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Made-to-Measure Future: Views from the Basque Atalaia (Contributions to Political Science)
by Julen Zabalo Igor Filibi Leire Escajedo San-EpifanioThis open access volume analyses the development of democracy at different levels of governance (from local to global). The Basque search for an institutional and democratic model that adapts to its social needs and solves its problems offers an interesting perspective for analyzing the way in which democracy is seeking new forms of materialization from the local to the global. The volume is divided into four parts. The chapters in Part I analyze the tensions between the neoliberal vision of democracy and the voices contesting it, with projections at different levels of government. The chapters in Part II focus on the emerging framework and scales of Western democracy. The chapters in Part III present new forms of citizen participation, paying special - though not exclusive - attention to new practical strategies for Basque society. The volume concludes with a block of chapters on the relevance of reviewing the methodological and epistemological frameworks from which knowledge about democracy and mechanisms of citizen participation is generated (Part IV). By delving deeper into the idea and practice of democratic governance, this volume will be of interest to researchers and students from all disciplines of politics, international relations, sociology and law.
Made with Words: Hobbes on Language, Mind, and Politics
by Philip PettitHobbes's extreme political views have commanded so much attention that they have eclipsed his work on language and mind, and on reasoning, personhood, and group formation. But this work is of immense interest in itself, as Philip Pettit shows in Made with Words, and it critically shapes Hobbes's political philosophy. Pettit argues that it was Hobbes, not later thinkers like Rousseau, who invented the invention of language thesis--the idea that language is a cultural innovation that transformed the human mind. The invention, in Hobbes's story, is a double-edged sword. It enables human beings to reason, commit themselves as persons, and incorporate in groups. But it also allows them to agonize about the future and about their standing relative to one another; it takes them out of the Eden of animal silence and into a life of inescapable conflict--the state of nature. Still, if language leads into this wasteland, according to Hobbes, it can also lead out. It can enable people to establish a commonwealth where the words of law and morality have a common, enforceable sense, and where people can invoke the sanctions of an absolute sovereign to give their words to one another in credible commitment and contract. Written by one of today's leading philosophers, Made with Words is both an original reinterpretation and a clear and lively introduction to Hobbes's thought.
Mademoiselle Louise Michel: Memoirs - Annotated and Illustrated
by Patrick LoiseauAt the end of 2018, with the invective, common sense, intellectual and social authoritarian regression under way increasingly identified with the five-year period of Sarkozy, Hollande and Macron, the real progressives, that is to say, trade unionists and revolutionaries, as enemies to be defeated, -at least in regard to morality and expression-, it is urgent to face this attempt to ideologically crush the portraits of those who have shown us the way to make our society other than a financial market or a feudal state. Mademoiselle Louise Michel is one of these extraordinary characters. I call her Mademoiselle - as her publisher did in 1886 - out of respect and to keep in mind as well the common observation that Louise Michel was not a revolutionary, certainly but also a sensitive and engaging person who said of herself: "I do not deserve it, since I follow my inclinations like all beings and all things do, but I am not a monster either. We are all the product of our times, that's all. Each of us has his qualities and defects, it is the common law, but no matter what we are, if our work is great and covers us with its light; it's not about us in what we start, it's about what will leave for humanity when we are gone. " ...
Mademoiselle Louise Michel - Memorias: Con anotaciones y ilustraciones
by Patrick LoiseauA finales de 2018, cuando la inventiva autoritaria, el sentido común, la regresión intelectual y social están a la orden y en aumento con los quinquenios de Sarkozy, Hollande y Macron, los verdaderos progresistas, es decir, los sindicalistas y los revolucionarios, como enemigos a ser eliminados, al menos en términos de moral y palabra, es urgente hacer frente a este intento de sofocar ideológicamente los retratos de esos o aquellos que nos mostraron la manera de hacer de nuestra sociedad algo más que un mercado financiero o un estado feudal. Mademoiselle Louise Michel es uno de estos personajes extraordinarios. La llamo Mademoiselle por respeto, como lo hizo su editorial en 1886, y también para recordar que Louise Michel no solo era una persona revolucionaria, ciertamente, sino también una mujer sensible y atractiva como lo habría dicho ella misma: "No lo merezco, ya que sigo mi instinto como todos los seres y como todas las cosas, pero tampoco soy un monstruo. Todos somos producto de nuestro tiempo, eso es todo. Cada uno de nosotros tiene sus cualidades y sus defectos; es el derecho consuetudinario; pero no importa lo que seamos, si nuestro trabajo es excelente y nos cubre con su luz; no se trata de lo que nosotros iniciamos, sino lo que será para la humanidad cuando nos hayamos ido." ...
