EBookClubs

Read Books & Download eBooks Full Online

EBookClubs

Read Books & Download eBooks Full Online

Book Substate Dictatorship

    Book Details:
  • Author : Yoram Gorlizki
  • Publisher : Yale University Press
  • Release : 2020-08-05
  • ISBN : 0300230818
  • Pages : 458 pages

Download or read book Substate Dictatorship written by Yoram Gorlizki and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2020-08-05 with total page 458 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An essential exploration of how authoritarian regimes operate at the local level How do local leaders govern in a large dictatorship? What resources do they draw on? Yoram Gorlizki and Oleg Khlevniuk examine these questions by looking at one of the most important authoritarian regimes of the twentieth century. Starting in the early years after the Second World War and taking the story through to the 1970s, they chart the strategies of Soviet regional leaders, paying particular attention to the forging and evolution of local trust networks.

Book Photography and Political Repressions in Stalin   s Russia

Download or read book Photography and Political Repressions in Stalin s Russia written by Denis Skopin and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2022-03-29 with total page 222 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is devoted to the phenomenon of removal of people declared "public enemies" from group photographs in Stalin’s Russia. The book is based on long-term empirical research in Russian archives and includes 57 photographs that are exceptional in terms of historical interest: all these images bear traces of editing in the form of various marks, such as blacking-out, excisions or scratches. The illustrative materials also include a group of photographs with inscriptions left by officers of Stalin’s secret police, the NKVD. To approach this extensive visual material, Denis Skopin draws on a wealth of Stalin-era written sources: memoirs, diaries and official documents. He argues that this kind of political iconoclasm cannot be confused with censorship nor vandalism. The practice in question is more harrowing and morally twisted, for in most cases the photos were defaced by those who were part of victim’s intimate circle: his/her colleagues, friends or even close family members. The book will be of interest to scholars working in history of photography, art history, visual culture, Russian studies and Russian history and politics.

Book Secret Leviathan

    Book Details:
  • Author : Mark Harrison
  • Publisher : Stanford University Press
  • Release : 2023-06-06
  • ISBN : 1503635848
  • Pages : 401 pages

Download or read book Secret Leviathan written by Mark Harrison and published by Stanford University Press. This book was released on 2023-06-06 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Soviet Union was one of the most secretive states that ever existed. Defended by a complex apparatus of rules and checks administered by the secret police, the Soviet state had seemingly unprecedented capabilities based on its near monopoly of productive capital, monolithic authority, and secretive decision making. But behind the scenes, Soviet secrecy was double-edged: it raised transaction costs, incentivized indecision, compromised the effectiveness of government officials, eroded citizens' trust in institutions and in each other, and led to a secretive society and an uninformed elite. The result is what this book calls the secrecy/capacity tradeoff: a bargain in which the Soviet state accepted the reduction of state capacity as the cost of ensuring its own survival. This book is the first comprehensive, analytical, multi-faceted history of Soviet secrecy in the English language. Harrison combines quantitative and qualitative evidence to evaluate the impact of secrecy on Soviet state capacity from the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Based on multiple years of research in once-secret Soviet-era archives, this book addresses two gaps in history and social science: one the core role of secrecy in building and stabilizing the communist states of the twentieth century; the other the corrosive effects of secrecy on the capabilities of authoritarian states.

Book How Did Britain Come to This

Download or read book How Did Britain Come to This written by Gwyn Bevan and published by LSE Press. This book was released on 2023-10-23 with total page 327 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: If every system is perfectly designed to get the results it gets, what is wrong with the design of the systems that govern Britain? And how have they resulted in failures in housing, privatisation, outsourcing, education and healthcare? In How Did Britain Come to This? Gwyn Bevan examines a century of varieties of systemic failures in the British state. The book begins and ends by showing how systems of governance explain scandals in NHS hospitals, and the failures and successes of the UK and Germany in responding to Covid-19 before and after vaccines became available. The book compares geographical fault lines and inequalities in Britain with those that have developed in other European countries and argues that the causes of Britain’s entrenched inequalities are consequences of shifts in systems of governance over the past century. Clement Attlee’s postwar government aimed to remedy the failings of the prewar minimal state, while Margaret Thatcher’s governments in the 1980s in turn sought to remedy the failings of Attlee’s planned state by developing the marketised state, which morphed into the financialised state we see today. This analysis highlights the urgent need for a new political settlement of an enabling state that tackles current systemic weaknesses from market failures and over-centralisation. This book offers an accessible, analytic account of government failures of the past century, and is essential reading for anyone who wants to make an informed contribution to what an innovative, capable state might look like in a post-pandemic world.

