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  Election Reform: Politics and Policy

  James W. Ceaser and Daniel J. Palazzolo

  Election Reform: Politics and Policy is the definitive work on the manner in which policymakers responded to the crisis that emerged from the 2000 presidential election. Editors Daniel Palazzolo and James Ceaser address two fundamental questions: How did the states and Congress respond to the problems in election law and administration that became apparent in the 2000 election? What factors explain the variety of ways in which different states responded? The book includes a theoretical framework for explaining election reform, an account of the Help America Vote Act, and in-depth studies of election law reform in eleven selected states. Anyone interested in the election crisis of 2000 and in the lessons learned from a major transformation of our electoral institutions will find this book essential reading. The book also contributes to the academic literature on policy innovation in the United States.

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  [Chapter 1 from] Rethinking the World: Great Power Strategies and International Order

  Jeffrey W. Legro

  Stunning shifts in the worldviews of states mark the modern history of international affairs: how do societies think about—and rethink—international order and security? Japan's "opening," German conquest, American internationalism, Maoist independence, and Gorbachev's "new thinking" molded international conflict and cooperation in their eras. How do we explain such momentous changes in foreign policy—and in other cases their equally surprising absence?

  The nature of strategic ideas, Jeffrey W. Legro argues, played a critical and overlooked role in these transformations. Big changes in foreign policies are rare because it is difficult for individuals to overcome the inertia of entrenched national mentalities. Doing so depends on a particular nexus of policy expectations, national experience, and ready replacement ideas. In a sweeping comparative history, Legro explores the sources of strategy in the United States and Germany before and after the world wars, in Tokugawa Japan, and in the Soviet Union. He charts the likely future of American primacy and a rising China in the coming century.

  Rethinking the World tells us when and why we can expect changes in the way states think about the world, why some ideas win out over others, and why some leaders succeed while others fail in redirecting grand strategy.

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  [Introduction to] Universal Coverage: The Elusive Quest for National Health Insurance

  Rick Mayes

  Universal health coverage has become the Mount Everest of public policy in the United States: the most daunting challenge on the political landscape. But, despite numerous attempts, all efforts to achieve universal health care have failed. In Universal Coverage, Rick Mayes examines the peculiar and persistent lack of universal health coverage in America, its economic and political origins dating back to the 1930s, and the current consequences of this significant problem.

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  [Introduction to] Nationalism and Political Identity

  Sandra F. Joireman

  This is a lively and well-written textbook, which will prove a valuable addition to the IR textbook series - mainly because the ideas it covers have changed so fundamentally in the last ten years. Nationalism and ethnicity are uniquely considered within the context of both traditional IR theory and 'new' IR (ie Cold War perspectives). Joireman explains the conflict between primordialism (the view that ethnicity is inborn and ethnic division natural), instrumentalism (ethnicity is a tool to gain some larger, typically material end) and social constructivism (the emerging consensus that ethnicity is flexible and people can make choices about how they define themselves). Case studies are included on Quebec, Bosnia, Northern Ireland and Eritrea.

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  [Introduction to] Property Rights and Political Development in Ethiopia and Eritrea 1941-74

  Sandra F. Joireman

  This book looks at the microfoundations of poverty in the developing world and in particular those present in property rights. The local institutions that govern land access are fundamental in affecting the distribution of wealth in a society. Property rights matter because they affect political development and economic growth. Development economists and policy makers often work on the assumption that property rights evolve from collective to more specified systems. The author has set out to test this theory by using the evidence available in the special cases of Ethiopia and Eritrea. Political scientists and economists working in land tenure and land reform will find rich comparative material in Professor Joireman's contribution.

