Political Science

This volume presents the first systematic comparative analysis of national traditions of local democracy across the developed world, as well as their origins and evolution. It reveals how inclusive local institutions that integrate national and local governance make democracy work better. Across most of the developed world, early forms of the national state entrenched the local power of elites. In Anglo-American and Swiss democracies, state formation imposed enduring tensions with local civic governance. In contrast, inclusive, integrative local institutions in Northern Europe enabled close links with central government around common local and national agendas, producing better governance and fuller democracy to the present day. Through comparative analysis, the authors demonstrate how institutions for local governance and the participation of civil society differ widely among developed democracies, and how local democracy relates to national democracy. The resulting insights fundamentally recast our understanding of how to build and maintain more effective democracies--

Le vrai gagnant des élections de 2022 est le Rassemblement national. Le score de Marine Le Pen a progressé sensiblement au second tour de la présidentielle par rapport à 2017. Son parti a pu constituer un groupe de 89 députés à l'Assemblée nationale. Il a modifié le centre de gravité des droites et attiré le vote des classes moyennes et supérieures, y compris dans les rangs des fonctionnaires. Fin analyste de la vie politique en France, Luc Rouban explique ce changement majeur par une accumulation de facteurs. L'offre politique de Marine Le Pen, en associant l'autorité et la question sociale, semble répondre aux attentes d'une grande partie d'un électorat qui s'est droitisé et cherche toujours la sécurité, mais aussi la promotion économique ou l'équité dans le traitement des citoyens. Le RN se présente comme le parti qui entend protéger le mode de vie de tous les Français en dépit des effets de la mondialisation et du dérèglement climatique. Dans la tension historique qui l'oppose au macronisme, il est devenu le porte-drapeau de la vulnérabilité.--Page 4 of cover.

The organisation and characteristics of early and ancient states have become the focus of a renewed interest from archaeologists, ancient historians and anthropologists in recent years. On the one hand, neo-evolutionary schemas of political transformation find it difficult to define some of their most basic concepts, such as 'chiefdom', 'complex chiefdom' and 'state', not to mention the transition between them. On the other hand, teleological interpretations based on linear dynamics, from less to increasingly more complex political structures, in successive steps, impose biased and too rigid views on the available evidence. In fact, recent research stresses the existence of other forms of socio-political organisation, less vertically integrated and more heterarchical, that proved highly successful and resilient in the long term in tying together social groups. What is more, such forms quite often represented the basic blocks on which states were built and that managed to survive once states collapsed. Finally, nomadic, maritime and mountain populations provide fascinating examples of societies that experienced alternative forms of political organisation, sometimes on a seasonal basis. In other cases, their consideration as 'marginal' populations that cultivated specialised skills ensured them a certain degree of autonomy when living either within or at the borders of states. This book explores such small-scale socio-political organisations, their potential and the historical trajectories they stimulated. A selection of historical case studies from different regions of the world may help rethink current concepts and views about the emergence and organisation of political complexity and the mechanisms that prevented, occasionally, the emergence of solid polities. They may also cast some light over trajectories of historical transformation, still poorly understood as are the limits of effective state power. This book explores the importance of comparative research and long-term historical perspectives to avoid simplistic interpretations, based on the characteristics of modern Western states abusively used retrospectively--

From his first arrest in the Civil Rights era to his most recent during a climate justice march at the age of 83, George Lakey has committed his life to a mission of building a better world through movements for justice. Lakey draws readers into the center of history-making events, telling often serious stories with playfulness and intimacy. In this memoir, he describes the personal, political, and theoretical-coming out as bisexual to his Quaker community while known as a church leader and family man, protesting against the war in Vietnam by delivering medical supplies through the naval blockade in the South China Sea, and applying his academic study of nonviolent resistance to creative tactics in direct action campaigns. From strategies he learned as a young man facing violence in the streets to risking his life as an unarmed bodyguard for Sri Lankan human rights lawyers, Lakey recounts his experience living out the tension between commitment to family and mission. Drawing strength from his community to fight cancer, survive painful parenting struggles, and create networks to help prevent activist burnout, this book shows readers how to find hope in even the darkest times through strategic, joyful activism--

This book argues that racism and white supremacist attitudes in the North, and not just the opposition of Andrew Johnson, blocked the adoption of Black suffrage (for men) in 1865. The virulent, racist tactics of the Democratic Party, as well as racism among a minority of Republicans and the small size of the northern Black population helped explain why the vigorous efforts of northern Blacks, southern Blacks, abolitionists, and Radical Republicans did not succeed--