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The Irony of Democracy: An Uncommon Introduction to American Politics
by Louis Schubert Thomas R. Dye Harmon ZeiglerThe question at the center of the seventeenth edition of THE IRONY OF DEMOCRACY is "How democratic is American society?" While most American government books address politics from a pluralist perspective (the theory that many groups of people share power in the United States), this book approaches the subject using an elitist perspective (the theory that only a tiny number of people make the decisions that shape our lives). By exposing the irony between elitism and democratic theory and modern pluralism, this eye-opening book helps readers understand why the U. S. government works as it does.
The Irony of Modern Catholic History: How the Church Rediscovered Itself and Challenged the Modern World to Reform
by George WeigelA powerful new interpretation of Catholicism's dramatic encounter with modernity, by one of America's leading intellectualsThroughout much of the nineteenth century, both secular and Catholic leaders assumed that the Church and the modern world were locked in a battle to the death. The triumph of modernity would not only finish the Church as a consequential player in world history; it would also lead to the death of religious conviction. But today, the Catholic Church is far more vital and consequential than it was 150 years ago. Ironically, in confronting modernity, the Catholic Church rediscovered its evangelical essence. In the process, Catholicism developed intellectual tools capable of rescuing the imperiled modern project. A richly rendered, deeply learned, and powerfully argued account of two centuries of profound change in the church and the world, The Irony of Modern Catholic History reveals how Catholicism offers twenty-first century essential truths for our survival and flourishing.
The Irony Of Reform: Roots Of American Political Disenchantment (Transforming American Politics Ser.)
by G. Calvin MackenzieAmericans are disenchanted with politics, their government, and their leaders. But before Americans climb again on a new bandwagon of government restructuring, they would do well to listen to Cal Mackenzies admonitions in The Irony of Reform. The trouble with contemporary government, he explains, is not a lack of change or restructuring over the years, but rather the disjointed, inadvertent, and unpredictable pattern of reform we have followed since World War II. Mackenzie traces the roots of our current distress, noting that more tinkering will only lead to morethough perhaps differentproblems. Something much bolder is neededa new approach that enables leadership, facilitates coalition building, and enhances accountability. }Americans are disenchanted with politics, their government, and their leaders. For evidence, we dont have to look very far: the elections of 1994 turned over control of Congress for the first time in 40 years, and the new House Republicans Contract with America was the biggest single anti-government initiative since the Boston Tea Party, with term limits, campaign finance reform, and a balanced budget amendment high on its list of priorities. But before Americans climb again on a new bandwagon of government restructuring, they would do well to listen to Cal Mackenzies admonitions in The Irony of Reform. The trouble with contemporary government, he explains, is not a lack of change or restructuring over the years, but rather the disjointed, inadvertent, and unpredictable pattern of reform we have followed since World War II.Mackenzie traces the roots of our current distress, noting that more tinkering will only lead to morethough perhaps differentproblems. Something much bolder is neededa new approach that enables leadership, facilitates coalition building, and enhances accountability. Mackenzie proposes a cure for the political ills diagnosed herea hard and painful cure for a very crippled body politic.
The Irony of Vietnam: The System Worked
by Leslie H. Gelb Fareed Zakaria Richard K. Betts"If a historian were allowed but one book on the American involvement in Vietnam, this would be it." - Foreign Affairs When first published in 1979, four years after the end of one of the most divisive conflicts in the United States, The Irony of Vietnam raised eyebrows. Most students of the war argued that the United States had "stumbled into a quagmire in Vietnam through hubris and miscalculation," as the New York Times's Fox Butterfield put it. But the perspective of time and the opening of documentary sources, including the Pentagon Papers, had allowed Gelb and Betts to probe deep into the decisionmaking leading to escalation of military action in Vietnam. The failure of Vietnam could be laid at the door of American foreign policy, they said, but the decisions that led to the failure were made by presidents aware of the risks, clear about their aims, knowledgeable about the weaknesses of their allies, and under no illusion about the outcome.The book offers a picture of a steely resolve in government circles that, while useful in creating consensus, did not allow for alternative perspectives. In the years since its publication, The Irony of Vietnam has come to be considered the seminal work on the Vietnam War.
