Political Science publications

El-Massnaoui, Khalid and Biygautane, Mhamed. “Downsizing the Public Sector: Morocco’s Voluntary Retirement Program,” in Beschel Jr., Robert P. and Yousef, Tarik M. (eds.,). Public Sector Reform in the Middle East and North Africa: Lessons of Experience for a Region in Transition. Brookings Institution Press, 2021.

Political upheavals and civil wars in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) have obscured efforts by many countries in the region to reform their public sectors.

This book offers a comprehensive assessment of a wide range of reform efforts in nine countries. In six cases the reforms targeted core systems of government: Jordan’s restructuring of cabinet operations, the Palestinian Authority’s revision of public financial management, Morocco’s voluntary retirement program, human resource management reforms in Lebanon, an e-governance initiative in Dubai, and attempts to improve transparency in Tunisia. Five other reform efforts tackled line departments of government, among them Egypt’s attempt to improve tax collection and Saudi Arabia’s work to improve service delivery and bill collection. More information...

Rosewarne, Lauren. “Radical and Cultural Feminisms,” in Naples, Nancy A. (ed.,). Companion to Feminist Studies. Wiley-Blackwell, 2021.

Companion to Feminist Studies provides a broad overview of the rich history and the multitude of approaches, theories, concepts, and debates central to this dynamic interdisciplinary field. Comprehensive yet accessible, this edited volume offers expert insights from contributors of diverse academic, national, and activist backgrounds – discussing contemporary research and themes while offering international, postcolonial, and intersectional perspectives on social, political, cultural, and economic institutions, social media, social justice movements, everyday discourse, and more. More information...

Allison-Reumann, Laura, Matera, Margherita, Murray, Philomena. “Differentiated disintegration and third countries: The implications of Brexit for relations between the EU, the UK and Australia,” in Gänzle, Stefan; Leruth, Benjamin and Trondal, Jarle (eds.,). Differentiated Integration and Disintegration in a Post-Brexit Era. Routledge, 2020.

Assessing the consequences of Brexit on EU policies, institutions and members, this book discusses the significance of differentiation for the future of European integration. This book theoretically examines differentiated integration and disintegration, focuses on how this process affects key policy areas, norms and institutions of the EU, and analyses how the process of Brexit is perceived by and impacts on third countries as well as other organisations of regional integration in a comparative perspective. This edited book brings together both leading and emerging scholars to integrate the process of Brexit into a broader analysis of the evolution, establishment and impact of the EU as a system of differentiation. More information…

Lynch, Timothy. “Defense and Foreign Policy,” in Baker, Paula and Critchlow, Donald T. (eds.,). The Oxford Handbook of American Political History. Oxford University Press, 2020.

The history of American foreign and defence policy is framed by an enduring debate over the appropriate role of federal power in national politics. From the very beginning, parties formed around the role of the armed forces and how America should conduct its diplomacy. Competition between the branches of government, and the parties therein, over who should direct foreign and defence policy is central to their history. This chapter charts the contours of that competition, most notably between the president and Congress, and then considers the ideas that have driven these often overlapping public policies. More information…

Maddison, Sarah and Nakata, Sana (eds.,). Questioning Indigenous-Settler Relations: Interdisciplinary Perspectives. Springer Nature, 2020.

This book examines contemporary Indigenous affairs through questions of relationality, presenting a range of interdisciplinary perspectives on the what, who, when, where, and why of Indigenous-settler relations. It also explores relationality, a key analytical framework with which to explore Indigenous-settler relations in terms of what the relational characteristics are; who steps into these relations and how; the different temporal and historical moments in which these relations take place and to what effect; where these relations exist around the world and the variations they take on in different places; and why these relations are important for the examination of social and political life in the 21st century. More information…

Postnikov, Evgeny. Social Standards in EU and US Trade Agreements. Routledge – Taylor & Francis, 2020.

