Promotions - Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles 2024 -

Why do young Russians put up with Putin? Where the West sees oppression, young regional professionals increasingly see opportunity where there had been none. Isolated in far-flung places, the go-getter set frequently relies on a self-help mantra of pulling themselves up by their bootstraps and using their wits to get ahead, and state-sponsored leadership camps teach just that. Flexible Authoritarianism allays the concern that camp participation is performative, not passionate. Camp participants have faith in willpower and hard work to "commodify [their] power." However optimistic, hinging personal success on industriousness takes responsibility off structural actors, like the economy and the state. Examples of vigilante-entrepreneur/videographers demonstrate the masculinist willpower approach and how it dehumanizes undesirables while supporting authoritarianism. Failure comes from laziness; there is no room for sympathy any more than there is room to consider indicting the broader system. The only desirable archetype is the self-made, entrepreneurial man. Schwenck (sociology, Univ. of Siegen, Germany) unpacks the subtler means of building support for authoritarianism through promises of capitalist opportunity. This is an important empirical answer to the persistent belief that the young are always pursuing systemic justice; when there is no hope for changing the system, they simply change their hopes.Summing Up: Essential. Advanced undergraduates through faculty; professionals.

This book is the latest of Holzer's many outstanding contributions to the field of public administration. The purpose of the book is to counter negatively held and often false stereotypes about the government and public administrators and "to rethink how the field of public administration might reposition itself as society's necessary and best investments" (p. 4). The book chapters outline--with specific, detailed examples--how Holzer (Suffolk Univ.-Boston) believes the field of public administration can begin to rebuild public confidence in government. Some key insights include the critical needs to use interdisciplinary study in public administration, highlight performance standards in the field, employ methods for ensuring ethics, increase government efficiency and effectiveness, and look for ways the field can move forward. The book is essential for all scholars who study and/or teach public administration. This reviewer will consider using it for his graduate courses. Finally, the book will be highly useful for practitioners working at any level of government.Summing Up: Essential. Advanced undergraduates through faculty; practitioners.