Download or read book Infrastructure and the Political Economy of Nation Building in Spain 1720 2010 written by Germa Bel i Queralt and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book sets out to explain the very particular characteristics of Spanish infrastructure policy. The capital city of Madrid plays a central role: it not only achieved status as the economic capital of Spain in recent decades, but, together with its status as the administrative and political capital, Madrid has become the absolute capital. The challenge is to understand why such development has taken place. First, radial policies in transport infrastructure, which were primarily subordinate to political and administrative objectives, could not be supported by the dynamics of economic activity. For that reason, these policies demanded the use of extensive budgetary resources in the form of subsidies and grants that made possible what legislation alone could not achieve. Additionally, these policies respond to a regular and continuing historical pattern in Spanish politics, which began with the accession to the Spanish Crown of the Bourbon dynasty in the early 18th century. The new dynasty tried hard to translate into practice the vision of building a 'Nation like France, with a Capital like Paris.' The enduring strength of this historical pattern allows us to understand why infrastructural policies in Spain today are so unique and different from those of surrounding and comparable countries. Originally published to great acclaim in Spanish and Catalan, author Germ Bel places the historical development in a contemporary perspective in discussing the Spanish enthusiasm for a high-speed railway, with the prospect of Madrid being connected with all provincial capitals (albeit while freight by train has been neglected); a fully centralized model of airport management that is unmatched among comparable countries; and a mixed (toll and toll-free motorways) and highly asymmetric territorial highway funding model for motorways.
Download or read book Infrastructural Brutalism written by Michael Truscello and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2020-09-01 with total page 378 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How "drowned town" literature, road movies, energy landscape photography, and "death train" narratives represent the brutality of industrial infrastructures. In this book, Michael Truscello looks at the industrial infrastructure not as an invisible system of connectivity and mobility that keeps capitalism humming in the background but as a manufactured miasma of despair, toxicity, and death. Truscello terms this "infrastructural brutalism"--a formulation that not only alludes to the historical nexus of infrastructure and the concrete aesthetic of Brutalist architecture but also describes the ecological, political, and psychological brutality of industrial infrastructures.
Download or read book The Economics and Politics of High speed Rail written by Daniel Albalate and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2012 with total page 211 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The technological revolution linked to high speed rail (HSR) has been accompanied by myths and claims about its contribution to society and the economy. Although HSR is unquestionably a technological advance that has become a symbol of modernity, this review and analysis of the international experiences shows that the conditions necessary to have a positive impact, economically, socially and environmentally, are enormously restrictive. The Economics and Politics of High Speed Rail: Lessons from Experiences Abroad, by Daniel Albalate and Germ Bel, introduces the main questions policy makers and scholars should examine when considering and studying HSR implementation, with particular emphasis on the US's recent interest in this technology and possible application in California. Albalate and Bel then review the experiences of the most significant implementations of HSR around the globe. This in-depth international perspective includes chapters on the pioneers of HSR (Japan and France), the European followers (Germany, Spain and Italy), as well as Asian experiences in China, Taiwan, and Korea. Albalate and Bel's study provides a clear distinction between the myths and realities associated with this transportation innovation. Among the most relevant findings, this study highlights how HSR projects that do not satisfy highly restrictive conditions--on mobility patterns, measured costs, and economically rational designs--that make it desirable have been the source of huge financial debacles and the economic failure of HSR in most cases, which result in unfortunate consequences for taxpayers. The Economics and Politics of High Speed Rail is a rigorous investigation of the economic and political challenges and ramifications of implementing new public transportation technology.
Download or read book The Governance of Infrastructure written by Kai Wegrich and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017-03-01 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Infrastructure only tends to be noticed when it is absent, declining, or decrepit, or when enormous cost overruns, time delays, or citizen protests make the headlines. If infrastructure is indeed a fundamental driver of economic growth and social development, why is it so difficult to get right? In addressing this perennial question, this volume-the fourth edition in an annual series tackling different aspects of governance around the world-makes the case for a governance perspective on infrastructure. This implies moving beyond rational economic analysis of what should be done towards an analysis of the political, institutional, and societal mechanisms that shape decision-making about infrastructure investment, planning, and implementation. Engaging with theories from sociology, political science, and public administration, and drawing on empirical analyses bridging OECD and non-OECD countries, the contributions to this volume dissect the logics of infrastructure governance in a novel way, providing timely analyses that will enrich both scholarly and policy debates about how to get infrastructure governance right.
Download or read book The Case of the Catalans written by Clara Ponsatí and published by Luath Press Ltd. This book was released on 2020-11-06 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Imagine if your country voted to become independent, that vote was then ignored and its political leaders imprisoned or exiled.Following Catalonia's independence referendum, Clara Ponsatí, Education Minister, along with Prime Minister Carles Puigdemont were charged with sedition. They had to leave Catalonia and go into self-imposed exile, and seven of their former cabinet colleagues were imprisoned. The Case of the Catalans is a landmark book that explains the injustice Catalans have faced by being marginalised with their political beliefs rendered unlawful by the Spanish government. In this book, Ponsatí and her team of influential academics discuss the future of the Catalan people and the political and social tensions that led to the controversial referendum.In a clear and accessible style, they aim to educate as many people as possible, whether interested in politics or not, about the extraordinarily backward democratic process that currently defines Spain's national identity and has defied the settled will of the Catalan people.
