You may have to register before you can download all our books and magazines, click the sign up button below to create a free account.
Congress: Games and Strategies, fourth edition, is an up-to-date look at the 21st century Congress from the perspective of a professional political scientist and congressional staff member turned academic. As such, it provides both academic and real-world insights into the unique and often impenetrable world of our national legislature. Using the most recent academic literature as well as quotes from current members of Congress, it seeks to explore the overlap between theory and reality. The book uses a game analogy as an organizing theme and as a toolbox, recognizing that much of Congress' activity is understood by analyzing the players, the rules under which they work, the strategies they employ and the pattern of winning and losing that result. Updated through the 2008 election, the book includes a host of features intended to enhance comprehension, including boxes that allow students to hear what congressmen and congresswomen themselves say about the institution.
What is the nature of representation? Why do some legislators pursue their own policy agendas while others only vote according to the wishes of a majority in their district? In The Movers and the Shirkers, Eric M. Uslaner sheds new light on these intriguing questions. Uslaner demonstrates that current notions of representation are too narrow and that members of Congress pursue their own policy agendas as well as represent their constituents' interests. Uslaner explains that most senators do not choose between their ideal policies or their constituency preferences because voters usually elect public officials who are in tune with their beliefs. Moreover, because the constituency is a complex group, some of whom are more critical to a legislator than others, the legislator is able to form alliances with those who support his or her policy preferences. In short, the author argues that politics is both local and ideological. This work illuminates one of the central issues of representative democracy and will appeal to those who study or follow legislative politics as well as those interested in democratic theory.
Drawing on diverse methodologies, this book's synthesizing work will be essential reading for all scholars of U.S. politics. The chapters are written by leading congressional scholars and cover topics including representation, elections, committees, party leadership, policy influence, and constitutional powers."--BOOK JACKET.
This book deals with problems frequently encoun-tered by agencies, managers, and technicians who try to implement large-scale development projects. Specifically, it focuses on the implementation problems associated with projects sponsored by the U.S. Agency for International Development (AID) and the World Bank in developing countries. Some historical background on how implementation problems became a focus of concern is presented below. Development assistance on a significant scale started with Marshall Plan aid to reconstruct Western Europe following World War II. [1] In that case, the donor (the United States) asked not to be part of the process that determined how the money was to be spent. Instead, the United States asked the West European countries to establish their own priorities for assistance (which they did after a considerable amount of inter-country negotiation).
Barnett shows how political environments can produce legislators who place a premium on their policy-making goals through a nuanced exploration of factors undergirding member perceptions, policy ambitions, class cohesion, and legislative learning.