MU Libraries New Books: Political institutions and public administration (Asia, Africa, Australia, Pacific Area, etc.)

About the new book list

5/22/2013

The RSS feeds for the new books list is updated every Wednesday and contains a list of books added to the Ellis Library collection for the last six weeks. The titles are grouped by call number classification, and are listed by week and alphabetically by title.

Books for the most recent weeks are currently on the New Books Shelves inside the north entrance of Ellis Library. They can be checked out.

Conceptions of Chinese democracy : reading Sun Yat-Sen, Chiang Kai-Shek and Chiang Ching-Kuo / David J. Lorenzo. (5/22/2013)

5/22/2013

View title at
Amazon.com

Call #: JQ1516 .L67 2013

Party politics & social cleavages in Turkey / Ergun Özbudun. (5/22/2013)

5/22/2013

Call #: JQ1809.A795 O93 2013

Coalition politics and democratic consolidation in Asia / edited by E. Sridharan. (5/15/2013)

5/15/2013

Call #: JQ24 .C63 2012

The Arab Spring, democracy and security : domestic and international ramifications / edited by Efraim Inbar. (5/15/2013)

5/15/2013

Call #: JQ1850.A91 A78 2013

Democracy's fourth wave? Digital media and the Arab Spring / Philip N. Howard and Muzammil M. Hussain. (5/8/2013)

5/8/2013

View title at
Amazon.com

Amazon.com Review

Q&A with Phillip Howard, author of Democracy's Fourth Wave?

Q. What is democracy’s “fourth wave”?

A. It has been 15 years since the last “wave” of democratization. Between 1989 and 1995, many remnants of the Soviet Union and failed authoritarian regimes in other parts of the world turned themselves into variously functional electoral democracies. But as a region, North Africa and the Middle East were noticeably devoid of popular democracy movements—until the early months of 2011. Democratization movements had existed long before technologies such as mobile phones and the internet came to these countries. But with these technologies, people sharing an interest in democracy built extensive networks, created social capital, and organized political action. Whether or not this Arab Spring leads to long-term entrenchment of democratic institutions and cultures in the Arab state-system is a question-mark, but one which requires a critical examination of the tools and infrastructures being used to organize and mobilize political change in one of the world’s last remaining authoritarian strongholds.

Q. What role does new information technology play in the modern day democratic struggles?

A. In many parts of the world, mobile phones and the Internet have provided civil society actors with new avenues for collective action. Since the commercialization of digital media, information infrastructure has become a formative space for nurturing and organizing social action. And since 2007, social media have added the additional dimension of allowing individuals to manage their own social networks and to push and filter political information along these links to family and friends. Prior to the Arab Spring, past cascades did not have the benefit of commercialized communication networks and technologies, such as social media and mobile telephony, to draw in the wisdom of the crowd and smart mob mobilization. In contrast, the Arab Spring is one of the most impressive examples where laterally organized collective action projects combated vertically organized state bureaucracies.

Q. Are these uses of technology more successful in some countries over others?

A. Perhaps the best evidence that digital media were an important causal factor in the Arab Spring is that dictators treated them as such. The months during which the Arab Spring took place had the most national blackouts, network shutdowns, and tool blockages to date. Yet authoritarian regimes have come to value digital media, too. Security services in Bahrain, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Syria observed how democracy advocates were using social media in Egypt and Tunisia and developed counterinsurgency strategies that allowed for them to surveil, mislead, and entrap protesters. Over the last 15 years, states (both authoritarian and democratic) have become increasingly willing to interfere with the links between nodes of digital infrastructure, but our examination finds that the existence of long-term online civil society with connections to transnational observers, including international news media and transnational diaspora networks helped outmaneuver many authoritarian regimes, this time. These days authoritarian regimes around the world take their Facebook and Twitter strategies seriously.