The Madhouse Effect: How Climate Change Denial Is Threatening Our Planet, Destroying Our Politics, and Driving Us Crazy
by Michael Mann Tom TolesThe award-winning climate scientist Michael E. Mann and the Pulitzer Prize–winning political cartoonist Tom Toles have been on the front lines of the fight against climate denialism for most of their careers. They have witnessed the manipulation of the media by business and political interests and the unconscionable play to partisanship on issues that affect the well-being of billions. The lessons they have learned have been invaluable, inspiring this brilliant, colorful escape hatch from the madhouse of the climate wars. The Madhouse Effect portrays the intellectual pretzels into which denialists must twist logic to explain away the clear evidence that human activity has changed Earth's climate. Toles's cartoons collapse counter-scientific strategies into their biased components, helping readers see how to best strike at these fallacies. Mann's expert skills at science communication aim to restore sanity to a debate that continues to rage against widely acknowledged scientific consensus. The synergy of these two climate science crusaders enlivens the gloom and doom of so many climate-themed books—and may even convert die-hard doubters to the side of sound science.
Madhyakalin Bharat Rajniti, Samaj Aur Sanskriti - Ranchi University, N.P.U: मध्यकालीन भारत राजनीति, समाज और संस्कृति - राँची यूनिवर्सिटी, एन.पी.यू.
by Satish Chandraमध्यकालीन भारत राजनीति, समाज और संस्कृति यह पुस्तक इतिहास के काल का वर्णन प्रस्तुत करती है, प्रस्तुत पुस्तक में विस्तार से इन अंतरों का पता लगाने की कोशिश किए बगैर आठवीं सदी से सत्रहवीं सदी की समाप्ति तक भारत के सामाजिक, आर्थिक, राजनीतिक और सांस्कृतिक प्रवृत्तियों के अभ्युदय के अध्ययन का प्रयास किया गया है । इन सभी पहलुओं को एक खंड में समायोजित करना कठिन काम था । इस कार्य के पीछे ध्येय यह रहा है कि पिछले चार दशकों में इतिहासकारों द्वारा मध्यकालीन भारतीय इतिहास को एक नई दिशा देने के प्रयासों को एक जगह लाने से इसके प्रति आम लोगों की दिलचस्पी बढ़ेगी । साथ ही, मध्यकालीन भारत में राज्य की प्रकृति, लोगों की धार्मिक स्वतंत्रता और उस अवधि में आर्थिक विकास की प्रवृत्ति को लेकर हाल में उठे विवादों को सही परिप्रेक्ष्य में देखा जा सकेगा । इस पुस्तक में यह दर्शाया गया है कि बड़े साम्राज्यों के अभ्युदय और फिर छोटे खंडों में विभाजन और एकीकरण का मतलब हमेशा आर्थिक निष्क्रियता और सांस्कृतिक ह्रास ही नहीं रहा है, भारतीय इतिहास के मध्यकाल की तुलना अकसर तुर्क और मुगल शासनकाल से की जाती है जिसका अर्थ है सामाजिक कारकों की जगह राजनीतिक कारकों को प्राथमिकता देना । यह अवधारणा इस मान्यता पर भी आधारित है कि पिछली कई सदियों के दौरान भारतीय समाज में बहुत थोड़ा बदलाव आया है । इतिहासकारों ने भारत में जनजातीय समाज के क्षेत्रीय राज्यों में तब्दील होने का मूल्यांकन किया है ।
Madiba A to Z
by Danny SchechterFrom the makers of the major motion picture Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, a completely unique biography and thematic telling of the story of Nelson Mandela. This book, which provided key source material for the film, is an unexpurgated collection of the views and opinions of South Africa's first Black president, and it draws on Danny Schechter's forty-year relationship with "Madiba," as Nelson Mandela is known in his native South Africa. Each chapter of this unique portrait corresponds to a letter of the alphabet, and the letters cover major and minor, unexpected and fascinating themes in Mandela's life and his impact on others: Athlete, Bully, Comrade, Forgiveness, Indigenous, Jailed, Militant, and President, to name a few. The book quotes liberally from Mandela himself, his ex-wives and other family members, global leaders, Mandela's cellmates and guards on Robben Island, the team behind Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, former president F. W. de Klerk, members of the South African Police, and his comrades including his successor Thabo Mbeki. Madiba A to Z reveals sides of Nelson Mandela that are not often discussed and angles of the anti-apartheid movement that most choose to brush under the table in order to focus on the happy-ending version of the story. As Schechter reports in the book, according to Mandela's successor as president