Download or read book The Prime Ministers written by Iain Dale and published by Hodder & Stoughton. This book was released on 2020-11-12 with total page 576 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: **Winner of the 2020 PARLIAMENTARY BOOK AWARDS for Best Political Book by a Non-Parliamentarian** A Times Political Book of the Year 'An entertaining, thorough and informative canter through the characters and stories of prime ministers past.' - New Statesman 'A wealth of enjoyable insights into three centuries of Westminster politics... It is a most elegant hardback volume, with a gilded cover that looks a little like the famous front door of No. 10 itself; the ideal Christmas gift.' - Joyce McMillan, The Scotsman 'This is a timely study of UK Prime Ministers and Iain Dale has done the subject a great service with this measured and thoughtful labour of love which offers a fascinating set of insights into the history of Britain, politics, the role of Prime Minister, and elite and establishment power... a superb guide to the times we have lived through and are living in.' - Gerry Hassan, Scottish Review *** 'Many of my predecessors were giants, some had feet of clay, all possessed human foibles.' - From the foreword by Boris Johnson It has almost been 300 years since Sir Robert Walpole arguably became the first holder of the office of Prime Minister in 1721 - an office which today is under scrutiny like never before. The Prime Ministers, edited by leading political commentator Iain Dale, brings to life all 55 of Britain's 'First Among Equals' with an essay for each office holder, written by key figures in British politics. From the obscure 18th-century figures like the Earl of Shelburne to 20th-century titans like Churchill and Thatcher, this book provides a much-needed reminder about their motivations, failures and achievements.

Download or read book Presidents Monarchs and Prime Ministers written by Carsten Anckar and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2022-05-29 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the last three decades, there has been a growing interest in systems that combine elements of parliamentarism and presidentialism. Despite the fact that much attention has been directed towards the semi-presidential form of government in particular, it is evident that many aspects of regime forms remain unexplored. This book systematically categorises democratic political regimes with a separate head of state and government (including regimes with a monarch and prime minister, and president and PM) globally and over a long historical period 1850–2019. It analyses how regimes with a dual executive emerge and what trajectories they follow. It also explores the stability of these regimes across time and space. An important feature of this endeavour is to address actual powers of the head of state rather than constitutional provisions.

Download or read book The Prime Ministers written by Iain Dale and published by . This book was released on 2020-11-12 with total page 608 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It has almost been 300 years since Sir Robert Walpole arguably became the first holder of the office of Prime Minister in 1721 - an office which today is under scrutiny like never before. The Prime Ministers, edited by leading political commentator Iain Dale, brings to life all 55 of Britain's 'First Among Equals' with an essay for each office holder, written by key figures in British politics. From the obscure 18th-century figures like the Earl of Shelburne to 20th-century titans like Churchill and Thatcher, this book provides a much-needed reminder about their motivations, failures and achievements.

Download or read book British Prime Ministers written by Robert J. Parker and published by Amberley Publishing Limited. This book was released on 2011-03-15 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A handy and accessible guide to the colourful and not so colourful characters who have held Britain's top job.

Download or read book Kings and Presidents written by Bruce Riedel and published by Brookings Institution Press. This book was released on 2019-03-12 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An insider's account of the often-fraught U.S.-Saudi relationship Saudi Arabia and the United States have been partners since 1943, when President Roosevelt met with two future Saudi monarchs. Subsequent U.S. presidents have had direct relationships with those kings and their successors—setting the tone for a special partnership between an absolute monarchy with a unique Islamic identity and the world's most powerful democracy. Although based in large part on economic interests, the U.S.-Saudi relationship has rarely been smooth. Differences over Israel have caused friction since the early days, and ambiguities about Saudi involvement—or lack of it—in the September 11 terrorist attacks against the United States continue to haunt the relationship. Now, both countries have new, still-to be-tested leaders in President Trump and King Salman. Bruce Riedel for decades has followed these kings and presidents during his career at the CIA, the White House, and Brookings. This book offers an insider's account of the U.S.-Saudi relationship, with unique insights. Using declassified documents, memoirs by both Saudis and Americans, and eyewitness accounts, this book takes the reader inside the royal palaces, the holy cities, and the White House to gain an understanding of this complex partnership.

