Brother, Can You Spare a Billion? The United States, the IMF, and the International Lender of Last Resort
Daniel McDowell
Oxford University Press
Buddhism, Politics, and Political Thought in Myanmar
Matthew J. Walton
Cambridge University Press
Bureaucracy in America: The Administrative State’s Challenge to Constitutional Government
Joseph Postell
University of Missouri Press
Governing Under Stress: The Implementation of Obama’s Economic Stimulus Program
Timothy J. Conlan, Paul L. Posner, and Priscilla M. Regan, eds.
Georgetown University Press
Ordinary Democracy: Sovereignty and Citizenship beyond the Neoliberal Impasse
Ali Aslam
Oxford University Press
Places in Need: The Changing Geography of Poverty
Scott W. Allard
Russell Sage Foundation
The Politics of Immigration: Partisanship, Demographic Change, and American National Identity
Tom K. Wong
Oxford University Press
Public Intellectuals in the Global Arena: Professors or Pundits?
Michael C. Desch, ed.
University of Notre Dame Press
Queer Theory: The French Response
Bruno Perreau
Stanford University Press
Reservation Politics: Historical Trauma, Economic Development, and Intratribal Conflict
Raymond I. Orr
University of Oklahoma Press
The Right to Nominate: Restoring the Power of the People over the Power of the Parties
Thomas E. Peterson
AuthorHouse
Sweet Talk: Paternalism and Collective Action in North-South Trade Relations
J. P. Singh
Stanford University Press
Uncovering the Constitution’s Moral Design
Paul R. DeHart
University of Missouri Press
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Challenge of Religion
Johannes Morsink
University of Missouri Press
When Bad Policy Makes Good Politics: Running the Numbers on Health Reform
Robert P. Saldin
Oxford University Press
When Crime Pays: Money and Muscle in Indian Politics
Milan Vaishnav
Yale University Press
When Ideas Mattered: A Nathan Glazer Reader
Joseph Dorman and Leslie Lenkowsky, eds.
Transaction Publishers
SPOTLIGHT
The Democratic Theory of Hans-Georg Gadamer
Darren Walhof
Palgrave
From the Publisher: This book examines the distinctive contribution that the writings of Hans-Georg Gadamer make to democratic theory. Walhof argues that Gadamer’s hermeneutical philosophy enlarges our perspective by shifting our view away from individual citizens to what exists between citizens, thereby allowing us to envision political realities that are otherwise hard to see. These realities include the disclosure of truth in democratic politics; achieving common ground in democratic dialogue, even amidst significant disagreement and diversity; the public and political nature of the religious traditions that make claims on and shape citizens; and the solidarities that connect us to each other and enable democratic action. The author argues that bringing these dimensions to awareness enriches our theories of democracy and is particularly crucial in an era of hyper-partisanship, accelerating inequality, and social conflicts involving racial, sexual, and religious identities.
Darren Walhof is professor of political science at Grand Valley State University. His research interests include democratic theory, philosophical hermeneutics, religion and politics, early modern political thought, and methods in the history of political thought.
SPOTLIGHT
The Federal Management Playbook: Leading and Succeeding in the Public Sector
Ira Goldstein
Georgetown University Press
From the Publisher: Stories of government management failures often make the headlines, but quietly much gets done as well. What makes the difference? Ira Goldstein offers wisdom about how to lead and succeed in the federal realm, even during periods when the political climate is intensely negative, based on his decades of experience as a senior executive at two major government consulting firms and as a member of the US federal government’s Senior Executive Service.
The Federal Management Playbook coaches the importance of always keeping four key concepts in mind when planning for success: goals, stakeholders, resources, and time frames. Its chapters address how to effectively motivate government employees, pick the right technologies, communicate and negotiate with powerful stakeholders, manage risks, get value from contractors, foster innovation, and more. Goldstein makes lessons easy to apply by breaking each chapter’s plans into three strategic phases: create an offensive strategy, execute your plan effectively, and play a smart defense. Additional tips describe how career civil servants and political appointees can get the most from one another, advise consultants on providing value to government, and help everyone better manage ever-present oversight. The Federal Management Playbook is a must-read for anyone working in the government realm and for students who aspire to public service.
Ira Goldstein is a founder and former director of Deloitte’s US Federal Practice, providing consulting and advisory services to large federal agencies and departments. He previously held the position in the federal government of the US Assistant Comptroller General and Chief Operating Officer of the US.
SPOTLIGHT
Windows into the Soul: Surveillance and Society in an Age of High Technology
Gary T. Marx
University of Chicago Press
From the Publisher: In Windows into the Soul, Gary T. Marx, a central figure in the rapidly expanding field of surveillance studies, argues that surveillance itself is neither good nor bad, but that context and comportment make it so.
In this landmark book, Marx sums up a lifetime of work on issues of surveillance and social control by disentangling and parsing the empirical richness of watching and being watched. Using fictional narratives as well as the findings of social science, Marx draws on decades of studies of covert policing, computer profiling, location and work monitoring, drug testing, caller identification, and much more. Marx gives us a conceptual language to understand the new realities and his work clearly emphasizes the paradoxes, trade-offs, and confusion enveloping the field. Windows into the Soul shows how surveillance can penetrate our social and personal lives in profound, and sometimes harrowing, ways. Ultimately, Marx argues recognizing complexity and asking the right questions is essential to bringing light and accountability to the darker, more iniquitous corners of our emerging surveillance society.
Gary T. Marx is professor emeritus of sociology at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has written multiple books on surveillance and civil rights.
SPOTLIGHT
Globalization and the Politics of Institutional Reform in Japan
Motoshi Suzuki
Edward Elgar Publishing
From the Publisher: Globalization and the Politics of Institutional Reform in Japan illuminates Japan’s contemporary and historical struggle to adjust policy and the institutional architecture of government to an evolving global order. This focused and scholarly study identifies that key to this difficulty is a structural tendency towards central political command, which reduces the country’s capacity to follow a more subtle allocation of authority that ensures political leadership remains robust and non-dictatorial. The author argues that it is essential for a globalizing state to incorporate opposition parties and transgovernmental networks into policy-making processes. Providing an in-depth analysis of the theories of institutional change, this book introduces readers to a wealth of perspectives and counterarguments concerning analysis of political decision-making and policy adjustment on both the national and international scale.
Motoshi Suzuki is professor of international political economy at the Graduate School of Law, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan. His research interests include international political economy, Japanese political economy, and public choice.
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