Product Description: [Read by Elijah Alexander] Jack Vance's Tschai novels are considered his masterwork, a constantly changing epic canvas of weird peoples, exotic lands, and surprising extraterrestrial adventures. City of Chasch is the first book in the series...read more

This volume offers a detailed account of German political institutions as they have developed over the last decades. Each of the individual chapters, written by leading German specialists, provides a balanced assessment of the institution under consideration as well as the more recent political research in the given field. The extended introductory chapter by the editor gives an overview of how the institutional system of the Federal Republic has combined the conflicting tasks of political stability and adaptation.

Ireland's international reputation changed rapidly from global success story to European problem-case. How did this happen? What are the implications for our view of good governance? This book argues that there is a crisis in the way the Irish state is structured and in the manner in which it relates to the main organised interests in the society. Through a set of linked policy studies, it shows how sectional benefits can be prioritised where public interest considerations are weakly articulated and debated. Policy choices may entail unintended perverse consequences that, once embedded, can be difficult to alter. The book traces these weaknesses to the dominance of parties, the permeability of the political system to sectional interests, and the weakness of democratic accountability. A powerful concluding chapter sets out an agenda for future research on institutional design and political reform. This book sets out a compelling argument that institutional design matters, especially in an increasingly globalised and interdependent world.

In an important and provocative contribution to the debate on 'the British disease' in the 1980s, Walter Williams draws on his extensive American experience of central government management and analysis to recommend critical structure changes in the organisation of government in Britain.

Product Description: Committees are a pervasive presence in the EU policy process yet little is known about the way in which they operate. This volume brings together an international group of experts from a number of disciplinary backgrounds to provide a comprehensive account of the role played by committees in the European Union...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Product Description: Mark Rozell's Executive Privilege—called "the definitive contemporary work on the subject" by the Journal of Politics—is widely considered the best in-depth history and analysis of executive privilege and its relation to the proper scope and limits of presidential power...read more

Product Description: The authors examine the relationship between President George W. Bush and the U.S. Congress to explore political leadership in American politics. Six case studies make clear that individual leaders in both the Congress and the administration provide the direction, coherence, and energy that leadership requires...read more

Product Description: This book assesses the British government's modernization program and examines a variety of worrying new constitutional issues: the draft EU constitution, relations between executive, judiciary and legislature, the case for a Supreme Court, reform of the House of Lords, devolution and restructuring of local government...read more

Product Description: Governing New European Democracies is a fully comparative study of decision-making processes in the cabinets of ten post-communist countries of East-Central and South-Eastern Europe. It is based on interviews collected from over 300 ministers...read more

Product Description: In Northern and Western Europe, and within the EU, governance networks are increasingly conceived as an efficient and legitimate way of formulating and implementing public policy in a complex, differentiated and multilayered world...read more

Product Description: Katharine Adeney demonstrates that institutional design is the most important explanatory variable in understanding the different intensity and types of conflict in the two countries rather than the role of religion. Adeney examines the extent to which previous constitutional choices explain current day conflicts...read more

This is the most comprehensive empirical analysis to date of coalition politics. Based on large cross-national data collection covering the entire post-war period from 1945 to 1999, it is the first systematic study of the institutions of governance and conflict resolution in coalition governments. The book is also an unparalleled source of information on cabinet formation, membership, termination, and electoral performance of coalition parties. (view table of contents)

Contains the names and positions of Chinese officials at all levels of the government and in military, financial, and educational institutions.

Product Description: It is typically taken for granted that African economies perform poorly, but there are a small but significant number of success stories on the continent. This study explores what accounts for Africa's average stagnation, and for the wide regional variations in developmental fortunes...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Although the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is twenty years old, little is known about how it affects those who wield power, what influence it has on legislative decisions, or to what extent the government believes it should be constrained by Charter concerns. For most laws Parliament has the final word on how social policy is balanced against protected rights. Thus the extent to which legislation is sensitive towards rights depends on how those who develop, propose, and assess policy view the Charter. How influential are governmental legal advisors? How risk averse or risk tolerant are government ministers when pursuing legislative goals that may result in Charter challenges? How capable is Parliament in requiring government to justify and explain legislative choices that may impair rights? In Charter Conflicts Janet Hiebert examines these questions while analyzing the Charter's influence on controversial legislative decisions such as social benefits for lesbians and gay men, the regulation of tobacco advertising, the rules of evidence for sexual assault trials, the use of DNA for law enforcement purposes, and the rules for police searches of private residences. She questions the broadly held assumption that only courts are capable of respecting rights, arguing that Parliament shares responsibility with the judiciary for resolving Charter conflicts. She views the Charter's significance less in terms of the judiciary overruling Parliament than in the incentives and pressures it provides for public and political officials to satisfy themselves that legislation is consistent with protected rights. (view table of contents)

Product Description: Divided government occurs when the executive fails to enjoy majority support in at least one working house of the legislature. To date, the study of divided government has focused almost exclusively on the United States. However, divided government occurs much more widely...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Product Description: An increasing proportion of the world's poor is dependent on NGOs for the support the state cannot or will not provide, but little has been written to analyze or guide best management practice, which is so critical to their success...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Product Description: Jenny Hocking's political biography of Australian barrister, politician and High Court judge Lionel Murphy forced a reinterpretation of Murphy's considerable legal, social and political legacy. Now available in paperback, this new version includes an epilogue in which Hocking reassesses Murphy's place in the recent political and legal landscape...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Product Description: The balance of powers among the branches of government is the defining structure of American democracy. The Founders assumed each branch would jealously guard its own prerogatives to prevent tyrannical power. Were they wrong? In recent years Congress has progressively abdicated its role in two crucial areas: war powers and the budget process...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

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