of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki, "the fundamental problems of South Africa, poverty, inequality, have remained unchanged since 1994." This is partly because, as Schechter writes, "six months before the 1994 elections, when South Africa was being governed jointly by the ANC and the National Party under a Transitional Executive Council (TEC), there were secret negotiations about the economic future." There are many rarely spoken of revelations in Madiba A to Z, a book about Mandela's brilliance, his courage, his tremendous impact in saving his country and its people of all races, but one that also shows how far South Africa still has to go.From the Trade Paperback edition.
Madison and Jefferson
by Andrew Burstein Nancy Isenberg"[A] monumental dual biography . . . a distinguished work, combining deep research, a pleasing narrative style and an abundance of fresh insights, a rare combination."--The Dallas Morning News The third and fourth presidents have long been considered proper gentlemen, with Thomas Jefferson's genius overshadowing James Madison's judgment and common sense. But in this revelatory book about their crucial partnership, both are seen as men of their times, hardboiled operatives in a gritty world of primal politics where they struggled for supremacy for more than fifty years. With a thrilling and unprecedented account of early America as its backdrop, Madison and Jefferson reveals these founding fathers as privileged young men in a land marked by tribal identities rather than a united national personality. Esteemed historians Andrew Burstein and Nancy Isenberg capture Madison's hidden role--he acted in effect as a campaign manager--in Jefferson's career. In riveting detail, the authors chart the courses of two very different presidencies: Jefferson's driven by force of personality, Madison's sustained by a militancy that history has been reluctant to ascribe to him. Supported by a wealth of original sources--newspapers, letters, diaries, pamphlets--Madison and Jefferson is a watershed account of the most important political friendship in American history. "Enough colorful characters for a miniseries, loaded with backstabbing (and frontstabbing too)."--Newsday "An important, thoughtful, and gracefully written political history."--Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Madison Park: A Place of Hope
by Eric L. MotleyIn this inspiring memoir, a former special assistant to President George W. Bush recounts the lessons he learned from his small Southern hometown.Welcome to Madison Park, a small community in Alabama founded by freed slaves in 1880. Eric Motley came of age in this remarkable place, where lessons in self-determination, hope, and an unceasing belief in the American dream taught him everything he needed for his life’s journey—a journey that led him to the Oval Office as a Special Assistant to President George W. Bush.Eric grew up among people who believed in giving and never turning away from a neighbor’s need. There was Aunt Shine, the goodly matriarch who cared so much about young Motley’s schooling that she would stand up in a crowded church and announce Eric’s progress—or shortcomings; Old Man Salery, who secretly siphoned gasoline from his beat-up car into the Motleys’ tank at night; Motley’s grandparents, who spent the last of their seed money on books for Eric; and Reverend Brinkley, a man of enormous faith and simple living. It was said that whenever the Reverend came your way, light abounded. Life in Madison Park wasn’t always easy or fair, and Motley reveals personal and heartbreaking stories of racial injustice and segregation. But Eric shows how the community taught him everything he needed to know about love and faith.
The Madisonian Constitution
by George ThomasThis volume examines four crucial moments in the United States' political history--the Civil War and Reconstruction, the Progressive Era, Franklin Delano Roosevelt's presidency and the New Deal, and the Reagan revolution--to illustrate the Madisonian view that the present rise of judicial supremacy actually runs counter to the Constitution as established at the nation's founding.
