Публицистика: прочее
Различные книги в жанре Публицистика: прочееWhat's Gone Wrong?
Thisis the book that Alex Boraine never wanted to write. As a native South Africanand a witness to the worst years of apartheid, he has known many of the leadersof the African National Congress in exile. He shared the jubilation of millionsof South Africans when the ANC won the first democratic elections in 1994 andtook up the reins of government under the presidency of Nelson Mandela. Now, two decades later, he is forcedto wonder what exactly has gone wrong in South Africa. Intolerance and corruption are the hallmarksof the governing party, while the worsening state of education, health, safetyand security and employment strengthen the claim that South Africa is a failingstate. Boraine explores this urgent and critical issue from the vantage pointof wide experience as a minister, parliamentarian, co-founder of the Institutefor Democracy in South Africa (IDASA) and Vice Chairperson of South Africa’s Truthand Reconciliation Committee. He digs deep into the history of the ANC andconcludes that both in exile and today, the ANC is slavishly committed to one partyas the dominant ruling factor. All else – the Executive, Parliament, theJudiciary, civil society and the media – take second and third place. The ANC,Boraine claims, seeks to control every institution. What’sGone Wrong? pulls no punches, but it also goes beyond strong criticism and offers anumber of constructive proposals, including the re-alignment of politics as away of preventing South Africa becoming a failed state. As South Africa mournsthe loss of Mandela and embarks on another national election, with the ANClikely to begin a third decade of rule, this incisive, detailed critique isrequired reading for all who are interested in the fate of this young nation.
Two Presidents Are Better Than One
“Many Americans are unsatisfied with politics. Simultaneously, we are hesitant to question the basic soundness of our constitutional system. In this refreshingly provocative book, David Orentlicher explains why it is due time for us to reconsider dominant ideas about the presidency, now arguably our most powerful political institution. Challenging the conventional wisdom that the best executive is necessarily a unitary executive, Orentlicher makes a wonderful case for why ‘two presidents are better than one.’ Sure to be of interest to political scientists, legal scholars, as well as informed citizens justifiably worried about the fate of American democracy, this fascinating book dares to challenge everything you thought you knew about one of our favorite political institutions.”—William E. Scheuerman, Indiana University “Can Orentlicher be serious in calling for a plural executive? The answer is yes, and he presents thoughtful and challenging arguments responding to likely criticisms. Any readers who are other than completely complacent about the current state of American politics will have to admire Orentlicher’s distinctive audacity and to respond themselves to his well-argued points.”—Sanford Levinson, author of Framed: America’s 51 Constitutions and the Crisis of Governance When talking heads and political pundits make their “What’s Wrong with America” lists, two concerns invariably rise to the top: the growing presidential abuse of power and the toxic political atmosphere in Washington. In Two Presidents Are Better Than One, David Orentlicher shows how the “imperial presidency” and partisan conflict are largely the result of a deeper problem—the Constitution’s placement of a single president atop the executive branch. Accordingly, writes Orentlicher, we can fix our broken political system by replacing the one person, one-party presidency with a two-person, two-party executive branch. Orentlicher contends that our founding fathers did not anticipate the extent to which their checks and balances would fail to contain executive power and partisan discord. They also did not foresee how the imperial presidency would aggravate partisan conflict. As the stakes in presidential elections have grown ever higher since the New Deal, battles to capture the White House have greatly exacerbated partisan differences. Had the framers been able to predict the future, Orentlicher argues, they would have been far less enamored with the idea of a single leader at the head of the executive branch and far more receptive to the alternative proposals for a plural executive that they rejected. Like their counterparts in Europe, they might well have created an executive branch in which power is shared among multiple persons from multiple political parties. Analyzing the histories of other countries with a plural executive branch and past examples of bipartisan cooperation within Congress, Orentlicher shows us why and how to implement a two-person, two-party presidency. Ultimately, Two Presidents Are Better Than One demonstrates why we need constitutional reform to rebalance power between the executive and legislative branches and contain partisan conflict in Washington.
