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Power Shift: The Longest Revolution (CBC Massey Lectures)
by Sally ArmstrongBestselling author, journalist, and human rights activist Sally Armstrong argues that humankind requires the equal status of women and girls.The facts are indisputable. When women get even a bit of education, the whole of society improves. When they get a bit of healthcare, everyone lives longer. In many ways, it has never been a better time to be a woman: a fundamental shift has been occurring. Yet from Toronto to Timbuktu the promise of equality still eludes half the world’s population.In her 2019 CBC Massey Lectures, award-winning author, journalist, and human rights activist Sally Armstrong illustrates how the status of the female half of humanity is crucial to our collective surviving and thriving. Drawing on anthropology, social science, literature, politics, and economics, she examines the many beginnings of the role of women in society, and the evolutionary revisions over millennia in the realms of sex, religion, custom, culture, politics, and economics. What ultimately comes to light is that gender inequality comes at too high a cost to us all.
Power Shift? Political Leadership and Social Media: Case Studies in Political Communication
by Richard Davis David TarasPower Shift? Political Leadership and Social Media examines how political leaders have adapted to the challenges of social media, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and memes, among other means of persuasion. Established political leaders now use social media to grab headlines, respond to opponents, fundraise, contact voters directly, and organize their election campaigns. Leaders of protest movements have used social media to organize and galvanize grassroots support and to popularize new narratives: narratives that challenge and sometimes overturn conventional thinking. Yet each social media platform provides different affordances and different attributes, and each is used differently by political leaders. In this book, leading international experts provide an unprecedented look at the role of social media in leadership today. Through a series of case studies dealing with topics ranging from Emmanuel Macron and Donald Trump's use of Twitter, to Justin Trudeau's use of selfies and Instagram, to how feminist leaders mobilize against stereotypes and injustices, the authors argue that many leaders have found additional avenues to communicate with the public and use power. This raises the question of whether this is causing a power shift in the relationship between leaders and followers. Together the chapters in this book suggest new rules of engagement that leaders ignore at their peril. The lack of systematic theoretically informed and empirically supported analyses makes Power Shift? Political Leadership and Social Media an indispensable read for students and scholars wishing to gain new understanding on what social media means for leadership.
Power Shifts: Congress and Presidential Representation (Chicago Studies in American Politics)
by John A. DearbornThat the president uniquely represents the national interest is a political truism, yet this idea has been transformational, shaping the efforts of Congress to remake the presidency and testing the adaptability of American constitutional government. The emergence of the modern presidency in the first half of the twentieth century transformed the American government. But surprisingly, presidents were not the primary driving force of this change—Congress was. Through a series of statutes, lawmakers endorsed presidential leadership in the legislative process and augmented the chief executive’s organizational capacities. But why did Congress grant presidents this power? In Power Shifts, John A. Dearborn shows that legislators acted on the idea that the president was the best representative of the national interest. Congress subordinated its own claims to stand as the nation’s primary representative institution and designed reforms that assumed the president was the superior steward of all the people. In the process, Congress recast the nation’s chief executive as its chief representative. As Dearborn demonstrates, the full extent to which Congress’s reforms rested on the idea of presidential representation was revealed when that notion’s validity was thrown into doubt. In the 1970s, Congress sought to restore its place in a rebalanced system, but legislators also found that their earlier success at institutional reinvention constrained their efforts to reclaim authority. Chronicling the evolving relationship between the presidency and Congress across a range of policy areas, Power Shifts exposes a fundamental dilemma in an otherwise proud tradition of constitutional adaptation.
Power Shifts: Congress and Presidential Representation (Chicago Studies in American Politics)
by John A. DearbornThat the president uniquely represents the national interest is a political truism, yet this idea has been transformational, shaping the efforts of Congress to remake the presidency and testing the adaptability of American constitutional government. The emergence of the modern presidency in the first half of the twentieth century transformed the American government. But surprisingly, presidents were not the primary driving force of this change—Congress was. Through a series of statutes, lawmakers endorsed presidential leadership in the legislative process and augmented the chief executive’s organizational capacities. But why did Congress grant presidents this power? In Power Shifts, John A. Dearborn shows that legislators acted on the idea that the president was the best representative of the national interest. Congress subordinated its own claims to stand as the nation’s primary representative institution and designed reforms that assumed the president was the superior steward of all the people. In the process, Congress recast the nation’s chief executive as its chief representative. As Dearborn demonstrates, the full extent to which Congress’s reforms rested on the idea of presidential representation was revealed when that notion’s validity was thrown into doubt. In the 1970s, Congress sought to restore its place in a rebalanced system, but legislators also found that their earlier success at institutional reinvention constrained their efforts to reclaim authority. Chronicling the evolving relationship between the presidency and Congress across a range of policy areas, Power Shifts exposes a fundamental dilemma in an otherwise proud tradition of constitutional adaptation.