The Madisonian Constitution (The Johns Hopkins Series in Constitutional Thought)
by George ThomasToday, we think of constitutional questions as being settled by the Supreme Court.But that is not always the case, nor is it what the framers intended in constructing the three-branch federal government. This volume examines four crucial moments in the United States' political history—the Civil War and Reconstruction, the Progressive Era, Franklin Delano Roosevelt's presidency and the New Deal, and the Reagan revolution—to illustrate the Madisonian view that the present rise of judicial supremacy actually runs counter to the Constitution as established at the nation’s founding.George Thomas opens by discussing how the Constitution encourages an antagonistic approach to settling disputes, thereby preserving itself as the nation's fundamental law rather then ceding that role to the president, Congress, or Supreme Court. In considering the four historical case studies, he focuses on judicial interpretations and the political branches' responses to them to demonstrate that competing conceptions of constitutional authority and meaning, as well as intergovernmental disputes themselves—rather than any specific outcome—strengthen the nature of the nation's founding document as a political instrument.Engagingly written and soundly argued, this study clarifies and highlights the political origins of the nation's foundational document and argues that American constitutionalism is primarily about countervailing power not legal limits enforced by courts.
The Madisonian Turn: Political Parties and Parliamentary Democracy in Nordic Europe
by Torbjorn Bergman Kaare StromParliamentary democracy is the most common regime type in the contemporary political world, but the quality of governance depends on effective parliamentary oversight and strong political parties. Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden have traditionally been strongholds of parliamentary democracy. In recent years, however, critics have suggested that new challenges such as weakened popular attachment, the advent of cartel parties, the judicialization of politics, and European integration have threatened the institutions of parliamentary democracy in the Nordic region. This volume examines these claims and their implications. The authors find that the Nordic states have moved away from their previous resemblance to a Westminster model toward a form of parliamentary democracy with more separation-of-powers features---a Madisonian model. These features are evident both in vertical power relations (e.g., relations with the European Union) and horizontal ones (e.g., increasingly independent courts and central banks). Yet these developments are far from uniform and demonstrate that there may be different responses to the political challenges faced by contemporary Western democracies.
Madison's Gift: Five Partnerships That Built America
by David O. StewartHistorian David O. Stewart restores James Madison to his proper place as the most significant Founding Father and framer of the new nation: &“A fascinating look at how one unlikely figure managed to help guide…a precarious confederation of reluctant states to a self-governing republic that has prospered for more than two centuries&” (Richmond Times-Dispatch).Short, plain, balding, neither soldier nor orator, low on charisma and high on intelligence, James Madison cared more about achieving results than taking the credit. Forming key partnerships with Washington, Jefferson, Monroe, and his wife Dolley, Madison achieved his lifelong goal of a self-governing constitutional republic. It was Madison who led the drive for the Constitutional Convention and pressed for an effective new government as his patron George Washington lent the effort legitimacy; Madison who wrote the Federalist Papers with Alexander Hamilton to secure the Constitution’s ratification; Madison who joined Thomas Jefferson to found the nation’s first political party and move the nation toward broad democratic principles; Madison, with James Monroe, who guided the new nation through its first war in 1812, and who handed the reins of government to the last of the Founders.But it was his final partnership that allowed Madison to escape his natural shyness and reach the greatest heights. Dolley was the woman he married in middle age and who presided over both him and an enlivened White House. This partnership was a love story, a unique one that sustained Madison through his political rise, his presidency, and a fruitful retirement. In Madison’s Gift, David O. Stewart’s “insights are illuminating….He weaves vivid, sometimes poignant details throughout the grand sweep of historical events. He brings early history alive in a way that offers today’s readers perspective” (Christian Science Monitor).
Madison's Hand: Revising the Constitutional Convention
by Mary Sarah BilderJames Madison’s Notes on the 1787 Constitutional Convention have acquired nearly unquestioned authority as the description of the U.S. Constitution’s creation.<P><P> No document provides a more complete record of the deliberations in Philadelphia or depicts the Convention’s charismatic figures, crushing disappointments, and miraculous triumphs with such narrative force. But how reliable is this account?