This book examines the causes and consequences of social standards in US and EU preferential trade agreements (PTAs). PTAs are the new reality of the global trading system. Pursued by both developed and developing countries, they increasingly incorporate labor and environmental issues to prevent a race to the bottom in social regulation and counter-protectionism. Using principal-agent theory to explore why US PTAs have stricter social standards than those signed by the EU, Postnikov argues that the level of institutional insulation of trade policy executives from interest groups and legislators determines the design of social standards. More information…

Rosewarne, Lauren. Why We Remake: The Politics, Economics and Emotions of Film and TV Remakes. Routledge, 2020.

This examination of film and television remakes focuses explicitly on why – since the dawn of cinema – studios have remade films over and over again. Each chapter provides insight into the business of Hollywood, the motivations of filmmakers and also the pleasures for audiences, and offers a separate explanation for the whys of remaking… This unique examination of the industrial activity of remaking will be of great interest to academics and students working in the areas of film and adaptation studies, narrative, media discourse, transmedia storytelling, American cinema and cultural studies. More information…

Breen, Michael. “Constitutional Asymmetry in Multinational Federalism,” in Popelier, Patricia and Sahadžić, Maja (eds.,). Constitutional Asymmetry in Multinational Federalism: Managing Multinationalism in Multi-tiered Systems. Palgrave Macmillan, 2019.

This edited volume examines the link between constitutional asymmetry and multinationalism in multi-tiered systems through a comprehensive and rigorous comparative analysis, covering countries in Europe, Africa and Asia… This book offers insights into the different types of constitutional asymmetry, the factors that stimulate symmetrisation and asymmetrisation processes, and the ways in which constitutional asymmetry is linked with multinationalism. More information…

Brenton, Scott. “Scandal and Social Theory,” in Tumber, Howard and Waisbord, Silvio (eds.,). The Routledge Companion to Media and Scandal. Routledge, 2019.

Various types of scandals are inextricably linked to both the mass media and social media. Although there have been many technological changes in the news media over the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, the appetite for scandal news has not abated. More information…

Chwieroth, Jeffrey M. and Walter, Andrew. The Wealth Effect: How the Great Expectations of the Middle Class Have Changed the Politics of Banking Crises. Cambridge University Press, 2019.

The politics of major banking crises has been transformed since the nineteenth century. Analyzing extensive historical and contemporary evidence, Chwieroth and Walter demonstrate that the rising wealth of the middle class has generated ‘great expectations’ among voters that the government is responsible for the protection of this wealth. More information…

Lauren, Rosewarne. Sex and Sexuality in Modern Screen Remakes. Palgrave Macmillan, 2019.

Sex and Sexuality in Modern Screen Remakes examines how sexiness, sexuality and revisited sexual politics are used to modernise film and TV remakes. This exploration provides insight into the ever-evolving – and ever-contested – role of sex in society, and scrutinises the politics and economics underpinning modern media reproduction. More information…

Lynch, Timothy. In the Shadow of the Cold War: American Foreign Policy from George Bush Sr. to Donald Trump. Cambridge University Press, 2019.

This book offers a bold re-interpretation of the prevailing narrative that US foreign policy after the Cold War was a failure. In chapters that retell and re-argue the key episodes of the post-Cold War years, Lynch argues that the Cold War cast a shadow on the presidents that came after it and that success came more from adapting to that shadow than in attempts to escape it. When strategic lessons of the Cold War were applied, presidents fared better; when they were forgotten, they fared worse. More information…

Lynch, Timothy. “In the Shadow of the Cold War: American Foreign Policy from George Bush Sr. to Donald Trump,” in Perotti, Rosanna (ed.,). Foreign Policy in the Clinton Administration. Nova Science Publishers, 2019.

To understand “America First,” we must first understand the underpinnings of globalisation and the policy of practical internationalism... The introduction to this edited volume explores these themes, and the remainder of the book’s seventeen chapters, authored by scholars of comparative politics, international relations and history, expand on particular policies. More information…

Meger, Sara. “Gender, violence, and the Women, Peace and Security agenda,” in Shepherd, Laura J. (ed.,). Handbook on Gender and Violence. Edward Elgar Publishing, 2019.

