Corruption is a serious problem in many countries around the world, according to Transparency International's 2012 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) and the World Bank's 2011 Control of Corruption governance indicator. However, some countries like New Zealand, Denmark, Finland, Singapore and Hong
Kong, have consistently performed better on these two indicators than other countries. While some research has been done in the form of case studies on combating corruption there has been no comparative study on how these five countries have succeeded in curbing corruption and the lessons to be
learnt by other countries. This book seeks to explain why these five countries have succeeded in combating corruption; and identify the lessons which other countries can learn from these successful experiences. Of interest to policy-makers, anti-corruption practitioners and civil society activists,
the edited book will also be a useful resource for undergraduate and graduate courses on corruption and governance in universities as well as for training courses on anti-corruption strategies conducted by anti-corruption agencies and international organizations in various countries.
Global politics has been completely transformed by the rise of digitalisation and the politicised use of everyday digital communication tools by ordinary people in citizen engagement and mass protest. And yet, digital politics as a field is rarely explored holistically and interdisciplinary beyond a
narrow focus on digital activism, digital warfare or Internet governance.
Digital Politics, Digital Histories, Digital Futures addresses this gap. Bringing together contributions from junior and experienced scholars, the book examines digital politics theoretically, methodologically, and ethically, offering interdisciplinary perspectives and innovative pedagogies. The
first part of the book presents research chapters that look at misinformation and reactionary online activism, digital imperialism and capitalism, future internet governance, digital memory, digital waste, and environmental imagination. The second part showcases several creative and experimental
tools for studying digital politics historically, and for analysing and creating future imaginaries of digital politics. By sharing these tools and reflecting on the process of their creation, the book aims to simultaneously push the boundaries of, and inspire new teaching and research in, the field
of digital politics.
Reiner Braun, Colin Archer, Ingeborg Breines, Manas Chatterji, Amela Skiljan
£93.74
Book + eBook
Excessive
military spending reduces the available financial reserves for health,
education, and other human needs. For poor countries, it increases poverty,
unemployment, and destitution. It also strengthens dictatorial tendencies
in politics and acts against democratic values. If we want to achieve peace,
eliminate poverty, decrease inequality, and achieve social justice, we should
devote all our energies to reducing military spending and using the released
resources for economic development. For that, we need a concerted effort to
encourage disarmament.
This new
volume provides reflections and insights from
leading public figures and activists who oppose military expenditure in any
form. Many of the contributions to this volume were presented as speeches at
the 'Disarm!
For a Climate of Peace' meeting
held in Berlin in 2016, organized by the International Peace Bureau. The volume also includes additional research-oriented chapters to complement the transcripts
from the International Peace Bureau meeting.
Fredrik Engelstad, Trygve Gulbrandsen, Marte Mangset, Mari Teigen
£88.74
Book + eBook
This volume contains an Open Access chapter.
Relationships between elites and democracy have always been strained. The very concept of elites - of 'chosen people' - stands in contradiction to democratic ideals of political equality. Simultaneously, they are necessary parts of democratic societies. In any large-scale society, democracy is
unthinkable without large organizations, be they political bodies, bureaucracies, enterprises, or voluntary organizations. When power is concentrated at the summit of such organizations the incumbents of the top positions potentially constitute groups that often are termed elite groups.
The present volume of Comparative Social Research offers a broad set of comparative studies of elites, stretching from the Arab Spring in Tunisia and Egypt to women's political leadership in Brazil and Germany, via attainment of elite positions among minorities in France and the US.
The quality of democratic governance seems to be in decline in many parts of contemporary world. Nevertheless, political elections are still a main source of legitimacy, even when they are far from being free and fair. Developments in the Third Wave democracies established around 1990 both in Europe
and in the rest of the world, are treated in several chapters. How do they fare two or three decades later? Another group of chapters sets the focus on elite recruitment and socialization, spelled out against class and gender. The volume concludes by highlighting various entanglements of elites with
populism, concerning both underlying reasons for the recent populist expansion and the various images of elites in populist movements.
In the context of COVID-19, the production and governance of urban space has experienced a rapid digitalization and datafication, creating new challenges for citizenship. The urban realm is not only the environment where a new standard for digital development is set but also the realm from which
rescaling nation-states are pervasively emerging.
Emerging Digital Citizenship Regimes: Postpandemic Technopolitical Democracies explores the roles played by digital citizenship in the context of changing geographies of the nation-state in Europe in the aftermath of the global pandemic; and reframes the concept of digital citizenship amid the
rescaling of nation-states in Europe by connecting it to the increasing digitalisation of urban environment as a corollary of pandemic.
