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Syria: Borders, Boundaries, and the State (Mobility & Politics)
by Matthieu CiminoThis book explores the history of Syria’s borders and boundaries, from their creation (1920) until the civil war (2011) and their contestation by the Islamic State or the Kurdish movement. The volume’s main objective is to reconsider the “artificial” character of the Syrian territory and to reveal the processes by which its borders were shaped and eventually internalized by the country’s main actors. Based on extensive archival research, the book first documents the creation and stabilization of Syrian borders before and during the mandates period (nineteenth century to 1946), studying Ottoman and French territorialization strategies but also emphasizing the key role of the borderlands in this process. In turn, it investigates the perceptual boundaries resulting from the conflict, and how they materialized in space. Lastly, it explores the geographical and political imaginaries of non-state actors (PYD, ISIS) that emerged from the war.
Syria: From National Independence to Proxy War
by Ali Kadri Linda MatarThis edited collection aims to analytically reconceptualise the Syrian crisis by examining how and why the country has moved from a stable to a war-torn society. It is written by scholars from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds, all of whom make no attempt to speculate on the future trajectory of the conflict, but aim instead to examine the historical background that has laid the objective conditions for Syria’s descent to its current situation. Their work represents an attempt to dissect the multi-layered foundation of the Syrian conflict and to make understanding its complex inner workings accessible to a broader readership. The book is divided into four parts, each of which elaborates on the origins and dynamics of today’s crisis from the perspective of a different discipline. When put together, the four parts provide a holistic picture of Syria’s developmental trajectory from the early twentieth century through to the present day. Themes addressed include Syria’s postcolonial development efforts, its leap into socialism and then into neoliberalism in the late twentieth century, its politics within the resistance front, and finally its food and health security concerns.
Syria: Revolution From Above (The Contemporary Middle East)
by Raymond HinnebuschThis study examines the development of the Syrian state as it has emerged under thirty-five years of military-Ba'thist rule and, particularly, under President Hafiz al-Asad. It analyzes the way in which the fragility of the post-independence state, unable to contain rising nationalist struggle and class conflict, opened the way to the Ba'th party's rise to power and examines how the Ba'th's 'revolution from above' transformed Syria's socio-political terrain.
Syria: The Fall of the House of Assad
by David W. LeschWhen Syrian President Bashar al-Assad came to power upon his father's death in 2000, many in- and outside Syria held high hopes that the popular young doctor would bring long-awaited reform, that he would be a new kind of Middle East leader capable of guiding his country toward genuine democracy. David Lesch was one of those who saw this promise in Assad. A widely respected Middle East scholar and consultant, Lesch came to know the president better than anyone in the West, in part through a remarkable series of meetings with Assad between 2004 and 2009. Yet for Lesch, like millions of others, Assad was destined to disappoint. In this timely book, the author explores Assad's failed leadership, his transformation from bearer of hope to reactionary tyrant, and his regime's violent response to the uprising of his people in the wake of the Arab Spring. Lesch charts Assad's turn toward repression and the inexorable steps toward the violence of 2011 and 2012. The book recounts the causes of the Syrian uprising, the regime's tactics to remain in power, the responses of other nations to the bloodshed, and the determined efforts of regime opponents. In a thoughtful conclusion, the author suggests scenarios that could unfold in Syria's uncertain future.
Syria: The Tragedy of a Pivotal State
by Rajendra M. AbhyankarThe book focuses, through multiple levels of international reality, on the pervasive and widespread effect of the Syrian civil war on the unravelling of established norms---both global or national--- which have determined international relations during the last seven decades. It postulates that since 2011, the Syrian situation has catalysed the breakdown of the international system based on the United Nations and the Bretton Woods institutions. The core international values fostered by that system now laid waste, among others, are sovereignty, non-interference, sanctity of UN Security Council approval for waging war, human rights, protection of civilian populations, and the right of people to choose their own governments/leaders. By making the UNSC powerless in providing humanitarian assistance or fostering cease-fire and peace-making it has called into question the principles which have been held immutable for seventy years. More importantly, these norms have been breached by their originators. The book takes a wider perspective melding together the civil war’s international, regional and national consequences to understand how and why this one event has radiated profound consequences for the international system.