Power Shifts: Congress and Presidential Representation (Chicago Studies in American Politics)
by John A. DearbornThat the president uniquely represents the national interest is a political truism, yet this idea has been transformational, shaping the efforts of Congress to remake the presidency and testing the adaptability of American constitutional government. The emergence of the modern presidency in the first half of the twentieth century transformed the American government. But surprisingly, presidents were not the primary driving force of this change—Congress was. Through a series of statutes, lawmakers endorsed presidential leadership in the legislative process and augmented the chief executive’s organizational capacities. But why did Congress grant presidents this power? In Power Shifts, John A. Dearborn shows that legislators acted on the idea that the president was the best representative of the national interest. Congress subordinated its own claims to stand as the nation’s primary representative institution and designed reforms that assumed the president was the superior steward of all the people. In the process, Congress recast the nation’s chief executive as its chief representative. As Dearborn demonstrates, the full extent to which Congress’s reforms rested on the idea of presidential representation was revealed when that notion’s validity was thrown into doubt. In the 1970s, Congress sought to restore its place in a rebalanced system, but legislators also found that their earlier success at institutional reinvention constrained their efforts to reclaim authority. Chronicling the evolving relationship between the presidency and Congress across a range of policy areas, Power Shifts exposes a fundamental dilemma in an otherwise proud tradition of constitutional adaptation.
Power Shifts, Strategy and War: Declining States and International Conflict (Routledge Global Security Studies)
by Dong Sun LeeMarked changes in the balance of power between states in the international system are generally seen by IR scholars as among the most common causes of war. This book explains why such power shifts lead to war breaking out in some cases, but not in others. In contrast to existing approaches, this book argues that the military strategy of declining states is the key determinant of whether power shifts result in war or pass peacefully. More specifically, Dong Sun Lee argues that the probability of war is primarily a function of whether a declining state possesses a ‘manoeuvre strategy’ or an ‘attrition strategy’. The argument is developed through the investigation of fourteen power shifts among great powers over the past two centuries. Shifts in the balance of power and the attendant risks of war remain an enduring feature of international politics. This book argues that policymakers need to understand the factors influencing the risk of war as a result of these changes, in particular the contemporary shifts in power resulting from the rise of China and from the growth of nuclear proliferation.
Power, Structure and Hegemony. Volume I: World Power Index
by Daniel Morales Ruvalcaba Andrea del Rosario Ambriz VillalobosThe main objective of the work "Power, structure and hegemony: Guidelines for the study of the international governance" is to analyze the incidence of the change of the structural positioning of the most powerful States on the international governance. To proceed in this labor, the first step has been to define the concept of international governance and to decompose it into simpler factors. One of the above mentioned factors is the national power. This "Volume I: Index of World Power Index", presents a brief exploration of some theoretical general notions to the study of the national power and certain particular trials to its measurement. The purpose of this review is to identify a set of useful and valuable variables for the design of a scale that contributes to the weighting of the national power. This way, will proceed with the differentiation of the national capacities -into material, semi-material and immaterial- and then, to the formulation of a statistical instrument that will serve as a technique for a multidimensional measurement of the national power: the World Power Index (WPI). In this book, the results of the WPI are published by the first time -as well as its respective subscripts- for more than 160 countries with annual figures from 1975 until 2013.
Power Struggles: Energy Security and Energy Diplomacy in the Asia Pacific
by Se Hyun AhnThis book explores East Asia’s and the Asia Pacific’s energy security exploring key issues including major trans-border energy projects, major country’s energy mix policy, trans- border pipelines, LNG transfer between nations, balance of power relations between major powers, the North Korean energy situation, energy alliances, Belt and Road Initiative, Indo-Pacific Strategy, World Choke point and more. In particular, this book provides the detailed analysis of the current problems of energy security and diplomacy among various countries as well as policy implications. It will clearly serve as a manual to enhance energy security in the region and boost energy transaction as well as the pioneering step to conceptualize the notion of energy security among political circles, in the diplomatic community and energy industry as well as international relations academics.