Containing contributions from leading experts in the field, this Handbook explores the many ways gender and violence interact across different contexts and offers a range of disciplinary perspectives. This comprehensive volume connects micro-level interpersonal violence to macro-level structural forms of violence across three discrete but interrelated sections: concepts, representations, and contexts. Presenting an in-depth overview of the topic, this Handbook on Gender and Violence will be a key resource for researchers who are new to the study of gender and violence. More information…

Waring, Peter; Vas, Christopher and Bali, Azad Singh. "The Transition from Graduation to Work: Challenges and Strategies in Singapore," in Dhakal, S., Prikshat, V., Nankervis, A., Burgess, J. (eds.,). The Transition from Graduation to Work. Springer, 2019.

This book reports on the findings from a research study of vocational and higher education graduates’ employability challenges. The nature and extent of these challenges, their underlying causes, and effective strategies to address the problems in this area are all analysed from a multiple-stakeholder paradigm. More information…

Young, Sally. Paper Emperors The Rise of Australia’s Newspaper Empires. UNSW Press, NewSouth Publishing, 2019.

Before newspapers were ravaged by the digital age, they were a powerful force, especially in Australia – a country of newspaper giants and kingmakers. This magisterial book reveals who owned Australia’s newspapers and how they used them to wield political power. A corporate and political history of Australian newspapers spanning 140 years, it explains how Australia’s media system came to be dominated by a handful of empires and powerful family dynasties. Many are household names, even now: Murdoch, Fairfax, Syme, Packer. Written with verve and insight and showing unparalleled command of a vast range of sources, Sally Young shows how newspaper owners influenced policy-making, lobbied and bullied politicians, and shaped internal party politics. More information…

Bali, Azad; McKiernan, Peter; Vas, Christopher and Waring, Peter. Productivity and Innovation in SMEs: Creating Competitive Advantage in Singapore and South East Asia. Routledge. 2018.

This book analyses the determining factors behind productivity and innovation amongst Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Singapore, and within the context of South East Asia, in order to offer recommendations for increasing productivity and aiding economic growth. More information…

Bali, Azad Singh and Ramesh, M. “Policy Capacity: A Design Perspective,” in Howlett, Michael and Mukherjee, Ishani (eds.,). Routledge Handbook of Policy Design. Routledge, 2018.

Mukherjee, Ishani and Bali, Azad Singh. “Capacities and Customization in Policy Design,” in Howlett, Michael and Mukherjee, Ishani (eds.,). Routledge Handbook of Policy Design. Routledge, 2018.

Uniting theoretical bases and advancements in practice, the Routledge Handbook of Policy Designbrings together leading experts in the academic field of policy design in a pioneering effort of scholarship. Each chapter provides a multi-topic overview of the state of knowledge on how, why, where or when policies are designed and how such designs can be improved. More information...

Breen, Michael. The Road to Federalism in Nepal, Myanmar and Sri Lanka: Finding the Middle Ground. Routledge, 2018.

This book charts the origins and evolution of federalism and other approaches to the accommodation of minority ethnic groups in Nepal, Myanmar and Sri Lanka. It applies a historical institutionalism methodology to understand why federalism has been resisted, what causes it to be established and what design options are most likely to balance otherwise competing centripetal and centrifugal forces. More information…

Brown, Chris and Eckersley, Robyn (eds.,). The Oxford Handbook of International Political Theory. Oxford University Press, 2018.

MacDonald, Kate. “Accountability in global economic governance,” in Brown, Chris and Eckersley, Robyn (eds.,). The Oxford Handbook of International Political Theory. Oxford University Press, 2018.

MacDonald, Terry. “Sovereignty, democracy, and global political legitimacy,” in Brown, Chris and Eckersley, Robyn (eds.,). The Oxford Handbook of International Political Theory. Oxford University Press, 2018.

This Handbook provides an authoritative account of the issues, debates, and perspectives in the field, guided by two basic questions concerning its purposes and methods of inquiry. First, how does IPT connect with real world politics? In particular, how does it engage with real world problems, and position itself in relation to the practices of real world politics? And second, following on from this, what is the relationship between IPT and empirical research in international relations? This Handbook showcases the distinctive and valuable contribution of normative inquiry not just for its own sake but also in addressing real world problems. More information…

Carmody, Michelle Frances. Human Rights, Transitional Justice, and the Reconstruction of Political Order in Latin America. Springer, 2018.