By theorising the concept of citizenship in the digital age through the lens of the evolutionary character of its classical concept or by drawing upon the narratives regarding the democratising potential and risks of the Internet, Emerging Digital Citizenship Regimes explores the complex interaction
of social and political variables shaping offline and online civic practices and their intertwined relation to the urban environment, analysing the way it is produced and governed in the COVID-19 new context.
As China has shifted from a planned to a market-oriented economy, it has adjusted its energy policies accordingly. As a result, the Chinese energy industry has now gone through more than seventy years of transformation. Yet to date no single work has sought to assess the key factors driving these
changes and their effects on China’s energy security, even though such questions have implications for assessments of the world’s energy security.
Energy Security in Times of Economic Transition addresses this gap. Juxtaposing a domestic perspective with a wider, pan-energy-industry view, Yao Lixia explores trends in the evolution of China’s energy policy since its inception in 1949 and discusses the relations between policy changes and
macroeconomic reforms. Then, by employing a new, ground-breaking quantitative framework for evaluating energy security, Yao crucially shows that macroeconomic reform did not improve China’s energy security over the first three decades of the reform period but in fact restricted China from
developing more effective energy policies. This insight ultimately suggests lines of inquiry that can be extended to research in other countries, especially those in the midst of economic transition.
For its detailed history of China’s energy policy and its novel, widely applicable methodology for evaluating energy security, this book is a must-read for researchers and postgraduate students in economics, security studies, political economy, and international political economy.
This special volume of Research in Political Sociology addresses the interconnectivity of environment, politics and society. Contributors engage with critical topics such as water resource management, climate change, civil rights, poverty and social inequality, green transportation and brain drain,
and examines these issues internationally in North America, South America, Asia and the Middle East.
In the midst of vigorous discussions on environmental sustainability and crises that make global communities more vulnerable than ever before, on local, regional, and global scales, the chapters in this volume offer a much-needed dialogue, and will be of interest to politicians, policymakers and
scientists as well as academic researchers.
Europe is struggling. Its challenges include weak economic growth, populism, geopolitical tensions, Brexit, the EU's legitimacy crisis, and much more. Some of the dynamics at work may encourage further integration, but others are undermining it.
This volume of Research in Political Sociology seeks to adopt a 'longer' view to make sense of Europe's current 'malaise'. Written just before the COVID-19 pandemic, it asks vital and long-term questions about the EU. Are the current challenges unprecedented or do they have roots in, or connections
to, past events and developments? Is there a 'big' picture which we should keep in mind? Are there bright spots, and what do they suggest about Europe's present and future?
To engage in such questions, leading scholars draw from historical and comparative sociology, as well as comparative politics. They offer analyses that see the EU as an instance of state formation. They grapple with the question of identity and institutions, exploring in that context the extent and
limit of citizens’ support for more Europeanization. Taken together, they put forward exciting, far-reaching, and illuminating perspectives of enduring relevance as Europe moves toward an uncertain future.
Despite different legal and constitutional arrangements, in many states across Europe, public leaders are forging new collaborative relationships with non-state and civic actors to seek innovative ways of providing public services. Leadership varies between situations and contexts, but is still seen
as central to good governance and includes individuals who will promote institutional adaptations in the public interest. There are almost as many definitions of leadership as there are writers on the subject, as it is a complex social phenomenon, lacking clear boundaries. This volume questions
'what are the changing dynamics of public leadership across different European settings?' Anglo-American models of leadership have dominated and influenced current thinking. Chapters in this volume highlight emergent thinking and discussions on the strengths and weaknesses of current understandings
and knowledge. Authors investigate the tensions between Anglo-American and economic focused models of leadership and emergent policy and management paradigms that may challenge received wisdom.
Current political discourse emphasizes the globalized nature of security threats, and focusing on Latin America, this book identifies local complexities of Human Security.
From Human to Post Human Security in Latin America provides a fresh look to some acute problems regarding human security in Latin America: human rights and dignity, water, food and health insecurities. These problems are persistent and constitute human security threats in the near future. In this
book, each chapter studies a critical social problem in Latin America and analyzes it from the human security perspective, providing examples that illustrate the critical state in which Latin America is found regarding environmental security and providing a comparative perspective to give a wider
view of these issues.
Now security threats are truly global; given the limits of the international community and the nation state to solve these issues, it is necessary to revisit the most acute problems that the planet faces from a more comprehensive perspective. This is essential reading for professionals in the field
of policy making, practitioners with a need of a conceptual support, and those interested in human security in Latin America from a Latin American perspective.