Madison's Managers: Public Administration and the Constitution (Johns Hopkins Studies in Governance and Public Management)
by Anthony M. Bertelli E. Jr. LynnA case for the constitutional roots of public administration: “Essential to the field as we develop new theories and applications in a postmodern America.” ?Political Studies ReviewCombining insights from traditional thought and practice and from contemporary political analysis, Madison’s Managers presents a constitutional theory of public administration in the United States. Anthony Michael Bertelli and Laurence E. Lynn Jr. contend that managerial responsibility in American government depends on official respect for the separation of powers and a commitment to judgment, balance, rationality, and accountability in managerial practice.The authors argue that public management—administration by unelected officials of public agencies and activities based on authority delegated to them by policymakers—derives from the principles of American constitutionalism, articulated most clearly by James Madison. Public management is, they argue, a constitutional institution necessary to successful governance under the separation of powers. To support their argument, Bertelli and Lynn combine two intellectual traditions often regarded as antagonistic: modern political economy, which regards public administration as controlled through bargaining among the separate powers and organized interests, and traditional public administration, which emphasizes the responsible implementation of policies established by legislatures and elected executives while respecting the procedural and substantive rights enforced by the courts. These literatures are mutually reinforcing, the authors argue, because both feature the role of constitutional principles in public management.Madison’s Managers challenges public management scholars and professionals to recognize that the legitimacy and future of public administration depend on its constitutional foundations and their specific implications for managerial practice.
Madison's Managers: Public Administration and the Constitution (Johns Hopkins Studies in Governance and Public Management)
by Anthony M. Bertelli Laurence E. Lynn Jr.Combining insights from traditional thought and practice and from contemporary political analysis, Madison's Managers presents a constitutional theory of public administration in the United States. Anthony Michael Bertelli and Laurence E. Lynn Jr. contend that managerial responsibility in American government depends on official respect for the separation of powers and a commitment to judgment, balance, rationality, and accountability in managerial practice. The authors argue that public management—administration by unelected officials of public agencies and activities based on authority delegated to them by policymakers—derives from the principles of American constitutionalism, articulated most clearly by James Madison. Public management is, they argue, a constitutional institution necessary to successful governance under the separation of powers. To support their argument, Bertelli and Lynn combine two intellectual traditions often regarded as antagonistic: modern political economy, which regards public administration as controlled through bargaining among the separate powers and organized interests, and traditional public administration, which emphasizes the responsible implementation of policies established by legislatures and elected executives while respecting the procedural and substantive rights enforced by the courts. These literatures are mutually reinforcing, the authors argue, because both feature the role of constitutional principles in public management. Madison's Managers challenges public management scholars and professionals to recognize that the legitimacy and future of public administration depend on its constitutional foundations and their specific implications for managerial practice.
Madison's Music: On Reading the First Amendment
by Burt Neuborne&“A detailed history of the transformation of First Amendment law&” from one of the nation&’s foremost civil liberties lawyers (The New York Times). Are you sitting down? It turns out that everything you learned about the First Amendment is wrong. For too long, we&’ve been treating small, isolated snippets of the text as infallible gospel without looking at the masterpiece of the whole. Legal luminary Burt Neuborne argues that the structure of the First Amendment as well as of the entire Bill of Rights was more intentional than most people realize, beginning with the internal freedom of conscience and working outward to freedom of expression and finally freedom of public association. This design, Neuborne argues, was not to protect discrete individual rights—such as the rights of corporations to spend unlimited amounts of money to influence elections—but to guarantee that the process of democracy continues without