Download or read book Mr President written by Ray Raphael and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2013-01-22 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The dramatic and penetrating story of the political maneuverings and personalities behind the creation of the office of the president, with ramifications that continue to this day. For the first time, by focusing closely on the dynamic give-and-take at the Constitutional Convention, Ray Raphael reveals how politics and personalities cobbled together a lasting, but flawed, executive office. Remarkably, the hero of this saga is Gouverneur Morris, a flamboyant, peg-legged delegate who pushed through his agenda with amazing political savvy, and not a little deceit. Without Morris’s perseverance, a much weaker American president would be appointed by Congress, serve for seven years, could not be reelected, and have his powers tightly constrained. Charting the presidency as it evolved during the administrations of Washington, Adams, and Jefferson, Raphael shows how, given the Constitution’s broad outlines, the president’s powers could easily be augmented but rarely diminished. Today we see the result—an office that has become more sweeping, more powerful, and more inherently partisan than the framers ever intended. And the issues of 1787—whether the Electoral College, the president’s war powers, or the extent of executive authority—continue to stir our political debates.

Download or read book Comparative Constitutional Law written by Tom Ginsburg and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 2011-01-01 with total page 681 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This landmark volume of specially commissioned, original contributions by top international scholars organizes the issues and controversies of the rich and rapidly maturing field of comparative constitutional law. Divided into sections on constitutional design and redesign, identity, structure, individual rights and state duties, courts and constitutional interpretation, this comprehensive volume covers over 100 countries as well as a range of approaches to the boundaries of constitutional law. While some chapters reference the text of legal instruments expressly labeled constitutional, others focus on the idea of entrenchment or take a more functional approach. Challenging the current boundaries of the field, the contributors offer diverse perspectives - cultural, historical and institutional - as well as suggestions for future research. A unique and enlightening volume, Comparative Constitutional Law is an essential resource for students and scholars of the subject.

Download or read book The Presidents written by Iain Dale and published by Hodder & Stoughton. This book was released on 2021-11-18 with total page 429 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Politics Home: Parliamentarians' Top Books for Christmas 2021 'A must read for political geeks' - Saqib Bhatti There was a huge upsurge of global interest in US politics during the Trump presidency, culminating in the November 2020 election, the victory of the Democrat candidate Joe Biden and the subsequent, horrifying response in the storming of the US capitol. American politics is likely to remain deeply divided during the coming years, and also the focus of global attention - with Trump mobilising his base for 2024. But the transatlantic fascination with the role and office of the US President isn't new at all, and in fact reaches all the way back to the birth of the United States itself. The Presidents features essays, written by a range of academics, historians, political journalists and serving politicians, on all 46 American Presidents who have held the office over the last 230 years - from George Washington to Joe Biden. Each contributor has been carefully chosen based on expert knowledge of their subjects and personal connections, providing analysis of their subject's successes, failures and influence. Any hagiographical writing is shunned in favour of a 'warts and all' perspective on each President and the impact they've had on US politics - past, present and future.

Download or read book The Impossible Presidency written by Jeremi Suri and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2017-09-12 with total page 402 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A bold new history of the American presidency, arguing that the successful presidents of the past created unrealistic expectations for every president since JFK, with enormously problematic implications for American politics In The Impossible Presidency, celebrated historian Jeremi Suri charts the rise and fall of the American presidency, from the limited role envisaged by the Founding Fathers to its current status as the most powerful job in the world. He argues that the presidency is a victim of its own success-the vastness of the job makes it almost impossible to fulfill the expectations placed upon it. As managers of the world's largest economy and military, contemporary presidents must react to a truly globalized world in a twenty-four-hour news cycle. There is little room left for bold vision. Suri traces America's disenchantment with our recent presidents to the inevitable mismatch between presidential promises and the structural limitations of the office. A masterful reassessment of presidential history, this book is essential reading for anyone trying to understand America's fraught political climate.

