Books

A compelling account of how civic and media-based initiatives have successfully fought for greater governmental accountability in the emerging democracies of Latin America.

Distinguished scholars detail the extent to which the US Congress has influenced democractic legislatures around the world, and the myriad factors involved in the diffusion of influence. Includes the governments of Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, the European Parliament, plus new democracies in Latin America and Eastern Europe.

This book provides a comprehensive analysis of the crisis of relations between state and society in five Andean countries from the 1980s to the present.

Examines the dramatic changes within Mexican society, politics, and journalism that transformed an authoritarian media institution into many conflicting styles of journalism with very different implications for deepening democracy in the country.

Examines American attitudes on issues of national and international security. Based on over 13,000 in-depth interviews conducted over a ten-year period. Provides surprising insights into public opinion on nuclear deterrence, terrorism, and other security issues.

Examines Alberto Fujimori’s corrupt presidency, and the thin line between democracy and dictatorship, demonstrating how closely they can resemble one another. Analyzes how public institutions can empower dictators and also bring them down.

Winner of the 2008 First Place/Book Prizefrom the Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies

Examines the intersection of environmental politics, globalization, and national identity in post-Soviet Latvia. Views the country’s responses to European assistance and political pressure in nature management, biodiversity conservation, and rural development.

Recent acts of terrorism in Britain and Europe and the events of 9/11 in the United States have greatly influenced immigration, security, and integration policies in these countries. Yet many of the current practices surrounding these issues were developed decades ago, and are ill-suited to the dynamics of today’s global economies and immigration patterns. The contributors compare policies on these issues at three relational levels: between individual EU nations and the U.S., between the EU and U.S., and among EU nations. What emerges is a timely and critical examination of the variations and contradictions in policy at each level of interaction and how different agencies and different nations often work in opposition to each other with self-defeating results.

The editors of this volume contend that transnational actors have exerted a powerful influence in postcommunist transitions. They demonstrate that transitions to democracy, capitalism, and nation-statehood, which scholars thought were likely to undermine one another, were facilitated by the integration of Central and East European states into an international system of complex interdependence. Transnational actors turn out to be the “dark matter” that held the various aspects of the transition together. Leading scholars debate the role and impact of transnational actors and present a promising new research program for the study of this rapidly transforming region.

This volume brings together an expert group of commentators and participants from within the Bolivian political arena to offer diverse perspectives on ethnicity, regionalism, state-society relations, constitutional reform, economic development, and globalization.

Over the last two decades, indigenous populations in Latin America have achieved remarkable visibility and political effectiveness, particularly in Ecuador and Bolivia. Lucero compares Ecuador’s united indigenous movement to the more fragmented situation in Bolivia, and analyzes the mechanisms at work in political and social structures to explain the different outcomes in each country.

This collection views the recruitment and selection of presidential candidates, presidential personality, advisory networks, policy making, evaluations of presidents, and comparative analysis of chief executives.Additionally, specialists in cognitive psychology, formal theory, organization theory, leadership theory, institutionalism, and methodology, apply their expertise to the analysis of the presidentcy to generate innovative approaches to presidential research.

A groundbreaking national and regional study of corruption and its relation to democracy in Latin America. This book provides policy analysis and prescription through a wide-ranging methodological, empirical, and theoretical survey.

This volume examines the factors that contribute to the use of children in war, the effects of war upon children, and the perpetual cycle of warfare that engulfs many of the world’s poorest nations. It offers viable policies to reduce child recruitment, and reintegrate child soldiers into society after war.

Dion’ study examines the major political role of organized labor in establishing and effecting change in Mexico’s social protection programs throughout the twentieth-century.