Download or read book Curious Correlations Party Politics and Economics written by Jan S Raymond and published by Independently Published. This book was released on 2019-07-15 with total page 156 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This investigation of curious correlations explores the implications of the fact the two worst economic collapses in the last 100 years, the Great Depression and the Great Recession occurred at the end of a decade of Republican domination of all elective branches of government.- House, Senate and Presidency. Republicans pursued similar policies in both decades - tax cuts, regulatory cuts and reducing the size of Government. At no other time in the last 100 years did Republicans enjoy such total control for an extended period of time. Polls say that voters generally consider Republicans to be better at managing the economy. How can it be that the party that is perceived to be better at managing the economy controlled government policy in the decade leading up to the two worst economic collapses of the last 100 years.? Is it just bad luck? Or bad policy? The book examines whether data justifies voter belief in Republican managerial skills. It begins by developing historical context - summarizing the philosophical differences between Republicans and Democrats regarding how they view market based economics, the appropriate size of government, taxation to support government, and regulating individual behavior. Next it identifies who controlled each branch of Congress and which party controlled the Presidency for each of the 50 two-year congressional sessions between 1919 and 2018. The data shows that Republicans have dominated government policy for about 51 of the 100 years between 1919 and 2018 while Democratic policies dominated government for 49 years. After reviewing how we pay for the Federal government it becomes obvious the most prominent difference between the parties is that when Republicans controlled policy the tax rate on the top end of the income of the wealthiest taxpayers is below 40% while when Democrats controlled policy the tax rate on the top end of the wealthiest taxpayers income averaged roughly 85%. Next it compares GDP figures for each year between 1919 and 2018 and the data shows in the 49 years when Democratic policy dominated the country grew an average of 2.77% per year, while in the 51 years when Republican policy dominated GDP grew at an average of less than 1% per year. During the years Republican policy dominated the National debt rose by over 50%. During the years Democratic policy dominated the National debt rose only 5%. When Republican policy dominates the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, when Democratic policy dominated the rich still get richer but everyone else did much better. Looking at indirect economic consequences when Republican policy dominated our healthcare system got more expensive and inefficient, compared to when Democratic policy dominated. During the years Republican policy dominated the housing market was more volatile, home ownership shrank and more people lost their homes to foreclosure. During the years Democratic policy dominated the housing market was stable, home ownership grew and foreclosures were rare. During the years of Republican domination higher education became less available for those without well off parents, during periods of Democratic domination higher education became more widely available across all income brackets. Finally we look at the stock market - surely the stock market does better when Republicans control? But in fact the market generally does considerably better under periods of Democratic policy control than during periods of Republican policy control. Looking at the vocations of Presidents in the last 100 years the data shows the 5 Presidents that came out of a business background were all Republican and economic performance during all their administrations ranged from mediocre to calamitous. The book concludes with a summary and some speculation on why these often counter-intuitive correlations exist.
Download or read book Curious Correlatations written by Jan S Raymond and published by . This book was released on 2019-07-15 with total page 156 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Curious Correlation explores the implications of the fact the two worst economic collapses in the last 100 years, the Great Depression and the Great Recession occurred at the end of a decade of Republican domination of all branches of government.- House, Senate and Presidency - and pursued similar policies in both decades - tax cuts, regulatory cuts and reducing the size of Government. At no other time in the last 100 years had Republicans enjoyed such total control for an extended period of time. Polls say that voters generally consider Republicans to be better at managing the economy. How can it be that the party that is perceived to be better at managing the economy controlled government policy in the decade leading up to the two worst economic collapses. Is it just bad luck? Or bad policy? The book examines whether data justifies voter belief in Republican managerial skills. It begins by summarizing the philosophical differences between Republicans and Democrats regarding how they view market based economics, the appropriate size of government, taxation to support government, and regulating individual behaviorTo develop historical context the book then identifies who controlled each branch of Congress and which party controlled the Presidency for each of the 50 two year congressional sessions between 1919 and 2018. It finds that Republicans have dominated government policy for about 51 of the 100 years between 1919 and 2018 while Democratic policies dominated government for 49 years.Next it examines how we pay for the Federal government. The most obvious difference between the parties is that when Republicans control policy the tax rate on the top end of the income of the wealthiest taxpayers is below 40% while when Democrats controlled policy the tax rate on the top end of the wealthiest taxpayers income averaged roughly 85%. Then we begin comparisons. Comparing GDP figures for each year between 1919 and 2018 we find in the 49 years when Democratic policy dominated the country grew an average of 2.77% per year, while in the 51 years when Republican policy dominated GDP grew at an average of less than 1% per year. During the 51 years Republican policy dominated the National debt rose by over 50%. During the 49 years Democratic policy dominated the National debt rose only 5%. When Republican policy dominates the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, when Democratic policy dominated the rich still get richer but everyone else did much better.Looking at indirect economic consequences when Republican policy dominated our healthcare system got more expensive and inefficient, compared to when Democratic policy dominated. During the 51 years of Republican policy dominated the housing market was more volatile, home ownership shrank and more people lost their homes to foreclosure. During the 49 years Democratic policy dominated the housing market was stable, home ownership grew and foreclosures were rare. During the years of Republican domination post high school education became less available for those without well off parents, during periods of Democratic domination post high school education became more widely available across all income brackets.Finally we look at the stock market - surely the stock market does better when Republicans control? But in fact the market generally does considerably better under periods of Democratic policy control during periods of Republican policy control. It then looks at the vocations of Presidents in the last 100 years and finds that the 5 Presidents that came out of a business background were all Republican and economic performance during all their administrations ranged from mediocre to calamitous.The book concludes with a summary and some speculation on why these often counter-intuitive correlations exist.