Contextualizing cultural and political shifts in Argentina after the 1976 military coup with comparisons to other countries in the Southern Cone, Michelle Frances Carmody argues that incorporating human rights practices into official policy became a way for state actors to both build the authority of the state and manage social conflict, a key aim of post-Cold War democracies. More information…

Chin, Clayton. The Practice of Political Theory: Rorty and Continental Thought. Columbia University Press, 2018.

Recent political thought has grappled with a crisis in philosophical foundations: how do we justify the explicit and implicit normative claims and assumptions that guide political decisions and social criticism? In The Practice of Political Theory, Clayton Chin presents a critical reconstruction of the work of Richard Rorty that intervenes in the current surge of methodological debates in political thought, arguing that Rorty provides us with unrecognized tools for resolving key foundational issues. More information…

Merger, Sara. “The political economy of sexual violence against men and boys in armed conflict,” in Zalewski, Marysia; Drumond, Paula; Prugl, Elisabeth and Stern, Maria (eds.,). Sexual Violence Against Men in Global Politics. Routledge, 2018.

This book engages a diverse set of questions and offers fresh analysis on the incidences of sexual violence against men using both new and existing data. Additionally, the authors pay close attention to some of the controversial debates in the context of sexual violence against men, revisiting and asking new questions about the vexed issue of masculinities and related theories of gender hierarchy. More information…

Moodie, Nikki. “Decolonizing race theory: place, survivance & sovereignty,” in Vass, Greg; Maxwell, Jacinta; Rudolph, Sophie and Gulson, Kalervo N. (eds.,). The Relationality of Race in Education Research. Routledge, 2018.

This edited collection examines the ways in which the local and global are key to understanding race and racism in the intersectional context of contemporary education. Analysing a broad range of examples, it highlights how race and racism is a relational phenomenon, that interconnects local, national and global contexts and ideas. More information…

Lauren, Rosewarne. Analyzing Christmas in Film: Santa to the Supernatural. Lexington Books, 2018.

Film plays a vital role in the celebration of Christmas. For decades, it has taught audiences about what the celebration of the season looks like - from the decorations to the costumes and to the expected snowy weather – as well as mirrors our own festivities back to us. More information…

Postnikov, Evgeny. “Environmental Instruments in Trade Agreements: Pushing the Limits of the Dialogue Approach,” in Adelle, Camilla; Biedenkopf, Katja and Torney, Diarmuid (eds.,). European Union External Environmental Policy: Rules, Regulation and Governance Beyond Borders. Palsgrave Macmillan, 2018.

This book considers the environmental policies that the EU employs outside its borders. Using a systematic and coherent approach to cover a range of EU activities, environmental issues, and geographical areas, it charts the EU’s attempts to shape environmental governance beyond its borders. More information…

Althaus, Catherine; Bridgman, Peter and Davis, Glyn. The Australian Policy Handbook: A practical guide to the policy making process. Allen & Unwin, 2017.

The sixth edition of this widely used introduction is fully updated, and includes new material on the professionalisation of politicians, the role of opposition members, loss of corporate memory in the public service, addressing systemic policy failure, nudge economics and the impact of social media and the sharing economy on policy making and government. More information…

Althaus, Catherine. "Contemporary Controversies in Catholic Bioethics," in Eberl, Jason T (ed.). Contemporary Controversies in Catholic Bioethics. Springer-Verlag, 2017.

This volume comprises various viewpoints representing a Catholic perspective on contemporary practices in medicine and biomedical research. The Roman Catholic Church has had a significant impact upon the formulation and application of moral values and principles to a wide range of controversial issues in bioethics. More information…

Baekkeskov, Erik. “Deliberate Trust-building by Autonomous Government Agencies: Evidence from Responses to the 2009 H1N1 Swine Flu Pandemic,” in Six, Frédérique and Verhoest, Koen (eds.,). Trust in Regulatory Regimes. Edward Elgar Publishing, 2017.