disenfranchisement, oppression, or injustice. Neuborne, who was the legal director of the ACLU and has argued numerous cases before the Supreme Court, invites us to hear the &“music&” within the form and content of Madison&’s carefully formulated text. When we hear Madison&’s music, a democratic ideal flowers in front of us, and we can see that the First Amendment gives us the tools to fight for campaign finance reform, the right to vote, equal rights in the military, the right to be full citizens, and the right to prevent corporations from riding roughshod over the weakest among us. Neuborne gives us an eloquent lesson in democracy that informs and inspires. &“In the dark art of lawyering, Neuborne has always been considered a white knight.&” —New York
Madison's Sorrow: Today's War on the Founders and America's Liberal Ideal
by Kevin O'LearyAn eye-opening cultural history of the political revolution that has destroyed the Republican Party and unleashed an illiberal crusade against the ideals of the Founding Fathers.The story of America is the struggle between our liberal ideal and illiberal resistance. Donald Trump catalyzed a reactionary revolution by tapping into the dark, shadowy side of American democracy that embraces exclusion and inequality. Throughout American history these alarming impulses have come to the forefront of our culture—during the Civil War, the era of the Robber Barons, and the Civil Rights Movement—but have now come to fruition in the presidency of Donald Trump. Arguing that the contemporary Republican Party is waging a counterrevolution against the core beliefs of the nation, journalist and scholar Kevin C. O&’Leary cracks open American history to reveal the essence of America&’s liberal heritage by critiquing the reactionary illiberal currents that periodically threaten American democracy. American politics is no longer an ongoing debate between liberals and conservatives because the new Republican Party embraces the feudal values of the Old World. While there are millions of conservatives in the population, the elected leadership of the GOP is deeply reactionary. Today&’s marriage of white-identity Southerners and their northern allies to moneyed libertarians is no run-of-the-mill political partnership. Instead, it is extraordinarily dangerous. Clearly, conservatives have lost their party. And without conservatives debating liberals in an intellectual, respectful manner to address the nation&’s problems, Madisonian democracy breaks down. A stimulating reinterpretation of the American experience, Madison&’s Sorrow exposes the intellectual and moral deficiencies of the illiberal right while offering a robust defense of the liberal tradition.
The Madman in the White House: Sigmund Freud, Ambassador Bullitt, and the Lost Psychobiography of Woodrow Wilson
by Patrick Weil“A rich study of the role of personal psychology in the shaping of the new global order after World War I. So long as so much political power is concentrated in one human mind, we are all at the mercy of the next madman in the White House.”—Gary J. Bass, author of The Blood TelegramThe notorious psychobiography of Woodrow Wilson, rediscovered nearly a century after it was written by Sigmund Freud and US diplomat William C. Bullitt, sheds new light on how the mental health of a controversial American president shaped world events.When the fate of millions rests on the decisions of a mentally compromised leader, what can one person do? Disillusioned by President Woodrow Wilson’s destructive and irrational handling of the 1919 Treaty of Versailles, a US diplomat named William C. Bullitt asked this very question. With the help of his friend Sigmund Freud, Bullitt set out to write a psychological analysis of the president. He gathered material from personal archives and interviewed members of Wilson’s inner circle. In The Madman in the White House, Patrick Weil resurrects this forgotten portrait of a troubled president.After two years of collaboration, Bullitt and Freud signed off on a manuscript in April 1932. But the book was not published until 1966, nearly thirty years after Freud’s death and only months before Bullitt’s. The published edition was heavily redacted, and by the time it was released, the mystique of psychoanalysis had waned in popular culture and Wilson’s legacy was unassailable. The psychological study was panned by critics, and Freud’s descendants denied his involvement in the project.For nearly a century, the mysterious, original Bullitt and Freud manuscript remained hidden from the public. Then in 2014, while browsing the archives of Yale University, Weil happened upon the text. Based on his reading of the 1932 manuscript, Weil examines the significance of Bullitt and Freud’s findings and offers a major reassessment of the notorious psychobiography. The result is a powerful warning about the influence a single unbalanced personality can have on the course of history.
