Download or read book Gridlock Nation written by Kwasi Kwarteng and published by Biteback Publishing. This book was released on 2011-10-31 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why do we spend so much time stuck in traffic? After Peak Oil, do we face the prospect of Peak Travel? Does climate change mean no more foreign holidays? In Victorian times, Britain used to have the finest transport system in the world. Today, the future seems to belong to China with its ever growing High Speed Rail networks or Dubai and its titanic new five runway airport. What went wrong? For the last hundred years, the planners at the centre of our transport system have told us what roads, railways or airports we can use. Now, to save the planet they tell us to give up our cars and planes. If we break away from the planners' control, we can have roads that run freely and trains that arrive on time. Climate change can be tackled without giving up air travel. Riding a train should be as reliable as picking up bread from your local shop. Gridlock Nation looks at the timeless problems faced in transport, from traffic jams in Rome to Victorian road rage. It examines the potential of dazzling innovations across the world, from the private sector space revolution to Google's new driverless cars. Britain needs a new revolution in transport - or gridlock will soon bring the country to a halt.
Download or read book Fighting Political Gridlock written by David J. Toscano and published by University of Virginia Press. This book was released on 2021-09-07 with total page 359 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this profoundly polarized era, the nation has been transfixed on the politics of Washington and its seemingly impenetrable gridlock. Many of the decisions that truly affect people’s lives, however, are being made not on the federal level but in the states. Faced with Washington’s political standoff, state governments are taking action on numerous vital issues, often impacting citizens and their communities far more than the decision makers in D.C. Despite this, few Americans really understand their state governments or the issues they address. In Fighting Political Gridlock, David Toscano reveals how the states are working around the impasse in Washington and how their work is increasingly shaping society. Long a central figure in one of the most important legislative bodies in the nation, the Virginia House of Delegates, Toscano brings a unique expertise to this urgent and timely discussion. Beginning with an analysis of state responses to COVID-19, including the processes and consequences of declaring states of emergency, he goes on to detail how various states are attacking issues in different ways–from education and voting to criminal justice and climate change–and provides a broad overview of how state actions affect our system of federalism. Toscano concludes with a call to action and civic engagement, including suggestions for how citizens and public officials can revitalize American democracy.
Download or read book American Gridlock written by H. Woody Brock and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2012-01-11 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A sensible solution to getting our economy back on track Pessimism is ubiquitous throughout the Western World as the pressing issues of massive debt, high unemployment, and anemic economic growth divide the populace into warring political camps. Right-and Left-wing ideologues talk past each other, with neither side admitting the other has any good ideas. In American Gridlock, leading economist and political theorist H. Woody Brock bridges the Left/Right divide, illuminating a clear path out of our economic quagmire. Arguing from first principles and with rigorous logic, Brock demonstrates that the choice before us is not between free market capitalism and a government-driven economy. Rather, the solution to our problems will require enactment of constructive policies that allow "true" capitalism to flourish even as they incorporate social policies that help those who truly need it. Brock demonstrates how deductive logic (as opposed to ideologically driven data analysis) can transform the way we think about these problems and lead us to new and different solutions that cross the ideological divide. Drawing on new theories such as game theory and the economics of uncertainty that are based upon deductive logic, Brock reveals fresh ideas for tackling issues central to the 2012 U.S, Presidential election and to the nation’s long-run future: Demonstrating that the concept of a government “deficit” is highly problematic since it blinds us to the distinction between a good deficit and a bad deficit – where a deficit is good if it results from borrowing dedicated to productive investment rather than to unproductive spending. Deriving the need for a U.S. Marshall Plan dedicated to very high levels of profitable infrastructure spending as the solution to today's Lost Decade of high unemployment. Drawing upon a logical extension of the Law of Supply and Demand to demonstrate how the health-care spending crisis can be completely resolved by letting supply increase at a faster rate than demand. Utilizing the theory of bargaining inaugurated by the "Beautiful Mind" mathematician John F. Nash, Jr., to help us avoid being repeatedly duped in our negotiations with China. Making use of a completely new theory of market risk recently developed at Stanford University to demonstrate why dramatically limiting leverage is the key reform to preventing future Perfect Storms, whereas hoping to banish "greed" amounts to whistling Dixie. Deducting from first principles a solution to the contentious issue of fair shares of the economic pie, a solution that integrates the two fundamental norms of "to each according to his contribution" and "to each according to his need." Profound, timely and important, American Gridlock cuts through the stale biases of the Right and Left, advances new ways of thinking, and provides creative solutions to the problems that threaten American society.
