"The Commonwealth of Nations comprises 54 nations bound by a common thread of inherited democratic principles that have been deepened and expanded over time. In this work, author Carl Dundas, a key player in election observation, reviews the work of Commonwealth election observers and identifies some of the lessons to be learnt from the experiences of several observation missions. The period 1990 2000, covering 32 missions is examined and the collective experience of flawed election processes valued and weighed against the impact of local conditions to allow citizens the opportunity to exercise their franchise freely. Of particular interest is the commentary on the one-party, military or apartheid regimes that were transformed into multiparty democracies. The trials faced by the management bodies of transitional elections in creating a level playing field for the contesting political parties and keeping the election process transparent were significant and particularly challenging. Observing Elections is a special edition of the Integrationist and a useful text for anyone interested in development politics and Commonwealth studies. "
This book contains five electoral essays and five discourses which explore issues impacting on free, fair and credible election organisation and conduct, with special attention on best practices in the Commonwealth and the African Union. The essays constitute part 1 and the discourses part 2 of the book. It describes and analyses the slow and cautious restart of the process of democratic elections in Nigeria, examining the missteps along the way from the first to the fourth electoral cycle which ended in 2011, which constitute essay I. Essay II deals with the development of election observation, together with mechanisms to strengthen the effectiveness thereof in the African Union and promote the technical capabilities of African Union electoral management bodies. Essay III seeks to compare aspects of election observation by the Commonwealth and the African Union. Essay IV examines best electoral practices in the Commonwealth and the African Union and essay V with the potential use of alternative dispute resolution in elections in the Commonwealth and the African Union. The discourses vigorously explore current electoral issues that slant towards further development in the near future. Discourse A is about youth and elections. It discusses how youth can participate more effectively in elections. Discourse B looks at the dimensions of political finance with particular attention to campaign financing. Discourse C is about incumbency and elections and discusses the nature and impact of incumbency on elections. Discourse D is about the culture of impunity which affects many electoral management bodies and in particular as it pertains to election violence. Discourse E deals with the impact of social media on election preparation and conduct.
The Challenge of Development in the Eighties: Our Response attempts to understand the demands of developing countries in order to render the present world order more equitable and habitable for all. The mosaic of contributions collectively expresses various perspectives and potential support from developed countries to the most challenging and significant human challenge for the remainder of the twentieth century: creating the conditions that will provide for the accelerated and sustained economic development of the vast majority of the human population living in developing countries. The volume contains seven chapters in which representatives of different interest groups assess their own perspectives and motivations as well as their possible contributions to the range of development problems. Key topics discussed include the circumstances in which developing and developed countries have launched upon the negotiation, and implementation, of the text to guide governments during the 1980s; EC policy toward the developing countries; and the contribution of Christians in developed countries. This volume will be useful not only to professionals in education or government concerned with development, but also to the general public in their capacities as citizens, trade-unionists, business-persons and church-goers. This text—and reactions to it—thus provide a forum in which representatives of different interest groups assess their contribution to the development effort in the eighties.
In the first part of this book, distinguished diplomats and eminent academics have contributed papers on the concept of international organization, on international conference diplomacy and on negotiating strategies, while experts have provided practical advice on conference management and tips on getting ideas and positions heard and understood in this particular setting. A second part includes notices on the United Nations organizations headquartered in Geneva, with special emphasis on what may be called their institutional culture', and a third part, including an invaluable presentation by the Swiss Department of Foreign Affairs, is devoted to the question of privileges and immunities. There are many studies, academic or otherwise, on the United Nations organizations but hardly any provide this kind of practical guidance for diplomats and national officials first confronted with the Geneva multilateral setting. The book is primarily intended for them, but is also of interest for those concerned with international relations.
Indian writing in English is the term which denotes the original creative writings by Indians. It is the literature originally written in English by writers including the expatriate Indian writers like Salman Rushdie. India's contribution to world literature especially of the twentieth century has been mostly in the field of fiction in English. The novels reflected realistic picture of the period to which the novelist belongs.
Despite the suffragist activities of the 1920s and the heightened pressures brought to bear on traditionally “male-only” institutions in American society during the past three decades, many vocations remain sanctuaries of male dominance. One such area is the classical music world; though, as Jan Bell Groh asserts in Evening the Score, inroads into this field have bene made, sometimes at great cost. At the center of this work is a unique set of newsletters edited and published by Frédérique Petrides, one of America’s first and most influential female conductors. In Petride’s time, most women musicians were forced to ply their trade in all-female orchestras; through the thirty-seven issues of Women in Music published from 1935 to 1940, the achievements of these musicians were championed, and the prejudices, misconceptions, and deliberately discriminatory policies of many of their male counterparts were exposed and condemned. Evening the Score is an ambitious endeavor that seeks not only to preserve these early documents and explain them within the context of the 1930s music industry but also to garner for Petrides the long-overdue praise to which she is entitled. It is at once a celebration and a source of inspiration.
This book is expected to be of great help to students and teachers in studying English literature especially in fiction and non-fiction writings Indian and African American literature. It deals with several ideologies and theories in order to evaluate the chosen authors in English.
The Money Machines advances the provocative thesis that the mechanisms for financing state and local government in the Northern United States from 1860 to 1920 were deeply enmeshed with those financing the extralegal--often illegal--activities of the major political parties, complicating reform or change mandated by the post-Civil War breakdown of the North's legal fiscal machinery. Few reformers then recognized the interdependence of government and the party money machines; fewer still acknowledged the effectiveness or social value of the extralegal machines. On the contrary, basic fiscal reform in this period was characterized by attempts to exorcise "politics" in any form, which in turn provoked counteraction from politicians whose organizations had the same need for efficient, reliable revenue systems as did governments. Dr. Yearley demonstrates the failure of the established legal money machines to cope with the demands of postwar governments facing industrialization and urbanization. He characterizes the revolt of old and new middle classes against fiscal inequity and inefficiency and shows how much of the North's new wealth escaped taxation altogether while much of its old wealth similarly went into hiding. Because of its forbidding complexities, tax reform was sustained by a small group of experts from the middle class, whose sincerity and competence were unquestionable, but whose reformism evidenced the peculiar views and prejudices of their class. Here, therefore, the graft-grabbing politician is presented in a fresh light. In his efforts to maintain his sources of revenue and power, he emerges as a vital instrument of mass democracy, of the new politics of the ever-growing urban lower classes as well as their principal source of government welfare or support. The author reevaluates the Gilded Age politician in several important ways, principally regarding his power relationship to the business communities and his ability to perform his job well despite middle class disdain and continual allegations of fraud and incompetence. Further, Dr. Yearley shows that often politicians were ahead of reformers in their fiscal thinking in recognizing and utilizing taxation of income rather than of property. The volume considers in some depth several individual reformers, revealing them to be, among other things, prototypes of present academic experts used by government to manage problems too complex for laymen. The book then proceeds to explain essential changes made in local fiscal systems and which of these were to be the most effective, explanations that are of particular interest in view of the continuing crises in state and local financing today.
