Political Science / General

Steven Reed takes on the task of demystifying Japanese culture and behavior. Through examples that are familiar to an American audience and his own personal encounters, he argues that the apparent oddity of Japanese behavior flows quite naturally from certain objective conditions that are different from those in the United States. Two aspects of the Japanese economy have particularly baffled Americans: that Japanese workers have “permanent employment” and that the Japanese government cooperates with big business. Reed explains these phenomena in common sense terms. He shows how they developed historically, why they continue, and why they helped produce economic growth. He concludes that these practices are in fact, not very different from the United States.

An in-depth view of the vital aspects of local politics-access to political office, individual office holder’s accountability to the public, the performance of councils as collective political bodies, and the often high turnover of personnel.

Fourteen essays examine, through a public policy focus, the 1978 civil service reform and its aftermath.

Interest and Institutions is a collection of essays written by distinguished political scientist Robert Salsibury, a leading analyst of interest group politics. He offers his theories on the workings and influence of groups, organizations, and individuals in many different areas of American politics.

Through a series of essays, this volume argues that every political system is based on a substratum of shared intentions, meanings, and rules of conduct embedded in a culture.

This book combines theory and research to analyze attempts to improve traffic safety through stricter drinking-age laws, seat-belt requirements, and deterrents to drunk driving.

Averch describes and analyzes common strategies for solving problems in public policy including the use of markets, bureaus, regulation, planning and budgeting, benefit-cost, systems analysis, and evaluation.

During the 1970s, Canada, Great Britain, and the United States witnessed unprecedented inflation, unemployment, and sluggish growth. This book examines government changes in economic policymaking and the public’s response to such changes, and sheds light on the political economy of three of the world’s oldest democracies.

How close to reality was the official U.S. image of Libya through the Nixon-Ford, Carter, and Reagan administrations? ElWahrfally concludes that it was very far from accurate. Using personal interviews as well as scholarly research, ElWarfally demonstrates that U.S. relations with Libya, regardless of rhetoric, have been primarily determined by whether or not Libya serves U.S. interests in the region: maintaining access to Middle Eastern oil, protecting Israel, and limiting Soviet expansionism.

Jeffrey E. Cohen presents a detailed, quantitative study of the characteristics of presidential cabinets from the days of George Washington through the first Reagan administration.

Using Ecuador as her case study, she shows how industrial growth has given birth to an exclusive, ingrown bourgeoisie that is highly dependent on the state and foreign capital and is increasingly alienated from the peasants and urban poor.

An edited collection of seminal literature on political leadership. Essays range from ancient Greece to the twentieth century, covering pundits that include Plato, Machiavelli, and Freud.

George Grayson examines the influence of oil and the oil sector both within Mexican society and in its relations with other nations, as he traces the development of the oil industry from its beginnings in 1901 up until the 1980s.

Congressional supervision of the way the executive implements legislative mandates-“oversight” of the bureaucracy-is one of the most complex and least understood functions of Congress. In this book, Morris Ogul clarifies the meaning of oversight and analyzes the elements that contribute to its success or neglect.