Power Struggles: Dignity, Value, and the Renewable Energy Frontier in Spain (New Anthropologies of Europe)
by Jaume FranquesaWind energy is often portrayed as a panacea for the environmental and political ills brought on by an overreliance on fossil fuels, but this characterization may ignore the impact wind farms have on the regions that host them. Power Struggles investigates the uneven allocation of risks and benefits in the relationship between the regions that produce this energy and those that consume it. Jaume Franquesa considers Spain, a country where wind now constitutes the main source of energy production. In particular, he looks at the Southern Catalonia region, which has traditionally been a source of energy production through nuclear reactors, dams, oil refineries, and gas and electrical lines. Despite providing energy that runs the country, the region is still forced to the political and economic periphery as the power they produce is controlled by centralized, international Spanish corporations. Local resistance to wind farm installation in Southern Catalonia relies on the notion of dignity: the ability to live within one's means and according to one's own decisions. Power Struggles shows how, without careful attention, renewable energy production can reinforce patterns of exploitation even as it promises a fair and hopeful future.
Power Struggles: Hydro Development and First Nations in Manitoba and Quebec
by Thibault Martin Steven M. HoffmanPower Struggles: Hydro Development and First Nations in Manitoba and Quebec examines the evolution of new agreements between First Nations and Inuit and the hydro corporations in Quebec and Manitoba, including the Wuskwatim Dam Project, Paix des Braves, and the Great Whale Project. In the 1970s, both provinces signed so-called “modern treaties” with First Nations for the development of large hydro projects in Aboriginal territories. In recent times, however, the two provinces have diverged in their implementation, and public opinion of these agreements has ranged from celebratory to outrage.Power Struggles brings together perspectives on these issues from both scholars and activists. In debating the relative merits and limits of these agreements, they raise a crucial question: Is Canada on the eve of a new relationship with First Nations, or do the same colonial attitudes that have long characterized Canadian-Aboriginal relations still prevail?
The Power Struggles over the Post-neoliberal Social Security System Reforms in Venezuela and Ecuador (The Latin American Studies Book Series)
by Ezequiel Luis BistolettiThis book carries out a comparative analysis of the power struggles over the post-neoliberal social security reforms in Venezuela and Ecuador. The research breaks down why the social security system reform initiated by Hugo Chávez’ government in Venezuela has come down since its passing in 2002, whereas the social security system reform initiated by Rafael Correa’s government in Ecuador has come along in spite of the obstacles since 2007. All in all, the analysis determined that the struggles over the social security system reforms in both countries remarkably corresponded to each other with regard to their structural conditions, points of contention, and contending actors. In contrast, the analysis established substantial divergences regarding the ways in which the struggles over both reforms came about, due to the divergent development of the struggles for hegemony between government and opposition. These divergences finally brought about the indefinite stagnation of the reform in Venezuela and the advancement of subsequent partial reforms aimed at the universalization of social security in Ecuador.
Power, Suffering, and the Struggle for Dignity: Human Rights Frameworks for Health and Why They Matter (Pennsylvania Studies in Human Rights)
by Alicia YaminDirected at a diverse audience of students, legal and public health practitioners, and anyone interested in understanding what human rights-based approaches (HRBAs) to health and development mean and why they matter, Power, Suffering, and the Struggle for Dignity provides a solid foundation for comprehending what a human rights framework implies and the potential for social transformation it entails. <P><P>Applying a human rights framework to health demands that we think about our own suffering and that of others, as well as the fundamental causes of that suffering. What is our agency as human subjects with rights and dignity, and what prevents us from acting in certain circumstances? What roles are played by others in decisions that affect our health? How do we determine whether what we may see as "natural" is actually the result of mutable, human policies and practices? <P><P>Alicia Ely Yamin couples theory with personal examples of HRBAs at work and shows the impact they have had on people's lives and health outcomes. Analyzing the successes of and challenges to using human rights frameworks for health, Yamin charts what can be learned from these experiences, from conceptualization to implementation, setting out explicit assumptions about how we can create social transformation. <P><P>The ultimate concern of Power, Suffering, and the Struggle for Dignity is to promote movement from analysis to action, so that we can begin to use human rights frameworks to effect meaningful social change in global health, and beyond.