Irrational Exuberance in the U.S. Housing Market: Were Evangelicals Left Behind?
by Christopher CroweA report from the International Monetary Fund.
Irrational Publics and the Fate of Democracy (McGill-Queen's Studies in the History of Ideas #91)
by Stephen J.A. WardAcross cultures, democracies struggle with intolerant groups, misinformation, social media conspiracies, and extreme populists. Egalitarian cultures cannot always withstand this swing towards the irrational.In Irrational Publics and the Fate of Democracy Stephen Ward combines history and evolutionary psychology for a comprehensive view of the problem, arguing that social irrationality is likely to occur when social tensions trigger a person’s enemy stance: ancient extreme traits in human nature such as aggressiveness, desire for domination, paranoia of the other, and us-versus-them tribalism. Analyzing eruptions of public irrationality – from apocalyptic medieval crusades and Nazi doctors in extermination camps to suicidal cults – Ward presents his evolutionary theory of public irrationalism, demonstrating that human nature has both extreme Darwinian traits promoting competition and sociable traits of cooperation and empathy. The issue is which set of traits will be activated by the social ecology. Extreme traits, once adaptive when humans were hunter-gatherers, have become maladaptive and dangerous. Catalyzed by intolerant media and demagogues, the swing towards the irrational weakens democracy and may lead to human extinction through nuclear holocaust.Irrational Publics and the Fate of Democracy concludes with practical recommendations on what society should do to resist the engines of unreason within and without us.
Irrational Security: The Politics of Defense from Reagan to Obama
by Daniel Wirls2011 Winner of the Selection for Professional Reading List of the U.S. Marine CorpsThe end of the Cold War was supposed to bring a "peace dividend" and the opportunity to redirect military policy in the United States. Instead, according to Daniel Wirls, American politics following the Cold War produced dysfunctional defense policies that were exacerbated by the war on terror. Wirls’s critical historical narrative of the politics of defense in the United States during this "decade of neglect" and the military buildup in Afghanistan and Iraq explains how and why the U.S. military has become bloated and aimless and what this means for long-term security.Examining the recent history of U.S. military spending and policy under presidents George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush, Wirls finds that although spending decreased from the close of the first Bush presidency through the early years of Clinton’s, both administrations preferred to tinker at the edges of defense policy rather than redefine it. Years of political infighting escalated the problem, leading to a military policy stalemate as neither party managed to craft a coherent, winning vision of national security. Wirls argues that the United States has undermined its own long-term security through profligate and often counterproductive defense policies while critical national problems have gone unmitigated and unsolved.This unified history of the politics of U.S. military policy from the end of the Cold War through the beginning of the Obama presidency provides a clear picture of why the United States is militarily powerful but "otherwise insecure."
Irrationality: A History of the Dark Side of Reason
by Justin E. SmithA fascinating history that reveals the ways in which the pursuit of rationality often leads to an explosion of irrationalityIt’s a story we can’t stop telling ourselves. Once, humans were benighted by superstition and irrationality, but then the Greeks invented reason. Later, the Enlightenment enshrined rationality as the supreme value. Discovering that reason is the defining feature of our species, we named ourselves the “rational animal.” But is this flattering story itself rational? In this sweeping account of irrationality from antiquity to today—from the fifth-century BC murder of Hippasus for revealing the existence of irrational numbers to the rise of Twitter mobs and the election of Donald Trump—Justin Smith says the evidence suggests the opposite. From sex and music to religion and war, irrationality makes up the greater part of human life and history.Rich and ambitious, Irrationality ranges across philosophy, politics, and current events. Challenging conventional thinking about logic, natural reason, dreams, art and science, pseudoscience, the Enlightenment, the internet, jokes and lies, and death, the book shows how history reveals that any triumph of reason is temporary and reversible, and that rational schemes, notably including many from Silicon Valley, often result in their polar opposite. The problem is that the rational gives birth to the irrational and vice versa in an endless cycle, and any effort to permanently set things in order sooner or later ends in an explosion of unreason. Because of this, it is irrational to try to eliminate irrationality. For better or worse, it is an ineradicable feature of life.Illuminating unreason at a moment when the world appears to have gone mad again, Irrationality is fascinating, provocative, and timely.