Syrian Civil War and Europe (China Perspectives)
by Zhao Chen Zhao Jizhou Huang MengmengKnown as the “beating heart” of the Arab World, Syria has held high geographic and political importance in the Middle East and has been the battlefield of superpowers for centuries. Since the outbreak of the “Arab Spring,” its central role has been reinforced by its civil war, one of the longest and bloodiest conflicts since World War II, causing significant humanitarian disaster. With American power diminishing and European power in the region emerging, Europe has begun to exert its impact on Syria, and this book analyzes the diplomatic policies of European countries on Syria from the perspective of Chinese scholars. Starting with a review of the European Union’s policies in the Middle East and North Africa as a whole, the authors analyze the Syrian policies of France, the United Kingdom and Germany, the three most influential and representative countries on the European continent. The authors argue that the favoured “humanitarian intervention” concept failed to achieve the expected results, increased the bloodiness of the Syrian civil war and undermined the European Union’s advantage in the region. Researchers and students of international relations as well as Middle East Studies will benefit from this volume.
Syrian Crisis, Syrian Refugees: Voices from Jordan and Lebanon (Mobility & Politics)
by Juline Beaujouan Amjed RasheedThis edited volume investigates the political and socioeconomic impact of the Syrian refugee crisis on Lebanon and Jordan, and these countries’ mechanisms to cope with the rapid influx of refugees. The sudden population increase has resulted in severe pressures on infrastructures and services, as well as growing social tensions between the refugees and host communities. These chapters use a transdisciplinary approach to analyse the repercussions of the humanitarian tragedy at three different levels: 1) the changing governmental policies of the two countries towards the crisis; 2) the different perceptions of the Jordanian and Lebanese local communities on the Syrian refugees; and 3) the role played by NGOs and the civil society in both countries in dealing with protracted humanitarian emergencies.
Syrian Foreign Policy: The Alliances of a Regional Power (Routledge/ St. Andrews Syrian Studies Series)
by Francesco BelcastroExamining Syrian foreign policy during the Ba’th years from 1963 to 1989, this book traces the alliances of the Levantine country from a historical perspective and in the context of recent political developments. Syrian Foreign Policy analyses the pivotal alliances of Damascus using a theoretical framework based on neoclassical realism, an approach which incorporates domestic factors succh as the role of ideology within a realist perspective. Covering Syria’s relations with Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Iran and the Soviet Union, it asks the question: what led to the formation of each alliance and what has caused either its break up or its continuation? Belcastro seeks to answer this questions, but also reflects on the country’s foreign policy today and its broader implications for Syria and the whole region. Making use of case studies to build upon a strong theoretical analysis, this book will be useful to students and scholars of Middle Eastern politics, as well as politics and International Relations more generally.
Syrian Notebooks
by Charlotte Mandell Jonathan LittellA blistering firsthand account of the conflict in Homs by the internationally acclaimed author of The Kindly Ones "We fight for our religion, for our women, for our land, and lastly to save our skin. As for them, they're only fighting to save their skin."In 2012, Jonathan Littell traveled to the heart of the Syrian uprising, smuggled in by the Free Syrian Army to the historic city of Homs. For three weeks, he watched as neighborhoods were bombed and innocent civilians murdered. His notes on what he saw on the ground speak directly of horrors that continue today in the ongoing civil war.Amid the chaos, Littell bears witness to the lives and the hopes of freedom fighters, of families caught within the conflict, as well as of the doctors who attempt to save both innocents and combatants who come under fire. As government forces encircle the city, Littell charts the first stirrings of the fundamentalist movement that would soon hijack the revolution. Littell's notebooks were originally the raw material for the articles he wrote upon his return for the French daily Le Monde. Published nearly immediately afterward in France, Syrian Notebooks has come to form an incomparable close-up account of a war that still grips the Middle East--a classic of war reportage.
