Reviews (7)

"Civic-ness" and Democracy
In the early 1970s, political power was decentralized in Italy.The power once held by the central government in Rome was reallocated to the newly created regional governments. Constitutionally, the regions possessed similar political institutions.However, the regions varied socially, economically and in political context.Putnam, seeing a ready laboratory for social science, chose to study the role of environmental factors on institutional performance in the new regional governments.Institutions serve as Putnam's independent variable, while a number of environmental factors act as the dependent variables.As such three main research questions emerged; 1) how does institutional change affect identity, power, and strategy of the regional political actors, 2) how is institutional performance a function of history, and lastly 3) which features of social context most powerfully affect institutional performance (8).
A Classic Text of Modern Political Science
Robert Putnam's work has become a Political Science classic.His work is part of new area of research -- civic participation.During the past decade, this area has exploded from obscurity twenty years ago to being one of the most popular fields today.Putnam's works have had a profound impact on many other areas in the Political Science world, from local governance to international political theory.Regardless of whether you agree with his theories, if you are at all interested in Political Science, it is a must read.Moreover, either "Marking Democracy Work" or "Bowling Alone" are becoming standard texts used in most 100 & 200 level undergraduate courses.

trite conclusions, flawed methodology... but engaging prose
It's unfortunate that given the opportunity and resources to study the birth and development of regional government in Italy over the course of twenty years, the best conclusions Putnam was able to draw from his observations are hackneyed paraphrases from Tocqueville. Most of his most careful fieldwork yields results that are stultifyingly obvious; and it's hard not to think that his questions and indicators were not deliberately chosen to demonstrate foregone conclusions. Probably most irritating to me is Putnam's irresponsible use of history as a tool for proving continuities that are largely imaginary.Read more

Subjects:  1. Anthropology - Cultural    2. Government - U.S. Government    3. History & Theory - General    4. Political Science    5. Politics / Current Events    6. Politics/International Relations    7. Central government    8. Italy    9. Local government    10. Political Science / History & Theory    11. Political Science and International Relations    12. Political science & theory    13. Political structures: democracy    14. Sociology    15. c 1970 to c 1980    16. c 1980 to c 1990   

Subjects:  1. General    2. Government - State & Provincial    3. Local Government    4. Political Science    5. Politics / Current Events    6. Politics/International Relations    7. State Government    8. State governments    9. United States    10. Political Science / General    11. Political science & theory   

Editorial Review

This warm biography of Harry Truman is both an historical evaluation of his presidency and a paean to the man's rock-solid American values. Truman was a compromise candidate for vice president, almost an accidental president after Roosevelt's death 12 weeks into his second term. Truman's stunning come-from-behind victory in the 1948 election showed how his personal qualities of integrity and straightforwardness were appreciated by ordinary Americans, perhaps, as McCullough notes, because he was one himself. His presidency was dominated by enormously controversial issues: he dropped the atomic bomb on Japan, established anti-Communism as the bedrock of American foreign policy, and sent U.S. troops into the Korean War. In this winner of the 1993 Pulitzer Prize, McCullough argues that history has validated most of Truman's war-time and Cold War decisions. ... Read more

Reviews (230)