Download or read book Gridlock written by Randal O'Toole and published by Cato Institute. This book was released on 2010-01-18 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: America is the most mobile society in history, but our transportation system is on the verge of collapse. Traffic congestion is today five times greater than it was 25 years ago, yet many transportation plans and projects are making it worse. As Randal O’Toole reveals in Gridlock, the prime causes of our ailing system are a government transportation planning philosophy whose primary goal is to diminish auto use—hence, personal mobility—in combination with federal budget incentives that perversely encourage transportation planners to increase congestion. As a result, the automobile which is accessible to almost every family in the nation and provides unparalleled access to better housing, low-cost consumer goods, a choice-driven affordable life, and freedom—is being deliberately forced off the transportation grid by the expensive “solution” of little-used high-speed trains and urban transit lines. Gridlock presents a wide range of innovative ideas and policy recommendations for creating an effective transportation system—improvements that will increase our mobility and pay for themselves, whether it’s cars, buses, planes, or trains. At the center of O’Toole’s solutions are three core principles: those who use transportation facilities should pay for them; negative effects should be dealt with in a cost-efficient manner; and new technologies that will increase mobility at a low cost must be embraced. In Gridlock, Randal O’Toole brings energetic and unconventional thinking to transportation strategies that have, until now, only driven us into the breakdown lane.
Download or read book Beyond Racial Gridlock written by George Yancey and published by InterVarsity Press. This book was released on 2009-08-20 with total page 201 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sociologist George Yancey critiques four models of race (colorblindness, Anglo-conformity, multiculturalism and white responsibility), and introduces a new model (mutual responsibility). He offers hope that people of all races can walk together on a shared path toward racial reconciliation--not as adversaries but as collaborators and partners.
Download or read book American Gridlock written by James A. Thurber and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2015-11-12 with total page 435 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: American Gridlock is a comprehensive analysis of polarization encompassing national and state politics, voters, elites, activists, the media, and the three branches of government.
Download or read book Suburban Gridlock written by Robert Cervero and published by Transaction Publishers. This book was released on 2013-01-01 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Originally published: New Brunswick, N.J.: Center for Urban Policy Research, c1986.
Download or read book Let Their People Come written by Lant Pritchett and published by Brookings Institution Press. This book was released on 2006-09-15 with total page 116 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Let Their People Come, Lant Pritchett discusses five "irresistible forces" of global labor migration, and the "immovable ideas" that form a political backlash against it. Increasing wage gaps, different demographic futures, "everything but labor" globalization, and the continued employment growth in low skilled, labor intensive industries all contribute to the forces compelling labor to migrate across national borders. Pritchett analyzes the fifth irresistible force of "ghosts and zombies," or the rapid and massive shifts in desired populations of countries, and says that this aspect has been neglected in the discussion of global labor mobility. Let Their People Come provides six policy recommendations for unskilled immigration policy that seek to reconcile the irresistible force of migration with the immovable ideas in rich countries that keep this force in check. In clear, accessible prose, this volume explores ways to regulate migration flows so that they are a benefit to both the global North and global South.
Download or read book American Environmental Policy updated and expanded edition written by Christopher Mcgrory Klyza and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2013-08-30 with total page 449 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An updated investigation of alternate pathways for American environmental policymaking made necessary by legislative gridlock. The “golden era” of American environmental lawmaking in the 1960s and 1970s saw twenty-two pieces of major environmental legislation (including the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, and the Endangered Species Act) passed by bipartisan majorities in Congress and signed into law by presidents of both parties. But since then partisanship, the dramatic movement of Republicans to the right, and political brinksmanship have led to legislative gridlock on environmental issues. In this book, Christopher Klyza and David Sousa argue that the longstanding legislative stalemate at the national level has forced environmental policymaking onto other pathways. Klyza and Sousa identify and analyze five alternative policy paths, which they illustrate with case studies from 1990 to the present: “appropriations politics” in Congress; executive authority; the role of the courts; “next-generation” collaborative experiments; and policymaking at the state and local levels. This updated edition features a new chapter discussing environmental policy developments from 2006 to 2012, including intensifying partisanship on the environment, the failure of Congress to pass climate legislation, the ramifications of Massachusetts v. EPA, and other Obama administration executive actions (some of which have reversed Bush administration executive actions). Yet, they argue, despite legislative gridlock, the legacy of 1960s and 1970s policies has created an enduring “green state” rooted in statutes, bureaucratic routines, and public expectations.
