SUP Politics

SUP Politics http://www.sup.org/rss/politics.xml The latest titles from Stanford University Press en-us Copyright 2013 Stanford University Press webmaster@www.sup.org (Webmaster) http://www.sup.org/favicon.ico Income Inequality: Economic Disparities and the Middle Class in Affluent Countries Income Inequality: Economic Disparities and the Middle Class in Affluent CountriesEdited by Janet C. Gornick and Markus Jäntti "This is one of the most important books on inequality published in the past decade. Focusing on what has happened to the middle class since the 1980s, during a period of substantial economic and political restructuring, this volume's remarkable insights and influence will span disciplines."—Jason Beckfield, Harvard University <center><a href="http://www.sup.org/book.cgi?id=21329">To buy this book or view bibliographic details, click here.</a></center>This state-of-the-art volume presents comparative, empirical research on a topic that has long preoccupied scholars, politicians, and everyday citizens: economic inequality. While income and wealth inequality across all populations is the primary focus, the contributions to this book pay special attention to the middle class, a segment often not addressed in inequality literature. The research also casts important light on how economic inequality affects and is affected by gender disparities, labor markets, institutions, and politics. Written by leading scholars in the field of economic inequality, all 17 chapters draw on microdata from the databases of LIS, an esteemed cross-national data center based in Luxembourg. Using LIS data to structure a comparative approach, the contributors paint a complex portrait of inequality across affluent countries at the beginning of the 21st century. The volume also trail-blazes new research into inequality in countries newly entering the LIS databases, including Japan, Iceland, India, and South Africa.Janet C. Gornick is Professor of Political Science and Sociology at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, and Director of LIS. Markus Jäntti is Professor of Economics at the Swedish Institute for Social Research, Stockholm University, and Research Director of LIS. http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=21329 http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=21329 Social Movements, Mobilization, and Contestation in the Middle East and North Africa: Second Edition Social Movements, Mobilization, and Contestation in the Middle East and North Africa: Second EditionEdited by Joel Beinin and Frédéric Vairel Praise for the first edition: "An altogether welcome addition to both the social movement literature and the growing body of work on contention in the Middle East and North Africa. In the wake of 9/11, scholars rushed to fill the gaping void in scholarly knowledge of all manner of 'Islamacist' movements, but generally without tapping into the rich body of work on contentious politics that had been produced in recent years. And for their part, movement scholars were missing in action when it came to knowledge of events in this crucial region of the world. This exceptional collection has gone a long way towards remedying this problem and bringing these two important literatures into productive dialog with each other."—Doug McAdam, Stanford UniversityPraise for the first edition: "Protest in the Middle East and North Africa is not just a monopoly of Islamists. This volume juxtaposes Islamist activism with movements by workers, intellectuals, feminists, human rights activists, and others that don't get much attention in the West, but which present a fuller picture of political and social upheavals in the region."—Charles Kurzman, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill <center><a href="http://www.sup.org/book.cgi?id=23271">To buy this book or view bibliographic details, click here.</a></center>Before the 2011 uprisings, the Middle East and North Africa were frequently seen as a uniquely undemocratic region with little civic activism. The first edition of this volume, published at the start of the Arab Spring, challenged these views by revealing a region rich with social and political mobilizations. This fully revised second edition extends the earlier explorations of Egypt, Morocco, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey, and adds new case studies on the uprisings in Tunisia, Syria, and Yemen. The case studies are inspired by social movement theory, but they also critique and expand the horizons of the theory's classical concepts of political opportunity structures, collective action frames, mobilization structures, and repertoires of contention based on intensive fieldwork. This strong empirical base allows for a nuanced understanding of contexts, culturally conditioned rationality, the strengths and weaknesses of local networks, and innovation in contentious action to give the reader a substantive understanding of events in the Arab world before and since 2011.Joel Beinin is Donald J. McLachlan Professor of History at Stanford University, and a past president of the Middle East Studies Association of North America. He is coeditor of The Struggle for Sovereignty: Palestine and Israel, 1993-2005 (Stanford, 2006) and author of The Dispersion of Egyptian Jewry: Culture, Politics, and the Formation of a Modern Diaspora (2005). He is the series editor of Stanford Studies in Middle Eastern and Islamic Societies and Cultures.Frédéric Vairel is Assistant Professor of Political Studies at the University of Ottawa. http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=23271 http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=23271 Wronged by Empire: Post-Imperial Ideology and Foreign Policy in India and China Wronged by Empire: Post-Imperial Ideology and Foreign Policy in India and China Manjari Chatterjee Miller <center><a href="http://www.sup.org/book.cgi?id=22642">To buy this book or view bibliographic details, click here.