Promotions - Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles 2020 -

This book should have begun on page 54, for it is there that Kalu (political science, Auburn Univ.) lays out his impassioned warning of the dangers awaiting a world that neglects the importance of the state. Kalu asserts, rightly, that state institutions function as guarantors of public safety, providers of public goods, and suppliers of the "basic needs of associational ownership" (p. 54)--all bedrock conditions of sustainable, secure societies. Specifically, institutions of state authority enable economic growth (discussed in chapter 5), individual well-being (chapter 6), justice (chapter 7), and rational governance (chapter 8). Without respect for law and institutions, citizens everywhere stand to lose benefits they hoped they would gain as citizens of the world because states regulate behavior and articulate and defend social values in a way that amorphous global institutions cannot. Kalu summarizes a number of structural-functional theories, but this book applies theory, and does not develop of a new one. What is new is Kalu's explanation of the reality beginning to dawn on electorates around the world that the needs of citizens may hang on the efforts vigorous, respected state institutions many may consider antediluvian,Summing Up: Essential. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.

Is democracy the best form of government? Are hierarchy and authority innately oppressive? In this thought-provoking book, Bai (Fudan Univ., China) takes on these broad questions. He observes that the political culture in contemporary democracies has given rise to such problems as Populism, disdain for government, and short-sighted and parochial decision-making. He argues that democracy does not always bring competence to government; in fact, dogmatic obsession with "one person, one vote" can impoverish liberal democracies' political repertoires and imaginations. Bai challenges readers to put aside ideology and appreciate early Confucian political models with an open mind. Through a sympathetic and innovative reading of pre-Han Confucian texts and sophisticated reflections on modern Western liberal arguments and political realities, Bai demonstrates compellingly that Confucian political philosophies can inspire improvements to liberal democracies. His discussion of the Confucian formula of "the rule of the people, for the people, but not by the people" is particularly thought provoking. Bai's full engagement with existing scholarship and debates, his clarity of mind, and his ability to explain complicated ideas and concepts in simple language make this timely book an enjoyable read for experts and nonspecialists alike.Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty; general readers.

Although Saint Augustine is a foundational political thinker, there have been few studies written on his political thought over the last 50 years in English. Augustine's Political Thought fills an important void in the field of political philosophy. The essays in this volume include traditional themes in Augustine's political thought, such as his treatment of suicide in The City of God, and relatively neglected topics, such as the political dimensions of his Cassiciacum Dialogues. Some of the chapters include rigorous textual analysis about Augustine's treatment of justice, mercy, lying, deception, and patriotism. Other chapters include insightful comparisons of Augustine to his predecessors Plato, Plotinus, and the Stoics and to his medieval descendants, such as Giles, Dante, and Aquinas. The one topic that does not receive enough attention is the just war theory (though it is not completely ignored). Still, this edited volume remains comprehensive. It is more than a simple survey. It provides new and illuminating contributions that will be cited as authoritative commentary for several generations. This book is essential for scholars and graduate students interested in patristic political theory.Summing Up: Essential. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.

As the chaotic milieu of unexpected vagaries, reckless policies, and self-destructive engagements propounded by democratic regimes increasingly engulfs the world, Przeworski (politics and economics, NYU) reexamines crises faced by democracies in the past, crises that offer lessons for democracies today. Case studies focus on former crises in Chile, France, Germany, and the US. Przeworski reveals that erosion of traditional party systems, the rise of nationalist populism, and the decline of popular support for democracy itself generally triggered these crises. Failing to learn lessons from these earlier crises, democracies have attempted to evade economic and political crises and in so doing been ensnared in complex webs of paradoxical antinomies. Przeworski laments democracy's present reliance on voters to select governments in tandem with civil society's expectation of institutionalized rule of law to restrain excesses of popular sovereignty. Nonetheless, he contends that it is not too late to establish an equilibrium between electoral politics and democratic regulatory institutions that is capable of ameliorating challenging conflicts and thus avoiding crises. That said, he concedes that the likelihood of realizing an equilibrium is ominously diminishing, what with the rapid erosion of constitutional norms, the dismantling of regulatory institutions, and the embrace of nationalist prejudices on the part of cynical leaders and citizens.Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.