20th century history to savor
The history of Truman and his birth in the 1880s through WW1 & WW2 as well as the Cold War and Korea is remarkable. The evolution of a man from small town farmer to President of the United States and the weight of history thrust upon him at the expected death of FDR makes for a great read.I found the difficulties in the post WW2 era to be most interesting such as the strikes and the creation of the Truman doctrine and the Marshall Plan.
The Best-Written Biography Ever
Truman' provides wonderful insight into the man who faced more difficult and heartbreaking decisions than most of us could imagine. The author brilliantly captures Truman's personality as son, soldier, husband, father, politician, and president. As a teenage newcomer to the fascinating world of history, I found 'Truman' to be both entertaining and extremely factual. Anyone interested in 20th century history, past presidents, or the post-WWII era would love this book.
Almost a Classic
While it's Ok for a historian to like the subject of the biography, he should not love him.David McCullough likes Harry Truman a bit too much.As a result he seldom takes a critical view of Truman's Presidency, politics or personal life.This is disappointing given that Harry Truman was the President at probably the key juncture of twentieth century - the end of War World II and the beginning of the Cold War.More time is spent describing the whistle-stop campaign of 1948 then in explaining the development of the containment strategy of Soviet expansion.He also dismisses Secretary of State Dean Acheson's January 1950 omission of South Korea as being in the United States defense perimeter as being the inspiration of the subsequent attack that June by North Korean forces.While it may not have been the inspiration, that statement along with troop withdraws in 1948 and 1949 were hardly discouragements.
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Subjects:  1. 1884-1972    2. Biography    3. Biography & Autobiography    4. Biography / Autobiography    5. Biography/Autobiography    6. Historical - U.S.    7. Political    8. Presidents    9. Presidents & Heads of State    10. Truman, Harry S.,    11. United States    12. 20th century    13. Biography & Autobiography / General    14. Biography: general    15. Central government    16. USA    17. c 1800 to c 1900   

Subjects:  1. Business & Economics    2. Business / Economics / Finance    3. Business/Economics    4. Entrepreneurship    5. Leadership    6. Political Process - General    7. Political leadership    8. Political planning    9. Public Administration    10. Public Policy    11. United States    12. Business & Economics / Leadership    13. Business & Economics-Entrepreneurship    14. Civil service & public sector    15. Management & management techniques    16. Political Science-Political Process - General    17. Political structure & processes   

Reviews (29)

Little Errors = Big Distortion?
It's a pretty good book. But it would be easier to believe if it didn't contain a bunch of little inaccuracies like this latest one I noticed:
Kofi Annan & Co allowed companies to ship substandard food and medicines to Iraqis under the Oil for Food program.
The US favored Saddam Hussein's Iraq as a bulwark against revolutionary Iran after 1979 as the lesser of two nasty regimes.Jacques Chirac, however, remarked of Hussein that "it was seen as progressive."France thereby gave Iraq a lot of extra slack; including selling Hussein a nuclear reactor (later decommissioned by Israeli aircraft).The U.N., in a similar vein, gave Hussein the benefit of any doubts it may have had about his intentions.The Oil for Food program was supposedly instituted to keep the Iraqi people alive and healthy while Saddam labored under U.N. imposed sanctions. Somehow, billions of dollars went unaccounted for, though.Benon Sevan was handpicked by Kofi Annan to run the program."The Vocker report [on the gross negligence of the program] concluded that Sevan indeed had 'solicited and received' oil allocations worth approximately 1.5 million."Yet Secretary Annan maintained that Sevan had served the U.N. "beyond the call of duty."What about the Iraqi people? Wasn't he tasked with looking out for their welfare?
Save Your Money
If you are tring to practice you Faux news allegiance I guess you'll enjoy this book.If you looking for fair honest information don't waste your time. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. International Relations - Diplomacy    2. National security    3. Political Freedom & Security - International Secur    4. Political Science    5. Politics / Current Events    6. Politics/International Relations    7. United Nations    8. United States    9. Political Science / International Relations   

Editorial Review

Conservative talk radio host, lawyer, and frequent Read more

Reviews (216)

some of the usual faulty rhetoric
Mark Levin's book falls into some of the usual pitfalls that almost all biased political argumentation today falls into--evidence is often stretched and recontextualized to fit certain predisposed conclusions.The book is clearly well researched, and Levin is no doubt quite knowledgeable about legal process and the language of the US Constitution, but his conclusions are often stretched to a degree that no longer fits the evidence.I would hesitate comparing his method to a smokescreen, for I am not entirely sure if Levin is purposefully making exaggerated claims that he doesn't support but artfully disguises in the ethos of research, but at the core of many of his ideas are assumptions or basic contradictions that he just can't back up.
Excellent Choice of Subject Matter
Overall, Americans tend to pay little attention to politics. When they do, the vast majority of that attention is focused on the Executive and Legislative Branches. As a result, the judicial branch has almost no accountability and becomes the weak link in the chain of Democracy. Levin shows that it is through this weak link that liberals are able to get their agendas voted in to law (bypassing the Congress, the President and the American people) simply by having a liberal judge impose their personal opinion on us under the guise of a "ruling". This is clearly not what the Founding Fathers had in mind.