Book Dictatorship

Download or read book Dictatorship written by Ron Fridell and published by Marshall Cavendish. This book was released on 2008 with total page 148 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Discusses dictatorships as a political system, and details the history of dictatorships throughout the world" -- Provided by publisher.

Book Political Opposition in Authoritarianism

Download or read book Political Opposition in Authoritarianism written by Rico Isaacs and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2022-08-13 with total page 168 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How might political opposition shape regime outcomes over time in an authoritarian system? Most studies on political opposition in authoritarian contexts tend to focus on the agency of the regime over and above that of the political opposition. Using Albert Hirschman’s framework of exit, voice and loyalty, this book examines the case of Kazakhstani opposition agency over 30 years to explore the extent to which political opposition in Kazakhstan has shaped the dynamics of authoritarian regime development in the country. What the analysis reveals is that in Kazakhstan the regime has tended to treat formal institutional political opposition as neither a credible nor non-credible threat. Consequently, the Kazakhstani regime has always responded to opposition exit and voice with sanctions and institutional adaption which strengthened the regime in the short to medium term, but left them exposed to spontaneous, grassroots non-institutional opposition in the longer term. This spontaneous grassroots opposition emerged in Kazakhstan as a series of ‘shocks’ crystalised in the 2011 events in Zhanaozen, the 2016 land protests, the 2019 election protests and the events of ‘qandy qantar’ (bloody January) in 2022. What this book illustrates is how authoritarian regimes which treat opposition threats ambiguously are likely to end up in a continuous state of instability because the feedback provided by opposition agency disappears leaving the regime susceptible to spontaneous opposition.

Book Routledge Handbook of Russian Politics and Society

Download or read book Routledge Handbook of Russian Politics and Society written by Graeme Gill and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2022-12-23 with total page 729 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This second edition of the highly respected Routledge Handbook of Russian Politics and Society both provides a broad overview of the area and highlights cutting-edge research into the country. Through balanced theoretical and empirical investigation, each chapter examines both the Russian experience and the existing literature, identifies and exemplifies research trends, and highlights the richness of experience, history, and continued challenges inherent to this enduringly fascinating and shifting polity. Politically, economically, and socially, Russia has one of the most interesting development trajectories of any major country. This Handbook answers questions about democratic transition, the relationship between the market and democracy, stability and authoritarian politics, the development of civil society, the role of crime and corruption, the development of a market economy, and Russia’s likely place in the emerging new world order. Providing a comprehensive resource for scholars, students, and policy makers alike, this book is an essential contribution to the study of Russian studies/politics, Eastern European studies/politics, and International Relations.

Book Building Socialism

    Book Details:
  • Author : Yiannis Kokosalakis
  • Publisher : Cambridge University Press
  • Release : 2023-02-28
  • ISBN : 1009218891
  • Pages : 295 pages

Download or read book Building Socialism written by Yiannis Kokosalakis and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2023-02-28 with total page 295 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: By placing the party grassroots at the centre of its focus, Building Socialism presents an original account of the formative first two decades of the Soviet system. Assembled in a large network of primary party organisations (PPO), the Bolshevik rank-and-file was an army of activists made up of ordinary people. While far removed from the levers of power, they were nevertheless charged with promoting the Party's programme of revolutionary social transformation in their workplaces, neighbourhoods, and households. Their regular meetings, conferences and campaigns have generated a voluminous source base. This rich material provides a unique view of the practical manifestation of the Party's revolutionary mission and forms the basis of this insightful new narrative of how the Soviet republic functioned in the period from the end of the Russian Civil War in 1921 to its invasion by Nazi Germany in 1941.

