This collected volume studies the role of organized interests in collective decision-making and the emergence of self-regulation. In democratic settings, organized interests play a role at the legislative stage, affecting the outcome through lobbying activity. While pressure groups andlobbying are a traditional topic in public choice theory, the incentives to maintain private rules and enforcement through self-regulation is a less developed research area in political economy. The book provides a balanced mix of theoretical and empirical papers in traditional public choice,addressing the issues of how organized interest affect legislation and self-regulation, investigating the incentives and the problems related to the private enforcement of law.
This book offers a comprehensive assessment of the major theoretical approaches to the study of American politics. Written by leading scholars in the field, the book's essays focus particularly on the contributions that competing macro- and microanalytic approaches make to our understanding of political change in America.The essays include systematic overviews of the patterns of constancy and change that characterize American political history as well as comparative discussions of theoretical traditions in the study of American political change. The volume concludes with four provocative essays proposing new and integrated interpretations of American politics.This is a path-breaking book that all scholars concerned with American politics will want to read and that all serious students of American politics will need to study. The Dynamics of American Politics is appropriate for graduate core seminars on American politics, undergraduate capstone courses on American politics, courses on political theory and approaches to political analysis, and rigorous lower-division courses on American politics.
This unique handbook brings together a team of leading scholars and practitioners in order to map, synthesize and assess key perspectives on cooperation and rivalry between regional and global organizations in world politics. For the first time, a variety of inter-disciplinary theoretical and conceptual perspectives are combined in order to assess the nature, processes and outcomes of inter-organizational partnerships and rivalries across major policy areas, such as peace and security, human rights and democratisation as well as finance, development and climate change . This text provides scholars, students and policy-makers of International Relations with an exhaustive reference book for understanding the theoretical and empirical dimensions of an increasingly important topic in International Relations (IR), Global Governance and related disciplines.
This is a reprint of Anthony Ogus' classic study of regulation,first published in the 1990s. It examines how, since the last decades of the twentieth century there have been fundamental changes in the relationship between the state and industry. With the aid of economic theory Anthony Ogus critically examines the ways in which public law has been adapted to the task of regulating industrial activity and provides a systematic overview of the theory and forms of social and economic regulation. In particular, he explores the reasons why governments regulate, for which, broadly speaking, two theoretical frameworks exist. First 'public interest' theories determine that regulation should aim to improve social and economic welfare. Second, 'economic' theories suggest that regulation should aim to satisfy the demands of private interests. The book also looks at the evolution of the forms of regulation in Britain, extending to the policies of privatization and deregulation which were so characteristic of the period. The author skilfully evaluates the advantages and disadvantages of the different forms of regulation, particularly in the light of the two theoretical frameworks, but also by involving an analysis of how firms respond to the various kinds of incentives and controls offered by government. A significant feature of the book is its analysis of the choices made by governments between the different forms of regulation and the influence exerted by interest groups (including bureaucrats) and EC law.
Games Real Actors Play provides a persuasive argument for the use of basic concepts of game theory in understanding public policy conflicts. Fritz Scharpf criticizes public choice theory as too narrow in its examination of actor motives and discursive democracy as too blind to the institutional incentives of political parties. With the nonspecialist in mind, the author presents a coherent actor-centered model of institutional rational choice that integrates a wide variety of theoretical contributions, such as game theory, negotiation theory, transaction cost economics, international relations, and democratic theory.Games Real Actors Play offers a framework for linking positive theory to the normative issues that necessarily arise in policy research and employs many cross-national examples, including a comparative use of game theory to understand the differing reactions of Great Britain, Sweden, Austria, and the Federal Republic of Germany to the economic stagflation of the 1970s.
Princeton's Michael N. Danielson studies the connections between professional team sports in North America and the places where teams play. Danielson is particularly interested in the political aspects between professional sports teams and city governments. Anyone who is interested in the present condition and future prospects of professional sports will be captivated by this informative and provocative book.
In the UK, women's economic empowerment through employment is a success story of the last three decades. And yet women are over-represented in low-paid, insecure jobs, are under-represented in top jobs, and earn less than men on average, with a marked income gap over the lifecourse. When Labour took office in 1997, a new wave of women MPs entered parliament in record numbers, and women gained access to ministerial roles, including a newly-created minister for women. However, policy on women and employment remained an area of conflict. New rights were secured, particularly for mothers, but when Labour left office a sizeable policy agenda remained unfinished. Using documentary evidence and interviews from leading policy actors from the period, Women and Employment in Public Policy takes as its starting point the Women and Work Commission, which was convened in 2004 to examine causes of the gender pay gap. The commission was unable to defuse conflicts over equal pay but it set out an agenda for change at the level of government, private-sector work organizations, and public-sector organizations. Milner examines why the commission could not resolve key conflicts, and why its broad-based recommendations were only partially taken up. She traces the subsequent development of policy, observing well-established preferences for 'light-touch' regulation which can raise awareness but leave entrenched practices unchallenged, and weaken individual women's access to redress. Detailed study of the working of the commission provides lessons on the policy process, particularly for those seeking to influence policy. It also shows that within the wider policy space, opportunities for action to effect change are possible - based on appeals to instrumental logic or political exchange - but are constrained by party leadership.
'Impact assessment of various types is now a widely used policy tool. This volume helpfully brings together conceptual discussions and case-studies to illustrate how impact assessment can be used to address issues of sustainability. It should be of considerable interest both to academic researchers and to practitioners concerned with the implementation of policies to support sustainable development.' - John Weiss, University of Bradford, UK The translation of the principle of sustainable development into policy and practice, and the evaluation of the outcomes of these strategic interventions, are some of the most pressing challenges facing policymakers in Europe and beyond. By exploring the conceptual and methodological issues relating to the evaluation of sustainable development, and analysing European practice and experience, the sixteen chapters in this volume provide a coherent and integrated contribution to our understanding of these issues. This volume will be of interest to researchers, policy analysts and practitioners in the area of impact assessment and sustainable development.
