Book Description
9/11 and its aftermath have shown that our ideas about what constitutes sovereign power lag dangerously behind the burgeoning claims to rights and recognition within and across national boundaries. New configurations of sovereignty are at the heart of political and cultural transformations globally. Sovereign Bodies shifts the debate on sovereign power away from territoriality and external recognition of state power, toward the shaping of sovereign power through the exercise of violence over human bodies and populations. In this volume, sovereign power, whether exercised by a nation-state or by a local despotic power or community, is understood and scrutinized as something tentative and unstable whose efficacy depends less on formal rules than on repeated acts of violence.
Following the editors' introduction are fourteen essays by leading scholars from around the globe that analyze cultural meanings of sovereign power and violence, as well as practices of citizenship and belonging--in South Africa, Peru, India, Mexico, Cyprus, Norway, and also among transnational Chinese and Indian populations. Sovereign Bodies enriches our understanding of power and sovereignty in the postcolonial world and in "the West" while opening new conceptual fields in the anthropology of politics. The contributors are Ana María Alonso, Lars Buur, Partha Chatterjee, Jean Comaroff and John L. Comaroff, Oivind Fuglerud, Thomas Blom Hansen, Barry Hindess, Steffen Jensen, Achille Mbembe, Aihwa Ong, Finn Stepputat, Simon Turner, Peter van der Veer, and Yael Navaro-Yashin.
Average customer rating:
- Technocratic top-downism that ignores the wishes of people and sociocultural context...
- The refusal to face reality
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Building a Successful Palestinian State
RAND
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The Arc: A Formal Structure for a Palestinian State
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The Iron Cage: The Story of the Palestinian Struggle for Statehood
ASIN: 0833035320 |
Book Description
A critical mass of Palestinians and Israelis, as well as the United States, Russia, the European Union, and the United Nations, remain committed to the establishment of a Palestinian state. The authors, examine in objective fasion the requirements for creating and maintaining successful statehood during the first decade of Palestine's independence.
Customer Reviews:
Technocratic top-downism that ignores the wishes of people and sociocultural context..........2006-01-18
Planners and development experts suffer from a deserved reputation for technocratic top-downism that ignores the wishes of people and sociocultural context; they are also known for utopian visions disconnected from practical reality. Seldom has that stereotype been more fully fulfilled than in the three complementary RAND studies about a Palestinian state.
Most striking is how the study treats Palestinians as subjects to be studied rather than as actors to participate in the creation of their own state. Blissfully divorced from any discussion about Palestinian social history or the kinds of communities its people have created, the authors happily catalogue advantages and disadvantages of different approaches to developing Palestinian cities. The education chapter, to be fair, does provide a decent account of the existing system, how it evolved, and what Palestinians want, but it is the exception that proves the rule.
The analysis also has a head-in-the-clouds character. Chapter after chapter run through the authors' thoughts to create their model society for Palestinians without betraying the slightest hint of awareness that fifty years' experience with international aid has shown the disastrous effect of such an approach. The report makes only a slight passing references to the extraordinary amounts of aid pumped into the Palestinian territories after the 1993 Oslo accords-aid that led to corruption and social distortions which undermined the Palestinian Authority's ability to function effectively. The RAND authors would exacerbate the central problem of Palestinian society-a refusal to take responsibility for itself but instead blaming outsiders for all problems and expecting foreigners to rescue them. Also, a-Cadillac-rather-than-Chevy-approach pervades the study. The authors' point of reference seems to be the infrastructure and facilities characteristic of Europe and North America, not those of low-income, developing countries.
Finally, the three volumes (Building a Successful Palestinian State, The Arc: A Formal Structure for a Palestinian State, Helping a Palestinian State Succeed: Key Findings)share the central organizing image of an "arc" formed by a high-speed railroad linking the major population areas of Gaza and the West Bank. There is the minor problem, as the authors note in passing, that roads rather than rail would be used for most freight shipments, for emergency services, and for those who can afford cars (including tourists, dignitaries, and the growing middle class the study envisages). A good road would connect the Palestinian urban areas at a much more modest cost than the billions the authors propose to pour into a railroad, which could quickly turn into a money-losing inefficient public enterprise of the kind which plagues many developing countries.
