Bøger i SpringerBriefs in Political Science serien

Discussing cultural policymaking from a political perspective, this Brief is appropriate for researchers and students of political science, public policy, comparative politics, Middle East politics, cultural studies, and development as well as policy makers and development agencies.

This Brief uses game-theoretic analysis to debunk the turnout paradox and offers an alternative economic model to elucidate the patterns behind the socioeconomic bias in turnout.

This book explores the relationship between quality of life, policy, and political behavior. This book will be useful for students and scholars interested in political behavior, political sociology, policy, and quality of life studies, as well as policymakers interested in incorporating quality of life studies in their work.

By using a norm contestation framework that highlights norm fluidity and actor agency, this book expands the discussion, providing insight into divergent interpretations of norm violation and compliance and the dynamic nature of norms.

This Brief presents a benefit-cost analysis of the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) as well as an evaluation of its cumulative socioeconomic effects. Since 1994, the NFIP has included a Flood Mitigation Assistance (FMA) program to provide local communities with support for flood mitigation.

This book investigates the socio-economic determinants of the emergence and persistence of Boko Haram terrorism in Nigeria.

This book examines the institutions that are producing consumer law at the international level, the substantive issues enshrined in these laws, and the enforcement mechanisms meant to ensure effective protection.

In light of the growing scope of communications and interactions in the internet, the author shows how human rights and governance regimes can be adapted to cyberspace in order to ensure more accountability, transparency and interaction among those who use the internet and those who manage and provide internet services.

This book discusses the significance of cultural symbols/'images' in the nation-building of Eurasian states that emerged out of the former Soviet Union.

This book will be of use to political science students at both the undergraduate and graduate level, particularly those interested in electoral studies, political institutions, politics and gender, and minority representation.

The book is succinctly written and systematically addresses essential governance aspects that to date have only been dealt with separately and sporadically: state governance, the executive branch and administration, organization of production and approaches to production, and governance conventions and protocols.

This short book sets out to explore the concept of nature in the context of a changing reality, in which the extent of our transformation of the environment has become evident: What is nature and to what extent has humanity transformed it?

This Brief discusses the current policy environment in which the United States space program operates and proposes an industry-government partnership as a long-term policy solution.

Brazil is renowned worldwide for its remarkable reforms in pharmaceutical regulation, which have enhanced access to essential medicines while lowering drug costs. This book innovates by analysing the generic drug  reform in Brazil, demonstrating that pharmaceutical regulation is only partially influenced by non-state actors. Little is known about the institutional antecedents and policy process that channeled this regulatory reform. This is particularly intriguing because a regulatory shift in the pharmaceutical sector requires the participation of a number of stakeholders and interest groups in the policy process. Fonseca examines the generic drug reform¿s causes and consequences. No study has approached the generic drug regulation in Brazil from this perspective.  The Politics of Pharmaceutical Policy Reform: A Study of Generic Drug Regulation in Brazil, explores the following: ·         The politics of pharmaceutical regulation in Brazil over the last 25 years.·         The political negotiations to approve the Generic Drug Act, which involved a hard-to-reach agreement between the pharmaceutical industry (national and multinational), the Ministry of Health, and Congress·        The controversial decisions to regulate packaging and pharmaceutical equivalence.·         The surprising success of Brazilian pharmaceutical firms, which became market champions in a sector largely dominated by multinational firms.·         Comparative lessons from the Brazilian case for the political construction of regulatory standards to regulate generic drugs and its effects on global health. This book will interest political scientists and health policy scholars concerned with the political conflicts in the pharmaceutical sector. It argues against well-established approaches to regulatory capture such as control of the regulatory process by interest groups and policy diffusion. It can be used as evidence for graduate courses in public policy, health policy and political science. Because Brazil is one of the largest markets for pharmaceuticals in the world, business leaders and consultancy firms would also be interested.

This book explores time use, time policy, well-being and sustainable development using concepts and findings from time policy research, socio-ecological sustainability research, behavioral economics, consumer research, and research into prosperity and "the good life".

