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Approaching religious identity with an emphasis on agency and contestation, this book offers a multi-disciplinary perspective on the development of Muslim identities in Asia and examines the contingent politics that influence how Muslims constitute themselves as modern subjects. Through 9 country-based case studies, the book analyses how Muslims articulate their religious identity vis-a-vis the state and society in which they live and how their position relates to specific social and political c...

Unsettled and uncertain situations still persist in the former Soviet states of Moldova, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan, posing a serious threat to the stability of civil society, democratic institutions, and the pursuit of human rights. The cry "no peace, no war" drives the consolidation of separatist regimes and transforms them into de facto states. At the same time, this stalemate undermines the sovereignty and territorial integrity of legitimate states, obstructing their political, social,...

Here, Conor O'Dwyer introduces the phenomenon of runaway state-building as a consequence of patronage politics in underdeveloped, noncompetitive party systems. Analyzing the cases of three newly democratized nations in Eastern Europe-Poland, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia-O'Dwyer argues that competition among political parties constrains patronage-led state expansion. O'Dwyer uses democratization as a starting point, examining its effects on other aspects of political development. Focusing on...

Unemployment is one of the most politically explosive issues in China and has gained further prominence as a result of the present global financial crisis. The novelty, urgency, and complexity of Chinese unemployment have compelled the government to experiment with policy initiatives that originate in the West. This book argues that although China is not a liberal democracy, it has turned to neo-liberal forms of governance to deal with unemployment, which now function alongside pre-existing Chin...

What would biblical narratives look like if rewritten with modern and post-modern concerns in mind, in addition to those of the contemporary Bible and literature scholars, and their contents and theology are made relevant for today's readers in non-traditional way? Here is an example, a fictive autobiography, the revisited and revised story of Rahab the prostitute (Joshua 2 and 6), who helps Israelite spies escape from Jericho and go back to Joshua, thus facilitating the eventual conquest of her...

Originally published in 1978, this book examines how the states-system grew over generations, first within Europe, then world wide and how the idea of the state came to monopolise our vision of the world. It discusses the grounds for the division of humanity into separate states in reason and history and whether or not we can use terms like 'obligation' and 'justice' in seeking to understand our relations with people of other states.

This text surveys the processes and economic circumstances that have worked to produce the modern Irish economic miracle. It also analyses the conditions that create a have and have-not society in modern Ireland. The book asks such questions as: did the remarkable turnaround of the Irish economy just happen, or was it a result of shrewd policy decisions?; will the boom last?; what remains to be done in eliminating poverty and inequality and reforming taxes?; and what lessons does Ireland's succe...

Adrian Nastase, the current Prime Minister of Romania, presents an evaluation of the period of transition from communism to democracy in Eastern Europe, with special reference to Romania. The volume is particularly interesting since it is written by an "insider" who is one of the principal architects and directors of the process. Nastase provides a realistic blueprint for the attainment of a democratic political, social, and economic order in the twenty-first century.

Why do people identify with political parties? How stable are those identifications? Stable party systems, with a limited number of parties and mostly stable voter identification with a party, are normally considered significant signals of a steady democracy. In Dynamic Partisanship, Ken Kollman and John E. Jackson study changing patterns of partisanship in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia over the last fifty years in order to disentangle possible reasons for shifting...