Irrationality: A History of the Dark Side of Reason
by Justin E. SmithFrom sex and music to religion and politics, a history of irrationality and the ways in which it has always been with us—and always will beIn this sweeping account of irrationality from antiquity to the rise of Twitter mobs and the election of Donald Trump, Justin Smith argues that irrationality makes up the greater part of human life and history. Ranging across philosophy, politics, and current events, he shows that, throughout history, every triumph of reason has been temporary and reversible, and that rational schemes often result in their polar opposite. Illuminating unreason at a moment when the world appears to have gone mad again, Irrationality is timely, provocative, and fascinating.
Irregular Army
by Matt KennardSince the launch of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars--now the longest wars in American history--the US military has struggled to recruit troops. It has responded, as Matt Kennard's explosive investigative report makes clear, by opening its doors to neo-Nazis, white supremacists, gang members, criminals of all stripes, the overweight, and the mentally ill. Based on several years of reporting, Irregular Army includes extensive interviews with extremist veterans and leaders of far-right hate groups--who spoke openly of their eagerness to have their followers acquire military training for a coming domestic race war. As a report commissioned by the Department of Defense itself put it, "Effectively, the military has a 'don't ask, don't tell' policy pertaining to extremism."Irregular Army connects some of the War on Terror's worst crimes to this opening-up of the US military. With millions of veterans now back in the US and domestic extremism on the rise, Kennard's book is a stark warning about potential dangers facing Americans--from their own soldiers.
Irregular Citizenship, Immigration, and Deportation (Interventions)
by Peter NyersDeportation has again taken a prominent place within the immigration policies of nation-states. Irregular Citizenship, Immigration, and Deportation addresses the social responses to deportation, in particular the growing movements against deportation and detention, and for freedom of movement and the regularization of status. The book brings deportation and anti-deportation together with the aim of understanding the political subjects that emerge in this contested field of governance and control, freedom and struggle. However, rather than focusing on the typical subjects of removal – refugees, the undocumented, and irregular migrants – Irregular Citizenship, Immigration, and Deportation looks at the ways that citizens get caught up in the deportation apparatus and must struggle to remain in or return to their country of citizenship. The transformation of ‘regular’ citizens into deportable ‘irregular’ citizens involves the removal of the rights, duties, and obligations of citizenship. This includes unmaking citizenship through official revocation or denationalization, as well as through informal, extra-legal, and unofficial means. The book features stories about struggles over removal and return, deportation and repatriation, rescue and abandonment. The book features eleven ‘acts of citizenship’ that occur in the context of deportation and anti-deportation, arguing that these struggles for rights, recognition, and return are fundamentally struggles over political subjectivity – of citizenship. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of citizenship, migration and security studies.
Irregular Governance: A Plea for Bold Organizational Experimentation
by Hubbard Gilles PaquetA Plea for Bold Organizational Experimentation. The eighth book in the Collaborative Metagovernance series is an irreverent challenge to administrative conservatorship, and a case for bold organizational experimentation. It makes the case for effective new actors, new structural forms and new social technologies, while showing the perils of ill-conceived contraptions like super-bureaucracies, single-purpose agencies and failure to pay due attention to good management. This series of books is designed to define cumulatively the contours of collaborative decentered metagovernance. At this time, there is still no canonical version of this paradigm: it is en émergence. This series intends to be one of many construction sites to experiment with various dimensions of an effective and practical version of this new approach. Metagovernance is the art of combining different forms or styles of governance, experimented with in the private, public and social sectors, to ensure effective coordination when power, resources and information are widely distributed, and the governing is of necessity decentred and collaborative.