</a></center>Although India and China have very different experiences of colonialism, they respond to that history in a similar way—by treating it as a collective trauma. As a result they have a strong sense of victimization that affects their foreign policy decisions even today. Wronged by Empire breaks new ground by blending this historical phenomenon, colonialism, with mixed methods—including archival research, newspaper data mining and a new statistical method of content analysis—to explain the foreign policy choices of India and China: two countries that are continuously discussed but very rarely rigorously compared. By reference to their colonial past, Manjari Chatterjee Miller explains their puzzling behavior today. For example, she demonstrates why in important cases (such as India going nuclear in 1998 or China's fraught relationship with Japan) their foreign policy behavior is not consistent with the security explanations that are dominant in international relations. More broadly, she argues that the transformative historical experience of a large category of actors—ex-colonies, who have previously been neglected in the study of international relations—can be used as a method to categorize states in the international system. In the process Miller offers a more inclusive way to analyze states than do traditional theories of international relations, which usually focus on the material power of states, meaning inevitably that they mostly discuss the behavior of states that have power enough to matter—in effect Western states. Manjari Chatterjee Miller is Assistant Professor of International Relations at Boston University. http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=22642 http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=22642 Collective Action and Exchange: A Game-Theoretic Approach to Contemporary Political Economy Collective Action and Exchange: A Game-Theoretic Approach to Contemporary Political Economy William D. Ferguson "The main accomplishment of the book is to establish collective action problems as a way to look at quandaries in political economy. It goes way beyond the standard models of self-interested rationality in economics and deals in detail with behavioral models of preference."—Sourav Bhattacharya, University of Pittsburgh"Political economy has evolved in the past two decades from verbal gymnastics to a scientific study of how people form groups to solve collective action problems. Ferguson's book is a forceful introduction to the analytical techniques involved in this intellectual revolution, together with a presentation of the evidence supporting various models. It exhibits a deep appreciation for the long road ahead in improving our understanding of the political aspects of social life."—Herbert Gintis, Santa Fe Institute, Central European University, and author of Game Theory Evolving"Collective Action and Exchange is a remarkably effective pedagogical tool. Ferguson's presentation highlights common themes that are too often hidden in specialized treatments of political economy. Particularly compelling is the way that he integrates the insights of Elinor Ostrom's Nobel prize-winning research on governing the commons into simple models based on core principles. This book demonstrates the value of modeling as an approach to policy analysis, and offers a power suite of economic tools to help us understand a wide range of individual and collective decisions."—Michael D. McGinnis, Former Director, The Vincent and Elinor Ostrom Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis, Indiana University"Why can economics courses be so dull when the economy itself is positively riveting and, recently, economic theory has bristled with novel insights? Ferguson's Collective Action and Exchange brings the excitement into the classroom, introducing students to some of the best research on networks, cooperation, institutions, and information."—Samuel Bowles, author, Microeconomics: Behavior, Institutions, and Evolution <center><a href="http://www.sup.org/book.cgi?id=18537">To buy this book or view bibliographic details, click here.</a></center>In Collective Action and Exchange: A Game-Theoretic Approach to Contemporary Political Economy, William D. Ferguson presents a comprehensive political economy text aimed at advanced undergraduates in economics and graduate students in the social sciences. The text utilizes collective action as a unifying concept, arguing that collective-action problems lie at the foundation of market success, market failure, economic development, and the motivations for policy. Ferguson draws on information economics, social preference theory, cognition theory, institutional economics, as well as political and policy theory to develop this approach. The text uses classical, evolutionary, and epistemic game theory, along with basic social network analysis, as modeling frameworks. These models effectively bind the ideas presented, generating a coherent theoretic approach to political economy that stresses sometimes overlooked implications.William D. Ferguson is the Gertrude B. Austin Professor of Economics at Grinnell College, where he teaches courses on labor economics, policy analysis, applied game theory, and political economy. http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=18537 http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=18537 Integrating Regions: Asia in Comparative Context Integrating Regions: Asia in Comparative ContextEdited by Miles Kahler and Andrew MacIntyre "This outstanding book contains first rate chapters by prominent scholars. The editors provide a lucid exposition of the various factors that make Asian regionalism not an embryonic specimen that emulates other regionalisms but a fully developed set of institutions and practices embodying a distinct and appropriate political logic. This book is a persuasive and powerful reply to Eurocentrism in the analysis of international regionalism."—Peter J. Katzenstein, Walter S. Carpenter, Jr. Professor of International Studies, Cornell University"Leading scholars examine the drivers and state of play in Asian economic regionalism, and the future of New Asian Regionalism. The comparative context is particularly valuable and refreshing. With many insights, this book is a must read for scholars and policymakers interested in Asian regionalism."—Muthiah Alagappa, Tun Hussein Onn Chair in International Studies, ISIS Malaysia <center><a href="http://www.sup.org/book.cgi?id=22246">To buy this book or view bibliographic details, click here.</a></center>The proliferation of regional institutions and initiatives in Asia over the past decade is unmatched in any other region of the world. The authors in this collection explore the distinctive features of these institutions by comparing them for the first time to the experience of other regions; from the elaborate institution-building of Europe to the more modest regional projects of the Americas. It is an opportune moment for this reassessment, as the European regional model faces a sovereign debt crisis while Asian economies see more secure sources of growth from their immediate neighbors. Asia's regional institutions display a distinctive combination of decision rules, commitment devices, and membership practices, shaped by underlying features of the region, the dynamics of regional integration, and the availability of institutional substitutes. Within this context, the authors propose changes that will better sustain the prosperity and peace that have marked Asia in recent decades.Miles Kahler is Rohr Professor of Pacific International Relations and Distinguished Professor of Political Science in the School of International Relations and Pacific Studies and the Department of Political Science, University of California, San Diego. He was Founding Director of the Institute for