Patrick Clawson
The refusal to face reality .......2005-10-16
It is wonderful to be idealists as the Rand people are. But their prescriptions for a viable Palestinian state fail to take into account the character of the Palestinian polity, the fundamental ideology which moves the society as a whole. That ideology whether it is advocated by Hamas or by Fatah( And its El Aksa Brigades) is an ideology of hatred and denial. The Palestinians have historically refused five major offers for a state of their own.
They have responded time and time again to offers of peace by Israel, and concrete steps of concession by violence.
As I write this it is close to two months after Israel withdrew its forces from Gaza. The Palestinian Authority has still not made any real effort to impose the rule of law on Gaza. The Palestinian media are filled with violent propaganda against Israel.
What the people of the Rand Commission do not understand is that the Palestinians are interested in a state not alongside Israel but only in place of it. Whatever withdrawals Israel makes from territory this will not be enough for the Palestinians. And any Palestinian Arab state will not only be a tremendous danger to Israel but a source for increased Terror throughout the Middle East.
Book Description
Nearly two decades after its initial publication, Louis Fisher's durable classic remains at the head of its class--a book that Congressional Quarterly called "as close to being indispensable as anything published in this field." This newly revised and updated edition emphatically reinforces that sterling reputation.
Fisher dissects the crucial constitutional disputes between the executive and legislative branches of government from the Constitutional Convention through the beginning of the Bush administration, venturing beyond traditional discussions of Supreme Court decisions to examine the day-to-day working relationships between the president and Congress.
By analyzing a mixture of judicial pronouncements, executive acts, and legislative debates, Fisher pinpoints the critical areas of legislative-executive tension: appointment powers, investigatory poers, legislative and executive vetoes, the budgetary process, and war powers. He then examines these areas of tension within a concrete political and historical context.
To scholars, this book offers a comprehensive examination of the institutions and issues of public law. For practitioners, general readers, and students of American government, it demonstrates how constitutional issues shape and define current events.
New material in this edition: The line-item veto and rescissions Paula Jones and presidential immunity Removal power: Clinton and Travelgate, Bush and the Postal Service Military operations in Libya, Panama, and Iraq justified as "self-defense" Presidential actions "authorized" by the U.N. and NATO in Korea, Iraq, Haiti, and Bosnia Whitewater: presidential attorney-client privilege and the independent counsel NAFTA, GATT, and "fast-track" trade legislation Clinton's executive order 12954 and the National Labor Relations Act The legislative veto and new tests to Chadha The budget shutdowns of 1995-96 Bush, Iran-Contra, and quid-pro-quos
Book Description
Reynolds brings together the leading scholars to discuss the successes and failures of constitutional design. Arend Lijphart and Donald Horowitz debate their own contributions to the field. Emerging scholars then present important new evidence from Europe, the CIS, Latin America, and Africa. Chapters analyse the effect of presidential and parliamentary systems, issues of federalism and autonomy, and the varying impact of electoral systems. The book concludes with case studies of Fiji, Ireland, Eritrea, Indonesia, Nigeria, and India. The Architecture of Democracy is the culmination of the study of constitutional engineering in the third wave of democracy and sets parameters for this crucial research as democracy diffuses across the world.
Book Description
This work examines all the aspects of the Full Faith and Credit Clause and its importance in the development of United States law. It begins with the birth of the clause and the history underlying its adoption. This includes discussions held at the Constitutional Convention and the early judicial interpretations of the clause. The book looks separately at the individual components that embody the clause--those that deal with records, public acts, and judicial proceedings. The book also zeroes in on the relationship between the clause and the issues of family law. It covers marriage, divorce, support, and child custody, all issues that have demanded serious attention in recent years.
Average customer rating:
- Good book, very thorough.