Download or read book Legislative Effectiveness in the United States Congress written by Craig Volden and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2014-10-27 with total page 261 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores why some members of Congress are more effective than others at navigating the legislative process and what this means for how Congress is organized and what policies it produces. Craig Volden and Alan E. Wiseman develop a new metric of individual legislator effectiveness (the Legislative Effectiveness Score) that will be of interest to scholars, voters, and politicians alike. They use these scores to study party influence in Congress, the successes or failures of women and African Americans in Congress, policy gridlock, and the specific strategies that lawmakers employ to advance their agendas.
Download or read book Beyond Gridlock written by Thomas Hale and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2017-09-25 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It is now conventional wisdom to see the great policy challenges of the 21st century as inherently transnational. It is equally common to note the failures of the international institutions the world relies on to address such challenges. As the acclaimed 2013 book Gridlock argued, the world increasingly needs effective international cooperation, but multilateralism appears unable to deliver it in the face of deepening interdependence, rising multipolarity, and the growing complexity and fragmentation that characterise the global order. The Gridlock authors have now partnered with a group of leading experts to offer a trenchant reassessment of elements of the argument. Comparing anomalies and exceptions to multilateral dysfunction across a number of spheres of world politics, Beyond Gridlock explores seven pathways through and beyond gridlock. While multilateralism continues to fall short, Beyond Gridlock identifies systematic means to avoid or resist these forces and turn them into collective solutions. This book offers a vital new perspective on world politics as well as a practical guide for positive change in global policy.
Download or read book The People written by Margaret Canovan and published by Polity. This book was released on 2005-09-16 with total page 170 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Political myths surround the figure of the people and help to explain its influence; should the people itself be regarded as fictional? This original and accessible study sheds a fresh light on debates about popular sovereignty, and will be an important resource for students and scholars of political theory.
Download or read book After Gun Violence written by Craig Rood and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 2019-05-20 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mass shootings have become the “new normal” in American life. The same can be said for the public debate that follows a shooting: blame is cast, political postures are assumed, but no meaningful policy changes are enacted. In After Gun Violence, Craig Rood argues that this cycle is the result of a communication problem. Without advocating for specific policies, Rood examines how Americans talk about gun violence and suggests how we might discuss the issues more productively and move beyond our current, tragic impasse. Exploring the ways advocacy groups, community leaders, politicians, and everyday citizens talk about gun violence, Rood reveals how the gun debate is about far more than just guns. He details the role of public memory in shaping the discourse, showing how memories of the victims of gun violence, the Second Amendment, and race relations influence how gun policy is discussed. In doing so, Rood argues that forgetting and misremembering this history leads interest groups and public officials to entrenched positions and political failure and drives the public further apart. Timely and innovative, After Gun Violence advances our understanding of public discourse in an age of gridlock by illustrating how public deliberation and public memory shape and misshape one another. It is a search to understand why public discourse fails and how we can do better.
Download or read book Global Energy Politics written by Thijs Van de Graaf and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2020-05-07 with total page 261 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ever since the Industrial Revolution energy has been a key driver of world politics. From the oil crises of the 1970s to today’s rapid expansion of renewable energy sources, every shift in global energy patterns has important repercussions for international relations. In this new book, Thijs Van de Graaf and Benjamin Sovacool uncover the intricate ways in which our energy systems have shaped global outcomes in four key areas of world politics: security, the economy, the environment and global justice. Moving beyond the narrow geopolitical focus that has dominated much of the discussion on global energy politics, they also deftly trace the connections between energy, environmental politics, and community activism. The authors argue that we are on the cusp of a global energy shift that promises to be no less transformative for the pursuit of wealth and power in world politics than the historical shifts from wood to coal and from coal to oil. This ongoing energy transformation will not only upend the global balance of power; it could also fundamentally transfer political authority away from the nation state, empowering citizens, regions and local communities. Global Energy Politics will be an essential resource for students of the social sciences grappling with the major energy issues of our times.