Irregular Migrants and the Right to Health
by Stefano AngeleriIn our globalised world, where inequality is deepening and migration movements are increasing, states continue to maintain strong regulatory control over immigration, health and social policies. Arguments based on state sovereignty can be employed to differentiate irregular migrants from other groups and reduce their right to physical and mental health to the provision of emergency medical care, even where resources are available. Drawing on the enabling and constraining factors of human rights law and public health, this book explores the scope and limits of the right to health of migrants in irregular situations, in international and European human rights law. Addressing these peoples' health solely with an exceptional medical paradigm is inconsistent with the special attention granted to people in vulnerable situations and non-discrimination in human rights, the emerging rights-based approach to disability, the social priorities of public health and the interdependence of human rights.
Irregular Migration: IMISCOE Short Reader (IMISCOE Research Series)
by Maurizio Ambrosini Minke H.J. HajerThis open access short reader provides an introduction to the theoretical debates regarding irregular migration and aims to bridge these theoretical debates to current empirical developments. It defines irregular migrants and irregular migration by discussing the wide variety of definitions and highlights the reasons for the presence of irregular immigrants in developed countries. The book provides an overview of the variation in policies regarding irregular migrants and elaborates on how irregular migration is facilitated and supported. It discusses the trends and dynamics between border enforcement, human smuggling/trafficking, and on the support irregular migrants obtain by citizens and civil society while residing in the EU. Last but not least, the book also focuses on the agency and political mobilization of irregular migrants. As such, it provides a great resource for everyone interested in learning more about irregular migration.
Irregular Migration and Human Security in East Asia (Routledge Contemporary Asia Series)
by Jiyoung Song Alistair D. B. CookAcross East Asia, intra-regional migration is more prevalent than inter-regional movements, and the region’s diverse histories, geopolitics, economic development, ethnic communities, and natural environments make it an excellent case study for examining the relationship between irregular migration and human security. Irregular migration can be broadly defined as people’s mobility that is unauthorised or forced, and this book expands on the existing migration-security nexus by moving away from the traditional state security lens, and instead, shifting the focus to human security. With in-depth empirical country case studies from the region, including China, Japan, North Korea, the Philippines, Burma/Myanmar, Cambodia, Thailand and Singapore, the contributors to this book develop a human security approach to the study of irregular migration. In cases of irregular migration, such as undocumented labour migrants, asylum seekers, internally displaced people, trafficked persons, and smuggled people, human security is the cause and/or effect of migration in both sending and receiving countries. By adopting a human security lens, the chapters provide striking insights into the motivations, vulnerabilities and insecurities of migrants; the risks, dangers and illegality they are exposed to during their journeys; as well as the potential or imagined threats they pose to the new host countries. This multidisciplinary book is based on extensive fieldwork and interviews with migrants, aid workers, NGO activists and immigration officers. As such, it will appeal to students and scholars of Asian politics and security, as well as those with interests in international relations, social policy, law, geography and migration.
Irregular Migration and Invisible Welfare
by Maurizio AmbrosiniFocusing on care workers for the elderly, this book examines the paradoxical position of irregular migrants in European society, who are often labelled as 'illegal' residents but who in fact provide much needed, essential support to welfare systems.