International, Comparative, and Area Studies at UCSD. Recent publications include Networked Politics (editor). Andrew MacIntyre is Professor of Political Science and serves as College Dean and Director of the Research School of Asia & the Pacific at the Australian National University. Recent publications include Crisis as Catalyst, Asia's Dynamic Political Economy (co-editor). http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=22246 http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=22246 Rebel Mexico: Student Unrest and Authoritarian Political Culture During the Long Sixties Rebel Mexico: Student Unrest and Authoritarian Political Culture During the Long Sixties Jaime M. Pensado "Pensado has written a fundamentally revisionist work that throws into relief many of our basic assumptions about post-war Mexican political culture, while also revealing the deep history of the 1968 student movement and its aftermath. This work will quickly shoot up to the top of required reading on the Global Sixties as well as twentieth-century Mexico."—Eric Zolov, Stony Brook University <center><a href="http://www.sup.org/book.cgi?id=21854">To buy this book or view bibliographic details, click here.</a></center>In the middle of the twentieth century, a growing tide of student activism in Mexico reached a level that could not be ignored, culminating with the 1968 movement. This book traces the rise, growth, and consequences of Mexico's "student problem" during the long sixties (1956-1971). Historian Jaime M. Pensado closely analyzes student politics and youth culture during this period, as well as reactions to them on the part of competing actors. Examining student unrest and youthful militancy in the forms of sponsored student thuggery (porrismo), provocation, clientelism (charrismo estudiantil), and fun (relajo), Pensado offers insight into larger issues of state formation and resistance. He draws particular attention to the shifting notions of youth in Cold War Mexico and details the impact of the Cuban Revolution in Mexico's universities. In doing so, Pensado demonstrates the ways in which deviating authorities—inside and outside the government—responded differently to student unrest, and provides a compelling explanation for the longevity of the Partido Revolucionario Institucional.Jaime Pensado is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Notre Dame. http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=21854 http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=21854 A Political History of National Citizenship and Identity in Italy, 1861–1950 A Political History of National Citizenship and Identity in Italy, 1861–1950 Sabina Donati "This book successfully crosses one of the great divides in Italian historiography, that between Liberal and Fascist regimes, in accounting for the development of an Italian national political identity. The scholarship, organization, and theoretical thrust of the book conspire to produce a thoroughly excellent piece of work."—John Agnew, UCLA"This book makes particular contributions to women's history, legal history, citizenship studies, comparative nationalism, and an analysis of fascism. Threads of history interweave to present a new understanding—this book is more than the sum of its many parts."—Mark Choate, Brigham Young University <center><a href="http://www.sup.org/book.cgi?id=18124">To buy this book or view bibliographic details, click here.</a></center>This book examines the fascinating origins and the complex evolution of Italian national citizenship from the unification of Italy in 1861 until just after World War II. It does so by exploring the civic history of Italians in the peninsula, and of Italy's colonial and overseas native populations. Using little-known documentation, Sabina Donati delves into the policies, debates, and formal notions of Italian national citizenship with a view to grasping the multi-faceted, evolving, and often contested vision(s) of italianità. In her study, these disparate visions are brought into conversation with contemporary scholarship pertaining to alienhood, racial thinking, migration, expansionism, and gender. As the first English-language book on the modern history of Italian citizenship, this work highlights often-overlooked precedents, continuities, and discontinuities within and between liberal and fascist Italies. It invites the reader to compare the Italian experiences with other European ones, such as French, British, and German citizenship traditions.Sabina Donati is Lecturer at Webster University Geneva. http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=18124 http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=18124 Sectarian Gulf: Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and the Arab Spring That Wasn't Sectarian Gulf: Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and the Arab Spring That Wasn't Toby Matthiesen "Providing an unbiased analysis of how the Arab Spring transformed politics-as-usual in the Gulf, Toby Matthiesen has given us an invaluable contribution to the discussion of the grassroots revolutionary movements that have swept the region. His insight on the rise of politically-driven sectarianism is critical to our understanding of the chief drivers of conflict in the Middle East today."—Joost Hiltermann, International Crisis Group"Sectarian Gulf is an excellent and timely account of the challenges facing the Persian Gulf today. A must read for anyone interested in understanding the region and the forces that are pulling it apart."—Toby C. Jones, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, author of Desert Kingdom: How Oil and Water Forged Modern Saudi Arabia"Toby Matthiesen has combined first-rate academic research with intensive on-the-ground investigations to produce an excellent account of the Arab Spring in the Gulf monarchies. He artfully weaves first-person reporting with scholarly analysis in a very readable and topical book."—F. Gregory Gause, III, University of Vermont"Matthiesen offers a personal, gripping, and rigorous account of how political entrepreneurs and governments have worked to produce sectarianism across the Gulf, with dangerous implications for the future stability of the region. This short book will help readers to put into context a wide range of developments across the region, and to understand the true significance of the resurgence of an alarming new form of sectarian politics."—Marc Lynch, George Washington University"The same abuses of power that provoked uprisings across the Arab world have driven protests in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia in recent years. Toby Matthiesen offers an admirably clear and dispassionate account of how, as in Syria, these regimes have used a sectarian framing to strengthen their own efforts at counter-revolution."—Charles Tripp, School of Oriental and African Studies <center><a href="http://www.sup.org/book.cgi?id=23053">To buy this book or view bibliographic details, click here.