The manuscript is divided into seven chapters: introduction, women as victims/survivors of violence, women as perpetrators of violence, women in social movements responding to violence, women politicians leading policy regarding violence, the public opinion of women and men concerning violence, and a conclusion.

This Brief explores school funding reform in the states of Kentucky and Tennessee. An in-depth study of regional educational reform in the United States, this Brief is of use to public policy scholars as well as education policy consultants and other school system or state education leaders.

The resulting theory of contestation entails four main features, namely types of norms, modes of contestation, segments of norms and the cycle of contestation.

This book shows how Chinese officials have responded to popular and international pressure, while at the same time seeking to preserve their own careers, in the context of disaster management.

This book addresses the question by providing an overview of eight cases of so-called Color Revolutions, and explains factors of 'success' and 'failure' by discussing the state-of-the-art in the political science discourse on Color Revolutions.

While East Asia and South Asia have their share of situations that warrant R2P-justified interventions, it is the conflicts in West Asia that have severely tested the viability of R2P.

This book provides a critical commentary on China's situation and future outlook from the perspective of the 2012-13 generational power transfer. In this power transfer, taking place against the background of an increasingly unstable domestic situation, an apparently outstandingly successful generation of ¿half-communist¿ leaders, recently increasingly plagued by scandal, transferred responsibility to a generation confronted by mixed expectations and factional in-fighting. Many international observers doubt that the new leadership will have the will or the power to introduce serious reforms in a country that reports 100,000 riots involving more than 500 persons in public areas per year. The China of 2013 seems to be in the midst of a transition seldom seen since the 1970s. The question is if the resulting hope expressed by Chinese dissidents and Western leaders for a ¿necessary¿ development of China's still largely autocratic system towards a kind of context-adequate democracy is plausible or not. Featuring incisive commentary by the authors and interviews with experts on the region¿s political economy, the volume addresses such timely questions as: Should ¿rapid democratization¿ of China be the strategic goal of the West or rather a step-by-step approach towards the ¿rule of law¿ first, and ¿illiberal democracy¿ to follow? Should the West be more worried about a thriving China, or a China in crisis? Will Chinäs success contribute to the success of the global community and the world order system, or be a threat to it? What can the West do to help China develop more participatory and inclusive approaches in order to secure social stability? And how can the West strengthen its democratic allies on Chinäs borders?Endorsements¿This is a book I recommend to students and teachers around the globe. It provides a concise introduction into present Chinäs main problems, questions and perspectives. A must for all who try to understand the rising Pacific giant not through short-term answers, but through long-term questions.¿Professor Ole Bruun, Institute for Society and Globalization, Roskilde University, Denmark¿The rise of China to global superpower calls for clear, condensed, yet comprehensive comments for the broader public. This book accomplishes those goals, providing a quick yet comprehensive introduction into what we may expect as the Middle Kingdom seeks to assert what it increasingly sees as its rightful role as a leading world power.¿Professor Richard Appelbaum, MacArthur Foundation Chair in Global & International Studies and Sociology, University of California at Santa Barbara ¿The new constellation between China and the West needs inspiring departure points of discussion, which may be sober or provocative. This booklet is both in one. It should be used as a basis for in-depth discussion and I recommend it for classrooms and the global civil society debate.¿Professor Jan Nederveen Pieterse, Mellichamp Professor of Global Studies and Sociology, University of California at Santa Barbara

The majority of Latin Americans now live in countries that are governed by democratically elected governments on the political left, which is unprecedented in that region.

The mostcritical factor explaining the disjuncture between empathy's revolutionarypotential and today's empathically-impaired society is the interaction betweenthe brain and our dominant political culture.

The development of Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) by Charles Ragin has given social scientists a formal tool for identifying set-theoretic connections based on Boolean algebra. This book offers the first complete introduction on how to perform QCA in the R software environment for statistical computing and graphics with the QCA package.

The aim of this book is to conduct a critical survey of the main tools devised for the synthetic measurement of globalization processes. Given these premises, the book presents the principal tools employed in attempts to measure globalization, starting with those whose unit of analysis is the state.