Within political and administrative sciences generally, trust as a concept is contested, especially in the field of regulatory governance. This groundbreaking book is the first to systematically explore the role and dynamics of trust within regulatory regimes. More information…

Dowding, Keith and Martin, Aaron. Policy Agendas in Australia. Palgrave Macmillan, 2017.

This book contributes to and expands on the major international Comparative Policy Agendas Project. It sets the project in context, and provides a comprehensive assessment of the changing policy agenda in Australia over a forty-year period, using a unique systematic dataset of governor-general speeches, legislation and parliamentary questions, and then mapping these on to media coverage and what the public believes (according to poll evidence) government should be concentrating upon. More information…

Fawcett, Paul; Flinders, Matthew; Hay, Colin and Wood, Matthew (eds.,). Anti-Politics, Depoliticization, and Governance. Oxford University Press, 2017.

This book examines the relationship between these two trends as understood within the broader shift towards governance. It brings together a number of contributions from scholars who have a varied range of concerns but who nevertheless share a common interest in developing the concept of depoliticization through their engagement with a set of theoretical, conceptual, methodological, and empirical questions. More information…

Lewis, Jenny. “Governance change across policy sectors and nations,” in Klassen, Thomas R., Cepiku, Denita and Lah, T. J. The Routledge Handbook of Global Public Policy and Administration. Routledge, 2017.

This book is a comprehensive leading-edge guide for students, scholars and practitioners of public policy and administration. Public policy and administration are key aspects of modern societies that affect the daily lives of all citizens. This handbook examines current trends and reforms in public policy and administration, such as financial regulation, risk management, public health, e-government and many others at the local, national and international levels. More information...

MacDonald, Kate. “Containing conflict: Authoritative transnational actors and the management of company-community conflict,” in Malet, David and Anderson, Miriam J. (eds.,). Transnational Actors in War and Peace: Militants, Activists, and Corporations in World Politics. Georgetown University Press, 2017.

Transnational Actors in War and Peace provides a comparative examination of a range of transnational actors who have been key to the conduct of war and peace promotion, and of how they interact with states and each other. It explores the identities, organisation, strategies and influence of transnational actors involved in contentious politics, armed conflict, and peacemaking. More information…

McCarthy, Daniel R. (ed.,). Technology and World Politics. Routledge, 2017.

This edited volume provides a convenient entry point to the cutting-edge field of the international politics of technology, in an interesting and informative manner. Technology and World Politics introduces its readers to different approaches to technology in global politics through a survey of emerging fusions of Science and Technology Studies and International Relations. More information…

Taneja, Pradeep and Kassim-Lakha, Salim. "India," in Ogawa, Akihiro (ed.,). Routledge Handbook of Civil Society in Asia. Routledge, 2017.

The Routledge Handbook of Civil Society in Asia is an interdisciplinary resource, covering one of the most dynamically expanding sectors in contemporary Asia. Originally a product of Western thinking, civil society represents a particular set of relationships between the state and either society or the individual. Each culture, however, moulds its own version of civil society, reflecting its most important values and traditions. More information…

Waring, Peter; Vas, Christopher and Bali, Azad Singh. “Work Readiness in Singapore,” in Cameron, Roslyn; Dhakal, Subas and Burgess, John (eds.,). Transitions from Education to Work: Workforce Ready Challenges in the Asia Pacific. Routledge, 2017.

This book brings together national and international perspectives on employability challenges faced by selected countries in the Asia Pacific region. While the region is forecast to enjoy high growth in the coming decade, a recurring challenge is addressing skill shortages and ensuring effective transition from training colleges and universities into employment. More information...

Winston, Carla. “Nonprofit Product Placement: Human Rights Advocacy in Film and Television,” in Pollock, John C. and Winston, Morton (eds.,). Making Human Rights News. Routledge, 2017.

This book explores the impact of new digital technology and activism on the production of human rights messages. It is the first collection of studies to combine multidisciplinary approaches, “citizen witness” challenges to journalism ethics, and expert assessments of the “liberating role” of the Internet. More information…