</a></center>As popular uprisings spread across the Middle East, popular wisdom often held that the Gulf States would remain beyond the fray. In Sectarian Gulf, Toby Matthiesen paints a very different picture, offering the first assessment of the Arab Spring across the region. With first-hand accounts of events in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait, Matthiesen tells the story of the early protests, and illuminates how the regimes quickly suppressed these movements. Pitting citizen against citizen, the regimes have warned of an increasing threat from the Shia population. Relations between the Gulf regimes and their Shia citizens have soured to levels as bad as 1979, following the Iranian revolution. Since the crackdown on protesters in Bahrain in mid-March 2011, the "Shia threat" has again become the catchall answer to demands for democratic reform and accountability. While this strategy has ensured regime survival in the short term, Matthiesen warns of the dire consequences this will have—for the social fabric of the Gulf States, for the rise of transnational Islamist networks, and for the future of the Middle East.Toby Matthiesen is a Research Fellow in Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies at Pembroke College, University of Cambridge. He has published in The New York Review of Books, The Guardian, Foreign Policy, Middle East Journal, and Middle East Report, and has done extensive fieldwork in the Middle East during the Arab Spring. He previously worked as a Gulf Consultant for the International Crisis Group. http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=23053 http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=23053 Camp Sites: Sex, Politics, and Academic Style in Postwar America Camp Sites: Sex, Politics, and Academic Style in Postwar America Michael Trask "Full of surprises, Trask's book shows how Cold War academic culture shared in the irony, detachment, and performance of 1950s camp. Or so the New Left believed, which explains why they viewed homosexuals and college professors with such suspicion. This stunning history of postwar America shows what was at stake when angry young men put their bodies on the line on college campuses in the 1960s, and it illuminates the ongoing paradoxes of Left protest."—Heather Love, University of Pennsylvania <center><a href="http://www.sup.org/book.cgi?id=22511">To buy this book or view bibliographic details, click here.</a></center>Reading across the disciplines of the mid-century university, this book argues that the political shift in postwar America from consensus liberalism to New Left radicalism entailed as many continuities as ruptures. Both Cold War liberals and radicals understood the university as a privileged site for "doing politics," and both exiled homosexuality from the political ideals each group favored. Liberals, who advanced a politics of style over substance, saw gay people as unable to separate the two, as incapable of maintaining the opportunistic suspension of disbelief on which a tough-minded liberalism depended. Radicals, committed to a politics of authenticity, saw gay people as hopelessly beholden to the role-playing and duplicity that the radicals condemned in their liberal forebears. Camp Sites considers key themes of postwar culture, from the conflict between performance and authenticity to the rise of the meritocracy, through the lens of camp, the underground sensibility of pre-Stonewall gay life. In so doing, it argues that our basic assumptions about the social style of the postwar milieu are deeply informed by certain presuppositions about homosexual experience and identity, and that these presuppositions remain stubbornly entrenched despite our post-Stonewall consciousness-raising.Michael Trask is Associate Professor of English at the University of Kentucky and the author of Cruising Modernism: Class and Sexuality in American Literature and Social Thought (2003). http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=22511 http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=22511 The Adversary First Amendment: Free Expression and the Foundations of American Democracy The Adversary First Amendment: Free Expression and the Foundations of American Democracy Martin H. Redish "Martin Redish sets forth and forcefully defends a powerful and important theory of the First Amendment, persuasively illustrating its application in three significant areas: commercial speech, campaign spending, and anonymous speech. This is a must-read for anyone interested in First Amendment theory."—Eugene Volokh, University of California, Los Angeles School of Law"Redish's The Adversary First Amendment is a passionate defense of a strong and broad right of freedom of expression. Although Redish justifies freedom of expression by its contribution to democratic self-rule, he argues that adversary democracy requires protection of free expression in all domains in which individuals discover their interests and values and that it cannot be restricted to political arenas or to 'public discourse.' Although Redish's theory of free expression puts him at odds with some leading First Amendment theorists, his arguments are formidable. The Adversary First Amendment is destined to be part of the First Amendment canon."—Larry Alexander, University of San Diego School of Law <center><a href="http://www.sup.org/book.cgi?id=20322">To buy this book or view bibliographic details, click here.</a></center>The Adversary First Amendment presents a unique and controversial rethinking of modern American democratic theory and free speech. Most free speech scholars understand the First Amendment as a vehicle for or protection of democracy itself, relying upon cooperative or collectivist theories of democracy. Martin Redish reconsiders free speech in the context of adversary democracy, arguing that individuals should have the opportunity to affect the outcomes of collective decision-making according to their own values and interests. Adversary democracy recognizes the inevitability of conflict within a democratic society, as well as the need for regulation of that conflict to prevent the onset of tyranny. In doing so, it embraces pluralism, diversity, and the individual growth and development deriving from the promotion of individual interests. Drawing on previous free speech scholarship and case studies of controversial speech, Redish advances a theory of free expression grounded in democratic notions of self-promotion and controlled adversary conflict, making a strong case for its application across such areas as commercial speech, campaign spending, and anonymous speech.Martin H. Redish is the Louis and Harriet Ancel Professor of Law and Public Policy at Northwestern University School of Law. He is the author of Wholesale Justice (Stanford, 2008) and The Logic of Persecution (Stanford, 2004). http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=20322 http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=20322 The Handbook of Rational Choice Social Research The Handbook of Rational Choice Social ResearchEdited by Rafael Wittek, Tom A.B. Snijders, and Victor Nee "Spearheaded by three preeminent scholars, offering the best qualitative, quantitative, and theoretical work in the field, this handbook illustrates the diversity of empirical research guided by rational choice theory. The logic is engagingly simple, the substantive insights impressive."