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Progressive Constitutionalism: Reconstructing the Fourteenth Amemdment (Constitutional Conflicts)
Robin L. West
Manufacturer: Duke University Press
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ASIN: 0822315254 |
Book Description
The Fourteenth Amendment guarantees all citizens equal protection under the law as well as immunity from laws that deprive them of life, liberty, or property without due process of law. In Progressive Constitutionalism, Robin West develops an interpretation of this amendment that contrasts with the views, conservative and liberal, of the Rehnquist, Burger, and Warren Courts, and with the radical "antisubordinationist" account provided by the critical legal studies movement and many prominent feminist and critical race theorists. Her interpretation consists of a "substantive" argument regarding the Amendment’s core meaning, and a jurisprudential argument regarding the role of the courts and Congress in fulfilling the Amendment’s progressive promise.
West shows how the "equal protection" clause, far from insulating the private spheres of culture, market, and home life, as is commonly held, directly targets abuses of power within those spheres. She develops a number of arguments for the modern relevance of this understanding, from the failure of the state to provide equal protection against private domestic violence, permitting a "private sovereignty" of patriarchal power within the home, to the the state’s failure to provide equal protection against material deprivation, allowing "private sovereignty" between economically privileged and desperate people in private markets.
West’s argument extends to the "liberty" prong of the due process clause, seen here as a protection of the positive, not negative, liberty of citizens, covering rights in such typically controversial areas as welfare, education, and domestic safety. This interpretation recasts a number of contemporary constitutional issues, such as affirmative action and hate speech, and points to very different problemsânotably private, unchecked criminal violence and extreme economic deprivationâas the central constitutional dilemmas of our day.
Progressive Constitutionalism urges a substantive, institutional, and jurisprudential reorientation of our understanding of the Fourteenth Amendment, one that would necessarily be pursued through Congressional rather than judicial channels. In doing so, with attention to history and both feminist and critical race scholarship, it should reinvigorate our politics and our constitutional conversationsâand, perhaps, point us toward a more just society.
Customer Reviews:
Good book, very thorough........1999-09-01
This book was very thorough in it's contents. The reading level was appropriate...and easy enough for a high school student to read.
Chelle
Book Description
For more than a decade, the U.S. Supreme Court has turned a skeptical eye toward Congress. Distrustful of Congress’s capacity to respect constitutional boundaries, the Court has recently overturned federal legislation at a historically unprecedented rate. This intensified judicial scrutiny highlights the need for increased attention to how Congress approaches constitutional issues. In this important collection, leading scholars in law and political science examine the role of Congress in constitutional interpretation, demonstrating how to better integrate the legislative branch into understandings of constitutional practice.
Several contributors offer wide-ranging accounts of the workings of Congress. They look at lawmakers’ attitudes toward Congress’s role as a constitutional interpreter, the offices within Congress that help lawmakers learn about constitutional issues, Congress’s willingness to use its confirmation power to shape constitutional decisions by both the executive and the courts, and the frequency with which congressional committees take constitutional questions into account. Other contributors address congressional deliberation, paying particular attention to whether Congress’s constitutional interpretations are sound. Still others examine how Congress and the courts should respond to one another’s decisions, suggesting how the courts should evaluate Congress’s work and considering how lawmakers respond to Court decisions that strike down federal legislation. While some essayists are inclined to evaluate Congress’s constitutional interpretation positively, others argue that it could be improved and suggest institutional and procedural reforms toward that end. Whatever their conclusions, all of the essays underscore the pervasive and crucial role that Congress plays in shaping the meaning of the Constitution.