Judicial tyranny
Probably one of the best books you will find out there at this time on the Constitution and the tyrannical judiciary system.Of course this was a few months ago now.Make sure to read Constitutional Chaos by Judge Andrew Napolitano.The supreme court is turning the Constitution on it's head by making law instead of faithfully interpreting it as it was written.
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Subjects:  1. Courts - Supreme Court    2. Government - Judicial Branch    3. Government - National    4. Judge-made law    5. Judges    6. Justice, Administration of    7. Legal System    8. Non-Classifiable    9. Nonfiction    10. Political Science    11. Politics / Current Events    12. Politics/International Relations    13. Popular works    14. United States    15. POLITICS & GOVERNMENT    16. Political Science / Government / National   

Reviews (14)

can anything good come out of a fear focus?
My life is no longer run by fear.After reading 20-30 conspirator books, I see nothing but some facts with weak links targeted to intelligent people that become an elitist to fight against other elitists. Look at some of the major failures."Population bomb" predicted 1/2 the world starving to death by 1980.Y2K embarrassment.Rapture, baised on liberal and bad Bible theology.Wise people need to spend their time with real people on local problems that are real and fixable.

Introduction to the Truth
This book will give you a great introduction to what is going on in our world, based on several past written books about the "Powers that Be."
Search for the Guilty
Jones belongs to that school of thought that believes behind every failure of a system, or every historical cycle, there lies a guilty party. This search for conspirators is the sort of thing that generally leads to pogroms and inquisitions.
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Subjects:  1. Current Events / Political    2. Economic policy    3. History & Theory - Radical Thought    4. Politics and government    5. Politics/International Relations    6. Social policy    7. United States    8. Conspiracies    9. Government    10. History    11. Political    12. Political Science    13. Politics    14. Politics - Current Events   

Reviews (3)

A book for the 21st century
Niven is one of the best authors on BSC. If this administration and communications tool has been hailed as one the best new concepts in the business world, in nonprofit and government administration it can have even more impact. It is a great general introduction, but even seasoned experts will find enlightenment and a great very updated bibliography. Works very well as a textbook for nonprofit management with HBS cases.

Clear, informative and highly implementable advice
Although the Balanced Scorecard has taken over performance mangagement thinking in business, its linkages and adaptability to public and non-profit organizations has remained extremely challenging. I currently am resposible for leading planning and strategy development for a large social services provider in Canada.Being a strong proponent of Balanced Scorecard theory, I anxiously waited two months for Paul Niven's latest book to hit the shelves in hope that I could adapt the balanced scorecard approach to evaluate our organization's strategy. Long story short >> Balanced Scorecard for Government and Nonprofit Agencies was an incredible investment, and we are now on the way to better measuring and reporting on our organization's progress with the help of this book's advice, tips and proecess design steps. Good & Practical Book on Balanced Scorecard
I've read most of the literature on the Balanced Scorecard and the previous books by Norton & Kaplan and Paul Niven himself.Being a Management Consultant of 15 years, I worked with numerous for-profit and not-for-profit organizations and have the usual skepticism towards theory books.This latest book on Balanced Scorecardwas easy-to-read with numerous examples from Balanced Scorecard implementations in public sector.I found the step-by-step approach to be practical and quite down-to-earth with numerous take aways for a reader interested in BSC or a performance management practitioner, like myself.The book rightly touches upon the challenges in the scorecard implementations, and offers valuable advice.If you haven't read any previous books on this subject, you can read this book alone for a good idea on what the Balanced Scorecard is all about, and how you go about its implementation. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Administrative agencies    2. Business / Economics / Finance    3. Business/Economics    4. Evaluation    5. Management    6. Management - General    7. Non-Profit Organizations Management    8. Nonprofit Organizations & Charities    9. Nonprofit organizations    10. Political Science    11. Public Administration    12. Public Affairs & Administration    13. Total quality management in go    14. Total quality management in government    15. Business & Economics / Management    16. Central government    17. Local government    18. Non-profitmaking organizations    19. Quality Assurance (QA) & Total Quality Management (TQM)   