Unnerving crises of political polarization have broken out all over the globe. This volume analyzes this phenomenon in nine countries on five continents. The accounts of the process and effects of polarization in each of these countries are well presented and will prove valuable. In their concluding essay, Carothers (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace) and O'Donohue (formerly, Carnegie Endowment; presently, Istanbul Policy Center) search for some common threads to explain this perplexing outbreak and its threat to democracy. However, the important lesson of the book seems to be that the sources of polarization vary widely, from ethnotribal cleavages in Kenya to feuding religious communities in India; from contrived ideological divisions among corrupt elites in Brazil to deepening ideological conflicts in the US and Poland. In some countries political parties have lost all credibility with voters; in others identification with parties has become more entrenched. The commonalities arise in the consequences of polarization for the future of democracy, with the weakening of key institutions, especially the judiciary and the Fourth Estate. Though one question needed more attention--Why are all these crises coming to a head at the same time?--the collection is important for providing information that will help readers grasp this worldwide problem.Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.

Despite being a signatory to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the International Covenant on Economic and Cultural Rights, and a UN member since 1991, North Korea has been a continuous and egregious violator of human rights. Fahy (Sophia Univ., Japan) here compiles a full account of these violations, categorizing them as structural (e.g., controlling information) or physical (e.g., torture). Part 1 explores the "crimes" of famine and hunger, discrimination and religious persecution, extreme restrictions on access to and sharing of information, controlling international and domestic movement as well as contact with foreigners, and crimes and punishment. These abuses occur within the framework of the songbun classification system (essentially North Korea's caste system), dictated by the Kims' personality cults. Part 2 analyzes the multiple, systematic, and increasingly sophisticated ways the state manipulates information, individuals, and institutions for domestic and international consumption. Fahy relates these human rights abuses to the relevant international conventions and North Korea's international relationships. This well-researched, multidisciplinary book, based on a wide range of source material, is intended for a wide audience.Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers through faculty; professionals.

In this superbly written, analytical assessment encompassing the last 45 years, Reid-Henry (Univ. of London) deliberately disaggregates the factors driving the waxing and waning of Western democracy. Taking a transhistorical and multidimensional approach, he reveals the slow but methodical transformation of deliberative democracy into consensual democracy, finally morphing into the "neoliberal paradox of 'enforced liberalization,'" which constrains representative decision-making processes. Covering the variant forms of policy making across Western democracies, the author highlights the dampening of citizen recognition and the cooptation of democratic enlargement on behalf of exporting neoliberal values of "fiscal prudence" and "government restraint." He then ponders "what was government for," as the liberal democratic order seems to have spiraled into disarray and loss of confidence. One can easily identify today's turbulent world, where "Western leaders declare themselves unable to think of anything better" than the status quo, in this account. In his well-synthesized epilogue, Reid-Henry returns to the very essence of democracy--that of popular sovereignty and the Tocquevillian message of systemic pragmatism and ideological redemption where success lies in the ability to function across those very challenged domains, turbulent histories, and national constructs. An excellent contribution.Summing Up: Essential. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty; professionals.

In an influential 1993 Foreign Affairs article, Samuel Huntington argued that the main source of international conflict after the Cold War would not be ideological but cultural. Haynes (London Metropolitan Univ., UK) uses Huntington's framework to examine contemporary international politics, particularly the rise of right-wing populism, "Christian civilizationism," and the "securitization" of Islam in the US and Europe. In so doing, he also illustrates the shortcomings of Huntington's model, observing that contemporary civilizations, including the "Muslim world," are increasingly divided along sectarian lines. The first four chapters explain Huntington's theory of the "clash of civilizations" and provide historical background on the rise of "Islamophobia" and "Christian civilizationism." The next three chapters include case studies of the revival of right-wing nationalism in the US, Western Europe, and Central Europe, and a discussion of attempts to promote "intercivilizational dialogue" at the UN. Shedding light on significant contemporary events, such as Donald Trump's victory in the 2016 US presidential election and the rise of xenophobia in Europe provoked by the 2015 refugee crisis, this topical volume is an important contribution to the literature on post-Cold War international relations.Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.

Those who wish to understand the antidemocratic wave rising worldwide should read Brown's brilliant In the Ruins. Brown (political theory, Univ. of California, Berkeley) answers the "How did we get here?" question with theoretical insight about the nature of neoliberalism. Right-wing populism emerged from the loss of privilege previously held by whites, males, and Christians who had little else. Neoliberal rationality mobilized and legitimized antidemocratic forces, shaping law and political culture and laying siege to democracy. The separation of markets from politics enshrined privatization over public goods, releasing authoritarian forces of racism, resentment, and fatalistic nihilism. Brown traces the history of the term neoliberalism to the 1938 Walter Lippmann Colloquium, the later Mont Pelerin Society, and the "Chicago Boys" of the 1970s. Eventually, neoliberalism sought to reduce the social state, subvert labor, deregulate markets, and elevate privatization as a moral goal. The resulting controlling narrative corroded democracy and legitimized inequality, exclusion, plutocracy, and private ownership. Brown guides readers through the moral dismantling of society via markets, the attack on popular sovereignty, the revision of traditional morality, and white-male backlash and nihilism. The neoliberal project led to tectonic shifts in the organization of space and consciousness with catastrophic political, social, and economic consequences. In the "ruins," Brown identifies a cataclysm in Western democracy.Summing Up: Essential. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty; general readers.

