CIAO DATE: 05/2008
Volume: 123, Issue: 1
Spring 2008
On To the Convention! (PDF)
Jason Bello, Robert Y. Shapiro
JASON BELLO and ROBERT Y. SHAPIRO argue that the extended campaign needed to determine the 2008 presidential candidates for the Democratic Party was not surprising, given the current delegate selection rules across the states. The 2008 campaign is a test case for whether the national party conventions themselves, not the voters, will ever again be the final deciders of the presidential candidates.
Ideological Change and Israel's Disengagement from Gaza
Jonathan Rynhold, Dov Waxman
JONATHAN RYNHOLD and DOV WAXMAN posit that ideological change within the right-wing Likud party generated support for the partition of Israel that was a vital prerequisite to the Sharon government's adoption of the Gaza disengagement plan in 2005. Although international and domestic pressures were important in determining certain elements of the withdrawal, they did not dictate the policy of disengagement.
Casualty Sensitivity in a Post-Soviet Context: Russian Views of the Second Chechen War, 2001–2004
Theodore P. Gerber, Sarah E. Mendelson
THEODORE P. GERBER and SARAH E. MENDELSON analyze Russian public opinion about the second war in Chechnya. They show that concern over Russian military casualties and the war's economic costs were the dominant sentiments, despite the Russian government's monopoly on media coverage of the conflict. Moreover, they argue that the war appears to have fueled ethnic animosity toward Chechens.
The President as Chief Administrator: James Landis and the Brownlow Report
Donald R. Brand
DONALD R. BRAND examines the relationship between the Brownlow Report and James Landis's The Administrative Process. He argues that both of the interlocutors in this implicit debate have valuable insights, but that both are ultimately insufficient because they are not attentive to the constitutional and political context of administration.
Are African Voters Really Ethnic or Clientelistic? Survey Evidence from Ghana
Staffan I. Lindberg, Minion K. C. Morrison
STAFFAN I. LINDBERG and MINION K. C. MORRISON look at voting rationales in Ghana's 1996 and 2000 elections and find that citizens in a new democracy like Ghana are more ''mature'' democratic voters than the literature would have us to expect. While voting is no doubt patterned along ethnic and tribal lines, it appears that voting behavior is also explained at the individual level by rational policy calculations constrained by classic information problems.
Greek–Turkish Rapprochement: Rhetoric or Reality
Ziya Önis, Suhnaz Yilmaz
ZIYA ÖNIS and SUHNAZ YILMAZ discuss the nature of the current Turkish–Greek rapprochement. They conclude that while the relations have improved, in order to reach a durable partnership and to move beyond the existing stalemate, a more proactive approach from both sides on core issues of conflict is necessary.
David or Goliath? The Israel Lobby and Its Critics
Douglas Little
DOUGLAS LITTLE reviews John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt's controversial new book, The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy. He concludes that despite their prosecutorial tone, the authors have sparked a long-overdue public debate about America's special relationship by questioning whether domestic politics drives the United States to act against its own national security interests.
James J. Wirtz
Although officers and officials might be forgiven for hoping for the best when it comes to military strategy and diplomacy, they must plan for the worst. Some policymakers, however, have forgotten this simple idea behind prudent planning. It might be defeatist to base one's strategy on the worst-case contingency, but military strategists and diplomats alike should be prepared for some setbacks by not assuming that all the ''breaks'' will fall their way. Leaders who deliberately choose war probably underestimate its costs and risks, but realists understand that optimistic political rhetoric will fade once battle is joined....