Subjects:  1. Civics & Citizenship    2. Politics / Current Events    3. Politics and government    4. Textbooks    5. United States    6. POLITICS & GOVERNMENT    7. USA   

Subjects:  1. Civics & Citizenship    2. General    3. Political Science    4. Politics / Current Events    5. Politics and government    6. Politics/International Relations    7. United States   

Reviews (36)

A truly awesome book promoting the underrated concepts of tolerance and acceptance
"The Left Hand of God: Taking Back Our Country from the Religious Right" is an interesting book in which Michael Lerner promotes tolerance to individuals regardless of their race, sexual orientation, religious beliefs which may differ from theirs. This book focuses on reversing the extreme antics brought forth by the religious right, whose priority seems to be suppressing those whose views differ than their own. This is a truly super book that I highly recommend to everyone. I would write a little more, but after having read the somewhat belittling comment of the first line, first paragraph by the spotlight reviewer from Oakton, Virginia who attacks brief reviews and uses review length as a basis for assumption that the person didn't read it, I suddenly lost the incentive to go any further.

Wrong Title
The rabbi's book is A1, top quality material from beginning to end, except for the title.
Everyone on the Left Must Read
Rabbi Lerner "get's it."He completely understands why ordinary good people voted for Bush - because the Democrats fail to give the heartbeat of America a spititual choice. If the Democratic Party want to decisively win they must read this book to understand how to reach the average American. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Christianity and politics    2. Political Ideologies - Conservatism & Liberalism    3. Political Ideologies - Democracy    4. Religion    5. Religion - Socialissues    6. Religion And Politics    7. Religion, Politics & State    8. Religious right    9. U.S. Political Parties    10. United States    11. Religion / Church & State   

Reviews (1)

Educational and Thorough
One of the most thorough books on government and its workings I've come across. Mr. Edwards is as good a researcher as he is a writer. A+ work.
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Subjects:  1. Civics & Citizenship    2. General    3. Political Science    4. Politics / Current Events    5. Politics/International Relations    6. POLITICS & GOVERNMENT    7. Political Science / General    8. USA   

Reviews (3)

So good, I gave it to my pastor!
My pastor is one of the wisest, smartest, and best-read people that I know.But I was pretty sure he had a copy of THE HOLY VOTE---and he didn't, so I gave him mine.
WHAT DRIVES YOUR VOTE? A CONSIDERATION OF TODAY'S ISSUES OF FAITH!
Four VERY IMPORTANT Stars!! Written by Ray Suarez, senior correspondent for "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer", this fact-laden, opinion-driven book investigates the juxtaposition and intersections of religion and politics in America. Mr Suarez states he wants "to alternately infuriate and intrigue you". And so he does! In many ways, it's a series of topical essays which are energized by years of interviews and many quotes. In fact, it is as much a brief history lesson as a survey of religion and politics, revealing many finer details of our historical background and the personages that have populated our history. If you missed the importance of religion to politics or believe it doesn't exist, this book will drive home the point from Mr Suarez' point of view. Indeed, some religious blocks are claiming more and more that they are determining the outcomes of elections from the local level to the White House. This book is not a demographic-driven study of the voting habits of the religious in America with charts and graphs showing the past votes and future trends from sea to shining sea. Perhaps in this form it's ultimately more conversational and readable.
Incomplete discussion of a key national issue.....
This book adopts a common modern perspective for its analysis: belief frameworks with a supernatural component are ultimately inappropriate in the public square.Only a belief framework without any supernatural component is acceptable (i.e., secularism).
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Subjects:  1. Christianity - Christian Life - Political Issues    2. Christianity and politics    3. Political Process - Elections    4. Religion    5. Religion - Socialissues    6. Religion And Politics    7. Religion, Politics & State    8. U.S. - Contemporary Politics    9. United States    10. Religion / Church & State   