The Madman Theory: Trump Takes on the World
by Jim SciuttoFrom praising dictators to alienating allies, Trump made chaos his calling card. But four years into his administration, had his strategy caused more problems than it solved?Richard Nixon tried it first. Hoping to make communist bloc countries uneasy and thus unstable, Nixon let them think he was just crazy enough to nuke them. He called this “the madman theory.” Nearly half a century later, President Trump employed his own “madman theory,” sometimes intentionally and sometimes not.Trump praised Kim Jong-un and their “love notes,” admired and flattered Vladimir Putin, and gave a greenlight to Recep Tayyip Erdogan to invade Syria. Meanwhile, he attacked US institutions and officials, ignored his own advisors, and turned his back on US allies from Canada and Mexico to NATO to Ukraine to the Kurds at war with ISIS. Trump was willing to make the nation’s most sensitive and consequential decisions while often ignoring the best information and intelligence available to him. He continually caught the world off guard, but did it work?In The Madman Theory, Jim Sciutto showed how Trump's supporters assumed he had a strategy for long-term success – that he somehow played three-dimensional chess. Four years into Trump's presidency, it was clear his unpredictable focus on short-term headlines did in fact lead to predictably mediocre results in the short and long run. Trump’s foreign policy undermined American values and national security interests, while hurting allies who had been on our side for decades, leaving them isolated and vulnerable without American support. Meanwhile, Trump had comforted and emboldened our enemies. The White House’s revolving door of staff demonstrated that Trump had no real plan; all serious policymakers—and those who would be a check on his most destructive impulses—were exiled or jumped ship.Sciutto interviewed a wide swath of then-current and former administration officials to assemble the first comprehensive portrait of the impact of Trump’s erratic foreign policy. Smart, authoritative, and compelling, The Madman Theory is the definitive take on Trump’s calamitous legacy around the globe, showing how his proclivity for chaos was creating a world which was more unstable, violent, and impoverished than it had been before.
A Madman's Will: John Randolph, Four Hundred Slaves, and the Mirage of Freedom
by Gregory MayThe untold saga of John Randolph’s 383 slaves, freed in his much-contested will of 1821, finally comes to light. Few legal cases in American history are as riveting as the controversy surrounding the will of Virginia Senator John Randolph (1773–1833), which—almost inexplicably—freed all 383 of his slaves in one of the largest and most publicized manumissions in American history. So famous is the case that Ta-Nehisi Coates has used it to condemn Randolph’s cousin, Thomas Jefferson, for failing to free his own slaves. With this groundbreaking investigation, historian Gregory May now reveals a more surprising story, showing how madness and scandal shaped John Randolph’s wildly shifting attitudes toward his slaves—and how endemic prejudice in the North ultimately deprived the freedmen of the land Randolph had promised them. Sweeping from the legal spectacle of the contested will through the freedmen’s dramatic flight and horrific reception in Ohio, A Madman’s Will is an extraordinary saga about the alluring promise of freedom and its tragic limitations.
Madmen, Intellectuals, and Academic Scribblers: The Economic Engine of Political Change
by Edward J. Lopez Wayne A. LeightonDoes major political reform require a crisis? When do new ideas emerge in politics? How can one person make a difference? In short: how and when does political change happen? Madmen, Intellectuals, and Academic Scribblers tackles these big questions, arguing that ideas and entrepreneurship are the key ingredients in any episode of political change. Authors Wayne A. Leighton and Edward J. López begin with the first lesson in economics -- incentives matter -- and artfully explain how the lesson applies throughout political life. Incentives explain why democracies often generate policies that impose net costs on society, and why these inefficient policies persist for years. Yet beneficial reform does sometimes occur. So Madmen goes beyond incentives to offer a framework in which political change channels its way from ideas in society, through society's shared institutions (i.e., its rules of the game), which then shape incentives. This type of change is seldom easy, because new ideas for shaping the rules of the game must overcome two forces in society: widely shared beliefs and powerfully vested interests. Yet at certain political moments - perhaps during a crisis, but not always - shared beliefs and vested interests begin to weaken, and the opportunity for reform emerges. Within this framework, Madmen shows why certain inefficient policies eventually get repealed (e.g., airline rate and route regulation), while others endure (e.g., sugar subsidies and tariffs). Drawing on the history of Western political ideas, both in theory and in practice, Madmen matches up three key ingredients - ideas, rules, and incentives - with the characters who make political waves: "madmen in authority" (such as Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Margaret Thatcher), "intellectuals" (like George Will or Jon Stewart), and "academic scribblers" (in the vein of Friedrich Hayek and John Maynard Keynes). Political change happens when these characters - called political entrepreneurs - notice areas of weakness in the structure of ideas, rules, and incentives, and then find ways to change the rules of the game in those areas. These entrepreneurs in political change may be philosophers, opinion makers, political leaders, or other types of influencers. What they have in common is an interest in better ideas--ones that improve the human condition--and a vision to change incentives and outcomes. Madmen helps leaders in business and politics, and opinion-makers everywhere, better understand where the next opportunities are emerging. Students and professors will eat up its history of ideas, from the Ancients Greeks to Adam Smith, and from the Progressives to modern political economy. Using the framework laid out by the authors, readers of all stripes will see how they can be entrepreneurs in promoting effective political change.