Download or read book Public Opinion and Interest Group Politics written by Heather A. Thuynsma and published by African Books Collective. This book was released on 2012 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pt. 1: Public opinion and interest group politics around the world: instructive insight?: Special interests and how they help shape US legislation: interesting possibilities or potential pitfalls -- Fundraising for social change in the US: interest group advocacy in contemporary US elections -- Interest groups in the German political system: advice for South Africa. Pt. 2: Public opinion and interest group politics in South Africa: comparing perspectives: Understanding the South African political psyche -- The character of the South African state: the self-understanding of the ANC as government and its impact on the public space -- The methodology of polling public opinion in South Africa: measuring the pulse of the people -- Managing public opinion during the 2009 South African elections -- The possibilities of election campaigns as sites for political advocacy: South Africa in comparative perspective -- Challenges for interest groups and their advocacy campaigns: the case of sustainable medium density housing -- An interest group at work: environmental activism and the case of acid mine drainage on Johannesburg's West Rand. Pt. 3: Championing public opinion: a future for interest groups?: Managing campaigns to influence the public policy agenda: putting theory into practice -- Advocacy and financing that shapes and shifts public opinion -- Government and access effects on the use of social networking sites by nationwide NGOs in the US, South Africa and Mexico -- The ability of social movements to affect policy change in South Africa and the United States: comparing and contrasting key elements of HIV/AIDS treatment and welfare entitlement campaigns -- Beyond appeasement: the real business agenda -- Democracy without choice? Interest groups, advocacy and political behaviour in Namibia: a warning for South Africa?
Download or read book Economic Conditions and Electoral Outcomes written by Heinz Eulau and published by Algora Publishing. This book was released on 2007 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Does economics influence elections? How does such influence work? Under what conditions is it more or less likely to occur? Free, popular elections matter, and they make a difference precisely because, at periodic intervals, they set the limits or constraints within which the interests of business and the interests of the people pursue their political goals. These are the basic ideas addressed in the chapters of this volume. "This fine collection of papers dealing with the effects of economic variables on electoral behaviour and electoral outcomes . . . will be of particular interest to specialists in the study of elections, but will also be valuable to students of political economy and comparative politics more generally . . ." - Canadian Journal of Politics
Download or read book Political And Economic Determinants of Population Health and Well Being written by Vincente Navarro and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-11-25 with total page 584 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The field of social inequalities in health continues its vigorous growth in the early years of the 21st century. This volume, following in the footsteps of Vicente Navarro's edited collection The Political Economy of Social Inequalities, is a compilation of recent contributions to the areas of social epidemiology, health disparities, health economics, and health services research. The overarching theme is to describe and explain the evergrowing health inequalities across social class, race, and gender, as well as neighborhood, city, region, country, and continent. The approach of this book is distinctly multi-, trans-, and interdisciplinary: the fields of public health, population health, epidemiology, economics, sociology, political science, philosophy, medicine, and history are all represented here.
Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of the Politics of Development written by Carol Lancaster and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018-05-01 with total page 640 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In many discussions of nations' development, we often focus on their economic and social development. Is it becoming wealthier? Is its society modernizing? Is it becoming more technologically sophisticated? Are social outcomes improving for the broad mass of the public? The process of development policy implementation, however, is always and inevitably political. Put simply, regime type matters when it comes to deciding on a course of development to follow. Further, political institutions matter. When a government's institutional capacity is low, the chances of success severely decline, regardless of the merits of the development plan. In The Oxford Handbook of the Politics of Development, two of America's leading political scientists on the issue, Carol Lancaster and Nicolas van de Walle, have assembled an international cast of leading scholars to craft a broad, state-of-the-art work on this vitally important topic. This volume is divided into five sections: major theories of the politics of development, organized historically (e.g. modernization theory, dependency theory, the Washington consensus of 'policies without politics,' etc.); key domestic factors and variables; key international factors and variables; political systems and structures; and geographical perspectives, inclusive of regional dynamics. A comprehensive and cross-regional examination on key issues of political development, this Handbook not only provides an authoritative synthesis of past scholarship, but also sets the agenda for future research in this discipline.
Download or read book The Politics of Curiosity written by Enrico Campo and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2024-04-26 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Through a variety of studies in the emerging field of attentional studies, this book examines and seeks alternatives to the current attention economy. Bringing together the work of leading scholars of ‘critical attention studies’ to reflect on issues such as techno-politics, socio-politics, and the politics of distraction, it offers a new and multi-disciplinary conceptualization of attention that emphasizes the connections between attention and curiosity, distraction, decoloniality and care. Above all, The Politics of Curiosity asks us to consider the nature and ambivalence of the curious forms of politics that might be taking shape in the shadow of our current attention economy. The “attention economy” has become a household name: we all know our attention is being harvested, commodified and packaged to be sold to advertisers by capitalist platforms. We all complain about it; some of us dream of disconnection; others call to fight back. By focusing on attentional deficits, and by reducing attention to being focused, however, the common view may miss wider stakes, and more promising opportunities. This collective volume provides a new frame of analysis based on three displacements. First, it relocates attentional issues within a triangulation that explores a continuum between attention, distraction and curiosity. Second, it invites us to investigate into the mental infrastructures that socially condition our perceptions and understandings of the world. Third, it points towards emancipatory politics of curiosity to provide alternatives to the attention economy. Contributions range from pedagogy to media theory, via digital studies, epistemology, sociology, political philosophy, literary history, aesthetics, film and dance studies. They gather some of the leading scholars who shaped the study of attention, questioned the values of distraction and explored the potentials of curiosity over the recent years. They extend across nine countries, four continents and seven languages, to provide a multicultural approach to these debates. Together, they help us understand how our current mental infrastructures have taken shape, under specific regimes of power and authority, in a world dominated by capital, colonialism and patriarchy. But they also sketch what can be done to redeploy them around imperatives of respect and care – from a better awareness of our mental biases, online behaviors and bodily movements, to our collective capacity to restructure classroom interactions, to launch alternative digital platforms, to build democratic movements. The first platform for discussion of the politics of attention and curiosity – and an essential point of reference for future debate – this book will appeal to scholars of sociology, politics and psychology.
Download or read book The Curious Trajectory of Caste in West Bengal Politics written by Ayan Guha and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2022-09-26 with total page 309 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Curious Trajectory of Caste in West Bengal Politics: Chronicling Continuity and Change critically engages with the political dynamics of caste in West Bengal and explores the reasons for the relative insignificance of caste as a political category in the state.
Download or read book Economics and Politics Revisited written by Timothy Hellwig and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2023-08-17 with total page 417 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What drives government popularity? For decades, scholars, journalists, and political pundits alike have converged on a single answer: the economy. A rising economy lifts the popularity of the government, and if the economy's fortunes turn south, so too does that of the government. This conventional wisdom informs politicians' decisions as well as the scholarly commentary on parties and elections. Yet the conditions that underlie this model have changed in manycountries as globalization has shifted control away from national policymakers, as non-economic cultural issues have risen in importance, and as our politics have become more polarized. At the same time, since the Great Recession in 2008 persistent economic volatility has kept the economy on the agenda.What, then, fuels government popularity in our current volatile environment? Are political fortunes tied to economic stability, as in the past? Or has the economy-popularity link-the popularity function-been severed by a host of new and less predictable factors in post-industrial societies?To answer these questions, Economics and Politics Revisited uses data from the Executive Approval Project (EAP), a cross-nationally comparable data on leader popularity, to model the fundamental dynamics of government support in advanced industrial democracies. Eleven country-specific chapters, each written by experts in the politics of the country, examine the role of economic performance in generating leader support in each country. In all cases, chapter authors show that theeconomy matters for popularity. However, the economy-popularity link is stronger in some countries than others. Further, chapters leverage EAP series to highlight change over time. Pooled analyses extend these findings, highlighting how the public's responses to the economy are reduced when political campaignsshift to non-economic issues and when parties are polarization on non-economic issues. Collectively, the volume highlights how evolving issue agendas are changing the nature of political accountability in advanced industrialized democracies. While the economy remains important, the book calls on students of political accountability to give greater attention to the role of non-economic issues.Comparative Politics is a series for researchers, teachers, and students of political science that deals with contemporary government and politics. Global in scope, books in the series are characterized by a stress on comparative analysis and strong methodological rigour. The series is published in association with the European Consortium for Political Research. For more information visit: www.ecprnet.eu .The series is edited by Nicole Bolleyer, Chair of Comparative Political Science, Geschwister Scholl Institut, LMU Munich and Jonathan Slapin, Professor of Political Institutions and European Politics, Department of Political Science, University of Zurich.