Transnational Feminism in the United States
The acceleration of economic globalization and the rapidglobal flows of people, culture, and information have intensified theimportance of developing transnational understandings of contemporary issues.Transnational feminist perspectives have provided a unique outlook on women’slives and have deepened our understanding of the gendered nature of globalprocesses. Transnational Feminism in theUnited States examines how transnational perspectives shape the ways inwhich we create and disseminate knowledge about the world within the UnitedStates, and how the paradigm of transnational feminism is affected by nationalnarratives and public discourses within the country itself. An innovative theoreticalproject that is both deconstructive and constructive, this bookinterrogates the limits of feministthought, primarily through casestudies that illustrate its power to create new fields of research out oftraditionally interdisciplinary lines of inquiry. Leela Fernandes discussesways to approach, analyze, and capture processes that exceed and unsettle thenation-state within the transnational feminist paradigm. Examining the linksbetween power and knowledge that bind interdisciplinary theory and research, she shines new light on issues suchas human rights as well as academic debates about transnational feministperspectives on global issues. A thought-provoking analysis, Transnational Feminism in the United States powerfullycontributes to the field of Women’sStudies and related cross-disciplinary scholarship on feminist theory andgender from a global perspective.
The Theory of Monopoly Capitalism
In 1966, Paul Baran and Paul Sweezy published Monopoly Capital,a monumental work of economic theory and social criticismthat sought to reveal the basic nature of the capitalism of theirtime. Their theory, and its continuing elaboration by Sweezy, HarryMagdoff, and others in Monthly Review magazine, infl uenced generationsof radical and heterodox economists. They recognizedthat Marx’s work was unfi nished and itself historically conditioned,and that any attempt to understand capitalism as an evolvingphenomenon needed to take changing conditions into account.Having observed the rise of giant monopolistic (or oligopolistic)fi rms in the twentieth century, they put monopoly capital at thecenter of their analysis, arguing that the rising surplus such fi rmsaccumulated—as a result of their pricing power, massive salesefforts, and other factors—could not be profi tably invested backinto the economy. Absent any “epoch making innovations” like theautomobile or vast new increases in military spending, the resultwas a general trend toward economic stagnation—a condition thatpersists, and is increasingly apparent, to this day. Their analysiswas also extended to issues of imperialism, or “accumulation ona world scale,” overlapping with the path-breaking work of SamirAmin in particular. John Bellamy Foster is a leading exponent of this theoretical perspectivetoday, continuing in the tradition of Baran and Sweezy’sMonopoly Capital. This new edition of his essential work, TheTheory of Monopoly Capitalism, is a clear and accessible explicationof this outlook, brought up to the present, and incorporatingan analysis of recently discovered “lost” chapters from MonopolyCapital and correspondence between Baran and Sweezy. It alsodiscusses Magdoff and Sweezy’s analysis of the fi nancializationof the economy in the 1970s, ‘80s, and ‘90s, leading up to theGreat Financial Crisis of the opening decade of this century. Fosterpresents and develops the main arguments of monopoly capitaltheory, examining its key exponents, and addressing its critics in away that is thoughtful but rigorous, suspicious of dogma but adamantthat the deep-seated problems of today’s monopoly-fi nancecapitalism can only truly be solved in the process of overcomingthe system itself.
The Politics of Latino Faith
Pundits and commentators are constantly striving to understand the political behavior of Latinos—the largest minority in the United States and a key voting block. As Catherine E. Wilson makes clear in The Politics of Latino Faith , not only are Latinos a religious community, but their religious institutions, in particular faith-based organizations, inform daily life and politics in Latino communities to a considerable degree.Timely and discerning, The Politics of Latino Faith is a unique scholarly work that addresses this increasingly powerful political force. As Wilson shows, Latino religious institutions, whether congregations or faith-based organizations, have long played a significant role in the often poor and urban communities where Latinos live.Concentrating on urban areas in the South Bronx, Philadelphia, and Chicago, she provides a systematic look at the spiritual, social, and cultural influence Latino faith-based organizations have provided in American life. Wilson offers keen insight into how pivotal religious identity is in understanding Latino social and political involvement in the United States. She also shows the importance of understanding the theological underpinnings at work in these organizations in order to predict their political influences.
The People's News
Uncovers the surprising cause behind the recent rise of fake news In an ideal world, journalists act selflessly and in the public interest regardless of the financial consequences. However, in reality, news outlets no longer provide the most important and consequential stories to audiences; instead, news producers adjust news content in response to ratings, audience demographics, and opinion polls. While such criticisms of the news media are widely shared, few can agree on the causes of poor news quality. The People’s News argues that the incentives in the American free market drive news outlets to report news that meets audience demands, rather than democratic ideals. In short, audiences’ opinions drive the content that so often passes off as “the news.” The People’s News looks at news not as a type of media but instead as a commodity bought and sold on the market, comparing unique measures of news content to survey data from a wide variety of sources. Joseph Uscinski’s rigorous analysis shows news firms report certain issues over others—not because audiences need to know them, but rather, because of market demands. Uscinski also demonstrates that the influence of market demands also affects the business of news, prohibiting journalists from exercising independent judgment and determining the structure of entire news markets as well as firm branding.Ultimately, the results of this book indicate profit-motives often trump journalistic and democratic values. The findings also suggest that the media actively responds to audiences, thus giving the public control over their own information environment. Uniting the study of media effects and media content, The People’s News presents a powerful challenge to our ideas of how free market media outlets meet our standards for impartiality and public service.
