SPOTLIGHTS

The Senate Syndrome: the Evolution of Procedural Warfare in the Modern U.S. Senate

Steven S. Smith

University of Oklahoma Press

From the Publisher: With its rock-bottom approval ratings, acrimonious partisan battles, and apparent inability to do its legislative business, the US Senate might be deemed unworthy of attention. Smith tells us that this would be a mistake. Because the Senate is the place where the policy-making process most frequently stalls, any effective resolution to polarized politics demands a clear understanding of how the Senate once worked and how it came to the present crisis. Smith provides that understanding in The Senate Syndrome.

He puts the present problems of the Senate into historical context, debunks several myths, and makes pointed observations.

Smith goes beyond explaining such technicalities as the differences between regular filibusters and post-cloture filibusters, the importance of chair rulings, the changing role of the parliamentarian, and the debate over whether appeals of points of order should be subject to cloture margins, to show why understanding them matters.

Importing Democracy: The Role of NGOs in South Africa, Tajikistan, and Argentina

Julie Fisher

Kettering Foundation Press

From the publisher: While street protesters demanding democratic reforms make headlines in the international news, Importing Democracy: The Role of NGOs in South Africa, Tajikistan, and Argentina, Julie Fisher, focuses on a quieter movement led by democratization NGOs. In South Africa, the Good Governance Learning Network shares participatory tools to make local governments more responsive. In Tajikistan, Jahan teaches local police about human rights. In Argentina, seven democratization NGOs sponsor public deliberations in local communities and have organized a nationwide citizens network to combat municipal government corruption.

The book is organized around three chapters for each country, South Africa, Tajikistan, and Argentina. The first chapter of each country’s section begins with the historical, political, and economic context and continues with a discussion of the general contours of civil society. The second chapter in each section deals with the role of democratization NGOs in promoting both loyal opposition and law-based civil liberties. The third chapter focuses on their role in promoting political culture and political participation. Loyal opposition and law-based civil liberties help define democratization at the national level, whereas changes in political culture and increased political participation often occur throughout society. The book concludes with a comparative overview and implications for international policy. Fisher writes that the idea that democracy can be exported has lost credibility in recent years. In many countries, however, democratization NGOs are importing democratic ideas and recovering local democratic traditions.

Accountability for Killing: Moral Responsibility for Collateral Damage in America’s Post-9/11 Wars

Neta C. Crawford

Oxford University Press

The Aesthetic Turn in Political Thought

Nikolas Kompridis, editor

Bloomsbury

Artists of the Possible: Governing Networks and American Policy Change since 1945

Matt Grossmann

Oxford University Press

The Beauty Trade: Youth, Gender, and Fashion Globalization

Angela B.V. McCracken

Oxford University Press

Blaming Europe? Responsibility without Accountability in the European Union

Sara B. Hobolt and James Tilley

Oxford University Press

The Civic Constitution: Civic Visions and Struggles in the Path toward Constitutional Democracy

Elizabeth Beaumont

Oxford University Press

A Feminist Voyage through International Relations

J. Ann Tickner

Oxford University Press

Forging a Discipline: A Critical Assessment of Oxford’s Development of the Study of Politics and International Relations in Comparative Perspective

Christopher Hood, Desmond King, and Gillan Peele, editors

Oxford Univerity Press

Genocide: A Reader

Jens Meierhenrich, editor

Oxford University Press

Liberalism and the Emergence of American Political Science: A Transatlantic Tale

Robert Adcock

Oxford University Press

Propaganda and American Democracy

Nancy Snow, editor

Louisiana State University Press

Sisters in the Statehouse: Black Women and Legislative Decision Making

Nadia Brown

Oxford University Press