—Ronald S. Burt, The University of Chicago"A marvelous must-read for anyone interested in human behavior. The Handbook of Rational Choice Social Research takes on the challengers to rational choice and shows in a remarkable breadth of applications how rational choice models and empirical evidence can advance our understanding of virtually every aspect of social interaction. This handbook is the antidote to the vast amount of misguided, misinformed, or out-of-date critiques of the rational choice perspective."—Bruce Bueno de Mesquita, New York University and Senior Fellow, emeritus, The Hoover Institution, Stanford University"This volume provides a deep and wide-ranging review of the strengths, weaknesses and accomplishments of modern rational choice theory. By taking a problem-oriented approach, and focusing on empirical evidence across topics ranging from institutional design to the assimilation of immigrants, and from the advance of secularization to the origins of war, the contributors offer a rich menu of directions for any researcher exploring this field."—John Sutton, The London School of Economics <center><a href="http://www.sup.org/book.cgi?id=21110">To buy this book or view bibliographic details, click here.</a></center>The Handbook of Rational Choice Social Research offers the first comprehensive overview of how the rational choice paradigm can inform empirical research within the social sciences. This landmark collection highlights successful empirical applications across a broad array of disciplines, including sociology, political science, economics, history, and psychology. Taking on issues ranging from financial markets and terrorism to immigration, race relations, and emotions, and a huge variety of other phenomena, rational choice proves a useful tool for theory- driven social research. Each chapter uses a rational choice framework to elaborate on testable hypotheses and then apply this to empirical research, including experimental research, survey studies, ethnographies, and historical investigations. Useful to students and scholars across the social sciences, this handbook will reinvigorate discussions about the utility and versatility of the rational choice approach, its key assumptions, and tools.Rafael Wittek is Professor of Theoretical Sociology at the University of Groningen. Tom A. B. Snijders is Professor of Statistics in the Social Sciences at the University of Oxford and the University of Groningen. Victor Nee is the Frank and Rosa Rhodes Professor in the Department of Sociology at Cornell University. http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=21110 http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=21110 People's Science: Bodies and Rights on the Stem Cell Frontier People's Science: Bodies and Rights on the Stem Cell Frontier Ruha Benjamin "Telling the story of the social and political lives of stem cells in America, Ruha Benjamin compels you to consider how political expedience and vague promises of a better future too often trump social equity in publicly funded scientific research. This is an immensely important and timely book, impeccably researched and forcefully argued."—Michael Montoya, University of California, Irvine, author of Making the Mexican Diabetic: Race, Science, and the Genetics of Inequality"Ruha Benjamin powerfully contests the autonomy of scientists and argues instead for a radically inclusive public engagement in science. Grounded in the heated battle over stem cell research, People's Science highlights the voices of people with disabilities, African Americans, and women to show why citizens should have the power to influence science as much as scientists influence society. A must read for students and scholars interested in science and society, as well as advocates for more democratic participation in cutting-edge biotechnologies."—Dorothy Roberts, University of Pennsylvania, author of Fatal Invention: How Science, Politics, and Big Business Re-create Race in the Twenty-first Century"In this fascinating account of an experiment both political and scientific, Ruha Benjamin takes us behind the scenes of California's massive, voter-driven investment in stem cell research. People's Science examines the tread marks where the rubber meets the road: Whose interests are served, whose bodies provide the raw research materials, and which groups reap the benefits? This is a must-read contribution to our understanding of health disparities, 'biological citizenship,' and the politics of knowledge-making."—Steven Epstein, Northwestern University, author of Inclusion: The Politics of Difference in Medical Research"As we move full steam into an era of citizen-driven science, Ruha Benjamin's wonderful examination of stem-cell initiatives is a welcome reminder that politics and social justice don't necessarily enjoy a good prognosis even when scientific priorities are motivated by democratic processes. Science of the people, by the people and for the people does not always mean all the people."—Dalton Conley, New York University <center><a href="http://www.sup.org/book.cgi?id=20585">To buy this book or view bibliographic details, click here.</a></center>Stem cell research has sparked controversy and heated debate since the first human stem cell line was derived in 1998. Too frequently these debates devolve to simple judgments—good or bad, life-saving medicine or bioethical nightmare, symbol of human ingenuity or our fall from grace—ignoring the people affected. With this book, Ruha Benjamin moves the terms of debate to focus on the shifting relationship between science and society, on the people who benefit—or don't—from regenerative medicine and what this says about our democratic commitments to an equitable society. People's Science uncovers the tension between scientific innovation and social equality, taking the reader inside California's 2004 stem cell initiative, the first of many state referenda on scientific research, to consider the lives it has affected. Benjamin reveals the promise and peril of public participation in science, illuminating issues of race, disability, gender, and socio-economic class that serve to define certain groups as more or less deserving in their political aims and biomedical hopes. Under the shadow of the free market and in a nation still at odds