Book Intra State Immigrants as Sub State Nationalists

Download or read book Intra State Immigrants as Sub State Nationalists written by Nick Hutcheon and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-09-17 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores the attitudes, opinions and life experiences of first and second generation intra-state immigrants who are convinced and committed Basque nationalists. Based on in-depth interviews with activists, it challenges many of the assumptions often made about Basque nationalism as an exemplary case of ethnic nationalism in the exclusive sense. Focusing on activists’ migration history, their experiences of social and political inclusion and exclusion, their national and regional identities, their political identities and their experiences of political activism, the author explores the role of origins, identity and life experience in activists’ willingness to engage with Basque nationalism. As such, Intra-State Immigrants as Sub-State Nationalists will appeal to scholars of sociology and politics with interests in migration, national identities and nationalist movements.

Book Dictatorship

    Book Details:
  • Author : Paul Dowswell
  • Publisher : Gareth Stevens Publishing LLLP
  • Release : 2005-12-15
  • ISBN : 9780836858846
  • Pages : 52 pages

Download or read book Dictatorship written by Paul Dowswell and published by Gareth Stevens Publishing LLLP. This book was released on 2005-12-15 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: - Maps- Time lines tracing the development of different systems of government throughout history

Book The Soviet Sixties

    Book Details:
  • Author : Robert Hornsby
  • Publisher : Yale University Press
  • Release : 2023-09-26
  • ISBN : 0300275064
  • Pages : 501 pages

Download or read book The Soviet Sixties written by Robert Hornsby and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2023-09-26 with total page 501 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The story of a remarkable era of reform, controversy, optimism, and Cold War confrontation in the Soviet Union Beginning with the death of Stalin in 1953, the “sixties” era in the Soviet Union was just as vibrant and transformative as in the West. The ideological romanticism of the revolutionary years was revived, with renewed emphasis on egalitarianism, equality, and the building of a communist utopia. Mass terror was reined in, great victories were won in the space race, Stalinist cultural dogmas were challenged, and young people danced to jazz and rock and roll. Robert Hornsby examines this remarkable and surprising period, showing that, even as living standards rose, aspects of earlier days endured. Censorship and policing remained tight, and massacres during protests in Tbilisi and Novocherkassk, alongside invasions of Hungary and Czechoslovakia, showed the limits of reform. The rivalry with the United States reached perhaps its most volatile point, friendship with China turned to bitter enmity, and global decolonization opened up new horizons for the USSR in the developing world. These tumultuous years transformed the lives of Soviet citizens and helped reshape the wider world.

Book Social Control under Stalin and Khrushchev

Download or read book Social Control under Stalin and Khrushchev written by Immo Rebitschek and published by University of Toronto Press. This book was released on 2023-08-31 with total page 283 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How did the Soviet Union control the behaviour of its people? How did the people themselves engage with the official rules and the threat of violence in their lives? In this book, the contributors examine how social control developed under Stalin and Khrushchev. Drawing on deep archival research from across the former Soviet Union, they analyse the wide network of state institutions that were used for regulating individual behaviour and how Soviet citizens interacted with them. Together they show that social control in the Soviet Union was not entirely about the monolithic state imposing its vision with violent force. Instead, a wide range of institutions such as the police, the justice system, and party-sponsored structures in factories and farms tried to enforce control. The book highlights how the state leadership itself adjusted its policing strategies and moved away from mass repression towards legal pressure for policing society. Ultimately, Social Control under Stalin and Khrushchev explores how the Soviet state controlled the behaviour of its citizens and how the people relied on these structures.