Download or read book Political Cleavages and Social Inequalities written by Amory Gethin and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2021-11-16 with total page 657 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The empirical starting point for anyone who wants to understand political cleavages in the democratic world, based on a unique dataset covering fifty countries since WWII. Who votes for whom and why? Why has growing inequality in many parts of the world not led to renewed class-based conflicts, seeming instead to have come with the emergence of new divides over identity and integration? News analysts, scholars, and citizens interested in exploring those questions inevitably lack relevant data, in particular the kinds of data that establish historical and international context. Political Cleavages and Social Inequalities provides the missing empirical background, collecting and examining a treasure trove of information on the dynamics of polarization in modern democracies. The chapters draw on a unique set of surveys conducted between 1948 and 2020 in fifty countries on five continents, analyzing the links between votersÕ political preferences and socioeconomic characteristics, such as income, education, wealth, occupation, religion, ethnicity, age, and gender. This analysis sheds new light on how political movements succeed in coalescing multiple interests and identities in contemporary democracies. It also helps us understand the conditions under which conflicts over inequality become politically salient, as well as the similarities and constraints of voters supporting ethnonationalist politicians like Narendra Modi, Jair Bolsonaro, Marine Le Pen, and Donald Trump. Bringing together cutting-edge data and historical analysis, editors Amory Gethin, Clara Martnez-Toledano, and Thomas Piketty offer a vital resource for understanding the voting patterns of the present and the likely sources of future political conflict.
Download or read book Black Politics 2 0 written by Gary James and published by Strategic Book Publishing & Rights Agency. This book was released on 2016-08-17 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Gary James explores electoral politics from the 1960s to present day, providing a portal to black American contemporary politics. His insightful book discusses the internal dynamic between the civil rights and black power juxtaposition. Two main characters animate the narrative, Spike and CadreUSA, who hold an informal dialogue on black politics from their respective points of view. Apart from the traditional perspectives that are contrasted in the political conversation of African Americans – from Africa to the Caribbean to the American mainland – the election of President Barack Obama in 2008 as the first African American president has overshadowed and colored the conversation among black Americans in particular. This stunning and politically earth-shattering event had an incendiary impact on the popular political imagination, igniting and inspiring many questions and speculations relative to the trajectory of American politics. Some of these questions, speculations, and perspectives are debated by the two main characters. The setting is Harlem, and the period is now.
Download or read book The Age of Surveillance Capitalism written by Shoshana Zuboff and published by PublicAffairs. This book was released on 2019-01-15 with total page 658 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The challenges to humanity posed by the digital future, the first detailed examination of the unprecedented form of power called "surveillance capitalism," and the quest by powerful corporations to predict and control our behavior. In this masterwork of original thinking and research, Shoshana Zuboff provides startling insights into the phenomenon that she has named surveillance capitalism. The stakes could not be higher: a global architecture of behavior modification threatens human nature in the twenty-first century just as industrial capitalism disfigured the natural world in the twentieth. Zuboff vividly brings to life the consequences as surveillance capitalism advances from Silicon Valley into every economic sector. Vast wealth and power are accumulated in ominous new "behavioral futures markets," where predictions about our behavior are bought and sold, and the production of goods and services is subordinated to a new "means of behavioral modification." The threat has shifted from a totalitarian Big Brother state to a ubiquitous digital architecture: a "Big Other" operating in the interests of surveillance capital. Here is the crucible of an unprecedented form of power marked by extreme concentrations of knowledge and free from democratic oversight. Zuboff's comprehensive and moving analysis lays bare the threats to twenty-first century society: a controlled "hive" of total connection that seduces with promises of total certainty for maximum profit -- at the expense of democracy, freedom, and our human future. With little resistance from law or society, surveillance capitalism is on the verge of dominating the social order and shaping the digital future -- if we let it.