with universal healthcare, the socially marginalized are often eagerly embraced as test-subjects, yet often are unable to afford new medicines and treatment regimes as patients. Ultimately, Ruha Benjamin argues that without more deliberate consideration about how scientific initiatives can and should reflect a wider array of social concerns, stem cell research— from African Americans' struggle with sickle cell treatment to the recruitment of women as tissue donors—still risks excluding many. Even as regenerative medicine is described as a participatory science for the people, Benjamin asks us to consider if "the people" ultimately reflects our democratic ideals.Ruha Benjamin is Assistant Professor of Sociology and African American studies at Boston University and an American Council of Learned Societies fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government's Science, Technology, and Society Program. She is actively engaged in community initiatives that investigate the social impact and meaning of new biotechnologies in forensic and medical settings. She blogs about the broader questions of innovation and citizen science at facebook.com/peoples.science and on Twitter @Peoples_Science. http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=20585 http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=20585 Neoliberalism, Interrupted: Social Change and Contested Governance in Contemporary Latin America Neoliberalism, Interrupted: Social Change and Contested Governance in Contemporary Latin AmericaEdited by Mark Goodale and Nancy Postero "This timely collection brings together diverse disciplinary perspectives to explore the limits of neoliberal governmentality in contemporary Latin America. The contributors provide fine-grained, ethnographic analysis of alternatives to the 'Washington consensus,' both grandiose and grassroots, revealing in the process the promises and contradictions of 'post-neoliberal' political programs and social projects."—Patrick C. Wilson, University of Lethbridge "This book will resonate with all those interested in one of the most important political questions for Latin America today. The authors resist the temptation to provide easy answers—the essays are subtle and effective, their sophistication buttressed by empirical and theoretical rigor."—Sian Lazar, University of Cambridge"Neoliberalism, Interrupted makes an important contribution to studying Latin America's rapidly changing socio-political landscape. The volume's authors remind us that the region presents a rich laboratory for experiments that defy existing categories of social and political theory in contradictory, but potentially exciting new ways."—Philip Oxhorn, McGill University"Mark Goodale and Nancy Postero's collection offers us a vivid panorama of neoliberalism and its interruption, keeping in mind broader patterns of political economic transformation and civil society struggle. The chapters forcefully demonstrate neoliberalism's investment in violence and regulation, while opening our eyes to civil society's spaces to challenge them. From Buenos Aires to Venezuela, from race to gender, this collection represents an important theoretical and critical engagement with Latin America's current realities."—Sarah A. Radcliffe, University of Cambridge, author of Indigenous Development in the Andes: Culture, Power, and Transnationalism <center><a href="http://www.sup.org/book.cgi?id=17903">To buy this book or view bibliographic details, click here.</a></center>In the 1980s and 1990s, neoliberal forms of governance largely dominated Latin American political and social life. Neoliberalism, Interrupted examines the recent and diverse proliferation of responses to neoliberalism's hegemony. In so doing, this vanguard collection of case studies undermines the conventional dichotomies used to understand transformation in this region, such as neoliberalism vs. socialism, right vs. left, indigenous vs. mestizo, and national vs. transnational. Deploying both ethnographic research and more synthetic reflections on meaning, consequence, and possibility, the essays focus on the ways in which a range of unresolved contradictions interconnect various projects for change and resistance to change in Latin America. Useful to students and scholars across disciplines, this groundbreaking volume reorients how sociopolitical change has been understood and practiced in Latin America. It also carries important lessons for other parts of the world with similar histories and structural conditions.Mark Goodale is Associate Professor of Conflict Analysis and Anthropology at George Mason University and Series Editor of Stanford Studies in Human Rights. He is the author of Surrendering to Utopia: An Anthropology of Human Rights (Stanford, 2009) and Dilemmas of Modernity: Bolivian Encounters with Law and Liberalism (Stanford, 2008). Nancy Postero is Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, San Diego, and author of Now We Are Citizens: Indigenous Politics in Post-Multicultural Bolivia (Stanford, 2006), and co-author, with Leon Zamosc, of The Struggle for Indigenous Rights in Latin America (2003). http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=17903 http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=17903 A New Era in U.S. Health Care: Critical Next Steps Under the Affordable Care Act A New Era in U.S. Health Care: Critical Next Steps Under the Affordable Care Act Stephen Davidson "This is a succinct account of a mind-bogglingly complicated piece of legislation. Well-grounded in the literature, it is well suited for policy classes or educated readers who are seeking a short, trustworthy introduction to the ACA."—Harold Pollack, University of Chicago "The Affordable Care Act promises revolutionary changes for America's health care system. Stephen Davidson's A New Era in U.S. Health Care offers a concise, readable, and insightful explanation of the problems that necessitated this law, the process through which it was adopted and is being implemented, and the reforms that it will bring about."—Timothy Stoltzfus Jost, Professor, Washington and Lee University School of Law"A wise and humane guide through American health care. Davidson explains the problems we face and describes exactly how the Affordable Care Act measures up to them. The bottom line? A New Era in US Health Care might just turn you into a health policy optimist. Clear, elegant, smart, sober, insightful, and highly recommended."—James A Morone, author of The Heart of Power: Health and Politics in the Oval Office and By the People: Debating American Government <center><a href="http://www.sup.org/book.cgi?id=23436">To buy this book or view bibliographic details, click here.