Download or read book Lawfare Judicial Warfare in Spain written by Damià Del Clot and published by Liverpool University Press. This book was released on 2023-04-01 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For centuries, the Spanish state has proved to be an expert system for repressing political dissent and any threat that could jeopardize the maintenance of the status quo. It has done so using all the institutions and all the areas of power that were necessary, for the end has always justified the means. Carles Mundo, Catalan Minister of Justice, 2016-2017. There is no book in Spain that talks about lawfare. Nor is there a book that deals with the system of judicial repression of political dissidence deployed by the Franco regime. Nor is there a book that denounces the judicial system inherited from the dictatorial regime and that was later embodied in the 1978 Constitution. Lawfare (the combination of law and warfare) thus fills a void to the extent that it penetrates the authoritarian judicial system and highlights the democratic deficits of the Spanish judiciary. The politicization of justice began with the appointment, as president of the Constitutional Court, of a prominent member of the Peoples Party (Partido Popular PP) in 2013. Thereon started a process of judicialization of politics via reform of the Organic Law of the Court Constitutional. The referendums of November 9, 2014 and October 1, 2017 entailed the criminalization of the Catalan independence movement and a drastic reduction in fundamental rights linked to the exercise of political choice. This was confirmed by the judgment handed down by the Supreme Court in 2019, culminating in a lawfare strategy that has led to the criminal conviction of two presidents of the Generalitat Artur Mas and Joaquim Torra and the exile of a third president, Carles Puigdemont. Lawfare is the first book to link in a broad way the thinking of German jurists of the Nazi period to the training of judges in Spain both up to and during the Franco regime, and beyond. Published in collaboration with the Department of International History, London School of Economics
Download or read book The Privatisation and Nationalisation of European Roads written by Daniel Albalate and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 2014-05-30 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Presenting an evaluation of the critical elements of the contractual and regulatory design of the public-private collaboration that determines the likelihood of success and failure, this unique book will be of special interest to academics, graduate st
Download or read book Corruption Grabbing and Development written by Tina Søreide and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 2013-12-27 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book's sixteen case studies explore why certain practices constitute forms of grabbing, what implications they have for the achievement of development goals, and how policy options should take the characteristics of grabbing into account.
Download or read book Petrocultures written by Sheena Wilson and published by McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP. This book was released on 2017-06-26 with total page 532 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Contemporary life is founded on oil – a cheap, accessible, and rich source of energy that has shaped cities and manufacturing economies at the same time that it has increased mobility, global trade, and environmental devastation. Despite oil’s essential role, full recognition of its social and cultural significance has only become a prominent feature of everyday debate and discussion in the early twenty-first century. Presenting a multifaceted analysis of the cultural, social, and political claims and assumptions that guide how we think and talk about oil, Petrocultures maps the complex and often contradictory ways in which oil has influenced the public’s imagination around the world. This collection of essays shows that oil’s vast network of social and historical narratives and the processes that enable its extraction are what characterize its importance, and that its circulation through this immense web of relations forms worldwide experiences and expectations. Contributors’ essays investigate the discourses surrounding oil in contemporary culture while advancing and configuring new ways to discuss the cultural ecosystem that it has created. A window into the social role of oil, Petrocultures also contemplates what it would mean if human life were no longer deeply shaped by the consumption of fossil fuels.
Download or read book Raymond Carr written by María Jesús González Hernández and published by Apollo Books. This book was released on 2013 with total page 570 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Published in collaboration with the Ca'anada Blanch Centre for Contemporary Spanish Studies."
Download or read book Catalonia written by Kenneth H. McRoberts and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2022-02-10 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Located in north eastern Spain, Catalonia has long displayed the attributes of a nation: distinct language and culture, separate social and political institutions, and a strong collective identity. At the same time, it is one of Spain's centres of economic dynamism and innovation. As such, it is an especially striking instance of what has come to be known as 'minority' or 'internal' nations within a larger political order. Even after the Franco dictatorship's systematic suppression of Catalan language and culture, the idea that the Catalan nation needed to have an independent state of its own remained at the margins of Catalan politics. Yet, in recent years Catalan independence has become: the formal objective of Catalonia's nationalist parties; the focus of a strongly mobilized social movement; and the primary option of as much as half of Catalonia's electorate. This drive to independence even led to a failed unilateral declaration of independence. How can this remarkable transformation best be explained and what does it portend for the future of Catalonia and Spain? This new edition seeks to answer these questions. At the same time, the book analyzes the proposal for an independent Catalan state while also showing how the Catalan question might be resolved within Spain, by creating a multinational federation. It also explains why there is little prospect of either project coming to pass. The book demonstrates the dangers and contradictions of a state nationalism that denies the very existence of internal nations, while also exploring the terms under which such nations can be accommodated within a larger political order. On this basis, it addresses a critical challenge to the political institutions of much of Europe and North America.