Call #: JQ1850.A91 H68 2012

Politics of origin in Africa : autochthony, citizenship and conflict / Morten Bøås and Kevin Dunn. (5/8/2013)

5/8/2013

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Amazon.com

About the Author

Morten Bøås is Head of Research at Fafo Institute for Applied International Studies in Oslo, Norway.

Kevin C. Dunn is Associate Professor of Political Science at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, NY, USA.

Call #: JQ1879.A2 B63 2013

Social organizations and the authoritarian state in China / Timothy Hildebrandt. (4/17/2013)

4/17/2013

Call #: JQ1516 .H55 2013

The logic and limits of political reform in China / Joseph Fewsmith. (4/17/2013)

4/17/2013

View title at
Amazon.com

Review

"Fewsmith's superb new book is a warning against optimistic hopes that China will gradually evolve into a democracy. This warning emerges from the book's telling case studies of failed attempts at local political reforms that had aimed to make officials more accountable to the public. In each case, promising reforms were thwarted by a combination of bureaucratic interests; established organizational principles - it is the Party, not the public, that controls cadres; and entrenched practices such as regular transfers of Party secretaries, which removes reform-minded officials from the scene. Even the most promising experiment in promoting 'consultative democracy' turned into 'consultative authoritarianism' as elite interests and preferences prevailed. Liberalizing political reform is on the agenda of China's top leaders, but even if they decide to enact such reforms, implementation faces the kinds of impediments illustrated so well in this important study." - Thomas P. Bernstein, Professor Emeritus, Columbia University

"In this marvelous new book, Fewsmith highlights one of the key puzzles of Chinese politics: why do so few local officials experiment with political reforms when so many have experimented with all kinds of economic reforms? He draws on his extensive knowledge of local politics to show how the interplay of the political structure and individual personalities shapes the potential for political reform. He convincingly shows the importance of looking at grassroots dynamics - not just politics in Beijing - to understand the future of China." - Bruce J. Dickson, The Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University

"Why have Chinese local governance reforms failed to curb the arbitrary power of local bosses? Fewsmith's fine survey convincingly shows how the Communist Party's fears of losing control have hamstrung the reforms, and thereby lost the Party the opportunity to put its authority on a more solid footing. Let's hope the book is translated into Chinese and its lessons learned by future Party leaders." - Susan L. Shirk, School of International Relations and Pacific Studies, University of California, San Diego

"Joseph Fewsmith, one of America's best-informed China watchers, reads widely in Chinese. Over the past six years, he has traveled around many regions of China to see how badly needed reforms are proceeding. He has found that they have not succeeded, and here he tells us why." - Ezra Vogel, Henry Ford II Professor of the Social Sciences Emeritus, Harvard University

Call #: JQ1516 .F49 2013

The power and the people : paths of resistance in the Middle East / Charles Tripp. (4/17/2013)

4/17/2013

Call #: JQ1758.A91 T75 2013

Democratic transition in the Middle East : unmaking power / edited by Larbi Sadiki, Heiko Wimmen & Layla Al-Zubaidi. (4/10/2013)

4/10/2013

Call #: JQ1758.A91 D463 2013

Routledge handbook of Indian politics / edited by Atul Kohli and Prerna Singh (4/10/2013)

4/10/2013

Call #: JQ231 .R685 2013

Spying for the people : Mao's secret agents, 1949-1967 / Michael Schoenhals. (4/10/2013)

4/10/2013

Call #: JQ1509.5.I6 S36 2013

Perspectives on South Asian security / editors Shanthie Mariet D'Souza, Rajshree Jetly. (4/3/2013)

4/3/2013

Call #: JQ98.A58 P47 2012

Public policymaking in Hong Kong : civic engagement and state-society relations in a semi-democracy / Eliza W.Y. Lee, Elaine Y.M. Chan, Joseph C.W. Chan, Peter T.Y. Cheung, Wai Fung Lam and Wai-man Lam. (4/3/2013)

4/3/2013

Call #: JQ1539.5.A92 L44 2013