</a></center>A New Era in U.S. Health Care demystifies the Affordable Care Act for unfamiliar readers, setting an agenda for lawmakers and the health industry alike. It focuses on four key issues that will determine the success of this 2010 legislation: the use of state-run Medicaid programs to expand access to insurance; the implementation process; the creation of health insurance exchanges; and the introduction of a new organizational form, accountable care organizations.Stephen M. Davidson is Professor of Strategy and Policy at Boston University's School of Management. A blogger for The Huffington Post, he is the author of Still Broken: Understanding the U.S. Health Care System. http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=23436 http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=23436 Global Security Upheaval: Armed Nonstate Groups Usurping State Stability Functions Global Security Upheaval: Armed Nonstate Groups Usurping State Stability Functions Robert Mandel "Global Security Upheaval contributes to the growing debate about whether state sovereignty should be respected as an automatic right and provides a practical framework for thinking about international responses to difficult situations like ensuring stability in places such as Afghanistan, Libya, and Syria. The book's proposal to support local actors who provide people with security and are seen locally as legitimate—whether state or non-state armed groups—makes it an unusually important contribution to the study of governance in the context of conflict."—William Reno, Northwestern University"Armed non-state groups have always been seen as diametrically opposed to stability. Robert Mandel, in this latest, thought-provoking book, challenges this notion. The outcomes of his research are certain to surprise you. The book also makes a bold attempt at creating a much needed alternative for the state-centric paradigm that has dominated thinking about security for too long. The book is innovative and masterly, and a great addition to the debate. A must-read!"—Isabelle Duyvesteyn, Strategic Studies, Leiden University, the Netherlands"Professor Mandel's fascinating and comprehensive analysis challenges the widespread assumption that armed non-state actors have to be eliminated in order to achieve national and international stability."—Elke Krahmann, Professor of Politics and History, Brunel University <center><a href="http://www.sup.org/book.cgi?id=22343">To buy this book or view bibliographic details, click here.</a></center>This book calls into question the commonly held contentions that central governments are the most important or even the sole sources of a nation's stability, and that subnational and transnational nonstate forces are a major source of global instability. By assessing recent real-world trends, Mandel reveals that areas exist where it makes little sense to rely on state governments for stability, and that attempts to bolster such governments to promote stability often prove futile. He demonstrates how armed nonstate groups can sometimes provide local stability better than states, and how power-sharing arrangements between states and armed nonstate groups may sometimes be viable. He concludes that these trends in the international setting call for major shifts in our understanding of what constitutes stable governance — proposing that we adopt a fluid "emergent actor" approach. And he calls for significant deviation from standard policy responses to the opportunities and dangers posed by nontraditional sources of national authority. Robert Mandel is Professor of International Affairs at Lewis and Clark College. He is the author of Dark Logic: Transnational Criminal Tactics and Global Security (Stanford University Press, 2011). http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=22343 http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=22343 No Billionaire Left Behind: Satirical Activism in America No Billionaire Left Behind: Satirical Activism in America Angelique Haugerud "Angelique Haugerud's accessible and engaging book is important reading for anyone interested in the optimism of political satire, the hope that motivates activism, the clarity of critique, and the beauty of great ethnography. In Leave No Billionaire Behind, Haugerud deftly combines economic anthropology, activism, performance, and the literature from news and journalism to build her powerful portrait of what The Billionaires are trying to accomplish and why."—Catherine Besteman, Colby College"This hilarious book addresses today's most pressing issues—social justice, skewed distributions of wealth and income, movements for change—and brilliantly reveals how whacky activists challenge the establishment and overly serious protest movements. Haugerud's book is a welcome addition to the appallingly dry corpus of much social movement scholarship."—Marc Edelman, Hunter College and the CUNY Graduate Center"This brilliant study of the 'Billionaires for Bush' explains how and why irony has become such a powerful vehicle of political sincerity in the age of neoliberal monology. Whether or not one believes that satire is capable of reopening the terms of political discourse in the West by itself, we would all do well to heed Haugerud's persuasive argument that parody has potential to 'defamiliarize the familiar' by surfacing and inverting our conventions of understanding the world. Activists like the Billionaires have generated political effects, she shows us, by occupying the language of power."—Dominic Boyer, Rice University"In this pathbreaking book Angelique Haugerud presents a highly original account of novel forms of activism and engagement that seek to redefine the parameters of the political. It is difficult to imagine a more important or timely contribution to the comparative study of politics."—David Nugent, Emory University <center><a href="http://www.sup.org/book.cgi?id=21675">To buy this book or view bibliographic details, click here.</a></center>Growing economic inequality, corporate influence in politics, an eroding middle class. Many Americans leave it to politicians and the media to debate these topics in the public sphere. Yet other seemingly ordinary Americans have decided to enter the conversation of wealth in America by donning ball gowns, tiaras, tuxedos, and top hats and taking on the imagined roles of wealthy, powerful, and completely fictional characters. Why? In No Billionaire Left Behind, Angelique Haugerud, who embedded herself within the "Billionaires" and was granted the name "Ivana Itall," explores the inner workings of these faux billionaires and mines the depths of democracy's relationship to political humor, satire, and irony. No Billionaire Left Behind is a compelling investigation into how satirical activists tackle two of the most contentious topics in contemporary American political culture: the increasingly profound division of wealth in America, and the role of big money in electoral politics. Anthropologist and author Angelique Haugerud deftly charts the evolution of a group named the Billionaires—a prominent network of satirists