Download or read book Hunting Ghislaine written by John Sweeney and published by Hodder & Stoughton. This book was released on 2022-11-03 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'A cracking read ... Ghislaine Maxwell's story has had endless column inches, but John gives such a great overview, and has mined so many sources that it still feels fresh and compelling.' Mail on Sunday Once upon a time there was a beautiful princess who suffered a tragedy, the death of her father, a war hero, a philanthropist, a good man, in suspicious circumstances. She fled to New York where she made a new life with a brilliant mathematician. Her name is Ghislaine Maxwell and her lover was Jeffrey Epstein. Through Jeffrey, and her family name, Ghislaine became friends with some of the most powerful people on earth, ex-President Bill Clinton and President-to-be Donald Trump and the second son of the Queen of England, Prince Andrew, the Duke of York. But this is no fairy tale. HUNTING GHISLAINE sets out the other side of the story, and it's one of the darkest you will ever read. Ghislaine's father, Robert Maxwell, was a sadist, a war criminal, a monster. His cruelty deformed Ghislaine Maxwell long before she met Jeffrey Epstein. Her one-time lover was convicted for being a paedophile. So Ghislaine's life has been spent serving not one monster but two. In HUNTING GHISLAINE, legendary investigative journalist John Sweeney uncovers the truth behind this fairy tale story in reverse.

Download or read book Overthrow written by Stephen Kinzer and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2007-02-06 with total page 415 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An award-winning author tells the stories of the audacious American politicians, military commanders, and business executives who took it upon themselves to depose monarchs, presidents, and prime ministers of other countries with disastrous long-term consequences.

Download or read book Presidents Prime Ministers and Chancellors written by L. Helms and published by Springer. This book was released on 2004-12-07 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How have the American presidency, the British premiership and the German chancellorship changed over the last half-century? Has there been convergence or divergence in the development of political leadership in the United States and in the two largest democracies of Western Europe? And what difference can individual leaders make in an ever-more complex political environment? Presidents, Prime Ministers and Chancellors addresses these questions by looking at the leadership performance of more than two dozen American presidents, British prime ministers and German chancellors of the post-1945 period. In so doing, it offers a unique perspective on the nature of executive leadership in Western democracies that takes into account both the international and the historical dimension of comparison.

Download or read book God Save the Queen written by Dennis Altman and published by . This book was released on 2021-08-03 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An avowed republican investigates the unexpected durability and potential benefits of constitutional monarchies. When he was deposed in Egypt in 1952, King Farouk predicted that there would be five monarchs left at the end of the century: the kings of hearts, diamonds, clubs, spades, and of England. To date, his prediction has proved wrong, and while the twentieth century saw the collapse of monarchies across Europe, many democratic societies have remained monarchies. God Save the Queenis the first book to look at constitutional monarchies globally, and is particularly relevant given the pro-democracy movement in Thailand and recent scandals around the British and Spanish royal families. Is monarchy merely a feudal relic that should be abolished, or does the division between ceremonial and actual power act as a brake on authoritarian politicians? And what is the role of monarchy in the independent countries of the Commonwealth that have retained the Queen as head of state? This book suggests that monarchy deserves neither the adulation of the right nor the dismissal of the left. In an era of autocratic populism, does constitutional monarchy provide some safeguards against the megalomania of political leaders? Is a President Boris potentially more dangerous than a Prime Minister Boris?

Download or read book The Rise and Fall of Arab Presidents for Life written by Roger Owen and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2012-05-15 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The monarchical presidential regimes that prevailed in the Arab world for so long looked as though they would last indefinitely, until events in Tunisia and Egypt made clear their time was up. This book exposes for the first time the origins and dynamics of a governmental system that largely defined the Arab Middle East in the 20th century.

