

The IEO’s latest Annual Report covers its activities during the financial year ended April 2007. It summarizes the most recent IEO evaluations of The IMF and Aid to Sub-Saharan Africa and IMF Exchange Rate Policy Advice. The report also presents messages that are common to many IEO evaluations and are particularly noteworthy as the IMF proceeds with the implementation of its Medium-Term Strategy. Other topics discussed include implementation of recommendations made in 2006 by the External Eva...

The second Annual Report of the IEO summarizes the findings and recommendations of two completed evaluation projects: on the IMF’s experience with the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers and the Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility and the role of the IMF in Argentina, 1991-2001. It also discusses the status of ongoing evaluations, and identifies potential candidates for the menu from which future IEO work programs will be chosen.

Since the 1980s, the process of European economic integration, within a wider context of globalization, has accelerated employment change and placed a new premium on ‘flexible’ forms of work organization. The institutions of employment relations, specifically those concerning collective bargaining between employers and trade unions, have had to adapt accordingly. The Transformation of Employment Relations focuses not just on recent change, but charts the strategic choices that hav...

The international community today is hardly in a position to avoid another genocide, as witnessed in Rwanda in 1994, despite the significant evolution of early warning systems in recent years. Based on a review of the literature on early warning and response, as well as inputs from surveyed agencies, Preventing Violence, War and State Collapse assesses the value and role of early warning for the prevention of violent conflict and identifies the most effective early warning and res...