Download or read book Catalonia A New Independent State in Europe written by Xavier Cuadras Morató and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-04-20 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Catalonia: A New Independent State in Europe examines the main issues of the political process which is taking place in Catalonia today. The political confrontation between the Spanish and Catalan institutions has now reached the international arena, especially the debates concerning international recognition of a new Catalan state and its membership of the European Union (EU) and other international institutions. There are no precedents for the secession of a region from an EU member country that could be applied to the case of Catalonia. Therefore, it is not surprising that the world has many unanswered question about the process. This volume aims to provide answers to many of these questions in a systematic and rigorous way. Why has the political scenario in Catalonia changed so radically and so rapidly? Is this new situation only temporary and support for independence is likely to vanish very soon? What role has the deep economic crisis in Catalonia and in Spain played in the process? Is a potential new Catalan state economically viable? Which are the main legal controversies about self-determination and independence between the Spanish and Catalan institutions? Would an independent Catalonia be a member of the EU? This book will be of great use to academics and students in the field of politics and international relations, particularly those interested in European economic and political studies. It will also interest a wide segment of general readers interested in contemporary political issues.
Download or read book The Last English Revolutionary written by Hugh Purcell and published by Apollo Books. This book was released on 2012 with total page 326 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drawing on his political and fighting experience in the Spanish Civil War, Tom Wintringham wrote the best-seller "New Ways of War" 'a do-it-yourself guide to killing people' but also a highly subversive call for a socialist revolution. He called for 'a People's war' and the phrase stuck. This book tells his story.
Download or read book Territorial Politics and the Party System in Spain written by Caroline Gray and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-05-21 with total page 169 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Across Western Europe, the global financial crisis of 2008 and its aftermath not only brought economic havoc but also, in turn, intense political upheaval. Many of the political manifestations of the crisis seen in other Western and especially Southern European countries also hit Spain, where challenger parties caused unprecedented parliamentary fragmentation, resulting in four general elections in under four years from 2015 onwards. Yet Spain, a decentralised state where extensive powers are devolved to 17 regions known as ‘autonomous communities’, also stood out from its neighbours due to the importance of the territorial dimension of politics in shaping the political expression of the crisis. This book explains how and why the territorial dimension of politics contributed to shaping party system continuity and change in Spain in the aftermath of the financial crisis, with a particular focus on party behaviour. The territorial dimension encompasses the demands for ever greater autonomy or even sovereignty coming from certain parties within the historic regions of the Basque Country, Catalonia and, to a lesser extent, Galicia. It also encompasses where these historic regions sit within the broader dynamics of intergovernmental relations across Spain’s 17 autonomous communities in total, and how these dynamics contribute to shaping party strategies and behaviour in Spain. Such features became particularly salient in the aftermath of the financial crisis since this coincided with, and indeed accelerated, the rise of the independence movement in Catalonia.
Download or read book The War and Its Shadow written by Helen Graham and published by Apollo Books. This book was released on 2012 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Spain today the civil war remains 'the past that will not pass away'. The author explores the origins, nature and long-term consequences of this exterminatory war in Spain, charting the resonant forms of political, social and cultural resistance to it and the memory/legacy these have left behind in Europe and beyond.
Download or read book Encyclopedia of Stateless Nations written by James B. Minahan and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2016-08-01 with total page 590 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book addresses the numerous national movements of ethnic groups around the world seeking independence, more self-rule, or autonomy—movements that have proliferated exponentially in the 21st century. In the last 15 years, globalization, religious radicalization, economic changes, endangered cultures and languages, cultural suppression, racial tensions, and many other factors have stimulated the emergence of autonomy and independence movements in every corner of the world—even in areas formerly considered immune to self-government demands such as South America. Researching the numerous ethnic groups seeking autonomy or independence worldwide previously required referencing many specialized publications. This book makes this difficult-to-find information available in a single volume, presented in a simple format accessible to everyone, from high school readers to scholars in advanced studies programs. The book provides an extensive update to Greenwood's Encyclopedia of the Stateless Nations: Ethnic and National Groups around the World that was published more than a decade earlier. Each ethnic group receives an alphabetically organized entry containing information such as alternate names, population figures, flag or flags, geography, history, culture, and languages. All the information readers need to understand the motivating factors behind each movement and the current situation of each ethnic group is presented in a compact summary. Fact boxes at the beginning of each entry enable students to quickly access key information, and consistent entry structure makes for easy cross-cultural comparisons.
Download or read book ITF Round Tables The Economics of Investment in High Speed Rail written by International Transport Forum and published by OECD Publishing. This book was released on 2014-12-24 with total page 180 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This report examines the key factors that drive the costs of high-speed rail investment and reviews the economic benefits delivered by high-speed rail services on the basis of experience in countries that have developed large high-speed rail networks.