Book The Oxford Handbook of Soviet Underground Culture

Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Soviet Underground Culture written by Mark Lipovetsky and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2024-04-26 with total page 1081 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Oxford Handbook of Soviet Underground Culture is the first comprehensive English-language volume covering a history of Soviet artistic and literary underground. In forty-four chapters, an international group of leading scholars introduce readers to a web of subcultures within the underground, highlight the culture achievements of the Soviet underground from the 1930s through the 1980s, emphasize the multimediality of this cultural phenomenon, and situate the study of underground literary texts and artworks into their broader theoretical, ideological, and political contexts.

Book Moscow and the Non Russian Republics in the Soviet Union

Download or read book Moscow and the Non Russian Republics in the Soviet Union written by Li Bennich-Björkman and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-12-13 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines what came to determine the local power and character of the Communist party-state at the level of the national non-Russian republics. It discusses how, although the Soviet Union looked centralised and monolithic to outsiders, local party-states formed their own fiefdoms and had very considerable influence over many policies areas within their republics. It argues that local party-states were shaped by two decisive relationships - to the central Communist party in Moscow and to local constituencies, especially to the local intelligentsia and the creative professions who constituted the local party-states’ biggest potential adversaries. It shows how local party-states negotiated stability and their own survival, and contends that the effects of "Sovietisation" continue to be felt in the independent states which succeeded the republics, particularly in the field of the relationship with Moscow, which remains of immense importance to these countries.

Book The History of Modern Spain

Download or read book The History of Modern Spain written by Adrian Shubert and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2017-12-14 with total page 505 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The History of Modern Spain is a comprehensive examination of Spain's history from the beginning of the 19th century to the present day. Bringing together an impressive group of leading figures and emerging scholars in the field from the UK, Canada, the United States, Spain and other European countries, the book innovatively combines a strong and clear political narrative with chapters exploring a wide range of thematic topics, such as gender, family and sexuality, nations and nationalism, empire, environment, religion, migrations and Spain in world history. The volume includes a series of biographical sketches of influential Spaniards from intellectual, cultural, economic and political spheres which provides an interesting, alternative way into understanding the last 220 years of Spanish history. The History of Modern Spain also has a glossary, a chronology and a further reading list. This is essential reading for all students of the modern history of Spain.

Book Political Leadership in an Era of Decolonisation

Download or read book Political Leadership in an Era of Decolonisation written by Malcolm Murfett and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-11-10 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What is leadership, and why is it so important? In what ways does it look very different in different contexts, and in what ways does it look the same? Malcolm Murfett brings together a range of emerging and established scholars to examine these questions in light of some of the mid-twentieth century’s most intriguing national leaders. In a series of striking biographical chapters, lessons are drawn from the apartheid era in South Africa, Lee’s remarkable socio-economic transformation of Singapore, Castro’s revolutionary overhauling of Cuba, and the playing out of Bandaranaike’s populist agenda in Sri Lanka. The book illuminates what Brezhnev and Nixon were looking for in the Cold War and what happened when the people turned against Nyerere in Tanzania, the Shah in Iran, and Ceauşescu in Romania. These case studies address what leadership meant for the individuals whose record in power is being examined. These are not idealised portraits of ‘how to do leadership’ but warts-and-all portrayals of exceptional individuals who scrabbled their way to the top and stayed there for several years during a period of great change. Business schools have long studied the theoretical axioms of corporate leadership. What this book does, however, is to move beyond the theory into the practical realm of politics and statecraft. This is a fascinating book on leadership that will be of interest for students, researchers, and practitioners studying leadership in business and politics, as well as for students of global history, decolonisation, and the Cold War.

Book Dictatorship

    Book Details:
  • Author : Richard Tames
  • Publisher : Heinemann-Raintree Library
  • Release : 2008
  • ISBN : 9781432902346
  • Pages : 72 pages

Download or read book Dictatorship written by Richard Tames and published by Heinemann-Raintree Library. This book was released on 2008 with total page 72 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book discusses the system of dictatorship: how it developed as a set of ideas from its origins to the present, how it has evolved in practice, and how it benefits or harms the people who live under it.