Download or read book Political Ideologies written by Vincent Geoghegan and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-03-21 with total page 347 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Now in its fourth edition, Political Ideologies: An Introduction continues to be the best introductory textbook for students of political ideologies. Completely revised and updated throughout, this edition features: A comprehensive introduction to all of the most important ideologies Brand new chapters on multiculturalism, anarchism, and the growing influence of religion on politics More contemporary examples of twenty-first-century iterations of liberalism, socialism, conservatism, fascism, green political theory, nationalism, and feminism Enhanced discussion of the end of ideology debates and emerging theories of ideological formation Six new contributors. Accessible and packed with both historical and contemporary examples, this is the most useful textbooks for scholars and students of political ideologies. The contributors to this volume have all taught or carried out research at the School of Politics, International Studies and Philosophy of Queen’s University, Belfast, or have close research connections with the School.
Download or read book Political Parties and Political Behavior written by William J. Crotty and published by Boston : Allyn and Bacon. This book was released on 1966 with total page 652 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Politics written by Carles Boix and published by Oxford Handbooks Online. This book was released on 2007 with total page 1035 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Oxford Handbooks of Political Science is a ten-volume set of reference books offering authoritative and engaging critical overviews of the state of political science. Each volume focuses on a particular part of the discipline, with volumes on Public Policy, Political Theory, Political Economy, Contextual Political Analysis, Comparative Politics, International Relations, Law and Politics, Political Behavior, Political Institutions, and Political Methodology. The project as a whole is under the General Editorship of Robert E. Goodin, with each volume being edited by a distinguished international group of specialists in their respective fields. The books set out not just to report on the discipline, but to shape it. The series will be an indispensable point of reference for anyone working in political science and adjacent disciplines. The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Politics offers a critical survey of the field of empirical political science through the collection of a set of chapters written by forty-seven top scholars in the discipline of comparative politics. Part I includes chapters surveying the key research methodologies employed in comparative politics (the comparative method; the use of history; the practice and status of case-study research; the contributions of field research) and assessing the possibility of constructing a science of comparative politics. Parts II to IV examine the foundations of political order: the origins of states and the extent to which they relate to war and to economic development; the sources of compliance or political obligation among citizens; democratic transitions, the role of civic culture; authoritarianism; revolutions; civil wars and contentious politics. Parts V and VI explore the mobilization, representation and coordination of political demands. Part V considers why parties emerge, the forms they take and the ways in which voters choose parties. It then includes chapters on collective action, social movements and political participation. Part VI opens up with essays on the mechanisms through which political demands are aggregated and coordinated. This sets the agenda to the systematic exploration of the workings and effects of particular institutions: electoral systems, federalism, legislative-executive relationships, the judiciary and bureaucracy. Finally, Part VII is organized around the burgeoning literature on macropolitical economy of the last two decades.
Download or read book Quality of Life Balance of Power and Nuclear Weapons 2016 written by Alexander V. Avakov and published by Algora Publishing. This book was released on 2008 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Who has the most nuclear assets in the Middle East? Whose power is waning, whose increasing? Updated annually, these tables of economic, demographic and military indicators establish the pecking order for 236 countries, with estimates of all nuclear arsenals including rarely published data on non-signatory nations. The author also brings a rational perspective to the public debates on the supposed efficiency of private health insurance versus a "public option," and the notion that taxation stifles the economy, by offering comparative statistics from different countries in the developed world.
Download or read book Politics and the Pink Tide written by Kathleen Bruhn and published by University of Notre Dame Pess. This book was released on 2024-04-15 with total page 195 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Politics and the Pink Tide investigates the ways in which protest varied across five Latin American countries that elected leftist presidents during the Pink Tide. Kathleen Bruhn compares the differences in protest that occurred under the new leftist governments to their conservative, neoliberal predecessors, offering a wide-angle view into the complex relationships between neoliberalism, political party structures, and protest. Using individual and event-level data from Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Venezuela, and Ecuador, Politics and the Pink Tide shows how economic policy choices and the links between leftist parties and social movements affect patterns of protest. For example, although more orthodox neoliberal approaches did motivate more economic protest, the book demonstrates that neither more radical nor more socially linked leftist governments were better able to contain protest—or to do so without resorting to police violence. Politics and the Pink Tide proposes a sweeping exploration of protest, one that is controlled by economic policy and grievances, the social embeddedness of political parties, and the norms surrounding protest tactics within public life.