It is a cliche to note that John Rawls's work, specifically the idea of egalitarian liberalism, has dominated political philosophy for 50 years. This volume, a study in the history of ideas, explains how Rawls's theory came to have such centrality and delineates the limits of his paradigm. Unlike many books and papers devoted to explicating Rawls's theory, In the Shadow of Justice delves deep into the intellectual and political roots of Rawls's early formulations, going well beyond his published works and those of his contemporaries and drawing on his dissertation and papers in the archives of the universities (notably Harvard) in which he developed his ideas. The depth of research and documentation makes this book a model of intellectual history. Forrester (government and social studies, Harvard) uses her sources to set out the strengths of Rawls's work--explaining the hold it has had on so many--and at the same time trace its limitations. The argument is subtle, but the writing is accessible and notable for its clarity. Forrester's study will become an essential resource for those who wish to understand the roots of contemporary political philosophy, especially liberal theory, and overcome its limitations in addressing the issues of the present day.Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.

In a bold, persuasive argument, Dunford and Neu (both, Univ. of Brighton, UK) challenge the idea that the "responsibility to protect" (R2P) justifies humanitarian--militaristic--intervention in the face of atrocities. Referencing particular situations in which military interventions have made matters worse and increased the killing of innocents (examples include Syria, Libya, Rwanda, and Darfur), the authors point out the various economic and political interventions that give rise to mass atrocities prior to the moralistic calls for humanitarian-military intervention to protect innocent civilians. Analyzing the "everyday atrocities" from overlooked interventions that give rise to a "structurally violent world" (p. 91), the authors confront the realities of land grabbing, arms trading, ethnic strife, and environmental destruction that create the very atrocities humanitarian interventions are then called on to address with morally justified violence. Although Dunford and Neu do not undermine the value of just-war thinking as an ethical tool--for instance challenging usual interpretations of what constitutes just cause, something a just-war ethic welcomes--this insightful analysis successfully robs R2P of its easy justification as a morally sound norm of international military intervention. This book is an important contribution to the literature on the ethics of war.Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty; general readers.

Is a so-called license-to-kill policy effective? American policy makers and analysts have assumed that capturing or killing a leader of a terrorist organization will degrade that organization's cohesion and effectiveness. Jordon (international affairs, Georgia Tech) argues that though such an approach may appeal to the public's sense of justice and retaliation, its effectiveness is less than obvious. To test the effectiveness of this strategy, Jordon examined a data set of some 1,000 instances of successful targeting (1970-2016) and provides in-depth qualitative analysis of three cases. She identifies three factors that are critical to the efficacy of such a policy: organizational structure, popular support for the cause, and the ideology of the group. She finds leadership decapitation to be least effective against highly bureaucratized, popular groups driven by a religious or separatist ideology--precisely the kinds of groups the US and its allies have been targeting. Removing the leader does not "kill" such groups; in fact when used against the organizations this strategy can actually result in an increase in terrorist activity. Jordon's study will be important for those studying or involved in making political policy.Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals.

Historian of ideas Rampton (McGill Univ.) has written a book that provides a surprisingly clear and cogent introduction to liberal ideas and writing in the final third of the Romanov dynasty. This undertaking was a large one, and her success is a significant achievement, for several reasons. First, she has succeeded in framing her discussion of Western liberal ideas in the context of tsarist Russia, where the theoretical discussion of liberalism absorbed from the West had to be localized by turning it into concrete politics, with mixed success. A second reason is that many Russian political theorists scorned the use of the word "liberal" even while accepting liberal ideals as foundational for their own pre-revolutionary politics. This resulted in an even greater fracturing of liberal thought and ideals than was ultimately witnessed in the West. Finally, Rampton makes clear the influence of liberal ideas in the events leading up to the 1905 revolution as well as the internal stresses within liberal political theory itself between positivism and realism, which in turn served as a fatal flaw leading up to the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. Worthy of mention, too, is how well Rampton has handled the documentation of dates, transliterations, and other conventions so critical to writing about late tsarist Russia.Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates. Graduate students and faculty researchers.