Syrian Refugee Children in the Middle East and Europe: Integrating the Young and Exiled (Routledge Studies in Middle Eastern Society)
by Michelle Pace Somdeep SenSince the start of the conflict in Syria in 2011, Syrian refugee children have withstood violence, uncertainty, fear, trauma and loss. This book follows their journeys by bringing together scholars and practitioners to reflect on how to make their situation better and to get this knowledge to as many front liners - across European and neighbouring countries in the Middle East - as possible. The book is premised on the underlying conception of refugee children as not merely a vulnerable contingent of the displaced Syrian population, but one that possesses a certain agency for change and progress. In this vein, the various contributions aim to not just de-securitize the ‘conversation’ on migration that frequently centres on the presumed insecurity that refugees personify. They also de-securitize the figure and image of the refugee. Through the stories of the youngest and most vulnerable, they demonstrate that refugee children are not mere opaque figures on who we project our insecurities. Instead, they embody potentials and opportunities for progress that we need to nurture, as young refugees find themselves compelled to both negotiate the practical realities of a life in exile, and situate themselves in changing and unfamiliar sociocultural contexts. Drawing on extensive field research, this edited volume points in the direction of a new rights based framework which will safeguard the future of these children and their well-being. Offering a comparative lens between approaches to tackling refugees in the Middle East and Europe, this book will appeal to students and scholars of refugees and migration studies, human rights, as well as anyone with an interest in the Middle East or Europe.
Syrian Refugees in Turkey: Between Reception and Integration (IMISCOE Research Series)
by Ayhan Kaya Susan Beth Rottmann Zeynep Şahin-Mencütek N. Ela Gökalp-ArasThis open access book provides a comprehensive analysis of Turkey’s response to Syrian mass migration from 2011 to 2020. It examines internal and external dimensions of the refugee issue in relation to Middle Eastern geopolitics as well as the salience of controlling irregular migration to the European Union. The book focuses on policies and discourses developed in the fields of border management, reception, asylum and protection, and integration of refugees with an emphasis on continuities, ruptures and changes. One of its main goals is to compare differences in policy practices across provinces in order to better capture ways in which Syrian refugees claim agency, develop belonging and experience integration in the context of cultural intimacy, precarity and temporariness. By providing rich empirical evidence, this book provides a valuable resource for students and scholars in migration studies, political science, anthropology, sociology and public administration disciplines as well as policy makers, stakeholders and the general public.
Syrian Refugees, Applied Theater, Workshop Facilitation, and Stories: While They Were Waiting
by Fadi SkeikerThis book analyzes and theorizes the efficacy of using applied theater as a tool to address refugee issues of displacement, trauma, adjustment, and psychological well-being, in addition to split community belonging. Fadi Skeiker connects refugee narratives to the themes of imagination, home, gender, and conservatism, among others. Each chapter outlines the author’s applied theater practice, as a Syrian, with and for Syrian refugees in the countries of Jordan, Germany, and the United States. This book will be of great interest to scholars, students, and practitioners of applied theater studies and refugee studies.