Download or read book A Treasury of Royal Scandals written by Michael Farquhar and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2001-05-01 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From Nero's nagging mother (whom he found especially annoying after taking her as his lover) to Catherine's stable of studs (not of the equine variety), here is a wickedly delightful look at the most scandalous royal doings you never learned about in history class. Gleeful, naughty, sometimes perverted-like so many of the crowned heads themselves-A Treasury of Royal Scandals presents the best (the worst?) of royal misbehavior through the ages. From ancient Rome to Edwardian England, from the lavish rooms of Versailles to the dankest corners of the Bastille, the great royals of Europe have excelled at savage parenting, deadly rivalry, pathological lust, and meeting death with the utmost indignity-or just very bad luck.

Download or read book The Cult of the Presidency written by Gene Healy and published by Cato Institute. This book was released on 2024-09-10 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The modern presidency has become the central fault line of polarization in America because the president, increasingly, has the power to reshape vast swaths of American life. In The Cult of the Presidency, Gene Healy argues that “We, the People” are to blame. Americans on each side of the red-blue divide demand a president who can create jobs, teach our children well, tend to the “national soul”—and vanquish their culture-war enemies. Our political culture has invested the office with preposterously vast responsibilities, and as a result, the officeholder wields powers that no human being ought to have. In a new preface to the 2024 edition, Healy argues that the rise of partisan hatred lends new urgency to the cause of re-limiting executive power. In the years since Cult was first published, politics has gone feral, with polls showing that substantial majorities of Democrats and Republicans view members of the other party as “a serious threat to the United States and its people.” At the same time, the most powerful office in the world has grown even more so. That’s raised the stakes of our political differences dramatically: the issues that divide us most are now increasingly settled by whichever party manages to seize the office. In our partisan myopia, we’ve laid down the infrastructure for autocratic rule and sectarian warfare, making the presidency powerful enough to tear the country apart. Interweaving historical scholarship, legal analysis, and trenchant cultural commentary, The Cult of the Presidency traces America’s decades‐long drift from the Framers’ vision for the presidency: a constitutionally constrained chief magistrate charged with faithful execution of the laws. Restoring that vision will require a Congress and a Court willing to check executive power, but Healy emphasizes that there is no simple legislative or judicial fix. Unless Americans change what we ask of the office—no longer demanding what we should not want and cannot have—we’ll get what, in a sense, we deserve.

Download or read book The Role of Monarchy in Modern Democracy written by Robert Hazell and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2020-09-17 with total page 327 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How much power does a monarch really have? How much autonomy do they enjoy? Who regulates the size of the royal family, their finances, the rules of succession? These are some of the questions considered in this edited collection on the monarchies of Europe. The book is written by experts from Belgium, Denmark, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden and the UK. It considers the constitutional and political role of monarchy, its powers and functions, how it is defined and regulated, the laws of succession and royal finances, relations with the media, the popularity of the monarchy and why it endures. No new political theory on this topic has been developed since Bagehot wrote about the monarchy in The English Constitution (1867). The same is true of the other European monarchies. 150 years on, with their formal powers greatly reduced, how has this ancient, hereditary institution managed to survive and what is a modern monarch's role? What theory can be derived about the role of monarchy in advanced democracies, and what lessons can the different European monarchies learn from each other? The public look to the monarchy to represent continuity, stability and tradition, but also want it to be modern, to reflect modern values and be a focus for national identity. The whole institution is shot through with contradictions, myths and misunderstandings. This book should lead to a more realistic debate about our expectations of the monarchy, its role and its future. The contributors are leading experts from all over Europe: Rudy Andeweg, Ian Bradley, Paul Bovend'Eert, Axel Calissendorff, Frank Cranmer, Robert Hazell, Olivia Hepsworth, Luc Heuschling, Helle Krunke, Bob Morris, Roger Mortimore, Lennart Nilsson, Philip Murphy, Quentin Pironnet, Bart van Poelgeest, Frank Prochaska, Charles Powell, Jean Seaton, Eivind Smith.