Irregular Migration from the Former Soviet Union to the United States (Routledge Transnational Crime and Corruption)
by Saltanat LiebertThis book is the first in English to examine irregular migration from post-Soviet states, focusing in particular on migration to the United States. Due to globalization and the end of the Cold War, citizens of the former Soviet Union are on the move as never before. The political, economic, and social changes that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union resulted in widespread poverty and unemployment and also created a large pool of potential migrants. Thousands of individuals from poor post-Soviet countries migrate to the West in search of better-paid work in an effort to provide for themselves and their families both through legal channels, and in their absence, illegally. In recent years immigration has become a topic of heated debate in many Western countries: the estimated number of undocumented immigrants in the United States has reached 11 million, precipitating a new legislative focus on reforming the immigration system, culminating in the highly controversial Border Protection, Antiterrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act passed by the House of Representatives in 2005 but eventually "killed" in the Senate. This book examines all these issues, discussing the reasons for migration, the profile of the migrants, how the process of migration works and how the migrants obtain their U.S. visas, where they work once in the United States and their intentions with regards to their possible return home. This book explores the reality of post-Soviet migration where the mostly well-educated former professionals end up in low-wage unskilled jobs as domestic workers, child care givers, and construction workers, sometimes in exploitative labor situations. Overall, this book provides a detailed account of post-Soviet illegal migration to the United States, focusing in particular on Central Asian and Georgian migrants, and will be of interest to scholars of US politics as well as Russia, Central Asia,and the Caucasus specialists.
The Irregular Pendulum of Democracy: Populism, Clientelism and Corruption in Post-Yugoslav Successor States (New Perspectives on South-East Europe)
by Dimitri A. SotiropoulosThis book argues that the backsliding or stagnation of democracy should be interpreted in a wider perspective on irregular movements towards and away from contemporary liberal democracy. This a perspective couched by a metaphor, namely the 'pendulum of democracy', which the author has constructed to suggest that democratic regimes may swing between a democratic end (fully developed liberal democracy) and a semi-authoritarian end (competitive authoritarianism). The pendulum does not have a predictable frequency. Democratization may lead to irregular movements back and forth. It is easier to analyze such movements of the pendulum when democracy is not consolidated yet (for instance, in the three post-Yugoslav political regimes mentioned above), as democratic institutions and processes are not yet stable. For this reason, this book analyses the swing of unconsolidated democracy away from the democratic end in the cases of today’s Serbia and Montenegro and the swing back towards liberal democracy in the case of North Macedonia which - until 2017 - had been developing into a competitive authoritarian regime, but then embarked on the road to democratic recovery.
The Irregular School: Exclusion, Schooling and Inclusive Education (Foundations and Futures of Education)
by Roger SleeShould disabled students be in regular classrooms all of the time or some of the time? Is the regular school or the special school or both the solution for educating students with a wide range of differences? Inclusive education has been incorporated in government education policy around the world. Key international organisations such as UNESCO and OECD declare their commitment to Education for All and the principles and practice of inclusive education. There is no doubt that despite this respectability inclusive education is hotly contested and generates intense debate amongst teachers, parents, researchers and policy-makers. People continue to argue over the nature and extent of inclusion. The Irregular School explores the foundations of the current controversies and argues that continuing to think in terms of the regular school or the special school obstructs progress towards inclusive education. The book contends that we need to build a better understanding of exclusion, of the foundations of the division between special and regular education, and of school reform as a precondition for more inclusive schooling in the future. Schooling ought to be an apprenticeship in democracy and inclusion is a prerequisite of a democratic education. The Irregular School builds on existing research and literature to argue for a comprehensive understanding of exclusion, a more innovative and aggressive conception of inclusive education and a genuine commitment to school reform that steps aside from the troubled and troubling notions of regular schools and special schools. It will be of interest to all those working and researching in the field of inclusive education.