Syrian Requiem: The Civil War and Its Aftermath
by Itamar Rabinovich Carmit ValensiA compact, incisive history of one of the defining conflicts of our timeLeaving almost half a million dead and displacing an estimated twelve million people, the Syrian Civil War is a humanitarian catastrophe of unimaginable scale. Syrian Requiem analyzes the causes and course of this bitter conflict—from its first spark in a peaceful Arab Spring protest to the tenuous victory of the Asad dictatorship—and traces how the fighting has reduced Syria to a crisis-ridden vassal state with little prospect of political reform, national reconciliation, or economic reconstruction.Israel’s chief negotiator with Syria during the mid-1990s, Itamar Rabinovich brings unmatched expertise and insight to the politics of the Middle East. Drawing on more than two hundred specially conducted interviews with key players, Rabinovich and Carmit Valensi assess the roles of local, regional, and global interests in the war. Local sectarian divisions established the fault lines of the initial conflict, ultimately leading to the rise of the brutal Islamic State. However, Syria rapidly became the stage for proxy warfare between contending regional powers, including Israel, Turkey, and Iran. At the same time, while a war-weary United States attempted to reduce its military involvement in the Middle East, a resurgent Russia regained regional influence by supporting Syrian government forces. Telling the story of the war and its aftermath, Rabinovich and Valensi also examine the considerable potential for renewed conflict and the difficult policy choices facing the United States, Russia, and other powers.A compact and incisive history of one of the defining wars of our times, Syrian Requiem is a vivid and timely account of a conflict that continues to reverberate today.
System And Process In Southeast Asia: The Evolution Of A Region
by Donald G MccloudSoutheast Asia, although not garnering the headlines of ten to twenty years ago, is important in global politics. Vietnam's domination of Indochina, for example, has polarized the region, given the Soviet Union new regional access, and magnified the military threat to Thailand. Insurgency movements supported by the radical Left or Right continue to plague governments. The Strait of Malacca, the major sea-lane through Southeast Asia, provides primary access for the U.S. Pacific fleet to the Indian Ocean and the Middle East and is Japan's oil lifeline. U.S. commercial and military interests remain strong in the Philippines and are expanding in Indonesia, the world's fifth largest country (with a population approaching 170 million people), whereas Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore are sources for investment, raw materials, and potential markets. Thailand, once closely allied with the United States, has again renewed those ties in the face of Vietnam's expansion. This comprehensive, up-to-date textbook analyzes Southeast Asia in the context of regional and global political systems, both traditional and contemporary. After looking at the traditional patterns of interstate relations in the region, Professor McCloud shows that Southeast Asia has been and continues to be dependent on the global system. However, he also identifies a "neotraditional current" in contemporary Southeast Asian politics, as elements of traditional beliefs and values reassert themselves in policy and practice, redefine the patterns of interstate behavior in the region, and set the limits to dependence on the global system. The book is intended as a primary text for courses on the history or politics of Asia or Southeast Asia, regional development and integration, and the role of Southeast Asia in world politics. It will also be useful in survey courses in Asian studies, comparative politics, and Third World development.
System Error: Where Big Tech Went Wrong and How We Can Reboot
by Rob Reich Jeremy M. Weinstein Mehran Sahami"System Error is a triumph: an analysis of the critical challenges facing our digital society that is as accessible as it is sophisticated." — Anne-Marie Slaughter, CEO of New AmericaA forward-thinking manifesto from three Stanford professors—experts who have worked at ground zero of the tech revolution for decades—which reveals how big tech’s obsession with optimization and efficiency has sacrificed fundamental human values and outlines steps we can take to change course, renew our democracy, and save ourselves.In no more than the blink of an eye, a naïve optimism about technology’s liberating potential has given way to a dystopian obsession with biased algorithms, surveillance capitalism, and job-displacing robots. Yet too few of us see any alternative to accepting the onward march of technology. We have simply accepted a technological future designed for us by technologists, the venture capitalists who fund them, and the politicians who give them free rein.It doesn’t need to be this way.System Error exposes the root of our current predicament: how big tech’s relentless focus on optimization is driving a future that reinforces discrimination, erodes privacy, displaces workers, and pollutes the information we get. This optimization mindset substitutes what companies care about for the values that we as a democratic society might choose to prioritize. Well-intentioned optimizers fail to measure all that is meaningful and, when their creative disruptions achieve great scale, they impose their values upon the rest of us.Armed with an understanding of how technologists think and exercise their power, three Stanford professors—a philosopher working at the intersection of tech and ethics, a political scientist who served under Obama, and the director of the undergraduate Computer Science program at Stanford (also an early Google engineer)—reveal how we can hold that power to account.Troubled by the values that permeate the university’s student body and its culture, they worked together to chart a new path forward, creating a popular course to transform how tomorrow’s technologists approach their profession. Now, as the dominance of big tech becomes an explosive societal conundrum, they share their provocative insights and concrete solutions to help everyone understand what is happening, what is at stake, and what we can do to control technology instead of letting it control us.