On a global scale, borderlands are misunderstood areas that remain largely underresearched by academics. As these are often sites of frequent tension, the reasons for their omission from academic studies are many and understandable. Investigating the social nuances of the border areas between China and Russia, the world's largest and most populous countries, is particularly fraught with challenges, and yet Pulford (Hokkaido Univ., Japan) readily took on the task. He crisscrossed the large, often extremely isolated geographic expanse in order to understand, as fully as possible, the condition of both sides of the demarcation. What he found were communities that shared much in common, owing to their continued interaction via economic and social networks. Their proximity at the border necessitated associations that for practical reasons would not be possible with more distant places, including each borderland's respective national capital. Mirrorlands is a collage of historical, anthroposociological, and geographical explanations that incorporates the observations and worldviews of dozens of residents who routinely interact along the border areas. This book is strongly recommended, as it will surely help readers understand the role borderlands play elsewhere.Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty; professionals.

Cooper (North Carolina Central Univ.) offers a thorough account of how the concept of beauty has been used by political theorists to establish control over subjects, especially, of course, women. The intersection of sexuality, race, age, and beauty has been widely discussed, as in Naomi Wolf's The Beauty Myth (CH, Jan'92, 29-3031), Susan Bordo's Unbearable Weight (1993), Maxine Leeds Craig's Ain't I a Beauty Queen? (CH, Jan'03, 40-3097), and Katerina Deliovsky's White Femininity (2010), among other works. This text complements its predecessors by analyzing how patriarchal structures were justified by philosophers around the world in each historical epoch. Cooper's background in human rights and political identity informs her approach to understanding how ancient and modern theorists have conceptualized beauty in a way that benefits male power. Students already familiar with the canons of political theory and those studying human rights, feminism, and gender studies will find that this volume offers an insightful look into how beauty standards simultaneously transform over time but continuously serve the interests of those in power.Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.

Marder (philosophy, Univ. of the Basque Country, Spain) seeks to intervene in the contemporary political scene by suggesting that the focus should be on political categories rather than on political concepts. In Political Categories, he provides resources for thinking about the political--political institutions and political action--as a collection or plurality of categories rather than as one fixed, transhistorical concept. Marder includes creative and helpful reconsiderations of both Aristotle and Kant, and he explores some of the most important political themes in modern politics--namely, power, sovereignty, the state, and revolution. This is perhaps the most original and thought-provoking book of political theory this reviewer has read in years. Scholars in both political philosophy and political science will benefit from it.Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.

In this bold and timely work, Murray (a prolific political columnist and debater based in the UK) exposes the madness in current social justice movements and the power of that madness in public discourse. Murray is no reactionary: he celebrates the extension of rights to women, the GLBTQ population, and racial minorities. He is a modern liberal who is satisfied with recent gains in equality. What bewilders and troubles him is the unrelenting push for more--for going from what he frames as equal to better. He criticizes the new and dense minefields of public discourse, which prevent critical, complex thought and self-reflection. Innocent comments can send one begging for mercy before the crowd. After documenting the excesses, contradictions, and unforgiving nastiness of these movements, he concludes that this madness is an instrument for a project of destruction, both societal and personal. Murray's account suggests the beginnings of a sort of Orwellian dystopia, one led by tech giants, hysterical college students, weak college administrators and faculty, and the Twitterati. Following Hannah Arendt, Murray advocates the rediscovery of forgiveness.Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers.

Larmore (philosophy, Brown Univ.) invites readers to reconsider the conventional understanding of the nature of political philosophy and to think of political philosophy as a relatively autonomous discipline set outside the realm of applied ethics. His major interlocutors include G. A. Cohen and Bernard Williams as well as canonical figures such as Locke, Kant, and Mill. Political philosophers and theorists, working in either the history of political thought or contemporary political liberalism, should read this book, especially insofar as Larmore moves beyond the contributions of political philosopher John Rawls. The fundamental problem of political philosophy is not justice but legitimacy. Defending political realism rather than adopting an ethics-centered approach, Larmore argues that political philosophy must take seriously the fact that conflict, even about the nature of justice, is inevitable among reasonable people. Because disagreement is ubiquitous, political philosophers should shift their primary focus to the problem of legitimacy--that is, what allowing governments to utilize coercive force means. This shift is no small matter and, as such, warrants attention. Larmore's book has the potential to be a game changer.Summing Up: Essential. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.