The Madmen of Benghazi
by Gérard De VilliersTHE MADMEN OF BENGHAZI, available for the first time in the U.S., is a gripping, racy, ripped-from-the-headlines espionage thriller set in volatile post-Qaddafi Libya. Gérard de Villiers (1918-2013) spent his five-decade career cultivating connections in the world of international intelligence, which allowed him to anticipate geopolitical events before they occurred--and to masterfully blend fiction with an insider's knowledge of international affairs. Published from 1964 until his death in 2013, his bestselling SAS series of 200 spy novels, starring Malko Linge, was long considered France's answer to Ian Fleming, with Malko as his James Bond.Its hero, Malko Linge, an Austrian aristocrat, spends his time freelancing for the CIA in order to maintain his ancestral home and support his playboy lifestyle.When terrorists try to shoot down a plane carrying Libyan prince Ibrahim al-Senussi, it is clear that someone wants him dead. But the CIA has its own plot for the prince: Now that Qaddafi has been overthrown, al-Senussi is their best bet to set up a constitutional monarchy and stem the Islamist tide in Libya. The CIA, which needs Malko as much as he needs them, sends the Austrian aristocrat to Cairo to learn more about al-Senussi's plans by seducing his companion, a ravishing British model. This mission is enormously appealing, but also proves enormously dangerous, as the same madman of God who is trying to kill al-Senussi also takes aim at Malko.From the Trade Paperback edition.
Madness and Democracy: The Modern Psychiatric Universe (New French Thought Series)
by Marcel Gauchet Gladys SwainHow the insane asylum became a laboratory of democracy is revealed in this provocative look at the treatment of the mentally ill in nineteenth-century France. Political thinkers reasoned that if government was to rest in the hands of individuals, then measures should be taken to understand the deepest reaches of the self, including the state of madness. Marcel Gauchet and Gladys Swain maintain that the asylum originally embodied the revolutionary hope of curing all the insane by saving the glimmer of sanity left in them. Their analysis of why this utopian vision failed ultimately constitutes both a powerful argument for liberalism and a direct challenge to Michel Foucault's indictment of liberal institutions.The creation of an artificial environment was meant to encourage the mentally ill to live as social beings, in conditions that resembled as much as possible those prevailing in real life. The asylum was therefore the first instance of a modern utopian community in which a scientifically designed environment was supposed to achieve complete control over the minds of a whole category of human beings. Gauchet and Swain argue that the social domination of the inner self, far from being the hidden truth of emancipation, represented the failure of its overly optimistic beginnings.Madness and Democracy combines rich details of nineteenth-century asylum life with reflections on the crucial role of subjectivity and difference within modernism. Its final achievement is to show that the lessons learned from the failure of the asylum led to the rise of psychoanalysis, an endeavor focused on individual care and on the cooperation between psychiatrist and patient. By linking the rise of liberalism to a chapter in the history of psychiatry, Gauchet and Swain offer a fascinating reassessment of political modernity.
Madness in International Relations: Psychology, Security, and the Global Governance of Mental Health (Interventions)
by Alison HowellMadness in International Relations provides an important and innovative account of the role of psychology and psychiatry in global politics, showing how mental health governance has become a means of securing various populations, often with questionable effects. Through the analysis of three key case studies Howell illustrates how such therapeutic interventions can at times be coercive and sovereign, at other times disciplinary, and at still other times benevolent, though not benign. In each case a ‘diagnostic competition’ is traced, that is, a contestation over how best to diagnose and treat the population in question. The book examines the populations of Guantánamo Bay, post-conflict societies and western militaries, identifying how these diagnostic competitions ultimately rest on shared assumptions about the value of psychology and psychiatry in managing global security, about the value of achieving security through mental health governance, and ultimately about the medicalization of security. This work will be of great interest to all scholars of International relations, critical theory and security studies.