Contributors. David P. Currie, Neal Devins, William N. Eskridge Jr.. John Ferejohn, Louis Fisher, Elizabeth Garrett, Michael J. Gerhardt, Michael J. Klarman, Bruce G. Peabody, J. Mitchell Pickerill, Barbara Sinclair, Mark Tushnet, Adrian Vermeule, Keith E. Whittington, John C. Yoo
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The Constitution in Conflict
Robert Burt
Manufacturer: Belknap Press
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ASIN: 0674165373 |
Book Description
In a remarkably innovative reconstruction of constitutional history, Robert Burt traces the controversy over judicial supremacy back to the founding fathers. Also drawing extensively on Lincoln's conception of political equality, Burt argues convincingly that judicial supremacy and majority rule are both inconsistent with the egalitarian democratic ideal. The first fully articulated presentation of the Constitution as a communally interpreted document in which the Supreme Court plays an important but not predominant role, The Constitution in Conflict has dramatic implications for both the theory and the practice of constitutional law.
Customer Reviews:
boring.......2001-05-23
this book was slow and actually boring, it jumped around way too much!
Book Description
Most recent discussion of the United States Constitution and warâboth the war on terrorism and the war in Iraqâhas been dominated by two diametrically opposed views: the alarmism of those who see many current policies as portending gross restrictions on American civil liberties, and the complacency of those who see these same policies as entirely reasonable accommodations to the new realities of national security. Whatever their contributions to the public discussion and policy-making processes, these voices contribute little to an understanding of the real constitutional issues raised by war. Providing the historical and legal context needed to assess competing claims, The Constitution in Wartime identifies and explains the complexities of the important constitutional issues brought to the fore by wartime actions and policies. Twelve prominent legal scholars and political scientists combine broad overviews of U.S. history and contemporary policy with detailed yet accessible analyses of legal issues of pressing concern today.
Some of the essays are broad in scope, reflecting on national character, patriotism, and political theory; exploring whether war and republican government are compatible; and considering in what sense we can be said to be in wartime circumstances today. Others are more specific, examining the roles of Congress, the presidency, the courts, and the international legal community. Throughout the collection, balanced, unbiased analysis leads to some surprising conclusions, one of which is that wartime conditions have sometimes increased, rather than curtailed, civil rights and civil liberties. For instance, during the cold war, government officials regarded measures aimed at expanding African Americans’ freedom at home as crucial to improving America’s image abroad.
Contributors. Sotirios Barber, Mark Brandon, James E. Fleming, Mark Graber, Samuel Issacharoff, David Luban, Richard H. Pildes, Eric Posner, Peter Spiro, William Michael Treanor, Mark Tushnet, Adrian Vermeule
Book Description
"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."
âAmendment II, United States Constitution
The Second Amendment is regularly invoked by opponents of gun control, but H. Richard Uviller and William G. Merkel argue the amendment has nothing to contribute to debates over private access to firearms. In The Militia and the Right to Arms, or, How the Second Amendment Fell Silent, Uviller and Merkel show how postratification history has sapped the Second Amendment of its meaning. Starting with a detailed examination of the political principles of the founders, the authors build the case that the amendment's second clause (declaring the right to bear arms) depends entirely on the premise set out in the amendment's first clause (stating that a well-regulated militia is necessary to the security of a free state). The authors demonstrate that the militia envisioned by the framers of the Bill of Rights in 1789 has long since disappeared from the American scene, leaving no lineal descendants. The constitutional right to bear arms, Uviller and Merkel conclude, has evaporated along with the universal militia of the eighteenth century.
Using records from the founding era, Uviller and Merkel explain that the Second Amendment was motivated by a deep fear of standing armies. To guard against the debilitating effects of militarism, and against the ultimate danger of a would-be Caesar at the head of a great professional army, the founders sought to guarantee the existence of well-trained, self-armed, locally commanded citizen militia, in which service was compulsory. By its very existence, this militia would obviate the need for a large and dangerous regular army. But as Uviller and Merkel describe the gradual rise of the United States Army and the National Guard over the last two hundred years, they highlight the nation's abandonment of the militia ideal so dear to the framers. The authors discuss issues of constitutional interpretation in light of radically changed social circumstances and contrast their position with the arguments of a diverse group of constitutional scholars including Sanford Levinson, Carl Bogus, William Van Alstyne, and Akhil Reed Amar.