The Importance of Being Honest
Popular author Steven Lubet brings his signature blend of humor, advocacy, and legal ethics to The Importance of Being Honest , an incisive analysis of how honesty and law play out in current affairs and historical events. Drawing on original work as well as op-ed pieces and articles that have appeared in the American Lawyer , the Chicago Tribune , and many other national publications, Lubet explores the complex aspects of honesty in the legal world. The Importance of Being Honest is full of tales of questionable practices and poor behavior, chosen because negative examples are much richer, and often more remarkable, in their ultimate lessons. Wyatt Earp’s shootout with Billy Clanton, Bill Clinton’s disastrous decision to lie under oath, Oscar Wilde’s self-destructive perjury in a 1896 libel trial, and the dubious resolution of Justice Scalia’s duck hunting trip with Dick Cheney are only a few of the cases Lubet use to illustrate that law is a vague and boggy realm where truth, and falsehood, is seldom absolute. With his lively, insightful, and sometimes hilarious prose, Lubet takes readers on a tour of the law in our everyday lives, and forces us to rethink how we really feel about honesty and truth.
The Fervent Embrace
When Israel declared its independence in 1948, Harry Truman issued a memo recognizing the Israeli government within eleven minutes. Today, the U.S. and Israel continue on as partners in an at times controversial alliance—an alliance, many argue, that is powerfully influenced by the Christian Right. In The Fervent Embrace, Caitlin Carenen chronicles the American Christian relationship with Israel, tracing first mainline Protestant and then evangelical support for Zionism.In the aftermath of the Holocaust, American liberal Protestants argued that America had a moral humanitarian duty to support Israel. Christian anti-Semitism had helped bring about the Holocaust, they declared, and so Christians must help make amends. Moreover, a stable and democratic Israel would no doubt make the Middle East a safer place for future American interests. Carenen argues that it was this mainline Protestant position that laid the foundation for the current evangelical Protestant support for Israel, which is based primarily on theological grounds.Drawing on previously unexplored archival material from the Central Zionist Archives in Israel, this volume tells the full story of the American Christian-Israel relationship, bringing the various “players”—American liberal Protestants, American Evangelicals, American Jews, and Israelis—together into one historical narrative.
The Ethics of Liberty
In recent years, libertarian impulses have increasingly influenced national and economic debates, from welfare reform to efforts to curtail affirmative action. Murray N. Rothbard's classic The Ethics of Liberty stands as one of the most rigorous and philosophically sophisticated expositions of the libertarian political position. What distinguishes Rothbard's book is the manner in which it roots the case for freedom in the concept of natural rights and applies it to a host of practical problems. An economist by profession, Rothbard here proves himself equally at home with philosophy. And while his conclusions are radical—that a social order that strictly adheres to the rights of private property must exclude the institutionalized violence inherent in the state—his applications of libertarian principles prove surprisingly practical for a host of social dilemmas, solutions to which have eluded alternative traditions. The Ethics of Liberty authoritatively established the anarcho-capitalist economic system as the most viable and the only principled option for a social order based on freedom. This edition is newly indexed and includes a new introduction that takes special note of the Robert Nozick-Rothbard controversies.
The Constitution of Interests
Many of America's most important social and political movements–abolition, women's suffragette, civil rights, women's liberation, gay and lesbian rights–have organized in the shadow of the law. All are based in their theoretical opposition to the law. Yet at the same time, they are dependent on the laws that prohibit them. Law is thus formed as much through the dynamic tensions that govern how these laws are received as through their official decree. Legal forms such as contracts, property, and rights also constitute social and political life because they structure our world. John Brigham here focuses on four ideological movements and their strategies, among them the struggle over the closing of gay bathhouses in the early years of the AIDS crisis and the radical feminist use of rage and radical consciousness in anti- pornography campaigns. The effect of law on politics, Brigham convincingly reveals, is pervasive precisely because political life finds its expression in a surprising variety of legal forms.