Subjects:  1. Civics & Citizenship    2. General    3. Political Science    4. Politics - Current Events    5. Politics and government    6. Politics/International Relations    7. United States    8. Political Science / General   

Subjects:  1. General    2. Methodology    3. Political Science    4. Politics / Current Events    5. Politics/International Relations    6. Public Affairs & Administration    7. Public administration    8. Research    9. POLITICS & GOVERNMENT    10. Political Science / General   

Editorial Review

According to Robert Baer, the center of the global economy is a "kingdom built on thievery, one that nurtures terrorism, destroys any possibility of a middle class based on property rights, and promotes slavery and prostitution." This kingdom also sits on one quarter of the world's oil reserves, thus ensuring that it receives the full support and protection of the U.S. government. Read more

Reviews (111)

Sleeping with the Devil: How Washington Sold Our Soul for Saudi Crude
The book is very factual, but the writing stile is rather boring. Interesting to people who are involved in that region.

When our unquenchable thirst for oil must be satisfied, Washington goes the extra step to acquire it!
Robert Baer's second non-fiction book is another sobering call to the American consumer for rationality. Listen to this: When our unquenchable thirst for oil must be satisfied, Washington goes the extra step to acquire it!
Depressing Reality
This book by Robert Baer, the ex-CIA agent involved in the Syriana movie project w/George Cloony.The book is impassioned, and ultimately very depressing -- all the information in the book about Washington, Egypt & Saudi Arabia that we don't hear/see in the media has the ring of truth.And if the book is accurate, then Iraq and Lebanon are just the warm-up for bad stuff to come in the Middle East. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Europe    2. Foreign relations    3. History & Theory - General    4. International Relations - Trade & Tariffs    5. Middle East - Saudi Arabia    6. Petroleum industry and trade    7. Political Science    8. Politics / Current Events    9. Politics/International Relations    10. Public Affairs & Administration    11. Saudi Arabia    12. United States    13. Current Events / General   

Subjects:  1. Public Policy - Social Policy    2. Public Policy - Social Services & Welfare    3. Social Policy    4. Social Science    5. Social Situations And Conditions    6. Social conditions    7. Social problems    8. Sociology    9. Sociology - General    10. United States    11. Social Science / Sociology / General    12. Social issues   

Reviews (17)

Best book for local elections
I've read quite a few books on running for office and this is the best one I've seen for running for local elections. If you are running in a County, City, Township or Village race, this book has a wealth of real, usable information. The book is easy to read, has real-life examples that you can understand and is the best book I've seen for people running in smaller, local races. I personally have given it to candidates and recommend it to all candidates. Great, useful book!

A very nice, concise, no-frills primer

I lost EVERY battle but I won the WAR!
My opponent was the favored incumbent.She received the endorsement of the local newspaper AND her name was listed on the ballot before mine.All of these small things added up to sure and sudden defeat, right? Well, not so fast! Read more

Subjects:  1. Local elections    2. Local officials and employees    3. Political Process - General    4. Political Science / Elections    5. Political Science / Practical Politics    6. Political campaigns    7. Politics / Current Events    8. Politics/International Relations    9. Practical Politics    10. United States    11. Campaign management    12. Electioneering    13. Elections    14. Handbooks, manuals, etc    15. Local government   

Reviews (4)

Good theory, easy to read
Kingdon has produced an innovative and useful theory of the policy process.This book is clearly not intended for the lay reader, butfor political scientists and policy specialists interested in theorizing about policy formation.
Great, just a little expensive
John Kingdon attempts to answer very difficult questions in his work "Agendas, Alternatives, and Public Policies."What makes an idea's time come?What makes people in and around government attend to some subjects and not to others?In short, Kingdon explores how ideas become policy in his 1994 award-winning book. Was Not Riviting but the Theory Is Good
I am in the graduate program at American University's School of Public Affairs. This book was required for one of the core classes. The theory--the dynamic, fluid model that Kingdon builds in this book has been practically adopted as THE mantra within policy formation/agenda setting research.