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  [Introduction to] Done Deal?: The Politics of the 1997 Budget Agreement

  Daniel J. Palazzolo

  How did a Democratic president and a Republican Congress reach agreement at a time of intense partisanship, mutual distrust, and suspicion? How were leaders of opposing parties able to negotiate a good-faith agreement to balance the budget, reduce spending for Medicare, and cut taxes? Does the agreement truly deserve the praise given by its supporters or the criticism dealt by its opponents? Daniel J. Palazzolo answers these questions with a vivid, first-person account of federal budget politics. In "Done Deal?" Palazzolo debunks conventional views of Washington politics that portray an antiquated separation-of-powers system hopelessly mired in partisan politics. Applying a realist expectations perspective, he recognizes the possibilities and limitations of the American political system and identifies inherent constraints on policy reform. His careful analysis highlights the system's capacity to adapt to changing circumstances and produce important changes in policy.

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  [Introduction to] Civic Virtues: Rights, Citizenship, and Republican Liberalism

  Richard Dagger

  Dagger states the case for republican liberalism, a political theory that combines a concern for individual rights and autonomy with a concern for the claims of community, duty, and public-spirited citizenship. In his provocative and wide-ranging book, he demonstrates that republican liberalism is both plausible as a theory and attractive as a response to several pressing political problems.

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  [Introduction to] Cooperation under Fire: Anglo- German Restraint During World War II

  Jeffrey W. Legro

  Why do nations cooperate even as they try to destroy each other? Jeffrey Legro explores this question in the context of World War II, the "total" war that in fact wasn't. During the war, combatant states attempted to sustain agreements limiting the use of three forms of combat considered barbarous—submarine attacks against civilian ships, strategic bombing of civilian targets, and chemical warfare. Looking at how these restraints worked or failed to work between such fierce enemies as Hitler's Third Reich and Churchill's Britain, Legro offers a new understanding of the dynamics of World War II and the sources of international cooperation.

  While traditional explanations of cooperation focus on the relations between actors, Cooperation under Fire examines what warring nations seek and why they seek it—the "preference formation" that undergirds international interaction. Scholars and statesmen debate whether it is the balance of power or the influence of international norms that most directly shapes foreign policy goals. Critically assessing both explanations, Legro argues that it was, rather, the organizational cultures of military bureaucracies—their beliefs and customs in waging war—that decided national priorities for limiting the use of force in World War II.

  Drawing on documents from Germany, Britain, the United States, and the former Soviet Union, Legro provides a compelling account of how military cultures molded state preferences and affected the success of cooperation. In its clear and cogent analysis, this book has significant implications for the theory and practice of international relations.

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  [Introduction to] The Speaker and the Budget: Leadership in the Post-Reform House of Representatives

  Daniel Palazzolo

  One of the most important changes in Congress in decades was the extensive congressional reforms of the 1970s, which moved the congressional budget process into the focus of congressional policy-making and shifted decision-making away from committees. This overwhelming attention to the federal budget allowed party leaders to emerge as central decision makers. Palazzolo traces the changing nature of the Speaker of the House's role in the congressional budget process from the passage of the Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 to the 100th Congress in 1988. In the early 1970s, the Speaker attended to primarily supportive and managerial tasks that helped establish and maintain the budget process. Yet, as the deficit grew and budget politics became more partisan in the 1980s, the Speaker became more involved in policy-related functions, such as setting budget priorities and negotiating budget agreements with Senate leaders and the president. Consequently, the Speaker's role as leader of the institution was subordinate to the role as party leader. Palazzolo develops broader theoretical insights about congressional leadership by explaining how the Speaker's roles evolved and how different Speakers - Carl Albert, Tip O'Neill, and Jim Wright - performed their roles. He asserts that leadership is produced by both the qualities of individual leaders and the institutional, political and policy-related circumstances that shape congressional politics. Leadership roles develop in response to problems and opportunities in the budget process that stem from changing conditions, but individuals partly determine how these roles are performed. "The Speaker and the Budget" incorporates an eclectic range of research findings, including personal interviews with current and former members of Congress and key staff personnel. Its descriptions of budget politics and the perspective it gives to congressional leadership should be of interest to students of Congress, budgeting, and political leadership, as well as practitioners involved in making budget policy.