Download or read book Merge Left written by Ian Haney López and published by The New Press. This book was released on 2019-10-01 with total page 263 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the acclaimed author of Dog Whistle Politics, an essential road map to neutralizing the role of racism as a divide-and-conquer political weapon and to building a broad multiracial progressive future "Ian Haney López has broken the code on the racial politics of the last fifty years."—Bill Moyers In 2014, Ian Haney López in Dog Whistle Politics named and explained the coded racial appeals exploited by right-wing politicians over the last half century—and thereby anticipated the 2016 presidential election. Now the country is heading into what will surely be one of the most consequential elections ever, with the Right gearing up to exploit racial fear-mongering to divide and distract, and the Left splintered over the next step forward. Some want to focus on racial justice head-on; others insist that a race-silent focus on class avoids alienating white voters. Can either approach—race-forward or colorblind—build the progressive supermajorities necessary to break political gridlock and fundamentally change the country's direction? For the past two years, Haney López has been collaborating with a research team of union activists, racial justice leaders, communications specialists, and pollsters. Based on conversations, interviews, and surveys with thousands of people all over the country, the team found a way forward. By merging the fights for racial justice and for shared economic prosperity, they were able to build greater enthusiasm for both goals—and for the cross-racial solidarity needed to win elections. What does this mean? It means that neutralizing the Right's political strategy of racial division is possible, today. And that's the key to everything progressives want to achieve. A work of deep research, nuanced argument, and urgent insight, Merge Left: Fusing Race and Class, Winning Elections, and Saving America is an indispensable tool for the upcoming political season and in the larger fight to build racial justice and shared economic prosperity for all of us.
Download or read book Why Race Still Matters written by Alana Lentin and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2020-04-22 with total page 149 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'Why are you making this about race?' This question is repeated daily in public and in the media. Calling someone racist in these times of mounting white supremacy seems to be a worse insult than racism itself. In our supposedly post-racial society, surely it’s time to stop talking about race? This powerful refutation is a call to notice not just when and how race still matters but when, how and why it is said not to matter. Race critical scholar Alana Lentin argues that society is in urgent need of developing the skills of racial literacy, by jettisoning the idea that race is something and unveiling what race does as a key technology of modern rule, hidden in plain sight. Weaving together international examples, she eviscerates misconceptions such as reverse racism and the newfound acceptability of 'race realism', bursts the 'I’m not racist, but' justification, complicates the common criticisms of identity politics and warns against using concerns about antisemitism as a proxy for antiracism. Dominant voices in society suggest we are talking too much about race. Lentin shows why we actually need to talk about it more and how in doing so we can act to make it matter less.
Download or read book Is Congress Broken written by Gary J. Schmitt and published by Brookings Institution Press. This book was released on 2017-03-21 with total page 267 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: " Making Congress Work, Again, Within the Constitutional System Congress for many years has ranked low in public esteem—joining journalists, bankers, and union leaders at the bottom of polls. And in recent years there's been good reason for the public disregard, with the rise of hyper-partisanship and the increasing inability of Congress to carry out its required duties, such as passing spending bills on time and conducting responsible oversight of the executive branch. Congress seems so dysfunctional that many observers have all but thrown up their hands in despair, suggesting that an apparently broken U.S. political system might need to be replaced. Now, some of the country's foremost experts on Congress are reminding us that tough hyper-partisan conflict always has been a hallmark of the constitutional system. Going back to the nation's early decades, Congress has experienced periods of division and turmoil. But even in those periods Congress has been able to engage in serious deliberation, prevent ill-considered proposals from becoming law—and, over time, help develop a deeper, more lasting national consensus. The ten chapters in this volume focus on how Congress in the twenty-first century can once again fulfill its proper functions of representation, deliberation, legislation, and oversight. The authors offer a series of practical reforms that would maintain, rather than replace, the constitutional separation of powers that has served the nation well for more than 200 years. "