Power Surge
by Ben BovaSix-time Hugo winner Ben Bova brings us Power Surge, a gripping political thriller on the cutting-edge of science and technology. Dr. Jake Ross came to Washington, D. C., to make a difference. As the science adviser to a newly-elected freshman senator, Jake has crafted a comprehensive energy plan that employs innovative new technologies to make America the world's leader in energy production while simultaneously boosting the economy and protecting the environment. The facts--and the science--are on Jake's side, but his plan soon runs afoul of entrenched special interests, well-funded lobbies, cynical bureaucrats, pork-barrel politics, and one very powerful U. S. Senator. To keep his plan alive and secure a sustainable future for America, Jake needs a crash course in the way Washingtonreally works. Everyone keeps telling him that his plan has no hope of succeeding, but Jake is determined to prove them wrong even if it kills him... something that certain hostile parties may be all too happy to arrange.
Power Switch: Energy Regulatory Governance in the Twenty-First Century
by G. Bruce Doern Monica GattingerIn the energy sector of Canadian economic and political life, power has a double meaning. It is quintessentially about the generation of power and physical energy. However, it is also about political power, the energy of the economy, and thus the overall governance of Canada. Power Switch offers a critical examination of the changing nature of energy regulatory governance, with a particular focus on Canada in the larger contexts of the George W. Bush administration's aggressive energy policies and within North American energy markets.Focusing on the key institutions and complex regimes of regulation, Bruce Doern and Monica Gattinger look at specific regulatory bodies such as the National Energy Board, the Alberta Energy and Utilities Board, and the Ontario Energy Board. They also examine the complex systems of rule making that develop as traditional energy regulation interacts and often collides with environmental and climate change regulation, such as the Kyoto Protocol on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Power Switch is one of the first accounts in many years of Canada's overall energy regulatory system.
Power Systems: Conversations on Global Democratic Uprisings and the New Challenges to U. S. Empire
by Noam ChomskyA compelling new set of interviews on changing and turbulent times with Chomsky, one of the world's foremost thinkers. As always, Chomsky presents his ideas vividly and accessibly, with uncompromising principle and clarifying insight.
Power Systems: Conversations on Global Democratic Uprisings and the New Challenges to U.S. Empire (The American Empire Project)
by Noam ChomskyA compelling new set of interviews on our changing and turbulent times with Noam Chomsky, one of the world's foremost thinkersIn this new collection of conversations, conducted from 2010 to 2012, Noam Chomsky explores the most immediate and urgent concerns: the future of democracy in the Arab world, the implications of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, the European financial crisis, the breakdown of American mainstream political institutions, and the rise of the Occupy movement. As always, Chomsky presents his ideas vividly and accessibly, with uncompromising principle and clarifying insight.The latest volume from a long-established, trusted partnership, Power Systems shows once again that no interlocutor engages with Chomsky more effectively than David Barsamian. These interviews will inspire a new generation of readers, as well as longtime Chomsky fans eager for his latest thinking on the many crises we now confront, both at home and abroad. They confirm that Chomsky is an unparalleled resource for anyone seeking to understand our world today.
Power Tends To Corrupt: Lord Acton's Study of Liberty
by Christopher LazarskiLord Acton (1834–1902) is often called a historian of liberty. A great historian and political thinker, he had a rare talent to reach beneath the surface and reveal the hidden springs that move the world. While endeavoring to understand the components of a truly free society, Acton attempted to see how the principles of self-determination and freedom worked in practice, from antiquity to his own time. But though he penned hundreds of papers, essays, reviews, letters and ephemera, the ultimate book of his findings and views on the history of liberty remained unwritten. Reading a book a day for years he still could not keep pace with the output of his time, and finally, dejected, he gave up. Today, Acton is mainly known for a single maxim, Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. In Power Tends to Corrupt, Christopher Lazarski presents the first in-depth consideration of Acton's thought in more than fifty years. Lazarski brings Acton's work to light in accessible language, with a focus on his understanding of liberty and its development in Western history. A work akin to Acton's overall account of the history of liberty, with a secondary look at his political theory, this book is an outstanding exegesis of the theories and findings of one of the nineteenth century's keenest minds.