and activists who make a mockery of wealth in America—along with other satirical groups and figures to puzzle out their impact on politics and public opinion. In the spirit of popular programs like The Colbert Report and The Daily Show, the Billionaires demonstrate a sophisticated knowledge of economics and public affairs through the lens of satire and humor. Through participant observation, interviews, and archival research, Haugerud provides the first ethnographic study of the power and limitations of this evolving form of political organizing in this witty exploration of one group's efforts to raise hope and inspire action in America's current political climate.Angelique Haugerud is <a href=http://anthro.rutgers.edu/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=94>Associate Professor of Anthropology at Rutgers University</a> and Editor of <a href=http://www.americanethnologist.org/editor/>American Ethnologist</a>. http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=21675 http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=21675 The Eclipse of Equality: Arguing America on Meet the Press The Eclipse of Equality: Arguing America on Meet the Press Solon Simmons "Simmons brilliantly distills 70 years of conversations on Meet the Press into an engaging account of America's post-war political trajectory. With conservatives championing individual freedom and liberals promoting group rights, economic equality has largely disappeared from our national conversation. The Eclipse of Equality breaks new ground by uncovering the rhetorical roots of our present political malaise."—Howard Kimeldorf, University of Michigan <center><a href="http://www.sup.org/book.cgi?id=21395">To buy this book or view bibliographic details, click here.</a></center>Red state vs. blue state. Republican vs. Democrat. Fox News vs. The Daily Show. The so-called culture wars have become such a fixture of American politics that dividing the country into rival camps seems natural and political gridlock seems inevitable. Entering the fray, Solon Simmons offers an intriguing twist on the debate: Our disagreements come not from unbridgeable divides, but from differing interpretations of a single underlying American tradition—liberalism. Both champions of traditional liberal values, Republicans have become the party of individual freedom while Democrats wear the mantle of tolerance. Lost in this battle of sides is the third pillar of liberalism—equality. Simmons charts the course of American politics through the episodes of Meet the Press. On the air since 1945, Meet the Press provides an unparalleled record of living conversation about the most pressing issues of the day. In weekly discussions, the people who directly influenced policy and held the reins of power in Washington set the political agenda for the country. Listening to what these people had to say—and importantly how they said it—Meet the Press opens a window on how our political parties have become so divided and how notions of equality were lost in the process. Telling the story of the American Century, Simmons investigates four themes that have defined politics and, in turn, debate on Meet the Press—war and foreign affairs, debt and taxation, race struggles, and class and labor relations—and demonstrates how political leaders have transformed these important political issues into symbolic pawns as each party advocates for their own understanding of liberty, whether freedom or tolerance. Ultimately, with The Eclipse of Equality, he looks to bring back to the debate the question lurking in the shadows—how can we ensure the protection of a peaceful civil society and equality for all?Solon Simmons is Associate Professor of Conflict Analysis and Resolution at George Mason University. He makes frequent appearances on radio, television, and in print media, discussing issues of politics and group conflict, and his work has been discussed on most of the major national news outlets, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, Good Morning America, National Public Radio, and Meet the Press itself. He blogs about U.S. politics and culture on Confrontations (solonsimmons.wordpress.com). http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=21395 http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=21395 The Puzzle of Unanimity: Consensus on the United States Supreme Court The Puzzle of Unanimity: Consensus on the United States Supreme Court Pamela C. Corley, Amy Steigerwalt, and Artemus Ward "In The Puzzle of Unanimity, the authors skillfully probe the sources of consensus on the Supreme Court and provide new insights on the considerations that shape the justices' choices. Their book is an important contribution to the understanding of judicial behavior."—Lawrence Baum, Ohio State University"The Puzzle of Unanimity is sure to be the definitive treatment of unanimity on the Supreme Court. By providing a persuasive theoretical account of unanimity and subjecting it to testing with both qualitative and quantitative research methods, Corley, Steigerwalt, and Ward answer a question that has vexed scholars for decades: why are justices from varying political orientations able to put aside their differences and reach agreement on some of the most pressing issues facing society?"—Paul M. Collins, Jr., University of North Texas <center><a href="http://www.sup.org/book.cgi?id=22199">To buy this book or view bibliographic details, click here.</a></center>The U.S. Supreme Court typically rules on cases that present complex legal questions. Given the challenging nature of its cases and the popular view that the Court is divided along ideological lines, it's commonly assumed that the Court routinely hands down equally-divided decisions. Yet the justices actually issue unanimous decisions in approximately one third of the cases they decide. Drawing on data from the U.S. Supreme Court database, internal court documents, and the justices' private papers, The Puzzle of Unanimity provides the first comprehensive account of how the Court reaches consensus. Pamela Corley, Amy Steigerwalt, and Artemus Ward propose and empirically test a theory of consensus; they find consensus is a function of multiple, concurrently-operating forces that cannot be fully accounted for by ideological attitudes. In this thorough investigation, the authors conclude that consensus is a function of the level of legal certainty and its ability to constrain justices' ideological preferences.Pamela C. Corley is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Southern Methodist University.Amy Steigerwalt is Associate Professor of Political Science and Director of Graduate Studies at Georgia State University.Artemus Ward is Associate Professor of Political Science at Northern Illinois University. http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=22199 http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=22199