Espousing a centrist position in the polarized arena of Second Amendment interpretation, this book will appeal to those wanting to know more about the amendment's relevance to the issue of gun control, as well as to those interested in the constitutional and political context of America's military history.
Customer Reviews:
Misrepresentation of the Facts.......2004-04-09
The language in this book is verbose, hard to read, one almost has to be a college professor to understand it. Once you do get through it, you find that the authors, while putting forth facts about the concerns between maintaining a militia and not having a large standing army, totally ignore facts that show that the intent all along, of both federalists and anti-federalists, was to protect a pre-existing, God given right of individuals to keep and bear arms, for any reason, including hunting and self-defense, but most importantly to resist a potentially tyrannical government. They also repeat standard gun control arguments, e.g. the word "bear" only had a military context when it came to firearms, even though the minority report from Pennsylvania expressly requested an amendment that would protect the individual's right to "bear" arms for hunting. Such is the nature of books with an agenda, spinning facts and propagating half-truths and lies.
Armed with the truth for a change.......2004-03-23
This book seeks to balance two predominant schools of thought regarding the Second Amendment: The individualist school and the collective rights school. Uviller and Merkel's thesis is that the right to bear arms was an individual right, but only within a collective context of service in a state sanctioned, regulated and disciplined militia. The book has it right. Uviller and Merkel are well researched. This book is not a polemical such as Halbrook's "That Every Man Be Armed" - it is historical scholarship. A must read for anyone who seeks a scholarly and objective, as well as balanced approach to the understanding of the Second Amendment.
Authors misrepresent what militia is.......2004-02-11
This treatise has one fundamental flaw, a misrepresentation of what the
term "militia" means. The authors equate it with an organized body
initiated and commanded by state government officials, but if that is
what the word means to them, it is not what the word meant to the
Founders. The term is from Latin, and it translates as "defense
activity". In the idiom of the era, a word for an activity could also be
used to refer to those engaged in that activity, and that usage is the
source of the confusion here.
There is also a misrepresentation of the meaning of the word "state",
which, when used in the context of the Constitution, does not mean the
government of the state, but the people of the state, whether they acted
through a government or not. When the Founders referred to a state
government, they used the term "state legislature".
The authors are correct in their thesis that the right to arms is tied
closely to the duty of militia. However, they commit a logical error in
concluding that if the duty is being neglected, the right disappears.
The duty is indeed being neglected, but the duty continues, a duty that
arises out of the social contract that created the society and the
natural rights and duties of mutual defense of rights that are the terms
of the social contract.
The duty, and the right to perform that duty, continues, regardless of
whether it is being actively performed or not. In fact, it is being
performed by millions of civilians every day, in thousands of ways.
Every time anyone reports a crime, conducts his own criminal
investigation, or makes a civilian arrest, that is militia. Any time
anyone defends himself or another from injury, that is militia. Any time
anyone asks others to join him in defending the community from any
threat, that is a militia call-up. We are all militia, when we engage in
militia, even when we act alone. There is no need for initiation or
leadership by some official. Of course, sheriffs are supposed to be the
militia commanders of their counties, and constables militia commanders
of their wards or precincts, but if they neglect to perform that duty,
the duty falls upon anyone present who is aware of a threat requiring
defensive action, or preparation for such defense.
For more on this topic see http://www.constitution.org/cs_defen.htm .
Very enlightening.......2003-11-26
This is a must read for anyone who really wants to understand the truth about the second amendment.The authors present an impressive amount of historical research to show that the second amendment protects an individual right to bear arms only in connection with an organized citizen militia. Some have claimed that the second amendment protects an unconditional right to bear arms. However, an objective examination of history, reveals that this notion is undoubtedly false. The term "bear arms" referred to military service at the time of the writing of the second amendment. When deciding on the language of the second amendment, the first congress debated whether conscientous objectors should be exempt from bearing arms. Obviously, they weren't talking hunting or using guns to defend one's home against criminals.
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