Power, Terror, Peace, and War
by Walter Russell MeadInternational affairs expert and award-winning author of Special Providence Walter Russell Mead here offers a remarkably clear-eyed account of American foreign policy and the challenges it faces post--September 11.Starting with what America represents to the world community, Mead argues that throughout its history it has been guided by a coherent set of foreign policy objectives. He places the record of the Bush administration in the context of America's historical relations with its allies and foes. And he takes a hard look at the international scene-from despair and decay in the Arab world to tumult in Africa and Asia-and lays out a brilliant framework for tailoring America's grand strategy to our current and future threats. Balanced, persuasive, and eminently sensible, Power, Terror, Peace, and War is a work of extraordinary significance on the role of the United States in the world today.From the Trade Paperback edition. Central Asia--threatens to create lawless, violent zones where terrorism can thrive, and weapons of mass destruction and biological and chemical weapons can proliferate.We learn why key American alliances have frayed and why the Bush administration's pronouncements and actions have ignited the most acrimonious U.S. political battles over foreign policy since the Vietnam War. Mead closes with a rigorous assessment of both Bush and his critics, and describes the urgent steps the United States must take lest casualties in the war on terror mount and the war itself spin out of control. He proposes a new approach to the war that can rebuild domestic and international support for a tough antiterror policy, outlines a new initiative for the Israeli-Palestinian dispute, and recommends sweeping changes for reforming international institutions, including the United Nations Security Council.Power, Terror, Peace, and War is a clear, concise guide to some of the most pressing issues before us, today and for the foreseeable future.From the Hardcover edition.
Power & the People: Five Lessons from the Birthplace of Democracy
by Alev Scott Andronike MakresDEMOCRACY WAS BORN IN ATHENS. FROM ITS FOUNDING MYTHS TO ITS GOLDEN AGE AND ITS CHAOTIC DOWNFALL, IT'S RICH WITH LESSONS FOR OUR OWN TIMES.'Timely and fascinating' Robin Lane FoxWhy did vital civic engagement and fair debate descend into populism and paralysis? Can we compare the demagogue Cleon to President Trump, the Athenian Empire to modern America, or the stubborn island of Melos to Brexit Britain? How did a second referendum save the Athenians from a bloodthirsty decision? Who were the last defenders of democracy in the changing, globalised world of the 4th Century BC, and how do we unconsciously echo them today?With verve and acuity, the heroics and the critics of Athenian democracy are brought to bear on today's politics, revealing in all its glories and its flaws the system that still survives to execute the power of the people.
Power, the State, and Sovereignty: Essays on International Relations
by Stephen D. KrasnerStephen Krasner has been one of the most influential theorists within international relations and international political economy over the past few decades. Power, the State, and Sovereignty is a collection of his key scholarly works. The book includes both a framing introduction written for this volume, and a concluding essay examining the relationship between academic research and the actual making of foreign policy. Drawing on both his extensive academic work and his experiences during his recent role within the Bush administration (as Director for Policy Planning at the US State department) Krasner has revised and updated all of the essays in the collection to provide a coherent discussion of the importance of power, ideas, and domestic structures in world politics. Progressing through a carefully structured evaluation of US domestic politics and foreign policy, international politics and finally sovereignty, this volume is essential reading for all serious scholars of international politics.
The Power to Arrest: Lessons from Research (Springerbriefs In Criminology Ser.)
by Robin S. Engel Robert E. Worden Nicholas Corsaro Hannah D. McManus Danielle Reynolds Hannah Cochran Gabrielle T. Isaza Jennifer Calnon CherkauskasThis insightful volume examines key research questions concerning police decision to arrest as well as police-led diversion. The authors critically evaluate the tentative answers that empirical evidence provides to those questions, and suggest areas for future inquiry.Nearly seven decades of empirical study have provided extensive knowledge regarding police use of arrest. However, this research highlights important gaps in our understanding of factors that shape police decision-making and what is required to alter current police practice. Reviewing this research base, this brief takes stock of what is known empirically about all aspects related to the use of arrests, providing important insights on the knowledge needed to make evidence-based policy decisions moving forward. With the potential to better impact policy and programs for alternatives to arrest, this brief will appeal to researchers and practitioners in evidence-based policing and police decision-making, as well as those interested in alternatives to arrest and related fields such as public policy.
The Power to Destroy: How the Antitax Movement Hijacked America
by Michael J. GraetzHow the antitax fringe went mainstream—and now threatens America&’s futureThe postwar United States enjoyed large, widely distributed economic rewards—and most Americans accepted that taxes were a reasonable price to pay for living in a society of shared prosperity. Then in 1978 California enacted Proposition 13, a property tax cap that Ronald Reagan hailed as a &“second American Revolution,&” setting off an antitax, antigovernment wave that has transformed American politics and economic policy. In The Power to Destroy, Michael Graetz tells the story of the antitax movement and how it holds America hostage—undermining the nation&’s ability to meet basic needs and fix critical problems.In 1819, Chief Justice John Marshall declared that the power to tax entails &“the power to destroy.&” But The Power to Destroy argues that tax opponents now wield this destructive power. Attacking the IRS, protecting tax loopholes, and pushing tax cuts from Reagan to Donald Trump, the antitax movement is threatening the nation&’s social safety net, increasing inequality, ballooning the national debt, and sapping America&’s financial strength. The book chronicles how the movement originated as a fringe enterprise promoted by zealous outsiders using false economic claims and thinly veiled racist rhetoric, and how—abetted by conservative media and Grover Norquist&’s &“taxpayer protection pledge"—it evolved into a mainstream political force.The important story of how the antitax movement came to dominate and distort politics, and how it impedes rational budgeting, equality, and opportunities, The Power to Destroy is essential reading for understanding American life today.
