Getting Real about Politics: From Thinking Politically to Working Differently
Author: Alina Rocha Menocal
Publisher:
Published: 2022
Total Pages: 0
ISBN-13:
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Development Aid Confronts Politics
Author: Thomas Carothers
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
Published: 2013-04-01
Total Pages: 362
ISBN-13: 0870034022
DOWNLOAD EBOOKA new lens on development is changing the world of international aid. The overdue recognition that development in all sectors is an inherently political process is driving aid providers to try to learn how to think and act politically. Major donors are pursuing explicitly political goals alongside their traditional socioeconomic aims and introducing more politically informed methods throughout their work. Yet these changes face an array of external and internal obstacles, from heightened sensitivity on the part of many aid-receiving governments about foreign political interventionism to inflexible aid delivery mechanisms and entrenched technocratic preferences within many aid organizations. This pathbreaking book assesses the progress and pitfalls of the attempted politics revolution in development aid and charts a constructive way forward. Contents: Introduction 1. The New Politics Agenda The Original Framework: 1960s-1980s 2. Apolitical Roots Breaking the Political Taboo: 1990s-2000s 3. The Door Opens to Politics 4. Advancing Political Goals 5. Toward Politically Informed Methods The Way Forward 6. Politically Smart Development Aid 7. The Unresolved Debate on Political Goals 8. The Integration Frontier Conclusion 9. The Long Road to Politics
Thinking Politically/h
Author: Jean Blondel
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2019-06-25
Total Pages: 194
ISBN-13: 100061235X
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis book gives some insight into the profession of political science and about 'thinking politically'. It shows how thinking politically contributes, in a significant fashion, to answering those questions that, from curiosity or necessity, mankind has incessantly raised and wished to solve.
Politics Is for Power
Author: Eitan Hersh
Publisher: Scribner
Published: 2020-01-14
Total Pages: 288
ISBN-13: 1982116781
DOWNLOAD EBOOKA brilliant condemnation of political hobbyism—treating politics like entertainment—and a call to arms for well-meaning, well-informed citizens who consume political news, but do not take political action. Who is to blame for our broken politics? The uncomfortable answer to this question starts with ordinary citizens with good intentions. We vote (sometimes) and occasionally sign a petition or attend a rally. But we mainly “engage” by consuming politics as if it’s a sport or a hobby. We soak in daily political gossip and eat up statistics about who’s up and who’s down. We tweet and post and share. We crave outrage. The hours we spend on politics are used mainly as pastime. Instead, we should be spending the same number of hours building political organizations, implementing a long-term vision for our city or town, and getting to know our neighbors, whose votes will be needed for solving hard problems. We could be accumulating power so that when there are opportunities to make a difference—to lobby, to advocate, to mobilize—we will be ready. But most of us who are spending time on politics today are focused inward, choosing roles and activities designed for our short-term pleasure. We are repelled by the slow-and-steady activities that characterize service to the common good. In Politics Is for Power, pioneering and brilliant data analyst Eitan Hersh shows us a way toward more effective political participation. Aided by political theory, history, cutting-edge social science, as well as remarkable stories of ordinary citizens who got off their couches and took political power seriously, this book shows us how to channel our energy away from political hobbyism and toward empowering our values.
Why We Lie About Aid
Author: Pablo Yanguas
Publisher: Zed Books Ltd.
Published: 2018-02-15
Total Pages: 212
ISBN-13: 1783609362
DOWNLOAD EBOOKForeign aid is about charity. International development is about technical fixes. At least that is what we, as donor publics, are constantly told. The result is a highly dysfunctional aid system which mistakes short-term results for long-term transformation and gets attacked across the political spectrum, with the right claiming we spend too much, and the left that we don't spend enough. The reality, as Yanguas argues in this highly provocative book, is that aid isn't – or at least shouldn't be – about levels of spending, nor interventions shackled to vague notions of ‘accountability’ and ‘ownership’. Instead, a different approach is possible, one that acknowledges aid as being about struggle, about taking sides, about politics. It is an approach that has been quietly applied by innovative development practitioners around the world, providing political coverage for local reformers to open up spaces for change. Drawing on a variety of convention-defying stories from a variety of countries – from Britain to the US, Sierra Leone to Honduras – Yanguas provides an eye-opening account of what we really mean when we talk about aid.
Focus on governance for more effective policy and technical support
Author: Bojic, D., Clark, M., Urban, K.
Publisher: Food & Agriculture Org.
