Verlag: University of Buckingham Press
In this illuminating book, Stephen Barber redefines the Fourth Industrial Revolution for our politics, our societies and those who seek to lead.
A Political Commentary Narrative Novel: A warm and touching novel that encourages embracing traditional Christian American values, highest morals and ethics, family values, working together (not separately) as American citizens toward common, sensible and benevolent goals and aspirations with courage and resolve and unhindered, undefeatable determination to be the best citizen of the United States and best world citizen possible, thereby benefitting this generation and future generations by embracing, supporting, and defending common yet imperative aspirational goals including: Preservation of American Values, Suggestions For Election System Security & Integrity, Common Sense Values, United States Constitution Adherence & Preservation of American Citizen Freedoms & Upholding & Defending of Constitutional Amendment Rights, and Preservation of Christian Values of United States Constitution Founding Fathers (George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, James Monroe and James Madison). This book's aim and goal is to influence and motivate all those who read this literary work to act in a responsible manner and strive to be a harmonious team player, all in order to achieve amazing cooperative accomplishments in life that one could never achieve alone, and that one individual could never imagine possible.Zum Buch
The Cultural Revolution, which lasted from 1966 to 1976, was a decade of intense political and social upheaval in China. It was initiated by Mao Zedong, the Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party, as a means to reassert his ideological dominance and eliminate perceived threats within the party and society. The roots of the Cultural Revolution can be traced back to the aftermath of the Great Leap Forward, growing political divisions, and Mao’s desire to reshape China’s ideological landscape. One of the key factors that led to the Cultural Revolution was Mao’s declining influence following the disastrous Great Leap Forward (1958–1962). This economic and social campaign, aimed at transforming China into a communist utopia through rapid industrialization and collectivization, resulted in widespread famine and the deaths of millions. The failures of the Great Leap Forward weakened Mao’s credibility, and he was forced to step back from day-to-day governance, allowing more pragmatic leaders such as Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping to implement economic reforms. These leaders promoted policies that prioritized economic stability over radical communist ideology, which Mao saw as a betrayal of the revolution’s goals. In response to his diminished authority, Mao sought to reassert control by launching an ideological campaign against those he deemed “capitalist roaders” within the party. By the early 1960s, internal power struggles intensified as Mao and his radical supporters, including Lin Biao and Jiang Qing, clashed with moderate leaders advocating for a more pragmatic approach to governance. Mao viewed the growing influence of his rivals as a direct threat to his vision for China. To counter their policies, he began promoting the idea of a new revolutionary movement that would purify Chinese society and eliminate counterrevolutionary elements.Zum Buch
Democratic politics is expensive. In US presidential elections, for instance, total spending now exceeds $6.5 billion. In the US, election campaigns are largely funded by private donations from individuals and corporate entities, whereas in Germany, the state is the main funder of electoral politics through subventions to parties. In some other countries, parties have been able to raise most of what they need internally by charging membership dues or, more exceptionally, by relying on a wealthy patron. However, there have been numerous scandals and controversies involving political finance, which pose a serious challenge to fundamental democratic principles.Matteo Bonotti and Zim Nwokora analyze the nature of these democratic risks and how they differ across various models of political finance. They argue that political finance rules ought to counterbalance the weaknesses of the party system they are being used alongside. To do so, political finance rules and party systems should be assessed together, in terms of three distinctive normative dimensions—collegiality, systemic voice, and systemic accountability—which capture what parties, at their best, can contribute to democratic politics. Money, Parties, and Democracy sets out a framework for evaluating political finance systems so that they can be designed or reformed to better support good governance.Zum Buch
"Kaya mo ba?" Can you take it? An instructor asks a group of migrant workers in the Philippines, as they prepare for domestic work in wealthier countries. Can you take the grueling work? "Kaya," the women say. "We can." The phrase "human trafficking" often conjures nightmarish images of sexual exploitation, but Rhacel Salazar Parreñas reveals that the vast majority of trafficking victims are domestic workers who suffer abuse not at the hands of crime lords but rather "ordinary" family employers. Drawing on twenty years of groundbreaking research across three continents, Parreñas exposes the grim realities faced by migrant workers ensnared in forced labor due to poverty and debt bondage. She uncovers how entrenched social and legal norms, coupled with a patronizing "employer savior complex," foster a troubling sense of ownership among employers over "their" domestic workers. Through powerful firsthand accounts, Parreñas illustrates the migrants' desperation, and the power dynamics that lead to a global network of exploitation. Parreñas's narrative challenges listeners to confront uncomfortable truths about everyday household arrangements and calls for justice and fair treatment for all workers.Zum Buch
CONGRESS SHALL MAKE NO LAW RESPECTING AN ESTABLISHMENT OF RELIGION, OR PROHIBITING THE FREE EXERCISE THEREOF. Those words, scratched on parchment in 1789, open the US Constitution's First Amendment. From them, countless interpretations have been drawn. As a consequence, an astonishing variety of activities in modern America—prayer after football games, Bible reading in classrooms, company healthcare policies, the baking of wedding cakes, and Ten Commandment displays around courthouses—have been alternately authorized, prohibited, or modified. In this compelling historical account, Chris Beneke explains how the religion clauses came into existence and how they were woven into American culture. He brings prominent early national figures to life, including George Washington, James Madison, and Thomas Paine, while chronicling the First Amendment's relationship to defining social conditions like slavery, civility, family life, and the free market. Going beyond traditional church-state scholarship, Beneke also demonstrates how white women, African Americans, Roman Catholics, Jews, and nonbelievers widened religious liberty's application and illuminated its boundaries. In doing so he makes a groundbreaking contribution to both constitutional history and the history of American pluralism.Zum Buch
Recruited by British Intelligence to infiltrate the IRA and Sinn Féin during the height of the Northern Ireland Troubles, they were ‘agents of influence’. With codenames like INFLICTION, STAKEKNIFE, 3007 and CAROL, these spies played a pivotal role in the fight against Irish republicanism. Now, for the first time, some of these agents have emerged from the shadows to tell their compelling stories. Agents of Influence takes you behind the scenes of the secret intelligence war which helped bring the IRA’s armed struggle to an end. Historian Aaron Edwards, the critically acclaimed author of UVF: Behind the Mask, explains how the IRA was penetrated by British agents, with explosive new revelations about the hidden agendas of prominent republicans like Martin McGuinness and Freddie Scappaticci and lesser-known ones like Joe Haughey and John Joe Magee. Bringing to light recently declassified TOP SECRET documents and the firsthand testimonies of agents and their handlers, Edwards reveals how British Intelligence gained extraordinary access to the IRA’s inner circle and manipulated them into engaging with the peace process. With new insights into the spy masters behind the scenes, their strategies and tactics, and Britain’s international intelligence network in Northern Ireland, Europe, and beyond, Agents of Influence offers a rare and shocking glimpse into the clandestine world of secret agents, British intelligence strategy and the betrayal at the heart of militant Irish republicanism during the vicious decades of the Troubles.Zum Buch
