What will gain the system's attention? "Explores the dynamics of a broad range of policy issues in different countries . . . an important scholarly contribution." — Political Studies ReviewBefore making significant policy decisions, political actors and parties must first craft an agenda designed to place certain issues at the center of political attention. The agenda-setting approach in political science holds that the amount of attention devoted by the v...

Within months of first publication, Michael Hopkinson's study of the Irish War of Independence established itself as by far most comprehensive and evocative account of the role played by the conflict in shaping modern Ireland. It has been welcomed both by scholars and the general public alike, and gone further than perhaps any other recent publication in recasting our understanding of Ireland's decisive confrontation with the military might of the British Empire.

How corrupt is the West? Europe and North America's formal self-perception is one of high standards in public life. And yet, corruption is receiving ever greater attention in the European, American and Canadian press, with high-profile cases affecting both the corporate and political worlds. This book identifies the driving forces behind such cases, particularly the role of political finance, lobbying, the banking system and organised crime. It analyses the sectors which are particularly p...

A comprehensive look at Hispanic voters in the United StatesMaking up 14.2 percent of the American population, Hispanics are now the largest minority group in the United States. Clearly, securing the Hispanic vote is more important to political parties than ever before. Yet, despite the current size of the Hispanic population, is there a clear Hispanic politics? Who are Hispanic voters? What are their political preferences and attitudes, and why? The first comprehe...

As the plugged-in presidential campaign has arguably reached maturity, Presidential Campaigning in the Internet Age challenges popular claims about the democratizing effect of Digital Communication Technologies (DCTs). Analyzing campaign strategies, structures, and tactics from the past five presidential election cycles, Stromer-Galley reveals how, for all their vaunted inclusivity and tantalizing promise of increased two-way communication between candidates and the individuals wh...

At this stalled and disillusioned juncture in postcolonial history—when many anticolonial utopias have withered into a morass of exhaustion, corruption, and authoritarianism—David Scott argues the need to reconceptualize the past in order to reimagine a more usable future. He describes how, prior to independence, anticolonialists narrated the transition from colonialism to postcolonialism as romance—as a story of overcoming and vindication, of salvation and redemption. Scott contends that ...

Negretto provides the first systematic explanation of the origins of constitutional designs from an analytical, historical and comparative perspective. Based on analysis of constitutional change in Latin America from 1900 to 2008 and four detailed case studies, Negretto shows the main determinants of constitutional choice are the past performance of constitutions in providing effective and legitimate instruments of government and the strategic interests of the actors who have influence ove...

Although the organizing principle of virtually every world history text is "development", the editor of this volume maintains that this traditional approach fails to address the issue of sustainability. By adopting the ecological process as their major theme, the authors show how the process of human interaction with the natural environment unfolded in the past, and offer perspective on the ecological crises in our world at the beginning of the 21st century. Topics range from broad regiona...

Examines the state of the British political system during the 1990s covering such areas as: economic difficulties and government response; bureaucratic networks; parties and electors; political communications; and relations with outside governments.

The 2008 presidential election, perhaps more so than the typical quadrennial race, will undoubtedly spawn an abundance of scholarly inquiry. The confluence of historic and peculiar features associated with the 2008 contest distinguishes it from modern campaign cycles in significant ways that provide researchers a rare opportunity to reflect on a plethora of topics. These studies are certain to provide detailed knowledge about the 2008 election in particular, and, more generally, to inform ...

This book examines the socio-political conflicts which have arisen since Hong Kong’s return to China and confronts the fundamental problems in the design of the One Country, Two Systems (OCTS) Model. It considers not only the issue of democratization, but also the institutional fractures in the executive-dominant political system and the disconnection between the executive and the legislature. It describes the drastic changes which have affected social mobilization and political activism i...

The book assesses the EU performance in the broader UN setting after the Lisbon Treaty. Distinguished scholars with expertise in EU-UN relations use a comprehensive analytical framework of performance to examine various aspects of the complex EU engagement in UN politics. Performance goes beyond the achievement of agreed-upon objectives and engulfs the underlying, intra-organizational, agreement-reaching processes. The contributors examine the output of the intra-EU policy-making process a...