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When Jake Braun challenged hackers at DEFCON, the largest hacking conference in the world, to breach the security of a voting machine, a hacker in Europe conquered the task in less than two minutes. From hacking into voting machines to more mundane, but no less serious problems, our democracy faces unprecedented tests from without and within. In Democracy Endangered, cybersecurity expert Jake Braun, a veteran of three presidential campaigns and former White House Liaison to the Department of Hom...

Gangsterism, extortion and racketeering are currently viewed as deviant, pathological behaviors that are disconnected from formal political and economic structures, and often excluded from analysis in the fields of political science and economics. A critical reconsideration of organized crime reveals that the evolution of racketeering in systems of exchange should be understood as a natural phenomenon that can be predicted with tools from behavioral ecology originally developed to model the dyna...

Corruption, often seen as the main hindrance to development and growth in many societies, has led to greater demand for accountability and transparency in how governments conduct their businesses. This text examines the impact of Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index and whether or not the CPI and hence TI matter. It explores three areas: the world's political and economic responses and Jamaica's policy responses to the CPI. Jamaica is selected for a case study due to its hi...

This book investigates the history, development, and current state of anti-corruption agencies in Latin America. In recent decades, specialized anti-corruption agencies have sprung up as countries seek to respond to corruption and to counter administrative and political challenges. However, the characteristics, resources, power, and performance of these agencies reflect the political and economic environment in which they operate. This book draws on a range of case studies from across Latin Ame...

This conceptually synthetic and empirically rich book demonstrates the vulnerability of democratic settings to authoritarianism and populism. Six scholars from various professional fields explore here the metamorphosis of a political party into a centralized authoritarian system. Viktor Orbán and his Fidesz party needed less than ten years to accomplish this transformation in Hungary. In 2010, after winning a majority that could make changes in the constitution – two-thirds of the parliamentary...

In The Struggles of Post-Independence Nigeria, Ucheoma Nwagbara argues that despite Nigeria's oil wealth and arable agricultural land, Nigerians are not any better today than they were before independence. Nwagbara examines Nigeria's struggles with corruption, poverty, inequality, crime, and insurgency to show how poor leadership has failed to use the country's enormous natural and human resources to improve citizens' lives, eradicate poverty, and deliver broadly shared prosperity. Through his a...

Finally, a brilliant guide to outwitting and outplaying the lopsided world of the law and power. Lemon computer? Learn how to make them take it back and give you a brand new, better, faster computer instead. Got a speeding ticket? Learn how to get out, fast. Tired of fighting with the cable company over incorrect charges on your bills? Learn how to get them to reverse all the charges in question . . . and get additional credits, instead. Big box stores seem like big busts? How to get the most fr...

A startling spotlight on the darkest corners of America's "War on Terror," where nothing is quite what it seems. The Convenient Terrorist is the definitive inside account of the capture, torture, and detention of Abu Zubaydah, the first "high-value target" captured by the CIA after 9/11. But was Abu Zubaydah, who is still being indefinitely held by the United States under shadowy circumstances, the blue-ribbon capture that the Bush White House claimed he was? Authors John Kiriakou, who led the...

New York Times Bestselling Author! In this groundbreaking book, bestselling author Jesse Ventura lays out his philosophy on marijuana, and why he's always been in favor of legalization. Now, more than ever before, our country needs to see full legalization of medical/recreational marijuana and hemp. Any way you look at it, for whoever is using it, marijuana is a medicinal plant, in abundant supply. Every month and every year that goes by, we find out more positive things about it. Medicinal...

Rob Ford the most ridiculed and scandal-ridden mayor is an international celebrity. When the photo of him smoking crack cocaine circulated, garnering billions of hits, it was the icing on the cake. Ford, not just the favorite buffoon of late-night comics and journalists, was also a known alcoholic and the subject of legal, political, and police investigations stripped of his mayoral powers by Toronto's City Council and a star subject in a murder investigation. Here for the first time, Ford's fo...

FORBES TOP 10 HIGHER EDUCATION BOOKS OF 2020  The riveting true story behind the Varsity Blues college admissions scandal, a cautionary tale of parenting gone wrong, the system that enabled families to veer so far off course, and the mastermind who made it all happen. When federal prosecutors dropped the bombshell of Operation Varsity Blues, it broke open the crimes of exclusive universities and wealthy families all over the country, shattering the myth of American meritocracy. In Unacceptabl...