Ali A. Allawi, The Occupation of Iraq: Winning the War, Losing the Peace
Mohammed M. Hafez
Ian Shapiro, Containment: Rebuilding a Strategy Against Global Terror
Robert J. Lieber
Peter J. Katzenstein and Robert O. Keohane, eds., Anti-Americanisms in World Politics
Yael S. Aronoff
John C. Green, The Faith Factor: How Religion Influences American Elections
Alan Wolfe
Clem Brooks and Jeff Manza, Why Welfare States Persist: The Importance of Public Opinion in Democracies
Andrew Gelman
David O. Stewart, The Summer of 1787: The Men Who Invented the Constitution
Herbert Sloan
Doris A. Graber
The analysis presented in this challenging book is based on the premise that a free press in a democratic society must ''raise timely questions about debatable government policies'' and must ''report challenges to those policies when they fail'' (p. x). Judged by these standards, as the authors apply them, the American press has failed repeatedly in major and tragic ways during the GeorgeW. Bush presidency....
Sidney Waldman, America and the Limits of the Politics of Selfishness
Amitai Etzioni
Vincenzo Galasso, The Political Future of Social Security in Aging Societies
Norman Furniss
Keith E. Whittington, Political Foundations of Judicial Supremacy: The Presidency, the Supreme Court, and Constitutional Leadership in U.S. History
Paul Chen
Daniel J. Fiorino, The New Environmental Regulation
Gary C. Bryner
Thomas Mowle, ed., Hope is Not a Plan: The War in Iraq from Inside the Green Zone
James Goldgeier
Michael Spies and John Burroughs, eds., Nuclear Disorder or Cooperative Security? U.S. Weapons of Terror, the Global Proliferation Crisis, and Paths to Peace
Brian D'Agostino
Bruce J. Dierenfield, The Battle Over School Prayer: How Engel v. Vitale Changed America
Thomas Healy
Thomas P. Kim, The Racial Logic of Politics: Asian Americans and Party Competition (PDF)
Claire Jean Kim
The scholarship that addresses Asian Americans in relation to electoral politics is still small, though growing. Thomas Kim’s book is a welcome addition to this literature. Kim poses a question about election year 1996: Why did Asian American political elites who appeared poised to realize gains in political influence in the presidential election season find themselves not only marginalized but also vilified by both Democrats and Republicans as agents of Communist China? The short answer, according to Kim: Asian American political elites fundamentally misunderstood the possibilities for attaining political power in the two-party system....
Mary Pattillo, Black on the Block: The Politics of Race and Class in the City
Jody Agius Vallejo, Jennifer Lee
David L. Leal, Electing America's Governors: The Politics of Executive Elections (PDF)
Thad Kousser
Governors occupy a peculiar and precarious position in American politics, David Leal’s comprehensive new book on gubernatorial elections demonstrates. They are embedded in the national party system, and are often punished in open-seat elections if they are from the same party as the president. Yet they have some freedom to shape the local meaning of party labels, or even to run strongly as minor-party or independent candidates. While governors of states large and small are often mentioned as possible presidential contenders, they are twice as likely to be defeated in reelection contests as U.S. senators....
Jonathan Simon, Governing through Crime: How the War on Crime Transformed American Democracy and Created a Culture of Fear
Michael Musheno
Rodney Hero, Racial Diversity and Social Capital: Equality and Community in America
Eric Oliver
Mark D. Brewer and Jeffrey M. Stonecash, Split: Class and Cultural Divides in American Politics
Jeremy C. Pope
Daniel McCool, Susan M. Olson, and Jennifer L. Robinson, Native Vote: American Indians, the Voting Rights Act, and the Right to Vote
Jeffrey M. Sanders
Paul A. Djupe and Laura R. Olson, eds., Religious Interests in Community Conflict: Beyond the Culture Wars
Elaine B. Sharp
Robert Pierce Forbes, The Missouri Compromise and Its Aftermath: Slavery and the Meaning of America
Mark M. Smith
Katherine Cramer Walsh, Talking about Race: Community Dialogues and the Politics of Difference
Stephen Steinberg
Sarah Phillips, This Land, This Nation: Conservation, Rural America, and the New Deal
Mary Summers
Jan Zielonka, Europe as Empire: The Nature of the Enlarged European Union
Vivien A. Schmidt
Arne Niemann, Explaining Decisions in the European Union
Dorothee Heisenberg