Irreparable Evil: An Essay in Moral and Reparatory History
by David ScottWhat was distinctive about the evil of the transatlantic slave trade and New World slavery? In what ways can the present seek to rectify such historical wrongs, even while recognizing that they lie beyond repair? Irreparable Evil explores the legacy of slavery and its moral and political implications, offering a nuanced intervention into debates over reparations.David Scott reconsiders the story of New World slavery in a series of interconnected essays that focus on Jamaica and the Anglophone Caribbean. Slavery, he emphasizes, involved not only scarcely imaginable brutality on a mass scale but also the irreversible devastation of the ways of life and cultural worlds from which enslaved people were uprooted. Colonial extraction shaped modern capitalism; plantation slavery enriched colonial metropoles and simultaneously impoverished their peripheries. To account for this atrocity, Scott examines moral and reparatory modes of history and criticism, probing different conceptions of evil. He reflects on the paradoxes of seeking redress for the specific moral evil of slavery, criticizing the limitations of liberal rights-based arguments for reparations that pursue reconciliation with the past. Instead, this book argues, in making the urgent demand for reparations, we must acknowledge the fundamental irreparability of a wrong of such magnitude.
Irresponsible Government: The Decline of Parliamentary Democracy in Canada
by Brent Rathgeber Andrew Coyne2015 Kobo Emerging Writer Prize — Shortlisted, Non-Fiction In Irresponsible Government, former MP Brent Rathgeber takes Parliament to task for its failure to hold the government to account. Irresponsible Government examines the current state of Canadian democracy in contrast to the founding principles of responsible government established by the Fathers of Confederation in 1867. The book examines the failure of modern elected representatives to perform their constitutionally mandated duty to hold the prime minister and his cabinet to account. It further examines the modern lack of separation between the executive and legislative branches of government and the disregard with which the executive views Parliament. The book seeks to shine light on the current power imbalances that have developed in Canadian government. Through an examination of the foundation principles of our parliamentary system and their subsequent erosion, Irresponsible Government seeks methods through which we can begin to recalibrate and correct these power imbalances and restore electoral accountability.
Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters
by Abigail ShrierUntil just a few years ago, gender dysphoria—severe discomfort in one&’s biological sex—was vanishingly rare. It was typically found in less than .01 percent of the population, emerged in early childhood, and afflicted males almost exclusively. But today whole groups of female friends in colleges, high schools, and even middle schools across the country are coming out as &“transgender.&” These are girls who had never experienced any discomfort in their biological sex until they heard a coming-out story from a speaker at a school assembly or discovered the internet community of trans &“influencers.&” Unsuspecting parents are awakening to find their daughters in thrall to hip trans YouTube stars and &“gender-affirming&” educators and therapists who push life-changing interventions on young girls—including medically unnecessary double mastectomies and puberty blockers that can cause permanent infertility. Abigail Shrier, a writer for the Wall Street Journal, has dug deep into the trans epidemic, talking to the girls, their agonized parents, and the counselors and doctors who enable gender transitions, as well as to &“detransitioners&”—young women who bitterly regret what they have done to themselves. Coming out as transgender immediately boosts these girls&’ social status, Shrier finds, but once they take the first steps of transition, it is not easy to walk back. She offers urgently needed advice about how parents can protect their daughters. A generation of girls is at risk. Abigail Shrier&’s essential book will help you understand what the trans craze is and how you can inoculate your child against it—or how to retrieve her from this dangerous path.
Irrigation And Agricultural Politics In South Korea
by Robert WadeThis book examines how state and local institutions that manage water conveyance and drainage actually function. Thus a great deal is revealed about the relationships and power struggles that exist between government and the people and between central and local authorities.
Irrigation Development In Africa: Lessons Of Experience
by Jon R. MorisIrrigation Development in Africa: Lessons of Experience is a veritable encyclopedia of information on African irrigation. It describes a significant subset of the African irrigation experience, from traditional flood recession systems to large projects like Gezira and Bura.
Irrigation In The Bajio Region Of Colonial Mexico
by Michael E MurphyThis book provides detailed histories of colonial water systems in four localities in the Mexican Baja-o-Celaya, Salvatierra, Valle de Santiago, and Queretaro. It includes studies of irrigated agriculture, hydraulic technology, and water law in the region. The local histories richly illustrate, through the patterns of irrigation, the interactions b