System Innovation for Sustainability 2: Case Studies in Sustainable Consumption and Production - Mobility
by Theo Geerken Mads BorupThe EU-funded project "Sustainable Consumption Research Exchanges" (SCORE!) consists of around 200 experts in the field of sustainable innovation and sustainable consumption. The SCORE! philosophy is that innovation in SCP (sustainable consumption and production) policy can be achieved only if experts that understand business development, (sustainable) solution design, consumer behaviour and system innovation policy work together in shaping it. Sustainable technology design can be effective only if business can make the products profitably and consumers are attracted to them. To understand how this might effectively happen, the expertise of systems thinkers must be added to the mix. The publication in 2008 of System Innovation for Sustainability 1 was the first result of a unique positive confrontation between experts from all four communities. It examined what SCP is and what it could be, provided a state-of-the-art review on the governance of change in SCP policy and looked at the strengths and weaknesses of current approaches. System Innovation for Sustainability 2 is the first of three books of case studies covering, respectively, the three key consumption areas of: mobility; food and agriculture; and energy use and housing. These three areas are responsible for 70% of the life-cycle environmental impacts of Western societies. These case studies aim to stimulate, foster or force change to SCP theory in practice. System Innovation for Sustainability 2 focuses on change towards sustainable personal mobility based on implemented cases analysed from a system perspective. It examines what changes can be made to help us reduce our need for mobility, or start to make use of more sustainable mobility systems. This is clearly a critical and highly problematic area, as increasing living standards of a growing global population have resulted in rapid rises in both car and air travel along with the associated pollution. Uniquely, this book approaches the problems and solutions from a systems perspective, explaining the meta-trends, specific issues for the mobility sector, socioeconomic trends, political considerations, socio-cultural developments and environmental issues. As well as the mobility system itself, other societal systems that impact the need for mobility, such as labour and taxation, are addressed in order to provide sustainable solutions to our current "lock-in" problems. Three major problem areas are considered (the "three Cs"): carbon emissions (and the growing contribution of mobility to the climate change crisis), congestion, and casualties. And each strategy proposed addresses one or more of these problem areas. Among the cases discussed are: Norway's carbon compensation scheme for air travel; Madrid's high-occupancy vehicle lanes; London's congestion charge scheme; market-based instruments such as eco-labelling for cars; and taxation. The book identifies opportunities for actors such as governments, manufacturers and consumers to intervene in the complex system to promote sustainable mobility. It concludes with a reflection on problems, trends and action needed. The System Innovation for Sustainability series is the fruit of the first major international research network on SCP and will set the standard in this field for some years to come. It will be required reading for all involved in the policy debate on sustainable production and consumption from government, business, academia and NGOs for designers, scientists, businesses and system innovators.
System Recall: Leading for Equity and Excellence in Education
by Alma Harris Michelle S. JonesThis book argues that much of what passes as contemporary educational reform in education is faulty and damaging. It argues that it is time for a ‘system recall’ and a need to look at what matters most in the pursuit of educational goals. The book focuses on what we know about contemporary educational improvement, transformation, and change. It will provide insights into what strategies work, long term, to build the capacity for principled change at the school and system level. The book will consider what leaders can do to secure principled school and system improvement which fully embraces diversity, equity, and equality. It will also dispel some myths about reform at scale and challenge some prevailing ideas about educational change that, it will be posited, are not helping many young people to reach their potential. The main argument of the book is that too many school and system improvement initiatives have not paid sufficient attention to equity issues in their pursuit of ever higher achievement and that the net effect of large-scale, international assessments have been to distract policy makers in ways that have not always benefitted young people. The book will use system examples to underpin and exemplify six core ways of re-botting the system and generating progress for all, It will highlight the implications for school and system leaders.