Published: 2022-06-28
Total Pages: 104
ISBN-13: 9251362726
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThere are eight years left to reach the SDGs. Agrifood systems transformation is urgently needed if we are to achieve sustainability, resilience and food security and nutrition in a post-COVID world. This desired transformation can only be achieved by strengthening and capitalizing on the knowledge, experience, skills, and capabilities for collective action of a broad range of public and private actors each of whom bring distinctive interests, needs, resources, influence and capacities. “Governance” is the name for this multidimensional capability for effective and inclusive collective action at all levels. In many country contexts, it is the governance bottlenecks that lead to a gap between policy expectations and their outcomes on the ground. For example, a given policy intervention can make a lot of economic sense but if it is perceived as threatening a powerful interest group or not sufficiently considering that group’s interests, it will most probably fail. Understanding the governance – both institutions and political economy – behind existing agrifood systems can thus make or break the success of any policy or technical support work. Bringing together insights from FAO’s rich experience and knowledge and global literature, this paper introduces an operational four-phased framework for analysis and integration of governance analysis and action into formulation and implementation of interventions at country, regional and global levels. It also provides a review of recent trends in expert thinking about governance for sustainable development and highlights FAO’s conceptual contributions to governance in the areas of FAO’s mandate. The increased use of governance analysis in FAO’s work will stimulate iterative collective learning processes and honest evaluation of potential for change thus supplementing technical solutions with approaches based on a solid understanding of practical and political realities on the ground. With its emphasis on continual learning and adaptation, governance analysis will enable FAO to significantly improve the effectiveness of its policy and technical support to Members to achieve sustainable development that leaves no one behind.
Political Mind
Author: Kieran Laird
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
Published: 2008-05-20
Total Pages: 208
ISBN-13: 0748630228
DOWNLOAD EBOOKWhat does it mean to 'think differently'? The ability to create thoughts is what lies at the base of philosophy and political theory and practice. One cannot hope to change the world, or even adequately critique it, without the possibility of the new in mental life. The Political Mind explores the possibility of thinking differently through connecting neuropsychological material on consciousness, nonconsciousness and affect to political theory. It spans diverse disciplines: from hard-edged neuropsychology to sociology, economics, political theory and Eastern and Western philosophy. Its originality lies in its ability to draw meaningful connections between such disparate literatures, weaving a coherent whole. It then applies the concepts created to the currently popular topics of consumerism and the anti-capitalist and anti-globalisation movements.
Why I Write
Author: George Orwell
Publisher: Renard Press Ltd
Published: 2021-01-01
Total Pages: 15
ISBN-13: 1913724263
DOWNLOAD EBOOKGeorge Orwell set out ‘to make political writing into an art’, and to a wide extent this aim shaped the future of English literature – his descriptions of authoritarian regimes helped to form a new vocabulary that is fundamental to understanding totalitarianism. While 1984 and Animal Farm are amongst the most popular classic novels in the English language, this new series of Orwell’s essays seeks to bring a wider selection of his writing on politics and literature to a new readership. In Why I Write, the first in the Orwell’s Essays series, Orwell describes his journey to becoming a writer, and his movement from writing poems to short stories to the essays, fiction and non-fiction we remember him for. He also discusses what he sees as the ‘four great motives for writing’ – ‘sheer egoism’, ‘aesthetic enthusiasm’, ‘historical impulse’ and ‘political purpose’ – and considers the importance of keeping these in balance. Why I Write is a unique opportunity to look into Orwell’s mind, and it grants the reader an entirely different vantage point from which to consider the rest of the great writer’s oeuvre. 'A writer who can – and must – be rediscovered with every age.' — Irish Times
Strengthening Sector Policies for Better Food Security and Nutrition Results:
Author: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Publisher: Food & Agriculture Org.
Published: 2018-11-08
Total Pages: 36
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOKA solid understanding of domestic political economy helps to promote policies that are better adapted to country realities. The challenges that many governments faced in responding to food price volatility during the 2008 global food crisis re-focused attention on the political economy and implementing effective national policy responses on food security and nutrition. Understanding the political economy behind public policy-making and implementation is crucial to enhancing the effectiveness of policy support to countries and increases the chances of nationally-led reforms that result in better food security and nutrition outcomes. This political economy analysis note is intended to support policy practitioners and other stakeholders in working in a more politically informed way towards a coherent set of policies across relevant sectors. It demonstrates how political economy analysis can add value to policy support work, gives examples of key political economy challenges in food security and nutrition and shres information on the existing frameworks and analysis tools.
Democracy When the People Are Thinking
Author: James S. Fishkin
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2018-06-21
Total Pages: 320
ISBN-13: 0192551892
DOWNLOAD EBOOKDemocracy requires a connection to the 'will of the people'. What does that mean in a world of 'fake news', relentless advocacy, dialogue mostly among the like-minded, and massive spending to manipulate public opinion? What kind of opinion can the public have under such conditions? What would democracy be like if the people were really thinking in depth about the policies they must live with? If they really 'deliberated' with good information about their political choices? This book argues that 'deliberative democracy' is not utopian. It is a practical solution to many of democracy's ills. It can supplement existing institutions with practical reforms. It can apply at all levels of government and for many different kinds of policy choices. This volume speaks to a recurring dilemma: listen to the people and get the angry voices of populism or rely on widely distrusted elites and get policies that seem out of touch with the public's concerns. Instead, there are methods for getting a representative and thoughtful public voice that is really worth listening to. Democracy is under siege in most countries, where democratic institutions have low approval and face a resurgent threat from authoritarian regimes. Deliberative democracy can provide an antidote and can reinvigorate our democratic politics. Democracy When the People Are Thinking draws on the author's research with many collaborators on 'Deliberative Polling'-a process conducted in 27 countries on six continents. It contributes both to political theory and to the empirical study of public opinion and participation. It should interest anyone concerned about the future of democracy and how it can be revitalized.