The Power to Divide: Wedge Strategies in Great Power Competition (Cornell Studies in Security Affairs)
by Timothy W. CrawfordTimothy W. Crawford's The Power to Divide examines the use of wedge strategies, a form of divisive statecraft designed to isolate adversaries from allies and potential supporters to gain key advantages. With a multidimensional argument about the power of accommodation in competition, and a survey of alliance diplomacy around both World Wars, The Power to Divide artfully analyzes the past and future performance of wedge strategy in great power politics. Crawford argues that nations attempting to use wedge strategy do best when they credibly accommodate likely or established allies of their enemies. He also argues that a divider's own alliances can pose obstacles to success and explains the conditions that help dividers overcome them. He advances these claims in eight focused studies of alliance diplomacy surrounding the World Wars, derived from published official documents and secondary histories. Through those narratives, Crawford adeptly assesses the record of countries that tried an accommodative wedge strategy, and why ultimately, they succeeded or failed. These calculated actions often became turning points, desired or not, in a nation's established power. For policymakers today facing threats to power from great power competitors, Crawford argues that a deeper historical and theoretical grasp of the role of these wedge strategies in alliance politics and grand strategy is necessary. Crawford drives home the contemporary relevance of the analysis with a survey of China's potential to use such strategies to divide India from the US, and the United States' potential to use them to forestall a China-Russia alliance, and closes with a review of key theoretical insights for policy.
The Power to Heal: Civil Rights, Medicare, and the Struggle to Transform America's Health Care System
by David Barton SmithIn less than four months, beginning with a staff of five, an obscure office buried deep within the federal bureaucracy transformed the nation's hospitals from our most racially and economically segregated institutions into our most integrated. These powerful private institutions, which had for a half century selectively served people on the basis of race and wealth, began equally caring for all on the basis of need.The book draws the reader into the struggles of the unsung heroes of the transformation, black medical leaders whose stubborn courage helped shape the larger civil rights movement. They demanded an end to federal subsidization of discrimination in the form of Medicare payments to hospitals that embraced the "separate but equal" creed that shaped American life during the Jim Crow era. Faced with this pressure, the Kennedy and Johnson Administrations tried to play a cautious chess game, but that game led to perhaps the biggest gamble in the history of domestic policy. Leaders secretly recruited volunteer federal employees to serve as inspectors, and an invisible army of hospital workers and civil rights activists to work as agents, making it impossible for hospitals to get Medicare dollars with mere paper compliance. These triumphs did not come without casualties, yet the story offers lessons and hope for realizing this transformational dream.
The Power to Heal: Civil Rights, Medicare, and the Struggle to Transform America's Health Care System
by David Barton SmithIn less than four months, beginning with a staff of five, an obscure office buried deep within the federal bureaucracy transformed the nation's hospitals from our most racially and economically segregated institutions into our most integrated. These powerful private institutions, which had for a half century selectively served people on the basis of race and wealth, began equally caring for all on the basis of need. The book draws the reader into the struggles of the unsung heroes of the transformation, black medical leaders whose stubborn courage helped shape the larger civil rights movement. They demanded an end to federal subsidization of discrimination in the form of Medicare payments to hospitals that embraced the "separate but equal" creed that shaped American life during the Jim Crow era. Faced with this pressure, the Kennedy and Johnson Administrations tried to play a cautious chess game, but that game led to perhaps the biggest gamble in the history of domestic policy. Leaders secretly recruited volunteer federal employees to serve as inspectors, and an invisible army of hospital workers and civil rights activists to work as agents, making it impossible for hospitals to get Medicare dollars with mere paper compliance. These triumphs did not come without casualties, yet the story offers lessons and hope for realizing this transformational dream.This book is the recipient of the Norman L. and Roselea J. Goldberg Prize from Vanderbilt University Press for the best book in the area of medicine.