System Recall: Leading for Equity and Excellence in Education
by Alma Harris Michelle S. JonesThis book argues that much of what passes as contemporary educational reform in education is faulty and damaging. It argues that it is time for a ‘system recall’ and a need to look at what matters most in the pursuit of educational goals. The book focuses on what we know about contemporary educational improvement, transformation, and change. It will provide insights into what strategies work, long term, to build the capacity for principled change at the school and system level. The book will consider what leaders can do to secure principled school and system improvement which fully embraces diversity, equity, and equality. It will also dispel some myths about reform at scale and challenge some prevailing ideas about educational change that, it will be posited, are not helping many young people to reach their potential. The main argument of the book is that too many school and system improvement initiatives have not paid sufficient attention to equity issues in their pursuit of ever higher achievement and that the net effect of large-scale, international assessments have been to distract policy makers in ways that have not always benefitted young people. The book will use system examples to underpin and exemplify six core ways of re-botting the system and generating progress for all, It will highlight the implications for school and system leaders.
System of Open Spaces
by Raquel TardinIn the current panorama of urban growth and planning in many urban territories of western societies, open spaces are residual spaces of urban occupation or are reserved for eventual occupation. Open spaces have been viewed in this manner in the earlier stages of the compact city and especially now, in a time of the dispersed territories characterized by discontinuity, heterogeneity, and fragmentation. The disciplinary perspectives of ecology, geology, landscape architecture, and urbanism, but also public opinion, have for some time promoted the conservation and protection of the most valuable natural spaces, and efforts have been made to remove such spaces from the real estate market. However, such positions, usually radical, are insufficient for territorial equilibrium and inevitably lead to the progressive disappearance of valuable natural spaces.
System under Stress: Homeland Security and American Politics
by Donald F. KettlFor the purposes of the study of American government, suggests Kettl (political science, U. of Pennsylvania), the 9-11 terrorist attacks and the Hurricane Katrina disaster were "stress tests" analogous to those run by a cardiologist to diagnose the health of a patient's heart. He offers his own diagnosis of the US government's homeland security health as revealed by these events, discussing intelligence failures prior to the 9-11 attacks and the government's response, broader coordination problems in the federal bureaucracy, state and local government responses to Hurricane Katrina, the policy problem of trying to maximize protection against threats that can't be eliminated, and the alleged conflict between security and civil rights and liberties. Annotation ©2007 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
System under Stress: The Challenge to 21st Century Governance
by Donald F. KettlIn System under Stress, The Challenge to 21st Century Democracy, Third Edition, Donald F. Kettl looks at the latest stress to hit the system—the financial crisis of 2008. In his brief, gripping narrative, Kettl assesses how well the U.S. political system responds under extraordinary pressure—from 9/11, to Hurricane Katrina, to the Great Recession— and asks if the government is ready to face that next challenge. A well-known scholar, commentator, and writer in the areas of federalism and governance, Kettl asks the hard questions, makes a credible and persuasive argument, and crafts a readable case study that is fascinating and thought-provoking.
Systematic Politics: Elementa Politica and Sociologica
by George E. Gordon CatlinProfessor Catlin in the course of his career has contributed a number of major works in the fields of politics: The Science and Method of Politics (1926), Principles of Politics (1930), History of the Political Philosophers (1938). These books were considered "refreshing," "brilliant," "eminently stimulating," "genuinely constructive." The trail blazed by their author some thirty years ago through the forest of "unscientific" political thinking has since been followed by many others and has widened into one of the main highways of twentieth-century political though.The new approach of Professor Catlin was notable because it distinguished between political philosophy, with its values and ends, and the scientific study of means; it broke away from older studies and broadened the concept of Politics, in an Aristotelian sense; it bridged the divorce between Politics and Sociology; it stressed the quantitative method; it pioneered in the "power theory of politics," as a key hypothesis in building; and it developed the theories of equilibrium and of the political market, with its pressure groups. No political science can be formulated today which ignores his arguments on these topics.In this new work, Professor Catlin goes back to cover the developments of thirty years, integrating the work of his contemporary colleagues and relating it to the broad tradition of Western philosophy. The range of the book over time and topics is exhilaratingly wide; its content is often intellectually intoxicating. Many will appreciate the clear insight and understanding that the book lends of so much in life–not just in the fields traditionally assigned to political thinkers; others may be provoked by the author's strong argumentative sense. No one will deny the vigour and relevance of the discussion. This summational work is important and practical at a time when the political endeavours of man are more than ever in need of thoroughly rigorous logical analysis.
Systematic Politics: Elementa Politica et Sociologica (Routledge Revivals)
by George E. CatlinFirst published in 1962, Systematic Politics presents Catlin’s political theories and reviews the work of contemporaries within the field. Divided into two parts, Part One is focused on political science and explores areas such as definitions and functions, the theory of politics as hypothesis, freedom and authority, and different forms of government. Part Two centres on political philosophy, discussing topics such as community, society and the individual, and law and sovereignty. Systematic Politics will appeal to those with an interest in the history of political thought, political theory, and political philosophy.
Systematic Thinking for Social Action
by Alice M. Rivlin Donna ShalalaIn January 1970 Alice M. Rivlin spoke to an audience at the University of California-Berkeley. The topic was developing a more rational approach to decisionmaking in government. If digital video, YouTube, and TED Talks had been inventions of the 1960s, Rivlin's talk would have been a viral hit. As it was, the resulting book, Systematic Thinking for Social Action, spent years on the Brookings Press bestseller list. Is is a very personal and conversational volume about the dawn of new ways of thinking about government.As deputy assistant secretary for program coordination, and later as assistant secretary for planning and evaluation, at the Department of Health, Education and Welfare from 1966 to 1969, Rivlin was an early advocate of systems analysis, which had been introduced by Robert McNamara at the Department of Defense as PPBS (planning-programming-budgeting-system).While Rivlin brushes aside the jargon, she digs into the substance of systematic analysis and a 'quiet revolution in government. In an evaluation of the evaluators, she issues mixed grades, pointing out where analysts had been helpful in finding solutions and where--because of inadequate data or methods--they had been no help at all. Systematic Thinking for Social Action offers important insights for anyone interested in working to find the smartest ways to allocate scarce funds to promote the maximum well-being of all citizens.
Systematic Thinking for Social Action
by Alice M. Rivlin Donna ShalalaIn January 1970 Alice M. Rivlin spoke to an audience at the University of California-Berkeley. The topic was developing a more rational approach to decisionmaking in government. If digital video, YouTube, and TED Talks had been inventions of the 1960s, Rivlin's talk would have been a viral hit. As it was, the resulting book, Systematic Thinking for Social Action, spent years on the Brookings Press bestseller list. Is is a very personal and conversational volume about the dawn of new ways of thinking about government.As deputy assistant secretary for program coordination, and later as assistant secretary for planning and evaluation, at the Department of Health, Education and Welfare from 1966 to 1969, Rivlin was an early advocate of systems analysis, which had been introduced by Robert McNamara at the Department of Defense as PPBS (planning-programming-budgeting-system).While Rivlin brushes aside the jargon, she digs into the substance of systematic analysis and a 'quiet revolution in government. In an evaluation of the evaluators, she issues mixed grades, pointing out where analysts had been helpful in finding solutions and where-because of inadequate data or methods-they had been no help at all. Systematic Thinking for Social Action offers important insights for anyone interested in working to find the smartest ways to allocate scarce funds to promote the maximum well-being of all citizens.